The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 36

As I have elsewhere remarked, the Philippines have a coast line longer than that of the continental United States. A very large percentage of the munic.i.p.alities are situated on, or close to, the sea and the maintenance of adequate marine transportation is therefore a matter of vital importance to the peace and commercial prosperity of the archipelago. In the early days of American occupation conditions were most unsatisfactory. Most of the boats in the coastwise trade were antiquated, foul and had no decent facilities for transporting pa.s.sengers. As the number of vessels was too small to handle the business of the country, ship-owners occupied a very independent position. The freight rates on such things as lumber and currency were practically prohibitive. It was a common thing for vessels to refuse to receive hemp, sugar and perishable products that had been brought to the beach for shipment, giving as an excuse the fact that they were employed in the private business of Messrs. Smith, Bell & Co., Warner, Barnes & Co., or whoever happened to own them, and could not transport freight for the public as the volume of their private business would not permit it. However, if the owners of the freight were willing to sell it to the ships' officers for a fraction of its value, they encountered no difficulty in transporting it!

Furthermore, there existed the danger of Moro raids, the necessity for checking the operations of smugglers, and that of preventing the ingress of firearms, which in the hands of irresponsible persons might cause great damage and expense to the government and the public.

In view of these facts it was decided to establish a fleet of twenty coast-guard vessels, which were not only to do police duty and to a.s.sist in the transportation of troops, but were to carry freight and pa.s.sengers when opportunity offered. Fifteen such vessels were ordered from Messrs. Farnham, Boyd & Co., of Shanghai, and five from the Uraga Dock Company of j.a.pan. The j.a.panese vessels proved unsatisfactory, and only two were accepted, making the total fleet seventeen. As the condition of public order improved the coast-guard boats became available to a constantly increasing extent for commercial service.

Prior to July, 1906, there were practically no established steamship routes over which commercial vessels operated on regular schedules. With the exception of the service between Manila, Cebu and Iloilo, vessels traded here and there without regular ports of call or fixed dates of arrival or departure. The policy which guided their owners was one of privilege and monopoly, and by agreement between them compet.i.tion was rigidly excluded. Trade was discouraged and the commercial development of the islands seriously r.e.t.a.r.ded.

In accordance with a plan formulated by Mr. Forbes, then secretary of commerce and police, the coast-guard vessels were placed on regular commercial routes and were operated on schedules which gave efficient service to all important islands of the archipelago. Ten routes were maintained and many isolated points, and small towns or villages which offered so little business at the outset as to make them unprofitable, and therefore unattractive as ports of call for commercial vessels, were put in close communication with the larger towns and distributing centres, so that the small planters could market their products with little trouble. This promptly led to increased production and trade, and greater prosperity through the islands.

Business increased to such an extent that in July, 1906, it proved practicable to withdraw the government vessels and turn these routes over to commercial firms which entered into a definite contract with the government to maintain an adequate service. Their vessels were allowed substantial subsidies, amounting in the aggregate to $100,000 per year, in order to a.s.sure the prompt despatch of mail, adherence to schedule, and efficient service. The ten old coast-guard routes were divided into fourteen new commercial routes which gave excellent service to all parts of the islands.

Secondary routes were then arranged and coast-guard cutters were placed on them. A number of these were in turn given over to commercial vessels after they had developed enough trade to be commercially profitable. Three such routes are now maintained by the Bureau of Navigation, and it is planned to establish two more in the near future.

The importance of the change thus brought about by the government in transportation facilities can be appreciated only by those who have had actual experience with the intolerable state of affairs which previously existed. Meanwhile conditions on the inter-island steamers have been enormously improved by the enforcement of proper sanitary regulations, and insistence that staterooms be decent and food reasonably good.

Of the original cutters two were for a long time under charter by the military authorities for use as despatch boats and transports; two are employed as lighthouse tenders, and two have been a.s.signed to the Bureau of Coast Surveys for coast and geodetic work; one collects lepers and takes them to the Leper Colony at Culion. The cable-ship Rizal, operated by the Bureau of Navigation, has succeeded in repairing and keeping in repair the marine cables throughout the islands. Such cables are especially subject to injury in Philippine waters on account of the strength of the currents between the islands, the frequency with which stretches of sea bottom are overgrown with sharp coral, and the common occurrence of earthquakes. When not otherwise engaged the Rizal carries commercial cargoes if opportunity offers. She has proved useful for bringing in rice when a shortage of this commodity, which is the bread of the Filipino people, threatened, and for handling cargoes of lumber of sizes such that regular inter-island steamers could not load it.

In addition to the vessels above mentioned, the Bureau of Navigation owns and operates a fleet of launches, some of which are seagoing, and a number of dredges which are employed in improving the harbours and rivers of the islands as funds permit. The bureau also owns and operates its own machine shop and marine railway, and repairs its own vessels.

A section of the machine shop is set aside for lighthouse work, and in it lighthouse apparatus of every description is fabricated and repaired. While lighthouses and buoys are not means of communication they are aids to it.

