A True But Forgotten War Hero

A brilliant Filipino general named Licerio Geronimo is not among those remembered during national commemorations, such as Independence Day. The Filipinos of today do not know Licerio Geronimo, the battle-scarred general of both the Revolution of 1896 and of the Philippine-American War, neither nor of the Battle of San Mateo... "Maybe because he was poor and unschooled ",said his daughter in an interview. He was taught how to read and write by friends .His only intellectual fare was the awit and corrido which he read while lying on the back of his grazing carabao  in Montalban.

General Licerio Geronimo had been with  Andres Bonifacio in the attack on the munitions depot in San Juan del Monte , the first battle of the Revolution of 1896 .With the outbreak of the Philippine-American War, General Antonio Luna appointed him Commanding General of the "Tercera Zona", comprising Manila and its adjacent provinces including Morong (now Rizal). Gen. Aguinaldo designated him  Division General of the Revolutionary Army for Morong with his station at San Mateo town. In defense of Mt. Puray camp, Gen, Cerio and his force fought the Spaniards for six hours and triumphed.

At dawn of December 19,1899, at one side of the Marikina River, stood Major Gen. Henry W, Lawton ,the enemy in the Philippine-American War and responsible for the death of many Filipinos. He was the captor of the fearless Apache chieftain who held the U.S. Army at bay for 40 years. Gen. Lawton had with him two battalions of infantry and two squadrons of cavalry. On the other side of the river were Filipinos who had been strategically deployed in trenches by Gen. Cerio. His force was a team of sharpshooters ,the legendary "Tiradores de la Muerte", who had been trained by an English soldier.

Lawton exposed his bulky frame in plain sight of the Filipinos, because his perception was,the Filipinos had just learned to handle a gun. Although in one of his reports, he wrote :"With the disadvantages they have_ no artillery, ammunition , power inferior, shells reloaded until they are defective ,they are the bravest men I have ever seen."

General Cerio Geronimo shot Gen. Lawton in the Battle of San Mateo which lasted for a furious three hours on December 19,1899. Thus, the man who conquered the Indian Geronimo 13 years earlier beside the Yagui River in Arizona near the foothills of the Sierra Madre in Mexico , was killed by another Indio also named Geronimo, beside another river close to the foothills of the Sierra Madre in Luzon.

Six months after the battle, Gen. Cerio received a letter from the bereaved wife of Gen. Lawton asking him for the picture of the man who killed her husband. Gen, Cerio sent his picture with an inscription of regrets :"Ayaw ko mang gawin,.ay aking ginawa nang dahil sa bayan ."

(Reference :from the article of Lilia Ramos de Leon, Philippine Panorama, June 7,1981)

Gen. Geronimo died on January 16,1924. His memory had been buried  by perception pervading in a country whose mind is clutched by a distorted history. Geronimo, the Nemesis of Gen. Lawton was a true hero who deserves to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani  ,instead  of a self proclaimed war hero whose name is not found in the list of Philippine Scouts, the USAFFE or the Guerrillas during WWII.