Monument of Leon Kilat

Who could ever imagine that a simple boy, once an acolyte in church, would turn out to become a legendary hero. Who could have thought that an innocent lad who didn’t even finish elementary would rise up as a man of distinguished valor to fight for Filipino freedom.

Born in Bacong, Negros Oriental on the 27^th of July 1873, "Leon Kilat," the nom de guerre (war alias name) of Pantaleon Villegas de Solde was the military leader in the onset of hostilities in April 1898.

In 1895, he left Bacong for the port town of Cebu and worked for MacLeod & Co. as an abaca press laborer. The story goes that Leon also worked as an erand boy for Botica Antigua, a German-owned pharmacy, a delivery man, at the same time, a baker for Pascuala Cala’s bakeshop and a jockey-horse trainer for Federico Laing.

Sometime in the middle of 1896, he joined a circus troupe, which was then on its way to Manila. While in Manila, Leon was brought into Emilio Aguinaldo’s revolutionary society, the Katipunan. In late 1897 or early 1898, he was sent to Cebu to help lead the rebel movement. It was here where Leon and his men planned a revolt against the Spaniards on the Easter Sunday of 1898. The Spaniards however, learned about the scheduled uprising. As Leon was informed about the Spanish discovery of the intended insurrection, he became determined to fight the Spaniards on that day of the discovery. Thus, he said: "In that case, we rise in arms today."