Insurgent Rule in the Cagayan Valley
Nueva Vizcaya is drained by the Magát River, a branch of the
Cagayan. While the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan constitute the
Cagayan valley proper, Blount includes Nueva Vizcaya in the territory
covered by this designation, and for the purpose of this discussion
I will follow his example.
Especial interest attaches to the history of Insurgent rule, in the
Cagayan valley, as above defined, for the reason that Blount himself
served there as a judge of the court of first instance. He says:
[271]--
"The writer is perhaps as familiar with the history of that
Cagayan valley as almost any other American."
He was. For his action in concealing the horrible conditions which
arose there under Insurgent rule, with which he was perfectly familiar,
and in foisting on the public the account of Messrs. Wilcox and
Sargent, as portraying the conditions which actually existed there,
I propose to arraign him before the bar of public opinion. In so
doing I shall consider these conditions at some length. We have much
documentary evidence concerning them in addition to that furnished
by the Insurgent records, although the latter quite sufficiently
demonstrate many of the more essential facts.
In describing the adventures of Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent in this
region, Judge Blount says: [272]--
"There [273] they were met by Simeon Villa, military commander
of Isabela province, the man who was chief of staff to
Aguinaldo afterwards, and was captured by General Funston
along with Aguinaldo in the spring of 1901."
The facts as to Villa's career in the Cagayan valley are especially
worthy of note as they seem to have entitled him, in the opinion of
his superiors, to the promotion which was afterward accorded him. He
was an intimate friend of Aguinaldo and later accompanied him on his
long flight through northern Luzon.
On August 10, 1898, Colonel Daniel Tirona, a native of Cavite Province
and one of the intimates of Aguinaldo, was ordered to proceed to Aparri
in the Insurgent steamer _Filipinas_ and establish the revolutionary
government in northern Luzon. In doing this he was to hold elections
for office-holders under Aguinaldo's government and was authorized
to approve or disapprove the results, his action being subject to
subsequent revision by Aguinaldo. His forces were composed of four
companies armed with rifles.
Tirona reached Aparri on August 25 and promptly secured the surrender
of the Spaniards there.
He was accompanied by Simeon Villa, the man under discussion, and by
Colonel Leyba, who was also very close to Aguinaldo.
Abuse of the Spanish prisoners began at once. It is claimed that the
governor of North Ilocos, who was among those captured, was grossly
mistreated.
Taylor briefly summarizes subsequent events as follows: [274]--
"Whatever the treatment of the Spanish governor of Ilocos
may really have been, there is testimony to show that some
of the other prisoners, especially the priests, were abused
and outraged under the direction of S. Villa and Colonel
Leyba, both of whom were very close to Aguinaldo. Some of
the Spanish civil officials were put in stocks and beaten,
and one of the officers who had surrendered at Aparri was
tortured to death. This was done with the purpose of extorting
money from them, for it was believed that they had hidden
funds in place of turning them over. All the Spaniards were
immediately stripped of everything they had. The priests were
subjected to a systematic series of insults and abuse under
the direction of Villa in order to destroy their influence
over the people by degrading them in their eyes. It was for
this that they were beaten and exposed naked in the sun; and
other torture, such as pouring tile wax of burning candles
into their eyes, was used to make them disclose where they
had hidden church vessels and church funds. The testimony of
a friar who suffered these outrages is that the great mass
of the people saw such treatment of their parish priests
with horror, and were present at it only through fear of the
organized force of the Katipúnan."
Taylor's statement is mildness itself in view of the well-established
facts.
The question of killing the Spanish prisoners, including the friars,
had previously been seriously considered, [275] 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.
The following information relative to the conduct of the Insurgents in
the Cagayan valley is chiefly taken from manuscript copy of _"Historia
de la Conquista de Cagayan por los Tagalos Revolucionarios,"_ in
which the narratives of certain captured friars are transcribed and
compiled by Father Julian Malumbres of the Dominican Order.
The formal surrender of Aparri occurred on August 26. Tirona, his
officers and his soldiers, promptly pillaged the _convento_. [276]
The officers left the Bishop of Vigan ten pesos, but the soldiers
subsequently took them away from him. Wardrobes and trunks were
broken open; clocks, shoes, money, everything was carried off. Even
personal papers and prayer-books were taken from some of the priests,
many of whom were left with absolutely nothing save the few remaining
clothes in which they stood.
On the same day Villa, accompanied by Victa and Rafael Perea, [277]
went to the _convento_ and told the priests who were imprisoned
there that their last hour had come. He shut all of them except the
bishop and five priests in a room near the church, then separated
the Augustinians, Juan Zallo, Gabino Olaso, Fidel Franco, Mariano
Rodriguez, and Clemente Hidalgo, from the others and took them into
the lower part of the _convento_ where he told them that he intended
to kill them if they did not give him more money. The priests told
him that they had given all they had, whereupon he had their arms
tied behind their backs, kicked them, struck them and whipped them
with rattans.
Father Zallo was thrown on his face and savagely beaten. Meanwhile
two shots were fired over the heads of the others and a soldier called
out "One has fallen," badly frightening the priests who had remained
shut in the room. Villa then returned with soldiers to this room,
ordered his men to load, and directed that one priest step forward
to be shot. Father Mariano Ortiz complied with this request, asking
that he be the first victim. Villa, however, contented himself with
threatening him with a revolver and kicking and striking him until
he fell to the floor. He was then beaten with the butts of guns.
Father José Vazquez, an old man of sixty years, who had thrown some
money into a privy to keep it from falling into the hands of the
Insurgents, was stripped and compelled to recover it with his bare
hands, after which he was kicked, and beaten with rattans.
Father Aquilino García was unmercifully kicked and beaten to make
him give up money, and this sort of thing continued until Villa,
tired out with the physical exertion involved in assaulting these
defenceless men, departed, leaving his uncompleted task to others,
who continued it for some time.
The net result to the Insurgents of the sacking of the _convento_
and of the tortures thus inflicted was approximately $20,000 gold in
addition to the silver, bank notes, letters of credit, jewels, etc.,
which they obtained.
On September 5 Villa had Fathers Juan Recio and Buenaventura Macia
given fifty blows each, although Father Juan was ill.
Villa then went to Lalloc, where other priests were imprisoned. On
September 6 he demanded money of them, causing them to be kicked and
beaten. Father Angel was beaten in an especially cruel manner for
the apparent purpose of killing him, after which he was thrust into
a privy. Father Isidro Fernandez was also fearfully abused. Stripped
of his habit, and stretched face down on the floor, he was horribly
beaten, and was then kicked, and struck with the butt of a revolver
on the forehead.
A little later the priests were offered their liberty for a million
dollars, which they were of course unable to furnish. Meanwhile the
torture continued from time to time.