The thousand and ninety-five inhabited islands and approximately two hundred and fifty ports of varying importance, depending as they do entirely upon water transportation for communication with each other and with the outside world, had no wharf.a.ge whatever available for large vessels, and no publicly owned wharf.a.ge within ten yards of which even the larger inter-island steamers could be berthed. Manila had no protected anchorage, and during the season of southwest monsoons and typhoons vessels were sometimes compelled to lie in the harbour for weeks before they could unload, a fact which gave the port a deservedly bad name.

The Spaniards had commenced harbour work at Manila in 1892, twenty-five years after preliminary study began and sixteen years after prospective plans had been submitted. Their operations were stopped by the insurrection in 1896, at which time the present west breakwater had been about half completed, but as the completed portion was at the sh.o.r.e end and in shallow water it afforded no protection to ships. There had been constructed twenty-four hundred feet of masonry wall partly enclosing one of the basins provided for in the Spanish plans, and fourteen hundred eighty-five feet of wall lining ca.n.a.ls connecting the proposed new harbour with the Pasig River. These also were temporarily useless, because there had been no dredging in front of them, or backfilling in their rear.

Outside of Manila practically nothing had been done to facilitate the loading and discharge of vessels, or to protect them from the elements.

We now have at Manila a deep-water harbour dredged to a uniform depth of thirty feet and enclosed by two breakwaters having a total length of nearly eleven thousand five hundred feet. Two hundred and sixty-one acres of land have been reclaimed with the dredged material. Two steel piers extend from the filled land into the deep-water harbour. One of these is six hundred fifty feet long and one hundred ten feet wide, the other six hundred feet long and seventy feet wide. Both are housed in, the sheds covering them having a total area of ninety-two thousand square feet. These piers and sheds are practically fireproof, and the largest ocean-going steamers on the Pacific can lie alongside them. Additional work planned, which should be undertaken when funds permit, includes two more piers; and bulkheads to connect the inner ends of the present piers, so as to give inter-island steamers opportunity to unload.

At Cebu the sea-wall has been completed to a length of two thousand sixty feet and the channel in front of it dredged in part to ten and a half and in part to twenty-three feet at low water. Some ten and a half acres of land have been reclaimed with the material removed. Streets and roadways have been built on the reclaimed area, and a wharf eight hundred twelve feet in length, designed as an extension to the wall, is now fifty per cent completed. The harbour at Cebu should ultimately be dredged so as to give thirty feet of water along the piers.

At Iloilo the dredging of a fifteen-foot channel up to the custom-house was completed in March, 1907. Seven hundred and eighty-three feet of river wall and twelve hundred ninety feet of reenforced concrete wharf, both to accommodate vessels of eighteen feet draft at low water, have been built along the south bank of the middle reach of the river. The lower reach has been dredged to twenty-four feet at low water, the middle reach to eighteen feet and the upper reach to fifteen feet, while two hundred ten thousand square metres of land have been reclaimed and two hundred six thousand improved with the dredged material. Wharves for ocean-going steamers should ultimately be constructed at this important port.

At Paracale, in Ambos Camarines, a reenforced concrete pier four hundred ninety feet in length has been built. It extends out to a depth of fifteen feet at low water.

At Bais, Negros, a timber pier for vessels of sixteen feet draft, with a stone causeway approach a mile and a half in length, and a warehouse for the temporary storage of sugar, have been constructed.

Channels have been blasted through the coral reefs surrounding the islands Batan, Sabtang and Itbayat in the Batanes group, where the annual loss of life had previously been great, owing to the occurrence of sudden storms which often made it impossible for people to return to their towns through the surf. The port of Pandan, in Ilocos Sur, has been improved by means of a stone revetment twenty-nine hundred seventy-five feet in length along the north bank of the Abra River, thus maintaining the channel in one position and affording vastly better means of loading and discharging cargo for the important town of Vigan. A self-propelling combination snag boat, pile driver and dredge for the improvement of the great Cagayan River has been built, and is now in operation on that stream.

Very numerous other works of repair and construction have been carried out. Some 80 surveys have been made in minor ports to determine the feasibility of improvements, and in many cases plans have been prepared for proposed work.

The Spaniards had devoted much time and study to a project for coast illumination. At the outbreak of the insurrection in 1896 they had twenty-eight lights, fourteen of which were flashing and fourteen fixed minor lights, while four additional stations were under construction. Then all work was stopped, and when systematic inspection was made by American lighthouse engineers five years later, extensive repairs were found to be necessary. The repairs were made as promptly as possible, and new construction then began. To-day there are a hundred forty-five lights in operation, and the waters of the Philippines are among the best lighted in the world. One hundred and eleven buoys of various cla.s.ses are being maintained.

The following table shows the progress made in the construction of lighthouses:--

Fiscal Year Light-houses in Operation

1902 57 1903 66 1904 76 1905 89 1906 105 1907 117 1908 129 1909 139 1910 143 1911 142 1912 145 1913 [166] 145

In all nearly $7,000,000 have been expended in the improvement of ports and harbours, and about $750,000 in the construction of lights.

