DAET REVOLT OF 1898

By: Atty. Vivencio F. Abaño, Mr. Gregorio Pimentel Jarencio (Descendants of the Martyr Jose
Abaño), Mr. Igmedio L. Zaldua (Descendants of the Martyr Tomas Zaldua)

CHAPTER I

Camarines Norte has the enviable distinction of being the first province in the Bicol Region
to organize a Katipunan and to give direct assistance to the Philippine revolutionary movement.

Prior to the outbreak of the revolution in 1896, there existed in Camarines Norte certain
cooperatives. Agricultural producers supplied these cooperatives with abaca, copra and other
products, which were then sold by the cooperatives without passing through middlemen. Parts of
the profits of the cooperatives were secretly remitted to the revolutionary movement of Andres
Bonifacio.

The cooperative also served as effective through covert means of spreading the ideals of the
revolution. Their members could move around freely without arousing the suspicion of the Spanish
authorities. While outwardly buying the produce of the farmers in the different barrios and towns
of Camarines Norte, they were also able to inform those who were receptive about the activities
of the then Manila-based revolutionary movement. In this manner, many Filipinos in the province
became aware and sympathetic to the cause of the Katipunan. These included not only the
intellectuals and educated class, but also the farmers and laborers.

The formation of the cooperatives was promoted by the La Cooperativa Popular, founded
sometime in 1894 by Don Vicente Lukban y Rilles, a former Justice of the Peace of Labo,
Camarines Norte. Lukban was arrested in that town in 1860 but both his parents were from Tayabas
(now Quezon Province).

Lukban was arrested by the Spanish authorities in 1896 because of his political activities
and was incarcerated in Manila until August 1897. Upon his release, he immediately joined
General Emilio Aguinaldo and was commissioned to serve as one of his staff in the armed forces
of the revolutionary government.

On orders of Aguinaldo, Lukban extended the insurrection to the Bicol Region. In November
1897, he carried out secret communications with Don Ildefonso Moreno (Moreno Street in Daet
was named after him), a prominent resident of Daet. The communications were coursed through
certain Filipino officers of the merchant ship Taal who were partisans of the revolution. Lukban
entrusted to Moreno the organization of a Katipunan unit in Camarines Norte, and advised him to
await arms and further instructions from Aguinlado’s headquarters in Biak na Bato.

Moreno started the organization of the Katipunan that very same month of November 1897.
he did not encounter any difficulty since many Filipinos in the province were already sympathetic
to the cause of the Revolution. Membership swelled rapidly due in great part to the groundworks
prepared years earlier by the cooperatives. The Katipunan in the Camarines Norte attracted many
followers and sympathizers, including not only prominent Filipinos of Daet and the other towns
of Labo, Talisay and Calasgasan (Calasgasan was a municipality at the time, and became a barrio
of Daet during the American rule), but also the principalia (Important residents/ members of the
community) and employees of the court. Even the fifteen native soldiers of the local detachment
of the Guardia Civil became partisans of the Katipunan and were receiving secret instructions from
Moreno.

Moreno was the head of the Katipunan in Camarines Norte. His leader or lieutenants in the
organization were Telesforo Zaldua, teniente mayor (Chief lieutenant second to the capitan
municipal or gobernadorcillio in the government of the town), Jose Abano, capitan municipal (The
gobernadorcillio, or the head of a town similar in some ways to the present day mayor) of Daet,
Domingo Lozada, former capitan municipal, Gavino Saavedra, and others.

CHAPTER II: THE MONTH OF MARCH 1898

Unrest began to be felt in the Bicol region.

Rumors circulated in Daet about a disturbance that would take place on the feastday of the
Anunciation when members of the Spanish community, including the parish priest of Daet, Fray
Juan Perdiguero (The friars in the Bicol region were from the Franciscan Order) would be killed.
Nothing happened on that feastday, nor on the following day when it was said that the rumored
plot would definitely take place.

Yet, the rumors persisted. The Spanish civil and military authorities decided to investigate.
The head of the local Guardia Civil, Lieutenant Maximiano Correa, called those who were
suspected or accused of being members of the Katipunan. They denied the existence of the
Katipunan in Daet or in any part of Camarines Norte. Lt. Correa was satisfied and let them go.

However, the Spanish community of Daet continued to suspect that some plot against them
was afoot. They took the precaution of preparing the house of Florencio Arana, a Spanish merchant
of long residence in Daet, as their refuge and defense in case of any disturbance or uprising
(Evidence indicates that the house of Arana was near northwestern corner of the present Vicente
Basit Street and Justo Lukban Street, a short distance from the old Spanish bridge then named San
Narciso Bridge).

