The Philippines: Past and Present Volume I Part 18

The Good Book says, "By their fruits ye shall know them, whether they be good or evil," and it seems proper to apply this test to the Insurgents and their government.

The extraordinary claim has been advanced that the United States destroyed a republic in the Philippines and erected an oligarchy on its ruins. Various writers and speakers who have not gone so far as this have yet maintained that Aguinaldo and his a.s.sociates established a real, effective government throughout the archipelago during the interim between his return and the outbreak of hostilities with the United States.

In summarizing conditions on September 15, 1898, Judge Blount says: [236]--

"Absolute master of all Luzon outside Manila at this time, with complete machinery of government in each province for all matters of justice, taxes, and police, an army of some 30,000 men at his beck, and his whole people a unit at his back, Aguinaldo formally inaugurated his permanent government--permanent as opposed to the previous provisional government--with a Const.i.tution, Congress, and Cabinet, patterned after our own, [237] just as the South American republics had done before him when they were freed from Spain, at Malolos, the new capital."

He refers to our utter failure to understand "what a wonderfully complete 'going concern' Aguinaldo's government had become throughout the Philippine Archipelago before the Treaty of Paris was signed." [238]

He bases his claim as to the excellent state of public order in the Insurgent territory at this time on a report of Paymaster W. E. Wilc.o.x and Naval Cadet L. R. Sargent of the United States Navy, who between October 8 and November 20, 1898, made a long, rapid trip through northern Luzon, traversing the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela, Cagayan, South Ilocos and Union, in the order named, thence proceeding to Dagupan and down the railroad through Pangasinan, Tarlac, Pampanga and Bulacan to Manila.

He says that these gentlemen found the authority of Aguinaldo's government universally acknowledged, the country in a state of perfect tranquillity and public order, [239] with profound peace and freedom from brigandage and the like. [240]

Now if it be true that Aguinaldo established complete machinery of government throughout all of Luzon outside of Manila for all matters of justice, taxes and police, so that life and property were safe and peace, tranquillity and justice a.s.sured, we may well dispense with quibbling as to whether the proper name was applied to such government. But did he?

Let us examine with some care the history of the Wilc.o.x-Sargent trip, and see if we can gain further light from other sources relative to the condition of public order in the territory which they traversed.

I propose, for the most part, to let the captured Insurgent records speak for themselves, as it is fair to a.s.sume that Insurgent officers were at no pains to represent conditions as worse than they really were. In view of the fragmentary character of these records, we may also a.s.sume that the complete story would be still more interesting and instructive than the one which I have been able to reconstruct.

Messrs. Sargent and Wilc.o.x were almost everywhere hospitably received, and were entertained with dinners and dances after the inimitable fashion of the hospitable Filipino everywhere. They gained a very favourable impression of the state of public order in the provinces through which they pa.s.sed for the reason that from the very start their trip was strictly personally conducted. They saw exactly what it was intended that they should see and very little more. Their progress was several times interrupted for longer or shorter periods without adequate explanation. We now know that on these occasions the scenery so carefully prepared in advance for them had become a little disarranged and needed to be straightened up. Facts which I will cite show that most shocking and horrible events, of which they learned nothing, were occurring in the territory through which they pa.s.sed.

For a considerable time before their departure American visitors had been carefully excluded from the Insurgent territory, but the Filipino leaders decided to let these two men go through it to the end that they might make as favourable a report as possible. How carefully the way was prepared for American visitors is shown by the following telegram:--

"_San Pedro, Macati_,

"July 30, 1898.

"To the Local Presidente of Pasig:

"You are hereby informed that the Americans are going to your town and they will ask your opinion [of what the people desire.--Tr.] You should answer them that we want a republican government. The same answer must be given throughout your jurisdiction.

(Signed) "Pio Del Pilar,

"General of the Second Zone." [241]

Now General Pilar had an uncomfortable way of killing people who did not obey his orders, and under the rules of the Insurgent government he was abundantly justified in so doing. His suggestions as to what visiting Americans should be told or shown would be likely to be acceded to. Certainly this seems to have been the case in the present instance, for on the same day General Noriel reported as follows: [242]

"President R. G., Bacoor, from Gen. Noriel, Pineda, July 30, 12.10 P.M.: I inform your excellency that some commissioners of the American admiral are making investigations in the region around Pasay as to the wishes and opinion of the people as to the government. To-day I received a statement from some, giving the answer: 'Free government under American protectorate [copy mutilated, two or three words missing here] the President.'"

