Masbate
This tight little island of 1236 square miles had in 1903 a Visayan population of 29,451. Its people are all Filipinos, and are on the whole rather an unusually orderly and worthy set. There is no reason why it should have been excluded in considering “the human problem in its broader governmental aspect,” whatever that may be, nor can I understand why Blount should have desired to exclude it except that he seems to have been endeavouring to exclude everything possible outside of Luzón, in order to increase the apparent importance of the Christian provinces of that island. Masbate should of course be taken into account in connection with the Visayan Islands, of which it is one.
The islands ordinarily included in the group known as “The Visayas” from the ancient tribal name of the civilized Filipino people who inhabit them, who are called Visayans, are Samar, Panay, Negros, Leyte, Cebú, Bohol, Masbate, Tablas, Romblon, Ticao, Burias, Siquijor and numerous smaller islands adjacent to those named. Although their inhabitants are all rated as one people, they speak a number of more or less distinct dialects. Only Panay, Negros, Samar, Tablas and Sibuyan have non-Christian inhabitants, and in the three islands last named their number is so small as to be negligible. In the mountains of Panay and Negros, however, Negritos are to be found in considerable numbers, as are the representatives of a tribe sometimes called Monteses[40] and sometimes Bukidnon. The latter tribal designation I have thought it best to reserve for certain inhabitants of northern Mindanao.
In the Visayas, Palawan and Mindanao the government of Aguinaldo was established at various places and different times, without consulting or considering the will of the people. The men who went as his delegates were supported by armed forces, hence their authority was not at first questioned, but soon there arose murmurings which might easily have grown into a war cry.
The attitude of the Visayan Filipinos is clearly foreshadowed in the following extract from a letter dated January 14, 1899, in which Mabini discussed the advisability of putting the constitution in force:—
“And even if this change is made, I fear that Negros and Iloílo will form a federal Republic and not one in conformity with the centralized Republic provided for by the Constitution.”[41]
The action later taken by Negros shows that there was abundant reason for this fear.
As late as February 26, 1899, the Insurgent government was still ignorant as to the real conditions in Negros and Mindanao.[42]
From a letter written on March 18, 1899, to Apacible at Hongkong, we learn that Aguinaldo and his followers were even then still uninformed as to events in the Visayan Islands.[43] In view of these facts, how ridiculous become the contentions of those who claim that the Malolos government represented the archipelago as a whole. And what shall we say of the following statement, remembering that the Treaty of Paris was signed December 10, 1899?
“When the Treaty of Paris was signed, General Otis was in possession of Cavite and Manila, with less than twenty thousand men under his command, and Aguinaldo was in possession of practically all of the rest of the archipelago with between 35,000 and 40,000 men under his command, armed with guns, and the whole Filipino population were in sympathy with the army of their country.”[44]
Ultimately, by one means or another, and chiefly by the use of armed emissaries, the Visayan Islands, with the exception of Negros, were brought into the Insurgent fold.
A Typical Baguio Road
The roads in Baguio were originally built with money obtained from the sale of lots. Some insular government funds have been expended in surfacing them.
Mabini’s fear that Negros and Iloilo would form a federal republic was not realized, but Negros set up its own government, applied to the local commander of the United States forces for help, endeavoured with almost complete success to keep out Tagálog invaders, and presently settled down contentedly under American rule, facts of which Blount makes no mention. On the contrary, without just cause, he includes this great island, with its 4881 square miles of territory and its 560,776 inhabitants, in the area over which he claims that Aguinaldo exercised complete control.
At Iloilo the American troops encountered opposition when they planned to land. Negotiations had been entered into with the local Filipino officers, but the latter, under the influence of representatives whom Aguinaldo had sent from Luzón, announced themselves as adherents of his government, and when the American troops finally disembarked fired the town ahead of them. It has been claimed that in doing this they were inspired by pure patriotism, but the facts shown by their own records present a very different picture.
In writing to Aguinaldo on April 8, 1899, Mabini says:
“We have received a communication forwarded from Iloílo, from General Martin Delgado and Francisco Soriano, your commissioner. Soriano states that the troops of Diocno have done nothing except commit excesses and steal money during the attack by the Americans upon the town of Iloílo, even going so far as to break their guns by using them as poles to carry the stolen money which they took to Cápiz. It is said that these forces, besides being unwilling to fight the Americans, refuse to give their guns to those who do wish to fight and do not want Cápiz to aid the people of Iloílo, who are the ones who support the entire forces, including the troops of Diocno who went there.”[45]
This same letter contains the following brief reference to conditions in Cebu and Leyte:—
“Also a native priest, Señor Pascual Reyes, has arrived here from Cebú, and says that in Leyte General Lucban is committing many abuses and that Colonel Mójica is only a mere figurehead. In Cebú, he says, things are also in a chaotic condition, because the military chief, Magsilum [Maxilom,—TR.], and the people are not in harmony.”
Further details as to conditions in Cebu are given in a letter to Aguinaldo from the commissioner whom he put in charge of elections in that island, who on February 19, 1899, writes:[46]—
“Having arrived in this province the 8th of last month, I left on the 11th for the northern pueblos of this Island to hold the elections for the offices ordered by the Superior Decree of June 18, last.
“The news spread like an electric spark, as in all the pueblos I visited later I found that almost all of the residents were in their homes, so that when the elections were held in the town hall, all the principal residents attended, requesting me to inform you that they were disposed to sacrifice even their dearest affections whenever necessary for our sacred cause; they only asked me to inform those who hold the reins of government at the present time in this province, that some steps be taken to put a stop to the arbitrary acts which had been and still are being committed by the so-called Captains, Majors, Colonels, Generals and Captains General, who abusing in the most barefaced manner the positions they claimed to hold, were depriving them of their horses and their carabaos, or cattle. I promised them that I would do this, as I do now, by sending a communication at once to Sres. Flores and Maxilom, who are at the head of the provincial government, impressing upon them the fact that if they continue to grant ranks and titles to persons of this character, as they have done, it would end in the utter ruin of this wealthy province.”
He adds that these men did not remedy the evils complained of. It would be possible to cover in detail all of this and the remaining Insurgent territory, and to show that Judge Blount was quite right in stating that conditions similar to those encountered in Luzón arose there, but the limitations of time and space forbid, and I must ask my readers to accept on faith the statements of Blount and myself that such was the case!
Taylor thus summarizes the conditions which ultimately arose:—
“The Insurgent soldiers lived in their own land as they would have lived in a conquered country. They were quartered on the towns and the towns had to feed them whether they would or not.
“Peace there was where Aguinaldo’s soldiers had not penetrated, but there does not seem to have been progress. Life went very well in a long siesta in the shady villages under the palm trees, but not only the structure of the State, its very foundations were falling apart. When Aguinaldo’s soldiers came they brought cruelty and license with them. Proud of their victories and confident in themselves they felt that the labourers in the fields, the merchants in the towns, were for the purpose of administering to their necessities and their desires. Aguinaldo, having seen this force gather about him, was forced to entreat it, to appeal to it; he was never strong enough to enforce discipline, even if he cared to do it.”
Aguinaldo himself finally became disheartened over his inability to maintain a decent state of public order in the territory which he claimed to govern, and in December, 1898, tendered his resignation, giving among other reasons odious favouritism on the part of some of the military chiefs, together with a desire to enrich themselves by improper means, such as accepting bribes, making prisoners a source of gain, and decreasing the allowance of the soldiers. He said that many soldiers had received sums of money as their share of booty, and intimated that officers must have done the same. He made charges against civil as well as military officers and ended by saying that he retained the evidence for presentation when called on.[47]
Aguinaldo was later persuaded to withdraw his resignation. No wonder that he wished to tender it!
In referring to the report of Wilcox and Sargent, Blount has said:—
“This report was submitted by them to Admiral Dewey under date of November 23, 1898, and by him forwarded to the Navy Department for its information, with the comment that it ‘in my opinion contains the most complete and reliable information obtainable in regard to the present state of the northern part of Luzon Island.’ The Admiral’s indorsement was not sent to the Senate along with the report.”[48]
He thus gives it to be understood that the admiral believed that the report truthfully set forth the conditions which actually existed in these provinces, and that his indorsement was suppressed. Not only was it true that this report when rendered contained the most complete and reliable information then available in regard to the existing state of the northern part of Luzon Island, but it contained the only first-hand information available. The facts ultimately leaked out and led the admiral radically to change his opinion as to the conditions which arose under Insurgent rule. Of them he later said:—
“There was a sort of a reign of terror; there was no government. These people had got power for the first time in their lives and they were riding roughshod over the community. The acts of cruelty which were brought to my notice were hardly credible. I sent word to Aguinaldo that he must treat his prisoners kindly, and he said he would.”
