He was married to Maria Regina Veloso y Ramas [1][2] who was a mestiza of Iberian and Chinese extraction and a granddaughter of the Portuguese consul to Cebu.
[4] By February 21, 1899, when the American forces landed in Cebu and demanded surrender, Clímaco threw support on the anti-American revolt led by General Arcadio Maxilom and traveled to Samar to gather arms.
In addition, he wrote a manifesto on April 1, 1901, urging the revolutionaries to continue the fight for independence should the news of Emilio Aguinaldo's capture would be proven true.
Maxilom and Clímaco, together with 40 of their men, 30 rifles, and 4 canons, surrendered to the Americans on October 27, 1901, marking the end of Cebu's organized resistance.
However, he cooperated with the U.S. forces, and called for peace during the speech he made in his inauguration and rehabilitation of infrastructures including schools, postal delivery system, public works, and agriculture.