Felipe Salvador: The Cross and the Gun

The cross, as a symbol of the Christian faith, figuratively played a role in many a quasi-religious peasant revolt against Spanish colonialism and American imperialism. In at least one, it literally played a role in recruiting adherents and winning material support.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

As the symbol of Jesus Christ’s suffering and death, the cross plays a prominent part during the Christian Holy Week, as in Holy Week practices, where in some provinces like Pampanga (one and a half hours north of Manila), there are some who carry huge crosses on the streets and have themselves nailed to these as an act of penitensiya (penitence).

The cross played a prominent part as well in the quasi-religious armed struggle waged in Central Luzon by a group called the Santa Iglesia (Holy Church), led by Felipe “Ipe” Salvador, against the American colonial occupation – but in a different manner.

Salvador was born in Baliuag, Bulacan on May 26, 1870. He was reportedly the son of a Spanish friar.

He proved to be defiant of colonial authorities early in life, even as he became a cabeza de barangay (village chief) in his town. He got into trouble with the Guardia Civil and the parish priest. The parish priest had berated him when he found out that Salvador had told the vendors in the church patio not to pay dues to the priest, and threatened to have him exiled.

Salvador joined the revolutionary Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK Highest and Most Respected Asociation of the Sons of the People) when its forces arrived in Baliuag, and fought with them in Pampanga: in one of the encounters he was wounded on both arms.

In 1899, Emilio Aguinaldo, then president of the First Philippine Republic, appointed him colonel. According to Katipunero leader Artemio Ricarte, Salvador became a major-general during the Philippine-American War.

When Aguinaldo surrendered to the Americans, Salvador took to the hills and started to stage independent guerrilla operations.

Santa Iglesia

The group he formed would soon assume a religious overtone, and he would call it the Santa Iglesia. He and his followers affected the long hair and clothes associated with Biblical characters, particularly Christ and His Apostles. He gave away or sold crucifixes to his followers at religious rites similar to those of the Catholic Church. He told his followers of a second “great flood” that would annihilate all non-believers, after which there would be a rain of gold and jewels for his followers.

He also told them that if they fought courageously and were loyal to the Santa Iglesia, God would turn their bolos into guns.

He recruited his followers from the peasantry. He won their support through a program in which he promised them ownership of the land after the overthrow of the new colonizer. He also won their loyalty because he and his followers treated the village people with respect.

To obtain new adherents, money, and supplies, he and his followers would enter a town and plant a bamboo cross in the middle of the plaza, and would then deliver speeches that moved many to join his group or contribute to his cause.

The Santa Iglesia gained many adherents in the provinces of Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Tarlac. Such was the people’s loyalty to him that not even bribe offers from the Constabulary could lure them to turn him in. Meanwhile, whenever the Santa Iglesia raided military camps and quarters to seize firearms, bolo-wielding peasants volunteered in droves to augment his “regular” forces.

Salvador had his headquarters in Mt. Arayat, from where he directed the Santa Iglesia’s military operations. His top commander, identified by historian Renato Constantino only as Captain Tui, usually led the offensives on military outposts.

By May 1906, the Santa Iglesia had 300 men with 100 rifles. So alarmed were the Americans by the Santa Iglesia’s growing strength that they concentrated as many troops as they could around Mt. Arayat.

Salvador’s Golgotha

The Santa Iglesia began to feel the might of the Americans’ “pacification campaign.” They failed in the planned raid on the garrison in San Rafael, Bulacan; while another raid in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija was called off because of the large number of military and police forces. The death of Captain Tui in an encounter in Hagonoy, Bulacan in July that same year greatly demoralized the Santa Iglesia’s forces.

Salvador, with protection from people who still believed in him, was able to evade state forces for four more years, but the Santa Iglesia had disintegrated. He was arrested in 1910, prosecuted by Fiscal Epifanio de los Santos, and sentenced to death by Judge Francisco Santa Maria. Bulatlat

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