Gen. Antonio LunaPREPARED BY: Darlin Poso

Ang romansa at trahedya ni

Heneral Antonio Luna

(isang kuwento ng pag-ibig)

Ganito ang kuwento ng trahedyang pag-ibig ni Antonio Luna, dakilang heneral ng Digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano, matinitk na taktisyan at tahasang anti-Amerikano. Dahil bukod sa pinatay siya mismo ng kapwa Pilipinong mga sundalo, ipinagkanulo din ng naging kasintahan ni Luna ang tiwalang ipinagkaloob sa kanya ng heneral.

Bukod sa panunuligsa sa mga konserbatibo’t mapagkanulo, maraming historyador ang nagsasabi na may iba pang kuwento ang pamamalagi ni Heneral Luna sa Malolos noong 1899.

Nasa Malolos ang dating tinitirhang mansiyon ng mga Cojuangco. Pagbukas ng Kongreso ng Malolos, sinasabing nakitira sa mga Cojuangco ang ilang prominenteng lider ng gobyerno, kabilang na si Luna. Dito nagsimula ang kuwento umano ng pag-iibigan nina Luna at Ysidra Cojuangco, matriyarka ng angkang Cojuangco sa Paniqui, Tarlac.

Nagbunga, diumano, ng isang anak ang pag-iibigan nina Luna at

Cojuangco.

nilisan ng mga Cojuangco ang Malolos patungong Paniqui, Tarlac upang makatakas sa kahihiyang dulot ng pagkabuntis diumano ni Ysidra na walang kilalang asawa.(Ayon sa pananaliksik ni Hilarion Henares, dating propesor at kolumnista)

Nawawalang Anak

Ang naturang “anak sa pagkakasala,” ay nabuhay at ipinaampon daw sa kapatid ni Ysidra na si Melecio.

Ayon pa kay Henares, marami ang ebidensiya na si Antonio Cojuangco Sr., lolo sa tuhod ni Tonyboy Cojuangco (asawa ng artistang si Gretchen Barretto), ang siyang nawawalang “anak sa pagkakasala” ng dalawang magkasintahan.

First is the name Antonio, common to both father and son, and passed on to grandson Antonio Cojuangco Jr. who was killed by the Japanese with his parents, and to the great grandson Antonio Cojuangco III, the president of PLDT. 

Second is that Antonio Luna was a pharmacist and medical technician, and Antonio Cojuangco was a doctor of medicine, with a natural desire to be in the same field as his father. All the other Cojuangco brothers -- Jose, Juan and Eduardo -- either took up law or business. 

Third is the secret and almost conspiratorial way that his birthdate is being withheld from the public. 

Fourth is that the descendants of Antonio Cojuangco the elder, unlike his brothers and their families, are excellent scholastic achievers like the Lunas. Antonio's son Ramon graduated from Fordham University with a business degree, cum laude; and Ramon's son Tonyboy, PLDT president, graduated summa cum laude with an economics degree in Ateneo. The common physical features of Antonio Luna and Antonio Cojuangco, as shown by the photos above, cannot all happen in a million years, unless they have the same genes: 

. 

We contend that the most likely candidate to be the love child of Luna is Antonio, the father of Ramon and grandfather of Tonyboy of the PLDT, for many compelling reasons. 

Fifth, to continue our enumeration, the hairlines of Juan and Jose are neat and straight across the forehead, while those of two Antonios form a V at the parting of the hair at the “hati” -- a sort of reverse widow's peak

Sixth, the two Antonios have the same pout on the lower lip. 

Seventh, they have bushy eyebrows on their right side, and less pronounced pencil-thin eyebrows on their left side. 

Eighth, their right eyes are round and almond-shaped; and the left eyes are small, slant and located LOWER than those on the right. 

Ninth, whose is the OTHER body buried with Antonio Cojuangco? If as we will find later, Antonio Luna’s body has disappeared from the face of the earth, and is neither in Batac where he was born, or in Cabanatuan where he was assassinated, then is it possible that the other body buried with Antonio Cojuangco, is that of his father Antonio Luna?? Easy to tell. DNA samples are available from present live members of the Luna family, and the same is available from the descendants of Antonio Luna. Blood will tell, and if the DNA element in the bones of both Antonio Luna and Antonio Cojuangco be compared, the final proof of their common genes may be verified. 

Nawawalang PERASa huling taon ng buhay ni Heneral Luna, ipinatago diumano niya sa kasintahang si Ysidra ang mga kayamanan ng rebolusyonaryong gobyerno. Ayon sa historyador na si Alfredo Saulo:

The convoy of carts loaded with a huge amount of Spanish gold and silver coins seized from local treasuries in the Ilocos region, leading this convoy through forested areas up to the final destination in Paniqui, Tarlac, in the house of Ysidra Cojuangco, girlfriend of General Antonio Luna.

Hindi na sinauli ni Ysidra ang mga GINTO

Malaki ang ebidensiya, ayon kay Henares, na ang mga gintong ipinatago ni Luna kay Ysidra ang dahilan ng biglang pagyaman diumano ng mga Cojuangco. Matagal na ring alam ng mga viejas familias sa Gitnang Luzon na sa rebolusyonaryong gobyerno ni Aguinaldo at ng Katipunan nanggaling ang kayamanan ng pamilyang Cojuangco.

