Florentino Peñaranda

FLORENTINO PEÑARANDA was born on June 18, 1876 in the town of Barugo, province of Leyte. He studied at the Escuela Normal de San Francisco Xavier (located in Padre Faura Street, Ermita, Manila)[1] ran by Spanish Jesuits. After completing his studies, Peñaranda set up a school for children in his hometown and forthwith launched his career in teaching.[2]

At 24, he was commander-n-chief of the Leyte revolutionary forces, by fate destined to articulate his command's firm resolve to hold fast to their commitment to continue the Filipino resistance against the American occupation of the Philippines at the turn of the 19th Century.

It was in point of fact the last stand of the all-but-ended Philippine resistance movement that began to unravel when its initiator and prime mover General Emilio Aguinaldo, supreme commander of the Philippine revolutionary forces, was captured by the Americans in Palanan, Isabela in March 1901.

The saga of Leyte's little-known heroic stand in the Philippine-American War had its beginning insofar as Peñaranda was concerned when he returned to Barugo after completing his studies in Manila.

Before long, however, Leyte's role in the resistance movement intensified. The Supreme General Command ordered General Vicente Lukban to focus his efforts on Samar and at the same time designated General Ambrosio Mojica as commander-in-chief of the Leyte Jefatura (Office of the Political-Military Chief).

Noting the shortage of combatants in his fledgling army, General Mojica closed down all the schools in Leyte and conscripted the able-bodied male students and teachers, among them Schoolmaster Peñaranda, to beef up his command. Mojica launched a guerilla campaign against the much-stronger and well-equipped enemy. It was largely a hit-and-run strategy. The capture of General Aguinaldo changed the long-range plan. Acting on orders from General Headquarters in connection with the need to speed up the pacification drive, General Mojica surrendered to the Americans on May 18, 1901. On the same date, he entrusted to Peñaranda the official papers and funds of the Jefatura.

Shortly thereafter General Lukban announced he was taking over command of the Leyte revolutionary forces. He designated Peñaranda as his assistant.[3]

Whatever new surprises General Lukban had mapped out against the American war machine, all came to naught with his capture by an American special force in his mountain hideout in Samar on February 19, 1902.

Lukban's capture plus the earlier capitulation of General Miguel Malvar, the last Filipino revolutionary general to surrender, were the two major setbacks that precipitately turned the Leyte revolutionary command into the lone holdout in the Filipino nation's resistance against the American occupation. Impartial foreign observers at the time were appalled by the savagery of the mismatch and had estimated that the lives of more than million Filipinos had been wasted at the hands of the US military.

Peñaranda was elected by his peers to take over the premier revolutionary post in Leyte province. As Commandante-en-Jefe or political-military chief, the 24-year-old Commandante Peñaranda understood clearly the burden of his command. He told his officers and men that the Leyte revolutionary command would hold fast to their commitment to continue the Filipino struggle against the American occupation of the Philippines until the United States Congress fulfilled its promise to enact legislation guaranteeing autonomy to the Philippines and the right of the Filipino people to self-government.

The Commander-in-chief's statement,[4]^:547 otherwise known as the Peñaranda memorandum, was meant to remind the intruders that "superior people never make long visits." Naturally, the Peñaranda memo didn't sit well with the Americans.

While they pressured their Filipino facilitator to work overtime and hammer out with Peñaranda's negotiator a mutually acceptable written agreement regarding the promised US legislation, at the same time they dispatched licensed assassins and coldblooded snipers to take down Peñaranda, a move the commander-in-chief had anticipated.

Peñaranda and his personnel and a bodyguard of 60 crack riflemen had long moved quickly up the Baybay mountains and there had installed lookouts in well-concealed observation posts.

They were especially on the watch out for Uncle Sam's fierce jungle fighters to wander into and get lost in the virgin forest's Secret Garden where they could live on its largesse for the rest of their days like Noble Savages.

On June 19, 1902, Commandante Peñaranda and his men were fetched from their mountain hideout by his trusted comrade Captain de Veyra with the written agreement in hand and together they went down and then rendezvoused with thousands of their comrades-in-arms.

In a public ceremony Commandante Peñaranda addressed his officers and men and the Filipino nation at large. Commandante Peñaranda and his fellow soldiers then laid down their arms. Peñaranda's brief speech in Spanish was recorded in the Reseña de la Provincia de Leyte by historian-biographer Manuel C. Artigas.[5]

Peñaranda was married to Francisca Villasin, a native of Barugo with ancestral roots from Bantayan Island off Cebu. They had nine children, two boys and seven girls, one of whom died in her young years. Peñaranda died on September 3, 1938.

A street is named in Peñaranda's honor in his birthplace, Barugo as well as in the neighboring town of Tunga in Leyte.

Historian and writer Manuel Artigas of the Federalista Party who was born in Panalaron, Tacloban also ran for the same seat for the 3rd District of Leyte but Artigas lost to Peñaranda.[7]

• Hon. Florentino Peñaranda, First Philippine Assembly Representative of the Third District of Leyte
• Album Histórico De La Primera Asamblea Filipina (Digital general collection of the University of Michigan)
• House of Representatives of the Republic of the Philippines