Church of Baler (Church of San Luis de Tolosa)
Baler, Aurora
Baler Church occupied a prominent chapter in Philippine history when for almost a year (from June 27, 1898 to June 2, 1899), it became the garrison for four Spanish officers and fifty men who staked out at he church to defend the area from Filipino revolutionaries, unaware that the Philippine Revolution was over and that Spain had already ceded the Philippines to the United States. Offer of peace and demands for surrender were refused on five occasions by an emissary of General Rios on May 29. Instead of treating them as prisoners-of-war, then President Emilio Aguinaldo issued on June 30, 1899 a decree ordering the revolutionaries to grant the Spanish soldiers safe conduct pass. Broken by starvation and tropical diseases, the depleted command of 33 men arranged a truce with the Filipino insurgents and marched out of this church across the mountains to Manila on June 2, 1899. The surviving soldiers then sailed for home and were honored as heroes by Queen Regent in the name of Alfonso XIII and the Spanish nation. In June 2002, the Philippine Senate passed a bill proclaiming June 30 as Fil-Hispano Day to commemorate what is now known as the historic "Siege of Baler".
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