Colonel Faustino Guillermo

I bumped into this while searching my name in google


One of my dream was to create a Philippine Historical Film and Colonel Faustino's Story was unlike any other.

Well I don't have a screenplay yet (X_X) if ever I have a working title.

"Layang Magiliw"
"The song of freedom"

June 10, 1903: Colonel Faustino Guillermo is captured by Philippine Constabulary troops commanded by a Captain Teong

Faustino Guillermo was born in 1860 in Sampaloc, Manila. As a Katipunero, he fought alongside Andres Bonifacio. He surrendered to the Americans at Malabon in 1900. Shortly after taking the oath of allegiance to the United States, he established himself at San Francisco del Monte, Morong Province (renamed "Rizal Province" in 1901) and began recruiting men to continue the resistance against American rule. Guillermo was arrested there in 1901 by the Filipino police of Sampaloc. After three months' imprisonment, he was freed by Lieutenant Lucien Sweet of the municipal secret police, who appointed him as a police informer.

Upon his release, Guillermo returned to San Francisco del Monte and resumed recruitment work for the resistance. He was re-arrested by the Philippine Constabulary (PC) and placed under the custody of Inspector Licerio Geronimo in San Mateo, Rizal Province.(Geronimo commanded the Filipino troops that killed Maj. Gen. Henry W. Lawton at the Battle of San Mateo on Dec. 19, 1899; he surrendered to the Americans on March 30, 1901; he was among a handful of Filipinos admitted into the officer ranks of the colonial Philippine Constabulary).

He went to the mountains and commenced to recruit men, inviting his friends and acquaintances to join him in fighting the Americans. They wandered about the woods, going from Rizal to Bulacan and vice versa, living upon food given them by the people of the barrios.

In early 1902, he joined the forces of General Luciano San Miguel who gave him the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (promoted to Colonel in January 1903). They operated in the provinces of Rizal and Bulacan. Guillermo figured in at least 15 skirmishes with the Philippine Constabulary and Philippine Scouts.

He permitted spies to penetrate his camps. However, before the infiltrators got the chance to report to their American bosses, he unmasked and buried them up to their necks, their heads and faces exposed to the painful bites of huge red ants (hamtik).

On July 15, 1902, Inspector Licerio Geronimo, who was scouting in the Diliman country with seven men (Diliman is now a part of Quezon City), was surprised in a house where he and his men were resting, by Faustino Guillermo and Apolonio Samson with about 25 men, and narrowly escaped capture, after having one of his men killed and another seriously wounded. Geronimo also lost 3 horses, with their trappings and saddles, his uniform, hat and shoes, and escaped in his undershirt and drawers.

In the evening, Guillermo made good use of Geronimo's PC outfit. He wore it when he entered the PC garrison of 16 men in San Jose, Bulacan; the unsuspecting garrison commander, a Sergeant Omano, obeyed Guillermo's order and formed the detachment into arms. At this juncture, Guillermo's men rushed in and took all the constables prisoners and secured their firearms. One of the constables defected to Guillermo's band.

Photo taken in 1904

On March 27, 1903, at Corral-na-Bato, Marikina, Rizal Province, Guillermo and General San Miguel were surrounded and attacked by the First and Fourth Companies of the Philippine Scouts led by First Lieutenants Boss Reese and Frank Nickerson; San Miguel and 34 of his men were killed while the Scouts suffered 3 dead. Guillermo and other survivors escaped to Mt. Laniting, near Boso-Boso (now a sitio of Barangay San Jose, Antipolo City).

On June 10, 1903 Colonel Guillermo was captured by the Philippine Constabulary. He was charged and convicted of bandolerismo (brigandage). On Oct. 24, 1903, he was sentenced to death by the Court of First Instance of the Province of Rizal.

On April 12, 1904, the Supreme Court of the Philippines headed by Cayetano S. Arellano a Filipino and the first Chief Justice, affirmed the judgment of the lower court; also concurring were Filipino associate justices Florentino Torres and Victorino Mapa, and American associate justice Joseph Cooper. The lone dissenter was American associate justice John Mcdonough who recommended the commutation of the death sentence to life imprisonment. (Arellano and Torres were among the founders of the pro-American Partido Federal on Dec. 23, 1900).

On May 20, 1904, Colonel Guillermo died at the gallows in Pasig, Rizal. He was 44 years old and a widower.

May 20, 1904: Colonel Faustino Guillermo is hanged