Amor Patric

in the Philippine Insurgent Records*

When the armed forces of the United States of America in-

vaded this archipelago and destroyed the first Philippine Repub-
lic, they seized one of the most unusual prizes in military history
——almost three tons of documents taken from surrendering forces,
looted from public buildings, or removed from the bodies of dead
Filipinos. This priceless hoard was shipped to Washington, D.C.,
where it was labeled “Philippine Insurrection Records”
to disinfect any telltale odor of imperialism clinging to it. A
half century later, when the goals of imperialism had long since
been attained and the national conscience assuaged, they were
' returned to their rightful owners and placed in the Rare Books
and Manuscripts Section of the National Library in 1958. Since
their restoration, careful scholars have referred to them as the
“Philippine Revolutionary Records”— or PER—though in actual
fact, the bulk of them pertain neither to revolution nor insur-
rection, but to a war of self defense‘against foreign aggression.
In any case, the staff and catalogue of the National Library still
refer to them as the Philippine Insurgent Records—FIR. But
under either name, they constitute one of the most concentrated
displays otamor patI-‘z'o—love of country—in the world today.
Back at the turn of the century, the American Army assigned
an intelligence officer by the name of John R. M. Taylor to sur-
vey and analyze these records, and translate such of them as
he considered conducive to an understanding—or justification—
of the American presence in the Philippines. Working with a
small staff, he completed the manuscript of a five-volume book
by 1906, which he called The Philippine insurrectimz against the
United States of America. One and a half volumes were Taylor’s
own history of the conflict, and the other three and a half, trans-
lations of almost 1500 documents—about one eighth of the total—
to illustrate his conclusions. American President William Howard
Taft, however, disapproved the publication of the book for rea-

‘Psper read at the Third National Confer ' co‘lod

City, 3.5 November 1980. me °n I‘M“ H‘smy’ Ba
 AMOR PATRIO. . 7/235

sons of political expediency, so it remained in galley proofs for

5'5 years. Then in 1971, the Eugenio Lopez Foundation magna-
nimously published it as a public service with an introduction
and editing by Renato Constantino.
Although a few scholars, both Filipino and foreign, had man-
aged to make use of both the book and the collection in micro-
scopy in the US. National Archives, the publication of the whole
five volumes was hailed by historians as a major event in Philip-
pine historiography. Here at last was the “true” story of the
Philippine-American War of 1899-1902—"true" because of the
unimpeachable authority of the source materials, all being writ-
ten, as they are, in the hand of the protagonists themselves. What
do these documents sound like which Taylor calls “exhibits”?
What story do these 1,430 witnesses tell?
To answer this question in preparing this paper, I held
Volume I on edge by the spine and let the pages fall open at ran-
dom. They opened to pages 322-323, which translate the May 4,
1897, testimony of one Gregorio de Jesus against Andres Boni-
facio, which reads, in part, “Question: Did you know that there
were five men imprisoned, and that their hair, eyebrows and eye-
lashes were ordered to be shaved ?” Vol. III, subjected to the same
treatment, fell open to pages 402-403, a Ietter from Wenceslao
Viniegra from Iba (Zambales), dated November 13, 1898, to Pres-
ident Aguinaldo, complaining about military abuses in terms such
as the following:

Various wealthy and educated persons of Botolan are the ob-

ject of their persecutions for the purpose, no doubt, of forcing
them to leave the town, their object being to secure their real
property and distribute it among their followers.

Vol. IV exposed—on pages 446-447—a March 15, 1899, order

to operate friar estates for the benefit of the government—“As
the new law on revenues for the present year is soon to go into
effect, and as among the revenues of the state appear the income
which may be derived from the property of the religious com-
munities transferred to the State by virtue-of the provisions of
the Constitution. . .etc.” And Volume V revealed a November
16, 1900, order about unruly soldiers beginning, “Advise all of-
ficers of this brigade that he who allows his soldiers to load their
rlfl'es Without being before the enemy shall be liable to capital
punishment”, (pp. 270-271).
These examples are all trivial in comparison to many important
military commands and state documents appearing in the same
volumes. Yet their manner of selection testifies to their being
 236/CRACKS IN THE PARCHMENT CURTAIN . . .

