The Philippine Islands Part 54

In the month of May, 1901, the prisons were overflowing with captured insurgents, and the military authorities found an ostensible reason for liberating a number of them. A General Order was issued that to "signalize the recent surrender of General Manuel Tinio [230] and other prominent leaders," one thousand prisoners of war would be released on taking the oath of allegiance. The flame of organized insurrection was almost extinguished, but there still remained some dangerous embers. Bands of armed natives wandered through the provinces under the name of insurgents, and on July 31, 1901, one of Aguinaldo's subordinate generals, named Miguel Malvar, a native of Santo Tomas (Batangas) issued a manifesto from the "Slopes of the Maquiling"

(Laguna Province), announcing that he had a.s.sumed the position of Supreme Chief. Before the war he had little to lose, but fis.h.i.+ng in troubled waters and gulling the people with _anting-anting_ and the "signs in the clouds" proved to be a profitable occupation to many. An expedition was sent against him, and he was utterly routed in an engagement which took place near his native town. After Miguel Malvar surrendered (April 16, 1902) and Vicente Lucban was captured in Samar (April 27, 1902), the war (officially termed "insurrection") actually terminated, and was formally declared ended on the publication of President Roosevelt's Peace Proclamation and Amnesty grant, dated July 4, 1902. A sedition law was pa.s.sed under which every disturber of the public peace would be thenceforth arraigned, and all acts of violence, pillage, etc., would come under the common laws affecting those crimes. In short, insurgency ceased to be a valid plea; if it existed in fact, officially it had become a dead letter. Those who still lingered in the penumbra between belligerence and brigandage were thenceforth treated as common outlaws whose acts bore no political significance whatever. The notorious "General" San Miguel, for a long time the terror of Rizal Province, was given no quarter, but shot on the field at Corral-na-bato in March, 1903. One of the famous bandits, claiming to be an insurgent, was Faustino Guillermo, who made laws, levied tribute, issued army commissions, divided the country up into military departments, and defied the Government until his stratagem to induce the constabulary to desert brought about his own capture in the Bosoboso Mountain (Morong) in June, 1903. A ma.s.s of papers seized revealed his pretension to be a patriotic saviour of his people, but it is difficult indeed to follow the reasoning of a man who starts on that line by sacking his own countrymen's villages. Another interesting individual was Artemio Ricarte, formerly a primary schoolmaster. In 1899 he led a column under Aguinaldo, and was subsequently his general specially commissioned to raise revolt inside the capital; but the attempt failed, and many arrests followed. During the war he was captured by the Americans, to whom he refused to take the oath of allegiance and was deported to Guam. In Was.h.i.+ngton it was decided to release the political prisoners on that island, and Ricarte and Mabini were brought back to Manila. As Ricarte still refused to take the oath, he was banished, and went to Hong-Kong in February, 1903. In the following December he returned to Manila disguised as a seaman, and stole ash.o.r.e in the crowd of stevedore labourers. a.s.suming the ludicrous t.i.tle of the "Viper," he established what he called the "triumvirate" government in the provinces, and declared war on the Americans. His operations in this direction were mostly limited to sending crackbrained letters to the Civil Governor in Manila from his "camp in the sky," but his perturbation of the rural districts had to be suppressed. At length, after a long search, he was taken prisoner at the c.o.c.kpit in Mariveles in May, 1904. He and his confederates were brought to trial on the two counts of carrying arms without licence and sedition, the revelations of the "triumvirate," which were comical in the extreme, affording much amus.e.m.e.nt to the reading public. The judgement of the court on Ricarte was six years' imprisonment and a fine of $6,000.

Apolinario Mabini, Ricarte's companion in exile, was one of the most conspicuous figures in the War of Independence. Of poor parentage, he was born at Tanauan (Batangas) in May, 1864, and having finished his studies in Manila he took up the law as a profession, living in obscurity until the Rebellion, during which he became the recognized leader of the Irreconcilables and Prime Minister in the Malolos Government. In the political sphere he was the soul of the insurgent movement, the ruling power behind the presidency of Aguinaldo. It was he who drafted the Const.i.tution of the Philippine Republic, dated January 21, 1899 (_vide_ p. 486). Taken prisoner by the Americans in December, 1899, he was imprisoned on his refusal to subscribe to the oath of allegiance. On August 1, 1900, he was granted leave to appear before the Philippine Commission, presided over by Mr. W. H. Taft. He desired to show that, according to his lights, he was not stubbornly holding out against reason. As Mabini was not permitted to discuss abstract matters, and Mr. Taft reiterated the intention to establish American sovereignty in the Islands, their views were at variance, and Mabini was deported to Guam, but allowed the privilege of taking his son there as his companion in exile. On his return to Manila in February, 1903, he reluctantly took the required oath and was permitted to remain in the capital. Suffering from paralysis for years previous, his mental energy, as a chronic invalid, was amazing. Three months after his return to the metropolis he was seized with cholera, to which he succ.u.mbed on May 13, 1903, at the early age of thirty-nine, to the great regret of his countrymen and of his many European admirers.

