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.