The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 16

"American authorities made treaties with the Sultan of Jolo whereby slavery was legalized and recognized among the non-Christian Moros and received the protection of the United States army and civil authorities. This state of things continued for a long time under official recognition and even after the treaties in question were abandoned it was allowed to go on despite the protests of Filipino and American students of the question."

It is true that General Bates attempted to negotiate a treaty with the Sultan of Jolo, in which he felt himself compelled to recognize slavery as an existing Moro custom. This action was unauthorized and was disapproved by his superiors. It did not legalize slavery. Neither Moro nor any other kind of slavery was ever protected by the civil authorities.

The act providing for the organization of the Moro Province was pa.s.sed on June 1, 1903, and hardly had the civil officers therein provided for been appointed when, on September 24, 1903, the legislative council pa.s.sed an act ent.i.tled "An Act defining the crimes of slaveholding and slavehunting and prescribing the punishment therefor," [66]

which was promptly approved by the Philippine Commission and thus came to have the force and effect of law. Under it active measures were adopted to break up slavery in the Moro Province. They have resulted very successfully, and persons who have captured others to be held or sold as slaves, as well as persons who have actually sold, bought or kept slaves, have been convicted and punished.

Senor Quezon's statement relative to the att.i.tude of the civil authorities in this matter is therefore recklessly false.

The existence of slavery in the Moro Province was well known from the outset, hence the immediate enactment of legislation to meet the special conditions which prevailed there.

Little by little the commission learned that slavery was by no means confined to Moro territory, and that peonage was general throughout the islands.

Before going further, I wish to make clear the sense in which I use these terms.

I define slavery as the condition of a human being held as a chattel and compelled to render service for which he is not compensated. As food and clothing are necessarily furnished by the slave owner, they are not considered to const.i.tute compensation.

Peonage I define as the condition of a debtor held by his creditor in a form of qualified servitude to work out a debt.

On April 28, 1903, the senior inspector of constabulary in Isabela wired the first district chief of constabulary, Manila, as follows:--

"In this province a common practice to own slaves. These are bought by proprietarios [property owners.--D. C. W.] from Igorrotes and Calingas who steal same in distant places from other tribes. Young boys and girls are bought at about 100 pesos, men 30 years old and old women cheaper. When bought, are generally christened and put to work on ranch or in house, and I think generally well-treated. In this town a number sold within last few months, and as reported to me, Governor has bought three. Shall I investigate further? Instructions desired.

(Signed) "Sorenson."

Senior Inspector Sorenson was instructed to make a thorough investigation of, and a detailed report on, the slave question.

On May 2 he complied with these instructions, [67] describing the conditions under which slaves were taken by the neighbouring Kalingas and Ifugaos, whom he wrongly calls "Igorrotes," the methods employed in selling them, and the treatment subsequently given them by their purchasers.

He also furnished a list of "Igorrotes" sold in the province during the past year, with names of the purchasers and prices paid. The ages of these unhappy individuals varied from eight to twenty-seven years, the prices paid for them, from one hundred and ten to two hundred and fifty Mexican dollars.

This report led Governor Taft to write to Governor Dichoso of Isabela, who was charged with owning a slave, asking him for a frank statement of the facts as to the prevalence of slavery in his province.

Governor Dichoso's reply, dated September 9, 1903, will make interesting reading for those who claim that slavery does not exist, and has never existed, among the Filipinos. I give it practically in full, omitting only the t.i.tles of the governor:--

"Having noted the contents of the official letter of the Honourable the Civil Governor in the Philippine Islands, Mr. W. H. Taft, dated the 8th of August, last, and of the copy of the report annexed thereto, which were received yesterday, I have the honour to respectfully reply that during the 21 years, more or less, that I have resided in this provincial capital (Ilagan), I have never thought of buying a member or a child of the race mentioned in the report, or of any other tribe, to serve as a slave in my household, not for the reason that this is prohibited and punished by section 484 and the following sections of the Spanish Code now in force, relative to the crime of kidnapping, but because it goes against my nature to treat in this manner a person who, like all human beings alive, is a likeness of the Highest. This I prove by means of the doc.u.ments annexed hereto.

"I could easily have done so in time of the late Spanish Government, because I had good opportunities for doing so, and could have afforded to do so on account of my social position from that time on up to date, during which period I held successively the following public offices:--

"This having been my status, and considering the power and the opportunity which I had for obtaining slaves, I might not have had only one, but enough to harvest the tobacco on my plantation, and the other crops which I had planted.

