Pedro Calosa, the returning traveler, had been molded by some of the same influences that shaped Kabola. Both men were Ilocanos. Calosa was born near the turn of the century in Bauang, La Union. He too, participated in the gathering migration from the Ilocos region, for early in the American period, his family had moved to Tayug, Pangasinan. Like Kabola, therefore, he was influenced by the diminishing shadows of Guardia de Honor and Santa Iglesia. http://journals.aol.ca/mabait42/OLDPANGASINAN/
There however, biographical identtities ended. Unlike Kabola, Calosa grew to manhood under cosmopolitan circumstances. Orphaned by cholera, he and an older brother left the Philippines for Hawaii during the second decade of American rule. For roughly the next ten years he worked in Hawaii/s sugar and pineapple fields, where backbreaking drudgery put the finishing touches to his rebellious personality. In 1926, he forged Filipino contract workers into an agricultural unionand attempted to foment strikes for better wages and working conditions. When the effort failed, Calosa wound up behind bars. Labeled a dangerous agitator, he was released after serving time in the territorial prison and was deported to his homeland. The rebellious components of Calosa's character, consequently added up to much more than the sum of Kabola's intransigent parts.
His Philippine activities reflected that complexity. At the first opportunity, Calosa left Manila's hostile environs and returned to Eastern Pangasinan. The oppressive social atmosphere of the province depressed him even more than its primitive economy. Within six months, he got himself into trouble, sometimes voluntarily sometimes involuntarily. They were seditious schemes and so the Philippine Constabulary kept Calosa under survelliance. Try as they might, the men in red and khaki ( a popular name for the PC before ) could not gather enough hard evidence to jail the ex-convict. One of these was a plan to attack the municipio of Rizal, Nueva Ecija. Harrassed by the police and applauded secretly by peasant rebels, Calosa soon realized he was a marked man. In 1930, he accepted the fact that he was meant to become a revolutionary, and soon he started au underground society called the PNA (Philippine National Association )
Membership in this religious organization did not come easy. Surrounded by informers and PC agents, Calosa insisted that aides should screen potential members very well before inviting them into the association. Once inducted, the "proselytes" were required to maintain absolute secrecy. Calosa held up his end of the bargain by prohibiting anything resembling mass meetings. Communication was usually restricted to face-to-face encounters. Detailed instructions were dispensed through small congregations in remote back woodschurches. The technique worked. By middle 1930, more than a thousand peasnts in Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija had been initiated into the PNA. Municipal authorities and the military authorities remained unaware of the organization.
Calosa's accomplishment created problems. His followers - particularly a handful of vindictive former kapisananes-pressed him to implement Kabola's strategy. Aware to the impracticalities of the master plan, Calosa urged patience. His officers listened but they did not hear. There arose differences of opinions among the leaders depending on their experiences. Calosa was the only PNA director who had seen America's Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour. He was also the only one who witnessed dedicated men crumble under overwhelming odds. His "provinciano" associates failed to grasp either reality because they have not been abroad. To them, American military power and the Philippine Constabulary were the same in strength. Moreover, they believed that the masses all over the Philippines were eager to strike down thier opressors. Naivete and frustration led them to advocate violence. They would never learn what happened to the previous organizations like the KAPISANAN and the SANTA IGLESIA. Warned finally that the PNA would start its insurrection with or without him, Calosa endorsed the plan although he knew it was doomed to fail. He undoubtedly hoped to influence the venture towards PARTIAL success. He was surrounded by hotheads who were eager to lock horns with the establishment's military might. It was Don Quixote of La Mancha ready to fight the windmills all over again...
(next time: the PNA begins its rebellion)
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