National Hero
Teresita (Teresa) Magbanua – Joan of Arc of the Visayas
Teresa Magbanua
BioData
- Full Name: Teresa Magbanua Y Ferraris
- Sobriquet: Joan of Arc of the Visayas
- DoB: 13 October 1868
- PoB: Pototan, Iloilo, Philippines
- Death: August 1947
- Civil Status: Married to Alejandro Balderas
- Education: Colegio de Doña Cecilia (Education) MA at University of Santo Tomas
- Legacy: Revolutionary. Exceptional horseman and marksman. The only woman to lead an army during the Philippine revolution against the Spaniards. She also participated during revolutions against the American and Japanese.
- 13 October is observed in Pototan as Teresa Magbanua Day.
I opened my emails today and found a very interesting one from a friend who’s related to Teresita Magbanua, who was known as the Joan of Arc of the Visayas. Anyway I googled Teresita Magbanua and this was an entry from Wikipedia:
Teresa Magbanua y Ferraris (October 13, 1868 – August 1947) earned the distinction of being the only woman to lead combat troops in the Visayas against Spanish and American forces. Born in Pototan, Iloilo, Philippines on 13 October 1868, to wealthy parents, she earned a teaching degree and taught in her hometown. Having come from a family of revolutionaries, she immediately volunteered her services to the motherland and became an exceptional horseman and marksman.
Without the approval of her husband, she led a large group of men in the Battle of Barrio Yoting, Capiz in early December 1898. She outfought the Spanish troops at the Battle of Sapong Hills near Sara.
She suffered greatly from the early death of her brothers General Pascual Magbanua and Elias Magbanua, at the hands of traitors.
Fifty years later, her heroism was once again displayed when she helped finance a guerrilla resistance movement by the liberators together with the Allied Filipino soldiers of the 6th, 61st and 62nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army, 6th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Constabulary and the Ilonggo guerrillas against the Japanese in the Battle for the Liberation of Iloilo. Teresa Magbanua was likely called the “Joan of Arc”.
She migrated to Mindanao after the war and lived with her sister Maria in Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur, where she died in August, 1947, exact day unknown.
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This is my friend, Bob Gabuna, had to say regarding his ancestress:
My roots, were revoloutionary leaders. The lady-warrior, Teresita
MAGBANUA of Pototan, Iloilo that earned the moniker, “Joan of Arc” of the
Visayas, is my great-grandaunt. Two of Nanay Isa’s elder brothers
(Isa is her endeared pet name), Francisco and Pascual, were already generals
in the revolutionary movement; but, Nanay Isa is the most feared leader of the
rebelde (rebels) because of her exploits in conducting her revolutionary activities. Her
battle tactics is novel. The colonizers were stumped how to counteract it.
If you’ve heard of the modern “agaw armas”, of the underground elements in
procuring armaments for themselves in fighting the government forces? That
sort of warfare was the methodology employed by Nanay Isa.
Nanay Isa finished Education from UST, the Dominican operated school.
When she returned to her hometown, she “saw” the atrocities committed by
the colonizers. She quit being a classroom teacher and joined her two elder
brothers who were officers in the revolutionary movement.
Because the Panay liberators were ill equipped, she was given the mission
to procure arms for the rebolusionaryo. Employing her womanly wiles, she
would visit the garrisons and offer tuba to Guardia Sibil late in the night.
When the guards on duty are already drunk, Nanay Isa would give out a
signal and her troops would spring up from the bushes and grab away the
firearms of the drunk Guardia Sibil.
Nanay Isa’s fighting tactics was deemed far more dangerous than the
overt fighting forces of the rebels. To ferret out Teresita Magbanua
from her hiding, the colonizers persecuted the rest of the siblings of
Nanay Isa. To escape persecution, the rest of the members of the family
dispersed. Some went to Antique, some were able to escape in Negros,
some hid in nearby towns of Iloilo. Nanay Isa has 18 siblings plus one
(from a different mother). My direct ascendant, however, and two of his younger brothers
moved further in the southern part of Tablas Island—the largest island in the
Province of Romblon (an hour away of banca ride from Boracay Island).
A military decree was then issued during that period that all residents
in any given settlement must adopt the same letter for their family name.
In Pototan, letter P was imposed, hence, today, the municipality of Pototan
is peppered with family names that start in letter P. In Romblon, the
capital proper, letter M was given; Sibuyan, letter R was assigned; the
central part of Tablas Island and the three islands, letter F was imposed.
In Southern Tablas, letter G was issued.
There is a letter G in the surname of MAGBANUA. What my ninuno did,
they dropped the first two letters and transposed the remaining vowels.
Ergo, the new family name—GABUNA.
In my growing up years, every time I asked why our great-grandfather
and his brothers have to change family names, the elder cousins of my
father, including my aunts and uncles (both from the paternal and
maternal side), would place their pointing finger before their lips and
makes a hissing sound, “SSSHHH…hipos. Naglayas ang imo Lolo kay
ginpintasan kag ginhingabot”.
Crudely translated: Hush….keep silent. Our ancestors were compelled to
disperse and hide because they were persecuted and harmed.
For scores and decades, the second and third generation of Nanay Isa’s
descendants carried that emotional trauma and psychological burden.