The Spearman

  Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D.   * Synopsis On the night of June 28, 1993, Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez, students of the  University of the Philippines, Los Baños  (UPLB), were abducted at gunpoint by men working for Antonio Sanchez, the mayor of  Calauan ,  Laguna .  The students were brought to Sanchez's farm in Barangay Curba, where both were bound and gagged. Court records showed Sanchez's men also brought Gomez along " to avoid complications ". The students were brought inside a resthouse, where Sarmenta was taken into Sanchez's room while Gomez was beaten by Luis Corcolon, Rogelio "Boy" Corcolon, Zoilo Ama and George Medialdea and thereafter thrown out of the resthouse. Pepito Kawit struck Gomez's diaphragm with the butt of an  Armalite , causing Gomez to fall against a cement box. Brion thought Allan was already dead, but Kawit said that his death would come later. Aurelio Centeno joined Sanchez's personal aides Edwin Cosico and Rau...

Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D. *Tamblot Tamblot was a babaylan or native priest from Bohol, Philippines, who led the Tamblot uprising in 1621 to 1622 during the Spanish era. Unlike the Dagohoy rebellion, the Tamblot revolt was purely due to the issue of religion. Little is known about Tamblot except that he was a tagalogenio of Barrio Tupas, in Antequera town who led a number of his pagan followers to wage a religious war against the Spaniards for fear that their Bathala would be replaced by the God of the Catholic religion.   Tamblot opposed the new religion spread by the Spaniards and fought against the subsequent conversion of the Boholanos to the Catholic faith. According to Legend , Tamblot challenged the Spanish priest, and when he won, he earned the trust of the people. He exhorted them to free themselves from Spanish oppression, leading 2,000 followers in what was dubbed as the " Tamblot Uprising " or " Tamblot Revolt". *Tamblot Uprising The Tamblot u...

 Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D. Unheralded Philippine Heroes Our Philippine history has taught us in schools about our national heroes like the more famous ones; Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, Gregorio del Pilar, Antonio Luna and Marcelo H. del Pilar, among many others. However, among the lesser known heroes of the Philippines during the Spanish era are the prides of Bohol province in Eastern Visayas known as Francisco Dagohoy and Tamblot. I must admit that not only their “unheralded” tags piqued my interest in the legends of Dagohoy and Tamblot but more importantly because my forefathers originally came from the town of Jagna, Bohol before migrating to Negros Island in Western Visayas.   I can still remember the excitement in watching the 1953 movie “Dagohoy”, as a tribute to the heroic Boholano, given life in the movie screen by my then favorite actors Mario Montenegro, Tessie Quintana and Rosa Rosal.         Colonization of the P...