Datu Kalun (21st Century Crisis)

Datu Kalun, also spelled as Datu Calun (Jawi: داتو كالون, originally born as Pedro Javier Cuevas, May 6, 1845 - July 16, 1904) was a Philippine militant, and the Founder Father of Lamitan in the Province of Basilan. Originally born as Don Pedro Javier Cuevas, Datu Kalun was a native of Cavite, and belonged to a wealthy but rural and educated family that belonged to the Principalia, the native Philippine nobility at the time of Spanish rule.

At the age of 27, he was sentenced to death along with his two friends for their anti-Spanish militancy during the Cavite Uprising of 1872. He was involved with the death of several Spanish officers. He was set to a penal farm known as the San Ramon Penal Farm in Zamboanga, where he tought his inmates how to successfully revolt. With a raid against the farm, led by both the Royal Sulu Army, as well as independant Moro militants from the Sulu Archipelago, Cuevas fled to modern-day Basilan aboard a vinta commandeered by a prominent Yakan chief sent by the Sultan of Sulu.

In 1885, Pedro had gained the respect of the Sulu natives. Sultan Ali Ud-din of Sulu granted him the title "Datu Kalun", as he conquered more than 25 villages for the Sultan, helping in raids against the Spanish garrisons and settlements in the Sulu Archipelago, as well as the Zamboanga Peninsula. Datu Djulkanayin, a well-respected war leader from Jolo, joined Datu Kalun's joint-force of resistance against the Spanish Empire.

During the American occupation, Datu Kalun collaborated with American soldiers in flushing out the rest of Spanish forces in the southern Philippines, and made one last trip to his Cavite home in 1900. The U.S. Armed Forces offered him a leadership position within the Moro Battalions, a native unit of the U.S. Armed Forces consisting of native fighters from Muslim Mindanao. However, he politely rejected the offer, choosing to live a quiet life in Basilan. He died in 1904. During the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, Datu Kalun was made a National Hero of the Philippines.