Pantaleon Valmonte
| Pantaleón Valmonte | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Capitan Municipal of Gapan | |
|
In office January 11, 1895 – September 4, 1896 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Pantaleon Valmonte y Rufino July 26, 1856 Gapan, Nueva Ecija, Captaincy General of the Philippines |
| Died | September 4, 1896 (aged 40) Barrio Calaba, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, Captaincy General of the Philippines |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Spouse(s) | Maxima Navarro |
| Alma mater | Ateneo Municipal de Manila |
| Profession | Politician, military leader |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 Katipunan (Magdalo) |
| Years of service | c. 1890–1896 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Battles/wars | Philippine Revolution |
Pantaleón Valmonte y Rufino, sometimes referred to as Pantaleón Belmonte (July 26, 1856 – September 4, 1896), was capitan municipal (mayor) of Gapan and a general during the Philippine Revolution against Spain. He is popularly known as one of the officers who led the "Cry of Nueva Ecija" on September 2, 1896, and together with General Mariano Llanera commanded 3,000 guerilla troops who captured and momentarily held the provincial capitol of Nueva Ecija in the town of Factoria (now San Isidro). He is one of the three Fathers of The Cry of Nueva Ecija, along with Mariano Llanera and Manuel Tinio.
Valmonte was born into an old and illustrious family at the so-called "Bahay-na-Sim," in what is now Valmonte Street in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija on July 26, 1856, the son of Basilio Valmonte and Rosa Rufino. Basilio's father, Don Bartolomé dela Cruz Valmonte, was Gapan's first capitan municipal, appointed in 1747, just 15 years after Gapan was proclaimed a local administrative unit in 1732. One of Basilio's sisters, Juana, was the original owner of the only Spanish reproduction of the image of La Divina Pastora in the Philippines, which arrived in the country through the Galleon Trade. The image is the object of an annual pilgrimage to the National Shrine of La Virgen Divina Pastora in Gapan, and is one of the patrons of the parish (the others being the Three Kings) since the 1800s, though it remained privately held in the home of the Valmontes until 1986.
According to a descendant, journalist Ramon Valmonte, the family later adopted the surname "Valmonte" for its poetic meaning, being a conjunction of the Spanish words "valle" ("valley") and "montaña" ("mountain").
Valmonte enrolled at the Universidad de Santo Tomás (UST) in 1871, before transferring to Ateneo Municipal de Manila. He was a contemporary of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal during his time at the Ateneo and might have belonged to the same class. This was because according to Pantaleon's son Joaquin, Rizal had paid the family a visit in the early years. Rizal would make a reference to Gapan's secondary patron saint, La Divina Pastora, in the chapter "A Cochero's Christmas Eve" of his novel El Filibusterismo
...
Wikipedia