I believe that I have fully demonstrated the truth of these statements. Blount was thoroughly familiar with Dewey’s testimony before the Senate Committee, in which they occur, but he did not mention them.
I cannot close this discussion of Insurgent rule without quoting extracts from a remarkable document written by Isabelo Artacho in October,[49] 1899. It was entitled “Declaration Letter and Proclamation” and was addressed to the Filipino people. While it is probable that Artacho was impelled to tell the truth by his hatred for Aguinaldo, tell the truth he did, and his rank and standing entitle his statements to consideration:—
“Study the work of the insurrection; see if it is, as is said, the faithful interpretation of your wishes and desires.
“Go through your towns, fields, and mountains. Wherever you see an insurgent gun or bolo you will find girls and faithful wives violated, parents and brothers crying for the murder of a son or of a brother; honest families robbed and in misery; villages burned and plundered for the benefit of a chief or a General; you will see fresh and living signs yet of those horrible crimes perpetrated with the greatest cynicism by those who call themselves your liberators! Liberators because they wear red pants, or a red shirt, or carry on their hats a piece of red cloth or a triangular figure!
“Here, a president stabs a man, perhaps the most honest of the village, simply for having implored mercy for a creature arbitrarily inflicted with the cepo [an oblong square piece of heavy wood divided into two parts, with a lock at each end and six or more holes in the middle to confine the feet of prisoners]; there, a dying man, suspended by the feet in a cepo, raised from the level of the ground, by another president who has charged him with an unproved crime; there a poor woman falsely charged and driven by petty officers with their bayonets for having objected to their invasion into her house, or shop, they being supposed to be, each, Justice itself, ‘Justicia,’ and to be obeyed as images of the Gods; there, generals who murder without fear, for an insignificant motive, creatures whose members are being mutilated, or their flesh cut in slices and afterwards roasted and given them to eat; there, officers braining a girl who has refused to accede to their sensual wishes, the lifeless body of the victim, pierced with shots, after having been made use of, is thrown into the river. It is not unusual to witness officers burying people alive in a tomb prepared by the victim, by order of the murderer; it is not unusual to see a Puisne-Judge pointing a revolver at a man who is about to give evidence, and threatening to brain him for having dared to ask: ‘Why and to whom am I to declare?’ And finally, on his tottering throne, you will see the Magistrate of the Philippines, so called by his worshippers, with his mephistophelian smile, disposing and directing the execution of a murder, of a plunder, of a robbery, or the execution of some other crimes against those who are indifferent or do not care to worship him, such indifference being considered a crime.
“Putting aside the many other murders, I may mention that one recently committed on the person of the renowned and by many called the worthy General, Antonio Luna, which took place just at the entrance of the palace of the Republic Presidency, and also the assassination at Kavite of the ever remembered martyr, Andrés Bonifacio, the founder of the ‘Katipúnan’ Society, and the one who initiated the Revolution of 1896; against the memory of whom it has been committed, in the proclamation of that falsely called Republic, the criminal and unjust omission to render the smallest manifestation of Filipinos’ feelings towards him, to prevent that same might dislike his murderers!
“Study the ordinances and constitution of this so-called democratic Government of the Republic, that grand work of the wise Filipinos; admire with me that beautiful monument erected on a sheet of paper and consecrated to the conquest of reason and labour, especially in connection with human rights and property, the basis for the well-being of social life; but, lament and deplore with me its palpable nullity when brought to practice and you will again see that the laws were made for the people and not the people for the laws!
“Under this republic called democratic it is a crime to think, to wish, to say, anything which does not agree with what the said Gods think, wish and say. Nobody and nothing is attended to, whilst those who have your lives in their hands must be respected.
“Under this Goverment there cannot be the slightest notice taken of family, property, morality and justice, but confusion and disorder appear everywhere like a dreadful shadow, produced by the ignorance of the subordinate officers, and of the powers that be in the villages and provinces, who are supported by a special committee, or special commissioners empowered to impoverish and to ruin all and with the right of disposing, at their own accord, life, family and individual property without responsibility whatsoever on their part.
“Let the peaceful annexation of the whole of the Southern Islands of Joló, Mindanao, Iloílo, Negros, Cebú and others where now the American flag is hoisted and under whose shadow tranquillity and well-being are experienced, speak for itself.
“Let it speak for itself, the proceeding observed by the whole people of Imus, who were asking protection when the American troops took possession of the town of Bacoor, whilst the insurgent troops there located were hostile.
“Let them speak for themselves, the protests against the war made by the numerous persons of S. Francisco de Malabón, Sta. Cruz de Malabón, Perez Dasmariñias and other towns, before the Worthy Chief Mariano Trías, who ultimately refused, with dignity, the high position of Secretary of War, for which rank he was promoted for reasons which are not worth publishing here. In fine, let it speak for itself, the non-resistance shown by the people of Old Kavite [Kawit], Noveleta, and Rozario of the heroic province of Kavite, notwithstanding the many intrenchments and troops there located, as well as the identical behaviour observed by other towns of Luzon provinces who are ready to follow when the American troops are in them.
“In fact no one would believe it, and the Philippine people are tired of waiting for the day when Haring Gavino will shake a napkin to produce suddenly horses vomiting fire and lightning and troops of dangerous insects; that day in which they will witness the realization of that famous telegraphed dream to the effect that two hours after the commencement of the war the insurgents will take their breakfast in the Palace of ‘Malacañang,’ their tiffin in the Senate House, and their dinner on board the Olympia or in Kavite; that day in which the celebrated Pequenines army, with their invisible Chief-leader, will exterminate the American troops by means of handfuls of dust and sand thrown at them, which process, it is said, has caused the smallpox to the Americans; that day in which the Colorum army will capture the American fleet with the cords their troops are provided with, in combination with a grand intrenchment of Tayabas made of husks of paddy, by a Nazarene, who will then, by merely touching, convert each husk into a Bee with a deadly sting; that day in which the insurgents, like their leaders, provided with hosts of flour, or of paper, pieces of candles of the holy-week matins, holy water, pieces of consecrated stones; of vestments belonging to a miraculous Saint or with some other Anting-Anting or talisman or amuletos, will make themselves invulnerable to bullets; also have power to convert into any of the four elements, like those personages of the Philippine legends and comedies,—Ygmidio, Teñoso, Florante, Barnardo, Carpio, etc.
One of the First Benguet Government Cottages
“Yes, the people of the Philippines are quite tired of waiting for the predicted European conflict, which it is said would give them their independence; if not, perhaps, divide the Islands as they are now amongst cousins, brothers, nephews, uncles and godfathers.
“In the near future, when we have acquired the necessary political and social education and the habit of behaving justly towards ourselves and towards our fellow-brothers; when free from all superstition, healthy, strong and vigorous, we find ourselves capable of governing ourselves, without there being the possibility of the preponderance of our passions in the consideration, direction, and administration of the interests of our country, then, and only then, we will be free! we will be independent![50]
“Hongkong, 1st October, 1899.”
Most of the men who perpetrated the outrages I have detailed are alive to-day, and are powers in their respective communities. Simeon Villa was recently elected a member of the municipal board from the south district of Manila, but fortunately an American governor-general prevented him from taking his seat. Just prior to my departure from Manila he was appointed, by Speaker Osmeña, a member of a committee on reception for Governor-General Harrison.
The kind of independent “government” these men established is the kind that they would again establish if they had the chance,[51] but among the persons to be tortured and murdered would now be those Americans who failed to escape seasonably. I do not mean to say that such a state of affairs would come about immediately, but it would certainly arise within a comparatively short time. Sooner yet “the united Filipino people” would split up on old tribal lines, and fly at each other’s throats.
[1] Blount, p. 111.
[2] P.I.R., 974. 3.
“December 20, 1898.
“To the Honorable President of the Revolutionary Government.
“The undersigned residents of the barangay of D. Francisco Querubín and D. Melchor Balueg, of Bucay, of the province of Abra, appeal to you with the utmost subjection from their place of residence and state: That their heads or representatives, D. Francisco Querubín and Melchor Balueg, respectively, force them to pay two pesos each as a war tax, your humble vassals above cited being hardly able to earn their own livelihood and support their families, and, notwithstanding their labor, some of them cannot get anything to eat without appealing to the charity of their richer neighbours; but notwithstanding this sad situation, they offer a peseta each as a mark of gratitude to the mother country, Filipinas, but said gentlemen, the representatives mentioned, have not the slightest pity and worry us to the extent of having kept us in our houses a day and a night without anything to eat, not even permitting us to go out to get a drink.
“We must inform you that the head of the barangay, D. Melchor Balueg, when he gathers the supplies for the troops stationed in his town, said supplies consisting of rice, pigs, chickens and eggs, uses one-half of what is gathered, and then again orders his assistants to save.”
