Juan Cailles

Juan Cailles, born in Nasugbu, Batangas, on November 10, 1871. Born to Hipólito Cailles, a Frenchman and María Kaupama, a woman of Indian extraction to a Maharaja and Maharani. Cailles graduated from the Escuela Normal run by Jesuits in Manila. Afterwards, he became a schoolteacher in two towns in Cavite.

He taught for five years in the public schools of Amaya, Tanza, and in Rosario, Cavite, when the premature discovery of the Katipunan in Manila forced Andres Bonifacio to take to the field of Balintawak and raise the flag of revolt. Cailles organized a force of fathers of his own pupils. To them, he remained Maestrong Cailles, despite his successive promotions in military rank. He took part in many encounters with the Spaniards, particularly in those engagements resulting in the deaths of his superior officers, like General Candido Tria Tirona, Edilberto Evangelista, and Crispulo Aguinaldo, facilitating his rapid promotions.

In the Battle of Mabitac, in Laguna Province, on September 17 1900, Cailles’ troops outmaneuvered and routed a strong American contingent led by Colonel Cheetham. Magnanimous in victory, Cailles allowed Cheetham to recover from the field the bodies of eight slain American soldiers, together with all their personal belongings. This treatment provided a sharp contrast to the American despoliation of General Gregorio del Pilar’s corpse in the Battle of Tirad Pass on December 2 1899.

After serving as acting chief of operations in the first zone of Manila during the Philippine-American War, Cailles was appointed by Aguinaldo as military governor of Laguna and half of Tayabas (now Quezon) province. The capture of Aguinaldo in Palanan, Isabela, on March 23 1901, convinced Cailles that the war was lost, and so he surrendered to the Americans on June 20.

Cailles then directed his efforts toward rebuilding the country. He served as governor of Laguna from 1901 to 1910,and again from 1916 to 1925. After his second gubernatorial term, he was appointed representative of the Mountain Province in the Philippine Legislature in 1925 and reappointed in 1928. In 1931, Cailles was again selected governor of Laguna, and reelected in 1934.

It was during his term as governor that the Sakdal uprising flared up on May 2 1935, in Santa Rosa and Cabuyao, Laguna. The revolt was suppressed in record time, thanks to Cailles’ firm administration and revolutionary experience. Cailles had also a hand in the capture of Teodoro Asedillo, ‘Terror of the Sierra.”

Cailles died on June 21, 1951, a victim of heart attack.