(Signed) “Wm. H. Taft,
“Civil Governor.”
Why such an act was not drafted and passed I do not know. I was then absent on leave, and did not even learn of the existence of any of the above-quoted documents until years afterward. My personal attention was forcibly drawn to the existence of slavery outside of the Moro territory when I first inspected Nueva Vizcaya in 1905. The territory occupied by the Ifugaos, since separated as a sub-province of the Mountain Province, was then a part of Nueva Vizcaya, which had been organized as a province under a special act and was, in a way, subject to my executive control.
Moro Boats coming out to meet the Philippine Commission at Jolo.
Its governor, Louis G. Knight, called my attention to the fact that Ifugao children were frequently enslaved by Filipinos of Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela. I asked him to get specific data so that we might prosecute the offenders. He soon sent to the Executive Secretary a report[10] which gave full details of a number of recent cases of the buying and selling of Ifugaos as slaves, contained a statement that Governor Knight, who was himself a lawyer, could “find nothing whatever in the penal code defining or punishing as a crime the buying or selling of human beings,” and recommended that “this crime be defined and punished in the proposed new penal code.”
The report was referred to me by the executive secretary on September 20, 1905, and on September 22 was by me forwarded to the Honourable Luke E. Wright, governor-general, with an indorsement—
“inviting attention to the inclosed statements from the Governor of Nueva Vizcaya, relative to the traffic in Igorrote children in his province.
“The undersigned has reason to believe that Negrito children and children of other non-Christian tribes are occasionally bought and sold by civilized natives, and is strongly of the opinion that in case the Penal Code does not provide adequate punishment for such offences, it should be so amended as to make it possible to inflict severe penalties upon those who buy and sell human beings in this Archipelago.
(Signed) “Dean C. Worcester,
“Secretary of the Interior.”
The papers were referred by Governor-General Wright to the Attorney-General—