The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 26

"Proclamation of Lieutenant Colonel Emilio Zurbano, "Military Governor of Tayabas, To His Fellow-citizens.

"Headquarters and Military Government, "Tayabas, April 23, 1901.

"Fellow-citizens: The holiness, purity and elevation of purpose of us who fight for our independence has caused the execution of five of our fellow-citizens on the 18th instant at five o'clock in the afternoon. They were shot on the plaza of the town of Sampaloc....

"Vivencio Villarosa, for a.s.sa.s.sination of eleven foreigners and for disloyalty; Pedro Cordero, for disloyalty and spying; Remigio Aviosa, for improper exercise of authority, for many a.s.saults and robbery in a band; Segundo Granada, for many a.s.saults and stealing many animals, and Rufino Sabala for being addicted to and a disseminator of the doctrines of the Federal Party have fallen on the plaza of Sampaloc at the very moment when the twilight of the happy triumph of our ideal began to advance over the horizon of our country until now hidden in clouds of blood. May they rest in peace.

(Signed) "Emilio Zurbano." [125]

After reporting to his subordinates that the local chief of Bay had, under his orders, arrested Honorato Quisumbing, an Americanista who had never served as a spy, and that his captor had killed him when he called to American troops who were near to help him, Cailles adds: "His companion was likewise duly executed as a spy and guide for the enemy. Let us offer up a prayer for their eternal rest." [126]

Blount has made the following statement:--

"I have heard, so far as I now recollect, of comparatively few barbarities perpetrated by Filipinos on captured American soldiers. Barbarities on their side seemed to have been reserved for those of their own race whom they found disloyal to the cause of their country." [127]

One may well doubt whether he himself wrote the book which goes under his name, for in it he is made constantly to contradict himself. Relative to this matter he has also said:--

"He [128] can never forget the magnificent dash back into the wide, ugly, swollen stream, made by Captain Edward L. King of General Lawton's staff, as he spurred his horse in, followed by several troopers who had responded to his call for mounted volunteers to accompany him in an effort to save the lives of the men who went down. Their generous work proved futile. But it was inspired partly by common dread of what they knew would happen to any half-drowned soldier who might be washed ash.o.r.e far away from the column and captured. If an army was ever 'in enemy's country,'

it was then and there." [129]

As a matter of fact, not only did the Insurgents repeatedly torture and murder American prisoners, but they poisoned soldiers. Lucban and others directed that this should be done, described the procedure to be followed, and furnished the poison. [130]

Directions for poisoning soldiers were included in a letter written on August 21, 1900, to the Brigadier General Superior Military Commander of the Province of Leyte as follows:--

"It would also be well, in my humble opinion, for you to find out from the old men and quack doctors the kind of poison that can be mixed in alcoholic drinks and in cocoanut wine (tuba), as our enemies now drink these liquors; and after this poison has been known and tried, let it be used in such a way as to undermine the const.i.tution of the man, until some day death occurs; for which purpose you ought to have persons, wherever there are Americans, to poison them. These things are now being done in Luzon, Cebu and Panay.

"There is a tree here in the province whose leaves inflame the body of a man considerably, once applied; for I have seen about Manila the leaves converted into powder, rolled in pellets of paper and shot in the faces of Americans. This causes the parts to swell and become completely useless; and I believe it would be well to do this within the towns, and especially to the drunkards asleep along the roads and to the fellows making love." [131]

Various other orders for the poisoning of soldiers or the use of poisoned arrows or spears were issued. [132] Furthermore, they were faithfully carried out, [133] and the results were duly reported.

The murder of sentries and of soldiers who straggled was often ordered, practised and reported. [134]

As d.a.m.nable as any of these horrible doc.u.ments was the order of General Antonio Luna for the ma.s.sacre of all Americans, foreigners and "disloyal" Filipinos in Manila.

Blount has alleged that Taylor "obtained no evidence convincing to him," relative to the authorship of this order [135] and that "a like investigation by General MacArthur in 1901 had a like result." Whether he is ignorant of the facts as to the authentication of the authorship of this very important doc.u.ment, or chooses to ignore them, I do not know. Taylor in the end conclusively settled the matter, and so reported. Luna's order, [136] which was issued on February 7, 1899, provided for the ma.s.sacre of all Americans and foreigners in Manila. The lives of Filipinos only were to be respected. All others, of whatsoever race, were to be given no quarter, but were to be exterminated, "thus proving to foreign countries that America is not capable of maintaining order or defending any of the interests which she has undertaken to defend."

