Note 2 — Chapter I · Of the Revolutionary Government

Early in 1904 a Spanish planter of many yearsʼ standing, named Amechazurra, and his brother-in-law, Joaquin Guaso, were kidnapped and held for ransom. When the sum was carried to the brigandsʼ 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 dayʼs journey from the capital, have not ceased to be in a deplorable condition of lawlessness. The principal leaders, Montalón and Felizardo,2 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 governorship in 1903. The Montalón 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 horsemanship, and his expert marksmanship. During an attack on Parañaque, 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 governorship, Montalón 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 Montalón, at the head of about 300 of their class, including two American negroes, raided Triasʼs native town of San Francisco de Malabón, murdered an American surgeon and one constabulary private, and seriously wounded three more. They looted the municipal treasury of 2,000 pesos and 25 carbines, and carried off Triasʼs 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 Triasʼs 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 Siassi (Tápul group) to hunt down the brigands. Launches patrolled the Bay of Manila with constabulary on board to intercept the passage 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, Bataán, Cavite, Ilocos Sur, and the islands of Camaguín, Sámar, Leyte, Negros, Cebú, 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 peopleʼs usual occupations, retarded 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 ₱100 fine and three monthsʼ imprisonment. And, subject to the same penalty for refusal, any proprietor or tenant (white, coloured, or native) residing in any municipality, or ward, must report, within 24 hours, to the municipal authority, the name, residence, and description of any person (not being a resident) to whom he gave assistance or lodging. In no colony where the value of the white manʼs prestige is appreciated would such a law have been promulgated.