``NOT found in your mainstream Filipino History narrative: Hundreds of
women, children and elders from prominent families in Macabébe who sought refuge in the town church were burned to death by the Filipinos during Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo's siege of Macabébe.`` — cabalen Mike Pangilinan
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``MACABEBE CHURCH IN RUINS, 1901. This is the price the people of Macabebe paid for their loyalty to Spain. In June, 1898, Gen. Aguinaldo sent 7,000 mostly Tagalog soldiers to destroy the town, bombing their beautiful centuries-old church and killing an unknown number of men, women and children. The reason--the townspeople had earlier protected hundreds of Spanish soldiers, friars and government officials, including the Governor-General's wife and children, who had fled to Pampanga to seek refuge in the last town that remained faithful to Spain. Macabebe soldiers delayed the pursuit, allowing the Spaniards to jump into ships that had come to rescue them.
Three years later, in 1901, the Macabebes got their sweet revenge when the Americans visited the town to recruit volunteers for the operation to capture Aguinaldo. The recruiting officer, Lt. Matthew Batson of the US 4th Cavalry, only needed a battalion, but nearly got an entire regiment because the Macabebe women "were eager to have their sons, husbands and sweethearts to go with him."
On March 23, 1901, the Macabebes, using a combination of acting skill, proficiency in Tagalog, and military genius, captured Aguinaldo in Palanan, Isabela, forcing him to swear allegiance to the United States "without any reservation whatsoever." The newspaper Baltimore American called it "the bombastic, puerile, fawning, insincere statement of an opportunist in bad plight."
Photos from the Luther Parker Collection courtesy of the National Library of the Philippines.``
I just read about this recently.
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MACABEBE CHURCH IN RUINS, 1901. This is the price the people of Macabebe paid for their loyalty to Spain. In June, 1898, Gen. Aguinaldo sent 7,000 mostly Tagalog soldiers to destroy the town, bombing their beautiful centuries-old church and killing an unknown number of men, women and children. The reason--the townspeople had earlier protected hundreds of Spanish soldiers, friars and government officials, including the Governor-General's wife and children, who had fled to Pampanga to seek refuge in the last town that remained faithful to Spain. Macabebe soldiers delayed the pursuit, allowing the Spaniards to jump into ships that had come to rescue them.
Three years later, in 1901, the Macabebes got their sweet revenge when the Americans visited the town to recruit volunteers for the operation to capture Aguinaldo. The recruiting officer, Lt. Matthew Batson of the US 4th Cavalry, only needed a battalion, but nearly got an entire regiment because the Macabebe women "were eager to have their sons, husbands and sweethearts to go with him."
On March 23, 1901, the Macabebes, using a combination of acting skill, proficiency in Tagalog, and military genius, captured Aguinaldo in Palanan, Isabela, forcing him to swear allegiance to the United States "without any reservation whatsoever." The newspaper Baltimore American called it "the bombastic, puerile, fawning, insincere statement of an opportunist in bad plight."
Photos from the Luther Parker Collection courtesy of the National Library of the Philippines.