CHAPTER III: THE 13TH DAY OF APRIL 1898

The Pact of Biak na Bato was signed by General Emilio Aguinaldo and the Spanish
government. Aguinaldo left for exile in Hongkong. One of the members of his entourage was
Vicente Lukban.

Moreno felt that the Katipunan movement in Camarines Norte had to rely on his judgment
and on their available resources in the absence of Lukban. With this in mind, he continued to make
preparations to strikes against the Spanish authorities in the province.

In April 1898, Moreno issued a call from the barrio of Barra (became the municipality of
Mercedes in 1948) to the members of the Katipunan gathered them in the Barrio of Mampili.

Since the Katipuneros were without firearms, except for the fifteen native members of the
Civil Guards, Moreno’s plan was to take the Spaniards surprise.

Unfortunately, in the late afternoon of April 13, the scouts he had sent ahead to Daet
committed the mistake of appearing and displaying their bolos and red pennants at Daet market
(The market at that time was near the church and the present site of CANORECO Office).
Someone shouted “Insurrectus”, causing the people in the market to panic and run.

The Spaniards learned of what happened. That very same evening, they gathered their
families and transferred to the house of Arana. They took refuge there and prepared to defend
themselves. To deprive any attackers of cover, they took the precaution of demolishing the nearby
Chinese houses and stores.

That same evening, two Filipinos were apprehended by the Spaniards on suspicion of being
Katipuneros, and were put in jail.

Meantime, the Katipuneros who were already outskirts of Daet decided to go to barrio of
Barra. Before doing so, they cut the telegraph lines to Nueva Caceres so that the Spaniards could
not ask for help or succor from there. Most of the Filipino inhabitants of Daet also left in fear of
an anticipated battle between the Spaniards and the Katipuneros.

CHAPTER IV: EVENTS OF THE 14TH DAY OF APRIL

Lt. Correa called for the capitan municipal of Daet, Jose Abaño, and asked him about the
events of the previous night. Abaño pretended not to have any knowledge of what happened, and
denied the reported sighting of the Katipuneros.

Upon insistence of the Spaniards, Lt. Correa left the house of Arana with eight civil guards
and a Spaniards named Domingo Chacarratequi to go to Barra. On their way, they encountered the
Katipuneros who attacked them. The party of Lt. Correa withdrew and, while retreating towards
the direction of Daet, fired at the Katipuneros pursuing them. The native civil guards, however,
were aiming above the heads of the Katipuneros. This was observed by Lt. Correa and other
Spaniards about the native civil guards.

When they were running short of ammunition, Lt. Correa ordered one of the civil guards to
run ahead and get more ammunition from Daet. The corporal of Civil Guards who had remained
in Daet was a native. He refused to give the ammunitions in the absence of a written order from
Lt. Correa. It was Arana who grabbed the ammunitions from the corporal and brought them to Lt.
Correa. The actuation of the corporal heightened the suspicion of Lt. Correa and other Spaniards
about the native civil guards.

It was already nine o’clock in the morning when the party of Lt. Correa managed to get back
to Daet and safety of the house of Arana.
 The Spaniards moved in food supplies and medicine, in anticipation of a prolonged siege by
the Katipuneros. They also succeeded in repairing the destroyed telegraph lines, and were able to
send messages to Nueva Caceres about what was happening in Daet.

That same day, the friars from the neighboring towns of Daet arrived at the house of Arana.
The last to arrive in the afternoon were Fray Anotionio Mirablanca, the parish priest of Basud, and
his brother Siro Mirablanca.

The house of Arana had then been converted into a fortress. Defending it were twelve
Spanish military men, the functionaries of Daet, and some businessmen and employees. There
were also the fifteen native civil guards who were in secret league with Moreno. All in all, the
defenders consisted of about fifty persons armed with rifles.

CHAPTER V: EVENTS OF THE 15TH DAY OF APRIL

The Spaniards arrested Mariano Zaldua, whose brother Telesforo Zaldua was the leader of
the Katipuneros in Barra. He was ordered tied and placed under guard together with two other
Filipino imprisoned earlier in the evening of April 13.

That same day, the Judge of the Court of First Instance accompanied by two other Spaniards
and two civil guards went to the house of the Zaldua’s. They interrogated Tomas Zaldua, a former
capitan municipal of Daet and the father of Telesforo and Marianito Zaldua. They ransacked the
house to find evidence about the Katipunan. Not finding any, they took with them two trunks of
documents and belongings for further scrutiny.