typical of the overall content. And they do not make for very
pleasant reading—nor does the entire collection. ' lt smacks too
often of drumhead justice and treacherous jealousies, ol’ explontu-
tion and abuse. Indeed, it might even cast doubt on the original
correspondents’ competence to operate a civilized modern govern-
ment. And that, in fact, was pretty much what it was Captain
Taylor’s job to do. As he himself puts it, “I was ordered to report
to the Adjutant General to act really as a channel of communica-
tions between the War Department and certain Senators who were
defending on. the floor of the Senate, the conduct of the adminis-
tration with respect to the Philippines.” That is to say, he was
to provide an excuse for American aggression by demonstrating
that the Filipino people were incompetent to govern themselves.
There is little doubt that this was Taylor’s own view of the
Filipino people. His assessment of the President of the Republic
is candid, unambiguous, and sanguine:

It is known that the family from which Aguinaldo came had

for many years dominated the town of Cavite Viejo. . .domi-
hated it, perhaps, according to some immemorial tradition
reaching back to a day when one of the “Orang Laut," the
sea robbers of the south, drove his war canoe home on the
beach and seized the land by the right of his sword and spear.
It is known that later there came an infusion of Chinese
blood, which gave to Aguinaldo the subtlety and perseverance
of that race. Such was probably the stock from which sprang
this Malay chieftain, who, of little education but a natural
ruler of men, imposed his will upon his people and dreamed
of founding, under the name of republic. . .a government of
the sword.

And Captain Taylor is just as candid about his exhibits: “It

seems to me that the measure of his fitness to establish a repub-
lic is given by these papers. . ."
Yet, on even a casual reading of the five volumes, Taylor’s
argument seems to break down under its own weight: the sheer
bulk of the documentation speaks of competence, not incompetence.
These documents were produced under wartime conditions, most
of them by a government hounded from one capital to another,
many of them only hours before they fell into enemy hands. Un-
der the circumstances, they reveal a dedication to duty and legality
which is nothing less than poignant. Their content testifies to
an ability to conceive and construct a constitutional republic, and
their mere existence to a willingness to wage a war—and die-—
to defend it. And they are only a fraction of the quarter million
 AMOR PATRIO. . . 237

documents which must themselves be only a fraction in compa-

rison to those that were written and lost. Among their hundreds
of appointments and commissions, their thousands of implementing
orders and instructions, their tens of thousands of pages of pay-
rolls, budgets, and enlistment and census figures, there are those
which might be selected to give a fuller and fairer picture of the
total scene. One might exhibit, for example, some of those per-
taining to church property.
The Church in the Philippines was one of the wealthiest pro-
prietors in the archipelago, and it would be naive—perhaps even
unpatriotic—to suggest that the State would ignore its resources
in the struggle for national survival. Unlike European revolu-
tionary governments in the 19th century, however, the Phih'p-
pine government did not confiscate church property outright.
But it did attach friars’ personal property, to which it referred
with nice irony as “abandoned.” To illustrate the Phil'ippine
methodology, one exhibit will be presented which somehow escaped
seizure by the invader and so survived in a thin folder of “insur-
gent” records in the National Archives.
011 May 1, 1899, the household furnishings of the parish priest
of Candon (Ilocos Sur), Fray Rafael Redondo, were sold at public
auction in accordance with Order No. 1420 of April 2-7 from the
Provincial President, for a total of P237.90. The sale was con-
ducted in the presence of Local Presidente Pedro Legazpi Gon-
zales and Commissioner Ildefonso Laurel of the Republic, and
the latter took receipt of the cash proceeds in an official docu-
ment countersigned by six local officials and bearing an official
seal which says, “Ylocos Sur Presidencia Local de Kandon.” At-
tached documents, signed and sealed in the same manner, list the
items of furniture sold, the price of each, and the names of the
purchasers, together with the original room-by-room inventory
made on the preceding August 213t. Similarly, the personal
possessions of Fray Jose Va’zquez of Magsingal were auctioned
off on August 15, 1899, for P5000, having consisted mainly of
books, perhaps because of the presence of Filipino Coadjutor
Father Lucas Albano. Fray Angel Corugedo’s furnishings in
Narvacan could not all be disposed of during an April 23th auc-
tion, and so netted only P51.75. And the documents from the May
16th auction in Kabugao include a note which indicates that even
the most highly placed were not exempt from the fiscalizing
scrutiny of subordinate compatriots. It reads: “The three first-
class narra beds included in the inventory were sent to Yigan on
order of the Sen‘or Provincial Presidente.”
It is also worthy of note that these records. from inventory
to sale, cover a time span during which the capital of the Republic
 238 /CRA(‘1KS IN THE PARCHMEN'I‘ CURTAIN . l .

