LUKBAN
Reinforcements
Moreover , pressure from the American camp mounted . In the last three months of 1900 , they increased troop strength to 3,000 soldiers under Brig . Gen . Robert P . Hughes , accompanied by eight warships . This gave them more latitude to expand their field operations , leave their barracks and conduct more patrols against Lukban ’ s forces . So the latter had to adopt more mobile strategies and redouble his operations as well . But somehow the American plans miscarried , and the plan to capture the elusive Lukban also failed .
The Americans assumed that Lukban was also being reinforced from forces coming from Luzon . But that remained unproven . Lukban divided his units into smaller squads to launch sporadic attacks on enemy troops and withdrew without engaging them and giving them a chance to fire back . They had few firearms and little inefficient ammunition . All they could do was take a few shots and scatter the Americans or taunt them to beat the jungle to find the men who shot them . This would give an opportunity to the men armed with knives to attack the soldiers pushing their way through the long grass or to fall upon them when they lost their way .
In order to encourage the towns under American rule to continue paying contributions to the guerrillas for the continuation of the war , every now and then a man was killed as a spy or as a traitor , and information was sent of this killing for the head of the town from which he came . This , of course , was a matter of common talk among the natives , and prevented a great falling off in contributions . Although Lukban had ordered the people to stop cultivating abaca , they continued to do so . When the ports of Samar were opened , a portion was collected as a contribution to the war and sold to the agents of Manila firms trading in this article . The proceeds went to either the support of the insurrection “ or to the pockets of the insurrection ’ s leaders .” This according to the enemies of Lukban . 7
Winning the middle class
The greater task for Lukban was winning the hearts and minds of the native population , many of which were caught in the crossfire without a clear understanding of the conflict . Guerrilla warfare was not just shooting and hacking the enemy but also building a strong political base among the masses . Apparently , this was one weak spot in Lukban ’ s arsenal of guerrilla strategies . Earlier , he had expressed his frustrations with the middle class – the local illustrados , the educated class , the merchants , landowners and professionals - which had a growing
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