IF I SUFFER JUST TO SUSTAIN LIFE, ONLY TO DIE...

WHERE IS MY FINAL DESTINATION?

WITH MY EXISTENCE

I have always experienced shortage of money that I have been unable to buy many of my needs and those of others.  I have always experienced poor health resulting to my unable to do many of the things I need to do for myself and others.  My capabilities have always fallen below what is necessary to realize many of the things I, as well as those of others need to have realized.  Why have I failed in so many of my personal, professional, and business endeavors?  Am I being deservedly punished?  Would it be indiscreet of me to protest against the cause of my existence, and the cause of the scripture, from which the words have not really been true at least for me?  How can it say that the God of the scripture is just, loves us, and is our father when inspite of my efforts which were merely out of my general motivation to provide life, not only for myself but also for others, I always fail?  At least, this is what I think.  

QUESTIONS ON THE CAUSE OF MY EXISTENCE

If one who is supposed to be the cause of all the causes of the effects of everything in the universe, which includes my existence is the God of this universe, then what sort of a God could He be?  Is He an arbitrary judge, a tyrant ruler, or a sadist?  Or is he really The Father who sees everything and who, as being the cause, loves the effects- us including me, allows only that which will be the ultimate good for us, including me?  

After all, fathers among us, know that we know more than our infants could understand, that many times we take them away from what they were doing which they find it wholesomely pleasant but we know it to be pleasantly dangerous.  After all, the reference for the time frame of a significant stage of life for fathers is at least a twenty year span compared to that of an infant which is at most, a twenty hour span.  In the end it is still the fathers among many of us, who have been providing them with their needs out of our sacrifices.  

But as supposedly a creature and according to the scripture, a person being adopted from out of dust, to a slave, now to that of a child, how can I find signs of the love of God the father for me?  How can I live in a world without signs of being loved by supposedly my God?  I do not know for others.

WITH THE PRICE OF MY EXISTENCE TO OTHERS

But then, there have been many incidents in my life, when because of the development of my personal characteristics, I have inflicted damages to my friends, my subordinates, my superiors, my brothers, and my parents.  It is only after many years later that I have come to realize these.  How could I have done these to others?  What about those incidents which I may not have even realized yet?  Can I ever pay for the damages that I have done?  These questions pierce my heart and haunt my soul.  What for then are all these material or professional successes in the world I have so craved for?  What for, if inflicting pain to others have already attached to my central personal character from which my capability to succeed stems?  What for if because of this condition, the rate of my capability to succeed, becomes directly proportional to the extent of damage I inflict on others?

WITH THE REALIZATION OF THE UNDERLYING CAUSE OF MY UNHEALTHY EXISTENCE

First, a series of events progressed towards my realization of nakedness or having nothing in this world.  Then a series of events in my life made me able to experience the words in the scripture many times in my being nothing.  God provided me with what I essentially needed, everyday.  I have realized thru these concrete experiences that God does exists not only as the creator of the universe but also as my provider.  This led me to ponder on how deeply I could actually experience the words in the scripture stating that God loves us as a father to his children.

EXISTENCE DEVOID OF LOVE

Then as the experiences of men all around me according to what I learned, as well as that of my own accumulated, I have begun to see a general pattern of life in this world which is narrowing down to only two options: sustaining one's self which necessitates it to be at the expense of the other, or; sustaining life for others which necessitates it to be at the expense of one's self.  This tragic existence of ours have been leading me to become attracted to that object of our existence as provided by God in the scripture, that is: to love God with our whole being and to love others as ourselves.  Mystified by its seemingly over simplified yet admittedly desirable object of life, I realized painfully that it is not that simple to experience this.  It is because this time, I am slowly realizing that I am the opposite of this object of our existence which is love, as I have already described my behavior earlier.  What I am, is selfishness.  Based on the scripture, being contrary to the object of our life as given by God, this is a pathological condition labeled as, sin.  Indeed, I have been a sinner all my life.  What a realization then to have become aware that what has been making my life sick all along is not my material poverty, but my sin.  It is sin that has been destroying my function to love.  Such is my condition which is unhealthy.  

WITH INFECTION

It is in this scripture that I have come to learn, that those actions of mine, were the consequences of my having been consumed with selfishness which produced pride.  So these all along, have been the conditions that have done damage to others and also to me.  The full extent of its consequences, I may not yet have been able to fully realize.  

There have been many other events that took place in my life that I never understood yet were so painful.  Thru the scripture, I was able to identify a pattern.  I realized that my selfishness which produced pride, produced another agent of pathological condition of life- lust.  To sustain my lust, I necessarily had to let my pride be defended also.  They became mutually defending each other.  Such condition attached to my thoughts. Such condition in my thoughts became the subtle but potent drive underneath my actions.  I saw that from my actions, its potency in proportion to that of other factors of my environment it interacted with, developed these conditions to materialize in my life and in the lives of other people.  In my case, it initially pleased me which I thought was the real life.  But such a condition with which I was a contributor, brought only actual or potential misery to others.  I saw that it was only a matter of time when it caught up with me and made life with my presence among others, a burden.  I saw that such a condition progressively worsened thru the years.

REALIZATION OF THE LINK BETWEEN MY LIKELIHOOD OF WORLDLY SUCCESS FOR ME AND MY LIKELIHOOD OF INFLICTING INJURY TO OTHERS

I am beginning to see thru my experiences in the past the existence of the connection between my capability to succeed which is attached with selfishness which produced pride and lust, and my likelihood to bring damage to other people.  I have seen that while the damages to myself and others caused by my environment to which I myself have a contribution has been contained, my capability to succeed in my desires no matter how seemingly noble they may have been, has always fallen short.  Based on this pattern, I could project then that, had my capability to succeed been better, my chances to inflict greater damages to others would have also been higher.  The pain in my heart and the haunting of my soul would have even been more intense as to make my life nearer to the edge.  

