LUKBAN
Members of the Philipine Scouts conducting a parade drill near the church of Catbalogan in 1903 ( Source : http :// philippineamericanwar . webs . com / balangigamassacre1901 . htm )
together with other Catbaloganons who were earlier arrested by the Americans on suspicion of giving aid to the revolutionaries ( Antonio Villanueva , Alejo Maga , Catalino Alcantara , Florencio Briz , Geronimo Bello ), were taken to Iloilo for imprisonment . Guillermo was lucky enough to be released but Cayetano Sosing and Francisco Conge were executed by the Americans . 14
Retreat
When the bombs started to rain in Catbalogan , Lukban faced two major problems : the better-equipped , well-fed Americans and hunger . He knew he had to run and disperse his troops . He knew he did not have the means or the skills to fight the invaders , not with his homemade weapons and ineffective ammunition . And his troops were plagued with hunger because of the blockade that started 10 months earlier . In his report , he said : “ The day after , I had to retreat because our soldiers have been exhausted due to hunger , having to seek subsistence from hamlet to hamlet , from town to town ... There is not one grain of rice in the arsenal to eat .” Whatever little rice there was had to be given to the people living near the coast . 15
Now his troops were dispersed into small bands . His orders were not to engage with the enemy where possible , until sufficient provisions were collected . But “ that should not be a cause to worry because the mountains teem with edible roots capable of supporting combatants for many
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