“But you should remember that in order that our efforts may not be in vain, that our counsels may be heard, and our hopes realized, it is indispensable that we harmonize our acts with the principles of right and justice, by learning to triumph over our enemies and yet to still our evil passions!” – Antonio Luna
The famous Filipino historian, Teodoro Agoncillo, once told about his meeting with the great dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. “Professor, what do you think of Antonio Luna?” Marcos asked. Agoncillo answered: “Luna was a great general who didn’t win any battles!” Marcos ignored the comment and instead boasted, “You see, I’m a descendant of Luna.” Agoncillo wanted to say, “Well, that’s your misfortune!” but he kept his mouth shut for a good reason.
So who is Antonio Luna? And why was Marcos so eagerly wanted to tie his lineage with him? We have Vivencio R. Jose to thank for because he wrote a book entitled The Rise and Fall of Antonio Luna (1972).
Antonio Luna was born on 29 October 1866, the youngest child of Don Joaquin Luna San Pedro y Posadas and Doña Laureana Novicio San Ignacio y Ancheta. The parents’ respectable titles gave us hint that Antonio would have a privileged life. The Lunas were originally from the Ilocos region but moved to Manila in 1862 and established themselves as merchants. They prospered and owned a big stonehouse that was aptly located in Barraca St. in Binondo where commercial and trade activities were staples of economic life in the city. The Lunas belonged to the middle class but in a colonized country that would be the highest economic status Filipinos could ever achieve.
Like his brothers, Antonio received the best education their wealth could afford. Manuel and Juan went to Europe to further their study of music and painting, respectively. When Manuel came back home in the 1870s, he was a noted violinist and conductor. Juan was celebrated as a well-known painter in Europe and in the Philippines. Jose became a physician while Joaquin served as governor for different provinces in Northern Luzon. Antonio, on the other hand, was a pharmacist, a writer and a revolutionary general. Unfortunately, Vivencio Jose didn’t mention if the Luna sisters, Numeriana and Remedios, ever received a higher education, or as accomplished as their brothers.
Antonio Luna was well aware what the colonial evils wrought in his country; plus he’d been reading the writings of Jose Rizal. The influence of Rizal to Antonio, who was five years younger, was immense. He wrote: “We students of fifteen or twenty years old in the Philippines of 1884, were regarded as cowards and hypocrites, as if it were a crime to love one’s country; Rizal was like someone exceptional who from afar, on a pedestal raised by his own effort, was showing us the way to progress. Winds of brotherhood, like the storm blows the leaves, carried us on and on; words from his pen, we read with admiration, we listened with profound attention, assimilating those ideas, weighing the thoughts and we easily became enthusiastic, because in us was an echo which, although weak, answered to his voice!”
But the one event that closely affected him the most occurred in 1885. Antonio’s uncle, Adriano Novicio, led an uprising against the Spaniards in the provinces of Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija. The insurrection was quelled and the fate of Adriano was a mystery. However, because of their blood relationship, Antonio’s father and his brother Jose were incarcerated for two months and later freed with no further restrictions on their movements. Antonio decided to continue his studies in Europe.
In 1886, Antonio set sail across the vast ocean and disembarked in Paris to see his brother Juan. He proceeded to Barcelona and enrolled at the University of Barcelona where he later obtained his Licentiate of Pharmacy. Then he moved to Madrid to pursue his doctorate in Pharmacy at the famous Universidad Central. He handily passed, receiving the “applauses of the tribunal of examiners and from his own colleagues.” He went to Ghent to expand his cultural and scientific studies. And when he went to Paris, he worked under the tutelage of scientists who were experts in histology and bacteriology. He returned to Madrid in 1893 and used his expanded knowledge to write a 45-page experimental study entitled, El Hematozoario del Paludismo. He continued contributing articles to scientific magazines such as La Revista Farmaceutica, La Farmacia Española, Siglo Medico, and La Ilustracion Filipina.