“In fact, the undersigned request you to direct that the peseta which they offer be accepted and that the said Don Francisco Querubín and Don Melchor Balueg be relieved of their duties, in order to put a stop to the abuses constantly committed by them; and if this be not done, the petitioners will be obliged to leave their homes and property in the town and take up their residences in the mountains with the Negritos and Igorots, in order that the others may remain in the town and live tranquilly.
“This is a grace which we do not doubt we will receive from you, whose life may God preserve for many years.
“Bucay, November 12, 1898.” (26 signatures)
(In blue pencil in the handwriting of Aguinaldo:) “It will be approved.
“Dec. 20, 1898.
“E. A.”
—P.I.R., 991. 4.
[4] P.I.R., 849.
[5] Blount, p. 130.
[6] Ibid., pp. 130–131.
[7] P.I.R., 1142. 4.
[8] Ibid., 2002. 3.
[9] P.I.R., 964. 3.
[10] On November 30, 1898, the commander in Alaminos, Zambales Province, telegraphed that his soldiers were all about to desert as the head of the town would not furnish rations or pay without orders from the governor.”—P.I.R., 2002.3.
[11] “On December 22, Aguinaldo, in accordance with a request from the governor of Zambales Province, ordered the heads of the provinces of Pangasinán, Tarlac, Bataan, and Pampanga to prohibit the people of their provinces from going to Zambales without passports signed by them, stating the route they were to take in going and returning and the length of time to be spent in the journey. The governor of Zambales had asked for this regulation in order to prevent the commission of robberies in Zambales and to distinguish persons justly subject to suspicion from those of good conduct.”—P.I.R., 266. 3.
[12] “On January 9, the governor of Zambales found it impossible to continue the inspection of certain towns of his province and to continue holding elections, as many of the officials had fled to escape the exactions and abuses of the military commanders.”—P.I.R., 988. 2.
[13] “The Governor of Cavite reports two drunken Americans have been killed by our soldiers. I tell him to have an investigation immediately and report the fact to the American commander.”—P.I.R., 849.
[14] “Most urgent. Gen. Anderson informs me in a letter that, ‘in order to avoid the very serious misfortune of an encounter between our troops, I demand your immediate withdrawal with your guard from Cavite. One of my men has been killed and three wounded by your people.’ This is positive and does not admit of explanation or delay. I ask you to inform me of your decision.”—P.I.R., 849.
[15] “Gen. Riego de Dios, Cavite: Telegram received. Do not leave the post, and say that you cannot abandon the city without my orders, and say that he was not killed by our soldiers, but by them themselves [the Americans.—D. C. W.], since they were drunk, according to your telegram. Give up your life before abandoning that place, and investigate matters.”—P.I.R., 849.
[16] “Urgent. Gen. Alvarez telegraphed that Riego de Dios informed him that the town of Maragondong had risen in arms on account of abuses committed by the local President against Salvador Riego. This is the reason the town took up arms. Will go there to-morrow.”—P.I.R., 849.
[17] Taylor, 19 AJ.
[18] P.I.R., 1057. 4.
[19] Taylor, 95 HS.
[20] The name applied to the Filipinos of Ambos Camarines, Albay and Sorsogón.
[21] P.I.R., 262. 3.
[22] Taylor, 48 AJ.
[23] Blount, p. 116.
[24] Accepting the 1903 census figures.
[25] Aguinaldo considered Mindanao important enough to form one of the three federal states into which he proposed to divide the Philippines.
[26] Blount, p. 228.
[27] Ibid., p. 229.
[28] Bandits, or organized robbers.
[29] The old Spanish name for Palawan.
[30] Blount, p. 228.
[31] P.I.R., 944. 10.
[32] Blount, p. 116.
[33] Blount, p. 229.
[34] According to the census of 1903, 154,706.
[35] See table on p. 651.
[36] (Contemporary copy in Spanish.—P.I.R., Books C-L:)
“January 19, 1899.
“The President of the Philippine Republic very cordially greets his great and powerful brother, the Sultan of Jolo, and makes known:—
“That the Filipinos, after having thrown off the yoke of foreign domination cannot forget their brothers of Jolo to whom they are bound by the ties of race, interests, security and defense in this region of the Far East.
“The Philippine Republic has resolved to respect absolutely the beliefs and traditions of each island in order to establish on solid bases the bonds of fraternal unity demanded by our mutual interests.
“I therefore in the name of all the Filipinos very gladly offer to the powerful Sultan of Jolo and to all brothers who acknowledge his great authority, the highest assurance of friendship, consideration and esteem.
“Malolos, January 18, 1899.”
(No signature.)
[37] P.I.R., 76. 1.
[38] From an official document on file at Manila.
“Being brothers, the descendants of the same race and of one soul, the same sun shines upon us and we breathe the same air, so that our sentiments are also one, and we aspire to the independence and liberty of our country in order to secure its progress and place it on a level with other civilized nations; and with this assurance I have taken the liberty to address you this letter, begging of you to accept the commission which in the name of our government I have the honour to confer upon you. You are authorized thereunder to establish in all the ‘Rancherias’ of Mindanao and Jolo, a civil and military economic-administrative organization, in accordance with the decrees which I enclose herewith, and after having established the same, I request that you make a report to our Honourable President of the Philippine Republic, Sr. Emilio Aguinaldo, of the result thereof and of the number of the force with their arms and ammunition, in order to ascertain whether they would be sufficient to prevent the invasion of the enemy and whether there is any necessity of sending reinforcements of arms to said Islands for this purpose. If in this war, which I consider to be the last, we secure our independence, and with the opposition of our brothers in that region, with yourself at their head, we are successful in preventing the enemy from gaining a foothold, the grateful country will always render a tribute of homage and gratitude to your memory.
“God preserve you many years.
“May 31, 1899. “Baldomero Aguinaldo,
“Lieut. Gen. Superior P. M. Commander of Southern Region.
“To The Honourable Sultan Raha Halon”
—P.I.R., 810–4.
[40] Spanish for “mountain people.”
[41] P.I.R., 512. A 5.
[42] Extract from a letter to Apacible of the Hongkong junta dated February 26, 1899:—
“It is also said that the Cantonal Government of Negros has wished to make a treaty with the Americans, some members of that government having come in American transports to confer with General Otis. We are not aware of the conditions of the arrangement, because the Negros people have thus far not wished to put themselves in communication with us; we only know by news more or loss reliable that the capital of that island has been occupied by the American forces without opposition.
“Of Mindanao we know absolutely nothing; we also are ignorant of what has been the lot of our agents in America.”
[43] “Of the Visayas and Mindanao we know nothing positive as yet, it is whispered that the Americans have succeeded in occupying Negros and Cebú against the will of the inhabitants. Iloílo continues the struggle energetically. It does not matter that they occupy temporarily those beautiful islands, because Luzón will know how to fight for herself and the rest of the islands, and will not lay down arms without the independence of the Philippine Archipelago.”
[44] Blount, p. 140.
[45] P.I.R., 62. 2.
[46] Ibid., 144. 1.
[47] “The second reason for my resignation is the pain caused me by having still to read among the reports of our military associates that in some of the chiefs, besides odious favouritism, is clearly seen a desire to enrich themselves, accepting bribes, making even prisoners a means of gain, and others there are, above all the commissaries, who dare to decrease the allowance of the soldier, little enough already;—I throw the blame of all this upon those who taught us such a custom; consequently I have reason to hope that they will change their methods.
“The same cause of complaint I have concerning some companions who are discharging civil offices, especially those who are far from the oversight of the government, who put their own welfare before the common good, and devise a thousand means to further their own ends, even to the extent of gambling. Where are the police? Are they, perchance, also bribed? Pity money is so ill spent! However, every one is obliged to know that falsehood will never prevail against truth, and as evidence hereof many soldiers have confessed to the government as to having received certain sums in the share of the booty, and if we consider that the latter who receive their share have told the truth, why should those who are present during the partition of the money and receive nothing, not do so? In this way the eyes of some that were blinded are gradually opened; I confess, moreover, that the latter are to be blamed less than those in authority who are so attached to the methods of the past administration, who, we may hope, will change their mode of conduct and exhibit true patriotism.
“I certify to the truth of all the above-mentioned evils, which must be eradicated. I retain the evidence for presentation when called on, so that if any of the readers hereof should consider themselves referred to and should resent it, I am ready to beg their pardon.”—P.I.R., 8.2.
[48] Blount, p. 108.
[49] Senate Documents, Vol. 25, pp. 2928–2941.
[50] P.I.R., 838–2.
