“7th. All the citizens living in the province of Tayabas who may be representatives or adherents to the Federal Party, aside from the criminal liability which he incurs personally, will be deprived of the benefits of his property, which will be seized by the Government, who will take charge of the profits of the same.
“8th & last. The Local Presidente of the pueblo in which exists any Committee of the Federal Party and the Commander of the column to whose protection the pueblo is entrusted on pain of incurring the punishment detailed in section third of the present proclamation, will proceed to the total destruction of the pueblo in which there is a federalist committee, if, after having been ordered to disband it, at the expiration of seven days the same continues in its traitorous and criminal functions.
“Issued at the Military Government, March 22nd, 1901.
“Emilio Zurbano,
“Lieutenant Colonel, Military Governor.”[34]
On March 3, 1899, Antonio Luna, general in chief of operations about Manila, directed that all persons who either directly or indirectly refused to aid the execution of his military plans were to be immediately shot without trial. Nothing could have been more sweeping than was his order, and the commanders of detachments of insurgents found in it an authoritative statement that the lives and property of the inhabitants of the Philippines were theirs to do with as they chose.[35]
Mabini made this vicious and cruel order the subject of bitter protest, writing to Aguinaldo, on March 6, 1899, a letter in which he says that Luna has grossly exceeded his powers, and making the very pertinent inquiry “if an educated man[36] can hardly understand his duties, how will the uneducated one understand his?” He suggests that it would be better to remove Luna.[37] It does not appear that this order was ever modified.
I might furnish many similar data, but enough of orders. Any one who is not convinced by these extracts from the official Insurgent records that murder was a duly authorized governmental agency under the Philippine “Republic” is not amenable to reason or influenced by incontrovertible facts.
But were these brutal instructions carried out? They were, indeed, with a ferocity and a cold-blooded barbarity which make one shudder. Fortunate indeed was the man who was really shot, like the presidente of Nagcarlan,[38] and it made no difference if innocent bystanders were wounded or killed as well.
One of the common methods of procedure with victims of “dukut” was to bury them alive. A number of individuals suffered this fate at Taytay, near Manila. They were taken out at night, made to kneel beside graves already dug, hit over the head with an iron bar and knocked into their last resting places and the earth was shovelled in on to them. They were confessed by a native priest, and people of the town were required to stand by and see them meet their end.