transferred from Malolos to San Isidro to Cabanatuan to Tarlac.

As a matter of fact, the Magsingal auction took-place two days
after enemy naval units had bombarded the provmcial capital of
Vigan only 15 kilometers away.
To the local historian, these dry documents are enlivened with
the names of men who made Cundon history. Fray Rafael Redon—
do himself, an absolute caricature of the ruthless, oppressive
friar, “abandoned” his convento under rather different circum—
stances from his brothers of the cloth: he was executed during
the uprising of March 25—28, 1898. Among those who successfully
bid for his furniture was one of his first victims, Don Lino Abaya
who survived torture and deportation to be commissioned by
President Aguinaldo and rearrested by US. military forces for
the possession of anti-American literature. And former Justice
of the Peace Nazario Gray, who had been tortured into revealing
the names of some of his Katipunan comrades, was able to get
a bejuco bookcase for. 25 centavos and a marble washstand for
P100. But even more important for Candon historiography is a
document Taylor separated as “Selected Documents Folder No.
682” which is so illustrative of Filipino patriotism that it is worth
presenting here in full:

In the Town of Kandon of the Province

of Ilokos Sur on the twenty-third day
of January of the year one thousand
eight hundred and ninety-nine.

WHEREAS, the townsman Sen'or Isabelo Abaya has arrived

from the mountains'of Bontok with 225 Igorots of those
heights recruited by him on orders of General Manuel Tinio,
for delivery as soldiers to the immediate orders of the Honor-
able President of our Philippines, we, the Citizen Pedro Le-
gazpi y Gonzales, local Presidente, the Vice Presidente, the
Representatives of the Police, Justice, and Revenue, together
with all the Headmen and members of the Peoples Committee
attending, and other distinguished persons of this locality,
having seen and observed the submission of the said Igorots,
who were called fugitives in the days of the late Spanish gov-
ernment, as well as their manifest adhesion to our Revolu-
tionary Government, they bursting out into thunderous Vivas
for the Philippines and the most excellent Head of State;

THEREFORE, of our own spontaneous, unanimous, and

free will, do declare by means of the present certification,
which we desire to be presented to the Captain General in
 AMOR PATRIO. . ./239

Chief and Honorable President of the Philippines, the follow-

ing

BIOGRAPHICAL FACTS

The citizen Isabelo Abaya y Abaya, native of this town

0f Kandon of the Province of Ilokos Sur, bachelor of 35 years
of age, upon seeing that the attitude of the friars and Span-
iards after the signing of the Peace at Biak-na-Bato was more
deprecatory of the Filipinos than ever, and that, by means of
the authorities and Civil Guards, they were trying to see that
they should not have a moment’s peace, worked silently but
effectively to have the residents armed with bolos and swords.
Given the peaceful nature of the majority of the Ilocanos of
those times, who always took the Spanish side both for the sake
of convenience and to avoid molestation, it is noteworthy that
nobody ventured to denounce Isabelo Abaya’s preparations.