This happened to people I know personally.  There is this man whom I have known since high school, was raised in a school which provided high quality formation of academics, of technical foundation, of values and of everything required to become a gentleman.  He is handsome and has been successful in bringing to a tremendous growth the business he inherited from his parents.  He married the girl he had for quite some time, a crush on.  He raised a family.  He had been a generous donor to those who have been in need.  For years, I had always looked at him to be a classic model of a very lucky man.  Then I came to know he was on the verge of separation from his wife due to his having a several years affair with another woman.  The process of running the affairs of the business he so built for years had also been affected due to decisions not based on business management judgements but on the underlying cause which is, the affair with the other woman.

I have not seen the actual consequences of his actions.  What could be the effect on his wife upon discovery of the affair?  What would be the effect on his children upon discovery of the affair?  Since according to what I heard, the process of running the affairs of his business has been affected, how would this affect production?  How would consumers be affected?  What would be the consequences to their employees and their families?

I have been exactly as this person is.  With selfishness that produced pride and lust that attached within my thoughts, had my rate in capability to succeed been as high as that of his, the potential intensity and extent of damage I would have inflicted would have been the same as that of what he had.  Therefore, I am also sick of the same sins.  I just did not have the opportunity due to my failures.    

                 

Emotionally, these failures have been very painful to me as an individual person.  But intellectually, I can appreciate these failures to have been the factors that contributed to the containment of damages and the sustainment of people around me in particular and of humanity in general.  This intellectual realization would not have happened had I not been thru series of events of cause and effects that lead me to hear the word of God in the scripture regularly, and be nourished by it.  It would not have happened had I not been given just the kind of intellectual characteristics to see the connection of events with what has already been prophetically written in the scripture.

But is not emotion just as real as the intellectual?  They are both non-material internal to man which responds to an external stimulus.  In turn, either of the two becomes also the stimulus that would initiate a process that leads to an external and materializing action.  It is always the intellectual that has the means to dialogue with reality.  That is why medical doctors, soldiers, policemen, priests and all those involved in service whose work involves much both emotion and intellectual, have to let intellectual manage the emotion, in order to accomplish the right results.  In turn, the emotions become the gauge of whether the effect on us of the earlier intellectual process was good or bad.  This in turn will stimulate the intellectual to assess accordingly the earlier intellectual process and base on it the next intellectual process.

By this, how then can I consider my failures as a curse?  By this, how can I have thought that God has abandoned me?  In fact, I should be thankful to him for having provided me with all the things that have led me to the realization of the meaning of all these events.  What the scripture says, is true then that I am a sinner, and that God has forgiven us, including me.  It is true then that God loves us, including me.

If what the scripture says about the existence of God and his love for us has been consistently true, how then could what it says about the rest, be not true?

HISTORY OF INFECTION TRACED

According to the scripture, it was by the agent of a condition of presumptuousness of knowing more than what God has revealed to him, which Adam attached to his thoughts.  This made living, as if God is not the source of life, his existing condition.  Whereas before, Adam was not affected by his nakedness or having nothing since God was his source of everything, this time it was by existing in such a condition of independence of God, that he became conscious of his nakedness or having nothing.  

Because of this new condition, from being the factor that drew him to be dependent on God, nakedness this time became the factor that drove him away from God- the source of life.  Is this not exactly what I have experienced with nothingness with my own condition?

REALIZATION OF THE LINKS BETWEEN MY UNHEALTHY CONDITION, THE UNDERLYING CAUSE, AND THE INTERVENTION BY GOD

Now I have seen the answers to the question on why suffer, in my own life as interpreted by the scripture.  The interpretation is the information in the scripture corroborated by my personal history.  The answer is, that we have inherited the condition our earliest parents have been infected with.  Therefore we have been doomed to perish starting with the most vulnerable ones.  Thus, for the most vulnerable ones, the consequences of sin that has infected the world are easily drawn to them to be the ones to pay first and pay the heaviest.  This accounts for my observation that the world today has generally only two options: being either sustaining one's self which by necessity has to be at the expense of the other, or; sustaining life for the other which by necessity has to be at the expense of one's self.  Who then wants to be the most vulnerable?  This accounts for Adam in the scripture, not having been able to accept his nakedness after he was infected by sin.  He could not accept his being vulnerable.  This corruption replicated to the next generations.  

But because, according to the gospel of John in the scripture: "God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."  God sent his only son Jesus Christ and detached the consequences of sin from us, and be attached to his son thru his having become man and the most vulnerable to receive all of the consequences of the conditions of sin.  The consequences to the whole world of the condition of selfishness which produced pride, lust, greed, envy, anger, and all of the sins of all of us from all generations were attached to him.  As the consequences of the condition of sin were drawn to Jesus Christ, we who inherited the characteristics of our earliest parents from one generation to the next were spared of the consequences of sin.  Thus, we did not perish.

Scripture says that after three days, Jesus Christ had resurrected.  

So it is with us who are in the condition of sin.  If we let ourselves be vulnerable such that the consequences of the condition of sins of others be drawn towards us, it will be us who will be the ones to pay in place of others.  This leads us to sustain life for others at our expense.  The dynamics of life according to the scripture has been: By our having deviated from the natural process of life caused by our condition of selfishness which produced pride, greed, lust and other sins, the cycle of regeneration of life became imbalanced.  Life became finite.  But again, according to the scripture, since Jesus Christ has resurrected, a new dimension has been opened for us: Recovery after destruction.  Only thru the death and resurrection of the Son of God could this have been made possible.

VALIDATION OF THIS INTERPRETATION IN MY OWN LIFE

My anguish over my worldly failures was stopped by my realization of how much injury I have been inflicting on others.  The urge for me to be able to repay them became overwhelmingly greater than the pain of my personal failures.   My anguish over my failures has calmed me down by the realization of the meaning of my failures which is a block against my tendency to inflict injury to others.  Knowing my pathological nature, I can only attribute these realizations to the miraculous intervention in my life by God.  There have been few moments in my life that out of gratitude to him, I did not resist his spirit of “loving the enemy”.  Those were few moments when I did not prevent the spirit of Jesus Christ of offering one’s life to recover the losses others were responsible for, from taking over my thoughts.  Those few moments drove my actions to also forgive others who have inflicted injury to me.  Those few moments brought me to experience what according to the scripture Jesus Christ went thru in letting himself be the one to absorb the consequences of sin of all men of this world out of love.  I know I am one of these men of the world whose consequences of sin he absorbed.  I know because, I know the consequences of sin not only to others but to the one who committed it.  I know that with the kind of sins I have committed, I would have been destroyed a long time ago.  For a very long time, I did not even know my sins, nor their consequences.  Yet why am I still here?  Had it not been for someone else instead of me, having absorbed the consequences of my sins?

