Monday, October 20, 2008

About Us

This site was made and conceptualized in honor of one of the greatest Filipino national hero, GENERAL MATEO NORIEL LUGA, who might have been the only general in the Philippine history who is not of Filipino-Spanish-Chinese descent and who does not belong to the middle class Filipino, but from the Ibanag Tribe. He never changed his name and fought the Spaniards to gain our independence as a nation. Unlike other rebels of his time, he did not run away from battle, but instead fought his war against the Spaniards from his native land, the Cagayan Valley in Isabela until he reached Cebu and as far as Mindanao. He rose from the ranks, an Ibanag tribal warrior, the biggest tribe in the entire Cagayan Valley, to become a general after participating in countless of battles against the Spaniards from in his hometown in Isabela , Cagayan Valley to Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.

He was sent to Visayas, a land foreign from his culture, by then General Emilio Aguinaldo as a military adviser to the Revolutionary Governmetn in Cebu. When his family was taken hostage during the American-Filipino War to force him to surrender, he slipped into enemy territory, rescued his love ones and returned fighting an honorable warfare making General Lawton with his fleet of navy running away from battle despite superiority in forces.

He lived as a farmer, in peace with his family after the Fil-Am War and continued his idealism for the independence of our country. He died a poor man on his way to Isabela with the Philippine Flag in his coffin surrounded by his comrade in arms escorting him to his tomb. He never made it to Tumanuini, Isabela where he wanted to return, but was burried somewhere in Paco, Manila. To date, his remains could not be located and exploits have not been publicized in Philippine history books, a sad truth of Philippines history.

This site was made in honor of the General Mateo Noriel Luga and his descendants, who continued the struggle to protect the freedom, independence and ideals of this nation that he helped defend; to continue the idealism he imparted, for his memory and deeds to live in the hearts and minds of those after him . . . General Mateo Noriel Luga . . . (click here to know more about him and his descendants) .