Antonio Luna - Death

Death

On June 2, 1899, Luna received two telegrams. One asked for help in launching a counterattack in San Fernando, Pampanga, and the other, signed by Aguinaldo himself, ordered him to go to the new capital at Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, to form a new cabinet. Having high hopes that he would be promoted as Prime Minister and Secretary of War, Luna set off; first by train, then on horseback and eventually in three carriages to Nueva Ecija with 25 of his men. During the journey, two of the carriages broke down and he proceeded in the only one left, with Colonel Francisco Román and Captain Eduardo Rusca, having earlier shed his cavalry escort. Upon arriving at Cabanatuan on June 5, Luna proceeded to the headquarters alone, in haste to communicate with the President. 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 in Tarlac. 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 in the plaza rang out. Still outraged and furious, Luna rushed down the stairs and met Captain Pedro Janolino, accompanied by some elements of the Kawit Battalion whom he had previously dismissed for insubordination. Janolino swung his bolo at Luna, wounding him at the head. Janolino's men fired at Luna, while others started stabbing him, even as he tried to fire his revolver at one of his attackers. He staggered out to the plaza where Román and Rusca were rushing to his aid, but they too were set upon and shot, with Roman being killed and Rusca severely wounded. As he lay dying, Luna uttered his last words: "Cowards! Assassins!", which was, according to Luna's biographer, Vicencio Jose, the words that Luna believed were the worst he could ever say to a man. He was hurriedly buried in the churchyard, after which Aguinaldo relieved Luna's officers and men from the field, including General Venacio Concepción, whose headquarters in Angeles, Pampanga, Aguinaldo besieged the same day Luna was assassinated.

The death of Luna, the most brilliant and capable of the Filipino generals at the time, was a decisive factor in the fight against the American forces. Even the Americans developed an admiration for him. General Frederick Funston, who received the credit of capturing Aguinaldo at Palanan, Isabela, stated that Luna was the "ablest and most aggressive leader of the Filipino Republic." For General James Franklin Bell, Luna "was the only general the Filipino army had."

Subsequently, Aguinaldo suffered successive, disastrous losses in the field, as he retreated towards northern Luzon. General Jose Alejandrino, one of Luna's remaining aides, stated in his memoirs that if only Luna had finished the planned guerrilla camp in Mountain Province, Aguinaldo may have not been running for his life at the Cordillera Mountains. For historian Teodoro Agoncillo, however, Luna's death did not directly attribute to the resulting fall of the Republic. In his book, Malolos: The Crisis of the Republic, Agoncillo stated that the loss of Luna showed the existence of a lack of discipline among the regular Filipino soldiers and it was a major weakness that was never remedied in the course of the war. Also, soldiers connected with Luna were demoralized and as a result eventually surrendered to the Americans. On March 23, 1901, Aguinaldo was captured in Palanan, Isabela by American forces. He was later brought to Manila, and made to pledge allegiance to the United States on April 1.