ON 19 MARCH 1835, Doña Francisca Cabañas was born in Cabatuan, Iloilo. She was a philanthropist and heroine of the revolution against Spain, and of the Philippine-American War. She was tortured by the Americans to reveal the whereabouts of General Martin Delgado and other information about the revolutionaries. But no amount of torture can force her to renounce her loyalty to the cause of freedom.

Although married to Capitan Potenciano Serrano, an equally revered and illustrious personage in Cabatuan, she had never assumed the family name of her husband as was the common practice at the time. Her townspeople preferred and loved to call her “Tana Pisca” or by her maiden family name.

She was not only influential but also affluent, in the sense that she owned large tracts of land and countless livestock. All these could be attributed to the fact that she was industrious and had inborn business acumen.

It was commonly known that her vast wealth started with few sugar mills and sugar, rice, and tobacco fields. Her residence was made  of strong  expensive materials. During the revolution against the Americans, it was made the headquarters of the Filipino revolutionaries.

It was also the scene of several dinners and banquets in honor of officials of the Spanish and local governments, most remembered of which was the banquet in honor of the then Os-Rox team of representatives and senators of the country.

With all the necessary resources under her command coupled with her commanding personality, people from all walks of life crowded around her for advice or consultation of their problems. Tana Pisca was more than an ordinary mortal. She had a heart full of compassion toward the poor, the weak and the needy.

She never failed to lend a helping hand to all those who came to her for assistance. The amelioration of the lot of her townspeople was for uppermost in her mind. She was very generous and philanthropic through and through.

Her husband, Potencio Serrano headed the town of Cabatuan as Capitan in 1862, 1869-1870; and 1877-1879, but it appeared that she wielded more power than her husband, especially in matters affecting the welfare of the people.

During her time, there were no civil cases in the sala of the  juez de paz, because Tana Pisca settled not only family problems but also problems among neighbors out of the court.

The revolution against Spain broke out on August 26, 1896. The people of Cabatuan responded to the call to arms and joined hands with the whole nation in the revolt.

As a revolutionary leader, she did not have to ride a horse and wield a bolo. Tana Pisca fought the wars behind the lines with the use of her resources  — money, rice, foodstuffs, etc. She channeled these needed cash and supplies to the revolutionaries in the front lines who called her either Olang Pisca or Nanay Pisca.

Because of her participation and activities in the revolution against the Americans, she was captured and interrogated not only on her role in the revolution but also on some other information about it. Although she was given a third degree torture by pumping gallons of water through her mouth, she never gave away the secrets of the revolution, the leader of whom was Martin Delgado, her godson.

After all other threats failed to move her, she was released but the enemy ire took a heavy toll when her adopted son, Capitan Agustin Jiloca was implicated in murder and other political activities. Jiloca was hanged on July 5, 1901.

Doña Francisca Cabañas died at the age of 93 on February 12, 1928.

Source: Cabatuan Historical Society, Cabatuan: History of a Town and her People. Makati City: Bookhaven Inc., 1977)

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