This effort to ma.s.sacre all white persons in the city fell through, partly because the plan leaked out, and partly because Cavite Insurgent soldiers did not obey orders.

I consider it important that the authenticity of this much-discussed order should be placed beyond reasonable doubt, and so give Taylor's findings in full. He says:--

"A synopsis of this order was telegraphed to Washington by General Otis on February 21st, 1899, as having been 'issued by an important officer of the insurgent government at Malolos, February 15th, 1899, for execution during the evening and night in this city'

of Manila. Page 157, Senate Doc.u.ment 208, Fifty-sixth Congress, First Session. On March 2, 1901, a Senate resolution called for all information in the possession of the Secretary of War 'relating to, or tending to show, the authenticity and genuineness of the alleged order for the ma.s.sacre of the foreign residents of Manila, P. I., on the evening and night of February 15, 1899;' and, further, whether the original of that order was or ever had been in the possession of the War Department, and whether it had ever been seen by such a person. This order required a search in Manila, which was made. As a result of this it was ascertained that the synopsis which was telegraphed by General Otis was brought to Maj. F. C. Bourns, [137] an officer of the provost marshal general's office, by a rather prominent Filipino [138] who had given a good deal of information which on the whole had proved to be correct. He stated that the paper which he handed him was a copy of the original which had just been sent to officers of the bolo organization, the sandatahan, of Manila, but that he had not time to copy the whole of it; yet as far as it went the paper was an exact copy of the original order, which was signed by Sandico. Major Bourns said that at the time the paper was received there was no reason to doubt 'the man's statement that it was an exact copy of the original order, for we knew that some such order was under consideration, that this bolo organization existed, and it was under the orders of Sandico, who, in turn, was entirely under the influence of Luna. Since my return to the Philippines, however, several little things have occurred which have caused me to question whether or not the paper was an exact copy of the original order. That in the main it was correct, I do not doubt; but I am just a little inclined to think the man may have "stretched" things a little.'

"The search was continued, and finally one of the original orders, a translation of which immediately precedes this note, was produced by Dr. Manuel Xeres y Burgos who was then a surgeon employed in the Bilibid prison in Manila and who had been an officer in the territorial militia of that city. Doctor Burgos wrote in July, 1901, to Colonel Crowder, military secretary to the Military governor of the Philippines, that if he gave him all the details in regard to the means he had employed in obtaining the doc.u.ment, it would require many sheets of paper, and the story would seem like a novel to those who only superficially knew the customs of the Philippines. He said that 'a few days after the beginning of hostilities we were given to read an order of a mysterious character; we were not allowed to take a copy thereof or to keep it in our possession, probably from fear of some treachery. However the bearer told me that several copies had been made which were to be sent to all the districts in which the "Filipino militia"

had been distributed. The chief of the latter were the men called upon to execute said order. You know that, thank G.o.d, it was not executed, not only through lack of arms, but also because most of the chiefs who were in Manila felt a repugnance to execute such a barbarous and foolish order, which, had it been attempted, would have been the cause of the extermination of all the Filipinos who were within the American lines as a just reprisal for such an atrocious order.

"'Luckily, not only the savage measure prescribed was never carried into execution, but it was impossible to attack the American army, the men who had been detailed to do it in Manila having only a few hundred bolos as arms, and the chiefs of the militia understood that with such arms they could not think of resisting the rifles and cannon of the Americans.

"'Up to the middle of April, 1899, several Filipinos who came from the lines declared that General Luna had sentenced us to death for having disobeyed that terrible order. We were 14 who were considered as traitors to our country, and we were precisely those who had worked for the release of the prisoners in whom we had the greatest confidence, answering for them to the authorities and exposing ourselves to get into trouble if they had broken their word.

"'We had decided to collect all papers which referred to certain facts, in order to show some day who were those who had lent real services to the country, and we resolved to try and find the doc.u.ment which was the princ.i.p.al cause of the danger which had threatened us at that time.

"'We would have had the paper in our possession since August last if it had not been for the terror inspired by the secret police with its unjustified arrests, and our emissaries fled from Manila and did not come back until after the end of the persecution.

"'On the 25th of February, 1901, our friend Benito Albey, who had been lieutenant of the militia and had distinguished himself in the war against Spain, began, on our advice, a new investigation, which was crowned with success.

"'The doc.u.ment was found among the baggage left by Colonel Leyba to Teodoro de los Santos at Malolos, and which the latter had remitted to a certain Tolo Quesada at Alava, Pangasinan.

