LUKBAN
had no defined rules. In the subsequent struggle against US occupying forces, they had to devise their own tactics in the environment that they operated in, guided by common sense, gut feel and imagination.
And so we find in Samar an abundance of indigenous poisoned traps laid along the way of the unwary white American troopers, traps that the natives used to hunt wild boar and deer, causing anxiety and fear to the invaders. Such devices caused instant deaths or fatal injuries to the victims, so that patrols had to be slowed down, and the forests where the guerrillas took sanctuary became impenetrable fortresses. These were but few devices among many others.
The more difficult task of Lukban, however, was winning over the largely unschooled and illiterate population to his side. Convincing them to join the revolutionary enterprise was a task often left to his local leaders and lieutenants. The many examples of mass uprisings involving entire pueblos, such as those of Catubig and Balangiga, show they had remarkable successes in their task. From planning to their execution, such uprisings doubtless involved the local population where even children played critical roles. These could have been the offshoots of many discussions, meetings and debates, before the resolve to fight became final and executory. In a sense, the pueblo populations along the coasts as well those in the interior served as Lukban’ s support base and sources of vital information on the troop movements of their enemies. Many of them also became members of the guerrilla forces, complementing his officers that originated from the educated classes, the so-called local principalia of the previous Spanish colonial days. Many of them were products of the Cartilla system of education and could understand, read and write in Spanish, inasmuch as they could also communicate in the local language. Some even went through the colegio. They served as important links to Lukban, who could only communicate in Spanish and his native Tagalog, and whose circulars were in Spanish.
The principalia were also most vulnerable to pressures from the Americans. Eventually a good number of them capitulated to the American cause, and with them the unlettered masses, slowly eroding support for Lukban. In fact, one of the early setbacks of Lukban involved his relations with the Catholic hierarchy in Samar which, during the early stage of the war, had soured due to his being a Mason, an avowed enemy of the Catholic Church then. Members of the clergy left their parishes because Lukban had accordingly wanted to assert his authority over them. He had uses for the stone churches other than worship. Months later, one of the members of the clergy issued a statement urging him to surrender to the Americans. It was quite known that the clergy had a lot of influence on the predominantly catholic population, resulting in the
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