The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 24

When the Insurgent government began to be pinched for funds, failure to pay taxes became, in many cases, sufficient ground for murdering the delinquent.

The method of procedure is set forth in the testimony of a tax collector, published in General Orders, No. 259, 1901, Division of the Philippines:--

"I carried a letter of authorization to act as special agent, which means authority to commit murder. Each time a murder was ordered a letter was sent to one of four men (named above) by one of the chiefs (naming them). Afterward the letter was taken up and burned. If a man did not pay his contributions to the insurgent collector he was ordered to be killed."

The chief cause for murder was friendliness toward the Americans. As time pa.s.sed and the common people had an opportunity to contrast the brutality of their own soldiers with the kindly treatment usually accorded them by the American troops, they welcomed the latter. Weary of danger to life and property, the better men in the towns became very desirous to see the reestablishment of local governments, and ready to a.s.sist in the work. The answer of the Insurgent leaders took the form of wholesale orders for the murder or a.s.sa.s.sination of all persons friendly to the Americans. I shall cite enough such orders to show that this policy was duly provided for throughout the length and breadth of the Insurgent territory.

Many of the Visayans were friendly toward the Americans from the outset. On March 24, 1900, "General in Chief" Maxilom, of Cebu, issued an order providing for the execution, after a most summary trial, of the presidentes of all towns which subscribed to and recognized American sovereignty. This rule was to apply to Filipino citizens, including even the wealthy, a most unusual arrangement! Failure to be "subject to the will of the Honourable President Senor Emilio Aguinaldo" spelled death. [92]

Outside the Cebu towns occupied by the Americans the guerillas commanded by Maxilom were able to collect tribute by the employment of such methods as were provided for on June 22, 1900, by Maxilom's order fixing the duties of the magdudukuts, or secret avengers, who were empowered to "execute without remorse all notorious traitors." [93]

This was, in practice, a general warrant to commit murder.

Pursuant to these instructions Pablo Mejia, a Filipino of high character and conspicuous ability, was a.s.sa.s.sinated in a street of Cebu in August, 1899. The Visayans had reason to be proud of him and to execrate his a.s.sa.s.sins.

On January 31, 1900, Pio Claveria, delegate to the Military Government of Iloilo province, Panay Island, wrote the presidente of Tigbauan, that if it was true that he and various other residents of that town had taken an oath recognizing American sovereignty and did not retract it the town would be razed to the ground, and they would be "deserving of the terrible penalties prescribed by the laws of the revolution!" [94]

On April 3, 1900, General Leandro Fullon, who signed himself "Political and Military Governor" of Antique, and was one of Aguinaldo's emissaries, wrote a circular letter, to be sent "by the fastest carriers from one town to the other," imposing sentence of death and confiscation of property on people who had taken out certificates of citizens.h.i.+p issued by the Americans, together with annihilation of their towns. [95]

On July 11, 1900, Fullon issued a more sweeping order, containing the following provisions:--

"1. Any meeting or a.s.sembly of a popular character, held at the instance of the Officers of the United States, for the purpose of recognizing the liberty and independence of the towns of this province, is absolutely forbidden.

"2. The person arranging such meeting shall be shot at once without trial or court martial, unless forced to do so by majeure.

"3. Any Filipino filling any office in the name of the United States shall be considered a traitor to his country, and in addition to the penalties imposed by the Penal Code of Spain, provisionally in force, all his property shall be confiscated, and if this should not be possible, the authorities of the Philippine Republic shall endeavour to ..." (remainder of sentence unintelligible). [96]

In Samar General Vicente Lucban ordered, on February 1, 1901, that persons who collected food for the enemy be killed, as well as those who "finding themselves in our camp pa.s.s to the enemy without previous permission from this government." [97]

In Leyte, Honesto Ruiz warned all his "soldiers and bolo-men that whenever a real Americanista, like the police and volunteers, is caught he will be killed." On August 11, 1900, he reported to General Moxica that "the result is that every day they are killing traitors to our country." [98]

The following is a sample order for the a.s.sa.s.sination of an obnoxious individual:--

"October 4, 1900.

"Confidential.

"To the Local Chiefs of SoG.o.d, Kabalian, Anajauan, Hinundayan, and Hinunangan (Leyte):

"Immediately upon the appearance in the town under your jurisdiction of the traitor to the Mother Country, Severino Komandao, you will secure his person and send him to these headquarters under the proper guard; or if that person should come into the town followed by an American force, you shall try to have him killed by treachery (traidoramente), by 'Dukut'

(a.s.sa.s.sination), for this is what a Filipino deserves who does not know how to respect his own land and proceeds to injure the beautiful ideal that we have in view.