The Irreconcilables, even at the present day, persist in qualifying as legitimate warfare that condition of provincial perturbation which the Americans and the Federal Party hold to be outlawry and brigandage. Hence the most desperate leaders and their bands of cut-throats are, in the Irreconcilables' phraseology, merely insurgents still protesting against American dominion. As late as February, 1902, an attempt was made to revive the war in Leyte Island. At that date a certain Florentino Penaranda, styling himself the Insurrectionary Political-Military Chief, issued a proclamation in his island addressed "in particular to those who are serving under the Americans." This doc.u.ment, the preamble of which is indited in lofty language, carrying the reader mentally all round North and South America, Abyssinia and Europe, terminates with a concession of pardon to all who repent their delinquency in serving the Americans, and an invitation to Filipinos and foreigners to join his standard. It had little immediate effect, but it may have given an impulse to the brigandage which was subsequently carried on so ferociously under a notorious, wary ruffian named Tumayo. Thousands, too long accustomed to a lawless, emotional existence to settle down to prosaic civil life, went to swell the ranks of brigands, but it would exceed the limits of this work to refer to the over 15,000 expeditions made to suppress them. Brigandage (_vide_ p. 235) has been rife in the Islands for a century and a half, and will probably continue to exist until a network of railways in each large island makes it almost impossible. But brigandage in Spanish times was very mild compared with what it is now. Such a thing as a common highwayman was almost unknown. The brigands of that period--the _Tulisanes_ of the north and the _Pulajanes_ of the south--went in parties who took days to concoct a plan for attacking a country residence, or a homestead, for robbery and murder. The a.s.sault was almost invariably made at night, and the marauders lived in the mountains, avoiding the highroads and the well-known tracks. The traveller might then go about the Islands for years without ever seeing a brigand; now that they have increased so enormously since the war, there is not business enough for them in the old way, and they infest the highways and villages. One effect of the revolution has been to diminish greatly the awe with which the native regarded the European before they had crossed swords in regular warfare. Again, since 1898, the fact that here and there a white man made common cause with outlaws has had a detrimental effect on the white man's prestige, and the new caste of bandits which has come into existence is far more audacious than its predecessor. Formerly the outlaws had only bowie-knives and a few fowling-pieces; now they have an ample supply of rifles. Hence, since the American advent, the single traveller and his servant journey at great risk in the so-called civilized provinces, especially if the traveller has Anglo-Saxon features. Parties of three or four, well armed, are fairly safe. Fierce fights with outlaws are of common occurrence; a full record of brigand depredations would fill a volume, and one can only here refer to a few remarkable cases.

Early in 1904 a Spanish planter of many years' standing, named Amechazurra, and his brother-in-law, Joaquin Guaso, were kidnapped and held for ransom. When the sum was carried to the brigands'