Within only a few hours on the night of March 24 last

year in 1898, he gathered the few members of the barrios he
had spoken with about throwing off the yoke of the tyran-
nous Spaniards and assembled them in the town plaza, had
himself recognized as their sole commander, and attacked the
quarters of the Civil Guards to seize its commanding officer,
who, resisting, suffered many serious wounds and was taken
to the Town Hall. He ordered the Spaniards bound, and the
others who were frightened indicated their willingness to sup-
port his claims; begging for their lives tearfully and handing
over their arms, they were left in detention in their own
houses. He apprehended Fray Rafael Redondo, parish priest
(he was the parish priest of San Fernando, La Union, who
had- invented the imaginary rebellion of that province and
Ilokos for which the priests and prominent persons were im-
prisoned and tortured), and before the company of Rangers
[CazadM'es] reached the town, ordered this friar and two
others who were with him taken to the forest where, making
him understand his iniquity and frightful deeds which had
caused the death, of good and learned Filipinos and so many
innocent, he ordered them beheaded on the afternoon of March
28 to give an account of their misdeeds to their Creator, after
having had an encounter with four members of the Civil
Guards in the neighboring town of Santiago in which he killed
one, wounded another, and made the other two run off still in
possession .of their rifles, without any other arms himself
than his sword.
 24-0 amm‘ D“ .-...~‘- ream-T CUSTAIN

trek Lgmwm‘aion of the town,

not sh-‘e m N—"T'CEI item’ gene sinae tm'Wse who were
vim were ..'~ae-‘g-‘r-"“____._.5"- m mm"? and hioe‘ m‘eir arm: so the
residen: 7:17.." n-z-i. :a‘mze obfeezs of Skye and murders.
the ~a..:‘d Babe":- 7x05" rain“ 2' .._‘~e'- _..*'r»oun‘mn..r“\ living off ca-
mores wfln‘ 1’2 .éT-mr“..»_~ for. more .m five momma drexed
0211:: m a M’r~'x:«._~u or bu‘__-'i.¥-' To avoid tel"ng rerogmzed-‘, until
Sen'or Manna Tim-"o. in Coknd. srrived in Kandon on
Augnzt‘ Ii m be :m." fimk‘fif and offered, to place
him'<el.«" uncer' nh'” man-and a a solcfier of the Fatherland.

Be ‘zmk par. .nr' 85:"- Bontei and Lepanto operations as a

and wrsi' gtoc‘ genera-Awe bemme known thr'ough
repora m” m: z;__.-r-_‘r".u..“‘ a oil‘s: o3? me Pml"ippine Army
by C'-_.ief of me Column which
fungi“. u" m'ec‘o :2:m: a Lie; would never again come

No mm W._.‘.u"‘-TE _."'--i:ces :r‘ze him-manna to execute this

we: ":2 ._e_—_""-'~ £4”. m sake the loyalty and pa-
trZoL‘w' e." “5"” gm’ 3'” :33 Ix"'~el.‘o Abaya known to
me" Santana CW._‘...;_"‘M" am" 2.11 Me" here asiembled do sign
it Ln' honor Cf me" trm‘ 4273.3 m‘nn‘g read and understood its
film‘s.-
(61 signatures follow)

Tm 7“._'-”=’_.__.é'“‘ to Igorx-Kau‘punan contact and military

acne-n Bezel." L!“ Imflo ran-39' the important question of
W7 52 no: in" Hakka gorernment really reached the im-
preguzw" was r.’ .3" Gran Cordfll‘era Central. Whatever in-
fluem we”? 2:2:- hare had m‘ the mountains of
northern ml"?! _-"‘ m»..— “sz‘owi outside the Philippine Insur-
gmt Fm: SM"? .mrces we know that Colonel Ale-
jamimi'o PAW“; B'rxr. 21*“an 115' last Spams'h commander on
Serum" .3, 1% m7 Eyed ad his' family from Igorot
vengance; a can"? :5 m_l"'dri’s five-month odyssey across
the cit: m Palanan has been pubhs'hed
more m 0m" :radin’on mdi'eata that Isabelo Abaya
Igrmz forces 2:: only m‘ 1893 but also in 1897,‘and
that tzze arw~'n" made a raid on Sagada (Moun-
tam' Prom—m; mm a." remrai Kan'puna‘n activities there.
One am: to Ig-Orot enmity with the “insur-
m'” and 3’ 23' paw“,- true- ma": Igorots’ welcomed a F111"pino
mflmz? pm no more warmly than they had welcomed any
om. At least, Hagan; W" Spanish,‘ F111"p1n'o and American
 AMOR PATRIO. . ./’241

wdiem with fine impartiality when they had the chance.

