"Why should you pay me for my love of country?"

With this tart comment, originally spoken in Spanish and handed down by oral tradition, Father Donato B. Guimbaolibot dismissed an alleged bribe offer by American officials. He was supposed to receive cash as payment for the physical torture he was inflicted by US Army operatives after September 28, 1901.

In the morning of that fateful Sunday, hundreds of natives armed with bolos swooped on Company "C" of the 9th Infantry Regiment, US Army, stationed in the town of Balangiga in southern Samar. According to native accounts, only two (out of 74) American survived the attack, which historians have called the "Balangiga Massacre." This was the worst single defeat of the US Army during the Philippine-American War.

The natives suffered 28 deaths during the same attack.

The Americans retaliated with a "kill-and-burn" policy. This resulted in the killings and undocumented disappearance of some 50,000 civilian men, women, children above 10 years old, in a bid to turn Samar into a "howling wilderness."

General Jacob Smith, who implemented the American revenge on Samar, was eventually made the scapegoat for the shameful policy. He was retired from the US Army following a US Congressional investigation.

Fr. Guimbaolibot was the parish priest of Balangiga from March 2, 1900 to May 8, 1904. He was the person that the American military officials singled out as a possible "mastermind" behind their Balangiga debacle. Their official records of the event did have kind words for the priest.

But the natives of Balangiga held Fr. Guimbaolibot in respect and high esteem. When they planned the attack against the Americans, after they had had enough of the deprivations from the invaders who had rounded up their males as prisoners, the local residents purposely left the priest out of their plot.

However, on the Tuesday before the attack, Fr. Guimbaolibot was approached by an imprisoned local leader, Pedro Duran Sr., who disclosed the plot to him by saying, "Father, make up your mind, to stay or to leave; there will be a fight on (Sunday)."

The priest was disturbed by the revelation and left the same day on a banca (sailboat) for Tanauan, Leyte. He did not really want to leave. He wanted to be of help, but the plotters had agreed that their priest should not be involved in the mess.

Five days later, the men of Balangiga staged their successful attack.

According to Balangiga folk accounts, the two Americans who survived the massacre fled by paddling a banca towards Tanauan, Leyte. While they were telling their story to an American captain who was staying at the Tanauan Convento, they spotted Fr. Guimbaolibot in the same parish house and had him arrested.

In the article "Victory at Balangiga" (Philippine Development Forum, Vol. 4, No. 4, 1988), Dr. Reynaldo H. Imperial cited that the arrested Fr. Guimbaolibot was brought to Calbiga, Samar. He was subjected to "water torture" there by First Lieutenant Julian Gaugot, to extract information on the whereabouts of the leaders who plotted the massacre and the priest's participation in its planning.

Lt. Gaugot was eventually court-martialed for "this disgrace upon the (US) military service" and was proven guilty. He was suspended from the command for three months, forfeiting $50 of his monthly salary for the same period.

This torture of an innocent priest was perhaps the official basis for the bribe-offer that was spurned.

In the book Revolutionary Clergy, Father John N. Schumacher, S.J., claimed that Fr. Guimbaolibot, being made aware of the impending massacre of the American garrison at Balangiga, left town several days before the incident. He went into hiding at the parish house of Tanauan, Leyte (his first and previous parish assignment from November 1898 to May 1899), until he was discovered and tortured by the Americans.

Fr. Schumacher, quoting PRR SD 903, described where Fr. Guimbaolibot hid in Tanauan:

"This Felix Vara (de Veyra) has another son, Jesus Vara (de Veyra) who is now in the field with the insurgents of this island under Capili; he also has a nephew, Julian Vara (de Veyra), who is with the same outfit, and is understood to be second in command of these forces.

"Padre Pantaleon Vara (de Veyra) of Tanauan, Leyte is a cousin of Felix Vara (de Veyra), and it was to this padre's house that the padre of Balangiga took refuge before the massacre at that place."

This document seemed to impute guilt by association on Fr. Guimbaolibot. Thus, since he was living with a relative of "insurgents", then he must be an "insurgent" himself.

During torture, Fr. Guimbaolibot admitted that he was aware of a plot being organized against the Americans, but that he himself had no part in it and even left the town so that he would not be involved.

Later researches and documents bore out the priest's story. But at that time, the American military officials seemed convinced that Fr. Guimbaolibot had a principal role in an event that almost wiped out a company of US troops.

There had been no previously recorded detail on how Fr. Guimbaolibot was tortured. But The College Tradean, the school organ of the Felipe Abrigo National Memorial College of Arts and Trades (FANMCAT) in Guiuan, in its June-October 1994 issue, published a folk account of how the priest was tortured:

"His body was tied with a rope, hoisted up to the ceiling, and then abruptly loosened, thus bringing the body down very hastily, after which he was made to drink sea water. This treatment was repeated for a number of times."

