The governing elites of Negros Island, mostly hacienderos from both the provinces of Negros Oriental and especially Negros Occidental, were keen in befriending the American colonizers to protect their economic interests.
The revolutionaries from both provinces who fought against Spain during the Philippine Revolution opted to surrender and cooperate with the American forces on 4 March 1899.
Don Demetrio Larena became the first civil governor to rule over Negros Oriental during the American occupation. He’s known in local history as an instrumental figure in convincing Dr. David Hibbard to establish Silliman University in the town of Dumaguete. Thus, Silliman Institute was founded on 28 August 1901.
Unfortunately, a few months after its founding, tragedy struck in the Larena family. On 11 December 1901, Demetrio’s son Obdulio, an officer of the pioneering batch at the Philippine Constabulary was “brutally murdered” in the hinterlands of Zamboanguita.
As the report from the Manila-based newspaper El Progreso described: “The young man was a fourth-class inspector of the constabulary, and had gone to Zamboanguita under orders of his superior to pursue some criminals. It appears that while he was sitting on the steps of a house belonging to peaceful neighbors, he was cowardly attacked from behind.”
Nevertheless, Inspector Larena “despite having one arm incapacitated” tried to stand up and fight back by grabbing his revolver. Sadly, it was a little too late as he was surrounded by a number of assassins.
The report specified: “When his body was recovered, it bore 28 wounds from bladed weapons, which illustrates the terrible and unequal struggle the victim had to endure.”
Inspector Larena was only 22 years old at the time of his death. An investigation ensued after the murder but it took more than a year to finally arrest the suspects. By early January 1903, the Philippine Constabulary discovered the whereabouts of the perpetrators in the murder of Inspector Larena, two of whom tried to resist arrest, with one getting killed in the process; the other survived and was arrested.
To this day, the motive behind the crime remains unknown. But cases of banditry during this time in Negros was quite ubiquitous. Suffice to say, it must be emphasized that Inspector Larena was the first member of the PC (founded on 18 August 1901) to be killed in action.
In February 1909, Inspector Larena was honored by the PC by naming one of their stations in Lambunao, Iloilo as Camp Larena.
On another note, we all know about the Thomasite teachers who came to the Philippines on board the US Army Transport Thomas (hence their name, Thomasites) to help improve public education, build schools, improve school curriculum, among other goals.
Some of these Thomasites, however, became victims of banditry. In fact, four Thomasite teachers were killed in Cebu. Another one, D.C. Montgomery from Nebraska, who was assigned as superintendent of Public Schools in Negros Oriental, was murdered on his way to Bacolod on Oct. 31, 1902.
As the El Progreso reported on Nov. 4, 1902: “On Oct. 31st, Mr. Montgomery set out on horseback from Talisay to Bacolod, intending to discuss with the teacher of that town, Mrs. Beattie, the details of the assignment’s delivery. As night began to fall, far from the town of Bacolod, he was suddenly ambushed by six native men armed with bolos and spears. They violently subdued him, knocking him off his horse, and without giving him a chance to defend himself, mercilessly hacked him to death with their machetes.
“The attackers then robbed the lifeless body of a significant sum of money that the unfortunate professor was carrying. They then fled into the mountains abandoning the brutally-mutilated corpse at the spot where he had fallen. The body was later transported to Bacolod by two local men who discovered it. There, it was temporarily buried until it could be sent to the United States. A detachment of police has been dispatched in pursuit of the criminals, with orders to bring them to Bacolod – dead or alive. Major Allen has authorized a reward of P500.00, while local authorities have raised the bounty to P1,000.00 for whoever captures the bandits.”
My search in other newspapers revealed reports that the authorities were able to apprehend the suspects: Venancio Caligdong as prime suspect, Juan Mariveles, and Luis Maduncio. During the trial before the First Instance Court of Iloilo, it was ruled that the crime was motivated by robbery. The case report stated: “Judge Yusay sentenced Caligdong to death by hanging, and acquitted the other two defendants. However, Mariveles was ordered to pay one-third of the trial costs, and it was decreed that his case be forwarded to the Supreme Court for reviews.” (El Progreso, 15 April 1903)
By April 23, 1903, Caligdong and 34 other criminals sentenced by the court in Iloilo were shipped to Manila. Among those with Caligdong were Gen. Dalmacio Lagunson, right-hand man of Papa Isio, a known cult leader in Occidental Negros, for treason; Pedro Gip, Pedro Mijares, and Laureano Mijares for arson.
In hindsight, even if the governing elites of Negros Island pledged allegiance to the US, the two provinces were not totally free from violence.
Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo and the other revolutionaries in Luzon and other parts of the archipelago continued the revolution, and fought against the new colonizers, the Americans. In Negros, we had acceded to American rule.
Nevertheless, not everyone in the island genuflected before the new colonial rulers. There were some who escaped to the hinterlands, and resorted to banditry. Not all were bandits, however, like Papa Isio who genuinely fought for anti-colonial ideals, i.e., for the complete elimination of foreigners from the island of Negros.
But in the eyes of the Americans and pro-US Negrenses, Papa Isio’s group, even with his consistent anti-colonial proclivities, continued to be associated with banditry.
More on Papa Isio in my next column.
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Author’s email: JJAbulado@norsu.edu.ph