On August 30 Tuguegarao was taken by the Insurgents without
resistance. Colonel Leyba promptly proceeded to the _convento_
and demanded the money of the friars as spoil of war. He found only
eight hundred pesos in the safe. Father Corujedo was threatened with
death if he did not give more. Other priests were threatened but not
tortured at this time. The prisoners in the jail were liberated,
but many of them had promptly to be put back again because of the
disorder which resulted, and that same evening Leyba was obliged to
publish a notice threatening robbers with death.
At midnight on September 3 Father Corujedo was taken from the
_convento_ by Captain Diego and was again asked for money. Replying
that he had no more to give, he was beaten with the hilt of a sabre
and stripped of his habit, preparatory to being executed. A mock
sentence of death was pronounced on him and he was placed facing to
the west to be shot in the back. Diego ordered his soldiers to load,
adding, "When I count three all fire," but the fatal count was not
completed. Three priests from Alcala were given similar treatment.
The troubles of the priests imprisoned at Tuguegarao were sufficiently
great, but they were augmented a thousand fold when Villa arrived on
September 11. He came to the building where they were imprisoned,
bearing a revolver, a sabre and a great quantity of rattans. He
ordered the priests into the corner of the room in which they were
confined, and beat those who did not move quickly enough to suit
him. He threatened them with a very rigorous examination, at the same
time assuring them that at Aparri he had hung up the bishop until
blood flowed from his mouth and his ears, and that he would do the
same with them if they did not tell him where they had their money
hidden. There followed the usual rain of kicks and blows, a number
of the priests being obliged to take off their habits in order that
they might be punished more effectively.
Fathers Calixto Prieto and Daniel Gonzales, professors in educational
institutions, he ordered beaten because they were friars.
Fathers Corujedo and Caddedila were beaten, kicked and insulted. Both
were gray-haired old men and the latter was at the time very weak,
and suffering from a severe attack of asthma. Father Pedro Vincente
was also brutally beaten.
The following is the description given by an eye-witness of conditions
at Tuguegarao:--
"Even the Indios of Cagayan complained and were the victims of
looting and robbery on the part of the soldiery. So lacking in
discipline and so demoralized was that army that according to
the confession of a prominent Filipino it was of imperative
necessity to disarm them. [278] On the other hand we saw
with real astonishment that instead of warlike soldiers
accustomed to battle they were nearly all raw recruits and
apprentices. From an army lacking in discipline, and lawless,
only outrages, looting and all sorts of savagery and injustice
were to be expected. Witnesses to their demoralization are,
aside from the natives themselves who were the first to
acknowledge it, the Chinese merchants whose losses were
incalculable; not a single store or commercial establishment
remained that was not looted repeatedly. As to the Spaniards
it goes without saying because it is publicly known, that
between soldiers and officers they despoiled them to their
heart's content, without any right except that of brute force,
of everything that struck their fancy, and it was of no avail
to complain to the officers and ask for justice, as they turned
a deaf ear to such complaints. At Tuguegarao they looted in a
manner never seen before, like Vandals, and it was not without
reason that a prominent Filipino said, in speaking to a priest:
'Vandalism has taken possession of the place.' These acts of
robbery were generally accompanied by the most savage insults;
it was anarchy, as we heard an eye-witness affirm, who also
stated that no law was recognized except that of danger,
and the vanquished were granted nothing but the inevitable
duty of bowing with resignation to the iniquitous demands of
that soulless rabble, skilled in crime."
Villa now set forth for Isabela. Meanwhile the jailer of the priests
proceeded to steal their clothes, including shirts, shoes and even
handkerchiefs. Isabela was taken without resistance on September
12. Dimas Guzman [279] swore to the priests on his life that he would
work without rest to the end that all friars and all Spaniards might
be respected, but he perjured himself.
On September 12 Villa and others entered the town of Cabagan Viejo,
where Villa promptly assaulted Father Segundo Rodriguez, threatening
him with a revolver, beating him unmercifully, insulting him in every
possible way and robbing him of his last cent. After the bloody scene
was over he sacked the _convento_, even taking away the priests'
clothes.
Villa also cruelly beat a Filipino, Quintin Agansi, who was taking
care of money for masses which the priests wished to save from the
Insurgents.
After Father Segundo had suffered torture and abuse for two hours he
was obliged to start at once on a journey to Auitan. The suffering
priest, after being compelled to march through the street shouting
"Vivas!" for the Republic and Aguinaldo, spent the night without a
mouthful of food or a drink of water.
Father Deogracias García, a priest of Cabagan Nuevo, was subjected to
torture because he had sent to Hongkong during May a letter of credit
for $5000 which belonged to the Church. Villa and Leyba entered his
_convento_ and after beating him ordered his hands and feet to be
tied together, then passed a pole between them and had him lifted
from the ground, after which two great jars of water were poured down
his nose and throat without interruption. [280] In order to make the
water flow through his nose better, they thrust a piece of wood into
the nasal passages until it came out in his throat. From time to time
the torture was suspended while they asked him whether he would tell
the truth as to where he had concealed his money. This unfortunate
priest was so sure he was going to die that while the torture was
in progress he received absolution from a fellow priest. After the
torture with water there followed a long and cruel beating, and the
unhappy victim was finally thrust into a filthy privy.
Meanwhile Father Calzada was assaulted by a group of soldiers and
badly beaten, after which he was let down into the filth of a privy,
first by the feet and afterwards by the head.
On the 14th a lieutenant with soldiers entered the _convento_ of
Tumauini and as usual demanded money of the occupants, who gave him
$80, all they had at the time. This quantity not being satisfactory,
a rope was sent for and the hands of the two priests were tied while
they were whipped, kicked and beaten. They were, however, released
when Father Bonet promised to get additional money. They had a short
respite until the arrival of Villa, who still demanded more money of
Father Blanco, and failing to get it for the reason that the father
had no more, leaped upon him and gave him a dreadful beating, his
companions joining in with whips, rattans and the butts of guns. They
at last left their victim stretched on the ground almost dead. This
priest showed the marks of his ill treatment six months afterward. Not
satisfied with this, Villa gave him the so-called "water cure."
Meanwhile his followers had also beaten Father Bonet. Villa started to
do likewise but was too tired, having exhausted his energies on Father
Blanco. While the tortures were going on, the _convento_ was completely
sacked. Father Blanco's library was thrown out of the window.
