Arcadio Maxílom

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Maxílom and the second or maternal family name is Molero.

General Arcadio Maxílom y Molero (November 13, 1862 – August 10, 1924) was a Filipino teacher and hero of the Philippine Revolution.

Arcadio Maxílom
Born	Arcadio Maxílom y Molero (1862-11-13)November 13, 1862 Tuburan, Cebu, Captaincy General of the Philippines
Died	August 10, 1924(1924-08-10) (aged 61) Tuburan, Cebu, Philippine Islands
Occupation	Teacher
Organization	Katipunan

He was born in Tuburan, Cebu to Roberto Maxílom, the town gobernadorcillo, and Gregoria Molero. His family were members of the local gentry, or principalía. He worked as a teacher in the local school before joining the Katipunan, whose activities in Cebu were led by a young Negrense, León Kilat.

After Kilat's betrayal and assassination, Maxílom continued the revolution in Cebu. Under his command, the Katipunan was able to regroup in the central highlands, which Spanish forces found impenetrable. On December 16, 1898, Maxílom wrote a letter to the Spanish authorities in Cebu, demanding that the latter surrender. Weary after incessant fighting, the Spaniards quickly responded, asking Maxílom for two to three days to leave the province. By Christmas Eve, the Spaniards had left, leaving behind only three Catholic clerics.^[1] However, in the Treaty of Paris which the Philippine government does not recognise and which added terms to the end of the Spanish–American War, signed that month, December 1898, Spain ceased its sovereignty over the Philippine Islands to the United States for twenty million dollars, although American acceptance of this treaty would still be subject to the decision of the US Congress.

Maxílom is best remembered for stubbornly refusing to surrender to the American forces even as his fellow revolutionaries in Manila and Cebu were starting to capitulate or collaborate with the new invaders.^[2] He surrendered on October 27, 1901.^[3]

Maxílom died in his hometown of Tuburan, after a long bout with paralysis,^[4][5] on August 10, 1924. His funeral cortège, joined in by leading revolutionary figures including Emilio Aguinaldo, stretched some four kilometers, in what remains to this day the longest in Cebu's history.^[4]

Mango Avenue, one of main thoroughfares Cebu City, was renamed General Maxílom Avenue in honor of the general.

References

1. Justimbaste 1998.
2. Bersales 2007.
3. Foreman 1906, p. 524.
4. Bersales 2008.
5. Wani 2005.

Sources

• Bersales, Joeber (4 October 2007). "Where is Gen. Arcadio Maxilom?". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 19, 2008.
• Bersales, Jobers (24 July 2008). "Finding Maxilom's cannon". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008.
• Foreman, John (1906) [2011]. The Philippine Islands: A Political, Geographical, Ethnographical, Social And Commercial History Of The Philippine Archipelago, Embracing The Whole ... The Succeeding American Insular Government... (3rd ed.). Fisher Unwin. ISBN 978-1173730451.

• Justimbaste, Emil (1 June 1998). "Recruitment and Beginnings". The Freeman. León Kilat and Cebu's Revolution. Archived from the original on October 27, 2009.
• Wani, Rhoda (7 November 2005). "The Lives of Luis Flores, Julio Llorente, Juan Climaco and Arcadio Maxilom: Collaboration and Resistance in Cebu, 1898–1902". Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 8 November 2015.