Baler: A history of Filipino-Spanish friendship

Prelude To The Siege

Senator Edgardo J. Angara speaksbefore the dignitaries, offi cials, town locals, and
other guests at the Baler Municipal Plaza during the commemorative program of the 10th
Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day.
The year was 1898. The Philippine revolution against Spain, which started two years prior, was
about to end. Spain also suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the United States in the Battle
of Manila on May 1st.

Before the end of June 1898, General Emilio Aguinaldo ordered Teodorico Luna y Novicio,
chief of the Katipunan, to take over all Spanish detachments in the Distrito del Príncipe —
created in 1856 from the province of Nueva Ecija which had Baler as its capital.

On June 26, Luna arrived in Baler and compelled the locals to discreetly abandon their houses
that night to avoid suspicion from the Spanish soldiers stationed there.

That night, the Franciscan parish priest Father Candido Gomez Carreño slept at the Comandancia
instead of the convent, out of instinct perhaps or based on a warning by a devout parishioner.
When he returned to the convent the following day, he found it abandoned, together with a chest
of the dirty clothes that the soldiers had sent for washing and 340 pesos from the coffers of the
church. He immediately alerted Captain Enrique de las Morenas.

They discovered that it was not only the church that had been abandoned — the entire town was
deserted.

The Spanish soldiers realized that the only defendable structure in the isolated town that could
shelter them was the church of Baler. On that day, June 27th, they stocked the church with food,
arms, and other provisions.

And then they braced themselves for an attack. But the attack did not come then, nor on the
following day, or two days hence.

Hon. Francisco Perez de los Cobos, Justice of the Spanish Constitutional Court; Hon.
Jesus Gracia Aldaz of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation; Senator Edgardo
J. Angara; former Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban; and Ambassador Jorge Domecq of
Spain participate in the ribbon cutting of the exhibit at the Museo de Baler. Cover photo: Church
of Baler in Aurora Province.
Finally, in a scouting operation on June 30th led by second chief Lieutenant Saturnino Martín

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Cerezo, they were met by gunfire from the revolutionaries, which wounded Private Jésus Garcia.

The Spanish contingent left in the town consisted of 49 soldiers, three officers — the chief of the
detachment, Capt. de las Morenas, Lt. Cerezo, and Lt. Juan Alonso Zayas — the medical offi cer
RogelioVigil de Quiñones, and Father Gomez.

On June 30, 1898, all 54 of them barricaded themselves inside the church of Baler. The siege
was on.

An Epic Siege

The Spaniards converted the church into a fort. They stationed sentries and marksmen at
strategic locations to enable them to defend their position from all sides.

Soldiers were positioned at the trenches outside, while the best snipers went up to the tower.
They waited anxiously. Teodorico Luna requested a parley.

He sent a messenger to give a letter persuading the Spaniards to surrender as prisoners of war
with protection under international law. He said that they had the town surrounded with three
companies, enough to storm the church.

The Spaniards did not believe him and invited the Katipuneros to attack anytime.

They were right in suspecting that the Katipuneros did not have enough ammunition and men to
storm the thick walls of the church. But the cunning Teodorico Luna had been recruiting from
among the people of Baler months before the siege, planting spies among the Spaniards, and
successfully intercepting communication they tried to send from Baler. They truly had the
Spanish surrounded and isolated.

The Katipuneros launched a small attack on July 3 to which the Spaniards did not answer to save
on munitions.

Senator Edgardo J. Angara, former Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, Hon. Jesus
Gracia Aldaz of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and Ambassador Jorge
Domecq of Spain.
Come the 18th, a reinforcement of guns and 800 men arrived from Nueva Ecija, emboldening the
Katipuneros to attack the church. No bullet could pierce the church’s thick walls however. The
Spaniards did not fi re back, save for the sharpshooter Julián Galbete at the tower.

But the tower proved to be penetrable, and Galbete became the first casualty on the Spanish side.

Filipino forces did everything they could to rout the garrisoned soldiers.

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Attacks on the church intensified as they sensed that the soldier’s food supplies were running
low. The attacking force had more guns, ammunition, and better conditioned troops.