haunt, Guaso was found with his wrists broken and severely tortured with bowie-knife cuts and lance-thrusts. Having no power to use his hands, his black beard was full of white maggots. In this state he was delivered to his rescuers and died the next day. Since the close of the war up to the present day the provinces of Batangas and Cavite, less than a day's journey from the capital, have not ceased to be in a deplorable condition of lawlessness. The princ.i.p.al leaders, Montalon and Felizardo, [231] were formerly officers under the command of the insurgent General Manuel Trias, who surrendered to the Americans and afterwards accepted office as Civil Governor of the Province of Cavite. In this capacity he made many unsuccessful attempts to capture his former colleagues, but owing to his failure to restore tranquillity to the province he resigned his governors.h.i.+p in 1903. The Montalon and Felizardo bands, well armed, constantly overran the two adjoining provinces to murder the people, pillage their homes, and set fire to the villages. They bore an inveterate hatred towards all who accepted American dominion, and specially detested their former chief Trias, who, since his return from the St. Louis Exhibition, has shown a very pro-American tendency. The history of their crimes covers a period of five years. Felizardo was remarkable for his audacity, his fine horsemans.h.i.+p, and his expert marksmans.h.i.+p. During an attack on Paranaque, mounted on a beautiful pony stolen from the race-track of Pasay, he rode swiftly past a constabulary sentinel, who shot at him and missed him, whilst Felizardo, from his seat in the saddle, shot the sentinel dead. The evening before the day Governor Taft intended to sail for the United States, on his retirement from the governors.h.i.+p, Montalon hanged two constabulary men at a place within sight of Manila. In December, 1904, all this district was so infested with cut-throats that Manuel Trias, although no longer an official, offered to organize and lead a party of 300 volunteers against them. On January 24, 1905, the same bandits, Felizardo and Montalon, at the head of about 300 of their cla.s.s, including two American negroes, raided Trias's native town of San Francisco de Malabon, murdered an American surgeon and one constabulary private, and seriously wounded three more. They looted the munic.i.p.al treasury of 2,000 pesos and 25 carbines, and carried off Trias's wife and two children, presumably to hold them for ransom. The chief object of the attack was to murder Trias, their arch-enemy, but he was away from home at the time. On his return he set out in pursuit of the band at the head of the native constabulary. The outlaws had about 160 small firearms, and during the chase several fierce fights took place. Being hunted from place to place incessantly, they eventually released Trias's wife and children so as to facilitate their own escape. Constabulary was insufficient to cope with the marauders, and regular troops had to be sent to these provinces. In February, 1905, a posse of 25 Moro fighting-men was brought up from Sia.s.si (Tapul group) to hunt down the brigands. Launches patrolled the Bay of Manila with constabulary on board to intercept the pa.s.sage of brigands from one province to another, for lawlessness was, more or less, constantly rife in several of the Luzon provinces and half a dozen other islands for years after the end of the war. From 1902 onwards, half the provinces of Albay, Bulacan, Bataan, Cavite, Ilocos Sur, and the islands of Camaguin, Samar, Leyte, Negros, Cebu, etc., have been infested, at different times, with brigands, or latter-day insurgents, as the different parties choose to call them. The regular troops, the constabulary, and other armed forces combined were unable to exterminate brigandage. The system of "concentration" circuits, which had given such adverse results during the Rebellion (_vide_ p. 392), was revived in the provinces of Batangas and Cavite, obliging the waverers between submission and recalcitration to accept a defined legal or illegal status. Consequently many of the common people went to swell the roving bands of outlaws, whilst those who had a greater love for home, or property at stake, remained within the prescribed limits, in discontented, sullen compliance with the inevitable. The system interrupted the people's usual occupations, r.e.t.a.r.ded agriculture, and produced general dissatisfaction. The Insular Government then had recourse to an extreme measure which practically implied the imposition of compulsory military service on every male American, foreign, or native inhabitant between the ages of eighteen to fifty years, with the exception of certain professions specified in the Philippine Commission Act No. 1309, dated March 22, 1905. Under this law the native mayor of a town can compel any able-bodied American (not exempted under the Act) to give five days a month service in hunting down brigands, under a maximum penalty of P100 fine and three months' imprisonment. And, subject to the same penalty for refusal, any proprietor or tenant (white, coloured, or native) residing in any munic.i.p.ality, or ward, must report, within 24 hours, to the munic.i.p.al authority, the name, residence, and description of _any_ person (not being a resident) to whom he gave a.s.sistance or lodging. In no colony where the value of the white man's prestige is appreciated would such a law have been promulgated.

The proceedings of the constabulary in the disturbed provinces having been publicly impugned in a long series of articles and reports published in the Manila newspaper _El Renacimiento,_ the editors of that public organ were brought to trial on a charge of libel in July, 1905. The substance of the published allegations was that peaceable citizens were molested in their homes and were coerced into performing constabulary and military duties by becoming unwilling brigand-hunters. Among other witnesses who appeared at the trial was Emilio Aguinaldo, who testified that he had been forced to leave his home and present himself to a constabulary officer, who, he affirmed, bullied and insulted him because he refused to leave his daily occupations and risk his life in brigand-hunting. In view of the peculiar position of Aguinaldo as a fallen foe, perhaps it would have been better not to have disturbed him in his peaceful life as a law-abiding citizen, lest the world should misconstrue the intention.

Confined to Pangasinan and La Union provinces, there is an organization known as the "Guards of Honour." Its recruits are very numerous, their chief vocation being cattle-stealing and filching other people's goods without unnecessary violence. It is feared they may extend their operations to other branches of perversity. The society is said to be a continuation of the _Guardia de Honor_ created by the Spaniards and stimulated by the friars in Pangasinan as a check on the rebels during the events of 1896-98. At the American advent they continued to operate independently against the insurgents, whom they hara.s.sed very considerably during the flight northwards from Tarlac. It was to escape the vengeance of this party that Aguinaldo's Secretary of State (according to his verbal statement to me) allowed himself to fall prisoner to the Americans.