Blount quotes with approval Admiral Dewey's statement made shortly after the return of Wilc.o.x and Sargent that in his opinion their report "contains the most complete and reliable information obtainable in regard to the present state of the northern part of Luzon Island." [243] This was true.

The admiral might have gone further and said that it contained practically the only information then obtainable in regard to conditions in the territory in question, but as I shall conclusively show it was neither complete nor reliable.

Judge Blount in describing the experiences of Messrs. Wilc.o.x and Sargent navely makes the statement that:

"The tourists were provided at Rosales by order of Aguinaldo with a military escort, 'which was continued by relays all the way to Aparri.'" [244]

It certainly was!

Very little Spanish was then spoken in Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela or Cagayan. What opportunity had these two men, ignorant as they were of the native dialects, to learn the sinister facts as to what had been and was occurring in the territory which they visited?

No one can fail to be delighted with Filipino hospitality, which was lavishly bestowed upon them everywhere, and it is only natural that they should have reported favourably upon what they saw. It was about this time that an order was issued [245] that fronts of buildings should be whitewashed, streets cleaned and fences repaired with a view to showing every one, and especially travellers through the territory of the Insurgents, that they were "not opposed to a good such as a refined and civilized people should have." Doubtless the report of the two men from Dewey's fleet was made in the best of faith. I will now endeavour to show what were some of the actual conditions in the territory through which they pa.s.sed.

_Bulacan_

They first visited Bulacan. They do not mention hearing of the activities of a Chinaman named Ignacio Paua, who had been given the rank of colonel by Aguinaldo and a.s.signed the task of extorting contributions for the revolution from his countrymen. In a letter to Aguinaldo written on July 6, 1898, Paua states that he has collected more than $1,000 from the Chinese of these small towns, but asks for an order "prohibiting the outrages that are being committed against such merchants as are not our enemies." He further says, "When the contributions from the Chinamen of all the pueblos shall have been completed I wish to publish a proclamation forbidding any injury to the Chinamen and any interference with their small business enterprises," and adds that "the natives hereabouts themselves are the people who are committing said abuses." [246]

Apparently Paua had no objection to the committing of outrages against merchants that were the enemies of the cause, nor does he seem to have objected to injury to Chinamen before contributions were completed. His own methods were none too mild. On August 27, 1898, General Pio del Pilar telegraphed Aguinaldo that five Insurgent soldiers, under a leader supposed to be Paua, had entered the store of a Chinaman, and tried to kidnap his wife, but had left on the payment of $10 and a promise to pay $50 later, saying that they would return and hang their fellow countryman if the latter amount was not forthcoming. [247]

Paua was later made a general in consideration of his valuable services!

_Pampanga_

Our travellers next visited Pampanga. Here they apparently overlooked the fact that Aguinaldo did not have "his whole people a unit at his back." The citizens of Macabebe seem not to have approved of the Aguinaldo regime, for the Insurgent records show that:--

"Representatives of the towns of Pampanga a.s.sembled in San Fernando on June 26, 1898, and under the presidency of General Maximino Hizon agreed to yield him complete 'obedience as military governor of the province and representative of the ill.u.s.trious dictator of these Philippine Islands.' The town of Macabebe refused to send any delegates to this gathering." [248]

It may be incidentally mentioned that Blount has pa.s.sed somewhat lightly over the fact that he himself during his army days commanded an aggregation of st.u.r.dy citizens from this town, known as Macabebe scouts, who diligently shot the Insurgents full of holes whenever they got a chance. He incorrectly refers to them as a "tribe or clan." [249]

It is absurd to call them a tribe. They are merely the inhabitants of a town which has long been at odds with the neighbouring towns of the province.

Things had come to a bad pa.s.s in Pampanga when its head wrote that the punishment of beating people in the plaza and tying them up so that they would be exposed to the full rays of the sun should be stopped. He argued that such methods would not lead the people of other nations to believe that the reign of liberty, equality and fraternity had begun in the Philippines. [250]

When it is remembered that persons tied up and exposed to the full rays of the sun in the Philippine lowlands soon die, in a most uncomfortable manner, we shall agree with the head of this province that this custom has its objectionable features!

