LEON KILAT PHILIPPINE REVOLUTIONARY HERO

In Carcar, Cebu, there is a monument honoring the revolutionary known as Leon Kilat (Lightning Lion), whose real name was Pantaleon Villegas. My maternal grandmother, Filomena Alesna, was from Carcar, and so growing up we used to visit Carcar. The white monument of a man on a horse became part of Carcar's landmarks, along with St. Catherine's church and school, and the rotunda in the middle of the highway.

My mother used to point out the old house where Leon Kilat had been assassinated, but the story was always vague. What I understood was that Leon Kilat had been a revolutionary and he was assassinated by one of his men.

My history teachers and books weren't much help either, primarily because Philippine history was taught from a Tagalog-centric point of view. We were taught that Andres Bonifacio founded the Katipunan, which had serious battles with the Spaniards in 1896. The Katipunan sent Leon Kilat to Cebu to work with the Cebuano revolutionaries. This happened in the summer of 1898.

Leon Kilat was born in Bacong, Negros Oriental, and he had worked in Cebu and in a circus in Manila where he met a Katipunero. He was said to have possessed an anting-anting (talisman) and had magical powers. He was a Visayan but not a Cebuano. In San Nicolas, Cebu, he was tentatively accepted by the Cebuano revolutionaries, ancestors of numerous Cebuanos - Noel, Alcoseba, Barcenilla, Alfafar, Abellana, Gundoy, Cui, and others.

An earlier battle with the Spaniards was successful and the Spaniards had to retreat to Fort San Pedro. But the Spaniards quickly dispatched a ship to Cebu. When the revolutionaries heard about the Spanish ship, they retreated to Carcar.

On April 7, 1898 (Holy Thursday), Leon Kilat was in Carcar. His plan was to attack the Spaniards on Easter Sunday in Carcar. Leon Kilat was treated as an honored guest and he stayed in the house of Tiyoy Barcenilla. Upon Leon Kilat's request, a tailor took his measurements because Leon Kilat wanted a new uniform to wear the next day. A feast was prepared in the Barcenilla House for Leon Kilat and guests.

What Leon Kilat did not know was that one of the men, Florencio Noel, had met the Spanish friar, Father Francisco Blanco. Father Blanco had reportedly told Noel that the only way Carcar would escape Spanish retaliation was if Leon Kilat would be killed.

So, on the night of Holy Thursday, goat, chicken, pork were served to the men at the Barcenilla House, and afterwards, the men drank coffee and Ginebra (gin) in the living room. Meantime, the Carcar men who had decided to do away with Leon Kilat, became ill at ease, and they whispered among one another, and in fact, Apolinario Alcuitas shouted in Cebuano, "Brothers, I am informing all of you that tonight, I will slaughter a horse."

All of this apparently went unnoticed by Leon Kilat, or perhaps he had too much Ginebra, because he didn't flee. He went to bed, in the room near the stairs of the Barcenilla House. Vicente Barcenilla chatted with Leon Kilat in his room; he goes down in history as the last person to have seen him alive.

Then sometime during the night, several men entered Leon Kilat's room. One of them used Kilat's own rifle butt to smash his skull. And then the men stabbed Kilat. It was a collective deed, but Apolinario Alcuitas' name goes down in history as the assassin.

After insuring Leon Kilat was dead, the group brought his corpse to the center of town to display it. It was 5 a.m. Good Friday, April 9, 1898.

So, generally, historical accounts stop right there. One can assume that the Spaniards did indeed spare Carcar after they regained power. But Spanish power was shortlived because on May 1, 1898, Admiral Dewey launched the Battle of Manila Bay.

American intervention in Spanish Philippine politics quickly put an end to Spanish rule.


Post Script: My grandmother, Filomena Alesna, was most likely related to Florencio Noel. But Cebu is like that. If you trace far back enough, everyone is related. If you think about it, politically speaking, in any revolution, people are never quite sure which side to take. There are those who want the status quo; and there are those who want change.