Villa entered Ilagan on the 15th of September at 8 o'clock at
night. Hastening to the _convento_, with a company of well-armed
soldiers, he had his men surround the three priests who awaited him
there, then summoned the local priest to a separate room and demanded
money. The priest gave him all he had. Not satisfied, Villa leaped
upon him, kicking him, beating him and pounding him with the butt of
a gun. Many of his associates joined in the disgraceful attack. The
unfortunate victim was then stripped of his habit, obliged to lie down
and received more than a hundred lashes. When he was nearly senseless
he was subjected to torture by water, being repeatedly lifted up when
filled with water, and allowed to fall on the floor. While some were
pouring water down his nose and throat, others spilled hot wax on his
face and head. The torment repeatedly rendered the priest senseless,
but he was allowed to recover from time to time so that he might
suffer when it was renewed.
The torturing of this unhappy man lasted for three hours, and
the horrible scene was immediately succeeded by another quite as
bad. Villa called Father Domingo Campo and, after taking from him
the little money that he had, ordered him stripped. He was then given
numberless kicks and blows from the butts of rifles and 150 lashes,
after which he was unable to rise. There followed the torture with
water, on the pretext that he had money hidden away.
Meanwhile the houses of Spaniards and the shops of the Chinese were
completely sacked, and the men who objected were knocked down or cut
down with bolos. Numerous girls and women were raped.
On September 15 Leyba received notice of the surrender of Nueva
Vizcaya. I quote the following from the narrative above referred to:--
"Delfin's soldiers [281] were the most depraved ever seen:
their thieving instincts had no bounds; so they had hardly
entered Nueva Vizcaya when they started to give themselves
up furiously to robbery, looking upon all things as loot;
in the very shadow of these soldiers the province was invaded
by a mob of adventurous and ragged persons from Nueva Ecija;
between the two they picked Nueva Vizcaya clean. When they had
grown tired of completely shearing the unfortunate Vizcayan
people, leaving them poverty-stricken, they flew in small
bands to the pueblos of Isabela, going as far as Angadanan,
giving themselves up to unbridled pillage of the most unjust
and disorderly kind. Some of these highwaymen demanded money
and arms from the priest of Angadanan, but Father Marciano
informed them 'that it could not be, as Leyba already knew
what he had and would be angry.'
"To this very day the people of Nueva Vizcaya have been
unable to recover from the stupendous losses suffered by
them as regards their wealth and industries. How many curses
did they pour forth and still continue to level against the
Katipúnan that brought them naught but tribulations!"
Confirmation of these statements is found in the following brief but
significant passage from the Insurgent records:--
"At the end of December, 1898, when the military commander
of Nueva Vizcaya called upon the Governor of that province to
order the police of the towns to report to him as volunteers to
be incorporated in the army which was being prepared for the
defence of the country, the Governor protested against it and
informed the government that his attempt to obtain volunteers
was in fact only a means of disarming the towns and leaving
them without protection against the soldiers who did what
they wanted and took what they wished and committed every
outrage without being punished for it by their officers." [282]
The effect of the surrender of Nueva Vizcaya on Leyba and Villa is
thus described by Father Malumbres:--
"Mad with joy and swollen with pride Leyba and company were
like men who travelled flower-strewn paths, crowned with
laurels, and were acclaimed as victors in all the towns on
their road, their intoxication of joy taking a sudden rise when
they came to believe themselves kings of the valley. It was
then that their delirium reached its brimful measure and their
treatment of those whom they had vanquished began to be daily
more cruel and inhuman. In Cagayan their fear of the forces
in Nueva Vizcaya kept them from showing such unqualifiable
excesses of cruelty and nameless barbarities, but the triumph
of the Katipúnan arms in Nueva Vizcaya completely broke
down the wall of restraint which somewhat repressed those
sanguinary executioners thirsting to fatten untrammelled on
the innocent blood of unarmed and defenceless men. From that
melancholy time there began an era of unheard of outrages and
barbarous scenes, unbelievable were they not proved by evidence
of every description. The savage acts committed in Isabela by
the inhuman Leyba and Villa cannot possibly be painted true
to life and in all their tragic details. The blackest hues,
the most heartrending accents, the most vigorous language
and the most fulminating anathemas would be a pale image of
the truth, and our pen cannot express with true ardour the
terrifying scenes and cruel torments brought about by such
fierce chieftains on such indefensive religious. It seems
impossible that a fleshly heart could hold so much wickedness,
for these petty chiefs were veritable monsters of cruelty who
surpassed a Nero; men who were entire strangers to noble and
humane sentiments and who in appearance having the figure of
a man were in reality tigers roaring in desperation, or mad
dogs who gnashed their teeth in fury."
On September 18 Leyba continued his march, while Villa remained
behind at Ilagan to torture the prisoners who might be brought in
from Isabela.
On arrival at Gamut, Leyba at once entered the _convento_ and as usual
immediately demanded money from the priests. Father Venancio gave
him all he had. He was nevertheless given a frightful whipping, six
persons holding him while others rained blows upon him. A determined
effort was made to force the priest to recant, and when this failed
Leyba leaped upon him, kicking and beating him. He then ordered him
thrown down face uppermost, and asked for a knife with the apparent
intention of mutilating him. He did not use the knife, however, but
instead, assisted by his followers, gave the unhappy priest another
terrific beating, even standing upon him and leaping up and down. The
priest was left unable to speak, and did not recover for months.
Later Leyba had torture by water applied to Father Gregorio Cabrero
and lay brother Venancio Aguinaco, while Father Sabanda was savagely
beaten.
On the 19th of September Father Miguel Garcia of Reina Mercedes was
horribly beaten in his _convento_ by a captain sent there to get what
money he had.
In Cauayan, on September 20, Fathers Perez and Aguirrezabal were
beaten and compelled to give up money by five emissaries of Leyba,
and the latter priest was cut in the face with a sabre. The _convento_
was sacked. On the 25th Leyba arrived and after kicking and beating
Father Garcia compelled him to give up $1700. He then informed the
priests that if it were not for Aguinaldo's orders he would kill all
the Spaniards.
On the afternoon of the 24th three priests and a Spaniard named Soto
arrived at Ilagan. The following is the statement of an eye-witness
as to what happened:--
"They led the priests to the headquarters of the commanding
officer where the tyrant Villa, always eager to inflict
suffering on humanity, awaited them. The scene witnessed
by the priests obeisant to the cruel judge was horrifying
in the extreme. Four lions whose thirst for vengeance was
extreme in all, threw themselves, blind with fury, without
a word and with the look of a basilisk, upon poor Señor Soto
giving him such innumerable and furious blows on head and face
that weary as he was from his past journey, the ill-treatment
received at Angadanan and weighted down by years, he was soon
thrown down by his executioners under the lintel of the door
getting a terrible blow on the head as he fell; even this did
not satisfy nor tame down those fierce-hearted men, who on
the contrary continued with their infamous work more furious
than before, and their cruelty did not flag on seeing their
victim at their feet. They could have done no worse had they
been Silípan savages dancing in triumph around the palpitating
head cut from the body of some enemy.
