LUKBAN
years of warfare ,” he said . He himself had been eating those roots in the past months during the American blockade . 16
The Americans were relentless in their pursuit , knowing he and his men were starving . “ They pursued us day and night without cessation , until we were demoralized ,” he said . It came to a point that Lukban had to order 50,000 pesos thrown into waterfall of great depth because its couriers were exhausted . Those who still had enough strength tried to carry the remainder of the load , but these had to be abandoned later in the woods .
One of Lukban ’ s deputies Claro Guevarra , who was then the captain director of the arsenal , took some 9,000 pesos to the former second-in-command Benedicto Sabater in Blanca Aurora , one of the villages in the hills of San Jorge , north of Catbalogan where their group retreated . There Lukban ordered his men to strip themselves of their uniforms and remain incognito , and to hide their firearms , ammunition and powder in the caves or mountains , until they could find a center for their operations similar to that of Biak-na-bato . In this search , he could not take his entire column to avoid a mutiny due to hunger .
Finally , after many days of walking , Lukban found a place called Buan at the foot of Mt . Jurao which was within the jurisdiction of the town of Paranas , an interior pueblo . With him were two small boys and a hunter who served as guide . All this time , they ate nothing but ubod ( bamboo pith ) and some kind of palms . 17
Food would not have been a problem had the people heeded his earlier calls to plant rice and tubers instead of abaca , which was exchanged for rice . But with the blockade , no rice was available to be exchanged with abaca . When the hostilities broke out , there was no rice stored . Luckily , they had sufficient sweet potatoes in Buan , the only food available . In the meantime , some of his key officers were leaving him .
On the 4 th of February , Claro Guevarra and a second lieutenant of the infantry Florentino Peñaranda arrived and reported about the dispersion of the company under the command of Calbayog garrison commander Francisco Rafael because of hunger . The next day , he ordered Rafael to report to Buan because they had sufficient sweet potatoes to fend off their hunger . Instead , he received a letter from Captain Abcede that his second-in-command Francisco Lobato and his men had surrendered to the Americans with their arms in Catbalogan and Calbayog .
Lukban was hurt and depressed . His forces were scattered and demoralized because of treachery . There were stories circulating about him fleeing to Camarines , taking with him all the funds of the revolutionary army , and that he was an impostor who only wanted to
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