[51] In this connection note Blount’s statement:—
“But we are considering how much of a government the Filipinos had in 1898, because the answer is pertinent to what sort of a government they could run if permitted now or at any time in the future.”—Blount, p. 73.
Chapter VIII
Did We Destroy a Republic?
The claim has frequently been made that the United States government destroyed a republic in the Philippine Islands,[1] but some of the critics seem to entertain peculiar ideas as to what a republic is. Blount states[2] that Aguinaldo declined to hear our declaration of independence read “because we would not recognize his right to assert the same truths,” and then apparently forgetting the Insurgent chief’s alleged adherence to the principles of this document, he lets the cat out of the bag by saying that “the war satisfied us all that Aguinaldo would have been a small edition of Porfirio Diaz,” and would himself have been “The Republic.”[3]
He would doubtless have set up just this sort of a government, if not assassinated too soon, but it would hardly have accorded with the principles of the declaration of independence, nor would it have been exactly “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Blount truly says[4] that the educated Filipinos, admittedly very few in number, absolutely control the masses. He adds[5] that presidentes of pueblos are as absolute bosses as is Murphy in Tammany Hall, and that the towns taken collectively constitute the provinces. The first statement is true, and the second, which is tantamount to a declaration that the presidentes control every square foot of the provinces and every man in them, is not so far from the truth as it might be. I have been old-fashioned enough to retain the idea that a republic is “a state in which the sovereign power resides in the whole body of the people, and is exercised by representatives elected by them.”
Blount labored under no delusion as to the fitness of the common people to govern.[6]
Not only did the Filipinos themselves understand perfectly well that they had no republic, but there were many of them who were fully aware of the fact that they could establish none. Fernando Acevedo, in writing to General Pío del Pilar on August 8, 1898, said:[7]—
“There could be no republic here, even though the Americans should consent, because, according to the treaties, the Filipinos are not in condition for a republic. Besides this, all Europe will oppose it, and if it should be that they divide our country as though it were a round cake, what would become of us and what would belong to us?”
I will now trace the evolution of the government which Aguinaldo did set up. In doing so I follow Taylor’s argument very closely, drawing on his unpublished Ms., not only for ideas, but in some instances for the words in which they are clothed. I change his words in many cases, and do not mean to unload on him any responsibility for my statements, but do wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to him and at the same time to avoid the necessity for the continual use of quotation marks.
Aguinaldo’s methods in establishing his republic are shown by his order[8] that “any person who fights for his country has absolute power to kill any one not friendly to our cause” and the further order[9] prescribing that twelve lashes should be given to a soldier who lost even a single cartridge, while if he continued to waste ammunition he should be severely punished. In March, 1899, workmen who had abandoned their work in the arsenal at Malolos were arrested, returned, given twenty-five lashes each and then ordered to work.[10]
The news that an American expedition was about to sail for the Philippines made him realize that he had not much more than a month in which to place himself in a position in which he would have to be consulted and assisted, and this he tried to do. The arms he received from Hongkong on May 23 enabled him to begin an insurrection, not as an ally of the United States, but on his own account. From May 21 to May 24 he issued orders for the uprising against Spain. On May 24 he declared himself Dictator of the Philippines in a proclamation in which he promised to resign his power into the hands of a president and cabinet, to be appointed when a constitutional assembly was convened, which would be as soon as the islands had passed into his control. He further announced that the North American nation had given its disinterested protection in order that the liberty of the Philippines should be gained.[11] On May 25, 1898, the first American troops sailed from San Francisco for the Philippines.
Aguinaldo still had a month in which to seize enough Spanish territory to erect thereon what would appear to the Americans on their arrival to be a government of Luzón, of which he was the head. The Hongkong junta and Aguinaldo himself intended to ask for the recognition of their government, but they had first to create it. To obtain recognition it was necessary that the American commander on land should be able to report that wherever he or his troops had gone the country was ruled by Aguinaldo according to laws which showed that the people were capable of governing themselves.
As the United States is a republic it was natural that the directing group of insurgent leaders should decide upon a republican form of government. That form would appeal to the people of the United States; the first “Christian Asiatic Republic” was a description which would inevitably awaken sympathy in that mother of republics. The idea was a wise and subtle one; but Aguinaldo’s republic was merely an elaborate stage-setting, arranged for the contemplation of the people of the United States.
By June 5, 1898, the success of the insurgent arms had been such that Aguinaldo felt that he could throw down the mask. He would still be glad of American assistance, but he felt himself strong enough to do without it. He saw that “there can now be proclaimed before the Filipino people and the civilized nations its only aspiration, namely, the independence of this country, which proclamation should not be delayed for any ulterior object of this government”[12] and ordered that the independence of the Philippines should be proclaimed at his birthplace, Cavite Viejo, on June 12, 1898. On that date he formally proclaimed it. The provinces of Cavite, Bataan, Pampanga, Batangas, Bulacan, Laguna and Morong were about to fall into his hands, the Spanish troops in them being besieged, and about to surrender.
From the same place on June 18, 1898, Aguinaldo promulgated his decree for the creation and administration of municipalities.[13] In brief, this provided that as soon as the territory of the archipelago, or any portion thereof, had passed from the possession of Spanish forces, the people in the towns who were most conspicuous for their intelligence, social position and upright conduct were to meet and elect a town government. The heads of the towns in every province were to elect a head for the province and his three counsellors. The provincial council, composed of these four officials, with the presidente of the capital of the province, were to see to the execution in that province of the decrees of the central government and to advise and suggest.
This provincial council was to elect representatives for the revolutionary congress, which was to be charged with submitting suggestions to the central government upon interior and exterior affairs, and was to be heard by the government upon serious matters which admitted of delay and discussion.
Before any person elected to office was permitted to discharge his functions, his election was to be approved by the central government. The military commanders, except in time of war, were to have no jurisdiction over the civil authorities. They could, however, demand such supplies as they might need, and these could not be refused. The government was to appoint commissioners to carry these regulations into effect.
On June 20 Aguinaldo issued his regulations for the government of provinces and municipalities[14] as supplemental to the decree of two days before. It went into the details of government, under the following heads: police, justice, taxation and registration of property.
On June 23 he proclaimed the establishment of a revolutionary government, with himself as “president.” In this capacity he had all the powers of the Spanish governor-general, unhampered by any orders from Spain. It is true that the scheme provided for the eventual formation of a republic, but it is doubtful if the people who drew it up really knew what that word meant. What was provided for in practice was a strong and highly centralized military dictatorship, in which, under the form of election, provision was made for the filling of all offices by men devoted to the group which had seized control.
According to this decree the dictatorial government was in future to be entitled the revolutionary government. Its duty was to struggle for the independence of the Philippines in order to establish a true republic. The dictator was to be known as the president of the revolutionary government. There were to be four secretaries—one of foreign affairs, commerce and marine; one of war and public works; one of police and interior order, justice, education and hygiene; one of the treasury, agriculture and manufactures. The government could increase the number of secretaries if necessary. They were to assist the president in the despatch of business coming under their departments.
Typical Cottages at Baguio
Cottages of this type are used by officers of the government.
In addition to the president and his secretaries, there was to be a revolutionary congress composed of representatives from the provinces of the Philippine Archipelago, elected as provided by the decree of June 18. In case a province was not able to elect representatives, the government would appoint them for such province. The congress was to discuss and advise, to approve treaties and loans, and to examine and approve the accounts of the secretary of the treasury. If important matters admitted of delay, the congress would be heard concerning them; but if they did not admit of delay, the president of the government was to act at once. Projects of law could be presented by any representative, and by the secretaries of the government.
A permanent committee of congress presided over by the vice-president was to be chosen by that body. This was to serve as a court of appeal in criminal cases and as a court of final jurisdiction in cases arising between the secretaries of the government and provincial officials. The acts of congress were not to go into effect until the president of the government ordered their execution. He was also to have the right of veto.
This was a well-devised plan to secure control for the central group about Aguinaldo. His commissioners, under a form of election in which the electors were carefully selected men, established municipal governments devoted to the cause of the revolution. These were to choose provincial officials and members of the congress. All elections were subject to Aguinaldo’s approval, and every province was under the command of a military representative of his, who could and did call upon the civil authorities for such supplies as he deemed fit. All real power was vested in the central group, and the central group was composed of Emilio Aguinaldo and his public and private advisers. By this time he had gathered about him men who were trained in the law, some of whom had served the Spanish government in various capacities. They were accustomed to the methods that had previously prevailed under the Spanish régime, and were now ready to draw up constitutions and regulations for the new government. Mabini wrote the three organic decrees. Copies of them were sent to the foreign consuls in Manila, and on July 15, 1898 to Admiral Dewey.
