Isidro Rillas

Isidro Rillas was a Filipino politician who served as governor of Misamis from 1917 to 1919.

A young man from Maasin, Leyte was sent by his parents to Cebu to study, in preparation for priesthood. He was to be sent later to Rome to become a Jesuit priest. Aside from academics, he also studied and excelled in judo and jujitsu.

He was an intelligent, smart, good-looking Spanish-Chinese mestizo. After years of studying, he decided that priesthood was not for him. He set aside his parents' wishes, left school and went to Mindanao.

His name was Isidro Sepe. There, he ventured into business, peddling various goods and traveling to different places in Mindanao. His base was Cagayan de Misamis (Cagayan de Oro, today).

He was skilled in personal relations and got along well with people. Communicating was easy for him as he was fluent in Spanish, English and Cebuano. In a short period of time, he was also able to speak the dialect of the Moros (Muslims) informally called "minoros".

As his business thrived, he became influential and gained more friends, including the Moro dattos. Although he had no military training, the Moros called him "Capitan Sidro", as a sign of respect and friendship. Then everybody else called him that, sometimes shortened to just "Tan Sidro".

The Spaniards were suspicious of him because of his closeness to the Moros. At that time, the Moros resisted and fought the Spaniards' efforts to Christianize them.

While on his travels, he met a beautiful young woman named Paulina Mutia, an Aloranon. Her father was a tobacco merchant who traveled all over, even to the Moro towns. He was jestingly called Datu Tamaktamak, because "kung asa siya motamak, makapaanak". This would explain why there were Moro children surnamed Mutia.

Paulina's brothers are the ascendants of today's Regalados and Cajetas of Aloran. Another notable member of this family was Judge Pacito "Loloy" Mutia who was assigned to Plaridel in the sixties.

Isidro and Paulina got married and settled in the Misamis town of Langaran (Plaridel). He started his family there.

In 1895, his wife got seriously sick. There was no doctor around, but he heard that there was a Dr. Jose Rizal in nearby Dapitan. He, wife Paulina, accompanied by daughter Mercedes, went to Dapitan for treatment. There were no medicines available, so Dr. Rizal treated her with boiled herbal plants and fruits. In a few days, Paulina got well and recovered.

This was the time when Rizal and Tan Sidro became friends. They had scrimmages in judo and jujitsu. They also talked of the political situation outside of Dapitan, as Tan Sidro was knowledgeable because of his extensive travels in Mindanao.

Tan Sidro asked Rizal if he could use the Rizal name to replace his name "Sepe", as he was suspected by the Spaniards of collaborating with the Moros. Rizal said that was not a good idea since the name "Rizal" was also wanted by the Spaniards.

Rizal offered a solution: From the name Rizal, replace "z" with "s" and put in an additional "l". Scramble the letters and you get "Rillas". Tan Sidro liked the name, and from that day on, his name was Isidro Rillas and no longer Isidro Sebe. But his nickname Tan Sidro still remained.

That's why you cannot find a Rillas name anywhere except in Plaridel, where it was started by Tan Sidro.

It was on the occasion of Tan Sidro's visit to Rizal that his daughter, Mercedes, met the gentleman from Oroquieta, Gregorio Lumasag, who was one of the students of Rizal in Dapitan. Not long afterwards, they got married. They settled in Plaridel, and started the Lumasag family there.

Gen. Rufino Deloso, was an insurgent (insurrecto) who fought against the Spaniards. With the Spaniards gone, Deloso's forces have to fight the new invaders, the Americans. He had a mission to reach out to the Moros, to form an alliance with them in fighting their common enemy.

Gen. Deloso asked his friend, Isidro Rillas, to accompany him since he has many Moro friends, among them the dattos (datus). In June 1901, they proceeded to the Moro encampments around Lake Lanao.

Datto Bancurong, a long-time friend of Tan Sidro welcomed them and was agreeable to their plan. However, three other dattos did not relish the idea of fighting the Americans alongside the Christians. The Moros preferred to fight their own battles. The mission failed. Tan Sidro and Deloso returned to Oroquieta in August, 1901

The revolutionaries in Misamis (in the Occidental area) were headed by Gen. Rufino Deloso. His force of 400 insurgents continued the struggle against the Americans by raising funds, securing arms and initiating encounters with the Americans. They continually assaulted the American garrison in Oroquieta. There were no less than twenty encounters between the revolutionaries and the Americans in Misamis in 1900-1901.

The Americans wanted to put a stop to this as their hands were already full in fighting the Moros. In 1903, the governor of Misamis Province, Manuel Roa Corrales, wrote a letter to Isidro Rillas, asking for his help in making his friend, Gen. Deloso surrender and disband his forces.

Isidro Rillas successfully prevailed upon Deloso and his men to lay down their arms and give up. They were granted amnesty by the Americans. Without a single shot fired, Capitan Sidro ended the hostilities between the Americans and the insurgents.

Tan Sidro's political influence had soared and this was acknowledged by the Americans. He held local positions in Plaridel, until his election as governor in 1917. He had to stay in the capital town of Cagayan de Misamis during his term from 1917 to 1919.

After his term as governor, he returned to Plaridel. He engaged in farming, acquiring tracts of land in the Balonoan valley in Bonifacio, Calamba, Misamis Occidental.

Biography