Note 5 — Chapter VI · Insurgent Rule in the Cagayan Valley

The question of killing the Spanish prisoners, including the friars, had previously been seriously considered,5 but it was deemed wiser to keep most of the friars alive, extort money from them by torture, and offer to liberate them in return for a large cash indemnity, or for political concessions. Day after day and week after week Villa presided at, or himself conducted, the torture of ill-fated priests and other Spaniards who fell into his hands. Even Filipinos whom he suspected of knowing the where-abouts of hidden friar money did not escape.