Although the title of “president” was assumed by Aguinaldo, as more likely to be favourably considered in the United States than “dictator,” the tendency of his followers who had not been educated in Europe was to speak of and to regard him not as a president, but as an overlord holding all power in his hands. The people did not feel themselves citizens of a republic, copartners in an estate; they considered themselves subject to a ruler who sometimes called himself president, and sometimes dictator. Indeed, there is much to show that if Aguinaldo and his followers had succeeded in their plans, even the name “republic” would not have been long continued as the title of his government.[15]
Aguinaldo’s claim as to the effectiveness of his government on August 6, 1898, was as follows:[16] “The government of the revolution actually rules in the provinces of Cavite, Batangas, Mindoro, Tayabas, Laguna, Morong, Bulacan, Bataan, Pampanga, Infanta and besieges the capital, Manila. The most perfect order and tranquillity reign in these provinces, governed by authorities elected by the inhabitants in conformity with the organic decrees dated June 18 and 23 last. Moreover, the revolution has about nine thousand prisoners of war who are treated humanely and according to the rules of civilized warfare. We can muster more than thirty thousand men organized as a regular army.”
It may have been that in the majority of these provinces municipal governments, formed in accordance with the provisions of the decree of June 18, had been established; but provincial governments had not been established in all of them, and tranquillity did not reign in any of them, as they were the scene of operations against the Spaniards. There could not well have been nine thousand prisoners in his hands at this time, as that was claimed later when a large additional number of Spaniards had surrendered. As for the thirty thousand men organized as a regular army, there may be a certain difference of opinion as to what constitutes a regular army; the men who saw Aguinaldo’s force then, and who have read the papers of its leaders, must be of the opinion that that force was not a regular army. Probably only Manila Province had a provincial government on August 6. Its local presidentes met at Cavite Viejo on August 3 and elected three members of congress from the province, and also the members of the provincial government. The election took place under the supervision of Colonel Teodoro Gonzales, whom Aguinaldo had appointed governor of Manila Province on August 1. He remained governor after the election was held. Not until August 17 did the local presidentes of Bulacan assemble under the presidency of the secretary of the interior and proceed to elect two members to congress and the members of the provincial government. Not until August 20 was there an election for the members of the provincial government of Cavite Province. This was held in the town of Cavite. Isaac Fernando Rios, who was afterwards a member of the Filipino junta in Madrid, was chosen a representative of the province; but as he wrote that he was in favour of coming to some agreement with Spain which would permit the development of the Philippines, without abandoning the sovereignty of that country, Aguinaldo promptly disapproved his election[17] and ordered a new one held for the office thus left vacant. On October 2, 1899, Aguinaldo approved the result of a new election held there because four of the five high officials of the province had absented themselves, while one of them had died. Of the men who had so absented themselves one had gone abroad, while the other three had remained in Manila or Cavite under the government of the United States.[18]
The people of the provinces obeyed the men who had arms in their hands. It is not probable that many of them had any conviction concerning the form of government which would be best for the Philippines. There were no signs of a spontaneous desire for a republic. Orders came from the group about Aguinaldo, and the people accepted a dictator and a republic as they accepted a president and a republic, without knowing, and probably without caring very much, what it all meant, except that they hoped that taxes would cease with the departure of the friars. A determined and well-organized minority had succeeded in imposing its will upon an unorganized, heterogeneous, and leaderless majority.
As soon as a province was occupied by the Insurgents it was divided into territorial zones within which command was exerted by military officers. On July 20, 1898, Cavite had been divided into four zones, and next day Brigadier-General Artemio Ricarte was placed in command of the province and the first zone.
By July 7 Bulacan Province had been divided into six zones, and Nueva Ecija into four zones, with a separate commander for each zone. These men established the government prescribed by Aguinaldo’s decrees of the middle of June. Probably by the end of July Aguinaldo’s municipal governments had been established in the greater part of the towns of Luzón. These governments were not established by the mass of the people. The mass of the people were not consulted, but they were not in the habit of being consulted in such matters and probably saw no necessity for it in this case. As an evidence of this we have the fact that from the beginning the acts of election were almost always drawn up in Spanish, although by far the greater portion of the people of the archipelago spoke only the native dialects.
The method of establishing these municipal governments employed in Cavite in June, 1898, was continued to the end of Aguinaldo’s rule. It was the same in different places and at different times. Data obtained from reports and documents written in towns far removed from each other follow. They must be considered together in order to obtain an idea of what this method really was.
When the Insurgent movement had progressed sufficiently far, the leaders collected their adherents and obtained recognition as the heads of their provinces or districts. For example, representatives of the towns of Pampanga assembled at San Fernando on June 26, 1898, and under the presidency of General Maximo Hizon agreed to yield him “complete obedience as military governor of the province and representative of the illustrious dictator of these Philippine Islands.”[19] The town of Macabebe refused to send any delegates to this gathering. Commissioners, in almost every case officers of Aguinaldo’s army, were empowered by him to establish the so-called republican government. They appointed delegates who proceeded to the smaller towns and held elections; but whenever possible the commissioner of Aguinaldo presided. In many cases these delegates were lieutenants of the army. The commissioners selected the electors, for they had all to be “marked out by their good conduct, their wealth, and their social position,” and they had all to be in favour of independence. They then presided at the elections, which were viva voce. They apparently selected the people to be elected, and forwarded a record of the proceedings to the central government. The election had to be approved by the dictator or president before the successful candidates could assume the duties of their offices. Later on, the military commanders remote from the seat of government were authorized to approve elections and install the successful candidates, but the records of election had even then to be forwarded to the capital for approval, the action of the commissioner not being final.
The commissioners do not seem to have been able to find many men who had the necessary requisites for electors. In the town of Lipa, Batangas Province, with a population of forty thousand seven hundred forty-three, at the election held July 3, 1898, a presidente was chosen for whom twenty-five votes were cast. On November 23, 1898, an election was held at Vigan, Ilocos Sur, for a presidente to succeed one who had been elected representative in congress. One hundred and sixteen votes were cast. The population of Vigan is nineteen thousand. On October 5, 1898, at Echague, Isabela Province, a presidente was elected for whom fifty-four votes were cast. The population of Echague is fifty-four thousand. On October 2, 1898, at Cabagan Nuevo, Isabela, one hundred and eleven men voted out of a population of sixty-two hundred and forty. On January 29, 1899, the town of Hernani, in Samar, elected its municipal officials under the supervision of V. Lukban. Fifty-four men voted. The town has a population of twenty-five hundred and fifty-five.
The elections, so-called, were not always held without protest. For example, the town of San José, Batangas, protested unavailingly to Aguinaldo against the result of an election held at 10 P.M., in a storm of rain. Men who had been on friendly terms with the Spaniards were usually excluded from all participation. If in spite of the precautions taken men were elected who were disliked by the commissioner or his supporters, the election could be set aside on the ground that the person elected was not an adherent of the revolution.
The elections were often held in a singular manner, as in the following case:[20]—
“On August 20, 1898, four men of Tondo appeared before Aguinaldo on Bacoor and announced that they were representatives of the people of the district, who loved liberty. Then in accordance with the directions of the president of the republic under the supervision of the secretary of the interior, they drew lots from a hat to decide how the offices of the head of the district, delegate of police, delegate of the treasury and delegate of justice were to be distributed. The decision having been made in this simple fashion, Aguinaldo gravely approved the election as expressing the will of the people. Perhaps it did, for they seem to have continued, at least for a time, to obey them. On November 14, 1898, Aguinaldo again approved an election for local officials in Tondo which since August 13 had been within the American lines.”
On August 23 San Carlos, in Pangasinán Province, a town of twenty-three thousand people, elected its officials under the new form of government. The presidente chosen was a well-known member of the Katipúnan, and before the election was held announced his intention of killing any one who was chosen for the position for which he was a candidate.[21] He was accordingly elected. In spite of this grave informality, an informality which formed one ground for a protest on the part of some of the people of the town, Aguinaldo approved the election.
On October 21, 1898, an election was held under the supervision of the military commander in Camarines for the municipal officials of the town of Yriga.[22] The voting was oral, and a secretary wrote down the votes for the two candidates under direction of the commissioner, who finally announced that the candidate whose friend he was had been elected, but without stating how many votes he had received. This newly elected head of the town had the town crier on the following night publish through the streets an address to the people, in which he thanked those who had voted for him and warned those who had not that it would be well for them to beware. The Spanish law known as the Maura Law, which regulated the elections in the municipalities under the Spanish government, provided for a limited electoral body, composed largely of ex-officials of the municipalities. The choosing of an electoral body by the military commander of a district probably did not seem strange to the people. The provincial and municipal officials were established in office by armed men, and they were obeyed because they had been installed by armed men; but it was a form of election to which people, as a rule, saw no reason to object. There were, however, in many cases bitter complaints of the abuses committed by the officers thus “elected.”