Now that I experienced being the one absorbing the sins of others, I suffered and would have been destroyed for a long period of my life as usual by the injury inflicted on me by that other person.  Yes, I did suffer.  I was also destroyed but this time, it was but a fleeting period.  Thereafter, I came out still functioning.  Above all, I was able to share the joy of Jesus Christ in having given one’s life to the enemy.  Yet I have also been his enemy and still is, every time I fall into sin.  Here in this world, the battle to attach my thoughts with the spirit of Jesus Christ against that of the conditions of sin still continues.  But there is now a new dynamics of life that I have never known before: Resurrection.  This time it is not only according to the scripture.  This time it is according to my experiences.  If I experienced the same dynamics of resurrection as that of Jesus Christ in my every day situation, will I not experience the same when I ultimately die physically?  But now that I have an idea on how much Jesus Christ has been loving me, I think I know where my final destination will be.  It is home where Jesus Christ is.  I seems nearer today.

This is why I wrote this report: To share with every one, both the living and the yet to live, the chance to experience the journey towards the peaceful joy of this realization, and; to invite everyone to accept the invitation of our creator and God the father to arrive at the final destination of our life, his home with his son, Jesus Christ.

José Miguel García

From Where The Alien Sails...

THE FILIPINO MARINE


From where the alien sails,
through the sea of Sulu
or the beaches of Zamboanga,
him, the Filipino Marine tails.

Cancio 2010 www.penquinslider.multiply.com

The enemy conceals his trails
on the jungles of Lamitan
or the hills of Tugas.                                                                          
At his flanks, the Filipino Marine scales.

With subtleness and speed, the invader lands.
With maneuver and firepower, the terrorist conquers.
On the summit of his success, the enemy sits
Right between his eyes, the Filipino Marine hits.

