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Ghosts of the Insurrection

by Wilmo C. Orejola

250 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-2798; ISBN 1-4120-7900-4; US$18.99, C$21.84, EUR15.60, £10.92

A fast-paced, first-hand account of the Balangiga massacre and the ensuing American reprisal. Fraught with fear begot by cultural misunderstandings, this book holds timeless lessons for the world today.

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About the Book

Review

About the Author

Excerpts

About the Book

This novel is an evocative and emotional portrayal of the controversial, almost forgotten, chapter of the Philippine-American War, the Balangiga massacre.

A remorseful Felipe mulls over his past. He narrates his ambivalent roles during those difficult times. Working as a houseboy in the main barracks of Company C, he was tipped by his Filipino friends about a plot to massacre the Americans, but he did nothing to alert Sir Tom Connell, the garrison commander. During the attack, he and Francisco, another Filipino houseboy in the Officers' quarters, fought with the American soldiers against the Filipinos. They survived and fled with the remaining soldiers to Basey.

Felipe was back in his hometown. His older brother Victor, an insurrecto, took him to the Sohoton camps. The Marines under Major Waller arrived in Basey to carry out the "Kill and burn" order of Gen. Smith. When the Americans stormed and captured the base, Felipe fought with the insurrectos. Victor and other insurrectos disguised as cargadores infiltrated Waller's mission to march, explore and possibly string a telephone line from Lanang to Basey. But the mission failed, eleven Marines perished in the forbidding jungles of Samar, partly to blame was the obstinate attitude and mutiny of the cargadores. While it was a failure for Waller, so it was for Victor. Waller foiled an attempt on his life in the jungle; Victor the would-be assassin. Waller ordered Victor's execution and ten other cargadores. Weeks earlier, Major Glenn, in Waller's absence, had executed the town officials implicated in a plot to carry out another Balangiga-like massacre on the Basey garrison. It was the peak of the brutal campaign to turn the interior of Samar into a "howling wilderness." Not only would ghosts come back to haunt everyone; so would feelings of guilt and shame that mired these unfortunate events in controversy.

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Review

Book Review
an important and lyrical book, June 16, 2006
Reviewer: Anne Nelson (NY NY)

Wilmo Orejola has produced a remarkable novel about a little-known chapter of our history -- the Philippines-American War, that lasted from 1898 to 1906. Ghosts of the Insurrection deals with the cycle of violence in Samar in 1902, involving Filipino townspeople and American soldiers. Orejola has sampled the collective memory of a population that witnessed abuses committed by both sides -- resulting in a series of the earliest and most significant war crimes trials in US history. Orejola's account, steeped in folklore and evocative poetry, reveals the thinking of the occupied people, and their own struggles with the moral implications of guerrilla warfare. As someone with a long-standing interest in the Philippines, I found that this book earned a place on my shelf next to Rosca and Rizal.

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About the Author

Wilmo C. Orejola was born and raised in Basey, Samar, Philippines. He completed Doctor of Medicine and Cardiovascular Surgery training in the Philippines. In 1982, he migrated to the United States where he now lives with his wife and four children. He is also a practicing surgeon in New Jersey but plans to spend more time in creative writing upon retirement. A distinguished member of the International Society of Poets, he published his first book A Mat Weaver's Story: the Legend of Bungansakit, an epic poem, in 2001. He had published many other poems with the anthology books of the National Library of Poetry, including his prize-winning poem Ode to Galileo Galilei. Ghosts of the Insurrection is his first novel.

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Excerpts

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