A Baguio Home
This is the residence of the author. Note the rose buses climbing up to the second story.
This form of government spread with the advance of Aguinaldo’s arms. Municipal elections were held in Tarlac in July, in Ilocos Norte and Tayabas in August, in Benguet and the Batanes Islands in September, 1898, in Panay in December, 1898, and in Leyte and Samar in January, 1899.
On December 27 Antonio Luna wrote that all the provinces of Luzón, Mindoro, Marinduque, Masbate, and Ticao, Romblón, part of Panay, the Batanes, and Babuyanes Islands were under the jurisdiction of the insurgent government.[23]
By October 7, 1898, 14 of the 36 provinces and districts into which Luzón had been divided by the Spanish government had civil governors.[24] These 14 were Tagálog provinces or provinces which the Tagálogs controlled. The other provinces were still under military rule, and, indeed, even the provinces under civilians were dominated by their military commanders. With the manner of holding elections which prevailed, the governors must have been men who were in favour of the military party in force, for otherwise they would not have been elected.[25]
It is not probable that the number of provinces under civil governors much increased. If in Pangasinán Province, where there are many Tagálogs, organizations opposed to the rule of Aguinaldo could cause serious disorders, as was the case, it must have been considered expedient for the success of the attempt of the Tagálogs, who form only a fifth of the population, to dominate the archipelago, that all provinces in which an effective majority of the people were not of that tribe, should be kept under military rule. The municipal governments which had been established in Luzón were in the hands of Aguinaldo’s adherents, or of men who it was hoped would prove loyal to him. They were men of the Spanish-speaking group, which has always dominated the people of the islands. They were probably not as a rule men of means. Many of them, perhaps most of them, had been clerks and employees under the Spanish government, and they saw no reason for changing the methods of town administration which had then been followed. The municipal taxes, the estimates for expenditures, and the regulations for town government, were but little modified from those they found in force. In many ways such changes as were made were for the worse.
Once installed in power, Aguinaldo’s officials were required to exercise over the mass of the people about the same control that had always been exercised over them. The governing group considered that they were perfectly capable of providing for the welfare of the islands, and that it was the duty of the people to obey them without question.
When the insurgent force was increased in preparation for war with the Americans a large number of municipal officials resigned, or attempted to do so. It was not easy for a municipal official under Aguinaldo’s government to resign. A resignation, to be accepted, had to be accompanied by the certificate of a physician that the person concerned was unfit to perform the duties of his office. Judging by the record,[26] an epidemic seems to have attacked the municipal officials in January, 1899. It is probable that they saw that war was inevitable and that they did not wish to remain in charge of the towns and be responsible for providing for the necessities of “the liberating army.” In Pangasinán in that month men could not leave their barrios without obtaining the permission of the headman, and in one town men who had attempted to sell their property for the purpose of going to Manila were, on January 17, ordered to be arrested and their conduct investigated.[27]
Aguinaldo, having established himself at Malolos, ordered the congress provided for in his decree of June 23, 1898, to assemble at the capital on September 15,1898, and appointed a number of provisional representatives for provinces and islands not under his control.[28] It has often been claimed that Aguinaldo’s government controlled at this time the whole archipelago, except the bay and city of Manila and the town of Cavite.[29]
Blount quotes the following statement from the report of the First Philippine Commission:—
“While the Spanish troops now remained quietly in Manila, the Filipino forces made themselves masters of the entire island except that city.”[30]
I signed that statement, and signed it in good faith; nevertheless, it is untrue. The Filipino forces never controlled the territory now known as Ifugao, Bontoc, Kalinga or Apayao, much less that occupied by the Negritos on the east coast of Luzón, but this is not all. There exists among the Insurgent records a very important document, prepared by Mabini, showing that when the call for the first session of the Filipino congress was issued, there were no less than sixty-one provinces and commandancias, which the Insurgents, when talking among themselves, did not even claim to control, and twenty-one of these were in or immediately adjacent to Luzón.[31]
The men who composed this congress were among the ablest natives of the archipelago; but representative institutions mean nothing unless they represent the people; if they do not, they are a conscious lie devised either to deceive the people of the country or foreign nations, and it is not possible for any system founded upon a lie to endure. A real republic must be founded not upon a few brilliant men to compose the governing group but upon a people trained in self-restraint and accustomed to govern by compromise and concession, not by force. To endure it must be based upon a solid foundation of self-control, of self-respect and of respect for the rights of others upon the part of the great majority of the common people. If it is not, the government which follows a period of tumult, confusion and civil war will be a government of the sword. The record the Philippine republic has left behind it contains nothing to confirm the belief that it would have endured, even in name, if the destinies of the islands had been left in the hands of the men who set it up.
The national assembly met on the appointed day in the parish church of Barasoain, Malolos, which had been set aside for the meetings of congress. This body probably had then more elected members than at its subsequent meetings, but even so it contained a large number of men who were appointed by Aguinaldo after consultation with his council to represent provinces which they had never even seen.
From a “list of representatives of the provinces and districts, selected by election and appointment by the government up to July 7, 1899, with incomplete list of October 6, 1899”[32] I find that there were 193 members, of whom forty-two were elected and one hundred fifty-one were appointed. This congress was therefore not an elective body. Was it in any sense representative? The following table, showing the distribution of delegates between the several peoples, will enable us to answer this question.
In considering this table it must be remembered that the relationship given between the number of delegates assigned to a given people and the number of individuals composing it is only approximate, as no one of these peoples is strictly limited to the provinces where it predominates.
I have classified the provinces as Tagálog, Visayan, etc., according to census returns showing the people who form a majority of their inhabitants in each case.[33]
| People | Number | Elected Delegates | Appointed Delegates |
| Visayans | 3,219,030 | 0 | 68 |
| Tagálogs | 1,460,695 | 18 | 19 |
| Ilocanos | 803,942 | 7 | 11 |
| Bicols | 566,365 | 4 | 7 |
| Pangasináns | 343,686 | 2 | 2 |
| Pampangans | 280,984 | 2 | 2 |
| Cagayans | 159,648 | 4 | 6 |
| Zambalans | 48,823 | 1 | 2 |
| Non-Christians | 647,740 | 4 | 34 |
| 42 | 151 |
It will be noted that the Tagálog provinces had eighteen out of a total of forty-two elected delegates. The Visayans, by far the most numerous people in the islands, did not have one. The non-Christian provinces had a very disproportionately large total of delegates, of whom four are put down as elected, but on examination we find that one of these is from Lepanto, the capital of which was an Ilocano town; one is from Nueva Vizcaya, where there is a considerable Cagayan-Ilocano population; one is from Benguet, the capital of which was an Ilocano town, and one from Tiagan, which was an Iloeano settlement. These delegates should therefore really be credited to the Ilocanos.
If the individual relationships of the several members are considered, the result is even more striking. Of the thirty-eight delegates assigned to the non-Christian provinces, one only, good old Lino Abaya of Tiagan, was a non-Christian. Many of the non-Christian comandancias were given a number of delegates wholly disproportionate to their population, and in this way the congress was stuffed full of Tagálogs.
Think of Filipe Buencamino, of Aguinaldo’s cabinet, representing the Moros of Zamboanga; of the mild, scholarly botanist Leon Guerrero representing the Moros, Bagobos, Mandayas and Manobos of Davao; of José M. Lerma, the unscrupulous politician of the province of Bataan, just across the bay from Manila, representing the wild Moros of Cotabato; of Juan Tuason, a timid Chinese mestizo Manila business man, representing the Yacan and Samal Moros of Basilan; of my good friend Benito Legarda, since a member of the Philippine Commission, and a resident delegate from the Philippines to the congress of the United States, representing the bloody Moros of Jolo! Yet they appear as representatives of these several regions.
The Baguio Hospital
This hospital, built on a picturesque site in the midst of imposing mountain scenery, where it gets the full sweep of the cool pine-scented breezes, has done wonderful work. Note the tuberculosis cottages on the crest of the ridge.
Few, indeed, of the delegates from non-Christian territory had ever set foot in the provinces or comandancias from which they were appointed, or would have been able to so much as name the wild tribe or tribes inhabiting them.
I have been furnished a list, made up with all possible care by competent persons, from which it appears that there were eighty-five delegates actually present at the opening of congress, of whom fifty-nine were Tagálogs, five Bicols, three Pampangans, two Visayans, and one a Zambalan. For the others there are no data available. Yet it has been claimed that this was a representative body! It was a Tagálog body, without enough representatives of any other one of the numerous Philippine peoples to be worth mentioning.
With a congress thus organized, Aguinaldo should have had no difficulty in obtaining any legislation he desired.
