Pampanga in the Philippine Revolution
Pampanga in the Philippine Revolution remained almost wholly loyal to Spanish suzerainty, with only few noble Kapampangan families defecting to the Katipunan.
British forces attempting to invade Bulacan from Manila suffered heavily from Kapampangan counteroffensives that pushed them back to Intramuros.
Only a few dedicated families such as the Alejandrinos of Aráyat and the Jovens of Bácolor actively supported the Propagandists, and, in general, the problems of colonial policy and practice merited little attention in the province.
When the Revolution began out in and around Manila in August 1896, Governor-General Ramón Blanco declared martial law in eight provinces, including Pampanga and Tarlac.
Once the Pact of Biak na Bato had been signed in November 1897, however, Tagalog forces changed their strategy with regards to the province and the Kapampangan people.
By August 1897, Larkin noted, Katipunero infiltrators from Bulacan province had established the first Katipunan chapter in Guagua town to sway the townsfolk to join the revolution, however, recruitment was few.
Kapampangan towns would thereafter organize local militia units to defend themselves under the command of Spanish Army officers to stop the revolutionary fevour in the province.
Governor-General Camilo de Polavieja remarked that a "belt of fire" surrounded Pampanga for the Kapampangans had refused to join the Katipunan's military forces.
In March 1898, Katipunero infiltrators, all under the orders of General Francisco Macabulos, commander of revolutionary forces in Central Luzon, attempted to assassinate Don Martin Gosun, who kept to his home and evaded them.
In January the barrio people of Betis became alarmed because a group of Katipuneros from Santa Rita came to ask the whereabouts of a certain Don Martin Gosun, who in the meantime was staying at home "for security reasons."
About that time, Vicente Bravo together with Dr. Santa Maria and his family—and all Spaniards of Guagua—were murdered...(Larkin, 1972, p 116).At the time of the Declaration of Independence on June 12, 1898, there was already a Pampanga detachment of the Revolutionary Army led by Maximino Hizon, made up of a mix of Tagalog volunteers and Kapampangan militias, few in number, and Republic-organized councils in the towns of the province to counter existing municipal councils of the Spanish government.
When American forces won in the Battle of Manila Bay, Spanish troops in Pampanga realized that the war had been lost and retreated to Macabebe.
[15] The era of the Revolutionary War in Kapampangan lands, though, earned yet another chapter in the history of the long Catholic faith in the province, and in particular to the devotion to the legendary sacred image of Apung Mamacalulu in Angeles City, whose festival began in October 1897, one year after the beginning of the Revolution.
He prayed to the Apung Mamacalulu for salvation from his executioners, a squad of Spanish Army infantrymen reinforced by Guardia Civil constables from Macabebe, after receiving confession from the church's assistant pastor, Fr.
Till the end of his life, he attributed his salvation to his devotion to the Apung Mamacalulu - it was that first year of the feast when he volunteered to be a part of the procession as a bearer of the image.
