The total number of homestead applications received since the Public Land Act took effect is only 19,313, and of these it has been necessary to reject 4811 because the provisions of law were not complied with. Forty-eight patents have been issued, and there are 8225 approved applications, while 6219 not yet approved by the bureau are pending.
The figures for free patents are as follows: Number of applications, 15,885; free patents issued, 722; cases still pending, 11,871; rejected for cause, 3292.
One reason why so many of the free patent cases are still pending is that there never has been, and is not now, a sufficient force of surveyors to keep the work of the Bureau of Lands up to date, all efforts to secure the necessary additions to this force having failed.
Under the Land Registration Act provision was made for the issuing of so-called Torrens titles for which the government is virtually responsible, once they are given out, so all that is now necessary to make it possible rapidly and effectively to remedy the existing situation is the appointment of a sufficient number of judges in the Court of Land Registration.
Government lands of provinces or municipalities are chiefly those needed and utilized as sites for public buildings, plazas and the like. The insular government owns a similar class of lands, and has certain lands in trust, such as the San Lazaro Estate, which was set aside long ago as a source of income for the support of lepers, but the so-called friar lands, which have a history of their own, are its most important holdings.
Under the Spanish régime several of the religious orders acquired large wealth in the form of estates, most of which were brought under high cultivation, although several of the largest, like the San José Estate in Mindoro, and the Isabela Estate in the province of the same name, were nearly or quite uncultivated, and a number of the others contained large uncultivated areas.
Field labour was performed exclusively by tenants who were settled on the estates in large numbers and in a number of instances had built up large and well-organized towns. For various reasons bitter hostility arose between them and their landlords. In some parts of the islands the friars were detested by the populace on general principles. Furthermore, the Filipino becomes greatly attached to his home, especially if his fathers have lived there before him. Tenants on the friar estates could be, and not infrequently were, arbitrarily dispossessed, and the possibility that this might occur was a thorn in their flesh.
During the insurrection the confiscation of the friar estates was very seriously considered by the so-called Insurgent government, which nominally took over their administration. As a matter of fact, there was then no real administration of them, and the occupied lands passed under the control of the tenants, who remained in undisturbed possession for years and came to consider themselves the virtual owners of their holdings. We have already seen how hostility to the friars reached its climax at this time. Some were killed outright, and others imprisoned under such conditions as to make death probable, but the majority of those captured were in effect held for a long time for ransom, their liberty being offered on condition of a large cash payment.
Upon the inauguration of civil government and the reëstablishment of law and order the friars naturally endeavoured to reassert their rights. With few exceptions their former tenants absolutely refused to pay rent. The friars threatened action in the courts, and would have been abundantly justified in bringing it, but such a course would unquestionably have led to serious disturbances of public order.
Agitators and demagogues had succeeded in firmly convincing many of the tenants that they were the actual owners of their lands, and those of them who knew better were bright enough to take advantage of the peculiar situation.