(1848 - 1928)
Trinidad
Tecson was known as the Mother of
Biak-na-Bato.
She
was born on
She
learned to read and write from a
schoolmaster of the town by the name of Quinto. In her teens, the notorious Tangkad was feared throughout the
province and it was probably for self – protection that she took practicing
native fencing from Juan Zeto, one of the better known local fencers.
She
revealed her remarkable courage early. One night while she and her brothers
were asleep in their home in an isolated farm a young man stealthily went up
the house. Awakened, she seized a bolo and hacked the intruder on the head. He
fled bleeding. Trining’s audacity was much praised.
There
was a time a party of civil guards demanded to search the house of smuggled
tobacco. She told them emphatically that there was no tobacco in the house and refuse to let them in. Their chief, the alferez, was an unwelcomed suitor. She surmised that he might have
sent his man to annoy her. Seeing that they are determined, she took a bolo
which she wielded with dexterity. She, herself was not unscathed but the guards
had to desist.
His
father was consequently made a party to a lawsuit which lasted for three
months. The court decided in favor of the Tecsons. The people dubbed her babaing lalaki, complementing her
fearlessness but beclouding her feminity.
She
married at the age of 19, but her two children Sinforoso and Desiderio died.
When
she joined the woman chapter of the Katipunan
in 1895,
Seeing
that arms and ammunitions were desperately needed by the Katipuneros, she went with three companions to the courthouse in
She
also led a band of five men and captured seven firearms from the jail of
While
securing food for herself and for the other soldiers, she was almost caught by
the Spanish soldiers. She evaded capture by pretending to be hit and throwing
herself on the ground. She crawled on the grass and hid behind some tall bushes
near a brook. She waited until the soldiers went away and made her escape.
In
the battlefield she wore the Katipunero’s outfit wearing a wide brimmed hat.
She fought side by side with the men.
She
nursed the wounded after the assault by the Spanish forces in Biak-na-Bato
following the engagement at Baling Kupang. She took part in the encounter of
Gulod Baboy in view of the lack of fighting men. In the bloody encounter at San
Miguel and at Zaragosa she was wounded at the right thigh. She and the forces
of Makabulos returned to Biak-na-Bato, which became the revolutionary
headquarters after the arrival of Emilio Aguinaldo.
During
the second phase of the Revolution, she joined the forces led by General
Gregorio del Pilar in the assault of Bulacan and
Calumpit under the direction of Isidro Torres. She served the Commisary of War
under the
She
crossed the Zambales highlands to Sta. Cruz, and then to Iba, bringing with her
the sick and wounded. The Filipino forces fought in
Before
the outbreak of the Revolution in 1896, she engaged in the purchase and sale of
cattle, became a dealer of fish (fresh and dried) salt, oyster, lobster which
were sold in
The editorial of La Opinion, dated
She
was credited as the first to start Red Cross recognized her nursing work. She
was cited as the Mother of the Philippine
Red Cross.
On