Like all the young Filipino expatriates in Europe, Antonio Luna was heavily involved in the Propaganda Movement, a movement advocating for social and political reforms in the Philippines. Through La Solidaridad, the mouthpiece of the reform movement, Antonio Luna devoted his time and effort writing articles upon articles. Here’s a sample: “Let the progressive Filipinos know it; let the readers of our fortnightly know it. In our rigorous campaign which has cost our mothers many tearful days and our relatives, brothers, and parents, many deportations, to our parents who believe that we seek our perdition because we ask for freedom and progress for them, because we wish to have another administrative set-up for the country which gave us life with her breezes that is not absolute; let all know that now we have the Liberal Party on our side. Many parties with different platforms sympathize with our cause. The Spanish press is extending its help because for just causes, there are always generous hearts in this noble nation.”
He used the pen name Taga-ilog not Ilo-cano. So whatever perverse claim the former dictator would want us to believe about his close ties with Antonio due to his Ilocano ancestry had been dispelled by Antonio’s preference to his birthplace.
But like any other failed movements, the Propaganda Movement lost its traction and effectiveness. Revolution was inevitable. By the time Antonio and his brother Juan came back home in May 1984, the Katipunan, under the leadership of Andres Bonifacio, became a true revolutionary society of the masses, especially in the Tagalog region. The Katipunan, through the recommendation of Jose Rizal, approached Antonio Luna to act as a go-between the rich and educated Filipinos and the masses. Antonio refused the assignment, contending that the revolution was premature and might serve the Spaniards an excuse to shoot the progressive Filipinos.
That’s precisely what happened when the Katipunan was revealed and an uprising started on 23 August 1986. The Luna brothers (Juan, Jose and Antonio) were arrested on the night of 16 September 1896. Antonio was starved and tortured. Having weakened physically and mentally, he signed some declarations condemning the rebellion. He was exiled to Spain, had a change of heart and pledged his allegiance to the revolutionary movement, which by then, was being duped by a new imperialist for global hegemony, the United States.
Having the revolutionary government in place on 12 June 1898, Antonio Luna was named General and given an army under his command, although President Aguinaldo and his close associates still immensely mistrusted him because of his previous betrayal of the revolution against the Spaniards. He used his knowledge of military science and tactics to improve the revolutionary army, but his recommendations fell into deaf ears. Nevertheless, there was this formidable enemy with superior guns to be confronted.
Antonio then imposed military discipline to his troops, but highly-placed soldiers, like General Tomas Mascardo, would find misgivings to his orders. They created a “storm of intrigues” against him which would reach the ears of President Aguinaldo.
Soon a ruse was instigated by President Aguinaldo to facilitate a planned assassination of Antonio. He sent a telegram ordering Antonio to come over to Cabanatuan for the purpose of heading a new cabinet. When Antonio arrived in Cabanatuan on the afternoon of 5 June 1989, President Aguinaldo was nowhere to be found.
Instead, Antonio saw his erstwhile enemy, Felipe Buencamino, Sr. A verbal fight ensued between the two. Suddenly a gun was fired. Known for his high-volatile temper, Antonio was “seething with uncontrollable rage” when he met Captain Pedro Jalino. Anticipating an attack, Jalino hacked Antonio with his bolo, hitting the general on the temple above his ear. Other soldiers joined the fray and started shooting and stabbing the general. Antonio died with “30 wounds from bolo or bullets, all being mortal.”
Like Andres Bonifacio, Antonio Luna died at the hands of assassins ordered by Emilio Aguinaldo. It’s easy to justify Aguinaldo’s actions through the lens of that fragile period where revolution usually devours its own children. The thing, though, is that all these assassinations could have been overcome with the higher purpose of defeating the enemies. Politics should be set aside where liberty and independence mattered. There’s no room to kill your own people, especially courageous leaders like Bonifacio and Luna who had done a lot for the country in order to get rid of the shackles of colonialism. What a waste!
Antonio Luna earns a place in the pantheon of Philippine history. In ending his book, Vivencio R. Jose wrote: “this patriot Luna shall always live in the minds of the people, as his ideals of a free, independent and democratic republic survive beyond his physical mortality and white bones. This makes him an enduring hero who lives from one generation to another, one of the truly great leaders of the Filipino people.”
22 May 2023