Pepperskull, cool to know some of your background. And wow that is quite a mix!
From what I've read on this particular battle, a Lt Col Dickman was the officer in charge of 6 companies of the 26th Volunteers and 1 company of the 6th Inf. He reported casualties, captures, and field pieces to his superiors, but he did not leave a written report on this engagement. Some reports only give one sentence acknowledgment to this battle and listed it as a "stronghold". The testimony of one soldier named Obrien mentioned this as the largest battle as he estimated the opposition to be near 3000. I can send you the war report of the Panay Campaign, let me know if you want to read through it.
In WWII Balantang was also said to be the bloodiest battle between the Japanese and the Filipino Guerrillas. I am guessing the geographics to this barrio made this place important if it was a stronghold used in the Phil-Am War and was marked as the bloodiest battle for the guerrillas in WWII.