CANDIDO TRIA TIRONA (1862-1896)
GENERAL Candido Tria Tirona, compadre of General Emilio Aguinaldo, was the first revolutionary capitan general in the Philippines. He got the job by popular acclamation immediately after the capture of the tribunal (municipal building) of Cavite el Viejo (now known Kawit) in the afternoon of August 31, 1896. He succeeded Aguinaldo, the incumbent capitan municipal, who made himself teniente abanderado or flag lieutenant of the victorious army of voluntarios, the nucleus of the Filipino Revolutionary Army.
It was Aguinaldo and Councilors Tirona and Santiago Daño who made the result on the Kawit tribunal, overpowering the three civil guards on detail in a hand-to-hand combat. Aguinaldo saw to it that no life was lost in the encounter. Aguinaldo then and there proclaimed the end of Spanish regime in the Philippines and the beginning of the Government of the Tagalogs.”
The Tirona’s and the Aguinaldo’s, the principal families in Kawit, were the traditional political rivals for leadership of the municipality. Candido Tria Tirona was the head of the Tirona clan. But Aguinaldo, upon his assumption of office as capitan municipal on January 1, 1895, initiated the move to reconcile the two warring families, thus affecting the unity of the people so necessary for the peace and progress of Kawit. In the Magdalo Council or Government established in Imus, Cavite, Tirona was designated secretary of war, while Aguinaldo, more-militarily oriented, held the post of Tiniente General Abanderado (Flag Lieutenant General), the highest army commander. Historian claimed that Tirona was the “Hero of Binakayan” probably because he died towards the end of the famous “Battle of Binakayan,” November 9-11, 1896, in Ramon Blanco was decisively defeated. But aside from Tirona six other generals took part in this battle; namely, Emilio Aguinaldo, the general-in-chief, Pio del Pilar, Vito Belarmino, Crispulo Aguinaldo, Baldomero Aguinaldo, and Pantaleon Garcia.
Born on August 29, 1863 (he was six years older than Aguinaldo), Candido Tria Tirona was the son of a wealthy couple, Estanislao Tria Tirona, and Juana Mata, both natives of Kawit. Candido was studying at Manila when his father died, causing him to abandon his studies and attend to the extensive family properties, including rice lands, fishponds, salt beds, and oyster farms.
One unresolved fact is that a certain Estanislao Tria Tirona appears as one of the signers of the Declaration of Philippine Independence in Kawit on June 12, 1898. Was he Candido’s father or half-brother? According to available information Candido had no brother or sister, only three half-brothers and one half-sister, Macaria Olaes Aguinaldo, his father’s children by his second wife.
Candido was married to Macaria Majaba Germino on April 27, 1885. The couples were the first to open a sari-sari (variety) store in Kawit. Candido’s wife opened the family warehouse and gave away rice and other foodstuffs to families of poor voluntaries who joined the first assault on Imus by the revolutionists. Aguinaldo’s own mother, Kapitana Teneng (Trinidad Famy), followed suit, opening the family camarin and distributed foodstuffs to the poor people.
The doughty revolutionary general was resting at the foot of a tamarind tree in Binakayan, in the concluding phase of the hectic battle on November 10, when a Spanish straggler sneaked from behind and struck him on the forehead with a bayonet. Tirona died instantly. Grieving over the loss of his compadre, Aguinaldo said, “Tirona belonged to that breed of men who leave indelible marks in history.”
[Sources: (1) Sol H. Gwekoh, “Hero of Binakayan,” Hall of Fame, Manila Times, August 27, 1965; (2) Eminent Filipinos. Manila, National Historical Commission, 1965; and (3) Emilio Aguinaldo, Mga Gunita Ng Himagsikan. Copyright by Mrs. Cristina Aguinaldo Suntay. Manila, 1964.]