The condition in which private land titles were found at the time of the American occupation was very distressing. It had been a difficult matter to secure title under the Spanish régime and the very large majority of the common people had accordingly put it off until a mythical to-morrow which never came. Even those who had succeeded in obtaining formal documents had in many instances lost them as a result of the vicissitudes of war.
The Public Land Act of the Philippine Commission, passed under the provisions of the Act of Congress of July 1, 1902, became effective on July 26, 1904. It contained liberal provisions relative to Spanish grants and unperfected titles.
Any citizen of the Philippine Islands or of the United States or of any insular possession thereof over the age of twenty-one years or the head of a family can obtain a forty-acre homestead by five years of cultivation, two years of occupancy and the payment of $10.
The Public Land Act also provided for the issuance of a free patent to a tract not exceeding forty acres in extent to any native of the Philippine Islands then an occupant and cultivator of unreserved, unappropriated, agricultural public land who had continuously occupied and cultivated such land either by himself or through his ancestors since August 1, 1898; or who prior to August 1, 1898, continuously occupied and cultivated such land for three years immediately prior to such date, and who had been continuously since July 4, 1902, until the date of the taking effect of the Public Land Act, an occupier and cultivator of such land.
Most liberal provision was thus made for the small landowner, or would-be landowner, but neither Congress nor the commission reckoned with the ignorance of the common people nor with the opposition to the acquisition of land by poor Filipinos which developed on the part of their richer and more intelligent fellow-countrymen. This latter difficulty has proved to be a quite serious one. The cacique does not wish his labourers to acquire land in their own right, for he knows well enough that if they did so they would become self-supporting, and it would cease to be possible for him to hold them as peons, as is commonly done at present. Serious obstacles are therefore frequently thrown in the way of poor people who desire to become owners of land, and if this does not suffice, active opposition is often made by municipal officers or other influential Filipinos, who claim as their own private property land which poor men are trying to get.[1]
The Bureau of Lands now interests itself actively and directly in protecting the public lands against such spurious claims, and thus keeps large areas open to claim by the common people.
Absolute ignorance of the law was the commonest of all causes of the failure of the poor to take advantage of its very liberal provisions. Every known resource was exhausted in endeavouring to enlighten them. Pamphlets informing them of their rights were published in all important native dialects, and widely circulated. The schools coöperated in this good work. Provincial and municipal officials were instructed to inform the people of their rights, but in very many cases these instructions were disregarded.
Because of the complete illiteracy of practically all of the members of the non-Christian tribes in Benguet and Lepanto, I caused a survey party to be sent out from the Bureau of Lands to inform them of their rights and to assist them in making the necessary applications. It was from this territory that proportionately the largest number of applications were sent in.
The period within which applications might be made was extended from January 1, 1907 to January 1, 1909, yet it is undoubtedly true that when it finally expired the vast majority of those who might have profited by the free patent privilege had failed to take advantage of it because of ignorance that it existed.
With the rapid spread of the English language such a condition would not now arise. At its last session the Philippine Legislature passed an act to renew for a period of ten years the right to secure free patent, but this act, like the one which it amends, is subject to the approval of the President and of Congress. It is to be hoped that such approval will be given. In my opinion every reason which made it advisable to grant free patents in the first instance is still of full force.