Upang itago raw ang tunay na pinagmulan ng kanilang yaman, sinasabing ipinabura ng pamilyang Cojuangco ang lahat ng rekord na maaaring magpatotoo na anak nga ni Heneral si Antonio Sr. Nawawala ang kanyang mga rekord ng pagkabuhay sa mga simbahan ng Malolos at Paniqui, at maging sa Ateneo de Manila, kung saan siya nag-aral.

Nang paslangin si Luna noong Hunyo 5, 1899 sa Cabanatuan, sa utos diumano ni Heneral Aguinaldo, naiwan kay Ysidra ang mga ginto ng rebolusyon. At dahil hindi hayagan ang relasyon ng magkasintahan, hindi alam ng karamihan sa mga lider kung saan o kanino iniwan ni Luna ang mga ginto.

We know nothing about Martin, the first Cojuangco, except for a memorial built by his son Jose in the town of Paniqui which states that during the Manchu Dynasty he was the 19th generation of the Kho family in Hing-chiam, Fukien. 

Jose arrived at the age of 13 from Amoy in 1861, sent for by his father, studied in Binondo, moved to Malolos as a contratista in house-building, married Antera Estrella, and sired three children: Ysidra (1867), Melecio (1871), and Trinidad who died early. 

Melecio married wealthy Tecla Chichioco, and together with his father Jose who also had a wealthy wife, bought a fleet of carretones for hire to transport goods to Manila. 

Melecio sired four sons: Jose Jr. (father of President Cory, Pete and Peping), Juan, Antonio (father of Monching Cojuangco of the PLDT) and Eduardo (father of Danding, PACMAN). 

From Doña Ysidra came the Cojuanco fortune

The family moved to Paniqui, Tarlac on March 19, 1896, where they bought 1.33 hectares of rice land for P100 on September 1, 1909; 16.74 hectares. for P500, 3.73 hectares. for P200 and 11 hectares. for P900 on November 10, 1901; 8 hectares for P880.35 and 2 hectares for P119.65 on November 17, 1901. 

During the Philippine American War, General Arthur MacArthur, chasing Aguinaldo to Ilocos and Palanan, knocked at the door of Don Melecio and asked to be quartered. Melecio welcomed him as a guest and offered his capacious warehouses for the storing of US army supplies. 

To reciprocate, General MacArthur gave orders that the Cojuangco family could use free of charge the train to bring their rice to Manila, since the train went back empty after bringing the army supplies to Paniqui. With freight cost of P2.50 a sack saved, the Cojuangcos profited immensely by being nice to an enemy officer. 

Cory's father Jose and Douglas MacArthur, both young boys then, had almost a scuffle over a bicycle, not speaking each other’s language -- an incident hey laughed about in later years. 

How did the Cojuangcos suddenly come upon their large fortune during those tumultuous years of the Philippine American War? 

One story was that when Aguinaldo fled from Malolos, he entrusted a sizeable sum of money in gold and silver to Melecio Cojuangco to be brought up north. But the US army caught up with Melecio who threw the treasure into a deep well. After the war, Cojuangco returned, retrieved the money, and with no one to give it to, kept it for himself. Captain Taylor, in his “The Philippine Insurgent Records,”' said that P27,000 of the rebel's money was never accounted for. 

Another story is that Gen. Antonio Luna, as chief of staff of the revolutionary army, had collected a sizeable sum from contributions with which to pay his soldiers. The person who collected for him was Tiburcio Hilario, Pampanga governor. Hilario's granddaughter, Ambassador Rafaelita Hilario Soriano, relates that her grandfather kept the gold and silver in sacks, including gold plates, chalices and other church treasures taken from Bacolor, San Fernando and Guagua. 

After losing an encounter at Sto. Tomas, Pampanga, Luna ordered Hilario to bring the valuables to Tarlac, where the revolutionary government planned to establish its capital. 

Ysidra Cojuangco bore a child out of wedlock, and it was suspected that General Antonio Luna was the father. But the family insists that Ysidra fell in love with an unnamed Chinese mestizo who died before they could be married. 

Melecio was elected to the first Philippine Assembly, and died after an altercation with some bully-boy Americans on the train to Paniqui. 

With the death of the father Don Jose, Ysidra the spinster became the head of the family. The Cojuangco family owned some 12,000 hectares, controlled the rice trade of the province and lent so much money to planters and businessmen of Tarlac, Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija that Justice Antonio G. Lucero, the family lawyer thought she practically owned Central Luzon. 

Ysidra was 93 when she died in the Makati Medical Center on July 13, 1960. She died intestate, and her four nephews, among them Cory's papa and those of Danding and Monching, inherited equally her belongings. 

In one trunk, they found IOU's of laborers and the poor, totaling P2 million -- which was written off as the last charitable act of their aunt. 

The uncles also found a trunk full of Japanese Occupation money, which Ysidra thought might be validated after the war. It was the only mistake she ever made as a businesswoman. 

Kung paniniwalaan ang historyador na si Dr. Vivencio Jose, pataksil na ipinapatay ni Aguinaldo si Luna. Maingay at delikado kasi siyang katunggali hindi lamang para sa kapangyarihan ni Aguinaldo, kundi ng mismong mga mananakop na Amerikano.

Isang malaking kawalan sa mga nakikidigmang Pilipino ang pagkamatay ni Luna. Malaking kataksilan din ang di pagsauli diumano ng kasintahang si Ysidra ng mga gintong malaki pa sana ang maitutulong sa rebolusyon.

Kataksilan at kasinungalingan diumano ang naging pundasyon ng kayamanan ng mga Cojuangco, tulad din ng kataksilan at kasinungalingan na naging pundasyon ng Republika ni Aguinaldo.