Leon Kilat, his racial classification, and anting-anting

Today in 1873, Pantaleon Villegas, more popularly known in Philippine history as Leon Kilat, was born in the pueblo of Bacong, Negros Oriental, to Policarpio Villegas and Ursula Soldi. Standard biographies of Villegas claim that he was the grandson of Pedro Villegas, supposedly a pure Spaniard from Spain. Contrary to this claim, existing church records of Bacong all say that his grandfather was a mestizo Spaniard, not Peninsular. During the Spanish period, racial classification was straightforward and strict. A child’s race was from the father, and in most cases, even after many generations if the descent was from the male line, the race continued to be passed on to succeeding generations. Unfortunately, records in Bacong are not complete enough for us to reconstruct his full genealogy, but we can be certain that the fact that Leon Kilat’s grandfather Pedro was a mestizo Spaniard does not mean that Pedro’s father was a pure Spaniard. For all we know, the Spanish blood was already very diluted and the first Spaniard in their line came to Negros many generations ago.

While he is more known as a hero in the Visayas, it is accepted by many that he deserves the same attention as our other heroes. And though he may not rank among the country's most illustrious national heroes, such as Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio, Leon Kilat nevertheless led the fight for the country's freedom from Spain in Cebu with the same zeal and love. He began Cebu’s rebellion against Spain on Palm Sunday in 1898 and died on Good Friday when he was assassinated by Filipinos loyal to Spain.

But what most remember about him and associate with his story is not necessarily his heroism. Leon Kilat remains very much a legend in the consciousness of the Cebuanos in particular and the Visayans in general, because of the never-ending rumors of his “magic” and “powers”, his invulnerability, and how long it took to kill him. For instance, relatives in Negros would swear that Leon Kilat had an incredible capacity to appear and disappear in locations apparently out of nowhere, utilizing his handkerchief as a magic carpet, thus explaining how he received his moniker of "Kilat" (lightning). But the most incredulous part of his story was about how long it took to kill him, thereby necessitating the need for many men to murder him. The truth was really less incredible, but nevertheless another stain on our history as he was killed by fellow Filipinos. Though there are many versions of how he was killed, the straightforward one does not dwell too much on his supposed invulnerability brought about by his powerful amulets or anting-anting. Early on Good Friday, Kilat's own gun's butt was used to smash in his skull. Then his limp body was pinned down by eight men with some taking turns stabbing it. Then his assassins carried his body down the stairs, laid it down, and took turns stabbing the body (again!) and severing some of his limbs to see whether he was indeed invulnerable. When they realized Kilat was dead, they brought his body to the middle of town and exhibited it for all the resident to see.

There has been an effort in recent decades to bring local history and heroes to the fore, and Leon Kilat’s story should be revisited and researched more. The stories of Leon Kilat’s “powers” continue to be the focus, something that unfortunately takes people’s attention away from the more relevant narrative of his exploits and heroism.