"'I am sincerely happy that said doc.u.ment, which is the clear proof of General Luna's iniquitous methods, should have been found so that it may serve as a voucher to the thoroughness of General Otis' investigations; although I would have liked to keep it among my papers, I have more satisfaction to be useful to the American General, who has obtained the sympathy of the Filipinos by his kind treatment.

"'And I hope, General Crowder, that you will say as much to General Otis, as I wish him to know that there are Filipinos who have kept a grateful recollection of him, and that all Filipinos are not ungrateful.

"'Very respectfully, "'Manuel Xeres Burgos.

"'General Crowder.'

"On June 30, 1901, the original of this order, signed by Luna and produced by Burgos, was shown to Aguinaldo, who, after examining it, stated that the signature was that of General Antonio Luna, with which he was well acquainted. He furthermore stated that he had no personal knowledge of such an order, and had hitherto been unaware of its existence. He was then asked whether General Luna's authority, as Director of War, was of sufficient scope to authorize him to issue such an order without express authority from the insurgent government. He declined to answer this question.

"A photographic reproduction of the original of the order of Luna, dated February 7, 1899, a printed copy in Spanish, the translation which preceded this note, and the correspondence upon which the foregoing statement is based, is given beginning on page 1903, Senate Doc.u.ment No. 331, part 2, Fifty-seventh Congress, First Session, 'Hearings before the Committee on the Philippines of the United States Senate.'

"There does not seem to me to be the slightest reason for doubting the authenticity of this order. It was an atrocious one, but that argument is not sufficient to prove that the order delivered up by Dr. Burgos was a forgery in whole or in part.

"The facts of the case seem to me to be the following: In January, 1899, Doctor Burgos was employed in Bilibid prison by the Americans, and as an officer of Sandatahan was deep in the plotting for a general ma.s.sacre of the foreigners in Manila. Sometime that month he wrote to Aguinaldo that the uprising in Manila should begin in Bilibid prison, and that the Sandatahan should be posted on San Pedro street and the adjacent thoroughfares in preparation for an attack upon the Zorilla theatre, where the Pennsylvania regiment was quartered across the way from the prison (Exhibit 349). His suggestion was adopted as part of the plan for the uprising. Burgos, like the majority of the Filipinos in Manila, believed that Aguinaldo would win, and was doing what he could to aid his cause, but without giving up his position under the American government. The plan embodied in Luna's order was to be carried out as part of the attack upon Manila; but that attack was delivered prematurely, and it was found impossible to carry out the uprising in Manila which was to have preceded the attack upon the American lines. After February 5, 1899, the majority of the Filipinos in Manila ceased to believe that Aguinaldo was going to beat the Americans, and Burgos, who was known to have taken part in the movement in Manila headed by Sandico, found it expedient to ward off any investigation of his conduct by giving information. He wanted to stay out of prison, and he wanted to remain surgeon of Bilibid prison. He was well aware that Sandico was known by the Americans to have organized bodies of sandatahan in Manila, and he therefore delivered to the provost marshal general a partial copy of Luna's order which, if it was not then in his possession, he had seen; and he saw no reason for telling more than seemed expedient for the attainment of his immediate purpose, he said that it had been issued by Sandico, who he well knew the Americans would believe was the man most likely to have issued it. He naturally desired to avoid having to make too many explanations. In 1901, Luna being dead, and Burgos being safe from his vengeance, he found no great difficulty in delivering up the original doc.u.ment, which was probably, as he said, in the papers of Colonel Leyba, or Leiva, a native of Manila whose family lived there and whose house had probably been a centre of insurgent intrigue. In 1899 or 1900 Colonel Leyba, a trusted and confidential aid of Aguinaldo, had been murdered by 'The Guards of Honour'

in Pangasinan Province, and Burgos seems to have had access to his papers. This, at least to me, seems a plausible explanation of the incomplete form in which this first order appeared, and why it appeared at all. It is true that I have found no record of it among the record-books kept at Malolos; but this order was not of a character to be written out in full in any letter-sent book; and, furthermore, the record-books of the government at Malolos show that almost no records were kept there for a week after the outbreak of hostilities. The clerks and officials were probably busy in preparing to defend the place against an advance of the Americans, whom they had hitherto looked upon with contempt.

"John R. Taylor." [139]

In reality there was nothing novel about the issuing of such an order in the Philippines.

Alfonso Ocampo, who was to have led the attack in an attempt to ma.s.sacre all Spaniards in Cavite at the outbreak of the revolt of 1896, testified as follows concerning the proposed movement:--