Antonio Luna Antonio Luna de San Pedro y Novicio - Ancheta ( October 29 , 1866 – June 5 , 1899 ) , an Ilocano born in Manila , was a Filipino pharmacist and general who fought in the Philippine – American War . He was also the founder of the Philippines ' s first military academy , which existed during the First Philippine Republic . He was regarded as the most brilliant of the Filipino military officers during the war . Succeeding Artemio Ricarte as commander of the Philippine Revolutionary Army , he organized professional guerrilla soldiers later to be known as the " Luna sharpshooters " . His three - tier defense , now known as the Luna Defense Line , gave the American troops a hard campaign in the provinces north of Manila . Family background . Antonio Luna de San Pedro y Novicio - Ancheta was born on October 29 , 1866 in Urbiztondo , Binondo , Manila . He was the youngest of seven children of Joaquín Luna de San Pedro , from Badoc , Ilocos Norte , and Spanish mestiza Laureana Novicio - Ancheta , from Luna , La Union ( formerly " Namacpacan " ) . His father was a traveling salesman of the products of government monopolies . His older brother , Juan , was an accomplished painter who studied in the Madrid Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando . Another brother , José , became a doctor . Education . At the age of six , Antonio learned reading , writing , and arithmetic from a teacher known as " Maestro Intong " . He memorized the " Doctrina Christiana " ( catechism ) , the first book printed in the Philippines . Common Catholic vocal prayers were all included in the book . The primary goal of the book was to propagate the Christian teachings in the Philippines . He initially studied at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila , where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1881 . He went on to study literature and chemistry at the University of Santo Tomas , where he won first prize for a paper in chemistry titled " Two Fundamental Bodies of Chemistry " . He also studied pharmacy , swordsmanship , fencing , and military tactics , and became a sharpshooter . On the invitation of his brother Juan in 1890 , Antonio was sent by his parents to Spain , to acquire a licentiate ( at Universidad de Barcelona ) and doctorate ( at Universidad Central de Madrid ) in Pharmacy . Reform propagandist . In Spain , he became one of the Filipino expatriates who mounted the Propaganda Movement and wrote for " La Solidaridad " , headed by Galicano Apacible . He wrote a piece titled " Impressions " which dealt with Spanish customs and idiosyncrasies under the pen - name " Taga - ilog " . Also , like many of the Filipino liberals in Spain , Luna joined the Masonry where he rose to being Master Mason . Luna was active as a researcher in the scientific community . After receiving his doctorate , Luna published in 1893 a scientific treatise on malaria entitled " El Hematozoario del Paludismo ( Malaria ) " , which was favorably received in the scientific community . He then went to Belgium and France , and worked as assistant to Dr . Latteaux and Dr . Laffen . In recognition of his ability , he was appointed commissioner by the Spanish government to study tropical and communicable diseases . In 1894 , he went back to the Philippines where he took the competition for chief chemist of the Municipal Laboratory of Manila , came in first and won the position . He and his brother Juan also opened the " Sala de Armas " , a fencing club , in Manila . When he learned of the underground societies that were planning a revolution and was asked to join , he scoffed at the idea and turned down the offer . Like other Filipino émigrés , he was in favor of reform rather than revolution as the way towards independence . Nevertheless , after the existence of the Katipunan was leaked in August 1896 , the Luna brothers were arrested and jailed in Fort Santiago for " participating " in the revolution . His statement concerning the revolution was one of the many statements used to nail down the death sentence for José Rizal . Months later , José and Juan were freed but Antonio was exiled to Spain in 1897 , where he was imprisoned at the Cárcel Modelo de Madrid . His more famous and controversial brother , Juan , who had been pardoned by the Spanish Queen Regent herself , left for Spain to use his influence to intercede for Antonio . Soon enough , Antonio ' s case was dismissed by the Military Supreme Court and he was released . Antonio , repenting for his blunder during the first phase of the Philippine Revolution , which ended at the Pact of Biak - na - Bato , then prepared himself for the second phase , which began upon the return of Emilio Aguinaldo in Cavite , that he had decided to join . Upon his release , Luna studied field fortifications , guerrilla warfare , organization , and other aspects of military science under Gerard Leman , who would later be the commanding general of the fortress at Liège . Upon arriving in Hong Kong , he was given a letter of recommendation to Emilio Aguinaldo and a revolver by Felipe Agoncillo . He returned to the Philippines in July 1898 . Personal life . Luna also courted Nellie Boustead , a woman who was also courted by José Rizal . Boustead was reportedly infatuated with Rizal . In a party held by Filipinos , a drunk Antonio Luna made unsavory remarks against Nellie Boustead . This prompted Rizal to challenge Luna into a duel . However , Luna apologized to Rizal , thus averting a duel between the