Nothing else happened that day until about 4:00 in the afternoon when the Katipuneros
launched their attack against the Spaniards who had taken refuge in the house of Arana. The
Spaniards were ready and greeted the rushing rebels with a volley of fire. Three of the attackers
coming from the old Spanish bridge were hit in the first discharge.

The Katipuneros then tried to flush out the Spaniards by setting fire to the house of Arana.
But the Spaniards had made ready a hundred wet sacks and used them to extinguish the blaze.
 In uncontrolled rage, Lt. Correa shot all the bound Filipinos who had been arrested earlier
by the Spaniards. Some of the friars, particularly the parish priest of Daet, Fray Pediguero, tried
but failed to stop him. Among the prisoners killed was Mariano Zaldua.

The fighting lasted for six hours until 10:00 in the evening.

Later, since the Katipuneros did not possess a single piece of firearm, they confirmed their
activities to besieging the town of Daet. The Spaniards on the other hand, satisfied themselves with
sporadic sniping from vantage points such as the windows and roof of the house of Arana.

The native civil guards inside the house of Arana were unable to carry out the assignment
given to them by Moreno. Since the very beginning of the siege, they were stationed by Lt. Correa
far apart from each other. Moreover, there was at least one armed Spaniard behind each one of
them watchful of their every move.

The Spaniards also resorted to the ruse of telling the native civil guards that they had heard
the siren of a streamboat from Nueva Caceres bringing reinforcement and coming to the rescue.

The Katipuneros and their leaders, Ildefonso Moreno and Telesforo Zaldua, waited in vain
that day for the native civil guards to revolt from within the house of Arana and turn their guns on
the Spaniards.

CHAPTER VI: EVENTS OF THE 16TH DAY OF APRIL

The morning of April 16 found Daet under the control of the Katipuneros. They completely
surrounded the house of Arana where the Spaniards had taken refuge.

The Katipuneros occupied the building of the Court of First Instance near the southern end
of the old Spanish bridge. From there, they challenged the Spaniards holed inside the house of
Arana. The Katipuneros also freed the prisoners of the public jail and imprisoned the warden. He
was later rescued by the Spaniards at the end of the siege.
 A new plan of attack was adopted to be carried out that evening. The Katipuneros would
launch another attack, at which point the native civil guards inside the house of Arana would fire
at the Spaniards, seize their arms and take over the place.

The agreed signal for the start of the attack was the firing of cannon, which the Katipuneros
had seized from the convent in Daet. If the civil guards did not answer in any way, the cannon
would be fired a second time.

Moreno was inside the house of Arana for the purpose of leading the native civil guards in
the intended plan. He had gone there pretending to be loyal to the Spaniards.

But the plan was discovered by the Spaniards. A noted intended to Moreno was tied to a
stone which was thrown by the Katipuneros into the house of Arana. Unfortunately, the note which
read “Why don’t you these Spaniards?” was found by Arana who accosted and accused the
Spaniards, tied and placed under guard so that he would not be able to give any warning to the
native civil guards. The Spaniards then prepared for the attack.

Lt. Correa ordered the native civil guards to rest until 12:00 that evening. Then he gathered
their arms and handed them over to the Spaniards. Half of the civil guards were thus disarmed.

At about 7:30 in the evening, the first signal of the attack came. The Katipuneros fired the
first cannon shot which hit the roof of the house of Arana. They also rang the church bells. The
Spaniards fired back.

At that instance, the Spaniards grappled with the native civil guards. Outnumbered, the latter
were easily overcome. Seven of them were tied and the others were killed. One of the guards was
able to escape with a gun by jumping out of the window and hiding among the shrubs. He later
related to the Katipuneros what had happened inside the house of Arana.

Meanwhile, Lt. Correa had climbed up the flat roof of the Arana’s house where Moreno was
tied. Upon hearing the signal of the cannon shot, Lt. Correa seized his revolver and fired twice at
Moreno. Shortly after, he shot Gabino (Possibly he was Gabino Saavedra) another leader of the
Katipuneros and a former Capitan municipal who had joined Moreno inside the house of Arana as
part of the plot.
 Not contended, Lt. Correa looked for the civil guards. Seeing one, he shot and killed him.

That evening, the floor of the Arana house was spattered with the blood of martyrs Moreno,
Gabino and several of the native civil guards.