"Return the present communication, treating it as confidential. Health and fraternity.

"Maninging, October 4, 1900.

"M. Pacheco, "Military Commander."

"The Military Commander:

"The undersigned, Local Chief, notes the orders contained in the present circular and will strictly comply therewith.

"Kabalian, October 6, 1900.

"B. Veloso, "Local Chief." [99]

In Negros, the Tagalogs long failed to effect a lodgement. Ultimately, however, they managed to stir up trouble, and to secure the help of "Pope" Isio, a noted outlaw. On May 19, 1900, he suggested the advisability of punis.h.i.+ng "by decapitation all those who go with the Americans" and ordered that "if it should appear that they are real spies of the enemy they must be beheaded immediately without any pretext whatsoever against it." To be considered a "real spy,"

it was necessary only to be seen talking to Americans.

The letter from which I quote was addressed to Senor Rufo Oyos, General of Operations. [100]

Evidently he obeyed orders, for he was still alive in November, 1901, at which time "Papa" Isio wrote him again, directing that there be an uprising of all the towns on December 20.

Towns which did not rise on the appointed day were to be "reduced to ashes and all their inhabitants killed, men, women, children and old people." Any presidente who had not collected the taxes of his town before the arrival of Isio was to be "hung without any hesitation whatever." [101]

Obviously Isio's order was not without effect, for we learn that sometime during August, 1900, a man had just left the camp "with the head of the infamous Juan Carballo to hang it in a public place with a label saying 'Juan Carballo, a man pernicious to the revolution. May he rest in peace.'" [102]

Isio's agents collected blackmail according to a regular tariff, based roughly on the value of estates, threatening that those who did not pay up would be regarded as spies of the heretics. [103]

And now let us briefly review conditions in Luzon. Here many of the common people were at first hostile to the Americans, but flesh and blood could not endue what they had to suffer at the hands of vicious Insurgent officers and ignorant soldiers, and ultimately, having learned by experience that Americans were not the incarnate fiends which they had been led to expect to find them, they began to turn to them for help. And the answer of the Insurgent leaders was everywhere the same,--death. On March 20, 1900, Tinio ordered the killing of all officials who did not report to the nearest guerilla commander the movements and plans of the American troops. [104]

It has been claimed that there was no opposition to the Katipunan Society, and that the Filipinos everywhere joined it gladly. This was not the case. At different times there were a number of similar organizations opposed to it, and most important of these was the "Guards of Honour." [105] Its members were ruthlessly murdered. On April 18, 1900, a guerilla chief in Union Province found it necessary to order that all towns in which members of the "Guards of Honour"

lived should be burned with the property of the members of that a.s.sociation; that their fathers, mothers, wives and sons should be beheaded, while the men themselves should receive that punishment or be shot. All grown men in every town, and the Sandatahan, were to proceed immediately to aid in the attack upon the Americans and Guards of Honour under pain of being shot or beheaded. [106]

In July, 1900, General J. Alejandrino ordered:--

"1st. That the Commanders of Columns proclaim as traitors all those in their respective Zones who in obedience to personal interests or from weakness under pressure of the enemy, accept civil positions and they shall be treated as such when they fall into our hands.

"2nd. The commanding officers of columns will concentrate their forces so as to fall upon the towns where exist individuals who favour the formation of such unpopular and despotic Governments and will use every means to arrest the said traitors." [107]

Nowhere is the policy which was being carried out set forth with more brutal frankness than in the following letter:--

"August 3, 1900.

"This letter is folded in envelope shape and addressed: Sr. Teodoro Sandico, Colonel, 1st Military Chief of Staff in Santo Domingo.

"My Respected Chief and Dear Brother: I have received your respected order, regarding the organization of the Committee in the towns of Zaragosa, Aliaga, and Licab; (Nueva Ecija) from the movements and actions of these towns, I don't believe it possible to organize immediately. Before we can, it will be necessary that four or five lives be taken in each town. I believe that what ought to be done to those towns is to make a new conquest of them, especially the town of San Juan de Guimba; it is difficult there to set straight the Tagalogs and Ilocanos of importance, as they are badly inclined and they care to do nothing but pervert our soldiers.