"The priests who witnessed this blood-curdling scene trembled
like the weak reed before the gale, waiting their turn to be
tortured, but God willed that cruel Villa should be content
with the butchery perpetrated upon unhappy Sr. Soto. Villa
dismissed the priests after despoiling them of their bags and
clothes telling them, to torment them: 'Go to the _convento_
until the missing ones turn up so that I may shoot you all
together.'"
Leyba entered Echague on September 22, promptly going to the _convento_
as usual and demanding money of the priest, Father Mata. When the
latter had given him all he had, he received three terrific beatings
at the hands of some twelve men armed with whips and sticks, after
which Leyba himself struck him with his fist and his sabre. He was
finally knocked down by a blow with the sabre and left disabled. It
took six months for him to recover.
Shortly after Leyba's arrival in Nueva Vizcaya on the afternoon of
the 25th, five priests were summoned to Solano and there abused in
the usual fashion in an effort to extort money from them. Only one
escaped ill treatment and one was nearly killed.
Leyba now went to Bayombong to carry out the established programme
with the priests. There he found Governor Perez of Isabela, who had
taken with him certain government moneys and employed them to pay
salaries of soldiers and other employees. He insisted on the return
of the total amount and threatened to shoot Perez if it was not
forthcoming. The Spaniards of the vicinity subscribed $700 which they
themselves badly needed and saved him from being shot. The priests
of the place were then summoned to Leyba's quarters and were beaten
and tortured. One of them was thrown on the floor and beaten nearly
to death, Leyba standing meanwhile with his foot on the unfortunate
man's neck. Another was given six hundred lashes and countless blows
and kicks. Leyba stood on this man's neck also. When the victim's back
ceased to have any feeling, his legs were beaten. Leyba terminated
this period of diversion by kicking Father Diez in the solar plexus
and then mocking him as he lay gasping on the floor. That afternoon
one of the priests, so badly injured that he could not rise unaided,
was put on a horse and compelled to ride in the hot sun to Solano.
Villa and Leyba had their able imitators, as is shown by the following
description of the torturing of Father Ceferino by Major Delfin at
Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, on September 27:--
"They wished to give brave evidence of their hate for the friar
before Leyba left, and show him that they were as brave as
he when it came to oppressing and torturing the friar. This
tragedy began by Jimenez again asking Father Ceferino for
the money. The priest answered as he had done before. Then
Jimenez started to talk in Tagalog to the commanding officer
and surely it was nothing good that he told him, for suddenly
Delfin left the bench and darting fire from his eyes, fell
in blind fury upon the defenceless priest; what harsh words
he uttered in Tagalog while he vented his fury on his victim,
striking him with his clenched fist, slapping him and kicking
him, I do not know, but the religious man fell at the feet of
his furious executioner who, being now the prey of the most
stupendous rage, could scarcely get his tongue to stutter and
continued to kick the priest, without seeing where he kicked
him. Getting deeper and deeper in the abyss and perhaps not
knowing what he was about, this petty chief made straight for
a sabre lying on a table to continue his bloody work. In the
meantime the priest had risen to his feet and awaited with
resignation new torments which certainly were even worse than
the first, for he gave him so many and such hard blows with
the sabre that the blade was broken close to the hilt. This
accident so infuriated Delfin that he again threw himself upon
the priest, kicking him furiously and striking him repeatedly
until he again threw him to the ground, and not yet satisfied,
his vengefulness led him to throw himself upon his victim with
the fury of a tiger after his prey, beating him on the head
with the hilt of the saber until the blood ran in streams
and formed pools upon the pavement. The priest, more dead
than alive, shuddered from head to foot, and appeared to be
struggling in a tremendous fight between life and death; he
had hardly enough strength to get his tongue to ask for God's
mercy. At this most critical juncture, and when it seemed as
if death were inevitable, the martyr received absolution from
Father Diez, who witnessed the blood-curdling picture with
his heart pierced with grief at the sight of the sufferings
of his innocent brother, feeling as must the condemned man
preparing for death who sees the hours fly by with vertiginous
rapidity. The blood flowing from the wounds on the priest's
head appeared to infuriate and blind the heart of Delfin who,
rising from his victim's body, sped away to the armory in the
court house, seized a rifle, and came back furious to brain
him with the butt and finish killing the priest; but God
willed to free his servant from death at the hands of those
cannibals, so that generous Lieutenant Navarro interfered,
took the rifle away from him and caught Delfin by the arm,
threatening him with some words spoken in Tagalog. Then
Navarro, to appease Delfin's anger, turned the priest over
with his face to the ground and gave him a few strokes with the
bamboo, and feigning anger and indignation, ordered him away.
"Those who witnessed the horrible tragedy, the brutality of the
tyrant and the prostration of the friar were persuaded that
the latter would never survive his martyrdom. The religious
man himself holds it as a veritable portent that he outlived
such a terrible trial; but even this did not satisfy them as
subsequently the Secretary again called Father Ceferino to
subject him to a further scrutiny, as ridiculous as it was
malicious, though it did not go beyond words or insults."
Señor Perez, the governor of Isabela, and Father Diez were compelled
to go to Ilagan. After they had arrived there on October 2d, Villa
proceeded to torture them. At the outset ten soldiers, undoubtedly
instructed beforehand, beat the governor down to the earth, with the
butts of their guns. Villa himself struck him three times in the chest
with the butt of a gun and Father Diez gave him absolution, thinking
he was dying. Father Diez was then knocked down repeatedly with the
butts of guns, being made to stand up promptly each time in order
that he might be knocked down again. Not satisfied with this, Villa
compelled the suffering priest to kneel before him and kicked him in
the nose, repeating the operation until he left him stretched on the
floor half-senseless with his nose broken. He next had both victims
put in stocks with their weight supported by their feet alone. While
in this position soldiers beat them and jumped onto them and one set
the governor's beard on fire with matches. Father Diez was kept in
the stocks four days. He was then sent to Tuguegarao in order that
personal enemies there might take vengeance on him, Villa bidding
him good-by with the following words: "Go now to Tuguegarao and see
if they will finish killing you there." Señor Perez was kept in the
stocks eight days and it is a wonder that he did not die.
Upon the 25th of September Villa went to the _convento_ in Ilagan
prepared to torture the priests, but he succeeded in compelling a
number of them to sign indorsements in his favour on various letters
of credit payable by the Tabacalera Company and departed again in
fairly good humour, having done nothing worse than strike one of them.
Later, however, on the pretext that Fathers Aguado and Labanda had
money hidden away, he determined to torture them with water. The first
to be tortured was Father Labanda. Villa had him taken to the prison
where the priest found his two faithful Filipino servants who had
been beaten cruelly and were then hanging from a beam, this having
been done in order to make them tell where his money was.
