“Since the glorious Star-Spangled Banner has been unfolded over the Province of Isabela, the slaves existing in the same, which had been purchased in that time and recently, are very well treated and seem to be members of the family, because the military authorities prohibited their masters from ill-treating them as they were wont to do. Since then many of the slaves have run away from their owners and have sought new masters who treat them well, as it happened in the case of an Igorrote woman of the Ifugao tribe, who was about 40 years of age, and who had been in the service of a lady in the pueblo of Echague for many years. When, in the year 1900, the military enforced the prohibition of ill-treatment of slaves in the said pueblo, this Igorrote woman ran away and presented herself at my house, I being at this time justice of the peace of this provincial capital, and asked me to employ her as servant. My principle not to have slaves preventing me from complying with her wishes, I directed her to apply to Mr. Andres Claraval and his wife, Filomena Salinas. They accepted her, and a short time afterwards they had her baptized and christened Magdalena Claraval. She is being treated like an adopted daughter by them.
“The gentlemen who are mentioned in the report as having purchased slaves really acquired Igorrotes by purchase and keep them in their house, some of them having died since. Some of these transactions were made in the Spanish times, as in the case of the late Mr. Policarpo Gangan, who bought 6 or 7 Ifugaos, whom on his death he left to his children, Mr. Pedro Gangan, Mrs. Susana Gangan, Miss Maria Gangan, and Mrs. Rufina Gangan, and others were made recently and secretly, while I was absent from town on official business in the pueblos of this province. Mr. Thomas Gollayan, the late provincial secretary, bought two Igorrotes while I was in Manila in December and January, last. They were well aware of the fact that I prosecuted kidnapping with tenacity, my object being to put a stop, if possible, to this abominable practice, which has since some time prevailed in the pueblos of this province....
A Group of Bagobos.
These people have, until within a short time, made human sacrifices in order to propitiate their divinities. They live in Mindanao, near the Gulf of Davao.
“In order to prove that I endeavoured to make the proper investigation for the purpose of proving whether slavery really existed in this province, I have the honour to annex an affidavit by Agapito Telan, a resident of Ilagan, in which it appears that he sold Igorrotes of the Ifugao tribe to several residents of this town. I was unable to ascertain the numbers of Igorrotes of the same tribe sold by Modesto Sibal, Lorenzo Montevirgen, Lorenzo Montalvo, Andres Castro, and Cosme Ferrer, who are engaged in the same business as Agapito Telan, as it appears from the deposition of the latter, for the reason that these persons did not appear before me, although in 1902 I had on several occasions verbally requested the late municipal president, Mr. Pascual Paguirigan, to cause them to appear in an unofficial manner. I was not surprised that they did not appear before me, as Paguirigan was involved in the investigation, as it happened in the case of the aforesaid Agapito Telan, who appeared before me when I asked the acting municipal president to have him do so.
“I was afraid to direct those persons to appear before me by means of written orders, because I had not document or complaint whereon to base them, as required by the procedure now in force, and feared that on account of the unlawful nature of the summons they might proceed against me for coaccion, and sue me besides for damages.
“According to my personal observation and to what I have seen in the other pueblos of this Province of Isabela, but principally in the provincial capital, the Igorrotes who are said to be slaves cannot be considered as such since the times of the military government, as they are considered and treated as members of the family of the chief of the household. Nevertheless, I am and shall continue to be inexorable in the prosecution of slavery, as it is a crime and should be prosecuted as such, in order to prevent at least that the persons engaged in this business commit this crime again.
“It is my humble opinion that an act should be passed to the end of eradicating this practice which has become general throughout the Cagayan Valley.[7] Otherwise, as I have seen in my continual efforts, the provincial authorities cannot do anything to check the evil, however they may try. It is necessary that some one should be made to feel the rigour of the act suggested and suffer the punishment designated by it.
“As a rule the inhabitants of this province already understand personal liberty and know that a person is entitled to go wherever he pleases, which liberty has given birth to the humane treatment of the fellow-men which now prevails.