The _Pulajanes_ of Samar seem to be as much in possession of that Island as the Americans themselves, and its history, from the revolution up to date, is a lugubrious repet.i.tion of bloodshed, pillage, and incendiarism. The deeds of the notorious Vicente Lucban were condoned under the Amnesty of 1902, but the marauding organization is maintained and revived by brigands of the first water. Every move of the government troops is known to the _pulajanes_. The spy, stationed at a pa.s.s, after shouting the news of the enemy's approach to the next spy, darts into the jungle, and so on all along the line, in most orderly fas.h.i.+on, until the main column is advised. In July, 1904, they slaughtered half the inhabitants of the little coast village of Taviran, mutilated their corpses, and then set out for the town of Santa Elena, which was burnt to the ground. In December of that year over a thousand _pulajanes_ besieged the town of Taft (formerly Tubig), held by a detachment of native scouts, whilst another party, hidden in the mountains, fell like an avalanche upon a squad of 43 scouts, led by an American lieutenant, on their way to the town of Dolores, and in ten minutes killed the officer and 37 of his men. After this mournful victory the brigands went to reinforce their comrades at Taft, swelling their forces _en route_, so that the besiegers of Taft amounted to a total of about 2,000 men. About the same time some 400 _pulajanes_ were met by a few hundred so-called native volunteers, who, instead of fighting, joined forces and attacked a scout detachment whilst crossing a river. Twenty of the scouts were cut to pieces and mutilated, whilst thirteen more died of their wounds.

Communication in the Island is extremely difficult; the maintenance of telegraph-lines is impossible through a hostile country, and messages sent by natives are often intercepted, or, as sometimes happens, the messengers, to save their lives, naturally make common cause with the bandits whom they meet on the way. The hemp-growers and coast-trading population, who have no sympathy with the brigands, are indeed obliged, for their own security, to give them pa.s.sive support. Hundreds in the coast villages who are too poor to give, have to flee into hiding and live like animals in dread of constabulary and _pulajanes_ alike. Between "insurgency" and "brigandage," in this Island, there was never a very wide difference, and when General Allen, the Chief of the Constabulary, took the field in person in December, 1904, he had reason to believe that the notorious ex-insurgent Colonel Guevara was the moving spirit in the lawlessness. Guevara, who had been disappointed at not securing the civil governors.h.i.+p of the Island, was suddenly seized and confined at Catbalogan jail to await his trial. The Samar _pulajanes_ are organized like regular troops, with their generals and officers, but they are deluded by a sort of mystic religious teaching under the guidance of a native pope. In January, 1905, the town of Balangiga (_vide_ p. 536), so sadly famous in the history of Samar on account of the ma.s.sacre of American troops during the war, became a _pulajan_ recruiting station. A raid upon the place resulted in the capture of twenty chiefs, gorgeously uniformed, with gaudy _anting-anting _amulets on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s to protect them from American bullets. At this time the regimental Camp Connell, at Calbayoc, was so depleted of troops that less than a hundred men were left to defend it. Situated on a pretty site, the camp consists of two lines of wooden buildings running along the sh.o.r.e for about a mile. At one extremity is the hospital and at the other the quartermaster's depot. It has no defences whatever, and as I rode along the central avenue of beautiful palms, after meeting the ladies at a ball, I pictured to myself the chapter of horror which a determined attack might one day add to the doleful annals of dark Samar.

Matters became so serious that in March, 1905, the divisional commander, General Corbin, joined General Allen in the operations in this Island. Full of tragedy is the record of this region, and amongst its numerous heroes was a Captain Hendryx. In 1902, whilst out with a detachment of constabulary, he was attacked, defeated, and reported killed. He was seen to drop and roll into a gully. But four days later there wandered back to the camp a man half dead with hunger and covered with festering wounds, some so infected that, but for the application of tobacco, gangrene would have set in. It was Captain Hendryx. Delirious for a while, he finally recovered and resumed his duties. A couple of years afterwards he was s.h.i.+pwrecked going round the coast on the _Masbate_. For days he and the s.h.i.+p-master alone battled with the stormy waves, a howling wind ahead, and a murderous rabble on the coast waiting for their blood. On the verge of death they reached a desolate spot whence the poor captain saved his body from destruction, but with prostrate nerves, rendering him quite unfit for further service. And the carnage in the Samar jungles, which has caused many a sorrow in the homeland, continues to the present day with unabated ferocity. By nature a lovely island, picturesque in the extreme, there is a gloom in its loveliness. The friendly native has fled for his life; the patches of lowland once planted with sweet potatoes or rows of hemp-trees, are merging into jungle for want of the tiller's hand. The voice of an unseen man gives one a shudder, lest it be that of a fanatic lurking in the _cogon_ gra.s.s to seek his fellow's blood. Near the coast, half-burnt bamboos show where villages once stood; bleached human bones mark the sites of human conflict, whilst decay and mournful silence impress one with the desolation of this fertile land. The narrow navigable channel separating Samar from Leyte Island is one of the most delightful bits of tropical scenery.