The Battle of Catubig

Adlaw nga Miyerkules, Ika- 03 han Noviembre 2010 | 11:40 a.m. From the Chief Editor Articles News Discussion Board Announcement Chat Room Home Other Articles: Rich, socialite Filipina senator meets with Maoist and “Communist” revolutionaries in the Netherlands -by Cesar Torres Dr. Jose V. Abueva & the Philippine Constitution in California -by Cesar Torres A fervent prayer for peace -by Cesar Torres Peru and the Philippines, some similarities and differences -by Adelbert Batica Dark clouds on azure Philippine skies -by Cesar Torres Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo at the San Francisco Consulate Town Hall meeting -by Cesar Torres Preventing the San Jose Timber Corporation from operating again -by Shiela Tagaban Zangl The senate hearing on Samar rainforest and a request to outstanding U.P. Alumni: Enrile and Defensor -by Cesar Torres and Charo Cabardo Friends in Diaspora ~ Hearts and minds always focused on Pilipinas -by Armando Ridao Pátria o Muerte - ¡Venceremos! -by Adelbert S. Batica The Villahanons’ annual homage to the Peruvian Saint -by Cesar Torres The mournful and haunting sound of the foghorn -by Cesar Torres Reaching out to the Filipino homeland through the internet -by Cesar Torres Peace talk, posibleng mabuksan muli -by Ruben Gerardo Dispatches from Latin America -by Adelbert S. Batica Which way, Philippines? -by Addi S. Batica Are they crazy? - by Cesar Torres The onrushing gloom in the Philippines -by Cesar Torres Samarnons and a military takeover in Pinas, a bloodbath? -by Addi Batica The coming Philippine storm -by Jose G. Caedo III Book review - Hang the Dogs: The true tragic history of the Balangiga massacre -by Quintin Doroquez Massacre of the innocent on Valentines Day -by Cesar Torres Reflections on President Arroyo's visit to San Francisco -by Cesar Torres Homonhon, 482 years later -by Charo Nabong An Impression of a great Commander -by Quintin Doroquez Tales of Two Cultures -by Quintin Doroquez The Homeless Filipino -by Jose N. AvelinoIII Revisiting a Samarnon's Pride in the Highlands of Peru -by Addi Batica Pride, sadness, and hopes of a Samarnon in California -by Cesar Torres THE BATTLE OF CATUBIG By QUINTIN L. DOROQUEZ* August 26, 2006 Fought at the turn of the 20th century—between the local militia of Catubig and a contingent of General Vicente Lukban’s incipient Army of the Philippine-American war in Samar and Leyte on the one hand and the U.S. Regular Army on the other—the battle of Catubig(1) brought into focus two aspects of the combatants: raw courage and humanism on the part of the Samarnons, and the penchant of a vanquished, proud U. S. Army to hide the truth from the Filipinos. Catubig used to be a small town some eighteen kilometers from the mouth of the deep, navigable Catubig River that empties into Lake Lao-ang in the northern section of what used to be the one-province island of Samar. Today, further inland, in the upper source of the river is another town, Las Navas, which regained or was granted its own municipal charter in 1948. Before the last two decades of the Spanish rule in the Philippines, Las Navas was in fact the set of municipal government in the Catubig Valley. However, toward the close of the 19th century, Kagninipa (now Catubig) started to out-grow Las Navas. This is understandable inasmuch as Kagninipa is located right at the stretches of wide agricultural lands in the vortex of the rich rice-growing Catubig Valley, reputedly the rice granary of Samar. So, ecclesiastical authorities or the Roman Catholic Church built a strong stone church in Kagninipa in 1886. This edifice is stronger in construction and larger in size than the Church in Las Navas even to this day. The two settlements themselves had a romanticized rivalry, especially when it became apparent that ecclesiastical authorities had its bent on Kagninipa. To avoid a violent confrontation to settle the issue as to where the permanent seat of government was to be located, the two rival chieftains, orcapitanes at the time decided it will be a waste of human lives and ugly to fight employing armed men. Capitan Saro of Las Navas and Capitan Mecias of Kagninipa agreed to settle the conflict by staging a carabao bullfight one Sunday. Should the Las Navas bull win, Las Navas will keep the seat of government; should the Kagninipa bull win, the seat of government will, accordingly, be transferred to Kagninipa. After exhaustive search for the best bulls, the two chieftains were ready to settle the issue. To cut a long story short, it was the bull from Kagninipa that decisively won, in fact chasing the Las Navas bull until it jumped into the Catubig River in fright and pain where it drowned from the wounds gorged in wildly by the strong horns of the more powerful Kagninipa bull. Thus the seat of municipal government permanently moved to Kagninipa. This took place, however, not without any further enmity. Then early in February 1900 some Americans started coming in trickle posing as private surveyors. The local church authorities were perceptively more friendly with the visitors than they were with the natives. But the “visitors” were also trying their best to be friendly with the natives. At one point, on a pleasant sunny morning, as two “surveyors” were strolling along Kagninipa Brook, one saw a cat sunbathing by rolling along the grassy edge of the brook. The Americans approached a young lady who was doing her laundry and asked, “What is that, cat?” The lass, hardly seeing the cat which was in higher elevation, and not knowing what the foreigners were asking about, responded, “Tubig,” meaning the water of the brook. In a short while bystanders gathered around. And they started saying, at the bidding of the Americans, “Catubig!” The Americans thought that “tubig” means cat, and the Filipinos, yes, the Catubignons, thought on the other hand that “cat” means tubig. When this news reached Domingo Rebadulla, the most respected and admired citizen of Kagninipa at the time, he suggested that this “word-compact” or word of friendship be used henceforth as the new name of the town of Kagninipa to signify the friendliness of the Americans and the native populace. Hence, the name “Catubig” today. In a matter of weeks the “surveyors”, apparently having understood and learned the psyche of the local populace, were already wearing military uniforms, and more men were pouring in, ferried by a gunboat. The priest had left, if temporarily, apparently at the bidding of the Americans, for his safety as well as to make room for the Americans to establish a garrison in the rectory or convent and in the adjacent stone church of Saint Joseph the Worker Parish. The soldiers, as the surveyors finally turned out to be, were of Company H, 43rd Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army. Their real mission was two-fold. First, on the short term, to deny General Lukban access that year (1900) to the bounty rice harvest of the Catubig Valley. This harvest takes place, until now, during the month of April. Second, to deny the General, on the long-term, from making the lush and rice-rich Catubig Valley as the alternate if not permanent headquarters of the Army he was raising in Samar and Leyte for the Philippine Revolution, which had already metamorphosed into the Philippine-American War. The people of Catubig naturally resented the deceptive presence of the Americans upon discovering the Americans’ real intentions. The local leaders, hospitable as they customarily were to visitors, started a series of hurriedly-convened secret meetings. Francisco Fincalero, the local real-estate and rice magnate and adoringly called Taga-ta by his associates, sent out instructions to his tenants that if the Americans commandeered his harvest, his tenants were to resist. Homobono Joli-Joli, a young man from Las Navas, forgot the past rivalry of Las Navas and Kagninipa and volunteered with 25 men, with himself at the head, to join the militia. Domingo Rebadulla, the acknowledged leader of Catubig during the Filipino American War and first mayor thereafter, was the over-all overseer in forming the local militia. Domingo, charismatic by personality, easily counted the assistance of Juan Alaras and Probo Plagata, men who later also became municipal mayors of Catubig. The people responded quickly and favorably. A 300-man strong, fighting force was easily raised. Knowing that the men were ill-trained and ill-equipped, well-off families—the Orsolinos, the Tafallas, the Mercaders, the Tentativas, the Turbanadas, etc.—donated their mousers and revolvers. Local blacksmiths worked overnights to make palteks (locally manufactured guns) and baids (the Samarnon’s counterpart of the Samurai blade). Doubting the military know-how of the militiamen, Domingo Rebadulla dispatched a three-man courier party, overseen by his fourteen-year old son, Pedro, to make contact with General Lukban. The General responded by dispatching for a few days one of his deputies, Col. Enrique Villareal Dagujob, a college-educated native of Bicol. The colonel was to check the terrain of the possible battleground and to give secret military instructions to the militia. General Lukban likewise assigned one of his chemists to the fighting men of Catubig to ensure that they had adequate and steady supply of gun powder to recycle used cartridges. Above all, the General assured the “boys” liaison that should hostilities break out, he will immediately reinforce the Catubig militia with at least 500 men. The success of the “boys’ mission” was quickly apparent. Col. Villareal-Dagujob showed up in a few days incognito. The colonel found the morale of the town’s leadership and the fighting men unusually high. Leaving specific instructions as to what to do upon the start of hostilities, Col. Villareal-Dagujob returned to Blanca Aurora, in the highlands of the Gandara Valley, the headquarters of General Lukban. Sensing immediate hostilities, the General deputized back Col. Villareal-Dagujob to head a 600-man raiding force. Just a day away of mostly jungle marching to Catubig, the raiding party learned that the battle of Catubig had begun. The local leaders took advantage of the fact that the steamer Tonyik which had been ferrying supplies and men to Catubig was nowhere to be found in Lao-ang, the closest port. Informers reported it was in Calbayog, in the westside of the island of Samar. In the estimation of the leaders in Catubig, this means at least about three days before the garrison in Catubig could be reinforced or rescued in the event of hostilities. It was a sunny April Sunday morning, typical of April, the rice harvest month in Catubig. The mayas were chirping their songs of joy in the abundance of rice grains, their favorite food, just in the outlying fields. The date: April 15, 1900. The longshoremen were piling abaca bales after bales in the street ready, as they appeared to be, for loading to a double-mast parao moored at the pier closeby where the American steamer had also been mooring. The giant out-triggered vessel was unloading earthen wares (pots, jars, etc.), but mostly 20-liter kerosene cans. The kerosene cans were, in the normal course of trade, being readied for delivery to consignees in town. The belfry boys got their instructions before the fall of night, April 14. They usually were to ring one bell for the customary ringing at 6:00 A.M. on a Sunday of ordinary time. But for the following day they were to stay put and wait for a small-arm gunfire at which instance they were to ring in full blast all three bells, including the giant de ruida. This de ruida bell is rung only on solemn occasions, such as the arrivals of dignitaries, or at the inception and completion of a High Mass during town fiestas or special occasions, or in cases of calamities such as fires beyond control. But Domingo Rebadulla objected to the small-arm gunfire, for it could in fact mean hostilities. He ordered instead dropping on the concrete street, with the appearance of casual fall from the head of a longshoreman, an empty kerosene can to produce the loud, sharp decibels that were to signal the American garrison did not accept the town leaders’ demand to surrender with their guns and military wares and to vacate the convent and the church vicinities. At about 7:00 A.M., just before the Americans started their daily morning drills in small numbers, a courier was dispatched by the town capitanto hand in an envelope to the doorman at the rectory containing the demand. As anticipated the garrison turned the demand down. A thumb-down signal from the courier as he emerged from the rectory caused the fall of an empty kerosene can from a husky longshoreman while he was stacking kerosene cans not far from the town square. That sudden fall was the signal that the belfry boys were awaiting. A few bell rings sent the token force of militiamen at the rear of the convent firing to decoy the Americans in that direction. At 7:30 A.M. all hell broke loose. The bells of Catubig, especially the giant de ruida that day kept spinning in crescendo, the other two bells were tolling unusually fast. All able-bodied men ran toward the convent even without orders and volunteered to fight. But unarmed they instead ended up rolling the hemp bales around the convent to serve as shields to the militiamen. At the indication that the Americans were forcing themselves out into their two small motorized boats, the militia, assisted by civilians, poured kerosene on the abaca bales and set them afire. Americans who dared to leave the convent were thus forced to negotiate their way through the towering inferno of abaca bales, then through the baids and guns of the militia. Fifteen of the 36 Americans perceived to be in the garrison tried to flee to safety, and fifteen burnt alive or were cut down by Catubignon fires or bolos to their bloody deaths. But the Americans were shooting too and in higher volume of fires. After all they had better guns. Their bullets were proportionately taking higher tolls than those of the Samarnons’. Badly outnumbered, however, the American ceased firing. Yet their will to fight echoed in the halls of the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C., later when one soldier, Cpl. Anthony J. Carson, of Boston, Massachusetts, was given the U.S. highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor, for his, according to the citation: “Assuming command of a detachment of the company which had survived an overwhelming attack of the enemy, and by his bravery and untiring effort and the exercise of good judgment in the handling of his men successfully withstood for 2 days the attacks of a large force of the enemy, thereby saving the lives of the survivors and protecting the wounded until relief came.” 1st Lt. J. T. Sweeney, one of the few survivors of the four-day confrontation, later recounted that they had superior arms than the Samarnons, but when they smelled kerosene from the bales of hemp piled around the rectory and, had the rectory caught fire itself from the burning bales of hemp, they (Americans) could have been roasted and charred alive inside the rectory. The Americans, however, did not easily surrender. It was discovered later that they were buying time for reinforcement or rescue to arrive. And they had dug trenches at the back of the convent(2). Then early on the third day of the siege, the 600 men of General Lukban arrived. Intelligence report from General Lukban’s men revealed that American reinforcement or rescuers were steaming up the Catubig River from Lao-ang. The rescuers arrived in the town early on the fourth day, i.e., Wednesday, April 19, 1900. A great battle immediately erupted after a lull of almost two days when only sporadic fires where heard. The bells of Saint Joseph Church did not stop ringing the entire morning of the final day of the battle of Catubig. The Americans tried to take the bells by scaling the belfry. But they never succeeded for two reasons. First, they were getting killed in their attempt; second, the belfry of Saint Joseph Church was difficult to scale. It is mounted on the highest point of the church frame over the main facade, unlike other churches in Samar, as the one in Balangiga, where belfries are built detached from the church and lower in height. Sensing disaster because it was trapped from two open sides of the Catubig River by militiamen in their dugouts—as people do now in peacetime during fluvial parades in celebration of Santo Niño—the steamer Tonyik, which ferried in the reinforcement from Lao-ang, suddenly pulled out. But it was chased by the militiamen and by some of General Lukban’s men who captured two motorized smaller American boats. Some two kilometers down the river, downstream toward Lao-ang, the steamer ran out of control due to heavy fires by some Lukban men who set a sentry at the Irawahan tributary river to the left of the main river. Those manning the steamer were so scared to death because they were also being chased by Catubignon militia and the Lukban men in the main river. The ill-fated Tonyik hit the sharply curving, rocky edge of the Catubig River at a hillside called Kalirukan (a local term for maelstrom because the water in that segment of the river is violent during high floods) and suddenly capsized and went down the deep water, lying on its left side and bringing seven soldiers to their watery graves. The real estate immediately to the right side of this segment of the river, on the downstream direction toward Lao-ang, was then owned by—and still belongs today to the descendants of—Domingo Mercader(3). In fact the settlement that later sprang from the adjoining real estate is now called Bgy.Domingo Mercader. After a week the American corps of engineers salvaged the sunken boat, but not without leaving some heavy items like some steel ballasts and anchors to the Mercader household as gratuity of battle and for having given humanitarian aid to the scared and distressed American survivors—with the consent of the Catubig militia and the Lukban men of course. Cpl. Anthony J. Carson of Company H, 43rd Infantry Regiment (later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, as aforementioned), one of the survivors, openly admitted that the Battle of Catubig was a total defeat for the American forces. On board another steamer that picked up the survivors of the capsized Tonyik, Lt. Sweeney, one of the survivors, was so thankful to his Maker for having survived. The U.S. War Department recorded the event as “…the heaviest bloody encounter yet for the American troops” against the Filipino freedom fighters. This account is so intriguing. This seems to include those in Luzon! The New York Times called the Battle of Catubig, “horrifying”. The Americans recorded their casualties at 22, 19 dead and three wounded. But the Lukban forces believed there was a cover up by the Americans of their actual casualties. Other published accounts recorded 31 American deaths(4), which obviously included the fatalities when the Tonyik capsized, as well as those who jumped ship as it was speeding away from the thick of battle almost uncontrolled from the town of Catubig. For example, Maria Mercader Lambino(5), then a 13-year old daughter of Domingo Mercader and an eyewitness to the battle, used to tell her grandchildren that one American soldier who jumped into the water, as the Tonyik was attempting to pull out, shouted, “Dinamat!” The American while swimming and cursing was hacked to death by a militia boloman who was in a dugout. A Lukban soldier could have shot the American point blank, but to conserve ammo he let a militiaman do the kill with his baid. Maria’s grandchildren later interpreted dinamat as “god damn it”. The Filipinos accounted 150 deaths of their own due in large measure to their exposed position when attacking the rectory. Antonio Hipe (now deceased)(6), who was a clam diver, together with other clam divers, had recovered quite a heap more of steel ballasts that the corps of engineers, in salvaging the Tonyik, had left at the bottom of the waters in Kalirukan. However, local blacksmiths had made most of them into farm implements(7). Conclusion. The battle of Catubig is an overlooked glory of Filipinos in the Philippine-American war, some say. By the same token, this is attributed to the penchant of the U.S. military at that time for spiriting away immediately to Washington, D.C., any records of combat that gave the American side the appearance of ignominy and total defeat. Hence, Filipino historians doing research in the Philippines—and writing history books with what they had—were left without complete information. The battle of Catubig had not appeared even in footnotes of Philippine history books. + + + + + + + + + + End notes: (1)The narratives in this article are in many cases drawn from the author’s own recollections of stories he avidly listened to—from eyewitnesses to the confrontation and who had no axe to grind—when he was growing up in his hometown of Catubig. The battle should thus be a subject for further research and study by serious students of history and public affairs. The author wishes to acknowledge the suggestions of Dr. Romeo V. Cruz, UP professor of history (ret.), on how to proceed with the narratives that involve oral accounts of individuals who are eyewitnesses to historic events. Likewise, the author wishes to convey his gratitude to Prof. Cesar Torres, formerly of UP, for soliciting this article and for encouraging its completion. (2) While growing up, the author used to play with other boys of his age inside the trenches. (3) Domingo Mercader was the maternal great, great grandfather of the author. (4) Editorial, Leyte Samar Daily Express, May 14, 2000. (5) The author is one of Maria Mercader Lambino’s grandchildren. (6) Antonio Hipe was the husband of the author’s aunt Lucia Mercader Lambino Hipe. (7) This was as of April 1957 when the author left for Manila to pursue his college education. Other Sources—see also end note (1), above: (1) U.S. War Department records on the Philippine insurrection, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (2) Leyte Samar Daily Express, May 14, 2000. (3) Elinando B. Cinco’s cyber article, April 2003. Copyright ©2004 Quintin Lambino Doroquez All Rights Reserved [*Editor’s note: The author is a native of the towns of Catubig and Las Navas in the Catubig Valley, Northern Samar, where he grew up. He graduated valedictorian from high school and went to college with scholarships, while working at the same time. Immediately after college he left for the U.S. to attend graduate school and earned an MBA in accounting and finance. In college, he was editor-in-chief of his school newspaper and became a member of the foremost student association of the Philippines, the College Editors' Guild of the Philippines. He worked for and retired from the University of California (UC) System. Thus far he is the only Filipino to attain a management level position in the Office of the President of the University, where his primary responsibilities were editing the four-volume University of California System Accounting Manual and the formulation and development of policies pertaining to the business and financial affairs of the University. He taught college for two years, but abandoned this pursuit—even after being encouraged by the chairman of his department to pursue tenure—in order to focus in earnest on his management career. While working at the UC, he was selected to attend a four-summer management program at full University’s expense, for which he obtained an advanced certificate in college and university financial administration. He won three outstanding performance awards at different times—including the coveted Management Incentive Award in the Office of the President of the University. In view of the heavy writing requirement of his work, this award qualified him for admission to the English department of Oxford University in England where he earned a certificate in creating writing. Mr. Doroquez is enjoying presently his retirement by writing short stories, articles, essays, poetry, humor, etc. He has put on hold a novel he was working on entitled, Widowed Young, in order to pursue other pressing writing projects.] post comment | 4 comments Web design by Samar News.com Last updated: 02/11/2008