The article further said that, after all the tortures, Fr. Guimbaolibot and the other suspects were kept in jail and told that they would be killed.

The island of Samar lacked priests at the turn of the century. Fr. Schumacher, quoting from a source, wrote: "(T)here were only 14 priests from Samar ordained from Cebu Seminary between 1867 and 1903 ... and there were only 13 priests in Samar in early 1900 ... for at least 31 parishes ...."

After the Balangiga event, nearly half of the Samar clergy were herded in a single prison -- the convento of Calbiga town in Samar. They were later transferred to Catbalogan.

The January 29, 1902 issue of El Nuevo Dia, edited by the young Sergio Osmeña and Jaime de Veyra, reported the death of Father Bartolome Picson and the imprisonment of Fathers Nicanor Acevedo (Acebedo), Donato Guimbaolibot, Maximo Ponson (Conzon), and Jose Diasnes by the Americans in the convento of Calbiga.

What happened to them there, Fr. Schumacher wrote, was described in terms perhaps intended not to unduly provoke the American censor, but sufficiently clear to give an idea of the American treatment of the Filipino priests: "In Samar, they (Americans) meant not merely arbitrary imprisonment but torture for not a few."

In "Los Sacerdotes en Samar," El Commercio in its February 4, 1902 issue reported: "We will pass over in silence what happened there (Calbiga) which we have seen or found through their accounts, in which Christian resignation has thrown a veil over the savage and realistic color of the picture."

The inquisition, the report added, had its purpose to find out in the towns who were cooperating with the Revolution, especially those who were helping the Filipinos still in arms with rice and money. And, of course, the Fathers had to know this information, according to the way of thinking of the officers, especially that they possessed the secret of the confessional.

In The Ordeal of Samar, Joseph L. Schott wrote that one of the imprisoned priests, Father Nicanor Acebedo, parish priest of Basey, Samar, was "water-cured" by Captain Edwin F. Glenn of the US Infantry. His assistant parish priest was also "water-cured" with him. Both were injured for life, the assistant's reason being impaired (became insane).

Fr. Bartolome Picson was "water-cured" to death by Captain Glenn. His sister was also bayoneted to death upon Glenn's order.

Captain Glenn was an expert in torture both in Panay and in Samar. He was later court-martialed for "water-curing" the town presidente (mayor) of Igbarras, Panay, and for burning that town. He was punished merely with a fine and a reprimand, and continued to serve in the US Army. He retired as a brigadier-general.

A published folk account has it that the threat of execution did not faze Fr. Guimbaolibot. He was prepared to die. His calm demeanor in prison was said to have inspired his fellow prisoners not to lose hope. He asked them not to panic but rather to pray.,/p>

The College Tradean article said that on the scheduled date of his and other prisoners' execution, Fr. Guimbaolibot was able send word to the people of Catbalogan about the decision. He requested them to pray for their (prisoners') deliverance and for the enlightenment of their executioners.

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon when the Americans deferred the sentence. Fr. Guimbaolibot, together with a few other suspects, were turned over to the people who fetched them from jail. Their bruises were treated by their caretakers, for they were beaten all over their bodies. They were also given food.

In an interview with the senior author, Atty. Cornelio Sison, a native of Guiuan, Eastern Samar, said that his grandfather, Basilio Sison of Catbalogan, helped intercede for the release of Fr. Guimbaolibot from prison.

Fr. Guimbaolibot went home to Guiuan from prison to recover his health. He returned to Balangiga on April 22, 1903. He served the town one more year, after which he was transferred to Guiuan. (There is a time overlap between Fr. Guimbaolibot’s assignments in Guiuan and Balangiga, which were inferred from parish records. It is possible that her served both towns during the overlapping period.)

Father Donato Guimbaolibot was a native of Guiuan, Eastern Samar. He was born in this town on December 5, 1866 as the second child of Tomas Guimbaolibot and Narcisa Bago, also natives of Guiuan.

Donato had three sisters: Felipa, the eldest, and Faustina and Maria, the younger ones.

Local accounts had it that the Guimbaolibot children were raised in a simple but religious life at home.

"Padre Atoy," as Fr. Guimbaolibot was known, completed his elementary education in Guiuan. He later studied for the priesthood at the San Carlos Seminary in Cebu, where he was ordained priest at the age of 28 in 1894.

Fr. Guimbaolibot taught at the seminary before his first assignment in Tanauan, Leyte (from November 1898 to May 1899). At that time, the islands of Leyte and Samar were under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Cebu.

His second parish assignment was Balangiga, where an unfortunate event brought him both a harrowing experience that almost ended his life and a historical prominence.