He was tied after the usual fashion and water poured down his nose
and throat. During the brief respites necessary in order to prevent
his dying outright he was cruelly beaten. They finally dragged him
out of the prison by the feet, his head leaving a bloody trail on
the stones. After he had been taken back to his companions, one of
the men who had tortured him came to beg his pardon, saying that he
had been compelled to do it by Villa.
Father Aguado was next tortured in one of the rooms of the
_convento_. Villa finished the day's work by announcing to the band
of priests that he would have them all shot the next day on the plaza,
and ordering them to get ready.
On the 29th the barbarities practised by this inhuman fiend reached
their climax in the torturing to death of Lieutenant Piera. The
following description gives some faint idea of one of the most
diabolical crimes ever committed in the Philippines:--
"Villa's cruelty and sanguinary jeering grew without let
or hindrance from day to day; it seemed that this hyena
continually cudgelled his brains to invent new kinds of
torture and to jeer at the friars. On the night of the 29th of
September the diabolical idea occurred to him of giving the
_coup de grace_ to the prestige of the friars by making them
pass through the streets of Ilagan conducting and playing
a band of music. He carried out his nonsensical purpose by
calling upon Father Diogracias to play the big drum, and when
this priest had started playing Villa learned that Father
Primo was a musician and could therefore play the drum and
lead the band with all skill, so he called upon Father Primo
to come forward, and with one thing and another this ridiculous
function was carried on until the late hours of the night.
* * * * *
"While these two priests were serenading Villa and his
gang, the most dreadful shrieks were heard from the jail,
accompanied by pitiful cries that would melt the coldest
heart. The priests hearing these echoes of sorrow and pain,
and who did not know for what purpose Fathers Deogracias and
Primo had been separated from them, seemed to recognize the
voices of these two priests among the groans, believing them
to be cruelly tortured; for this reason they began to say
the rosary in order that the Most Holy Virgin might imbue
them with patience and fortitude in their martyrdom. Great
was their surprise when these priests returned saying that
they had contented themselves with merely making fun of them
by obliging them to play the big drum and lead the band.
"Although this somewhat tempered their sorrow, a thorn remained
in their hearts, fearing that the moving lamentations and the
mortal groans came from the lips of some hapless Spaniard. This
fatidical presentiment turned out unfortunately to be a
fact. The victim sacrificed that melancholy night, still
remembered with a shudder by the priests, was Lieutenant
Salvador Piera. This brave soldier, who had made up his
mind to die in the breach rather than surrender the town
of Aparri, was persuaded to capitulate only by the prayers
and tears of certain Spanish ladies who had been instructed
to do so by a man who should have been the first one to
shoulder a rifle. After having been harassed in Aparri he
was taken to Tuguegarao at the request of Esteban Quinta
or Isidoro Maquigat, two artful filibusters thirsting to
revenge themselves on the Lieutenant, who during the time
of the Spanish government had justly laid his heavy hand
upon them. In the latter part of September they conducted
him on foot and without any consideration whatever to the
capital of Isabela. In this town he was at once placed in
solitary confinement in one of the rooms of the _convento_
and allowed no intercourse with any one. The sin for which
they recriminated Piera was his having charged Dimas [283]
with being a filibuster, and their revengefulness reached
an incredible limit. The heartrending moans of this martyr
to his duty still resound in that _convento_ converted into
the scene of an orgy of blood. The unfortunate man was heard
to shout: 'For God's sake, for God's sake, have pity,' and
trustworthy persons tell that under the strain of torture
he would challenge them to fight in a fair field by saying:
'I will fight alone against twenty of you;' but the cowardly
torturers, a reproach to the Filipino race, looked upon it as
an amusement to glut their spite on a defenceless man whose
hands were tied. They had him strung up all night with but
insignificant refreshment and rest, sometimes being suspended
by his arms which finally became disjointed and useless, and
at others he was hung up by his feet, the blood rushing to his
head and placing him in imminent danger of sudden death. It
was the intention of these brutes to torture him as much as
possible before killing him, just as a member of the feline
race plays with, tosses in the air and pirouettes around the
victim which falls into his claws. If to the torture of the
rope are added the blows with cudgels and the butts of rifles
which were frequently rained upon the victim it will be no
surprise that early on the morning of the 30th he was in the
throes of death in the midst of which the sufferer had just
enough strength to say that he was hungry and thirsty; then
those cannibals (the heart is filled with fury in setting forth
such cruelty) cut a piece of flesh from the calf of the dying
man's leg and conveyed it to his mouth and instead of water
they gave him to drink some of his own urine. What savagery!
"The blood from the wound finished the killing of the fainting
Piera. The blood shed served to infuriate more the barbarous
executioners who in order to give the finishing stroke to the
martyr, as an unrivalled expression of their savage ferocity,
thrust a red-hot iron into his mouth and eyes. That same night
these treacherous and ferocious tyrants whose sin made them
hate the light, buried the body in the darkness of the night
in a patch of cogon grass adjoining the _convento_."
Piera's torture was by no means confined to this last night of his
life, as the following account of it shows:--
"In the first days of this accursed month, while the padres
were bemoaning their fate in jail, a dark drama was being
enacted in the _convento_, whose hair-raising scenes would
have inspired terror to Montepiu himself.
"Lieutenant Salvador Piera of the Guardia Civil, commanding
officer at Aparri, who, realizing that all resistance
was useless, gave way to the persistent solicitations of
Spaniards and natives and surrendered that town on honourable
terms, which the Katipúnan forces did not respect after
the capitulation had been signed, was sent for by Villa,
the military authority of Isabela. Something terrible was
going to happen as Piera himself felt confident, for it is
said that before leaving Aparri he went to confession where
he settled the important business of his conscience in a
Christian manner with a representative of God.
"And so it turned out, for as soon as he arrived in Ilagan he
was taken to the _convento_ and placed incomunicado in one of
its apartments. Soon after, three or four vile fiends,--for
they do not deserve the name of men,--bound him with strong
cords and hanged him to a beam. Then they began to charge
him with having prosecuted a certain Mason, and inflicted
upon him the most frightful tortures. The pen refuses to set
forth so many atrocities. For three days they had him in that
position while his vile assassins made a martyr of him. Our
hair stands on end to think of such crimes. The heart-rending
cries of this unfortunate man while prey to such barbarous
torments could be heard in every part of the town and carried
panic to the homes of all the inhabitants.
