Instead of being cowed, the comrades of the fallen revolutionists, Kapitan Fabian, Bindoy and Kapitang Mio, (Fabian Medenilla, Hermenegildo Flores and Remigio Medina, respectively), vowed to retaliate even as their arms were of no match to the enemy's Mauser guns. Before midnight of November 1, 1897, the Mendez unit from Mogpog attacked the Casa Real to free the remaining prisoners.
It was to be the last direct and bloody assault on the Spaniards. There was fierce fighting in the dead of night, and the townspeople, in fear and prayer could only hear the gunshots and the cries of men. Mendez and his men were repulsed. Their comrades still in jail were ordered killed. A grim and ghastly silence echoed throughout the building and the now ghostly town.
One of the prisoners, mistaken for dead, was luckier this time. Pedro Madrigal, a pharmacist from Boac who was ordered to check the bodies informed Fresnede immediately that one was still alive. The prisoner, Juan Manuba of Mogpog, fighting for his life raced towards the Boac river, disappeared into the thick bushes and lived on to tell his story.
Still fresh in the mind of Marinduque folk was another tragic episode that transpired less than a month earlier, on October 10, 1897:
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| A local history manuscript. |
Sunday, 10 October 1897, was the "Feast of the Santo Rosario", a much awaited religious event in the town of Boac. The procession which started at 6:00 p.m. was unusually long. Shortly after the religious procession ended at 9:00 p.m. word was received by the Spanish lieutenant, Fresnede, that the "insurrectos" were on their way to Boac to attack the "Casa". Fresnede was still assessing the report with his cazadores when the revolutionists from Mogpog, led this time by Fabian Medenilla ("Kapitan Fabian"), of the Mendez unit raided the Casa Real in Boac.
There, the last of their comrades-in-arms awaited their fate. The revolutionists fought with their bolos, the cazadores with their guns. The sounds of anguished cries and gunfire gripped the whole town.The ensuing pandemonium could only be sensed by the townspeople, too frightened and confused to immediately know what was happening. Found dead the morning after by the door of a ground floor office of the Casa Real was Fabian Medenilla, a bullet hole embedded on his forehead. The bullet was fired off from the gun owned by Fresnede.
Together with the other dead prisoners inside the cell were found the lifeless bodies of the commander of Marinduque's revolutionary force, Herminigildo Flores ("Bindoy"). Remigio Medina ("Kapitang Mio"), the revolutionary leader from Torrijos, was also found dead. In ultimate mockery, the Spaniards decided that the fallen "insurrectos" were not worthy of a Christian burial, nor "Bendita" nor prayers nor shallow graves.
The corpses of the two were mercilessly hauled into the banks of the Boac river then covered with tree trunks and palm leaves. The bodies were burned and reduced to mere ashes.
But the corpses of the other revolutionists were better treated. These were brought to an old graveyard east of the town, on a small hill in Tampus that served as their final resting place. (Near the graveyard, one fallen body turned out to be still alive and, recovering consciousness, implored the "cazadores" to spare his life. He got more bullets instead).
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| Man lights candles in memory of the dead and forgotten at the old and dreary, hopelessly abandoned Cemeterio de Tampus, in Boac, Marinduque |
