Manuel Tinio y Bundoc (June 17, 1877 – February 22, 1924) was the youngest General of the Philippine Revolutionary Army, and was elected Governor of the Province of Nueva Ecija, Republic of the Philippines in 1907. He is considered to be one of the three "Fathers of the Cry of Nueva Ecija", along with Pantaleon Valmonte and Mariano Llanera.
On March 29, 2015, Licab, Nueva Ecija, dedicated the very first monument of General Tinio during its 120th anniversary as a municipality.
Early life and family background
The Tinio family, according to contemporary sources, was the most prominent and wealthiest family in the province of Nueva Ecija. They were the largest landowner in Central Luzon prior to the declaration of Martial Law. The Tinio family is of Chinese descent.
Juan Tinio, the first ancestor on record had twin sons who were baptized in Gapan in 1750. In the baptismal record he is described as an indio natural, a native Filipino. From this it can be deduced that either his grandfather or an earlier ancestor was a pure-blooded Chinese. Juan Tinio became the first middleman of the Tobacco Monopoly when it was established in 1782 and held the position for two years.
Juan Tinio's great-grandson, Mariano Tinio Santiago, was the father of Manuel Tinio. Mariano and his siblings, originally named Santiago, changed their family name to Tinio, their mother's family name, in accordance with Gov.-Gen. Narciso Claveria's second decree of 1850 requiring all Indios and Chinese mestizos to change their family names if these were saints’ names. Although he was a native of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, Mariano eventually settled in Licab, then a barrio of Aliaga beside Lake Canarem, and carved out rice fields from the heavily forested area. Having served as Cabeza de Barangay of the place, he came to be known as "Cabezang Marianong Pulang Buhok" (Cabezang Mariano the Red-Haired). Mariano was a man of strong principles, and even led a petition to the Governor-General denouncing the corruption and abuses of the Alcalde Mayor, the governor of Nueva Ecija, and asking for his recall. Mariano Tinio married several times. His fourth and last wife was Silveria Misadsad Bundoc of Entablado, Cabiao. He died on October 11, 1889, in Licab. Silveria lived on until the second decade of the 20th century.
Manuel Tinio was born to Silveria on June 17, 1877, in Licab, a barrio of Aliaga that became an independent municipality in 1890. He was the only son and had two sisters. The eldest, Maximiana, married Valentin de Castro of Licab and Catalina, the youngest, married Clemente Gatchalian Hernandez of Malolos, Bulacan. Manuel was his mother's favourite, his father having died when Manuel was twelve.
Early years The young Manuel Tinio learned his caton, the phonetic ABCs, under an unknown tutor in Licab. Later, he went to the provincial capital where he attended a school in Calaba, San Isidro headed by Don Rufino Villaruz. He continued his studies in Manila in the school run by Don V. Crisologo. In 1893 he entered San Juan de Letran, where he pursued his segunda ensenianza or high school studies until 1896.
1896 and the Philippine Revolution Manuel Tinio, then 18 years old, joined the Katipunan in April 1896. By August he had organized a company composed of friends, relatives and tenants. Personally leading his group of teenaged guerillas, he conducted raids and depredations against Spanish detachments and patrols in Nueva Ecija. Occasionally, he joined up with similar forces under other youthful leaders.
On September 2, 1896, Manuel Tinio and his men joined the combined forces of Mariano Llanera and Pantaleon Belmonte, capitanes municipales or mayors of Cabiao and Gapan, respectively, in the attack on San Isidro. Of 3,000 who volunteered, 500 determined men were chosen for the attack. Led by a bamboo orchestra or musikong bumbong of Cabiao, the force came in two separate columns from Cabiao and Gapan and converged in Sitio Pulu, 5 km. from San Isidro. Despite having only 100 rifles, they fought the Spaniards holed up in the Casa Tribunal, the arsenal, other government buildings and in the houses of Spanish residents. Capt. Joaquin Machorro, commander of the Guardias Civiles, was killed on the first day of battle. According to Julio Tinio, Manuel's cousin and a participant in the battle, Manuel had a conference in the arsenal with Antonio Luna and Eduardo Llanera, the general's son, immediately after the battle.
The Spanish authorities hastily organized a company of 200 civilian Spaniards and mercenaries the following day and attacked the overconfident insurgents, driving the besiegers away from the government center. The next day more Spanish reinforcements arrived from Peñaranda, forcing the poorly armed rebels to retreat, leaving behind 60 dead. The Spaniards went in hot pursuit of the insurgents, forcing those from Cabiao to flee to Candaba, Pampanga, and those from Gapan to hide in San Miguel de Mayumo in Bulacan. The insurgents from San Isidro fled across the river to hide in Jaen. The relatives of those who were recognized were driven away from their homes by the colonial authorities. Manuel Tinio and his troop stayed to protect the mass of people from Calaba, San Isidro, who were all his kinfolk, hastening across the river to Jaen, Nueva Ecija.
The Spaniards' relentless pursuit of the rebels forced them to disband and go into hiding until January 1897. Tinio was a special target. At tall, he literally stood out among the attackers, whose average height was below . He fled to Licab. A platoon of cazadores (footsoldiers) was sent to arrest him, forcing Hilario Tinio Yango, his first cousin and the Capitan Municipal of the town, to lead them to him. Warned of the approaching soldiers, Manuel again escaped and fled on foot back to San Isidro, where, in the barrios of Calaba, Alua and Sto. Cristo, he hid with relatives in their various farms beside the Rio Gapan (now known as the Peñaranda River). Fear of arrest compelled him to be forever on the move. He never slept in the same place. Later on, he would attribute his ill health in his middle age to the privations he endured during those months of living exposed to the elements.
