70 Interesting Facts About General Antonio Luna: Founder of Philippines’ First Military Academy

General Antonio N. Luna is one of the most notable revolutionary generals during the Philippine-American War that broke out in the last part of the 19^th century and lasted up to the early part of the 20^th century. He is one of the most popular Philippine heroes.

1.) Antonio Luna y Novicio was born on October 29, 1866 in Binondo, Manila.

2.) Luna was the youngest of 7 children of Joaquin Luna and Laureana Novicio

3.) He is the younger brother of the famous Filipino painter Juan Luna who is known for his masterpiece Spoliarium.

4.) Another older brother, Jose, was a doctor. Joaquin, another brother, was a colonel during the Philippine-American War.

5.) His father, Joaquin Luna, a traveling salesman, was from Badoc, Ilocos Norte while his mother Laureana Novicio was from Luna, La Union.

5.) This Filipino revolutionary was a pharmacist and general who fought in the Philippine-American War.

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6.) He is regarded as the founder of the first military academy in the Philippines.

7.) Luna was assassinated by Magdalo group of the Katipunan from Cavite in Cabanatuan City on June 5, 1899.

8.) Antonio learned reading, writing, and arithmetic from a teacher known as Maestro Intong when he was only 6 years of age.

9.) He also memorized the first book printed in the Philippines – the Doctrina Cristiana.

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10.) Luna graduated in 1881 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Ateneo Municipal De Manila.

11.) He also studied literature and chemistry at the University of Santo Tomas where he won first prize for a paper in chemistry titled “Two Fundamental Bodies of Chemistry”.

12.) This smart fellow also studied pharmacy, fencing, swordsmanship, military tactics, and became a sharpshooter.

13.) Luna was sent to Spain and acquired his license in Pharmacy at the University of Barcelona and doctorate in Pharmacy at the University Central de Madrid.

14.) While in Spain, he joined the Propaganda Movement and wrote for La Solidaridad and used the pen name “Taga-ilog”.

15.) A piece entitled “Impressions” was written by Luna. This piece dealt with Spanish customs and idiosyncrasies.

16.) As an active researcher in the scientific community in Spain, he wrote “El Hematozoario del Paludismo”, a scientific treatise on malaria.

17.) Luna also went to France and Belgium where he worked as assistant to Dr. Latteaux and Dr. Laffen.

18.) The Spanish government recognized Luna’s ability and he was appointed commissioner to study tropical and communicable diseases.

19.) Upon his return to the Philippines in 1894, he took the competitive examination for chief chemist of the Municipal Laboratory of Manila and topped the exam and won the position.

20.) Antonio also opened a sala de armas, a fencing club.

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21.) Like Rizal and others, Luna was in favor of reforms rather than independence as goal to be attained.

22.) After the Katipunan's existence was leaked in August 1896, Antonio and his brothers Jose and Juan were arrested and jailed in Fort Santiago.

23.) His two brothers were freed but Antonio was exiled to Spain in 1897 and was imprisoned at the Carcel Modelo in Madrid.

24.) Through the help and influence of his more famous brother Juan, the case of Antonio was dismissed by the Military Supreme Court and was released.

25.) Upon his released, he studied field fortifications, guerrilla warfare, organization, and other aspects of military science in the different parts of Europe.

26.) Luna returned to the Philippines in July 1898 and first saw action in Manila on August 13, 1898.

27.) Because Manila had been completely surrounded by the revolutionary army since June 1898, Luna thought the Filipinos should just walk in and enter Intramuros.

28.) But Aguinaldo, heeding the advice of General Merritt and Commodore Dewey, whose fleet had moored in Manila Bay, sent Luna to the trenches where he ordered his troops to fire on the Americans.

29.) After the disastrous farce of the American Occupation, Luna tried to complain to US officers at a meeting in Ermita about the disorder, the looting, rape and mayhem by US troops.

30.) To silence Luna, Emilio Aguinaldo appointed him as Chief of War Operations on September 26, 1898 and assigned the rank of Brigadier General.

31.) In quick succession, he was made the Director of War and Supreme Chief of the Army, arousing the envy of the other generals.

32.) Luna felt that bureaucratic placebos were being thrown his way, when all he wanted was to organize and discipline the enthusiastic, ill-fed and ill-trained young troops into a real army.

33.) Luna established a military academy at Malolos the 'Academia Militar'. It started in October 1898 and lasted up to March 1899. This military academy was the precursor of the present Philippine Military Academy.

34.) Captain Manuel Bernal Sityar, a mestizo and former Guardia Civil, was appointed by Luna as superintendent of Academia Militar.

35.) Luna recruited other mestizos and Spaniards who had fought in the Spanish army in the 1896 revolution for training and numerous veteran officers became the teachers at his military school.

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36.) He devised two courses of instruction, planned the reorganization, with a battalion of tiradores and a cavalry squadron, set up an inventory of guns and ammunition, arsenals, using convents and town halls, quartermasters, lookouts and communication systems.

37.) His brother Juan designed the army uniform and insisted on strict discipline over and above clan and clique loyalties.

38.) Luna proved to be a strict disciplinarian and thereby alienated many in the ranks of the soldiers.

39.) During the "Fall of Calumpit", Luna ordered Tomas Mascardo to send troops to bolster his defenses but Mascardo ignored the order. Luna left the frontlines and confronted Mascardo but upon his return to the field, the Americans had broken through his defenses at the Bagbag River, forcing him to withdraw.

