CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said on Wednesday, April 3, that some Cebuanos died fighting for the freedom of every Filipino.
“You can imagine what were those Cebuanos dying for? They were dying for you. They were dying for all of us,” he said in his six-minute speech during the 121st anniversary of the Battle of Tres de Abril.
On April 3, 1898, Katipunan general Pantaleon “Leon Kilat” Villegas led 5,000 Cebuano Katipuneros to fight some 500 well-trained troops of the Spanish Empire.
Osmeña said it was hard for the other people at the time to feel the struggle of the Cebuanos in 1898, but the natives persisted in fighting for independence from Imperial Spain.
The Katipunan, weakened by infighting and lack of weapons, declared independence from Spain, but it was not recognized by other countries. After the United States emerged victorious in the Spanish-American War, the Americans became the new colonial masters in the Philippines.
Osmeña related the Katipuneros’ fight with his experience as a reservist officer of the Philippine Marines.
He said during a visit to the wake of a fallen soldier in Bohol, he got to appreciate the modern-day combatants of the armed forces who are fighting off internal enemies like the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).
He said the military and police personnel did their heroic duty in fighting off the terrorist group in Bohol in 2017.
The mayor also praised the 160 soldiers who died in the war against extremists affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Marawi City.
Osmeña said the city government did not abandon the families left by fallen Cebuano government troopers.
“I am not brave enough to enter the next room with the terrorists. I am not like those soldiers who died in Marawi, but we have our own share,” he said. (From PAC of SuperBalita Cebu, KAL)