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| BAMBAN, TARLAC IN 1899: A CRUX OF THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION |
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Lino L. Dizon |
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Tarlac State University |
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A forgotten and overlooked but a crucial phase of the Philippine Revolution, particularly in the middle months of 1899, was the Bamban, Tarlac's interlude in the national struggle. On June 6, 1899, President Emilio Aguinaldo made an unanticipated proclamation transferring his 'capital' in this small, hilly town that served then, and until now, as the porter of Tarlac province. This proclamation, on the latent level, contained some of the mysteries of the controversial Aguinaldo revolutionary government at that critical period of Philippine history, and the agitated Presidente, at that time, could have probably thought that the Bamban hills would be helpful in keeping them as 'mysteries' forever. |
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One hundred years after that proclamation, relying solely on my earlier book that contained it, which I got in turn from the 'insurgent' documents compiled and translated by Capt. John R.M. Taylor, the former Municipal Government of Bamban, decided to highlight the recondite event by passing an ordinance proclaiming it as Bamban Day, "in commemoration of the centennial of the proclamation of Bamban as the Revolutionary Capital of the Philippines". Three years later, triggered perhaps by the ghost of Aguinaldo who still wants to embrace certain mysteries, the successive Municipal Government of Bamban made an amendatory move by downplaying the said 'Bamban Day', purporting that what was established was not a 'revolutionary capital' but a mere "temporary headquarters of the Captain-General ".�� |
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Gleaning from this amendatory ordinance which I learned only two months after its approval, the rectification by the Sangguniang Bayan was "for the benefit of the present and future generations" and the sagacious solons of Bamban, applying historiographical prudence aside from their usual job of cleaning the town of its clutters and increasing its revenue, sought the opinion of the National Historical Institute (NHI) about the matter. In turn, interpreting only the document from its face value without its background, seemingly, the NHI informed and reiterated that what General Aguinaldo temporarily established in Bamban was the Headquarters of the Captain-General and not the 'Revolutionary Capital in the Philippines'.� Thus, the Sangguniang Bayan "respects the opinion of the NHI which is based on historical data available, and being the authority on the subject". |
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Of course, since I am not an authority, I do not have to be consulted about it, though I am the source of the fact (at least from a statement of the unadulterated ordinance), now the fiction (at least from a statement of the amended ordinance), or the point of rectification. What is ironical is here is that I was invited by the 'authority', the NHI, to be the 'authority' on the mobile governments of President Aguinaldo from Malolos to Bayambang in 1899, during its National Conference on the Philippine-American War in November of 2000. In that conference, I informed the gathering of historians that, basing from available data, the first stage of the Tarlac capital (or the Fourth) of Aguinaldo government was not the present town of Tarlac, as we know it, but the town of Bamban, and which bereft the latter of its real place in Philippine history.� Part of my lecture at that conference went: |
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It must be clarified, however, that what was proclaimed on June 6 as the Headquarters of the Captain-General of the Philippines was not the town of Tarlac, but that of Bamban, approximately 26 kilometers away. In this proclamation, President Aguinaldo also assumed the command of all military operations, a function vacated by General Luna and which he himself was interested with earlier but held it in abeyance instead, so as to avoid a direct confrontation with his former rival...
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This phenomenon might have been merely sideswiped by our historians but Bamban, the nonchalant capital, was the crux of the Filipino republic during the whirling days of 1899. From every angle, from within and without, Bamban was the key to those critical events at that period in our history. |
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During the open forum, no one questioned me about it, even authorities from the NHI. The only question I received was from a lady teacher of Bayambang, Pangasinan who was adamant why I downplayed the role of her town as one of the capitals. My contention then, even now, was that the Aguinaldo Republic ended with the fall of Tarlac in the hands of the Americans in November of 1899, Tarlac then being the last capital of the entity. If all the towns of the North are claiming that they should also be considered as 'capitals' of the Aguinaldo government from the 1899-1901 period, then it is indeed a problem, but it was not my problem anymore. Mr. Augusto de Viana, chief researcher of the NHI, who was near me in the Centennial Hall of Manila Hotel during that session, explained the quandary of his office, with the deluge of requests for recognition and markers of certain places as 'official capital' of the Revolutionary Republic, notwithstanding if the fleeing Aguinaldo stayed only in their town for a nap or a summon from the call of nature.������ |
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It should be cited at this juncture that the allegation that Bamban was Aguinaldo?s capital was not actually from me, however, it was from John R.M. Taylor himself. In 1906, in his The Philippine Insurrection against the United States, he wrote:����� |