The Constabulary Service Reports for 1903 and 1904 show that in the former period there were 357 engagements between brigand bands and the constabulary (exclusive of the army operations), and in the latter period 235 similar engagements. More than 5,000 expeditions were undertaken against the outlaws in each year; 1,185 outlaws were killed in 1903, and 431 in 1904, 2,722 were wounded or captured in 1903, and 1,503 in 1904; 3,446 arms of all sorts were seized in 1903, and 994 in 1904. The constabulary losses in killed, wounded, died of wounds and disease, and deserted were 223 in 1904. In Cavite Province alone, with a population of 134,779, there were, in 1903, over 400 expeditions, resulting in 20 brigands killed, 23 wounded, and 253 captured. At this date brigandage is one of the greatest deterrents to the prosperous development of the Islands.

The Adjutant-General's Report issued in Was.h.i.+ngton in December, 1901, gives some interesting figures relating to the Army, for the War of Independence period, i.e., from February 4, 1899, to June 30, 1901. The total number of troops sent to the Islands was as follows, viz.:--

Officers. Men.

Regular Army 1,342 60,933 Volunteers 2,135 47,867 3,477 108,800

Some were returning from, whilst others were going to the Islands; the largest number in the Islands at any one time (year 1900) was about 70,000 men.

The total casualties in the above period were as follows, viz.:--

Officers. Men. Total.

Dead (all causes) 115 3,384 3,499 Wounded 170 2,609 2,779 285 5,993 6,278

In the same period the following arms were taken from the insurgents (captured and surrendered):--

Revolvers 868 Rifles 15,693 Cannon 122 Bowie-knives 3,516

The _Insurgent Navy,_ consisting of four small steamers purchased in Singapore and a few steam-launches, dwindled away to nothing. The "Admiral," who lived on sh.o.r.e at Gagalangin (near Manila), escaped to Hong-Kong, but returned to Manila, surrendered, and took the oath of allegiance on March 3, 1905.

_Sedition_, in its more virulent and active forms, having been frustrated by the authorities since the conclusion of the war, the Irreconcilables conceived the idea of inflaming the pa.s.sions of the people through the medium of the native drama. How the seditious dramatists could have ever hoped to succeed in the capital itself, in public theatres, before the eyes of the Americans, is one of those mysteries which the closest student of native philosophy must fail to solve.

The most notable of these plays were _Hindi aco patay_ ("I am not dead"), _Ualang sugat_ ("There is no wound"), _Dabas ng pilac_ ("Power of Silver"), and _Cahapon, Ngayon at Bucas_ ("Yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow"). In each case there was an extra last scene not on the programme. Secret police and American spectators besieged the stage, and after a free fight, a cracking of heads, and a riotous scuffle the curtain dropped (if there were anything left of it) on a general panic of the innocent and the arrest of the guilty. The latter were brought to trial, and their careers cut short by process of law.

The simple plot of _Hindi aco patay_ is as follows, viz.:--_Maimbot_ (personifying America) is establis.h.i.+ng dominion over the Islands, a.s.sisted by his son _Macamcam_ (American Government), and _Katuiran_ (Reason, Right, and Justice) is called upon to condemn the conduct of a renegade Filipino who has accepted America's dominion, and thereby become an outcast among his own people and even his own family. There is to be a wedding, but, before it takes place, a funeral cortege pa.s.ses the house of _Karangalan_ (the bride) with the body of _Tangulan_ (the fighting patriot). _Maimbot_ (America) exclaims, "Go, bury that man, that Karangalan and her mother may see him no more." _Tangulan_, however, rising from his coffin, tells them, "They must not be married, for I am not dead." And as he cries _Hindi aco patay,_ "I am not dead," a radiant sun appears, rising above the mountain peaks, simultaneously with the red flag of Philippine liberty. Then _Katuiran_ (Reason, Right, and Justice) declares that "Independence has returned," and goes on to explain that the new insurrection having discouraged America in her attempt to enslave the people, she will await a better opportunity. The flag of Philippine Independence is then waved to salute the sun which has shone upon the Filipinos to regenerate them and cast away their bondage.

The theme of _Cahapon, ngayon at Bucas_ is somewhat similar--a protest against American rule, a threat to rise and expel it, a call to arms, and a final triumph of the Revolution. About the same time (May, 1903) a seditious play ent.i.tled _Cadena de Oro_ ("The golden chain") was produced in Batangas, and its author was prosecuted. It must, however, be pointed out that there are also many excellent plays written in Tagalog, with liberty to produce them, one of the best native dramatists being Don Pedro A. Paterno.