"The late hours of the night were always chosen by those
treacherous fiends to give Piera the _trato de cuerda_ (this
form of torture consists in tying the hands of the victim
behind his back and hanging him by them by a rope passed
through a pulley attached to a beam; his body is lifted as
high as it will go and then allowed to fall by its own weight
without reaching the ground); but this torture was administered
to him in a form so terrible that all the pictures of this kind
of torment found in the dreadful narratives of the calumniators
of the Holy Office, pale into insignificance in comparison
with the atrocious details of the tortures here recited; at
each violent jerk the unhappy victim feeling that his limbs
were being torn asunder would cry out 'My God! My God!' This
terrifying cry reverberating through the jail would freeze
the very blood of the poor priests therein incarcerated.
"On the third day, when those infuriated hyenas appeared
to have spent their diabolical rage; after they had thrust
a red-hot iron into his eyes and left him with sightless
sockets; the poor martyr, the prey of delirium, cried out
that he was hungry, and one of those _sicarii_ cut a piece of
flesh from Piera's thigh and was infamous enough to carry it
to his mouth. On the night of the seventh of the month very
late a number of wretches buried in the _convento_ garden a
body still dripping warm blood from the lips of which there
escaped the feeble plaints of anguish of a dying man."
The feeling of the Spaniards relative to this matter is well shown
by the following statement of Father Malumbres:--
"This horrible crime cannot be pardoned by God or man, and
is still uninvestigated, crying to Heaven for vengeance with
greater reason than the blood of the innocent Abel. So long
as the criminals remain unpunished it will be a black and
indelible stigma and an ugly stain on the race harbouring
in its midst the perpetrators of this unheard-of sin. Words
of reprobation are not enough, justice demands exemplary and
complete reparation, and if the powers of earth do not take
justice into their own hands, God will send fire from Heaven
and will cause to disappear from the face of the earth the
criminals and even their descendants. A murder so cruel and
premeditated can be punished in no other way.
"If the courts here should wish to punish the guilty persons
it would not be a difficult task; the public points its
finger at those who dyed their hands in the blood of the
heroic soldier, and we shall set them forth here echoing
the voice of the people. The soulless instigator was Dimas
Guzman. The executioners were a certain José Guzman (alias
Pepin, a nephew of Dimas) and Cayetano Pérez."
The matter was duly taken up in the courts, and Judge Blount himself
tried the cases.
The judge takes a very mild and liberal view of the occurrence. He
says of it: [284]--
"Villa was accompanied by his aide, Lieutenant Ventura
Guzman. The latter is an old acquaintance of the author
of the present volume, who tried him afterwards, in 1901,
for playing a minor part in the murder of an officer of the
Spanish army committed under Villa's orders just prior to,
or about the time of, the Wilcox-Sargent visit. He was found
guilty, and sentenced, but later liberated under President
Roosevelt's amnesty of 1902. He was guilty, but the deceased,
so the people in the Cagayan Valley used to say, in being
tortured to death, got only the same sort of medicine he had
often administered thereabouts. At any rate, that was the
broad theory of the amnesty in wiping out all these old cases."
He adds:--
"I sentenced both Dimas and Ventura to life imprisonment for
being accessory to the murder of the Spanish officer above
named, Lieutenant Piera. Villa officiated as arch-fiend on
the grewsome occasion. I am quite sure I would have hung
Villa without any compunction at that time, if I could have
gotten hold of him. I tried to get hold of him, but Governor
Taft's attorney-general, Mr. Wilfley, wrote me that Villa was
somewhere over on the mainland of Asia on British territory,
and extradition would involve application to the London Foreign
Office. The intimation was that we had trouble enough of our
own without borrowing any from feuds that had existed under
our predecessors in sovereignty. I have understood that Villa
is now practising medicine in Manila. More than one officer
of the American army that I know afterwards did things to
the Filipinos almost as cruel as Villa did to that unhappy
Spanish officer, Lieutenant Piera. On the whole, I think
President Roosevelt acted wisely and humanely in wiping the
slate. We had new problems to deal with, and were not bound
to handicap ourselves with the old ones left over from the
Spanish régime." [285]
But it happens that this was the Filipino régime. Piera's torture
occurred at the very time when, according to Blount, Aguinaldo had
"a wonderfully complete 'going concern' throughout the Philippine
archipelago."
Furthermore, it occurred in the Cagayan valley where Blount says
"perfect tranquillity and public order" were then being maintained
by "the authority of the Aguinaldo government" in a country which
Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent, who arrived on the scene of this barbarous
murder by torture four weeks later, found so "quiet and orderly."
Not only was Blount perfectly familiar with every detail of this
damnable crime, but he must of necessity have known of the torturing
of friars to extort money, which preceded and followed it.
The following statement seems to sum up his view of the whole matter:--
"It is true there were cruelties practised by the Filipinos
on the Spaniards. But they were ebullitions of revenge for
three centuries of tyranny. They do not prove unfitness for
self-government. I, for one, prefer to follow the example set
by the Roosevelt amnesty of 1902, and draw the veil over all
those matters." [286]
The judge drew the veil not only over this, but, as we have seen,
over numerous other pertinent matters which occurred in this land of
"profound peace and tranquillity" just at the time Wilcox and Sargent
were making their trip. My apologies to him for withdrawing the
veil and for maintaining that such occurrences as those in question
demonstrate complete and utter unfitness for self-government on the
part of those who brought them about!
If it be true that Blount knew more than one officer of the American
army who did things to the Filipinos almost as cruel as Villa did to
Lieutenant Piera, why did he not report them and have the criminals
brought to justice?
Such an attack on the army, in the course of which there is not given
a name or a fact which could serve as a basis for an investigation,
is cowardly and despicable.
I do not for a moment believe that Blount speaks the truth, but if
he does, then his failure to attempt to bring to justice the human
fiends concerned brands him!
It has been the fashion in certain quarters to make vile allegations
of this sort against officers of the United States army, couching them
in discreetly general terms. This is a contemptible procedure, for
it frees those who make reckless charges from danger of the criminal
proceedings which would otherwise doubtless be brought against them.
On arrival at Ilagan, the town where Piera was tortured to death,
Blount says [287] that Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent were
"given a grand _baile_ [ball] and _fiesta_ [feast], a kind
of dinner-dance, we would call it.... From Ilagan they
proceeded to Aparri, cordially received everywhere, and
finding the country in fact, as Aguinaldo always claimed in
his proclamations of that period, seeking recognition of his
government by the Powers, in a state of profound peace and
tranquillity--free from brigandage and the like."
Within sight of the banquet hall, within hearing of the music, lay
a lighter on which were huddled eighty-four priests of the Catholic
Church, many of them gray-haired old men, innocent of any evil conduct,
who for weeks had suffered, mentally and physically, the tortures of
the damned.