"Under the past Government there existed slaves in this province, but only a small number, for only wealthy families could afford to keep them. The same was the case in the neighbouring Provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Cagayan; in the former they also used to have slaves of the Ifugao tribe, and in the latter Negritos, but very few of these.

"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....

"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 munic.i.p.al 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 munic.i.p.al 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 doc.u.ment 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 princ.i.p.ally 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 pa.s.sed to the end of eradicating this practice which has become general throughout the Cagayan Valley. [68] 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 ent.i.tled to go wherever he pleases, which liberty has given birth to the humane treatment of the fellow-men which now prevails.

"Caciquism is still existing in parts of this province, but I am confident that with the cooperation of sensible persons in my continuous efforts it will be completely eradicated, and personal liberty will reign supreme, as in every republic where the laws a.s.sure complete and real liberty, the liberty from slavery."

As supporting evidence Governor Dichoso forwarded with his letter a number of statements from persons resident in the capital of Isabela to the effect that during the twenty-one years that he had lived there he had never purchased, intended to purchase, or kept in his house any Igorrote of the Ifugao or any other tribe.

In addition he forwarded a somewhat unique doc.u.ment in the form of a sworn statement by a slave dealer which is of such interest that I give it in its entirety:--

"I, Agapito Telan, a resident of this provincial capital (Ilagan), certify: On the 19th of June, 1903, I was summoned by the provincial governor, Mr. Francisco Dichoso y Reyes, and when I was with him in the office of the provincial government, he and the secretary took my sworn deposition, as follows:--

"Upon being asked to state the number of children of the infidel tribe of the Ifugaos sold by me to several residents of this provincial capital, the approximate age of these children, the names of the persons to whom they were sold, the number of children bought by these persons, the value of each of the said children, their s.e.x, and the year, month, and day on which the said sales were made, deponent replied that in the year 1902, in the month of September, and on a day which he cannot remember, he sold to the late Policarpo Gangan two Ifugao boys, of the ages of 8 and 9, respectively, for the sum of 360 Mexican dollars, another boy, 9 years of age, he sold to Juan Dauag for the sum of 180 Mexican dollars, and another boy, 8 years of age, he sold to Seferino Malana for the sum of 160 Mexican dollars, the latter two being sold on the same month and year aforementioned, and in Ilagan also.

"In the year of 1903 the deponent sold a boy and a girl of the Ifugao tribe, who, judging by their physical development, were about 6 and 8 years old; the boy, six years of age, he sold to Pascual Paguirigan, late munic.i.p.al president, and the girl to Dona Rufina Gangan, for the sum of 180 Mexican dollars each. This was in January, but deponent does not remember the day.

"In February he sold a boy and a girl of the same tribe, 8 years of age, the former to Cirilo Gantinao and the latter to Salvador Aggabao, for 180 Mexican dollars each. The purchasers are residents of this town.

"Upon being asked who are the other persons who, like deponent, are engaged in taking Ifugao children from the settlements of the infidels and then selling the same to whomever wants them, and that he state where they reside, deponent replied that the persons who are engaged in the same business as he, are Modesto Sibal, Lorenzo Monte-Virgen, and Lorenzo Montalvo, residents of the pueblo of Gamu, and Andres Castro and Cosme Ferrer, residents of this provincial capital.

"Upon being asked whether he knew if these persons are like him engaged in the purchase of minors and what was the number of children taken by each during the year of 1902 and 1903, and if so, to state to whom they were sold, and at what price the deponent replied that he is completely ignorant of the matter in regard to which information is requested, but that it was possible that they had taken more children, as they are living nearer to the settlements from which they are taken, and as they are able to make the trip three times to the defendant's once.

"Asked what methods they employ for the purpose of getting children from that tribe, deponent says that all they do is to enter into a contract with those whom they consider their dattos or chiefs, and who come down from the mountains with the children, which are purchased from them by the persons engaged in this trade.

"Asked to state the price of the children bought at the accustomed places for these transactions for the purpose of reselling them, the deponent states that the children are sold at the same price at which they are purchased at that place.

"He having thus stated, the foregoing was read to him, and he agreed to it, signing it after the Provincial Governor, which I, the secretary appointed for this act, attest.

"Francisco Dichoso, "Provincial Governor.

"Agapito Telan, "Fernando Domingo.

"Secretary appointed.

(Sgd.) "Agapito Telan.

"Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of September, 1903.

(Sgd.) "Francisco Tauad, "Clerk of the Court, Ilagan."