There will probably be for a long time to come a certain amount of disaffection and a cla.s.s of wire-pullers, men of property, chiefly half-castes, constantly in the background, urging the ma.s.ses forward to their own destruction. Lucrative employments have satisfied the ambition of so many educated Filipinos who must find a living, that the same principle--a creation of material interest--might perhaps be advantageously extended to the uneducated cla.s.ses. All the malcontents cannot become State dependents, but they might easily be helped to acquire an interest in the soil. The native who has his patch of settled land with _una.s.sailable t.i.tle_ would be loth to risk his all for the chimerical advantages of insurrection. The native boor who has worked land for years on sufferance, without t.i.tle, exposed to eviction by a more cunning individual clever enough to follow the tortuous path which leads to land settlement with absolute t.i.tle, falls an easy prey to the instigator of rebellion. These illiterate people need more than a liberal land law--they need to be taken in hand like children and placed upon the parcelled-out State lands with indisputable t.i.tles thereto. And if American enterprise were fostered and encouraged in the neighbourhood of their holdings, good example might root them to the soil and convert the _boloman_ into the industrious husbandman.

The poorest native who cannot sow for himself must necessarily feed on what his neighbour reaps, and hunger compels him to become a wandering criminal. It is not difficult partially to account for the greater number in this condition to-day as compared with Spanish times. In those days there was what the natives termed _cayinin_. It was a temporary clearance of a patch of State land on which the native would raise a crop one, two, or more seasons. Having no legal right to the soil he tilled, and consequently no attachment to it, he would move on to other virgin land and repeat the operation. In making the clearance the squatter had no respect for State property, and the damage which he did in indiscriminate destruction of valuable timber by fire was not inconsiderable. The law did not countenance the _cayinin_, but serious measures were seldom taken to prevent it. The local or munic.i.p.al headmen refrained from interference because, having no interest whatever in public lands, they did not care, as landowners, to go out of their way to create a bad feeling against themselves which might one day have fatal consequences. Although no one would for a moment suggest a revival of the system, there is the undeniable fact that in Spanish times thousands of natives lived for years in this way, and if they had been summarily evicted, or prosecuted by a forest bureau, necessity would have driven them into brigandage. High wages, government service, and public works are no remedy; on the contrary, if the people are thereby attracted to the towns, what will become of the true source of Philippine wealth, which is agriculture? Even in industrial England the cry of "Back to the soil" has been lately raised by an eminent Englishman known by name to every educated American.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Modern Manila

Commanding the entrance to Manila Bay there is the Island of Corregidor, situated 27 miles south-west of the city, towards which the traveller glances in vain, expecting to descry something of a modern fortress, bristling with artillery of the latest type which, if there, might hold the only channels leading to the capital against a hostile fleet. The anchorage for steamers is still half a mile to a mile and a half away from the Pasig River, but the new artificial port, commenced by the Spaniards, is being actively brought to completion by the Americans, so that the day may come when the ocean traveller will be able to walk from the steamer down a gangway to a quay and land on the south, or Walled City, side of the capital.