In contrast, the Spaniards were beginning to show weakness. They even suffered from an
epidemic of beriberi (a vitamin B1 defi ciency in the body that causes walking difficulties and
loss of sensation in hands and feet), which claimed the life of Capt. de las Morenas, leaving Lt.
Cerezo in charge. Yet, the Spanish would not give up their posts.

Episodic skirmishes and exchange of gunfire ensued over the following months. In a surprising
show of force, the Spanish soldiers managed to lead an offensive in the town in December.

They set fi re to houses situated near the church. The winds took care of the rest, fanning the
flames towards other houses and almost engulfing the entire town of Baler. The outcome was
better than they had ever expected.

There were also occasional truces during which the Katipuneros and other emissaries tried to
persuade Lt. Cerezo to surrender and be treated justly. Once, packets of newspapers were left in
front of the church, chronicling the day-to-day lives of post-Spanish colonial rule. The Spaniards
believed it was an elaborate trap to lure them out of the building.

Various Spanish emissaries also came — only to be turned away. Over and over, the soldiers
refused to capitulate, adhering to their orders to fight for the Spanish Crown no matter what. The
Katipuneros solicited a parley for about 10 times, to no avail.

The Katipuneros, meanwhile, were far from being brutal adversaries. Friendly assistance from
Filipinos came in the form of a herd of carabaos. The animals suddenly appeared near the
church, quite possibly so the soldiers could capture and slaughter them for food. Even the
revolutionaries’ volleys and cannon fire seemed to be missing their targets.

Final Days of The Siege

A furious skirmish occurred on May 1899. The Katipuneros were able to breach the outer wall of
the church but suffered casualties.

Following this, the ship Uranus arrived in Baler. Lt. Col. Cristobal Aguilar went to the church
with a mission of bringing back the garrisoned soldiers. Cerezo still refused to believe that he
came to save them. Frustrated, Aguilar left for Manila but left a bundle of newspapers. Cerezo
initially thought they were excellent forgeries — until he saw a news item about the upcoming
wedding of a fellow officer he knew personally. Finally, it was Cerezo himself who persuaded
the rest of the Spanish soldiers to put an end to their resistance.

On the morning of June 2, 1899, after 337 days, a white fl ag was raised at the bell tower. The
siege was over. Of the 54 who went into the church, 35 remained.

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The Spaniards sustained five deaths from gunshot wounds, 14 deaths from beriberi and
dysentery, as well as six desertions.

Marching out, Cerezo and his men were not met by hostility. Instead, Filipinos surrounded them
with cheers and welcome. “Amigos, amigos!” the Katipuneros and Baler locals shouted.
Filipinos gave them decent food and clothing.

That magnanimity did not stop there. Revolutionary president Emilio Agunialdo issued a decree
on June 30 stating that the survivors of the Siege of Baler shall be treated as friends, not as
prisoners, ensuring their safe travel back home. Manileños even launched a fundraising
campaign for the Spanish soldiers.

Three months later, the Baler detachment returned to Barcelona in September, 1899. All of them
were welcomed by the authorities, and “Hero of Baler” was added to their names. Cerezo later
published a memoir, El Sitio de Baler, explaining the reason he and his men held out for so long:

“It would be somewhat difficult for me to explain, principally, I believe through mistrust and
obstinacy. Then also on account of a certain kind of auto-suggestion that we ought not for any
reason surrender because of national enthusiasm, without doubt influenced by the attractive
illusion of glory and on account of the suffering and treasury of sacrifice and heroism and that by
surrender, we would be putting an unworthy end to it all.”

Hence, the “Siege of Baler” was a battle unlike anything the country had ever seen –– for it had
nothing to do with one side defeating the other. This was a story about courage, survival, honor,
and an inspiring heroism that led Filipinos to embrace a former enemy towards a strong
friendship that lasts to this day.

ANALYSIS

This short story helps us to remember how bloody and how, many people died in the war
between Spaniards and the Filipinos. But it doesn’t implied to the fillipino and Spanish
friendship. Spaniards reaaly colonize us and the most influncial. It really shaped our culture
today. Despitem of the bloody war of the past the friendship between these two countries will be
pass and live forever. The bloods of Spaniard all ready run in our veins that make our
conncection to Spaniard are untieable.

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