LUKBAN
deceive the province. It came to a point that three residents of Tiabong arrived at his present sanctuary in Buan, intending to poison him, decapitate him when he was dead and present his head to the Americans who had offered 5,000 pesos for it.
He had the author of the poisoning arrested, but instead of punishing him, he taught him a lesson about how a good Filipino citizen should act,“ the manner of conspiring, attacking and repulsing the enemy, until he became a good pupil.” After the confrontation, the man, who was called Felipe Zuñiga, became one of his active assistants working in their favour. Pleased with the results of his lessons, Lukban presented him with a revolver so that he could assume command of his own town. 18
He also learned that the Americans had started to build up a‘ benevolent’ image in an effort to counter that of his own, saying that they were better than the‘ Tagalo’ because they charged only one peseta contribution. The‘ Americanistas’- or the allies of the Americans in the pueblos of Samar – pinpointed the place where Lukban had hidden the money and his arsenal. Now the Americans were said to be distributing the funds to the inhabitants after finding them. One of the largest beneficiaries of the fund was Vicente Jazmines, the appointee of the Americans as the chief of Catbalogan. He was given 5,000 pesos.
But the‘ benevolent’ image that the Americans were trying to build were easily offset by the actions of many of the soldiers while in their sorties in the hamlets and villages of Samar. Reports of“ abuses against women. sacking houses and taking possession of all the wealth and perpetrating other abuses which no history of warfare records, the married women who excite their evil passions are killed by the soldiers’ bayonets if their demands are not met” were recorded by Lukban and dutifully reported. 19
In his solitary moments at Buan, Lukban realized that since this was the first time the people had experienced war, fear and demoralization were just the natural results of being invaded by a stronger force with superior armaments.“ But as I have always believed that after fear comes reflection, and that reflection is followed by reaction, during the period of reflection of the people,” he said. It was during this period that he started to issue proclamations that he disseminated to his troops and the inhabitants of the pueblos where they were. In his first proclamation, he suspended all citizenship contributions and all imports“ to secure something to again raise the moral and material force which had been totally lost.”
Guerrilla memos
From his mountain hideout, he taught the inhabitants how to fight
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