compatriots . Philippine – American War . Luna was one of the first to see action in Manila on August 13 , 1898 , when the Americans landed troops in Intramuros . Since June 1898 , Manila had been completely surrounded by the revolutionary troops . Colonel Luciano San Miguel occupied Mandaluyong ; General Pío del Pilar , Makati ; General Mariano Noriel , Parañaque ; Pacheco , Navotas , Tambobong , and Caloocan . Gregorio del Pilar marched through Sampaloc , taking Tondo , Divisoria , and Azcárraga ; Noriel cleared Singalong and Paco , and held Ermita and Malate . Luna thought the Filipinos should just walk in and enter Intramuros to have joint occupation of the walled city . But Aguinaldo , heeding the advice of General Merritt and Commodore ( later Admiral ) George Dewey , whose fleet had moored in Manila Bay , sent Luna to the trenches where he ordered his troops to fire on the Americans . After the chaos following the American Occupation , Luna tried to complain to American officers at a meeting in Ermita about the disorder made by American soldiers . To silence Luna , Aguinaldo appointed him as Chief of War Operations on September 26 , 1898 , and assigned the rank of Brigadier General . In quick succession , he was made the Director of War and Supreme Chief of the Army , arousing the envy of the other generals . Luna felt that bureaucratic placebos were being thrown his way , when all he wanted was to organize and discipline the enthusiastic , ill - fed and ill - trained young troops into a real army . Luna saw the need for a military school , so in October 1898 he established a military academy at Malolos the " Academia Militar " , the precursor of the present Philippine Military Academy . He appointed Captain ( later Colonel ) Manuel Bernal Sityar , a mestizo formerly serving the Spanish Army , as superintendent . He recruited other mestizos and Spaniards who had fought in the Spanish army during the 1896 revolution for training . However , the Academia had to be suspended indefinitely by March 1899 due to outbreak of the Philippine – American War . A score of veteran officers became the teachers at his military school . He devised two courses of instruction , planned the reorganization , with a battalion of " tiradores " and a cavalry squadron , set up an inventory of guns and ammunition , arsenals , using convents and town halls , quartermasters , lookouts and communication systems . He built tranches with the help of his chief engineer , General Jose Alejandrino , and had his brother Juan design the school ' s uniforms ( the Filipino rayadillo ) . He also insisted on strict discipline over and above clan armies and clique loyalties . Deciding that the fate of the infant Republic should be a contest for the minds of Filipinos , Luna turned to journalism to strengthen Filipino minds with the ideas of nationhood and the need to fight the Americans . He decided to publish a newspaper , " " La Independencia " . " This four - page daily was filled with articles , short stories , patriotic songs and poems . The staff was installed in one of the coaches of the train that ran from Manila to Pangasinan . The paper came out in September 1898 , and was an instant success . A movable feast of information , humor and good writing , 4 , 000 copies were printed , which was more than all the other newspapers put together . When the Treaty of Paris , under which Spain was to cede the Philippines to the United States , was made public in December 1898 , Luna quickly decided that only decisive military action could save the republic . He proposed a strategy that was designed to trap the Americans in Manila before more of their troops could land by executing surprise attacks while building up strength in the north . If the American forces penetrated his lines , Luna determined that he would wage a series of delaying battles and prepare a fortress in northern Luzon . This , however , was turned down by the High Command , who still believed that the Americans would grant full independence . The Americans gained the time and the opportunity to start hostilities with the Filipinos at the place and time of their choice . On the night of February 4 , 1899 , when most of the Filipino generals were at a ball in Malolos to celebrate the success of the American anti - imperialists delaying the ratification of the Treaty of Paris , the Americans staged an incident along the concrete blockhouses in Sta . Mesa near the Balsahan Bridge . An American patrol fired on Filipino troops , claiming afterwards that the Filipinos had started shooting first and the whole Filipino line from Pasay to Caloocan returned fire and the first battle of the Filipino - American War ensued . Two days later , in response to the incident , the US Senate voted for annexation . In doing so , the conflict became the war of conquest , occupation and annexation that Luna , Mabini , and others had predicted and about which they had warned Aguinado and his generals previously . Luna , after receiving orders from Aguinaldo , rushed to the front lines from his headquarters at Polo ( present - day Valenzuela City ) and led three companies to La Loma to engage General Arthur MacArthur ' s forces . Fighting took place at Marikina , Caloocan , Sta . Ana , and Paco . The Filipinos were subjected to a carefully planned attack with naval artillery , with Dewey ' s US fleet firing from the Manila Bay . Filipino casualties were high , amounting to around 2 , 000 killed and wounded . Luna personally had