The committee of congress appointed to draw up a constitution set to work promptly, and by October 16,1898, had proceeded so far with their work that Buencamino was able to write to Aguinaldo that while he had been of the opinion that it would have been best for him to continue as a dictator aided by a committee of able men, yet it would now be a blow to the prestige of congress to suspend its sessions. Aguinaldo noted upon this letter the fact that he did not approve of a constitution.[34]
Apparently early in December the committee submitted their project. In presenting it to congress they said[35] that—
“The work whose results the commission has the honour to present for the consideration of congress has been largely a matter of selection; in executing it not only has the French constitution been used, but also those of Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, as we have considered those nations as most resembling the Filipino people.”
The most important difference between this project and the actual constitution adopted was that, although the project provided that the Dominican, Recollect, Franciscan and Augustinian friars should be expelled from the country and that their estates should become the property of the state, yet it recognized the Catholic religion as that of the state and forbade state contribution to the support of any other, although it permitted the practice in private of any religion not opposed to morality, which did not threaten the safety of the country. The government was authorized to negotiate a concordat with the Pope for the regulation of the relations between church and state. A strong party was in favour of this recognition, but it finally failed of adoption, and the constitution as promulgated provided for the freedom and equality of religion and for free and compulsory education which had not been provided for in the original project. The constitution as approved forbade the granting of titles of nobility, decorations or honorary titles by the state to any Filipino. This paragraph did not exist in the original project, which merely forbade any Filipino to accept them without the consent of the government.
Mabini, the ablest of all Aguinaldo’s advisers, did not approve of the constitution. He himself had drawn up a project for a constitution during June, 1898, but it was not accepted by the committee, the greater part of whom were Catholics and for that reason opposed to Mabini, who was a bitter antagonist of that church. And yet when separation of church and state was finally provided for it did not please Mabini, who, although he was opposed to church control, wrote to Aguinaldo[36] that the constitution as passed by congress was not acceptable and should not be promulgated because the constitutional guarantees of individual liberty could not be maintained, as the army had to be in control for the time being, and furthermore it was not expedient to separate church and state, as this separation would alienate many of their adherents. Indeed, there was not much in the constitution which he thought ought to take immediate effect,[37] and he wrote that congress was ill-disposed toward him because he had refused to agree to its promulgation. Existing conditions were such that he believed that all powers should be vested in one person. He warned Aguinaldo that if the constitution were put in force, he would be at the mercy of his secretaries. On January 1, 1899, Aguinaldo, probably at the suggestion of Mabini, proposed certain changes in it.[38]
Evidently the provisions of the constitution did not worry Aguinaldo much, as is shown by his reply to the request by some of his officers for information as to what reward those who were first in the attack on Manila should receive. He promised them such titles as marquis, duke, etc.[39]
On January 2, 1899, Aguinaldo announced the formation of a new cabinet made up as follows: Apolinario Mabini president and secretary of foreign affairs; Teodoro Sandico, secretary of the interior; Mariano Trias, secretary of the treasury; Baldomero Aguinaldo, secretary of war and navy, and Gracio Gonzaga, secretary of fomento.[40] On January 4 Mabini took the oath of office as the president of the council of government. This body met twice a week at Malolos on set days, and at the close of its deliberations forwarded to Aguinaldo a statement of the subjects discussed and the conclusions reached for his decision. The president of the republic did not preside at, or take part in, its deliberations.
On January 4, 1899, General Otis issued a proclamation in which he announced that the United States had obtained possession of the Philippines and that its government would be extended over the islands of the archipelago. Aguinaldo replied next day with one which, if not intended to be a declaration of war, was at least a warning that hostilities were imminent. This proclamation was carried into Manila by his emissaries and posted up over the one issued by the American commander. It was a challenge to a trial of strength, and Aguinaldo and his advisers hastened their preparations for the coming combat.
The secretary of the interior on the same day sent an order to the heads of all provinces directing the organization of territorial militia to resist the American invasion, and ordering the heads of the towns to hold meetings of the people to protest against the aggression of the United States. They were held in accordance with these orders, and records of the proceedings were sent to Malolos and published in the official organ of the government as evidence of the feeling of the people. It was, however, not considered necessary in publishing them to mention the fact that they had been held in compliance with orders.
On January 14, 1899, Mabini wrote to Aguinaldo[41] recommending changes in the proposed constitution, which he still liked as little as ever. He was afraid that Negros and Panay would refuse to accept the form of government it prescribed. The worst thing about it was that the Americans would be less disposed to recognize Aguinaldo’s government; for when they saw the constitution they would know, as it made no mention of them, that the Filipinos wanted independence. Mabini thought that it was possible that the wording of the constitution might have been deliberately planned by members of the congress in favour of annexation to the United States, so that that country would be warned, would become more mistrustful, and would refuse to recognize Aguinaldo’s government. Whatever the president of the council may have thought about the theoretical advisability of a congress to represent the people, he found one much in the way when he had obtained it.
Buencamino advised that the constitution should be approved and promulgated; one argument was that the congress had been consulted in the matter of a national loan, and if it was dissolved, there could be no loan. This was apparently the only matter upon which it had been consulted.[42]
The constitution of the Philippine Republic was ratified at a session of the congress on January 20, 1899.
On January 21, 1899, Aguinaldo sanctioned it and ordered that it should be “kept, complied with and executed in all its parts because it is the sovereign will of the Philippine people.”[43] The constitution provided for a government of three coördinate powers, executive, legislative and judicial. Whether it provided for a form of government which would have succeeded in the Philippines was not determined by actual experience. It was never really put in force for war with the United States began in two weeks and the constitution must stand as the expression of the ideas of a certain group of educated natives rather than as the working formula for the actual conduct of the political life of a nation. One proof of this is the fact that not until June 8, 1899, were Aguinaldo’s decrees upon the registration of marriages and upon civil marriage, dated June 20,1898, revoked, and the provisions of the constitution concerning marriage put in effect.[44]
Aguinaldo had approved the constitution; he had informed the foreign consuls and General Otis that it had been promulgated and become the law of the land. It was not promulgated. It had not become the law of the land. It served one important purpose. It passed into the hands of the Americans and showed them the ability and the aspirations of certain individuals of the archipelago, but Mabini and his followers did not believe in its form or in its provisions, and Mabini at least was emphatic in his declarations that the time had not yet come for it to be put into effect. On January 24, 1899, he wrote to Aguinaldo that if it should be promulgated it would be absolutely necessary to give the president the veto power, and replace the elected representatives by others appointed by the government. If this were not done the president would be at the mercy of congress, and the people, seeing that disagreement between the executive government and the congress was the cause of its misfortunes, would start another revolutionary movement to destroy both of them.[45]
As long as Mabini remained in power the constitution was mere paper. Its adoption was not indicative of the capacity of the people to maintain self-government. It expressed only the academic aspirations of the men who drafted it. There is not the slightest evidence from any previous or subsequent experience of the people that it would have worked in practice. It was enacted for the misleading of Americans rather than for the benefit of the Filipinos.
While the government of Aguinaldo was called a republic, it was in fact a Tagálog military oligarchy in which the great mass of the people had no share. Their duty was only to give soldiers for the army and labourers for the fields, and to obey without question the orders they received from the military heads of their provinces.
There is no cause for vain regrets. We did not destroy a republic in the Philippines. There never was anything there to destroy which even remotely resembled a republic.
[1] Blount refers to
“The death-warrant of the Philippine republic signed by Mr. McKinley on September 16th.”—Blount, p. 99.
Speaking of Mr. Roosevelt’s opinion of the practicability of granting independence to the Filipinos, he says—
“Yet it represented then one of the many current misapprehensions about the Filipinos which moved this great nation to destroy a young republic set up in a spirit of intelligent and generous emulation of our own.”—Blount, p. 230.
[2] “Here was a man claiming to be President of a newly established republic based on the principles set forth in our Declaration of Independence, which republic had just issued a like Declaration, and he was invited to come and hear our declaration read, and declined because we would not recognize his right to assert the same truths.”—Blount, p. 59.
[3] “The war satisfied us all that Aguinaldo would have been a small edition of Porfirio Diaz, and that the Filipino republic-that-might-have-been would have been, very decidedly, ‘a going concern,’ although Aguinaldo probably would have been able to say with a degree of accuracy, as Diaz might have said in Mexico for so many years, ‘The Republic? I am the Republic.’”—Blount, p. 292.
[4] “The war demonstrated to the army, to a Q. E. D., that the Filipinos are ‘capable of self-government,’ unless the kind which happens to suit the genius of the American people is the only kind of government on earth that is respectable, and the one panacea for all the ills of government among men without regard to their temperament or historical antecedents. The educated patriotic Filipinos can control the masses of the people in their several districts as completely as a captain ever controlled a company.”—Blount, p. 292.
