LUKBAN
sight of American troops in the area. They also wanted to erase the bad propaganda Lukban had circulated about them in the area.
From Catubig, Gilmore returned to Catarman. Little progress was made in saving the boat Malabon. Then he was off to Calbayog where he ordered Lt. Jones with some 20 men on a patrol to Gandara. From there Jones was to proceed to Mateginan with 10 men, to remain there for five days, then to Taiveran for another five days, and finally to return to Gandara. A number of rebels were said to be around Gandara, and a Chinese was reportedly killed. Chinese often traded in hemp and other commodities while acting as agents for Warner, Barnes & Co. Since the trading firm was known to be actively supporting the Americans, its agents’ lives were in danger. 3
Encounter at Matuginao
It was in Matuginao that the rebels finally decided to stop playing hide-and-seek with the American forces, and be more aggressive. It was time to attack the isolated troops of the enemy. After about a month of constant movement to evade his enemies, Lukban had slowly regrouped his forces which had, in the meantime, taken the initiative to wage their own little ambushes to inflict demoralization on the ranks of their enemies.
In his report, Lukban said he had succeeded in collecting eight rifles from short skirmishes, and these he sent to the field where they were most needed. In Paranas, he had formed his own revolutionary detachment( militia), assisted by the sandatahan( regular troops). In the meantime, the Americans had formed 14 detachments in different municipalities, from which patrols were conducted of the surrounding villages. When not fighting, his guerrillas hid their firearms, but when firing broke out in Paranas, they retrieved their arms and were able to gain 30 more rifles. For that feat, Lukban promoted Capt. Guevarra to major and appointed him second in command of the province. He took the place of Benedicto Sabater who had surrendered earlier. 4
He sent some of these arms with Guevarra to attack the detachment of Gandara. The rest of the arms were sent to Borongan in the southern part of the island to the detachment under Capt. Serrano. Lukban at this time was still sick and had to remain at the slope of Mt. Jurao, in a place called Tamay. 5
On the 13 th of March, Capt. Dey reported that Lukban had organized a large force in the mountains near Gumay. But Gilmore waited for more troops before pursuing the rebel force. He did not want to leave Laguan and Catubig without any detachment. So he got more men
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