LIPA, Batangas — The church was packed earlier this week when the gunfight erupted. Snipers crouched behind pews, firing at foes darting across the altar, now enveloped in swirling smoke. For several heart-pounding minutes, chaos reigned — until at last, one side’s bloodied troops surrendered.

San Sebastián Cathedral in Lipa had never witnessed anything like this — at least, not since the actual battle of June 1898. 

Thankfully, what we witnessed last Wednesday was only a military reenactment. It marked the 127th anniversary of one of the Philippine Revolution’s most decisive victories. In June 1898, troops under Gen. Paciano Rizal, supported by Lipa’s civilians, surrounded elite Spanish soldiers holed up for 11 days within the church and adjoining convento. 

Unlike the reenactment, Filipino troops did not actually engage inside the church in 1898. But sniper fire and skirmishes raged in Lipa’s side streets and in the church plaza, before a Filipino marksman struck Col. Juan Rodriguez Navas, the Spanish commander, wounding his arm so badly it required amputation during the siege. That operation was performed by the Spanish military doctor Dr. Santos Rubiano, who later chronicled the siege in detail. His memoirs, recently annotated and translated by Lipa scholars Br. Manuel Pajarillo and Renz Katigbak, give us a rare, firsthand window into the events. 

Dr. Rubiano, one of the negotiators for the Spanish surrender, wrote that the Filipino victors allowed their defeated enemies to march out in formation and with their dignity intact, a testament to the humane ideals fueling the revolution. 

Spanish firearms and ammunition were seized in Batangas by the newly formed Philippine Army and shipped to revolutionaries as far as Panay, fueling liberation efforts across Luzon and the Visayas. 

For over a century, this pivotal episode was barely mentioned in history’s pages and had remained unremembered even in Lipa. 

But in the past three years, Lipa has revived its legacy with commemorative reenactments, ceremonies, symposia, and performances — this year featuring an operatic presentation by the Lipa Actors Company; last year, a stirring rap anthem honoring the bravery of their ancestors.

I’m an adopted Lipeño, having married into a deep-rooted Lipa family 31 years ago. While I wasn’t born there, I chose to be a Lipeño. Seeing this cultural realm with fresh eyes, I was both amazed by Lipa’s rich heritage and dismayed by how much of it had been forgotten.

So, like many in the church last June 18, I sat spellbound as buried history came to life. The reenactment by the Republica Filipina Reenactment Group was painstakingly authentic, even down to the style of the pockets on the colonial-era uniforms. They even dramatized the amputation of Col. Navas’s arm, using a bloodied, realistic dummy limb to evoke the siege’s horror — inside the same church where the original events took place (San Sebastian had not yet been declared a cathedral in 1898). 

It was the first time such a reenactment occurred inside this sacred venue. The audience included Boy and Girl Scouts in crisp uniforms, firefighters, teachers and students, city officials and employees. It felt like the entire community had gathered to reclaim a lost legacy. 

In his speech, Mayor Eric Africa reminded everyone that after three years of commemoration, it was time to “level up.” He stressed that this story should enter our schools, to foster civic pride and deepen appreciation for Lipa’s heritage: from vintage homes and Barako coffee farms to the families whose names echo with heroism, if only we choose to remember. 

When it was my turn to speak, I told them that what truly moved me wasn’t the fact that Filipinos defeated the Spaniards — it was how our revolutionary troops treated their defeated foes: with dignity and respect. 

That conduct embodied what these first Filipinos hoped their nation would be: brave yet compassionate, led with wisdom, and driven by love for country and community.