Of the events of this evening and the following day Father Malumbres
says:--
"From the river the _convento_ could be seen profusely
illuminated and the strains of music could be heard, an
evident sign that they were engaged in revelry. This gave us
a bad start, as we came to fear that Villa had returned from
the expedition undertaken to come up with two Americans who
had crossed the Caraballo range and were thinking of coming
down as far as Aparri. It was late to announce to Villa our
arrival at Ilagan, so that we were obliged to pass the night
on the lighter. In the morning our boat was anchored in front
of the pueblo of Ilagan, where we were credibly informed that
Villa had returned. This accursed news made us begin to fear
some disagreeable incident.
"Our Matias went ashore and delivered the official
communication regarding our transfer to Villa, while we
waited impatiently for his decision. Sergeant Matias at length
returned with orders for our disembarkation; we put on the best
clothes we had and the rowers placed a broad plank between
the lighter and the arsenal and we left our floating prison
two abreast. Matias called the roll and the order to march,
we were eighty-four friars in a long column climbing the
steep ascent to Ilagan.
"When we had arrived in front of the building used for
headquarters, we faced about in front thereof, and the
first thing we saw in one of the windows were the sinister
features of Falaris, who with a thundering brow and black
look was delighting himself in the contemplation of so many
priests surrounded by bayonets and filled with misery. Any
other person but Villa would have melted on seeing such
a spectacle, which could but incite compassion. The two
American tourists were also looking on at this horrible scene
as if stupefied, but they soon withdrew in order, perhaps,
not to look upon such a painful picture. It was, indeed,
heartrending to contemplate therein old gray-haired men who
had passed their lives in apostolic work side by side with
young men who had just arrived in this ungrateful land, and
many sick who rather than men seemed to be marble statues,
who had no recourse but to stand in line, without one word
of consolation; therein figured some who wore religious garb,
others in secular dress limited to a pair of rumpled trousers
and a cast-off coat, the lack of this luxurious garment being
replaced in some instances by a native shirt.
"For two long hours we were detained in the middle of the
street under the rays of a burning sun and to the scandal of
the immense crowd which had been gathered together to witness
the denouement of the tragedy. The priests had hardly come into
the presence of Villa when Fathers Isidro and Florentino were
called out for the purpose of having heaped upon them a flood
of insults and affronts. Father Isidro was ordered by Villa to
interview Sr. Sabas Orros, who, Villa supposed, would wreak his
revenge blindly upon him, but he was greatly mistaken, as said
gentleman treated the priest with great respect; the tyrant
remained talking to Father Florentino in the reception room
of the headquarters building, and when it appeared that such
talk would come to blows, the elder of the Americans left one
of the rooms toward the reception room, and the scene suddenly
changing, Villa arose and addressing the priest said: 'I am
pleased to introduce to you an American Brigadier-General,
Mr. N.' The latter returned a cordial greeting in Spanish to
the priest who made a courteous acknowledgment; after this
exchange of courtesies, Villa resumed his defamatory work,
pouring out a string of absurdities and infamous insults
upon the friars, going so far as to say in so many words:
'from the bishop down you are all thieves and depraved' he
added another word which it would be shameful to write down,
and so he went on from one abyss to another without regard
to reputations or the respect due to venerated persons.
"The American let his disgust be seen while Villa was talking,
and the latter understood these protests and ordered the
priest to withdraw, the comedy coming to an end by the
American shaking hands with the priest and offering him
assistance. Villa would not shake hands with him, as was
natural, but the priest was able to see that he was confused
when he saw the distinction and courtesy with which an
American general had treated a helpless friar. What a narrow
idea did the Americans form of the government of Aguinaldo,
represented by men as savage and inhuman as Villa!
"The natives averred that the Americans referred to were
spies who had come to explore those provinces and were
making maps of the strategic points and principal roads,
so that a very careful watch was kept upon them and Villa
took measures to have them go down the river without landing
at any place between Echague and Ilagan. At Ilagan they were
given an entertainment and dance, Villa being a skilled hand
in this sort of thing, and a few days later he accompanied
them to Aparri [288] without allowing them to set foot on
land. The government of Aguinaldo no longer had everything
its own way, and secret orders had been given to have every
step of the explorers followed. The commanding and other
leading officers of the Valley, supporting the orders of the
government, circulated an order throughout the towns which
read as follows:--
"'_To All Local Officers_:
"'You will not permit any maps to be made or notes
to be taken of strategic points by Americans or
foreigners; nor will you allow them to become
acquainted with the points of defence; you will
endeavour to report immediately to this Government any
suspicious persons; you will make your investigations
secretly, accompanying suspected persons and feigning
that their investigations are approved, and finally
when it shall seem to you that such suspected persons
have finished their work, you will advise without
loss of time, in order that their notes may be seized.'
"Despite this order the Americans were able to
inform themselves very thoroughly of the forces in
the Valley and its state of defence, and Filipinos
were not lacking who for a few pesos would put them
abreast of all information regarding the plans and
projects of Aguinaldo's government."
Relative to this Wilcox-Sargent trip Taylor says:--
"In October and November, 1898, Paymaster W. B. Wilcox,
U.S.N., and Naval Cadet L. R. Sargent, U.S.N., travelled
through Northern Luzon from which they returned with a
favourable impression of the government which had been set
up by Aguinaldo's agents.
"It was realized by the subtle men whom they met that it
was highly expedient that they should make a favourable
report and accordingly they were well received, and although
constant obstacles were thrown in the way of their seeing
what it was not considered well for them to see yet the real
reasons for the delays in their journey were carefully kept
from them. At least some of their letters to the fleet were
taken, translated, and sent to Aguinaldo, who kept them,
and constant reports upon them and their movements were made."
Blount refers to the fact that Mr. Sargent tells a characteristic
story of Villa, [289] whose vengeful feeling toward the Spaniards
showed on all occasions.
It would doubtless have interested the travellers to know that the
"robbery" consisted in taking the funds out of the province to save
them from falling into Villa's hands, and in paying them to soldiers in
Nueva Vizcaya to whom money was due. It would further have interested
them to know that this unfortunate Spaniard had been twice tortured
within an inch of his life by Villa.
But let us continue our interrupted narrative:--
"The presence of the Americans in Ilagan soon freed us from
certain forms of savagery and barbarous intentions on the
part of Villa. There can be no doubt that the tyrant was
constantly cudgelling his brains to invent new methods of
showing his contempt for the friars; at the unlucky time we
write of he conceived the infamous plan of ordering a circular
enclosure of cane to be made, put a pig into it--we trust
the reader will pardon the details--with a bell hung to his
neck, blindfolded the priests and compelled them to enter the
enclosure with sticks in their hands, and in this ridiculous
attitude, obliged them to strike about when the sound of the
bell appraised them of the animal's proximity; it is obvious
that the principal purpose of the fiendish Villa was to have
the priests lay about them in such a way as to deal each
other the blows instead of the pig. The tyrant also had the
idea of making us and the other priests in Ilagan parade the
streets of that town dancing and playing the band. The wish
to consummate his plan was not lacking but he was deterred by
the presence of the Americans and the arguments of Sr. Sabas
Orros to whom we also owed the signal favour that Villa did
not take us to our prisons at Tumauini and Gamut on foot and
with our clothing in a bundle at our backs."
