CHAPTER TWO
The Revolutionary Period
In 1896, the first news about the Philippine Revolutionary against the Friars and the Spaniards as a whole, reached Bacon. The election of the Capitan Municipal and other officials was not made this year. The same officials elected in 1895 continued to hold office until a Military Government was established.
In 1898, food shortage was felt in the whole town including the remote barrios due to the coastwise shipping, because of the Revoluton; later, because of the Spanish-American War.
In September 1898, all Spaniards with their families left Bacon for Sorsogon, where they were supposed to proceed to Manila.
In October of the same year, a brigade of the Revolutionary Army under General Ananias Diokno arrived at Sorsogon and established a Military Government under the Revolutionary Provincial Government. In the towns, local governments were organized, each headed by a Presidente Local, with the help of a Delegado de Justicia, a Delegado de Rentas and a Delegado de Policia. The town officials were aided in the barrios by the Tenientes.
The election in Bacon was held in the Presidencia (Municipal Building) and presided over the Comandante de Estado Mayor de la Brigada, Macario Adriatico. Those elected were:
President--------------Cirio Jimenez
Vice President---------Miguel B. Ramirez
Delegado de Justicia-- Esteban Amador
Delegado de Rentas-- Antonio Diaz
Delegado de Policia-- - Gervasio Din
Besides these officials, there were 16 members elected to compose the Junta Municipal who were at the same time the Tenientes of their respective barrios. All the elected officials assumed the office on the same day they were elected.
Diokno proceeded to Cebu, but left one-half of his men under the care of Comandante Sta. Ana. This same comandante organized later the Sandatahanes composed of local able-bodied males.
It was gathered from the news published in the newspapers then, that in February, 1899, the relations between the Americans and the Filipinos were broken; and hostilities between the United States Army and Navy and the Revolutionary Forces began. The U.S. troops blockaded the northeast and southeast coasts of Luzon. In the evening, U.S. battleships frequently anchored at Sugod Bay in front of of the barrios of Sugod, Gatbo, Biong and Sawang. In order to provide for the defense of Bacon, the Military Government organized a Batallion de Milicianos called Sandatahanes (organized by the Comandante Sta. Ana). The Presidente local, Cirilo Jimenez, was appointed to this command, with Gervacio Din as Aide Camp; Guillermo Dioquino as Teniente Abanderado. The commanders-in-chief were: Juan Azas, Mariano Dayson, Martin Diolata and Pedro Dineros. Six companies were organized under the charge of Mariano Serrano and Ciriaco de la Pena, assisted by their respective tenientes. Juan Bautista Sanchez was in command of the artillery Corp, assisted by his lieutenants.
Whenever an alarm was sounded, the Batallion would convene in the town in formation according to their respective corps, with firearms and weapons ready for emergency. All arms and weapons of war were made ready for use any time. For this purpose, two Municiones de Boca (Ordinace Department) were officially readied by the Delegado de Rentas who was in charge of the collection of taxes.
This Military organization was dissolved in January, 1900, upon the surrender of Sorsogon by the Revolutionary Government to the U.S. Army. The conditions at the same time were chaotic. Food as well as other merchandise was scarce. A liter of rice cost as much as two pesos and seventy fiv-five centavos, (P 2.75) a very exorbitant price at the time.
Source: A Brief History of Bacon by Cristina D. Jose, author
5 comments:
Hello there.
I am currently writing a paper about the merger of Bacon-Sorsogon.
I would like to ask the followers of this blog why they voted NO or YES for merger/cityhood (if they voted).
I will really appreciate it.
Mike
At that time,was Bacon a spanish speaking town?
We will have to assume that they did speak Spanish at that time. This was happening during the Spanish rule in the Philippines albeit nearing its end. Spanish was the "imposed" language. If one wanted to do anything or go anywhere, one must speak Spanish. I remember when I was growing up, the older folks in Bacon were still using many Spanish terms and phrases. I must say that my familiarity with those terms and phrases helped me quite a bit with my Spanish subjects in college, when we were required to complete 24 units. It also helped when I took up graduate studies and it is still helping now with the Latinos and Spanish that I deal with on a daily basis.
At that time only those who went to school can speak and write the Spanish language. The majority of Filipinos had only a smattering of Spanish words and phrases some of which stayed with us or become part of our dialects.
Thanks again Bacongnon Man Aco for your insights,
I could not vote either way. I have been away from the Philippines since 1980. However, in one of my visits to Sorsogon, I had the opportunity to discuss the matter with Sonny Escudero, present Congressman & father of then Congressman and now Senator Francis Escudero. We were friends in high school. Over sometimes heated argument, I expressed my opposition to the merger.
I also had the chance to discuss the issue with Franklin Drilon who was the Senate President at that time. He was my UP classmate. He expresses openmindedness about the matter explaining that it was a local bill filed by the Congressman to which they would extend courtesy. It means that when the bill is approved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurs as a matter of courtesy. He also explained that cities receive Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA) of at least P200 million.
I then realized that the only way the merger and creation of the city could be stopped was to defeat the merger by referendum. The sad part was that the referendum approved the merger.
But there is still hope. I base this hope on what happened to Legazpi City. Daraga used to be part of Legazpi but was able to become its own town again after many years. Somebody who lives in Bacon and is really decided on getting Bacon back as a town will have to take the lead. People who live overseas will have almost no influence on the issue, except perhaps support local leaders, most probably, financially.
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