In the city and beautiful suburbs of Manila many changes and some improvements have been effected since 1898. After cleansing the city to a certain extent, embellishment was commenced, and lastly, works of general public utility were undertaken. Public s.p.a.ces were laid out as lawns with walks around them; the old botanical-gardens enclosure was removed and the site converted into a delightful promenade; the Luneta Esplanade,--the joy of the Manila elite who seek the sea-breezes on foot or driving--was reformed, the field of Bagumbayan, which recalls so many sad historical reminiscences since 1872, was drained; breaches were made in the city walls to facilitate the entry of American vehicles; new thoroughfares were opened; an iron bridge, commenced by the Spaniards, was completed; a new Town Hall, a splendidly-equipped Government Laboratory, a Government Civil Hospital, and a Government Printing Office were built; an immense ice-factory was erected on the south side of the river to meet the American demand for that luxury [232]; also a large refrigerated-meat store, chiefly for army supply, was constructed, meat, poultry, vegetables, and other foodstuffs having to be imported on account of the dearth of beef and tilth cattle due to rinderpest. Fresh meat for private consumption (i.e., exclusive of army and navy) is imported into Manila to the value of about $700,000 gold per annum. Reforms of more urgent public necessity were then introduced. Existing market-places were improved, new ones were opened in Tondo and the Walled City; an excellent slaughter-house was established; the Bridge of Spain was widened; a splendidly-equipped fire-engine and brigade service, with 150 fire-alarm boxes about the city and suburbs, was organized and is doing admirable work; roads in the distant suburbs were put in good condition, and the reform which all Manila was looking forward to, namely, the repair of the roads and pavements in the _Escolta_, the _Rosario_, and other princ.i.p.al thoroughfares in the heart of the business quarter of Binondo, was postponed for six years. Up to the middle of 1904 they were in a deplorable condition. The sensation, whilst in a gig, of rattling over the uneven stone blocks was as if the whole vehicle might at any moment be shattered into a hundred fragments. The improvement has come at last, and these streets are now almost of a billiard-table smoothness. The General Post Office has been removed from the congested thoroughfare of the _Escolta_ to a more commodious site. Electric tramcars, in supersession of horse-traction, run through the city and suburbs since April 10, 1905. Electric lighting, initiated in Spanish times, is now in general use, and electric fans--a poor subst.i.tute for the punkah--work horizontally from the ceilings of many shops, offices, hotels, and private houses. In the residential environs of the city many acres of ground have been covered with new houses; the once respectable quarter of Sampaloc [233] has lost its good name since it became the favourite haunt of Asiatic and white prost.i.tutes who were not tolerated in Spanish times. On the other hand, the suburbs of Ermita and Malate, which are practically a continuation of Manila along the seash.o.r.e from the Luneta Esplanade, are becoming more and more the fas.h.i.+onable residential centre. About Sampaloc there is a little colony of j.a.panese shopkeepers, and another group of j.a.panese fishermen inhabits Tondo. The j.a.panese have their Consulate in Manila since the American advent, their suburban Buddhist temple was inaugurated in San Roque on April 22, 1905, and in the same year there was a small j.a.panese banking-house in the suburb of Santa Cruz.

The Bilibid Jail has been reformed almost beyond recognition as the old Spanish prison. A great wall runs through the centre, dividing the long-term from the short-term prisoners. In the centre is the sentry-box, and from this and all along the top of the wall every movement of the prisoners can be watched by the soldier on guard. Nevertheless, a batch of convicts occasionally breaks jail, and those who are not shot down escape. Gangs of them are drafted off for road-making in the provinces, where, on rare occasions, a few have been able to escape and rejoin the brigands. In March, 1905, a squad of 42 convicts working in Albay Province made a dash for freedom, and 40 of them got away.

With the liberty accorded them under the new dominion the Filipinos have their freemason lodges and numerous _casinos_. [234] There are American clubs for all cla.s.ses of society--the "Army and Navy," the "University," the "United States," a dozen other smaller social meeting-houses, and societies with quaint denominations such as "Knights of Pythias," "Haymakers," "Red Cloud Tribe," "Knights of the Golden Eagle," etc. Other nationalities have their clubs too; the _Cercle Francais_ is now located in _Calle Alcala_; the English Club, which was formerly at Nagtajan on the river-bank, has been removed to Ermita on the seash.o.r.e, and under the new _regime_ the Chinese have their club-house, opened in 1904, in _Calle Dasmarinas_, where a reception was given to the Gov.-General and the elite of Manila society. The entertainment was very sumptuous, the chief attractions being the fantastic decorations, the gorgeous "joss house" to a dead hero, and the chapel in honour of the Virgin del Pilar.

Several new theatres have been opened, the leading one being the _National_, now called the "Grand Opera House"; comedy is played at the _Paz_; the _Zorrilla_ (of former times) is fairly well-built, but its acoustic properties are extremely defective, and the other playhouses are, more properly speaking, large booths, such as the _Libertad_, the _Taft_, the _Variedades_, and the _Rizal_. In the last two very amusing Tagalog plays are performed in dialect. There is one large music-hall, and a number of cinematograph shows combined with variety entertainments.

There are numerous second- and third-rate hotels in the city and suburbs. The old "Fonda Lala," which existed for many years in the _Plaza del Conde_, Binondo, as the leading hotel in Spanish days, is now converted into a large bazaar, called the "Siglo XX.," and its successor, the "Hotel de Oriente," was purchased by the Insular Government for use as public offices. The old days of comfortable hackney-carriages in hundreds about the Manila streets, at 50 cents Mex. an hour, are gone for ever. One may now search hours for one, and, if found, have to pay four or five times the old tariff. Besides the fact that everything costs more, the scarcity is due to _Surra_ (_vide_ p. 336), which has enormously reduced the pony stock. There are occasionally sales of American horses, and it is now one of the novelties to see them driven in carriages, and American ladies riding straddle-legged on tall hacks. In Spanish days no European gentleman or lady could be seen in a _carromata_ [235] (gig) about Manila; now this vehicle is in general use for both s.e.xes of all cla.s.ses. Bicycles were known in the Islands ten years ago, but soon fell into disuse on account of the bad roads; however, this means of locomotion is fast reviving.

