Book on Batangas

I’ve always been looking for books about the Philippines and came across “Battle for Batangas” written by Glenn Anthony May while reading “Honor in the Dust” written by Gregg Jones. I thoroughly enjoyed both books. This was the first time, I saw a book written about Batangas besides my book “BAHALA NA (Come What May)”. I might be wrong but I noticed that not much has been written about Batangas and this book was an eye-opener for me. I learned some history of my hometown that I never knew.

There were people in the book that I’ve never heard of. In school while I was growing up, we learned about Apolinario Mabini, the sublime paralytic and Miguel Malvar, the brave warrior that fought the Americans to the end but there were other important people from Batangas mentioned in the book who fought bravely against the American invaders. Basically I was interested in looking up if my great uncle was mentioned anywhere in the book. My mother’s uncle was shot by the Americans, I was told by my mother. Interesting enough, my husband’s uncle was mentioned in the book. He was a colonel stationed in the Philippines at that time. What a small world!

All the events from the time Aquinaldo surrendered and the subsequent struggle of Malvar to keep the war going was detailed in the book. The struggle that the Batangas people had to endure fighting for their independence are well written. While most provinces were already under the American rule, the people of Batangas remained steadfast on their belief to gain their independence and fought to the end. While “BAHALA NA (Come What May)” deals with WWII, “Battle of Batangas” and “Honor in the Dust” are about the Filipino-American War. A very interesting trio of history.