After this rather negative glimpse of insurrectionary tactics
and fullscale retreat, the quantity of official correspondence still
surviving from the Republic’s politico-milita‘ry districts of Ben-
guet and Bontoc comes almost as a shock. For here are literal
reams of letters, receipts, budgets, inventories, census reports—
even judiciary proceedings complete with exhibits presented in
court. Since these records were compiled on the most remote
frontier of the country, where morale might have been low and
temptation to sloth or disobedience high, they bear particularly
eloquent witness to the vitality of the Philippine government, and
give the lie to any thesis that that government’s performance was
a mere charade play-acted to impress foreign observers. The
ability and will to keep clerical machinery functioning under
such conditions must rank as one of history’s bravest examples of
dogged devotion to duty. Such records are worth looking into.
One of them is a general inventory from the military com-
mand of Bontoc. On August 20, 1899, First Lieutenant Alberto
de Jesus, interim chief of the Province of Bontoc, turned over
his command to his successor, Second Lieutenant Crispin Atienza,
together with this seven—part inventory of the materiel in his
charge. The office records include such items as one book of
copies of correspondence addressed to the Honorable Senor Pres-
ident of the Nation, another to various authorities in adjoining
commands, and a third to addressees within the District. Another
book is a register of passports issued. Four letter files contain-
actual correspondence received—from the President and Ms
Secretaries, for example. The complete list of buildings and fur-
nishings naturally occupies the main part of the inventory—o-r,
rather, s1x' parts.
The tribunal occupies a wooden building in very bad condi-
tion, 9.5 x 7.12 meters, with a 37 x 31 meter coffee plantation, and
contains two bugles and one drum. The convento is a wooden
building in very good condition 9 x 14 meters, with a porch, en-
trance hall and three rooms, containing 13 European chairs, some
aparadors, one table, one desk, two beds, one clock, six pictures
of saints and 25 different books, while the church is a 10 x 30
wooden building in good condition containing two bells, two
chalices, one silver crucifix, two images with clothes, two banners,
eight vestments, two copes, three altars with images, one confes-
sional, one baptismal font, three kneelers, one censer, six candle-
sticks, two missals, etc. Outpost garrisons run to such things as
the Sagada detachment’s‘ wooden building in fairly good condition,
with one bedroom for soldiers, two rooms for officers and com-
mander, eleven windows without panes, four double doors, three
 I'm/rascal: IN ‘rum rmu‘unmu'r i'illi'l'AlN

bedl, three chairs, and two tables wlth drawers. 'l‘hn lioninr
medical dispensary shown little furniture and no equipment. other
than balances and n mortar. lmt tlonu ilni mwernl potion ot' phar—
macoutirals Iueusurotl out in urnum, while the nrhtmlhmmo in [mi]
condition contains nothing more than n him-lilmurd, t'onr pupils
desks. another with drawer for tho leather, and no teaching um-
teriala. Attached to the completed inventory in an additional ro.
coipt signed by mm lt‘rnio (mine for three wooden chairs with
cane bottoms. one round table. and four hunches from tho Slnmdn
convonto.
From lg‘orotlaud. too, comes an impressive amuplo oi’ the Re-
volutionary Army's ability to maintain Judiciary routlnnity in
even forlorn boondocks it is (‘aso No. 4. a libel suit. by Com-
mandant V'route Qnesmla ot' the Military District; of l‘. linrgou
(i.e.. Bengnet.) against a coriain (t‘ulixio Soriuno for “wave calum-
ny against authority." filed on October 4, 1898, and still nub judico
when the President of tho Republic disbanded the Army 13 months
later and look to tho hills.
On September 30, 1898, (t‘alixto Soriuno wrote a letter in 110-
cano from San lt‘oruando (La Union) to Bonguet revenue col-
lector Juan Carine—“lgorot, new (.‘hristian, native and resident
of the town of Lumora. married, of adult age. farmer and pro-
prietor by profession.” The letter was forwarded through Na-
guilian revenue collector Genon Soriano, and delivered to Cariho
in Trinidad on December 3. It accused Commandant Quesada of
extorting gold, livestock, coffee and market vegetables from Igo-
rots, and recommended that local people stick together against
lowland intrusion. The following day, Cariilo turned over
the letter to Quesada, who promptly filed suit by ordering Cap-
tain Carlos Maglaya to convene a court to try the case.
By the 18th, sworn statements in the Commandant's favor
had been received from the presidentes of the recently renamed
towns of Aguinsldo, Emilio, Lamora, Llanura, Rizal and Tirona,
most of whom were illiterate Igorot chieftains who signed their
testimonies with a mark. 011 the 21st, Calixto was found guilty
and jailed, and the Presidents and local council of Naguilian were
notified that his goods were to be confiscated. But on the 30th,
word was received from Naguilian that those goods had already
been confiscated in an earlier conviction for falsification of docu-
ments. Meanwhile, Calixto appealed.
Under appeal, he testified in a statement sworn on Novem-
ber 9 that he knew nothing abOut the letter and that the hand-
writing was not his. Subpoenas were accordingly sent to La
Union for witnesses who could identify his penmanship. 0n the
16th, Martin Carreon of Aringay testified that Calixto’s signed
 AMOR PATRIO. . . /243

