Why was Saturnino Martín Cerezo honored by the Spanish government?
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I guess the real reason is the same one which explains why there are so many movies about Vietnam in the US: when you lose a war you're in desperate need of heroes. The Spanish-Cuban-American War was a complete disaster for Spain, losing the last remnants of its former glorious empire and sending the country on a vain exercise of soul-searching that many would say it is still looking for.
In that sort of mood, the courageous resistance of a group of soldiers against all odds, no matter how futile, instilled some sort of inspiration among the general population. Just like the news of some Japanese soldier stranded in the jungle for sixty years without knowing that the WWII was over generates more respect than derision for the poor guy.
Actually, the war was (quickly and mercilessly) lost by Spain because its imperial policy wasn't a good match for its third-rate power economy and its less-than-third-rate power defense budget, all of which had generated a tradition of corruption and nepotism in the armed forces, which collapsed against a more prepared army. So they took a story about a few men becoming paranoid due to isolation and stress and turned it into a tale of heroism and resistance to the last man. It is hardly a weird thing; from Custer's charge at Little Big Horn to the Light Brigade at Balaclava, whitewashing military blunders into legends of bravery is a common thing everywhere.
Probably the main reason that made a hero of Martín Cerezo was Martín Cerezo himself. His stubbornness (and that of his superior, Lieutenant Juan Alonso Zayas) may had cost a dozen lives, but he had managed to surrender with all military honors at the end of a war that had been not just a defeat, but a complete humiliation of the country. In 1898, few days after the Maine incident, Spanish newspapers run headlines in favour of declaring war against the USA and starting funding campaigns to go to war. Just three months later Spain had lost most of its navy, a third of its army, and all its colonies beyond the sea.
The behaviour of the Spanish armed forces was a complete disaster, left and right and from top to bottom. Admiral Cervera evaded a court-martial with all the grace and panache he lacked in avoiding the US Navy at Manila Bay. The press was boiling with stories of units which surrendered at the sight of the first marine they saw, or where massacred by ragtags armed with machetes - and the latter were more respected than the former. In this situation, Martín Cerezo manoeuvred skilfully to present himself as a brave man preferring death to dishonor. He campaigned in the press for a recognition to "the heroes of Baler"; he brought the ministry of defense to trial for deserting its brave soldiers - a narrative the common Spaniard with a relative or friend who had fought in the war was eager to buy. He even tried to get the King of Spain involved in the case and wrote a book - which was quite a best-seller - "so these facts of bravery are not going to be forgotten". In other words, as a military man he wasn't maybe brilliant, but as a politician he really had qualities.
In the end, just like with Admiral Cervera, it was easier for the Spanish elites and the Armed Forces High Command to honor him and making a hero of him than starting a judicial process that was inevitably going to expose everything that was wrong in the Spanish forces. Since there was more than enough shit for everyone to share, they decided it was better for everyone - particularly themselves - to just cover it up.
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I disagree with the answer of Rekesoft, which doesn't give concrete historical documents supporting his thesis. Here is the second part of the decree issued by the Chief General of the region scarcely two months before the event.
Art. 2.° Serán también juzgados en juicio sumarísimo y condenados como reos del mismo delito de traición, a la pena de cadena perpetua o a la de muerte, según las circunstancias: 1.º Los que propongan la capitulación o rendición al enemigo de plaza, barco o puesto militar o de fuerzas que se encuentren sitiadas, bloqueadas o amenazadas por las enemigas. 2.º Los que viertan noticias o especies que tiendan a desalentar a los defensores de la patria. Manila, 23 de Abril de 1898.= El General en Jefe, Basilio Angustí y Dávila.
The decree leaves very clear that those that surrender to the enemy a position would face court martial. It also leaves clear that it was feared that people would give false news to the Spanish military to encourage them to surrender. Isolated from the rest of the army how would they know if the news they were receiving were true?
The rest is fertile imagination.
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