American Chronicle | APPOINTMENT WITH DESTINY: GENERAL LAWTON: GERONIMO'S NEMESIS

J. Alvin Inacay Bautista

November 02, 2009              

On December 21, 1899, then Secretary of War Elihu Root issued General Orders No. 209, confirming what American correspondents had already forwarded to their home offices in the United States. The Associated Press, covering the military action from the Asian archipelago of the Philippines, had sent an urgent dispatch directly to Washington. In the midst of the Philippine Islands campaign four days before Christmas and in the midst of an anticipated victory, the intrepid Henry Ware Lawton, appointed Major General of the Brigade of Volunteers, and commissioned Brigadier General in the Regular Army, was killed by a Filipino sniper´s bullet in the heat of the Battle of San Mateo in Morong Province, now named Rizal. Held in high esteem by Washington, Root pays a glowing tribute to Lawton, the highest ranking general to fall in this campaign, Lawton commanded the First Division, Eighth Army Corps and was virtually second in command after General Elwell Otis. Elihu Root writes of the first Army general to be killed in action outside of the continental United States:

"He fell in the fullness of his powers, in the joy of conflict, in the consciousness of assured victory. He leaves to his comrades and his country the memory and the example of dauntless courage, of unsparing devotion to duty, of manly character, and of high qualities of command which inspired his troops with his own indomitable spirit."