_Tarlac_

While the failure of Messrs. Wilc.o.x and Sargent to learn of the relations between the Tagalogs of Macabebe and their neighbours, or of the fact that people were being publicly tortured in Pampanga, is perhaps not to be wondered at under the circ.u.mstances, it is hard to see how they could have failed to hear something of the seriously disturbed conditions in Tarlac if they so much as got off the train there.

On August 24 the commissioner in charge of elections in that province asked for troops to protect him, in holding them in the town of Urdaneta, against a party of two thousand men of the place, who were going to prevent them.

On September 22 the secretary of the interior ordered that the requirements of the decree of June 18, establishing munic.i.p.al governments, should be strictly complied with, as in many of the towns "the inhabitants continue to follow the ancient methods by which the friars exploited us at their pleasure and which showed their great contempt for the law." [251]

The following letter to Aguinaldo, from Juan Nepomuceno, Representative from Tarlac, speaks for itself as to conditions in that province on December 27, 1898, shortly after the American travellers pa.s.sed through it on their return:--

"I regret exceedingly being compelled to report to you that since Sunday the 25th instant scandalous acts have been going on in the Province of Tarlac, which I represent. On the night of the Sunday mentioned the entire family of the Local Chief of Bamban was murdered, and his house and warehouse were burned. Also the Tax Commissioner and the Secretary, Fabian Ignacio, have been murdered. Last night Senor Jacinto Vega was kidnapped at the town of Gerona; and seven travellers were murdered at O'Donnel, which town was pillaged, as well as the barrio of Matayumtayum of the town of La Paz. On that day various suspicious parties were seen in the town of Panique and in the same barrio, according to reliable reports which I have just received.

"All this general demoralization of the province, according to the information which I have obtained, is due to the fact that the province is dissatisfied with the Provincial Chief, Senor Alfonso Ramos, and with Major Manuel de Leon; for this is substantiated by the fact that all the events described occurred since last Sunday, when Senor Alfonso Ramos returned, to take charge of the Office of Provincial President, after having been detained for several days in this town. Wherefore, I believe that in order to restore tranquillity in the province, consideration be given to various doc.u.ments that have been presented to the Government and to the standing Committee of Justice; and that there be removed from office Senor Alfonso Ramos, as well as said Senor Manuel de Leon, who has no prestige whatever in this province. Moreover on the day when fifty-four soldiers of the command deserted, he himself left for San Fernando, Pampanga." [252]

On November 30, 1898, General Macabulos sent Aguinaldo a telegram [253]

from which it evidently appears that there was an armed uprising in Tarlac which he was endeavouring to quell and that he hoped for early success. Apparently, however, his efforts to secure tranquillity were not entirely successful, for on December 18 he telegraphed Aguinaldo as follows:--

"In a telegram dated to-day Lieut. Paraso, commanding a detachment at Camilin, informs me that last night his detachment was attacked by Tulisanes (robbers). The fire lasted four hours without any casualties among our men. This afternoon received another from the captain commanding said detachment, informing me of the same, and that nothing new has occurred. The people of the town await with anxiety the result of the charges they have made, especially against the local president and the justice of the peace, the original of which I sent to your high authority." [254]

Obviously the police machinery was not working quite smoothly when a detachment of Insurgent troops could be kept under fire for four hours by a robber band, and perhaps the attacking party were not all "robbers." Soldiers do not ordinarily carry much to steal.

We obtain some further information from the following telegram of December 27, 1898, sent by the secretary of the interior to the President of the Revolutionary Government:--

"Most urgent. According to reports no excitement except in Bangbang, Tarlac, which at 12 A.M., 25th, was attacked by Tulisanes [bandits or robbers,--D.C.W.]. The local presidente with his patrols arrested six of them. On continuing the pursuit he met in Talacon a party too large to attack. At 7 A.M. of the 26th the town was again attacked by criminals, who killed the tax collector, and others who burnt some houses, among them that of the local presidente, and his stables, in which he lost two horses. I report this for your information." [255]