40.) Luna fought gallantly in many battles in Bulacan, Pampanga and Nueva Ecija.

41.) In the battle at Caloocan, the Kawit Battalion from Cavite refused to attack when given the order. Because of this, he disarmed them and relieved them of duties.

42.) Antonio Luna also utilized journalism to strengthen Filipino minds with the ideas of nationhood and the need to fight the imperialist American enemy and published the newspaper “La Independencia.”

43.) The Treaty of Paris, where Spain ceded the Philippines to the US, was made public in December 1898.

44.) Luna’s strategy was to bottle up the Americans in Manila before more of their troops could land, execute surprise attacks while building up strength in the north and, should the enemy pierce his lines, wage a series of delaying battles and prepare a fortress in the northern highlands of Luzon but was turned down by Aguinaldo and the High Command.

45.) The Philippine-American War broke out as predicted by Luna, Mabini and others although Aguinaldo and his general were repeatedly warned.

46.) Luna was at the front line with 3 companies in La Loma and engaged General Arthur MacArthur's forces and with the Dewey’s US fleet firing from the Manila Bay, Filipino casualties were horrific that Luna personally had to carry wounded officers and men to safety.

47.) Sadly, the battalion from Kawit, Cavite refused to move, saying they had orders to obey only instructions directly from Aguinaldo.

48.) That kind of insubordination had been plaguing the Filipino forces. Most of the troops owed their loyalty to the officers from their provinces, towns or districts and not to the central command.

49.) The hostility of the Caviteños towards the Manileños was an old wound. The Manileño ilustrado, Antonio Luna, was resented by companies or battalions commanded by warlords and landlords from other provinces.

50.) At one point, Luna had to be restrained from shooting a Caviteño colonel.

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51.) And so it went, battle after battle, incident after incident until Luna proferred his resignation, which Aguinaldo hesitantly accepted.

52.) Luna was absent from the field for three weeks, during which the Filipino forces suffered several defeats and setbacks.

53.) Swallowing his pride, Luna went to Aguinaldo and asked to be reinstated, begging for more powers over all the military chiefs, and Aguinaldo agreed.

54.) At the end of May, Colonel Joaquin Luna, Antonio’s brother, warned him about a plot concocted by “old elements’ of the Revolution and a clique of army officers whom Luna had disarmed, arrested, or insulted.

55.) Luna shrugged off all these threats and continued building defenses in Pangasinan where the Americans planned a landing.

56.) On June 2, 1899 Luna received two telegrams. One asked for help in a counter-attack in San Fernando, and the other, “purportedly” signed by Aguinaldo, ordering him to come to headquarters, a convent at Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, to form a new cabinet.

57.) He proceeded to Nueva Ecija with high hopes that he would be promoted as Premier and Secretary of War.

58.) Luna with Col. Roman Basa and Captain Eduardo Rusca set off by train, then on horseback and eventually carriages to Nueva Ecija.

59.) He arrived in Cabanatuan on June 5, 1899 and proceeded to the convent alone and as he went up the stairs, he ran into an officer whom he had previously disarmed for cowardice, and an old enemy, whom he had once threatened with arrest, a hated “autonomist,” and was told that Aguinaldo had left for San Isidro.

60.) Enraged, Luna asked why he had not been told the meeting was canceled. As he was about to depart, a single shot from a rifle on the plaza rang out. Outraged, and furious, he rushed down the stairs and met Captain Pedro Janolino, accompanied by some of the Kawit troops he had previously dismissed for insubordination. Janolino swung his bolo at Luna, wounding him at the temple.

61.) Janolino's cahoots fired at Luna, others started stabbing him, even as he tried to bring his revolver to bear. He staggered out to the plaza where Román and Rusca were rushing to his aid, but they too were set upon and shot.

62.) As he laid dying, blood gushing from multiple wounds, Luna uttered his last words: “Cowards! Assassins!” He was hurriedly buried in the churchyard, after which Aguinaldo relieved Luna's officers and men from the field.

63.) A historical landmark now stands at the site where General Antonio Luna was assassinated.

64.) The assassination of the most brilliant and capable of the Filipino generals - Antonio Luna, was a decisive factor in the fight against the American forces.

65.) Even the Americans developed an astonished admiration for him.

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66.) The US General Hughes said of Antonio Luna’s death, probably relishing the irony, “The Filipinos had only one general, and they have killed him.”

67.) As a result of Antonio Luna’s assassination, Aguinaldo suffered successive, disastrous losses in the field, retreating towards northern Luzon.

68.) In less than two years, Aguinaldo was captured in Palanan, Isabela by American forces, led by General Frederick Funston and their Kapampangan allies, the Macabebe mercenaries.

69.) Aguinaldo was later brought to Manila, and made to pledge allegiance to the United States.

70.) In the many battles fought by Filipinos, they seldom won because of fellow Filipinos too.

See also

• Interesting Facts About Lapu-Lapu of Mactan: The First Filipino Hero

• 50 Interesting Facts About Andres Bonifacio: A Philippine National Hero – the Hero of the Masses

• Amazing Facts About Jose Rizal: The Philippine National Hero

• Interesting Facts About Emilio Jacinto: The Brains of the Katipunan

• 50 Interesting Facts About Apolinario Mabini: The Brains of the Revolution

• 90 Interesting Fascts About Jose Rizal: The Last Renaissance Man