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| Gen. Antonio Luna |
General Antonio Luna fortified the battle lines of Bagbag and Santo Tomas, Pampanga, established arsenals and encouraged material and financial support from civilians.
On May 4, 1899, General Luna was wounded in an encounter with the Americans at the fortlines of Santo Tomas, Pampanga. While recuperating from his wounds, he dispatched a patrol to Benguet hoping to find a site for guerilla activities against the Americans. General Antonio Luna's tragic death came unexpectedly on June 17, 1899.
On June 4, 1899, a telegram from Gen Emilio Aguinaldo, arrived ordering him to go to Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija for a Conference. He left at once with his aide, Col. Paco Roman.
When they arrived at Aguinaldo's headquarters in Cabanatuan they learned that he had left for Pampanga. While going down the stairs of the headquarters, the assassins, guards who happened to be the same men on whom he had imposed disciplinary punishments after the battle at Caloocan, pounced on him, riddled his body with bullets while others stabbed him.
He fired blindly with his pistol while shouting "Cowards and assassins! Coward Cavitenios!" Col. Paco Roman rushed to his aid but was shot dead a few meters away from him.
At the age of 31, General Antonio Luna was already dead. Juan Luna, elder brother of Gen Antonio and renowned painter of 'La Spoliarium' died because of extreme disappointment and intense grief shortly after learning that his youngest brother was assassinated.
Gen Antonio Luna's soldiers, by whose side he had stood loyally, greatly mourned the leader's death and they would always remember him as the one who exhorted them to a profound love of country; the one who had vowed to them: "I will defend my country until I exhaust the last recourse for the cause... thus complying with my oath to the flag."
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