The Story of the Philippines Part 33

"We want plainest liberty in all its bearings, including that of ideas, a.s.sociation and the press, without arriving at lawlessness and disorder; just as it is established in that great, so well regulated Republic.

"We want to see the religion of the natives and of those that come to this country rigorously respected by the public powers and by the individuals in particular.

"We want Christianism, the basis of present civilization, to be the emblem and solid foundation of our religious inst.i.tutions, without force or compulsion; that the native clergy of the country be that which direct and teach the natives in all the degrees of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

"We want the maintenance of this clergy to be effected as the different regional governments may see fit, or, as the city councils or popular elective inst.i.tutions established in every locality may determine.

"We want personal property to be absolutely and unconditionally respected; and, as a consequence, the recognition to the land holder of the property he cultivates and has improved by his labor, of the so-called Haciendas of the religious orders, who have usurped them and robbed them by the perverse acts of the confessionary, beguiling the fanaticism of ignorant women and or more than timid aged man, afraid of the vengeance the priests in their innate wickedness might meditate against their families, who extorted from them dues at the last moments of their existence denying them spiritual aid and divine rewards without the cession of their material interests before departing from this earth.

"We want the possessions of these land holders to be respected without their being obliged to pay any canon, lease or tax whatsoever of religious character, depressive or unjust, ceasing thus their detainment, anti-juridicial and anti-social, on the part of monarchial orders, rapacious orders whom, on the strength of their being a 'necessary evil,' the ignorant functionaries of Spanish administration, like themselves insatiable extortioners, have been aiding, in disdain of right, reason and equity.

"We want in order to consolidate the property, the ominous 'Inspection de Montes,' to disappear and cease in its actual functions, as a disorganizing and fiscalizing center of the t.i.tles of property of the natives, which on pretense of investigating and discovering the detainment of State lands, had the custom of declaring the property of the State or of others, such as was already cultivated and producing by the improvements made by the poor peasant, awarding such to their friends or to those who bribe them if the legitimate proprietor refused to give them, in shameless auction, what they asked for as a remuneration for what they called 'shutting their eyes,'

as has happened lately, amongst other scandalous cases, in Mindoro, when staking out the limits of the new Hacienda adjudged there to the Recoleto Priests.

"We want public administration to be founded and to act on a basis of morality, economy and competence, in the charge of natives of the country or of such others who by their experience and learning can serve us as guides and teach us the basis and the system of those countries who have their economical, political and administrative offices and proceedings simplified and well organized.

"We want the recognition of all the substantive rights of the human personality; guaranteed by judicial power, cemented in the principles in force in all the cultured nations; that the judicial authorities, when applying the laws, be penetrated by and identified with the spirit and the necessities of the locality; that the administration of justice be developed by simple, economical and decisive proceedings; and that judges and magistrates have their attributions limited by the functions of a jury and by verbal and public judgment, making thus disappear the actual state of affairs, of which prevarication and crooked dealings are the natural and necessary mark.

"We want sensible codes, adapted to our manner of being without differentiation of races and without odious privileges contrary to the principle of equality before the law.

"We want the increase and protection of our industries by means of subventions and of local and transient privileges without putting barriers to the general exchange of produce and of mercantile transactions with all the nations of the globe without exception.

"We want liberty of banking business, liberty of mercantile and industrial societies and companies, commercial liberty, and that the Philippines cease to be shut up amongst the walls of its convents, to become again the universal market, like that of Hongkong, that of Singapore, that of the Straits, that of Borneo, that of the Moluccas, and that of some of the autonomous colonies of Australia, countries which surround us; and that capital may with confidence develop all the elements of wealth of this privileged soil, without more duties or charges on import and export than those the circ.u.mstances of each epoch may require for determined purposes.

"We want roads, ca.n.a.ls and ports, the dredging of our rivers and other waterways, railroads, tramways and all the means of locomotion and transport, on water and earth, with such help and a.s.sistance as may be needed to carry them out within a certain time and develop them conveniently.

"We want the suppression of the so-called 'Guardia Civil,' this pretorian and odious inst.i.tution in whose malignment and inhuman meshes so many Philippine martyrs have suffered and expired; that center of tortures and iniquities, those contemptible flatterers of small tyrants and of the concupiscense of the priests, those insatiable extortioners of the poor native; those hardened criminals animated constantly in their perverseness by the impunity with which their accomplices, the representatives of despotism and official immorality, covered them.

"In their stead we want a judicial and gubernatorial police, which is to watch over and oblige the fulfillment of existing laws and regulations without tortures and abuses.

"We want a local army, composed of native volunteers, strictly limited to what order and natural defense demands.

"We want a public instruction less levitical and more extensive in what refers to natural and positive sciences; so that it may be fitted to industrate woman as well as man in the establishment and development of the industries and wealth of the country, marine and terrestrial mining, forestal and industrial of all kinds, an instruction which is to be free of expenses in all its degrees and obligatory in its primary portion, leaving and applying to this object all such property as is destined to-day to supply the sustainment of the same; taking charge of the administration of such property a Council of Public Instruction, not leaving for one moment longer in the hands of religious inst.i.tutions, since these teach only prejudice and fanaticism, proclaiming, as did not long since a rector of the university of Manila, that 'medicine and physical sciences are materialistic and impious studies,' and another, that 'political economy was the science of the devil.'

