The Philippines: Past and Present Volume I Part 24

The province of Bataan lies just across the bay from Manila.

"On January 10, 1899, the secretary of the interior directed the governor of Bataan Province to ascertain the whereabouts of a number of men who had just deserted with their rifles from the commands there. He was to appeal to their patriotism and tell them that if they would but return to their companies their complaints would be attended to and they would be pardoned." [306]

_Zambales_

Zambales joins Bataan on the west and north. On November 13, 1898, Wenceslao Vinvegra wrote to Aguinaldo describing the state of affairs in this province. From his letter we learn that two brothers named Teodoro and Doroteo Pansacula, claiming to be governor and brigadier general respectively, who are charged with abandonment of their posts in the field, disobedience and attempts against the union of the Insurgents, had been committing all manner of abuses. They had organized a band of cut-throats, armed with rifles and bolos, and were terrorizing the towns, committing robberies and murders and ordering that money be furnished for themselves and food for their men.

They were also encouraging the people to disobey the local authorities and refuse to pay taxes, and were promulgating a theory, popular with the ma.s.ses, that the time had come for the rich to be poor and the poor rich.

They had furthermore induced regular Insurgent troops to rise up in arms. [307]

From this communication it would appear that the Insurgent government had not been entirely effective in Zambales up to November 13th, 1898.

From other communications we learn that the soldiers at Alaminos were about to desert on November 30th, 1898; [308] that it was deemed necessary to restrict travel between Tarlac, Pampanga, Bataan and Zambales in order to prevent robberies; [309] and that on January 9, 1899, the governor of the province found it impossible to continue the inspection of a number of towns, as many of their officials had fled to escape the abuses of the military. [310] Conditions were obviously very serious in Zambales at this time.

_Cavite_

Cavite province lies immediately south of Manila province as the latter was then const.i.tuted. On August 24, 1898, the secretary of war wired Aguinaldo that two drunken Americans had been killed by Insurgent soldiers. [311] On the same day General Anderson advised the governor of Cavite that one American soldier had been killed and three wounded by his people, and demanded his immediate withdrawal, with his guard, from the town. [312] The governor asked Aguinaldo for instructions. Aguinaldo replied instructing the governor to deny that the American had been killed by Insurgent soldiers and to claim that he had met death at the hands of his own companions. The governor was further directed to give up his life before leaving the place. [313]

In view of the definite statement from one of his own officers that the soldier in question was killed by Filipino soldiers, Aguinaldo's instructions to say that he was killed by Americans are interesting as showing his methods.

Not only were the Insurgents obviously unable to control their own soldiers in Cavite town sufficiently to prevent them from committing murder, but conditions in the province of the same name left much to be desired. On December 29, 1898, the governor wired Aguinaldo that the town of Marigondong had risen in arms. [314]

It is a well-known fact that land records were destroyed in Cavite. Of this matter Taylor says:--

"In Cavite, in Cavite Province, and probably in most of the other provinces, one of the first acts of the insurgents who gathered about Aguinaldo was to destroy all the land t.i.tles which had been recorded and filed in the Spanish administrative bureaus. In case the independence of the Philippines was won, the land of the friars, the land of the Spaniards and of those who still stood by Spain, would be in the gift of Aguinaldo or of any strong man who could impose his will upon the people. And the men who joined this leader would be rich in the chief riches of the country, and those who refused to do so would be ruined men." [315]

_Sorsogon_

"The native civil officials who took charge of the government of Sorsogon Province when the Spaniards abandoned it did not think it worth while to hoist the insurgent flag until a force of four companies arrived there to take station early in November, 1898. The officer in command promptly ordered the Chinamen in the town of Sorsogon, who are prosperous people, to contribute to the support of his troops. They at once gave him cloth for uniforms, provisions, and 10,000 pesos. This was not sufficient, for on November 8 Gen. Ignacio Paua, who seems to have been the insurgent agent in dealing with the Chinese, complained that the troops in Sorsogon were pillaging the Chinamen there. They had killed 13, wounded 19, and ruined a number of others." [316]

In January, 1899, a correspondent wrote Aguinaldo that it was very difficult to collect taxes as every one was taking what he could lay his hands on. [317]

_Ambos Camarines_

On September 18, 1898, Elias Angeles, a corporal of the _guardia civil_, headed an uprising against the Spaniards. The Spanish officer in command, and all of his family, were killed by shooting up through the floor of the room which they occupied. Angeles then a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Politico-Military-Governor.

When the Tagalog Vicente Lucban arrived on his way to Samar, he ordered Angeles to meet him at Magarao, with all his troops and arms, disarmed the troops, giving their rifles to his own followers, marched into Nueva Caceres and took possession of the entire government. Aguinaldo subsequently made Lucban a general, and sent him on his way to Samar.

Lucban was succeeded by another Tagalog, "General" Guevara, a very ignorant man, who displayed special ability in making collections, and is reported to have kept a large part of the funds which came into his possession.

Colonel Pena, who called himself "General," was one of the worst of the Tagalog invaders, for they were practically that. He threatened all who opposed him with death, and summarily shot at least one man in Tigaon. That town subsequently rose against him, and he was badly cut up by the Bicols. [318] On getting out of the hospital he was sent away.

The daughters of prominent families suffered at the hands of these villains. Pena abducted one, a son of Guevara another. Her brother followed young Guevara and killed him. If girls of the best families were so treated, how must those of the common people have fared?

Braganza ordered the killing of all Spaniards and Chinese at Minalabag. Some forty-eight Spaniards were murdered.