statements and the penmanship of the letter were identical, and

on the 17th. Benito Zambrano, sometime schoolmaster in Zamora
(l.e., Tublny), identified the handwriting with the statement that
he was very familiar with it, “because the said Soriano had been
the local presidente of that capital while the witness was vice-
presidente." 0n the 19th, Cenon Soriano testified that he had
forwarded the letter ln the first place and that the penmanship
on the envelope was his own. The appeal therefore failed, and
orders were issued on December 27 to transfer the prisoner to
Mslolos. There he was turned over to the Chief of the Section on
Military Justice in the Secretariat of War of the Revolutionary
bo‘vernment of the Philippines on January 21, 1899. On the 27th,
however, he was released with provisional liberty on condition
that he not leave the jurisdiction of Naguilian without permis-
sion. Copies of the court proceedings were then forwarded to the
office of the Captain General and Commander in Chief of the
Republican Army of the Philippines. and investigation of the case
ground inexorably on.
When Malolos fell to the enemy in March, all these copies ac-
companied the withdrawing capital to San Fernando (Pampanga)
and then to San Isidro. On April 14, the Auditor General of the
Department of War requested a report on the status of the prior
case of falsification of documents, and on the 24th, the entire
erpediente from the Benguet court was forwarded to San Isidro,
complete with the original letter and envelope, and such ex-
quls'ite details as Cenon Soriano’s November 19th receipt of his
summons to appear in court. From San Isidro the file was car-
ried in the Republic’s baggage to Cabanatuan, and in June to
Tarlac, where, for the next three months, it grew bulkier still as
copies, extracts, endorsements, and referrals were added from one
desk to another. Finally, on October 20, 1899, it was elevated to
the President of the Permanent Commission on Justice—and fell
into enemy hands three weeks later. As it survives today, it
weighs slightly more than two kilograms.
These, then, are the exhibits for the defense. They are pre-
sented here as evidence of the Filipino people’s competence to gov-
ern themselves in 1898. Bound with rotting red tape and crum-
bling to the touch, they appear to be the dry bones of a dead past.
Yet they come alive in the hands of any scholar willing to enter
into their world not with objectivity but with sympathy. To those
of us who live in what Renato Constantino has so aptly called
a society without purpose, it is a humbling experience to handle
these intimate testimonies to amor patrio, covered as they are with
the invisible fingerprints of men of a better breed. One foreign
scholar who was privileged to have this experience has written
 244/CRACKS IN THE PARCHMENT CURTAIN . . .

of the “grave formality" of the first election returns in the Repub-

lie of the Philippines in the following words:

Most of the Acts of Election have decoratively lettered titles,

are written in impressive scripts, and are signed with
flourishes by all the electors in at least two copies, Spanish
and Tagalog. To skim even a few of the hundreds submitted
for approval in 1898 is to hear the towns of Luzon singing
in solemn chorus of the pleasure of taking over their local
governments.‘

It is a song no Filipino historian should fail to hear.

‘Jnne Slichter Rlzsdale “Coping with th Y . h— - i

d1898-19190."S7."’ Unfip‘ubhs'hed doc’toral di'lsertufionfUmvuu'Wkty- ofm.wnueonnn'pmo'—ld:
loan, 1 , p. .