Movie: Baler

In 1898, a band of Spanish soldiers heroically defended Baler in Quezon province against Filipino forces for 337 long and grueling days. The battle, now referred to as the Siege of Baler, is the setting of a forbidden love between an Indio soldier and a Filipina lass who lived at the end of the 19th century.

The Siege of Baler commenced during the Spanish American War. However, cut off from communications with its owngovernment and military, the defenders of Baler were not aware that the war had actually ended on December 10, 1898, and continued their heroic, if futile, defense against the Philippine forces for 337 days. This is the story of the defense of Baler.

More popularly known as "the siege of Baler," the encounter happened during the Spanish Occupation between a 57-man Rifle Battalion of the Spanish military and the Filipino forces.

Its against this backdrop that the love story between Feliza Reyes and Celso Resurrecion happened. Played by Anne Curtis, Feliza Reyes is a young Filipina who falls in love with Celso Resurrecion (played by Jericho Rosales), a half Spaniard/ half-Filipino (Indio) soldier who chooses to serve the enemies more than the Filipino insurgents who are struggling and fighting for their independence and freedom.

Understandably, Feliza Reyes' father Daniel (played by Phillip Salvador) doesn't approve of the romance, he being a member of the rebel movement. As in the case of Romeo and Juliet, nothing and nobody could break the lovers apart. Feliza Reyes has fallen deeply in love with the man her father despises.

While Baler is a story of conflict, betrayal, suffering, self-preservation, selfishness, obstinacy and self-interest, it is also a story of heroism, courage, love of freedom, patriotism, endurance and chivalry in time of war.

"While we are drawn to the endearing and enduring story of classic love that knows no time, place and race," said Mark Meily, the movie's director, "we are also brought into the historic past to take a peek at what transpired inside the walls of the church of Baler where the last Spanish contingent (who are not aware that the war had actually ended) heroically defended Baler against the Filipino forces for 337 long grueling days."

Even today, the town of Baler on the Eastern coast of island of Luzon in the Philippines is quite isolated from that nation's capital city, Manila, some 225 kilometers distant, as the crow flies. But in 1898 it was even more remote, reachable only by ship or by traversing on foot through nearly impassable jungle trails that were often washed out by torrential tropical rains.

It was no wonder that Captain Enrique de Las Morenas y Fossí, the commander of a fifty-seven man Spanish detachment of the Second Expeditionary Rifle Battalion knew nothing of the defeat of the Spanish fleet at Cavite by Commodore George Dewey on May 1 1898. And, more importantly, he was unaware that the fighting of the Spanish American War had ended with an Armistice on August 13, 1898. Nevertheless, Captain Las Morenas was fully cognizant of the threat posed by Filipino insurgents in northern Luzon. Earlier, on June 1, 1898 he began work to dig a well, stock food supplies and ammunition and to fortify the church compound of San Luís de Toledo in Baler's town square against a possible attack.