"BALER'- A MOVIE FOR NEO-COLONIALISM (tags)
“Baler,” winner for best picture in the present Metro Manila Film Festival, is the first feature film made of the siege of Baler- the last Spanish outpost to surrender to revolutionary forces during the revolutionary war of 1896. The Siege of Baler was based on the diary Spanish Lt. Col. Martin Cerezo, commander of a garrison of Spanish soldiers in Baler, Tayabas( now called the Quezon province), during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines. By December 10, 1898, the Spanish-American War had already ended; Spanish forces in the Philippines, Cuba and elsewhere had already surrendered but the Spanish garrison in Baler didn’t know it. Their headquarters in Iloilo (the last capital of Spain in the Philippines to surrender), forgot to tell them. Katipuneros attacked the 57-man garrison and the Spaniards took shelter in the town church. Instead of rushing the church, the Filipino colonel decided to surround the church with his more superior forces and wait for the Spaniards to run out of food and is forced to surrender. He did not expect the tenacity and fighting spirit of the Spaniards. The siege lasted almost a year, exactly 338 days. Col. Martin Cerezo recounted in his diary the suffering of his soldiers inside the besieged church.