General Edwards, Lawton´s chief of staff, confirmed that the General was characteristically unwavering in the line of fire, dangerously exposing himself in the midst of any skirmish. In the heat of the battle on that fateful December morning, Lawton was even supervising the litter being prepared for a wounded Lt. Breckenridge, who was to fall prey to the dreaded Filipino unit aptly named as Tiradores dela Muerte (Sharpshooters of Death).

The news would grip the emerging imperialist nation back home. The casualty was a Medal of Honor awardee and a career soldier whose series of ground successes were followed with avid interest by a news hungry American populace. The Filipino forces, described as poorly armed insurgent forces , were in a disorganized retreat and losing ground to the lightning advance of Lawton´s gritty band of regulars and volunteers. This was the vanguard of the expeditionary force, among which were those of Troop 1, Fourth Cavalry, 2nd and 3rd Squadrons of the Eleventh Cavalry U.S.V., and one battalion each of the 27th Infantry Regiment U.S.V. and 29th Regular Infantry Regiment.

Manila had fallen after a bloody scorched earth defense of the Filipino units under the Belgium trained General Antonio Lunaand the outlying towns were next on Lawton´s path. About twenty miles northeast of the capital, San Mateo in Morong, was fiercely contested, Elements of the US ground forces had taken the town twice but were forced to abandon it. Veteran General Elwell Otis had suspended offensive operations due to the withering tropical rains and had sent his instructions via courier to the spearhead forces. Its fiery commander, Lawton had intercepted the courier and had gone straight to Otis, clad in his regulation white helmet still strapped to his chin and a yellow slicker that dripped water on the dining room floor of the captured summer residence, Malacanang Palace, now the main headquarters of General Otis. True to form, Lawton convinced the cautious Otis, who was about to retire after a sumptuous dinner. Lawton was at his aggressive best as he declared that nothing was standing in the way of his expeditionary force. He predicted that with the element of surprise, he could break the back of the enemy with the crushing raid at break of daylight. With marching orders intact, Lawton rides off, white helmet still strapped to his chin and wearing this fateful yellow slicker raincoat, to rejoin his unit, ready at a moment´s notice.

Lawton had used his lightning assaults in a brilliant stint during the Indian wars. Years before, as a young 23 year old junior officer, he had earned his Medal of Honor during the Battle of Atlanta in the War between the States, or for some, the War between the North and the South. After the Civil War, he remained in the news headlines, notching his claim to fame with the dogged pursuit and capture of the wily brigand, Apache chief Geronimo, The colorful and recalcitrant Native American warrior had waged a brutal and fearsome rampage across the settlements, eluding capture and placing the War Office in a shameful light. And then the dashing Indiana born Civil War Hero Lawton was assigned to engage Geronimo in his own game, holding him at bay in his formidable redoubt. The capture of Geronimo was sensational headline material and virtually everyone came to know of the dashing Western Henry Ware Lawton, Powerful figures in Washington will cast a favorable eye on the now prominent Lawton, whose exploits will even become more renowned when he takes to the field during the Spanish American War.

He is to match the courage, daring and bravado of the cavalier Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders as he engages an even more formidable adversary , the European trained Spanish cazadores and well armed militia units defending the Cuban capital of Santiago. In the strategic Battle of El Caney, Lawton´s counterpart, General Joaquin Vara del Rey would perish along with the defenders in a bloodbath that cost the lives of 80 Americans and more than 450 of the enemy killed, wounded of captured.

And now, in another theater of war, this time in the Far East, Lawton was rushing off to San Mateo, expecting light opposition and with the element of surprise in his favor. Lawton as always is in the thick of the fight. About three hundred yards away, a seasoned Filipino general is also in command of the defenders, entrenched in earthenworks which had stopped many of the Spanish infantry assaults, His name was Geronimo, first name Licerio, a farmer-soldier, On higher ground, this Revolutionary war veteran had weathered firestorm assaults, both as defender and as blockade runner. The opening salvo for the Philippine Revolution against Spain in August, 1896 was the ill-fated attacks on El Deposito (water reservoir) and El Polvorin (Gunpowder Depot) by a rabid but rag tag Katipunero force, of which the future General was to gain early battle experience, Rising from the ranks, Geronimo earns his star upon his appointment as Military Commander of Morong province before the Truce of Biak na Bato.

The Spanish Colonial Governor Primo de Rivera offers Emilio Aguinaldo, barely twenty eight years old and the emergent leader of the dangerous Revolution, safe passage and exile to Hong Kong, guaranteeing safe conduct, amnesty for all combatants and self rule after three years. With a monetary indemnity, Aguinaldo would put the funds to good use, buying two thousand rifles and engaging the help of the powerful American nation while courting other eager emerging powers. He held clandestine meetings with US Consular Officials in Hong Kong and Singapore and with Commodore George Dewey, dispatched by President William McKinley with a powerful naval armada, In an apparent arrangement with the benevolent American officials, Emilio Aguinaldo to wage war again with his colonial master Spain with the promise of full American support and recognition of the colony´s aspired independence. Returning aboard the cutter USS McColllouch and the negotiated armaments, General Emilio Aguinaldo rallies his hibernating army. This massive wave will leads to the encirclement of besieged Manila, the capital. Cut off from the sea by Dewey´s Asiatic Squadron, the Spanish Territorial Government is trapped in the ancient Walled City, Intramuros, ringed by Filipino ground forces, Aguinaldo´s resurgent Infantry and artillery, whose officers would include former Spanish regulars, Filipino intellectuals, former exiles, as well as former militiamen.

The impasse allows the United States to send its Infantry to Commodore Dewey´s naval contingent which has destroyed the decrepit Spanish Naval Force, sunk off Manila Bay with Dewey´s counterpart, the old sealion Admiral Patricio Montojo going down with his flagship, the battered Reina Castilla.

