Baler in the Revolution

Even before the outbreak of war between the Spanish regime and the Filipino Republic in 1898, Baler militants of the secret society, Katipunan, had held a blood compact in Sitio Dikaloyungan on 10 September 1897-a pact they reaffirmed a month later-to manifest their readiness to join the fight for freedom. In the following year, a provincial revolutionary government was established briefly in Baler and in all of EI Principe.

his set the stage for the Siege of Baler, when the Spanish garrison that had been trapped in town, holed up inside the Baler Catholic Church. They fought on, refusing to believe that hostilities had ceased everywhere else in the archipelago--and, eventually, that Spain had ceded the islands to the United States. Not until 2 June 1899 did
Lieutenant Martin Cerezo and his men raise the white flag.

Acknowledging the gallantry of the Spaniards, President Emilio Aguinaldo ordered that they be given full military honors on their departure from Baler, and allowed safe passage to Manila-then already in American hands.

After Americans troops reached Baler, the town came under a brief period of military government. Civil government, established on 12June 1902, moved the district of EI Principe from the administrative jurisdiction of Nueva Ecija, which had controlled it since 1818, and placed it under the jurisdiction of Tayabas Province. Until well into modern times, it seemed Baler's administrative fate to be moved from one civil jurisdiction to another.