Antonio Luna

Biography

Antonio Luna was a chemist, a champion fencer, and the most brilliant — and most impossible — soldier the Republic had. Educated in Manila and Madrid, he studied military science in Europe after his imprisonment for the 1896 revolution and returned to build a professional army: he founded a military academy, drafted regulations, planned a fortified line across Luzon, and enforced discipline at gunpoint on officers who recognized no authority but their home provinces. He commanded the defense of the Manila lines and the fighting retreat up the railway through Caloocan and Malolos, repeatedly attempting counterattacks that his feuding subordinates failed to deliver. His volcanic temper made enemies everywhere — he arrested generals, slapped officers, and disbanded units loyal to rivals. On June 5, 1899, summoned to Cabanatuan by a telegram from Aguinaldo's headquarters, Luna arrived to find the president absent — and the presidential guard, men he had once disciplined, waiting on the stairs. They shot and stabbed him more than thirty times. No one was ever tried. With him died the Republic's last hope of a conventional army worthy of the name.

Key Battles