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Before the death of Luna he had gone through Benguet Province to find a new site for the capital which would be fit for a continued defense; but Aguinaldo preferred Tarlac, and proclaimed it the capital of the republic on June 6 (italics mine). |
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It is evident that, at least from this much-quoted authority who was very close to the event, what was proclaimed on June 6 was, in all purposes, the capital (and not only a temporary headquarter) and, delving now on the date of the actual document, he was referring to Bamban (Tarlac) and not the capital town of Tarlac.� |
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What are the available data provided by the NHI that easily convinced the officials of Bamban to amend an approved ordinance? Was there another revolutionary capital at that time? In other words, what was the capital of Aguinaldo beginning June 6, 1899 if he moved out from the then town of Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija and relocated in Bamban at that particular day?�� In his The Philippine Revolution, Teodoro Kalaw was explicit that the Revolutionary Government moved to Tarlac only on June 21 (probably referring to the Tarlac town). Isn?t it funny that there was no capital from June 6 to 21, 1899 since what we have in the proclamation of the then President of the Philippines, who also assumed the function of being also its Captain-General (with the controversial death of his Director of War, Gen. Antonio Luna, a day earlier) was only that of a temporary headquarter?� When President Aguinaldo assumed his office as also the Captain-General of the Revolutionary Government, was it proper for him to leave his presidency elsewhere to take charge of the military forces in Bamban, considering that he was then in the thick of the fight against the Americans and salvaging his scattered army?��� |
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There are documents claiming that President Aguinaldo was in Angeles six days later (June 12) to celebrate the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, though in the memoirs of a Spanish prisoner [El Desastre Filipino, Memorias de un prisionero], Carlos Ria-baja, the president was actually in Tarlac when he made a speech and therefore was in Bamban. But there are no documents to prove that Angeles was once a capital of the Aguinaldo government. Nevertheless, the people of Angeles are still clinging on this event, wishing it was so, though they do not have any strong data to back them. For the people of Bamban who have one of the stronger evidences, in fact one of the few instances where Aguinaldo made a proclamation concerning his center of operations, temporary or otherwise, it is now an altogether different story, especially with the passage of their amendatory ordinance.�� |
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The term 'Temporary' in the provided context, as an unsolicited opinion, is perhaps inappropriate or superfluous. If President Aguinaldo utilized it at that time, it was understandable. Being pursued by the Americans who had taken Manila and his other capitals like Malolos and Cavite and was about to take Nueva Ecija and at odds with his officials who were loyal to General Antonio Luna, he needed a place where he could gather his strength and Bamban provided that necessity. For Aguinaldo therefore, who was then in the crescendo of the struggle, there was only one official capital of the Republic, and that was Manila; his primary aim therefore was to re-take it from the enemy. Due to exigencies and to attain this aim, he had to transfer from one place to another, aside from his official capital. Following the trend of thought, should we now consider Malolos, San Isidro (Nueva Ecija) and Cabanatuan as also temporary headquarters since they were not also official capitals? |
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For us now who are fortunate to make proper perspectives, the term 'Temporary' does not hold a place if we are to equate it with a volatile event as the Philippine Revolution. We are precisely talking about a revolution and plain common sense is enough to tell us that 'temporary' is already redundant to refer to such, considering that what Aguinaldo did from 1898 until his capture in 1901 were all (excuse the redundancy) temporary. My only wish now is that Dr. Pablo S. Trillana (not Trillano as cited) III, a dear friend, who was the former Chairman of the National Historical Institute and the source of this 'temporary headquarter' cliche, would not be reading this note, especially since he was also our Keynote Speaker (then being the president of the Philippine Historical Association) in the Conference on the Centennial of the Tarlac Revolutionary Congress of July 14, 1899 " undoubtedly an aftermath of the Bamban episode of June 6, 1899 " and he never mentioned about Tarlac's status as being merely so at that time.�� |
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Furthermore, if the NHI allegedly does not want to affirm the contention that Bamban was once a capital of Aguinaldo, I do not know what we will do now with the works of Taylor (as already cited), the revolutionary memoirs of Generals Venancio Concepcion [Apuntes y Diario de Operaciones Sobre la Guerra Hispano-Filipino-Americana] and Jose Alejandrino [La Senda del Sacrificio], the historical works of Teodoro� Agoncillo� [Malolos: The Crisis of the Republic], Vivencio R. Jose [The Rise and Fall of Antonio Luna], and Rosario Mendoza Cortes [Pangasinan 1801-1900: The Beginnings of Modernization], that� have mentioned of this episode in the particular chapters concerning the Philippine Revolution. |
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Yet, brushing the polemics and also "for the sake of the present and future generations", even without the cultural, or political, extravaganza, or the 'Bamban Day' cavalcade, it is essential that we now explicate on the actual role of the town of Bamban, Tarlac during the Philippine Revolution.� |