At dawn of the next day, their corpses were carried down to the yard where they were burned
and buried in a common grave. An eyewitness wrote: “Those killed first were brought down to the
fire but they were not consumed. It was very painful to see the dogs entertained in the remains.
Even the besieged eat human flesh during these days. To avoid further complications, it was
determined to burn all the corpses in a hole dug out for the purpose…The remains not consumed
by the fire were emitting bad odor and to remedy that, we collected everything left over and burned
it with the newly dead”( Translated from the original Spanish)

CHAPTER VII: EVENTS OF THE 17TH DAY OF APRIL

The steamboat Serrantes arrived at Barra from Nueva Caceres with reinforcement consisting
of a force of 25 civil guards led by a Captain Abreau and Spanish.

The Katipuneros tried to repulse the new arrivals. They placed their cannons at the road and
fired at the Spanish troops. Their efforts, however were fertile as Captain Abreau and his force
managed to reach Daet at about 2:30 in the afternoon and to rescue the beleaguered Spaniards in
the house of Arana.

Additional reinforcement of 150 troops arrived, under the command of Sgt. Pegerto Lopez
and a certain Sgt. Narciso. They had encountered and fought earlier that day some Katipuneros in
the municipality of Talisay, where they killed the town’s capitan municipal and a certain man
named Luzon.

Thus reinforced, the Spaniards took the offensive in Daet. They drove the Katipuneros from
the houses and trenches they still occupied and hunted them down, killing more than thirty that
afternoon.
 That same afternoon of April 17, Capt.Abreu decided that all those who had revolted and
joined the uprising be executed. He made known his decision only to Lt. Correa and some
Spaniards.

In the evening, the first executions were carried out under cover of darkness. Lt. Correa
called the corporals who had come with Capt. Abreu from Nueva Caceres and Siro Mirablanca
and ordered them to take charge of the beheading. Mirablanca refused to take part in the execution.
Sgt. Narciso took his place and, together with the two corporals, beheaded the remaining civil
guards of Daet on the flat roof of the house of Arana.

The corpses were then thrown from the roof into the street where they were buried the
following day.

CHAPTER VIII: SUBSEQUENT EVENTS OF APRIL

The Spaniards regained control on Daet on April 18. A Holy Mass was celebrated by Fray
Antonio Mirablanca which was attended only by the Spaniards. The Filipino inhabitants of Daet
were not present.

In the afternoon of that day, the Spanish authorities issued a decree ordering the residents to
come down from their houses and those who had fled to return to Daet. They were told that they
had nothing to fear and that no reprisal or punishment would be inflicted on them.

However, the Spaniards arrested the leaders and members of the Katipunan and even those
who were merely suspected by them. Many were executed.

Among those put to death during the first week following the collapse of the revolt were
Capitan municipal Jose Abaño and former capitanes municipal Tomas Zaldua and Domingo
Lozada. Abaño and Zaldua were tortured; the former was afterwards thrown into a well while his
still alive. Aniceto Gregorio, together with six other Filipinos, was reported to have seen burned
alive in the plaza. Others were bayoneted to death
CHAPTER IX: EVENTS OF THE FOLLOWING MONTHS

On the first day of May, the streamboat Montanes arrived at the port of Barra with 50
members of the recently organized Rural Guides on board. They were sent by the Spanish Captain
General and commanded by First Lt. Alfredo Darnell.

Upon their being stationed in Daet, the Spanish military authorities formed a Tribunal de
Cuchillo (Committee of Executioners). This tribunals or committee took charge of passing
sentence without trial of the suspected Katipuneros and their sympathizers.

Daily arrests were made. Most were incarcerated in the local jail, and the rest were put in
the ground floor of the house of Arana. There they awaited the sentence of death pronounced by
the Committee. The executions were carried out by the soldiers of the Rural Guides, who shot,
beheaded or bayoneted the victims.

Other prominent townsmen who were put to death were Rosalio Pajarillo and Jacinto Rada,
officials of the Court of First Instance of Daet; Isidoro Avila, a school teacher; Andres Dames and
Andres Obana, clerks of the Court of First Instance; valentine Lipana, vaccinator; Domingo
Lozada, former capitan municipal of Daet; Agaton Orias, proprietor; Leoncio Carranceja, Angel
Zaleta, Eleuterio Zaleta and Pedro (Perico) Amorsolo, students; Sixto Santa Catalina, Justice of
the Peace of Calasgasan; Joaquin Moreno, cousin of Ildefonso Moreno;Gregorio del Valle and
Florente Bacerdo.

