SAMAR AND LEYTE DURING THE KATIPUNAN WAR

Vicente Lukbán y Rilles or Vicente Lucbán Rilles (February 11, 1860–November 16,

1916), was a Filipino officer in Emilio Aguinaldo's staff during the Philippine Revolution and

the politico-military chief of Samar and Leyte during the Philippine-American War. The

Americans credited him as the mastermind of the famous Balangiga massacre, in which more

than forty American troopers were killed. Later investigations by historians, however, disclosed

that Lukban played no actual part in the planning of the attack.

EARLY LIFE

Lukbán was born in Labo, Camarines Norte on February 11,

1860 to Agustin Lukbán of Ambos Camarines and Andrea Rilles

of Lucban, Tayabas. He completed his early education at Escuela Pia in

Lucban, continued his studies at Ateneo Municipal de Manila, and took

up Bachelor of Laws at the University of Santo Tomas and Colegio de

San Juan de Letran.

He returned to Labo after resigning from his job at the Manila Court of First Instance. He

married Sofía Dízon Barba and the union produced four children: Cecilia, Félix, Agustín, and

Vicente, Jr. Sofía died after their last child was born. Lukbán then left his children in the care of

his siblings so that he could devote his time to the cause of the revolution.
PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION

Lukbán, thereafter, accepted the post of Justice of the Peace. In 1884, he was inducted

into Freemasonry, Luz de Oriente ("Light of the Orient"). The organization had attracted many

intellectuals and middle-class Filipinos to its ranks. In 1886, he stopped working in the judicial

office and busied himself with agriculture and commerce in Bicol. He formed La Cooperativa

Popular aimed at promoting the cooperative business activities of small and medium scale

producers with the aim to increase their income from the lands by selling their products without

passing through middle men. Part of the profits of the cooperatives were secretly remitted to the

revolutionary movement of Andrés Bonifacio, the Katipunan. The cooperative also served as an

effective covert means of spreading the ideals of the revolution. Their members could move

around freely without arousing the suspicion of the Spanish authorities.

By 1896, Lukbán had centralized the funds of the cooperatives into the coffers of the

revolution. He periodically remitted money to the evolving revolutionary movement. At the same

time, he acted as an emissary of the Katipunan unit in Bicol to gather information about the

Spanish movements in Manila and to determine how such movements affected Bicol provinces.

On one of his trips to Manila, he was arrested by the guardia civiles, ("civil guards") and charged

with conspiring to overthrow the government. He was imprisoned in Bilibid prison and

tortured at Fort Santiago  While Lukbán was still in prison, the Philippine Revolution began. On

August 18, 1897, he was released from jail, together with Juan Luna and immediately thereafter,

joined the revolutionary government’s armed forces.

In the army, he was commissioned to serve as one of Emilio Aguinaldo's officers.

Lukbán was among the few who assisted Aguinaldo in planning war strategies and activities.

When the Pact of Biak-na-Bato was signed, he was asked by Aguinaldo to be one of the

members of his party going into exile in Hong Kong. Lukban spent his exile in Hong

Kong studying military science under the Lord Commander Joseph Churchase of the British

Naval command. This enabled him to master the arts of soldiery

— fencing, shooting,gunpowder and ammunitions preparations, and the planning and execution

of war strategies and tactics.

Shortly after Aguinaldo proclaimed Philippine Independence in 1898, Lukbán was sent to

the Bicol region to direct military operations against the Spaniards. His successes in Bicol

ushered him into a new and challenging assignment: as Leyte and Samar's politico-military chief.

Lukbán married his second wife Paciencia Gonzales in Samar. This union produced eight

children: Victoria, Juan, María, Fidel, Rosita, Ramon, José and Lourdes.

Memorials:  Camp Lukban, military base of Philippine Army's 8th Infantry Division (8ID) in

Brgy Maulong, Catbalogan City, Samar, is named after him.

Source:  Ako Bicolano FB

Dacillo, Cheina Mae R. BSA-I

RUPERTO K. KANGLEON

6th Secretary of National Defense

A military strategist whose name is legendary in the pre-war

Philippine Constabulary and during the guerilla campaigns against the

Japanese occupation armies, Senator Ruperto K. Kangleon served his government and people

since early youth.

Kangleon was born in Macrohon, Leyte on March 27, 1890, as one of the six children – five sons

and a daughter – of Braulio Kangleon and Flora Kadaba.

He studied up to sixth grade in Leyte and had transfer and complete his elementary

education in Surigao, because he refused to submit to what he considered was the over-bearing

and oppressive conduct of some school authorities. Having graduated from the elementary

grades, he went to Cebu, where he completed his high school course. Here he distinguished

himself as all around star athlete, which won for him a berth in the First Philippines Olympic

Team sent abroad in 1912-1913.

