Siege of Baler The Siege of Baler , from July 1 , 1898 to June 2 , 1899 , was a battle of the Philippine Revolution and concurrently the Spanish - American War and the Philippine - American War . Filipino revolutionaries laid siege to a fortified church manned by colonial Spanish troops in the town of Baler , Philippines for 11 months . The battle is considered part of the Spanish - American War since the Filipinos were allied with the United States at the outset . That war ended in December 1898 with Spain ' s surrender and annexation of the Philippines to the United States . However , cut off from communications with their own government and military , the Spanish forces continued their defense against the Filipino forces until 1899 . Background . Baler , Aurora located on the eastern coast of Luzon , is some 225 kilometers distant from the Philippine capital city of Manila . In 1898 it was reachable only by ship or by traversing on foot through nearly impassable jungle trails that were often washed out by torrential tropical rains . The Philippine Revolution against Spanish colonial rule , which had started in 1896 , formally resumed in 1898 after a truce in 1897 . At the same time , the Philippines was involved in the Spanish - American War , and the Filipino rebels allied themselves with the American forces . This alliance would end with the outbreak of the Philippine - American War in 1899 . Baler was garrisoned by a fifty - man detachment of the 2nd Expeditionary Battalion " Cazadores " of Philippines , under Captain Enrique de las Morenas y Fossí . On June 1 , 1898 , Morenas began work to dig a well , stock food supplies and ammunition and to fortify the church compound of San Luís de Tolosa in Baler ' s town square against a possible attack . The church was the only stone building in the area . Siege . On June 26 , it was noticed that the town residents were deserting . On the night of the 30th , 800 Filipino troops under Teodorico Luna ( A relative of the painter Juan Luna ) attacked , and the garrison fell back to the church . The town priest , Father Candido Gomez Carreño , also quartered himself in the church . The first few days of the siege saw several attempts by the Filipinos to get the Spanish to surrender by leaving letters , while they surrounded the church with trenches . On July 8 the Revolutionary Commander , then Cirilo Gomez Ortiz , offered a suspension of hostilities until nightfall , which was accepted . On July 18 , Calixto Villacorta took command of the Filipinos . He also sent a warning letter , which was rebuffed . The Spanish had to endure confinement in a small , hot , humid space . As the siege progressed , their food supply began to diminish through usage and spoilage . Enemy rifle fire did cause casualties but diseases such as beriberi , dysentery , and fevers did more damage . The first Spaniard to die was Father Gomez Carreño . In September , Captain Las Morenas came down with beriberi . His second in command , Lt . Juan Alonzo Zayas died of wounds and command fell to Lt . Saturnino Martin Cerezo when Las Morenas died in December . More than once the Spanish made forays to burn nearby houses to deprive the Filipinos of much needed cover . The Filipinos attempted to smoke them out by setting fires beside the church wall but this was repulsed and their timber captured . They also tried psychological warfare on the Spanish by arranging for a couple to have sexual intercourse in plain sight . At the start of the siege , the Spanish had provisions of flour , rice , beans , chickpeas , bacon , corned beef , sardines , wine , coffee and olive oil - but no salt , and this caused much discomfort . To supplement their food supplies , the Spanish foraged for squash and other vegetables and killed animals , including carabao s ( Water buffalo ) . As the siege wore on , they were forced to eat dogs , reptiles , snails and crows . By mid - November , having failed to dislodge the Spanish defenders , Villacorta , under a flag of truce , left newspapers on the church steps that told of Spain ' s planned departure from the Philippines and that the Spanish - American conflict was over . Martin considered this a ruse . Next Villacorta brought in Spanish civilians and ultimately a uniformed Spanish officer left behind to wrap up Spain ' s affairs on the island , to no avail . By the end of 1898 , 134 days had elapsed since the siege began , during which one Spanish soldier died of wounds and thirteen of disease . Of the thirty - eight remaining troops , only twenty - three were effective , with the rest being sick . The Filipinos also had suffered casualties , mostly from Mauser rifle fire the Spanish were able to inflict on them from their protected firing positions . Gomez Ortiz was one of these . The New Year brought more Spanish emissaries to Baler but again Martin Cerezo turned them away . In April , the Americans intervened when Lt . Commander James C . Gilmore and U . S . Marines from the gunboat " USS Yorktown " attempted to relieve the Spanish . But shortly after coming ashore , he and his twenty - five Marines were ambushed by the Filipino forces , as the Philippines had been at war with the United States since February . Several Marines were wounded and Gilmore was captured and held prisoner for eight months before he escaped and made his way through the jungle and Filipino lines to Manila . By May , Filipino artillery shelling hit an improvised cell that held three Spaniards who had attempted to desert earlier in the siege . One of them , Alcaide , ran out and joined the Filipinos . This was a blow to the Spanish as the deserter had important intelligence to share . On May 28 , 1899 , there was yet another attempt to get Martin Cerezo to surrender . Again , another Spanish officer appeared under a flag of truce and was turned away . He had brought a copy of a Madrid newspaper , which the Lieutenant dismissed as bogus . However , the paper contained an article concerning the upcoming wedding of a fellow officer he knew personally . Martin - Cerezo was thus convinced the paper was genuine and that indeed Spain had lost the war . On June 2 , 1899 , he surrendered to the Filipinos . General Emilio Aguinaldo , president of the Philippine Revolutionary Government - [ First Philippine Republic ] , decreed that they were to be considered " " Not as prisoners of war but as friends " " . He further stated that " " They realized an epic as glorious as the legendary valour of the son of El Cid and of Pelayo " " . Three months later , on September 1 , the survivors , including Martin Cerezo , arrived in Barcelona where they were received and honored as heroes . Martin - Cerezo later published a memoir , “ El Sitio de Baler ” , where he gave his reasons for holding out : Aftermath . Las Morenas was posthumously promoted to Major and awarded the ' Lauerate Cross of San Fernando ' , Spain ’ s highest military medal . His widow received a pension of 5 , 000 pesetas or " Peso " , a Philippine currency . Martin - Cerezo was promoted to Major with an annual pension of 1 , 000 pesetas . He also was decorated with the ' Royal Cross ' as well as the Military Order of San Fernando and went on to become a Major General . He died in 1948 . Lt . Zayas received a posthumous promotion . The enlisted men received the ' Silver Cross of Military Merit ' and each of them received a monthly pension of 60 pesetas . Of the fifty men who entered the church , around thirty survived the 11 - month siege . Fourteen men died from disease . Only two men died from wounds . There were four deserters from the garrison . Two men were imprisoned for helping in the desertion of another ( Alcaide ) , and executed on orders of Martin Cerezo on June 1 , 1899 , the day before the surrender . The feat of the Spanish so inspired the American General Frederick Funston that he had Martin - Cerezo ' s memoir translated and gave copies to all his officers . It was published as " Under the Red and Gold : Being Notes and Recollections of the Siege of Baler " . The survivors were known as " Los Ultimos de Filipinas " in Spanish or " Ang Pinakahuli Mula sa Pilipinas " in Filipino - Philippine dialect , " The Last Ones of the Philippines " . A century after their return , the Spanish government paid homage to them . Baler in popular culture . The Siege of Baler is portrayed in the 1945 Spanish film " Los últimos de Filipinas " . and in the 2008 Filipino film " Baler " .