Andres Dames, Andres Obana and Vicente Salvaria were killed on the road to Basud. They
had been ordered to go with a patrol of Rural Guides. Once inside the town of Daet, they were told
to dismount from heir horses and were then shot in the back.

The Rural Guides continued to hunt down the remnants of the Katipunan. Suspected
Katipuneros were arrested and killed in nearby towns. In the latter part of June, the Rural Guides
made an expedition to the Islands of Canimog and Caringo, where some of the Katipuneros had
hidden. There they found and killed some of them.

Other Filipinos who suffered arrest, torture or death were Eugenio Boac, Santiago Ellaga,
Esteban Imperial, Armando Millares, Leoncio Montes, Roman Pajarillo, Florente Samante, Felix
Vana, Eleuterio Zaleta, Arcadio Varga, Leoncio Avila, Valentin Cabanela, Severo Bernabe,
Gregorio Luyon, Ceferino Millares, Leopoldo Nadal, Vicente Perez y Gonzales, Claro Pimentel,
Ananias Salveria and Diego Liñan.

By the end of August 1898, the Tribunal de Cuchillo ordered the arrest of the last batch of
victims. These were Florentino Yaneza, Valeriano Calleja, Teodoro Banan and Severo Banan.
They were kept imprisoned until the following month.

Earlier in August, General Vicente Lukban had overrun the Spanish force in the Southern
Tagalog and upon order of General Aguinaldo, proceeded to the Bicol Region. The Spaniard in
Camarines Norte informed of the advancing forces of General Lukban, through of making a stand
against him. Later, however, they decided to abandon the province. The first groups of evacuees
were the friars and some of the Spanish functionaries.

On September 8, the forces of General Lukban landed at Mmbulao (Mambulao is now the
town of Jose Panganiban in honor of the propagandist) and Paracale. That same day, the Spaniards
boarded the Norwegian streamboat Vigdo at the port of Barra and left for Hongkong. The next
day, a second group of Spaniards took passage on the streamboat Montanes for Nueva Caceres.

On September 12, upon learning that the advance units of General Lukban’s army had
reached the outskirts of barrio Matango of the town of Indan (Indan was later named as Vinzons
in honor of hero Wenceslao Q. Vinzons) and moving towards Daet, the remaining Spanish
functionaries and Rural Guides fled to Barra where the Serrantes had just docked that morning.
They brought with them the last four Filipino prisoners condemned by the Tribunal de Cuchillo.
Before sailing for Iloilo, they bayoneted them to death.

Valeriano Cuaño, a former Capitan municipal, took charge of the government of Daet. When
General Lukban arrived in Daet that same month of September, Cuaño turned over the reins of
government to him.

General Lukban proceeded to Nueva Caceres with his army, leaving a garrison in Daet under
the command of Captain Antonio Sanz. It was during the command of Sanz that the first monument
in honor of the national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, was erected in Daet and unveiled on December 30,
1898.
CHAPTER IX: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DAET REVOLT

In all outward appearance, the Daet Revolt ended in total defeat for the Filipinos and victory
for the Spaniards.

Nonetheless, that uprising was the first burst of flames of the revolutionary ferment
sweeping the Bicol region. The events of the fateful month of April 1898 signaled the beginning
of the end of Spanish colonial authority in the region. Perhaps nothing could have expressed that
message more forcefully than the image of Barra and in the distant horizon the fleeing Spaniards
on the board the streamboat Serrantes.

SOURCES:

Interviews

Dolores A. Caminar
Antonio Abaño
Igmedio L. Zaldua
Other known descendants of the Camarines Norte Martyrs
Descendants of General Vicente Lukban
Document from:

National Archives
Abaño Family records
Lukban family records
Books and Manuscripts

Juan Elias Ataviado, The Philippine Revolution in the Bicol Region, August 1896-January 1899
(Manila 1953)
Fray Marcos Gomez, O. F. M., La Revolucion Filipina de 1898 en Ambos Camarines, translated
by Fray Apolinar Pastrana (Manila, Regal Printing Co. 1980)
Rey Imperial, Revolutionary Career of Vicente Lukban, A Doctoral Thesis (UP Department of
History)
Danilo M. Gerona, From Epic to History: A Brief Introduction to Bicol History (Naga City, AMS
Press, 1988)
Juan Carrasco, Sisenado Cabuso and Hilariona Zantua, Mga Bayani Ning Camarines Norte
(Manuscript, circa 1952)