The desire of the populace of Cabiao to be free from Spanish domination and tyranny resulted in an uprising on September 2, 1896. Numbering around 700 men (461 listed in the Tablet of Heroes in the Municipal Compound), the townsfolk of Cabiao and the Cabiao Brass Band under the leadership of their Capitan Municipal Mariano Nuñez Llanera together with the people of the neighboring towns of Arayat, Deliquente (San Antonio) & Jaen led the siege against the colonizing Spaniards stationed at the Factoria of San Isidro. The Spanish Colonial Government ceded the Philippines to the United States on December 10, 1898, via the Treaty of Paris. Once again the Philippines was under colonial rule, this time by the American. In the last days of the Spanish occupation, the Cabiao heroes participated in the declaration of Philippine Republic in Malolos on January 23, 1899. During the Philippine–American War, Cabiao was one of the fiercely battled terrains of the American forces in pursuit of General Aguinaldo's Forces however most of the populated areas of Cabiao have been saved from the encounter. General Pio del Pilar hold out in the marshes of San Vicente and Santa Rita to delay the intruding Forces of General Elwell Stephen Otis under the command of General Henry Ware Lawton.
