Emilio Aguinaldo had returned from exile in Hong Kong and was amassing a large force to drive out the Spanish from Cavite.

The combined forces of Generals Luciano San Miguel, Mariano Noriel, Artemio Ricarte and Juan Cailles, having with them about 6,000–8,000 troops, who began attacking and decimating Peña's units one by one.

With the war of liberation once again in full swing, Laguna was soon also subsumed by waves of revolutionary fervor, and surely enough rebel armies were quickly formed in an effort to liberate the province from Spanish control.

[1] Initially, the Spanish garrison in Calamba, numbering to 60 riflemen,[1] holed up in the town church.

With the surrender of the Spanish detachment at Calamba, Paciano Rizal had a free hand to head with his force to Santa Cruz, the capital of La Laguna, and by then the last town still under Spanish control, joining with other commanders present there.