In the vast, fragmented tapestry of our revolutionary history, we often fixate on the grand, singular moments that define the nation—the tearing of cedulas in Balintawak or the tragic fall of Leon Kilat on Palm Sunday. Within the histories of the time, there is one who is not as well known. General Potenciano Aliño of Talisay stands as a formidable contradiction to the stereotype of the “illiterate peasant warrior.” Born to Maestro Juan Aliño and Pascuala Hermosa, into the “enlightened gentry” of Talisay on May 29, 1865, Potenciano Aliño grew up in the shadow of the Augustinian friar estates of the current Talisay City, Cebu, where the sweetness of the muscovado sugar produced by the land was constantly soured by the bitterness of agrarian oppression. He understood that before men could be mobilized to die for a country, they first had to imagine it, which is why he undertook the monumental task of translating Jose Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios into the vernacular Kataposan nga Panamilit and being dubbed “The Great Bisayista”. In a way, he was able to deconstruct the ideals of the revolution and make it widely available to the masses as the, arguably, the most well known of the Cuatro Aliños.
The Monument of the Cuatro Aliños in Poblacion, Talisay City, Cebu
His life began on May 29, 1865. He was born in, what is currently, Talisay City, Cebu. He was the son of Maestro Juan Aliño and Pascuala Hermosa: both from clans who are considered “lumad” in Talisay (those who have been in the community for several generations. In short, a family who is a pillar of the community.) He was educated as early as the age of twelve in reading and writing; for which, he was practiced in the Talisay Municipal hall. He excelled in his education at the Colegio-Seminario de San Carlos, and became the municipal secretary of Talisay for two years starting in 1888. By the time he was municipal secretary, he had come to know the ins and outs of the alleged “land-grabbing” of the Spanish clergy in the town through the institution of the Talisay-Minglanilla Friar Lands Estate and the Talamban-Banilad estate. Potenciano Aliño became a semi-prominent figure in the area to the point that he acted as a de facto consultant for many in the towns of Minglanilla and Talisay regarding land disputes. This was different, for the most part, from the other brothers: Sulcipio, Felix, and Hilario of the Cuatro Aliños.
A 1934 Article in the Newspaper “Bag-Ong Kusog” detailing his life written by Narciso Canton (A relative of one of Potenciano’s students.)
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The narrative of the Cebuano revolt usually begins on the Tres de Abril, but history whispers a different truth: the fire was actually lit a day earlier in the dust of Talisay. At first, Potenciano Aliño was sent to Manila to look for a lawyer who would represent Talisay residents against the friars who were accused of “land-grabbing.” On April 2, 1898, anticipating an impending Spanish crackdown, Potenciano and his brothers (Cuatro Aliños) , the legendary “Cuatro Aliños”, executed a pre-emptive strike. In the Barangay of San Isidro, they ambushed the Guardia Civil. This strategic “first blood” was necessary in drawing forces from Cebu City, leaving the city vulnerable for Leon Kilat’s assault the following day. General. Aliño, along with some companions, seized the local Guardia Civil building and took control of it. It is a sobering reminder that while we build monuments to the martyrs of the city, the strategic victories often belong to the towns on the periphery. The Aliños practiced carpe-diem (seize the day in Latin); in the humid darkness of a Saturday night, proving that the spirit of the Katipunan had thoroughly permeated the southern coast, far beyond the reach of Manila’s direct command. From here, they advanced toward Barangay Tabunok.
The House of the friars. This was where transactions in land were conducted.
However, the war in Talisay was visceral and deeply personal, driven by decades of resentment against the friar-curates who acted as both landlords and spiritual wardens. The Aliños earned a grim epithet that still echoes in local oral history: Mata Frailes or “Friar Killers.” Upon seizing the town center, the revolutionaries enacted a symbolic decapitation of the old order by hanging the body of a slain friar from the church belfry. It was a gruesome, shocking tableau, but to the tenants of the friar estates, it was a necessary shattering of the illusion of ecclesiastical invincibility. The bell tower, once the panopticon from which the friars surveyed their vast estates and controlled the lives of the townsfolk, became the scaffold of their demise. This act ensured there was no turning back for Potenciano; he had committed the ultimate transgression against both Church and Crown, forcing him and his brothers to evolve from local insurgents into hardened generals of a mobile war.
The Church of Talisay as it was in 1912. From one of the belltowers was a priest (Possibly the much hated Fr. Tomas Jimenez) hung.
When the enemy changed from the fading Spanish Empire to the rising American Eagle, Potenciano Aliño did not waver, even as the government in Cebu City capitulated to the American ship called Petrel in the Cebu harbor. Refusing to recognize the surrender, he retreated into the rugged, mist-shrouded plateau of Sudlon. Here, the intellectual translator became a brigadier general, using the harsh terrain to bleed the American forces in a war of attrition. For nearly three years, while the city below adjusted to the new colonial masters, Aliño and his men lived in the mud and rain, holding the line for a Republic that was slowly dying across the archipelago. It was only in late 1901, with the national leadership decimated and his men starving, that he descended from the mountains to surrender out. He also surrendered of respect for his uncle: Onofre Hermosa, who requested that he come down from the mountains. The rest of the brothers who were part of the Cuatro Aliños had their own fates.
“The healer treats to cure, not to kill; therefore, it is not right to kill those who have sinned, but simply detain them to prevent them from spreading news. Furthermore, if we win later, what good is it if we have decreased the population, only to have them taken away later?” -Potenciano Aliño, 1901 (Translated from the original Bisaya. It was in this way that he saved many lives from American brutality.)
A Fort in Sudlon where it is possible that General Potenciano Alino took shelter in during his stint in the area.
Yet, Potenciano’s revolution did not end with the laying down of the gun; it merely changed mediums. In the uneasy peace of the American era, he returned to the pen, joining Vicente Sotto’s Ang Suga to fight for the preservation of the Cebuano language against the encroaching English tide. Perhaps his most radical post-war act was his pivot to Protestantism, where he collaborated with American missionaries to translate the Bible into Cebuano, for which he was compensated. To the conservative Catholic hierarchy, this was heresy, but for Aliño, it was the logical conclusion of his life’s work: to retire to the pen. But in a way, by translating the scriptures, he was once again empowering the common man, ensuring that the Cebuano believer needed no intermediary to speak to God, just as he needed no colonial master to define his nation.
Today, Potenciano Aliño sleeps in the soil of Barangay Pajo in Lapu-Lapu city, having passed away in 1907 at the young age of 41, his body worn down by the rigors of Sudlon. He remains a complex figure, a “Mata Frailes” who translated the Gospels, a violent revolutionary who wrote with the grace of a poet. In our modern quest to understand our heritage, we must look beyond the sanitized textbooks and embrace these jagged edges of our history. Aliño reminds us that the fight for Cebuano identity was fought on multiple fronts: in the cane fields of Talisay, in the trenches of Sudlon, and on the printing presses of the local papers. Nevertheless, despite his accomplishments, it is said he died without much wealth on March 7, 1907. A monument featuring him and his brothers was erected in August 2007 to honor them. A street is also named after the brothers in Barangay Poblacion, near the church.
Alburo, Erlinda Kintanar. Sumad: Essays for the Centennial of the Revolution in Cebu. Malate, Manila: De La Salle University Press, 2001.
Cullinane, Michael. Arenas of Conspiracy and Rebellion: The Revolutionary Struggle in Southeast Cebu, 1888-1905. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2014.