After graduation from the Cebu High School, he went to Manila and enrolled in the

College of Liberal Arts, University of the Philippines. But the military profession attracted him

so he went to the Philippine Constabulary Academy in Baguio where he graduated in 1916.

His first assignment after securing his commission as a young lieutenant fresh from

military school was to fight “Oto”, the notorious Panay bandit whom he subdued in no time. This

and other campaigns in the Visayas (Panay) and Mindanao Islands won him military citations

and renown. He served with the Philippine Constabulary up to 1936 and later transferred to the
Philippine Army. He was inducted into the United States Armed Forces in the Far East on

September 1941.

It was once told that Gen. Douglas MacArthur planned to land somewhere in Luzon, not

in Leyte. Perhaps, MacArthur thought it would be a better strategy to recapture Bataan and

Corregidor, the object of his vaunted promise: “I shall return.”

But there was one man who opposed this move. He was Gen. Ruperto K. Kangleon, the

leader of the guerrilla forces in Leyte. His indignation would forever be seen as a turning point in

Philippine history.

A MILITARY LIFE

Kangleon was born on March 27,1890, in barrio San Roque, Macrohon in Southern

Leyte, a 45-minute pumpboat ride to Limasawa Island. He was the second in Braulio Kangleon

and Flora Kadava’s brood of six. Kangleon started his elementary education in his hometown

and continued it in the neighboring town of Maasin, now a city and the provincial capital of

Southern Leyte. He attended high school in Cebu City where he excelled in athletics and became

a member of the Philippine Olympic Team.

As a young man, Kangleon was admitted to the Philippine Constabulary School, the

precursor of the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City. Among his contemporaries were

Ramon D. Gaviola Jr., former presiding justice of the Court of Appeals, and the late Rev. Mario

G. Gaviola, former archbishop of Lipa City. Soon after finishing his degree in the military

academy, Kangleon launched his military career, a much-coveted, luxurious and highly

respectable line of work in those days.

 As a new officer-graduate, Kangleon’s baptism of fire involved combating outlaws and

bandits in the provinces. Clad in shiny leather boots, wide-side khaki breeches, and a khaki

shirt/coat — the prescribed military uniform of commissioned officers then — Kangleon led

constabulary units in successful pacification campaigns against lawless elements.

As a young lieutenant, he was also assigned to Imus, Cavite, a town noted for beautiful

women. There he met Valentina Tagle, married her and together raised 10 children, the

inspirations of his military career.

WORLD WAR II

After becoming provincial commander of Bohol and Cebu, World War II found

Kangleon as the commanding officer of the 81st Infantry Division in Samar. As a Lieutenant

Colonel then, Kangleon was ordered to proceed to Davao where he and his men valiantly fought

the Japanese Imperial army. By virtue of his rank in the guerrilla movement, Kangleon was

tasked to make advisories to Allied troops of the goings on in the province. And no less than

General MacArthur trusted his opinion.

That was why, when Kangleon suggested that the General land in Leyte instead of

another place in the country, MacArthur listened. Kangleon gave him his guarantee that the

united and well-organized guerrilla force in the province would be competent enough to secure

the arrival of the American forces. Convinced, Gen. MacArthur landed in Leyte on Oct. 20,

1944, just like he promised several years before. From then on, Leyteños believed that Philippine

liberation from Japanese domination would not have been complete without Gen. Kangleon.

Kangleon’s image was, however, smeared when he surrendered to the Japanese. He was

following the orders of his American superior, a certain Colonel Christaine. This made the once
united Leyte guerrilla forces to become ragtag and disgruntled units that constantly and violently

fought against each other for supremacy.

Nevertheless, some people still kept their belief in Kangleon. Amid the anarchy, one man

stood to protect Kangleon and said that he was the rallying figure that can unite the various

guerrilla units because Kangleon was the highest-ranking military officer in Leyte. That man of

faith was Graciano Kapili. Kapili, or Grasing to those close to him, was from Himatagon (now

the town of St. Bernard). He took it upon himself to undergo the dangerous task of rescuing

Kangleon who was then locked up in a Japanese military prison in Butuan. Filled with this dream

of a united guerrilla movement, Grasing boarded a sailboat (kaba-kaba) and plowed to Butuan.

Armed only with his antics, Grasing caught the amusement of the Japanese prison guards and

was able to talk to Kangleon. Grasing convinced Kangleon that escape was the only way out of

the Japanese-guarded prison.

Kangleon and Grasing, therefore, made their dash to freedom and boarded the kaba-kaba

and sailed to freedom without detection by the Japanese. They sailed to Leyte and arrived safely

at barrio San Roque, Macrohon, the hometown of Gen. Kangleon, on Dec. 26, 1942.

Source: http://www.dnd.gov.ph/ruperto-k-kangleon.html