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DOŅA FRANCISCA
CABAŅAS
(1835-1928)
Doņa Francisca
Cabaņas, philantropist and heroine of the revolution against Spain
and the Philippine-American War, shall have a rightful place in the
Philippine history. Her noble deeds and philanthropic acts qualified
her to be in the nation's hall of fame.
Although married to a
three-term Capitan Potenciano Serrano, an equally revered and
illustrious personage, she had never assumed the family name of her
husband as was the common practice at the time. Her townspeople
preferred and loved to call her " Tana Pisca" or by her maiden
family name. |
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FRANCISCA CABAŅAS |
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Doņa Francisca Cabaņas was
born in Cabatuan then, a rustic but progressive community on March 19,
1835, at the time when the Spaniards were at the height of their
political power and domination in the Philippines.
She was not only
influential but also affluent, in the sense that she owned wide areas of
land, countless livestock and other worldly possessions in the Barrios
of Tiring, Talanghauan, Tabucan, Amurao, Amirang, Tuy-an, Bacan, Salacay,
Jelicuon, Ayaman, and Maraguit and the poblacion. All these could be
attributed to the fact that she was industrious and had inborn business
acumen.
It was commonly known that
her vast wealth started with few sugar mills and sugar, rice, and
tobacco fields. Her residence was made of strong expensive materials.
During the revolution against the Americans, it was made the
headquarters of the insurgents.
It was also the scene of
several dinners and banquets in honor of officials of the Spanish and
local governments, most remembered of which was the banquet in honor of
the then Os-Rox team of representatives and senators of the country.
With all the necessary
resources under her command coupled with her commanding personality,
people from all walks of life crowded around her for advice or
consultation of their problems. Tana Pisca was more than an ordinary
mortal. She had a heart full of compassion toward the poor, the weak and
the needy. She never failed to lend a helping hand to all those who came
to her for assistance. The amelioration of the lot of her townspeople
was for uppermost in her mind. She was very generous and philanthropic
through and through.
Her husband, Potencio
Serrano headed the town of Cabatuan as Capitan in 1862, 1869-1870; and
1877-1879, but it appeared that she wielded more power than her husband,
especially in matters affecting the welfare of the people.
During her time, there
were no civil cases in the sala of the juez de paz, because Tana Pisca
settled not only family problems but also problems among neighbors out
of the court.
The revolution against
Spain broke out on August 26, 1896. The people of Cabatuan responded to
the call to arms and joined hands with the whole nation in the revolt.
As a revolutionary leader,
she did not have to ride a horse and wield a bolo. Tana Pisca fought the
wars behind the lines with the use of her resources - money, rice,
foodstuffs, etc. She channeled these needed cash and supplies to the
insurrectors in the front lines who called her either Olang Pisca or
Nanay Pisca. Because of her participation and activities in the
revolution against the Americans, she was captured and interrogated not
only on her role in the insurgency but also on some other information
about it. Although she was given third degree by pumping gallons of
water thru her mouth, she never gave away the secrets of the insurrectos,
the leader of whom was martin Delgado her godson. After all other
threats failed to move her, she was released but the enemy ire took a
heavy toll when her adopted son Capitan Agustin Jiloca was declared by
the Americans implicated in murder and other political activities and
hanged on July 5, 1901. The benefits accruing from her philanthropic
acts were enjoyed individually and directly by the people.
Doņa Francisca Cabaņas died at the age of
93 on February 12, 1928. Her noble deeds, however, will never die in
the hearts of her countrymen. She had attained heroism and it is for
this reason that her name should indeed be in the exclusive list of
great men and women in Philippine history. (Cabatuan Historical Society,
Cabatuan: History of a Town and her People. Makati City: Bookhaven
Inc., 1977) |
