WHEN Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo learned that Gen. Martin Delgado was to proclaim the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Visayas and Mindanao on Nov. 17, 1898, he sent a Philippine flag and a saber to the Ilonggo revolutionary leader.

But the revolutionaries knew the flag and saber could not just easily be brought to Delgado's headquarters because the courier would have to pass through the guardia civil at the exit points from Iloilo City, 16 km east of Sta. Barbara.

A woman with a masculine name of Patrocinio Gamboa, decided to do the job despite the risk. She picked a young officer, Lt. Honorio Solinap, as companion in smuggling the flag and saber in time for the proclamation at the Sta. Barbara town plaza.

Riding in a horse-drawn buggy with Solinap, Gamboa acted as the bickering and nagging wife on her way to an important engagement.

The Spanish soldiers were so amused at the sight of a woman shouting, cursing and pinching her husband all along the way that they did not hesitate to let them through.

Little did the soldiers knew that the flag was around the waist of Gamboa, underneath her patadyong (a wraparound ankle-length skirt), while the saber was hidden beneath the grass loaded on the carriage.

Without the convincing act of the two, the Philippine flag could not have flown for the first time outside Luzon--an event now known as the ''Cry of Sta. Barbara'' which signaled the fall of Iloilo City, Spain's last capital in the Philippines.

It is the only Visayan historical milestone included in the so-called ''Freedom Trail,'' a series of events being observed in line with the Centennial celebration of Philippine independence.

The smuggling of the flag and saber, and the raising of the flag for the first time in the Visayas were reenacted during the celebration of the Centennial of the Cry of Sta. Barbara on Tuesday last week.

Hundreds of Ilonggos came to Sta. Barbara to witness the historic event that was opened by a motorcade from Plaza Libertad in Iloilo City, passing through a highway lined with hundreds of Philippine flags.

A 60-meter by 30-meter flag was raised on a 105-foot flag pole in front of the Sta. Barbara municipal hall at 9 a.m. It was one of the five flags with such a size now flying in the country.

When the flag was raised, the band played the ''Marcha Ejercito Libertador (Liberation Army March),'' the music during the first flag-raising outside Luzon.

Wreaths were offered at Delgado's monument and at the marker of the site where the proclamation of the Provincial Revolutionary Government of the Visayas and Mindanao took place.

The occasion was also highlighted by the inauguration of the Sta. Barbara Museum and the kilometer-long bypass road that was built so heavy trucks will no longer pass by the century-old Sta. Barbara Church. The structure could crumble down from vibrations in the ground.

Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the guest of honor, did not arrive or send a representative. Only National Centennial Commission Vice Chair Ceasar Virata and Commissioner Gloria Angara came.

Virata praised Delgado and his men for their effective campaign against the Spaniards that in a little more than a month, they liberated most of the towns in Iloilo.

He said the heroism of Delgado and the other revolutionaries should inspire the people of Iloilo to strive to progress.

But Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco, a resident of Sta. Barbara, noted that little has changed during the last 100 years because social evils persist until today.