Pulajanes flag and Pilipino Popes

The Pulajanes ("those wearing red") of Papa Faustino Ablen of Leyte was part of a revolutionary spiritual movement known as Dios-Dios. Papa Faustino a mystical holy men, proclaimed healer and messiah by his followers. They numbered around 10,000 to 15,000 irregular members whose objective is for Pilipino unity and to fight colonialism, They practice native mythology, folk catholicism, believer of the power of "anting-anting" spiritual amulets, medallions, sacred babaylan (pre-colonial exorcism) and their mystical white flag, that Papa Faustino provided. They are masters of indigenous martial arts called Derobio Eskrima, their weapon of choice was a heavy, crescent-shaped bolo knife which could decapitate a man with a single blow. The Pulajanes main battle tactic was simply to advance upon the enemy, fire a volley, then set aside their guns, attack the enemy and fight in hand-to-hand combat. With their battle cries of "Tad-Tad" ("chop to pieces") brought tremendous terror to the gringos & their Pilipino constabulary.

With the request from General Vicente Lukban, Pulajanes were responsible for plotting the surprise attack against the Americans at Balangiga, that lead to the retaliation of the enemy of the infamous "Balangiga Massacre." This also made Papa Faustino the most wanted "bandolero" to the Americans and their Pilipino constabulary. Aside from Papa Faustino Ablen in Leyte, there was a "Papa Pablo" in Samar, "Papa Fernandez" in Laguna and "Papa King" from Pampanga! The "second wave" of the Philippine Revolution, gave birth to many religious cult revolutionary groups and popes.

# "Papa Isio" (Dionisio Magbuelas), leader of the Babaylanes in Negros and was involved in the revolution of 1896, their battle cry was "Kamatayon sa Kastila!" (Death to the Spaniards). He continue fighting in the Pilipino/American War and surrendered to the enemy much later than the surrender of Miguel Malvar. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, later died in Bilibid in 1911.

# "Apo Ipe" (Felipe Salvador) based in Arayat and was considered a "pope" by his followers. The long hair Apo Ipe was the head of the Santa Iglesia (Holy Church), was a colonel in Aguinaldo's army, did not surrender to the Americans, kept the revolution going, preached socialism and practiced polygamy. He was hanged by the Americans in 1912, two years after his capture.

# "Papa Rios" (Ruperto Rios) in Tayabas, who established the "New Jerusalem" on Mount San Cristobal. Later self-imposed titles like; "Viceroy of the Philippine Archipelago," "Deliverer of the Philippines" and towards the end he gave himself the highest title possible "Son of God." Rios had a magic box marked "Independencia" believed that when he opened this box will release a smoke like genie and will free everyone from jail, hard labor, heavy government taxes, colonialism and from the cruelty of the Philippine Constabulary.

These cults and cultist behavior were referred to as "KOLORUM" (biblical Greek for "from century to century"), usually said by the priest during the mass as "in saecula saeculorum." Witnessing all these sacrilegious beliefs and mambo-jumbo practices by the colonialist Spanish, Americans, their running dogs; Ilustrados and Sajonistas who looked down on these "pobres y ignorantes" (poor and ignorant), the "Katagalugan" refused to be associated with these Kolorums, which the colonialists and elite Pilipino labeled them as "tulisanes" and "bandoleros."

As the struggle continued, on March 24, 1906, Governor George Curry received the surrender of the remaining Pulajanes in Magtaon, Island of Samar. Around 100 Pulajanes presented themselves with fourteen guns, immediately during the surrender was the Pulajanes leader "signal," the Pulajanes opened fire and immediately made an attack. Judge Lominger and a district school inspector, were among Governor Curry's party, escaped to one direction while Governor Curry made a escape by the river, avoiding in the scene. Sixteen constabulary were killed, many were wounded and missing, the Pulajanes lost thirty of their men. Governor George Curry was missing for two days, later found in a road camp and reported the following...

"We had a surprised attack which Captain Jones of the constabulary lost half of his men, but gained victory in the face of overwhelming odds. The Pulajanes, under a "flag of truce" and while promising to surrender immediately opened fire, attacked the constabulary."

According to Governor George Curry and some U.S. officers, the Pulajanes waved a white flag to surrender. As a general rule, waving a "white flag" means to surrender or a truce to talk and stop the shooting. The Pulajanes waved their anting-anting "white flag" to protect and shield them from enemy's bullets. When the Americans stopped firing after seeing the white flag, the Pulajanes honestly believed that their anting-anting white flag was doing its purpose, protecting them and warding off enemies bullets, viciously attacked... "TAD-TAD!!!" with their razor-sharp crescent-shaped bolo knife.

Pulajanes white flag have some babaylan inscriptions or symbols on it, while according to some sources, their flag was all white with a red cross in the middle.
- ka tony
the 22nd of October, '13