1897 The rebels reorganized their forces the moment Spanish pursuit died down. Tinio and his men marched with Gen. Llanera in his sorties against the Spaniards. Llanera eventually made Tinio a captain.
The aggressive exploits of the teenaged Manuel Tinio reached the ears of General Emilio Aguinaldo, whose forces were being driven out of Cavite and Laguna, Philippines. He evacuated to Mount Puray in Montalban, Rizal and called for an assembly of patriots in June 1897. In that assembly, Aguinaldo appointed Mamerto Natividad, Jr. as commanding general of the revolutionary army and Mariano Llanera as vice-commander with the rank of Lt.-General. Manuel Tinio was commissioned a Colonel and served under Gen. Natividad.
The constant pressure from the army of Governor General Fernando Primo de Rivera drove Aguinaldo to Central Luzon. In August, Gen. Aguinaldo decided to move his force of 500 men to the caves of Biac-na-Bato in San Miguel, Bulacan because the area was easier to defend. There, his forces joined up with those of Gen. Llanera. With the help of Pedro Paterno, a prominent Philippines lawyer, Aguinaldo began negotiating a truce with the Spanish government in exchange for reforms, an indemnity, and safe conduct.
On August 27, 1897, Gen. Mamerto Natividad and Col. Manuel Tinio conducted raids in Carmen, Zaragoza and Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija. Three days later, on the 30th, they stormed and captured Santor (now Bongabon) with the help of the townspeople. They stayed in that town till September 3.
On September 4, with the principal objective of acquiring provisions lacking in Biac-na-Bato, Gen. Natividad and Col. Manuel Tinio united their forces with those of Col. Casimiro Tinio, Gen. Pío del Pilar, Col. Jose Paua and Eduardo Llanera for a dawn attack on Aliaga. (Casimiro Tinio, popularly known as "Capitan Berong", was an elder brother of Manuel through his father's first marriage.)
Thus began the Battle of Aliaga, considered one of the most glorious battles of the rebellion. The rebel forces took the church and convent, the Casa Tribunal and other government buildings. The commander of the Spanish detachment died in the first moments of fighting, and those who survived were jailed. The rebels then proceeded to entrench themselves and fortify several houses. The following day, Sunday the 5th, the church and convent as well as a group of houses were put to the torch due to exigencies of defense.
Spanish Governor General Primo de Rivera fielded 8,000 Spanish troops under the commands of Gen. Ricardo Monet and Gen. Nuñez in an effort to recapture the town. A column of reinforcements under the latter's command arrived in the afternoon of September 6. They were met with such a tremendous hail of bullets that the general, two captains and many soldiers were wounded, forcing the Spaniards to retreat a kilometer away from the town to await the arrival of Gen. Monet and his men. Even with the reinforcements, the Spaniards were overly cautious in attacking the insurgents. When they did so the next day, they found the town already abandoned by the rebels who had gone back to Biac-na-Bato. Filipino casualties numbered 8 dead and 10 wounded.
Gen. Natividad and Col. Manuel Tinio shifted to guerrilla warfare. The following October with full force they attacked San Rafael, Bulacan to get much-needed provisions for Biac-na-Bato. The battle lasted several days and, after getting what they came for, they left a detachment in Bo. Kaingin to hold back the Spanish reinforcements from Baliwag, Bulacan. To divert Spanish forces from Nueva Ecija, Natividad and Tinio attacked Tayug, Pangasinan on Oct. 4, 1897, occupying the church in the heart of the poblacion.
Meanwhile, peace negotiations continued and in October Aguinaldo gathered together his generals to convene a constitutional assembly. On Nov. 1, 1897 the Constitution was unanimously approved and on that day the Biac-na-Bato Republic was established.
However, Gen. Natividad, who believed in the revolution, opposed the peace negotiations and continued to fight from Biac-na-Bato. On Nov. 9, while leading a force of 200 men with Gen. Pío del Pilar and Col. Ignacio Paua, Natividad was killed in action in Entablado, Cabiao. Col. Manuel Tinio brought the corpse back to the general's grieving wife in Biac-na-Bato. (Incidentally, Gen. Natividad's widow, Trinidad, was the daughter of Casimiro Tinio–"Capitan Berong".) With the death of the army's commanding general, Col. Manuel Tinio was commissioned Brigadier General and designated as commanding general of operations on Nov. 20, 1897. Gen. Tinio, all of 20 years, became the youngest general of the Philippine Revolutionary Army. (Gregorio del Pilar, already 22, was only a Lt. Colonel at that time.)
On Dec. 20, 1897, the Pact of the Biac-na-Bato was ratified by the Assembly of Representatives. In accordance with the terms of the peace pact, Aguinaldo went to Sual, Pangasinan, where he and 26 members of the revolutionary government boarded a steamer to go into voluntary exile in Hongkong. The Novo-Ecijanos in the group were Manuel Tinio, Mariano and Eduardo Llanera, Benito and Joaquin Natividad, all signatories of the Constitution.