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Bamban's proper place in the historiography of the Philippine Revolution caters to one of its most controversial and still unresolved issues, the feud between President Aguinaldo and General Luna and the subsequent assassination of the latter in the erstwhile capital of Cabanatuan on June 5, 1899. |
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In April and May of 1899, with the eruption of the Philippine-American War and its escalation that brought about the defeat of Filipino forces in Manila, Bulacan and Pampanga, and particularly the fall of Malolos Republic, the Aguinaldo government had no other recourse than to transfer immediately in Nueva Ecija. |
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During this time, in checking the advancement of the Americans, General Antonio Luna, being then the Director of War and Commanding General of the Revolutionary Army, created a formidable defense force that stretched from Pampanga to Tarlac borders, the so-called Angeles-Magalang line, along the Parua river channel, with Bamban as one of its main headquarters.�� He saw something promising in Bamban with its terrain of rolling hills and raging rivers that he was disappointed with in his earlier campaigns in Bagbag (Novaliches), Calumpit (Bulacan), Apalit and Sto. Tomas (Pampanga). |
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Sensing the progress of the enemy later, Luna decided to proceed further North, in Bayambang, leaving his Parua� (Angeles-Magalang line) command under General Venancio Concepcion on May 12, 1899.�� In May 20 of that same year, there is also a PIR (Philippine Insurgent Record - now the Philippine Revolutionary papers) document involving General Francisco Makabulos who was also citing his military headquarters to be that of Bamban, Tarlac.� This was the height of the Aguinaldo-Luna feud, especially with the Autonomous or Independence Controversy that shattered the Aguinaldo Government in May of 1899 and that brought about the resignation of the cabinet of Apolinario Mabini, a pro-Independence stalwart. Interestingly, those who sided with Mabini included Generals Luna, Concepcion, and Makabulos who never entertained the thought of Autonomia as being offered by the Americans, unlike other government officials loyal to Aguinaldo. |
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Subsequently, the infamous incident of June 5, the assassination of General Luna, took place. On that very same day and time while Luna was being 'murdered' in Cabanatuan, President Aguinaldo made a surprise telegram to General Concepcion , then in Angeles, informing him that "he has taken charge of the operations in Central Luzon" with Bamban as its temporary General Captaincy and General Headquarters and that he would be arriving in the town around 4:00 p.m. advising the general further to confer with him regarding the conditions of the Brigade and other matters. Basing from the diary of Concepcion, however, Aguinaldo and party arrived in Bamban around 7:00 p.m., via a special train, and there were instant loyalty check among the officers and their respective command in the Headquarters that same night. It was only the next day that Gen. Concepcion learned about the death of Gen. Luna and Col. Francisco Roman. Also, it was only this time that the official proclamation of Pres. Aguinaldo taking over military operations, aside from his usual executive functions, was released.� These entries from General Concepcion, who smelled already something fishy since the night before, could be vouched with the observations of General Alejandrino around this time. |
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With Bamban as his base, President Aguinaldo spent the succeeding week in cleansing the Philippine revolutionary army of traces of Luna partisanship, bringing about the arrest and the liquidation of some the latter's loyal officers. It was here also where the President made his grandiose plans of retaking the town of San Fernando, Pampanga from the Americans, which materialized on June 16. It is logical that it was also in Bamban, during these critical moments, where President Aguinaldo performed also his executive functions, with the evacuation of his Cabanatuan capital, especially with the unstoppable advancement of the Americans in the area.�� |
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Corroborating existing data, it was almost three weeks later, with the assurance that the military was already cleansed of its 'fissures' or with his failure in his major military offensive of retaking San Fernando from the yankees who were then already throttling nearer the Tarlac border, that Aguinaldo could have only left Bamban for Tarlac town, where he performed his executive-military functions until the plunge of the Republic on November 10, 1899. Nevertheless, even then, as could be gleaned from some PIR documents and the said memoirs of General Concepcion, who still held the position as General in-charge of the Paruao River, the town of Bamban never ceased to be an important military bastion of the Aguinaldo government. Reports provided by Generals Makabulos, Servillano Aquino, Concepcion, and Luciano San Miguel, in spite of their constant bickering, consisted of the preparations they were making in defense of the Republic and the suitability of the Bamban topography for the purpose. |
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When the Americans came and took the Tarlac Republic in November of 1899,�� there was not much gunfire to stop them except for some brief exchanges in the fastness of Southern Tarlac, Bamban included. And thereafter, the lull that descended was more than enough to let people forget the momentous role of Bamban at one time in our history. And with the amended ordinance, perhaps the lull will remain forever. |
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Center for Tarlaqueno Studies |
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