From Balangiga, Fr. Guimbaolibot was transferred to Guiuan, where he served nearly half a century, from 1903 until his death in 1949. Back in his hometown, his pastoral concerns included the founding of a parochial/catechism school for children in 1903, a hospital in 1906, a high school in 1911, the construction of a new convent, and the repair of the centuries-old parish church in the 1930s.

He was elevated to the title of Monsignor around the late 1930s, during which he also hesitatingly assumed the position of Vicar General of the Diocese of Calbayog.

Msgr. Guimbaolibot was never at ease with the Americans since his release from prison. At the end of 1944, when the American forces established a naval base in Guiuan, the monsignor was heard saying: "Take note, the American presence here is not a blessing; rather, it is a disgrace.

In 1947, Msgr. Guimbaolibot was paid a visit by Cardinal Spellman, chaplain of General Douglas MacArthur's forces in the Pacific.

Francisco Calumpiano, 89 years old, who had witnessed the event, recounted:

"Padre Atoy was allergic to American officials because of the tortures that he previously received from them. In fact, when Cardinal Spellman visited him in 1947, I was at the convent. I offered the visitor a chair. I did not recognize him as a cardinal since he was wearing a military uniform. Then I told Msgr. Donato in his room that an American official would like to talk to him.

"Immediately, Msgr. Donato trembled and perspired. He did not get out of his room; he was afraid. I called him a second time. "Finally, he faced the visitor. The latter stood up at once, held the monsignor's right hand and kissed it. But Msgr. Donato immediately grabbed his hand back.

"They talked for quite a time. I could not hear their conversation, but I could see them seated by the round table. As they were conversing, I noticed Msgr. Donato's appearance change for the better. He had become comfortable.

"When the visitor left, Msgr. Atoy informed me that the visitor was Cardinal Spellman himself.

"You know, one thing I usually noticed in Msgr. Atoy, even his superiors would kneel down to kiss his hands. Bishop Acebedo, during one on his pastoral visits, kissed his hands too."

Msgr. Guimbaolibot suffered a stroke and became bedridden in July 1949. For a month, he hovered between life and death. He showed some improvement after that, but he never fully recovered. He passed away on September 9, 1949 at the age of 83.

According to Father Maximo Arganda, 83 years old, "Padre Memong" to the local folks and now a retired priest in Guiuan, Msgr. Guimbaolibot was a "silent type of person, devoted to prayer ... He lived a pious, humble and simple life ... He was offered to become a bishop many times, but he humbly refused all these offers."

"I consider him a saint," Fr. Arganda said in an interview with Bankaw News.

Fr. Arganda was a former sacristan (altar boy) of Msgr. Guimbaolibot in his younger years. He had become the assistant priest of the monsignor who took over the parish during the illness and after the death of the latter.

"Padre Atoy was a holy man, he was a priest about whom I have nothing to say against," recalled Segundo Juaban, 85 years old.

"Buotan hin duro adto nga Monsenyor (That Monsignor was an extremely good man)," is a usual comment about Msgr. Guimbaolibot from those old folks who had seen him in life.

Among Msgr. Guimbaolibot's parishioners was a group of White Russian war refugees living in nearby Tubabao Island. According to Marcos Salas, 83 years old, one of them played a violin solo during the internment of the monsignor at the Catholic cemetery of Guiuan on September 14, 1949.

On December 8, 1995, the "Movement for the Beatification Msgr. Donato B. Guimbaolibot" was formally launched in Guiuan, Samar. The launching coincided with the town fiesta and the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Christian evangelization of Guiuan.

The publicity initiated by Bankaw News in support of the movement, which was picked up by several Manila newspapers, continues to raise eyebrows. This is especially so among many people who associated Msgr. Guimbaolibot with the killing of American soldiers by native bolo fighters during the Balangiga Massacre in 1901, and not with what the priest suffered afterwards for an erroneous suspicion by the Americans.

A proud moment in our historic struggle for freedom, the Balangiga event remains misunderstood by many Filipinos.

Whatever outsiders say about him, Msgr. Guimbaolibot remains the only priest from Leyte and Samar who has had a monument erected in his memory right in his hometown. His statue now stands on the western lawn of the centuries-old Guiuan Parish Church.

A free translation of the Latin inscription on the bronze marker at the base of the monument reads: "Most Knowledgeable and Most Reverend Monsignor Donato Guimbaolibot ­ Domestic Prelate, Vicar General, Vicar Forane and Parish Priest for 48 years, Immaculate Conception Parish of Guiuan, which he piously and skillfully governed, died at 83 years old on the 9th of September, 1949."

This monument and the beatification movement are supreme tributes to a priest and a future saint who did not want his love of country and his sacrifice for the defense of his faith and vocation to be bought.