[5] “Even to-day the presidente of a pueblo is as absolute boss of his town as Charles F. Murphy is in Tammany Hall. And a town or pueblo in the Philippines is more than an area covered by more or less contiguous buildings and grounds. It is more like a township in Massachusetts, so that when you account governmentally for the pueblos of a given province, you account for every square foot of that province and for every man in it.”
[6] “In there reviewing the Samar and other insurrections of 1905 in the Philippines, you find him (i.e. Roosevelt) dealing with the real root of the evil with perfect honesty, though adopting the view that the Filipino people were to blame therefor, because we had placed too much power in the hands of an ignorant electorate, which had elected rascally officials.”—Blount, p. 297.
Also:—
“But we proceeded to ram down their throats a preconceived theory that the only road to self-government was for an alien people to step in and make the ignorant masses the sine qua non.”—Blount, p. 546.
Also:—
“Of course the ignorant elecorate we perpetrated on Samar as an ‘expression of our theoretical views’ proved that we had ‘gone too fast’ in conferring self-government, or to quote Mr. Roosevelt, had been ‘reposing too much confidence in the self-governing power of a people,’ if to begin with the rankest material for constructing a government that there was at hand was to offer a fair test of capacity for self-government.”—Blount, p. 546.
[7] P.I.R., 499. 1 Ex. 134.
[8] Ibid., 206. 1.
[9] Ibid., 1124. 2.
[10] Ibid., 204. 6.
[11] P.I.R., 206. 6.
[12] P.I.R., 674. 1.
[13] Ibid., 206. 3.
[14] P.I.R., 206. 3.
[15] On July 7, 1898, the secretary of the revolutionary junta in Mindanao, in writing to Aguinaldo, closed his letter with the following formula: “Command this, your vassal, at all hours at the orders of his respected chief, on whom he will never turn his back, and whom he will never forswear. God preserve you, Captain General, many years.” P.I.R., 1080. 1. Every now and then we find a queer use of the term “royal family.” This seems to have been common among the mass of the people. Heads of towns and men of position often used the expression “royal orders” in speaking of the orders and decrees issued by Aguinaldo. For example, the officials of Tayug, a town of 19,000 people in Pangasinán Province, certified, on October 9, 1898, that they had carried out the instructions for “the establishment of the popular government in accordance with the royal decree of June 18, 1898.”—P.I.R., 1188. 1.
In October certain of Aguinaldo’s adherents in Tondo wrote to him and protested against the acts of the local presidente, who, they held, had not been duly elected in accordance with the provisions of the “royal order” of June 18, 1898. They closed their respectful protest by requesting that said royal order should be obeyed.—Taylor, AJ., 63.
In 1899 an officer of the army in Union Province wrote: “In accordance with the orders of the secretary of war of our republican government of these islands, issued in compliance with royal decree, article 5, published on March 8.” On September 1, 1898, the local presidente of the town of Mangatarem, writing to the head of the province, said that he had not furnished the estimates required because the elections provided for in “article 7 of the royal decree of the superior government, dated June 18 last,” had not been approved. A young son of a member of Aguinaldo’s cabinet, writing to his father in September, 1899, spoke of the “royal decree of June 18, 1898.”—P.I.R., 1188. 3. In Romblon, in August, 1898, elections were held in compliance with the prescription of the “royal decree of June 18, 1898,” and Aguinaldo approved them, apparently without considering that this was an anomalous way of describing a decree of the dictator of the so-called republic. On March 7, 1899, a general in the revolutionary service stated that an officer had been released from arrest by a “royal order.” The attitude of mind which made men speak of Aguinaldo’s “royal orders” in 1898 did not change when he fled before the advance of the United States army. His orders remained royal orders. They were again and again referred to in this way.
[16] P.I.R., Books C-1.
[17] P.I.R., 1216. 1.
[18] P.I.R., 1216. 1.
[19] P.I.R., 223.
[20] P.I.R. 1133. 1.
[21] P.I.R., 1137. 4.
[22] Ibid., R., 1165. 2.
[23] P.I.R., 319. 1.
[24] Ibid., 3. 33.
[25] Ibid., 1022. 3.
[26] P.I.R., 1200.
[27] P.I.R., 907. 6.
[28] P.I.R., 39. 7.
[29] The following memorandum to accompany a letter from Señor Don Sixto Lopez, Secretary of Señor Don Felipe Agoncillo, to the Honorable the Secretary of State, written January 5, 1899, clearly sets forth this claim:—
“Pursuant to the action of said congress a detailed system of government has been provided for and is actually maintained in all the portions of the Philippine Islands, except so much of the provinces of Manila and Cavite as is now in the actual possession of the American Army, such excepted part containing only about 3 per cent. of the population of the entire islands and an infinitely smaller proportion of their area.
“From the foregoing it will appear that the Philippine government is now, as it has been practically ever since the 16th of June, 1898, in substantially full possession of the territory of the people it represents.”—Taylor Ex. 530 57 KU., Congressional Record, June 3, 1902, Vol. 35, part 6, p. 6217.
[30] Blount, p. 70.
[31] “September, 1898.
“Decree
“Although article 11, Chapter 2, of the Organic Decree of June 23 (1898) last, prescribes that the appointment of provisional representatives of Congress be given to persons who have been born or have resided in the provinces which they are to represent; taking into consideration the urgent necessity that said body enter upon its functions immediately, I hereby decree the following:—
“1. The following are appointed provisional Representatives ...
“2. A meeting of Congress is called for the 15th instant, to be held in the town of Malolos, province of Bulacán.
“3. The Secretary of the Interior shall take steps to notify the persons appointed and those elected by the popular commanders in the provinces already occupied by the Revolution, of the call as soon as possible.
“Giv ....”
(Attached hereto is the following, with the names written in Mabini’s handwriting:)
“September, 1898.
“Provinces not subject to the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines.
Exhibit 226, 76 MG, E, Extract from original in Spanish, A. L. S., P.I.R., 416. 1.”
[32] P.I.R., 38. 3.
[33] The 1903 census returns are here used for each of the several peoples.
[34] P.I.R., 485. 1.
[35] P.I.R., 40. 1.
[36] P.I.R., 377. 13.
[37] Ibid., 472. 9.
[38] Ibid., 40. 8.
[39] Ibid., 849. See p. 143.
[40] A general term covering education, public works, agriculture and commerce.
[41] P.I.R., 512. A 5.
[42] P.I.R., 485. 5.
[43] Senate Document 138, Fifty-sixth Congress, First Session.
[44] P.I.R., Books B-6.
[45] P.I.R., 472. 8.
Chapter IX
The Conduct of the War
It is not my intention to attempt to write a history of the war which began on February 4, 1899, nor to discuss any one of its several campaigns. I propose to limit myself to a statement of the conditions under which it was conducted, and a description of the two periods into which it may be divided.
From the outset the Insurgent soldiers were treated with marked severity by their leaders. On June 17, 1898, Aguinaldo issued an order to the military chiefs of certain towns in Cavite providing that a soldier wasting ammunition should be punished with twelve lashes for a first offence, twenty-four for a second, and court-martialled and “severely punished” for a third.[1]
On November 16, 1900, General Lacuna ordered that any officer allowing his soldiers to load their rifles when not before the enemy should be liable to capital punishment,[2] which in practice was frequently inflicted on soldiers for very minor offences.
Men of means were drafted into the ranks and then excused from service on the payment of cash.
The soldiery, quartered on the towns, committed endless abuses. Conditions were bad enough before the outbreak of hostilities, as I have shown in the chapters dealing with Insurgent rule. They grew rapidly worse thereafter, and human life became cheap indeed.
“The documents of this period show that the insurgent troops driven from the front of Manila fell upon the people of the neighbouring towns and burnt, robbed, and murdered. Either their officers lost all control over them, or else they directed these outrages. It was not for some days that control was regained.”[3]
Government Centre at Baguio
Endless orders were issued by Aguinaldo and other high Insurgent officers, prohibiting rape, brigandage and robbery, and there was grave need of them. Unfortunately they could not be enforced. Indeed it was often impossible to distinguish between Insurgent soldiers, who removed their uniforms or had none, and brigands pure and simple.[4]
Many men were soldiers at one time and brigands at another. Unquestionably soldiers and brigands sometimes coöperated. Garrisons were withdrawn from towns which did not promptly and fully comply with the demands of Insurgent commanders,[5] and armed bandits appeared and plundered them.
There were some Insurgent leaders, like Cailles, who suppressed brigandage with a heavy hand,[6] but many of them were indifferent, even if not in alliance with the evil doers.