to carry wounded officers and men to safety ; of these rescues , the most dramatic was that of Commander José Torres Bugallón . After being hit by an American bullet , Bugallon had managed to advance another fifty meters before he was seen by Luna to collapse by the side of the road . As the Americans kept up their fire on the road , Luna had to gather an escort of around 25 men to save Bugallon , who Luna declared was equivalent to 500 men . Surviving the encounter , Luna tried to encourage Bugallon to live and gave the latter an instant promotion to lieutenant colonel . However , Bugallon died thereafter . On February 7 , Luna issued a detailed order to the field officers of the territorial militia . Containing five specific objects , it began " " by virtue of the barbarous attack upon our army on February 4 " , " and ended with " " war without quarter to false Americans who wish to enslave us . Independence or death ! " " The order labeled the US forces " an army of drunkards and thieves " in response to the continued bombardment of the towns around Manila , the burning and looting of whole districts , and the raping of Filipino women by US troops . When Luna saw that the American advance had halted , mainly to stabilize their lines , he again mobilized his troops to attack La Loma on February 10 . Fierce fighting ensued but the Filipinos were forced to withdraw thereafter . Caloocan was left with American forces in control of the southern terminus of the Manila to Dagupan railway , along with five engines , fifty passenger coaches , and a hundred freight cars . After consolidating control of Caloocan , the obvious next objective for American forces would be the Republic capital at Malolos . However , General Otis delayed for almost a month in hopes that Filipino forces would be deployed in its defense . Nevertheless , with their superior firepower and newly arrived reinforcements , the Americans had not expected such resistance . They were so surprised that an urgent cable was sent to General Lawton who was in Colombo , Ceylon ( now Sri Lanka ) , with his troops . Illustrating the concern that the Americans had , the telegram stated , " Situation critical in Manila . Your early arrival great importance . " A Filipino counterattack began at dawn on February 23 . The plan was to employ a pincer movement , using the battalions from the North and South , with the sharpshooters ( the only professionally trained troops ) at crucial points . The " sandatahanes " or bolomen inside Manila would start a great fire to signal the start of the assault . Troops directly under Luna ' s command were divided into three : the West Brigade under General Pantaleon Garcia , the Center Brigade under General Mariano Llanera , and the East Brigade under General Licerio Gerónimo . It was only partly successful because of two main reasons . Firstly , some of the successful Filipino sectors ran low on ammunition and food , and were thus forced to withdraw to Polo . Secondly , Luna failed to relieve the Pampango militia , already past their prime , when the battalion from Kawit , Cavite , refused to replace the former , saying that they had orders to obey only instructions directly from Aguinaldo . Such insubordination had become quite common among the Filipino forces at that time as most of the troops owed their loyalty to the officers from their provinces , towns or districts and not to the central command . As a result , the counterattack soon collapsed , and Luna placated himself by disarming the Kawit Battalion . Luna , however , proved to be a strict disciplinarian and thereby alienated many in the ranks of the common soldiers . An example of this occurred during the Battle of Calumpit wherein Luna ordered General Tomás Mascardo to send troops from Guagua to strengthen the former ' s defenses . However , Mascardo ignored orders by Luna insisting that he was going to Arayat to undertake an " inspection of troops " . Another version of Mascardo ' s reasoning emerged and it was probably that which reached Luna . This version was that Mascardo had left to visit his girlfriend . Luna , infuriated by Mascardo ' s actions , had decided to detain him . However , Major Hernando , one of Luna ' s aides , tried to placate the general ' s anger by convincing Luna to push the case to President Aguinaldo . Aguinaldo complied to detain Mascardo for twenty - four hours . Upon returning to the field , however , the Americans had broken through his defenses at the Bagbag River , forcing Luna to withdraw despite his heroic action to defend the remaining sectors . And so it went , battle after battle , incident after incident until Luna proferred his resignation , mainly in resentment for the rearmament of the Kawit Battalion as the Presidential Guard . Aguinaldo hesitantly accepted the resignation . As a result , Luna was absent from the field for three weeks , during which the Filipino forces suffered several defeats and setbacks . Receiving the depressing reports from the field through his " La Independencia " correspondents , Luna went to Aguinaldo and asked to be reinstated with more powers over all the military chiefs , and Aguinaldo agreed by making him Commander - in - Chief of the Filipino forces in Pampanga and Bulacan . The Luna Defense Line was planned to create a series of delaying battles from Caloocan to Angeles , Pampanga , as the Republic was constructing a guerrilla base in the Mountain Province . The base was planned to be the last stand headquarters of the