The Press is represented by a large number of American, Spanish and dialect newspapers. These last were not permitted in Spanish times.

Innumerable laundries, barbers' shops, Indian and j.a.panese bazaars, shoe-black stalls, tailors' shops, book-shops, restaurants, small hotels, sweetmeat stalls, newspaper kiosks, American drinking-bars, etc., have much altered the appearance of the city. The Filipino, who formerly drank nothing but water, now quaffs his iced keg-beer or c.o.c.ktail with great gusto, but civilization has not yet made him a drunkard. American drinking-shops, or "saloons," as they call them, are all over the place, except in certain streets in Binondo, where they have been prohibited, as a public nuisance, since April 1, 1901. It was ascertained at the time of the American occupation that there were 2,206 native shops in Manila where drinks were sold, yet no native was ever seen drunk. This number was compulsorily reduced to 400 for a native population of about 190,000, whilst the number of "saloons"

on February 1, 1900, was 224 for about 5,000 Americans (exclusive of soldiers, who presumably would not be about the drinking-bars whilst the war was on). But "saloon" licences are a large source of revenue to the munic.i.p.ality, the cost being from $1,200 gold downwards per annum. A "saloon," however, cannot now be established in defiance of the general wishes of the neighbours. There is a law (similar in spirit to the proposed Option Law in England) compelling the intending "saloon" keeper to advertise in several papers for several days his intention to open such a place, so that the public may have an opportunity of opposing that intention if they desire to do so.

The American advent has abolished the peaceful solitude of the Walled City where, in Spanish days, dwelt the friar in secluded sanct.i.ty--where dignitaries and officials were separated by a river from the bubbling world of money-makers. An avalanche of drinking-bars, toilet-saloons, restaurants, livery stables, and other catering concerns has invaded the ancient abodes of men who made Philippine history. The very names of the city streets remind one of so many episodes in the Islands' progress towards civilization that to-day one is led to pause in pensive silence before the escutcheon above the door of what was once a n.o.ble residence, to read below a wall-placard, "Horses and buggies for hire. The best turn-out in the city. Telephone No. ----." This levelling spirit is gradually converting the historic Walled City into a busy retail trading-centre. For a long time the question of demolis.h.i.+ng the city walls has been debated. Surely those who advocate the destruction of this fine historical monument cannot be of that cla.s.s of Americans whose delight is to travel thousands of miles, at great expense, only to glance at antiquities not more interesting, in the possession of others, and who would fain transport Shakespeare's house bodily to American soil. The moat surrounding the Walled City is already being filled up, but posterity will be grateful for the preservation of those ancient bulwarks--landmarks of a decadent but once glorious civilization. Most of the Spanish feast-days have been abolished, including the St. Andrew's day (_vide_ Li-ma-hong, p. 50), and the following have been officially subst.i.tuted, viz.:--

New Year's Day January 1 Was.h.i.+ngton's birthday February 22 Holy Thursday -- -- Good Friday -- -- Decoration Day May 31 Independence Day July 4 Occupation Day August 13 Thanksgiving Day November 24 Christmas Day December 25 Rizal Day December 30

Manila was formerly the capital of the province of that name, as well as the Philippine metropolis. Since the American occupation the city and suburbs form a kind of federal zone; what was once Manila Province is now known as Rizal Province, and with it is incorporated that territory formerly designated Morong District, the capital town of this newly-created province being Pasig.

The Munic.i.p.al Board of Manila is composed of five persons, namely a Philippine mayor and one Philippine and three American members, who are practically all nominees of the Insular Government. The emolument of the mayor and of each member is $4,500. The Board, a.s.sisted by a staff of 20 persons, native and American, has the control of the ten following departments, viz.:--Police, Fire, Law, Police Courts, Justice of the Peace Courts, Public Works, a.s.sessments and Collections, Deeds Register, City Schools, and Sheriff's Office connected with the government of the federal zone of Manila.

Manila is the seat of the Insular Government, which comprises (1) the Philippine Commission (Legislative), composed of eight members, of whom five (including the president) are Americans and three are Filipinos; (2) the Civil Commission (Executive), the president of which holds the dual office of President of the Philippine Commission and Gov.-General, whilst the four secretaries of Interior, Finance and Justice, Public Instruction, and Commerce and Police are those same Americans who hold office as members of the Philippine Commission. The Philippine Commission is empowered to pa.s.s statutes, subject to ratification by Congress, the enacting clause being, _By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Commission_. The Insular Government communicates with the Was.h.i.+ngton Government through the Department of the Secretary of State for War.