At the time of the American occupation, knowledge of the waters of the archipelago was in a most unsatisfactory state. There was not even an accurate chart of Manila Bay. Navigating officers followed certain well-known trade routes which experience had shown to be safe, but did not dare to leave them. Uncharted dangers were soon discovered at Iloilo and in other important ports, and the necessity for a systematic survey of the waters became immediately apparent.

On September 6, 1901, the Bureau of Coast and Geodetic Surveys was organized. The work is conducted under a joint agreement such that it is supervised by the superintendent of coast and geodetic surveys at Washington, who is represented in the Philippines by an officer called the director of coast surveys. The latter reports to the head of the insular government so far as concerns the expenditure of funds furnished by that government, which has the power of approval over his a.s.signment to duty. There is a division of expenses between the two governments. The United States has paid approximately fifty-five per cent of the total cost, and the insular government has paid the balance.

The Bureau is engaged in a systematic survey of the coasts, harbours and waters of the Philippine Islands and of the topography of the sh.o.r.e-line. It determines positions astronomically and by triangulation, investigates reported dangers to navigation, and observes tides, currents and the magnetic elements. Five steamers are now engaged in this very important work. It is estimated that fifty-four per cent of the surveys of the coast and adjacent waters have already been completed. When one remembers that the coast-line of the Philippines is longer than that of the continental United States, one realizes that this is a remarkable achievement.

The Bureau has published one hundred twenty-four charts covering the entire boundaries of the islands, and six volumes of sailing directions which are kept constantly up to date by additions whenever new facts of importance to mariners are ascertained. The greater part of the information thus made available represents results obtained by the Bureau, but these are supplemented by the most reliable data that can be obtained from other sources.

The following table shows the number of miles of coast surveyed at the end of each year, beginning with 1901:--

Number of Miles of Coast Surveyed

Fiscal Year Miles

1901 89 1902 576 1903 1,208 1904 1,921 1905 2,415 1906 3,041 1907 4,536 1908 6,109 1909 7,126 1910 8,763 1911 9,992 1912 11,308 1913 [167] 11,748

Not only have all important waterways through the islands been surveyed and lighted, but travel and the transportation of merchandise on land have been enormously facilitated by the construction of additional railways and of a system of first-, second- and third-cla.s.s roads and of trails.

Prior to 1907 the only railroad line in operation in the Philippines was the so-called Manila-Dagupan Railway, which was 122 miles long.

The following table shows the steady increase in mileage since that time and also the steady increase in railroad earnings:--

Railroad Statistics

---------+-----------+-------------+----------+----------+---------------------- | Total | Earnings of | | | Earnings of Manila Fiscal | Mileage | Philippine | | Calendar | Railway Co.

Year | in | Railway | Increase | Year +-----------+---------- | Operation | Co., Amount | | | Amount | Increase ---------+-----------+-------------+----------+----------+-----------+---------- 1907[168]| 122 | | | 1907 | $25,823 | 1908 | 221 | | | 1908 | 961,936 | 16 1909 | 290 | $74,815[169]| | 1909 | 1,023,812 | 6 1910 | 400 | 118,646 | 59 | 1910 | 1,233,794 | 21 1911 | 455 | 142,888 | 20 | 1911 | 1,919,244 | 56 1912 | 599 | 386,970 | 171 | 1912 | 2,304,436 | 20 1913 | 611[170] | ([171]) | | | | --------+-----------+--------------+----------+----------+-----------+----------

The north line of the Manila Railroad Company, which is the successor to the Manila and Dagupan Railway Company, now extends to Bauang in the province of La Union. It has laterals terminating at Camp One, on the Benguet Road; Rosales in Pangasinan; Mangaldang in Pangasinan; Cabanatuan in Nueva Ecija; Camp Stotensburg in Pampanga; Florida Blanca in Pampanga; Montalban in Rizal, and Antipolo in Rizal.

The main south line of this road extends from Manila to Lucena in Tayabas. It has branches to Cavite in the province of the same name; to Naic in Cavite; to Pagsanjan in La Laguna, and to Batangas in the Province of Batangas.

The Philippine Railway Company has built and is now operating a line on Panay which extends from Iloilo to Capiz, and a line on Cebu which extends north from the city of the same name to Danao and south to Argao.

The development of the road system is even more important than that of railroads.

The following tables show the mileage of first-, second- and third-cla.s.s roads, and the total number of permanent bridges and culverts, in existence at the end of each year, beginning with 1907:--

Public Works Statistics

-------------+------------------------------------------------------- | Total Mileage of Roads in Existence +-------------+------------+--------------+------------- Fiscal Year | First-cla.s.s | | Second-cla.s.s | Third-cla.s.s | Roads | Increase | Roads | Roads -------------+-------------+------------+--------------+------------- | | Per Cent | | 1907 | 303[172] | -- | -- | -- 1908 | 423 | 40 | -- | -- 1909 | 609 | 44 | -- | -- 1910 | 764 | 25 | 641[173] | 2,074[173]

1911 | 987 | 29 | 664 | 1,837 1912 | 1,143 | 16 | 1,342.1[173]| 1,999 1913[174] | 1,187[175] | -- | 1,305.3 | 1,967 -------------+-------------+------------+--------------+-------------