LUKBAN
Chapter 10
Surrender of Lukban’ s forces
It took several days before the dailies in the US headlined the capture of Samar’ s guerrilla chief Vicente Lukban, and when they finally wrote their stories, they were careful to add color to them. Thus in the New York Times for instance, Lukban was described as“ one of the most energetic and ferocious of rebels. He is a half-breed, a mixture of Chinese and Filipino stock, and has been an irreconcilable from the first …” He lived in the fastness of Samar“ from which he would descend upon the coast towns, and his reign of terror was so complete that the entire population of the island paid tribute to him as the price of freedom from attack.” 1 The other papers wrote with similar bias.
This negative perception of Lukban and the local guerrilla movement reflected the official attitude of the American generals towards the insurgent leader, who gave them a hard time in Samar and dealt them decisive blows in a few local battles that involved entire town populations. The examples of Catubig in April 1900 and Balangiga in September 1901 had put them to disgrace in the eyes of the American public. Hence, the subsequent brutal military operations following Balangiga had become vengeful acts that violated their own rules of war, even as they tried to redeem their tarnished image.
To be sure, many of these officials heaved a sigh of relief. After all, Lukban’ s capture was the most important military event next to Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo’ s seizure the earlier year. 2 But Lukban’ s troops had to be subdued as well to install peace in Samar and pave the way for the total subjugation of the rebellious segments of the population. In this Lukban had to be tapped. But he demurred at first. Eventually, however, he wrote letters from his place of confinement, urging surrender after he saw the futility of further fighting. He realized that his base among the towns had become shaky and unreliable as they were occupied and controlled by American troops.
But Col. Claro Guevarra, Abuke and his other leaders had not given up even after they learned of Lukban’ s capture. In fact, Guevarra immediately assumed the vacant leadership post, became a general, and
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