"We want to develop this public instruction, to have primary schools, normal schools, inst.i.tutes of second degree, professional schools, universities, museums, public libraries, meteorological observatories, agricultural schools, geological and botanical gardens and a general practical and theoretical system of teaching agriculture, arts and handicraft and commerce. All this exists already in the country, but badly organized and dispersed, costing the contributors a good deal without practical results, which might have been expected, by the incompetency of the teachers and the favoritism employed in their nominations and remunerations.

"We want laws for hunting and fis.h.i.+ng, and teaching and regular vigilance for the faithful carrying on of pisciculture, well-known already to the natives, for the advantageous disposing of their marine products, such as conch sh.e.l.l, mother of pearl, pearls, b.i.+.c.hi de mer, ray skins, fish lime, etc., and for the raising of all kinds of animals useful for agricultural and industrial purposes and as victuals for the natives and for export.

"We want liberty of immigration and a.s.sistance for foreign settlers and capitalists, with such restrictions only, when there be an opportunity, as limit actually Chinese immigration, similar to legislature on this point in North America and Australia.

"We want, finally, anything that be just, equitable and orderly; all that may be basis for development, prosperity and well being; all that may be a propelling element of morality, virtue and respect to the mutual rights of all the inhabitants, in their minor relations and in those with the foreigner.

"Do not believe that the American nation is unbelieving or fanatically protestant, that it take to the scaffold or to the fire those who do not believe determined principles and practice special religious creeds; within that admirable organization, masterly and living model of perfection for the old nations of Europe and Asia, lives and prospers the Roman Catholic Church.

"There are some seven million inhabitants who profess that religion directed by natural clergy with their proper ministers, taken from that fold of Christ.

"Then there are bishops, archbishops, cardinals of the Roman Church, American subjects, beloved faithful of the Pope Leo XIII.

"There then is a Temporal Apostolical Delegate representative of the legitimate successor of St. Peter; there are parsons, canons, dignitaries and provisors, who live and teach in order peace and prosperity, respected by one and all, as you yourselves will be the day the American flag will influence in the spiritual direction of the Philippine people.

"Then there are cathedrals, parish churches, temples and chapels, sumptuous and admired, where they adore the same G.o.d of the Sinai and Golgotha, where severs and ostensive cult is rendered to Immaculate Virgin Mary and to the Saints you have on your altars and none dare to destroy, attack or prost.i.tute them.

"There then are seminaries, convents, missions, fraternities, schools, everything Catholic, richly furnished, well kept up and perfectly managed to the glory of the religion.

"There resides His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, a wise Roman Catholic prelate, American citizen, who recently and on occasion of the present war, has ordered, with consent of His Sanct.i.ty, that all the catholic clergy of the American nation raise daily prayers to the Most High to obtain the triumph of the arms of their country, for the good of religion and humanity, which cause, in the present conflict legitimately and unquestionably represents that government.

"And just as Christ, to be Messiah, had to be according to the prophecies, Jew and of the Tribe of Judah, that is: By right of his political fatherland, as by that of his native soil, of the chosen people, thus amongst you who ever wants to be a clergyman or merit being canon, dignitary, provisor, bishop, archbishop and cardinal, must as an indispensable condition, have been born on your proper soil, as is occurring absolutely in all the civilized nations of the old and new world, with the only exception of the Philippines.

"There may be priests, religious congregations, nuns and convents, but submissive to the laws of the country and obliged to admit in their bosom as formerly happened in these isles, as estimable and superior members of such inst.i.tutions, those feel a vocation for a conventual life, as the n.o.ble and generous people of North America will demand, and will, do not doubt it, recognize these your legitimate rights.

_Filipinos and Countrymen._

"The protection of the great American Republic will make you respected and considered before the cultured powers, legitimately const.i.tuted; and your personality will be proclaimed and sanctioned everywhere.

"We have the duty to exact the rights we have just proclaimed and the 'natives' in all the isles and in all their different races, as well as the 'Mestizo Sangley,' as the 'Mestizo Espanol,' and the 'Son of the Country,' we all have the honorable duty of defending ourselves against the whip and the contempt of the Spaniards, accepting the protection and direction of the humane North American nation.

_Viva Filipinos_

Hurrah for liberty and right.

Hurrah for the Grand Republic of the United States of North America.

Hurrah for President McKinley and Rear Admiral Dewey.

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-->_The Junta Patriotica_.

"Hongkong, April, 1898."

Under the authority of the United States there have been inquiries by a court into the causes of the imprisonment of the inmates of the penitentiary and common jail at Manila, and others who have suffered from the enmities of the members of the government that ceased when the Spanish flag was taken down and the American flag raised. The memoranda following were made in the court proceedings, and state the facts as judicially established.

_Fulgencia Tuazon_.

This lady was confined in Bilibid seven years ago (though the record shows July 11, 1898,) by order of the Governor-General, on a charge of selling counterfeit stamps. She was tried, and sentenced to six years'

confinement; but the Judge accepted a bribe of $900 and released her about a week after her trial. A year afterwards she was again arrested by a new judge on the same charge, and $3,000 was demanded as the price of her liberty. This was refused, and imprisonment followed. She claims to have bought the stamps (which were telegraph stamps), from the Government.