Many Chinese were killed at Pasacao; about thirty at Libmanan by order of Vicente Ursua a Tagalog; more than twenty at Calabanga.

Conditions became so unbearable that Faustino Santa Ana gathered around him all Bicols who were willing to fight the Taglogs, but the troubles were finally patched up.

American troops had little difficulty in occupying Ambos Camarines and other Bicol provinces, owing to the hatred in which the Tagalogs were held.

_Mindoro_

Conditions in the important island of Mindoro may be inferred from the fact that it became necessary for its governor to issue a decree on November 10, 1898, which contained the following provisions among others:--

"2nd. The local presidentes of the pueblos will not permit any one belonging to their jurisdiction to pa.s.s from one pueblo to another nor to another province without the corresponding pa.s.s, with a certificate upon its back that the taxes of its holder have been paid.

"3rd. That from this date no one will be allowed to absent himself from his pueblo without previously informing its head who will give him an authorization on which will be noted the approval of the presidente of the pueblo....

"5th. Persons arriving from a neighboring town or province in any pueblo of this province will immediately present themselves before the presidente of said pueblo with their pa.s.ses. He will without charge, stamp them with his official seal." [319]

These are peculiar regulations for a province which is at peace, and as Major Taylor has truly remarked:--

"The form of liberty contemplated by the founders of the Philippine Republic was not considered incompatible with a very considerable absence of personal freedom." [320]

Later, when travelling through Mindoro, I was told how an unfortunate legless Spaniard, who had been running a small shop in one of the towns and who was on good terms with his Filipino neighbors, was carried out into the plaza, seated in a chair, and then cut to pieces with bolos in the presence of his wife and children who were compelled to witness the horrible spectacle!

On this same trip Captain R.G. Offley, then the American Governor of Mindoro, told me while I was at Pinamalayan that the people there were greatly alarmed because a murderer, liberated under the amnesty, had returned and was prowling about in that vicinity. This man had a rather unique record. He had captured one of his enemies, and after stripping him completely had caused the top of an immense ant-hill to be dug off. The unfortunate victim was then tied, laid on it, and the earth and ants which had been removed were shovelled back over his body until only his head projected. The ants did the rest! Another rather unusual achievement of this interesting individual was to tie the feet of one of his enemies to a tree, fasten a rope around his neck, hitch a carabao to the rope, and start up the carabao, thus pulling off the head of his victim. Yet this man and others like him were set at liberty under the amnesty proclamation, in spite of the vigorous protests of the Philippine Commission, who thought that murderers of this type ought to be hanged.

And now I wish to discuss briefly an interesting and highly characteristic statement of Judge Blount. In referring to conditions in the Visayan Islands, he says:--

"Of course the Southern Islands were a little slower. But as Luzon goes, so go the rest. The rest of the archipelago is but the tail to the Luzon kite. Luzon contains 4,000,000 of the 8,000,000 people out there, and Manila is to the Filipino people what Paris is to the French and to France. Luzon is about the size of Ohio, and the other six islands that really matter, are in size mere little Connecticuts and Rhode Islands, and in population mere Arizonas or New Mexicos." [321]

This paragraph is no exception to the general rule that the statements of this author will not bear a.n.a.lysis. One of the other six islands that he says really matters is Samar. Its area is 5031 square miles. The area of Rhode Island is 1250 square miles. The smallest of the six islands named is Bohol, with an area of 1411 square miles. It cannot be called a little Rhode Island.

As regards population, Arizona has 122,931. It is hardly proper to call either Panay with a population of 743,646, Cebu with 592,247, Negros with 460,776, Leyte with 357,641, Bohol with 243,148 or even Samar with only 222,690, a mere Arizona, and New Mexico with 195,310 is also a bit behind.

Luzon really has an area of 40,969 square miles and a population of 3,798,507. [322] What Blount is pleased to call "the tail to the Luzon kite," is made up as follows:--

Island Area (Square Miles) Population Samar 5,031 222,690 Negros 4,881 460,776 Panay 4,611 743,646 Leyte 2,722 357,641 Cebu 1,762 592,247 Bohol 1,411 243,148 Totals 20,419 2,620,148

Even so, the tail is a trifle long and heavy for the kite, but if we are going to compare Luzon with "the Southern Islands," by which Blount can presumably only mean the rest of the archipelago, why not really do it? The process involves nothing more complicated than the subtraction of its area and population from those of the archipelago as a whole.

Area (Square Miles) Population Philippines 115,026 7,635,426 Luzon 40,969 3,798,507 Difference 74,057 3,836,919

Performing this operation, we discover that the tail would fly away with the kite, as Luzon has less than half of the total population and only a little more than a third of the total area.

To compare the area or the population of one large island with those of individual small ones, in determining the relative importance of the former in the country of which it makes up a part, is like comparing the area and population of a great state with those of the individual counties going to make up other states.

Blount resorts to a similar questionable procedure in trying to show the insignificance of Mindoro and Palawan. There are an island of Mindoro and a province of Mindoro; an island of Palawan and a province of Palawan. In each case the province, which includes numerous small islands, as well as the large one from which it takes its name, is much larger and more populous than is the main island, and obviously it is the province with which we are concerned.

Even if Blount wished to limit discussion to the Christian natives commonly called Filipinos, his procedure is still wholly unfair. Of these there are 3,575,001 in Luzon and 3,412,685 in the other islands. In other words, the Filipino population is almost equally divided between the two regions.