The former Filipino and American allies would become fierce adversaries in events after a farcical Mock Battle of Manila, where Filipino forces would be left out of the captured capital and the archipelago ceded for twenty million dollars in the Treaty of Paris.  The once fair haired protégé Emilio Aguinaldo, the Simon Bolivar and George Washington of his enslaved nation, would fall from grace from the imperialistic band that surrounds Wiilliam McKinley. Pilloried in the American press, previously lionized freedom fighter Emilio Aguinaldo becomes now a dangerous Dictator of a banana republic out to usurp power for his personal gain.

His general, Licerio Geronimo, who gives up his command in the Spanish organized Milicia Territorial formed to resist the American invaders when Aguinaldo returns from exile, will thus find himself, resisting the Americans after all. General Mariano Trias appoints him commander of the fused second and third zones of Manila, and the provinces of Morong and Marinduque. Geronimo will have the high ground over the advancing US regulars and volunteers. He will also have his dark clad elite unit, Tiradores dela Muerte, highly disciplined snipers armed with captured Spanish regulation issue, the accurate and deadly M1895 Mauser, Most of the Americans were armed with the Swedish import Krag Jorgenson rifle, pound for pound a vastly inferior weapon compared to the coveted Mauser, A popular legend supposedly involves the training of this Death Squad by a US Army deserter, a Private Donald Fagen, While there was indeed a colorful figure as Fagen, a Black American who defected to the Filipino forces, it is highly unlikely that he had trained the Mauser armed Filipino snipers under the Brigada Geronimo (Geronimo Brigade).

At this destined appointment with destiny. General Henry Ware Lawton, captor of Geronimo, would man the frontlines of the forces assaulting the entrenched native army, augmented by the eagle eyed Tiradores of another Geronimo. Certain accounts cite that General Geronimo himself instructed his snipers to rein in on a stalwart figure conspicuous on the American side, clad in yellow raincoat, white helmet, exposed for all his 6 feet and three inches frame.

Shots ring out and graze the grass, several finding their mark on a junior officer named Lt. Breckenridge. As the fearless Lawton shrugs off warnings of his aide de camp, he personally directs the making of an improvised litter for the wounded staff officer. Bonifacio Mariano, Geronimo´s Tirador, clutches his sturdy Mauser and pulls the trigger, unleashing the lead projectile on the white helmeted target´s breast. Geronimo directs all guns for effect. It is Bonifacio´s bullet which strikes the intrepid American commander.

Lawton collapses into the arms of his aide, who was unaware of his general being struck, as he had queried seconds before, "What is the matter, General? Are you hit?" Lawton´s final and dying words, answered in the affirmative, "Yes, through the lung." Clutching his breast Lawton has been mortally wounded , pierced by a Filipino marksman named Bonifacio under the command of a Geronimo.

It would be the irony of history, as these Generals and subalterns would all face their appointment with destiny as the century was about to close. Among his private correspondence, the fallen commander and renowned captor of Chief Geronimo, Henry Ware Lawton, had written of his respect and praise of the Filipino soldiers he had faced, months before being their unfortunate victim :

"Taking into account the disadvantages they have to fight against in terms of arms, equipment and military discipline, without artillery, short of ammunition, powder inferior, shells reloaded until they are defective, they are the bravest men I have ever seen... "

Medal of honor awardee Henry Ware Lawton, would be laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery, earning his fame and the admiration of his generation, which offers his bereaved family material support, as it raises for them a more than generous endowment for their tragic loss. General Licerio Geronimo will surrender almost two years after, along with his remaining unit of 12 officers, 29 men and 30 rifles to the Commanding Officer of the US Volunteers (E Company, 42nd Infantry Regiment) in San Mateo. He will be formally presented to the Regimental Commander, Col. J. Milton Thompson. Geronimo later enlists in the newly organized American Colonial police force, the Philippine Constabulary, earning the ignominy of being the hunter of his former comrades in arms, among them the equally colorful General Luciano San Miguel.

Nothing will be heard of Bonifacio Moreno afterwards , who will at least earn the honor of having a street named after him in his native town of San Mateo. But it seems history will have its final irony.

The fallen war hero General Lawton will receive full military honors, the gratitude of his nation, the respect of his peers. The US Colonial Government will name an important landmark also in his honor, a Plaza Lawton, which spans the most important thoroughfares of Old Manila near the Pasig river, After acquiring its independence from America and In a fervor of Filipino nationalism, avid and livid to erase vestiges of a colonial past, the prominent landmark Plaza Lawton will suffer the fate of many American era named streets and plazas, It will be eagerly renamed, However, to this day, the term Lawton is still widely used, as it appears on the destination boards of public utility vehicles for its easier recall.

PLAZA LAWTON is renamed as PLAZA BONIFACIO, another seemingly curious twist of fate. Although the honor is meant for the Filipino patriot, ANDRES BONIFACIO, whose secret society Katipunan will lead the fight for freedom from the Spanish colonial master, The other Bonifacio, who struck the fatal blow with his impeccable marksmanship, remains relatively unknown, But there is no doubt, his mark, General Henry Lawton, Geronimo´s nemesis and who had so much respect for the Filipino soldier, might have wished that he did not have a superior weapon like the Mauser to aim at his heart that fateful day in San Mateo.

J. Alvin Inacay Bautista  

Educator Counselor and Training Professional born in the Philippines.  Writing is a personal passion that is linked closely with reading avidly nonfiction, historical novels and biographies of the famous and the infamous.  As a Career Educator, he has taught World History, the Social Sciences and Philosophy in High School and College. His body of work is mostly in the training programs he has designed, conducted and facilitated in industry, education and in nonprofit institutions. A Father of three, he is married to fellow Educator Jocelyn Sarreal Bautista, with whom he founded the QUEEN OF ANGELS LEARNING CENTER, a trailblazing school in historic Imus, Cavite with visionary Catholic professionals. He now calls Vallejo, California and the Bay Area home but remains a fiesty red and blue Letranite, Angelorian and Filipino.