Republic in the case the Americans broke through the Defense Line . American military observers were astonished by the Defense Line , which they described as consisting of numerous bamboo trenches stretching from town to town . The series of trenches allowed the Filipinos to withdraw gradually , firing from cover at the advancing Americans . As the American troops occupied each new position , they were subjected to a series of traps that had been set in the trenches , which included bamboo spikes and poisonous reptiles . By the end of May 1899 , Colonel Joaquín Luna , one of Antonio ' s brothers , warned him that a plot had been concocted by " old elements " or the autonomists of the Republic ( who were bent on accepting American sovereignty over the country ) and a clique of army officers whom Luna had disarmed , arrested , and / or insulted . Luna shrugged off all these threats , reiterating his trust for Aguinaldo , and continued building defenses at Pangasinan where the Americans were planning a landing . Death . On June 2 , 1899 , Luna received two telegrams - one asked for help in launching a counterattack in San Fernando , Pampanga ; and the other signed by Aguinaldo himself , ordered him to go to the new capital at Cabanatuan , Nueva Ecija to form a new cabinet . Having high hopes that he would be promoted as Prime Minister and Secretary of War , Luna set off ; first by train , then on horseback and eventually in three carriages to Nueva Ecija with 25 of his men . During the journey , two of the carriages broke down , so he proceeded with just one carriage with Colonel Francisco Román and Captain Eduardo Rusca , having earlier shed his cavalry escort . Upon arriving at Cabanatuan on June 5 , Luna alone , proceeded to the headquarters to communicate with the President . As he went up the stairs , he ran into an officer whom he had previously disarmed for cowardice , and an old enemy whom he had once threatened with arrest , a hated " autonomist " . He was told that Aguinaldo had left for San Isidro in Tarlac . Enraged , Luna asked why he had not been told the meeting was canceled . As he was about to depart , a single shot from a rifle in the plaza rang out . Still outraged and furious , Luna rushed down the stairs and met Captain Pedro Janolino , accompanied by some elements of the Kawit battalion whom he had previously dismissed for insubordination . Janolino swung his bolo at Luna wounding him at the head . Janolino ' s men fired at Luna , while others started stabbing him , even as he tried to fire his revolver at one of his attackers . He staggered out to the plaza where Román and Rusca were rushing to his aid , but they too were set upon and shot with Roman being killed and Rusca severely wounded . As he lay dying , Luna uttered this last words : " " Cowards ! Assassins ! " " . He was hurriedly buried in the churchyard , after which Aguinaldo relieved Luna ' s officers and men from the field , including General Venacio Concepción , whose headquarters in Angeles , Pampanga , Aguinaldo besieged the same day Luna was assassinated . The death of Luna , the most brilliant and capable of the Filipino generals at the time , was a decisive factor in the fight against the American forces . Even the Americans developed an admiration for him . General Frederick Funston , who received the credit of capturing Aguinaldo at Palanan , Isabela , stated that Luna was the " " ablest and most aggressive leader of the Filipino Republic . " " For General James Franklin Bell , Luna " " was the only general the Filipino army had . " " Subsequently , Aguinaldo suffered successive , disastrous losses in the field , as he retreated towards northern Luzon . General Jose Alejandrino , one of Luna ' s remaining aides , stated in his memoirs that if only Luna had finished the planned guerrilla camp in Mountain Province , Aguinaldo may have not been running for his life at the Cordillera Mountains . For historian Teodoro Agoncillo , however , Luna ' s death did not directly attribute to the resulting fall of the Republic . In his book , " Malolos : The Crisis of the Republic " , Agoncillo stated that the loss of Luna showed the existence of a lack of discipline among the regular Filipino soldiers and it was a major weakness that was never remedied in the course of the war . Also , soldiers connected with Luna were demoralized and as a result eventually surrendered to the Americans . On March 23 , 1901 , Aguinaldo was captured in Palanan , Isabela by American forces . He was later brought to Manila , and made to pledge allegiance to the United States on April 1 . Luna - Cojuangco Affair . There were talks concerning Luna diverting millions of pesos from the Republic ' s treasury , particularly from Ilocos and Pampanga , to the hometown of his sweetheart , Ysidra Cojuangco . Ysidra was the aunt of Jose Cojuangco , father of Corazon Aquino . Luna ' s wealth was said to have been entrusted to Ysidra , resulting in the latter becoming one of the richest women in the Philippines by 1900 . However , the book " The Rise and Fall of Antonio Luna " by Vicencio Jose , the standard biography about Luna , does not cite anything about this affair . The book does mention the wealth of his family which was proved by a silk bag that Luna wore , which contained his inheritance of gold coins . It was this same bag that had saved Luna ' s life at the Battle of Santo Tomas on May 4 , 1899 , when it had stopped a bullet that hit it from completely penetrating Luna ' s body .