On October 2 a banquet was given in Villa's honour at Ilagan and the
pleasant idea occurred to him to have four of the friars dance at
it for his amusement. The people of the town put their handkerchiefs
before their faces to shut out the sight, and some wept. Father Campo,
one of the priests who was obliged to dance, had great ulcers on his
legs from the wounds caused by the cords with which he had been bound
when he was tortured with water, and was at first unable to raise his
feet from the floor; but Villa threatened him with a rattan until he
finally did so. This caused the sores on his legs to burst open so
that the bones showed.
On the 3d of October a number of the friars were compelled to get up a
band and go out and meet Leyba with music on his arrival. The people
of the towns closed their windows in disgust at the sight. A great
crowd had gathered to receive Leyba, and the priests were compelled
to dance in the middle of the street, but this again only caused
disgust. A couple of priests were then beaten in the usual fashion
in a private house. This caused murmuring even among those of the
soldiers who were natives of the Cagayan valley. At the same time
two other priests were horribly whipped in the prison.
This has been a long story, but the half has not been told. Those
who escaped torture had their feelings harrowed by the sight of
the sufferings of their fellows. They were constantly and grossly
insulted; were often confined in the most unsanitary quarters; given
poor and insufficient food and bad water, or none at all; robbed of
their clothing; compelled to march long distances under a tropical
sun when sick, wounded and suffering; obliged to do servants' work
publicly; forced to make a ridiculous spectacle of themselves in the
public streets; ordered to recant, and heaven knows what not!
The torments practised on them had two principal objects: to
compel them to give up money, and to discredit them with the common
people. They failed to accomplish this latter result. There is abundant
evidence that the natives of the Cagayan valley clothed and fed
them when they could, and wept over the painful humiliations and the
dreadful sufferings which they were powerless to prevent or relieve.
The tormentors were men from distant provinces, with no possible
personal grievances against the priests whom they martyrized. Their
action was the result, not of an "ebullition of revenge for three
centuries of tyranny" as stated by Blount, but of insensate greed
of gold and damnable viciousness. I believe the American people will
hold that such cruelities brand those who practise them as unfit to
govern their fellows, or themselves.
Lest I be accused of basing my conclusions on _ex parte_ statements
I will now return to the Insurgent record of events in the Cagayan
valley.
At the outset the Spanish officers of the Tabacalera Company [290]
fared comparatively well. In a letter dated September 27, 1898, and
addressed to the secretary of war of the revolutionary government,
Leyba says of the taking of Tuguegarao that the only terms of the
surrender were to respect life. He therefore felt at liberty to seize
all the money that the friars had hidden, "which was accomplished
by applying the stick." He adds that they did nothing to the agents
of the great Tabacalera Company, then the most powerful commercial
organization in the Islands, for the significant reason that they
had found that its stock was largely held by Frenchmen and feared
trouble. [291]
On December 4, 1898, Leyba, concerning whose ideas as to public order
we are already informed, wrote a most illuminating letter setting
forth the conditions which had existed there. He does not claim that
there had been Octavian peace!
It should be borne in mind that this letter covers the very time
during which Messrs. Wilcox and Sargent passed through the Cagayan
valley. It paints a vivid picture of conditions, and as the painter
was the ranking Insurgent officer in the valley during this entire
period, he cannot be accused of hostile prejudice. I therefore give
the letter in full'--
"_Aparri_, December 4, 1898.
"_Don Baldomero Aguinaldo_,
"_The Secretary of War_:
"_Dear Sir and of My Greatest Esteem_: I take the liberty
of addressing this to you in order to state that owing to
the lack of discipline in the soldiers whom we have brought,
since they are all volunteers and whom I am not able to reduce
to rigorous subordination, for the revolution would find itself
without soldiers with whom to win triumph, they committed many
abuses and misdeed which, for the lack of evidence, I was
not able to punish, although I knew of these abuses but had
no proof, and as a lover of my country and of the prestige
of the Revolutionary Army, I took care not to disclose the
secret to any one, in this way avoiding the formation of an
atmosphere against the cause of our Independence to the grave
injury of us all. But it happened that, in spite of the good
advice which I have given them and the punishments which I have
given to some of the 3d Company of Cauit, they did not improve
their conduct but have gone to the extreme of committing a
scandalous robbery of 20,800 pesos which sum the German, Otto
Weber, was taking to the capital, which deed has caused me
to work without ceasing, without sleeping entire nights, for
I understood what a serious matter it was to take money from
a foreigner. After making many inquiries, it was discovered
that a very large part of the money which reached the sum of
$10,000, a little more or less, was buried under the quarters
which the said company occupied, this with the sanction of
all the officers, it appears to me, because it is impossible
that such a sum could be brought into a house where so many
soldiers are living without the knowledge of the officers.
"Indignant at such shameful behaviour, I reprimanded the
officers and preferred charges against the ones I deemed to
blame in the matter.
"Afterwards I found out that they had attempted to murder
me for trying to find out the originators of the crime. On
account of this, and in order to prevent a civil war which
would have broken out against the said soldiers if precautions
had not been taken, I decided to disarm them, to the great
displeasure of the Colonel who was not aware of my motives.
"This bad conduct has been copied by the soldiers of the 4th
Company stationed in Ilagan, and I believe the Colonel, guided
by my warning, will take the same measures in regard to them.
"As the officers are the first ones to commit abuses and
misdeeds, it is easily seen that the soldiers under their
orders, guided by them, will commit worse ones than the
chiefs, and as these seem to lack the moral strength to
control and reprimand them, I propose to you, if it meets your
approval, that all these soldiers and some of the officers
be returned to their homes by the steamer _Luzon_, if there
should be sufficient coal, or in another if you order it,
since they tell me themselves that because they are far
away from their homes they do not wish to continue in the
service in this province. This is easily arranged as there
are now men stationed in this province for instructing the
native volunteers, many of whom have been students, and will
therefore make good officers and non-commissioned officers,
and in this way a battalion could be formed, well disciplined
from the beginning and disgraceful things would be avoided
not only towards the natives of this province but also towards
foreigners, which is the most important. Having stated my case,
I place myself always at your disposal, requesting you will
attend to this affair.
"With reference to the 4th Company stationed in the Province
of Isabela, whose captain is Don Antonio Monzon of Panamitan,
there are many complaints of thefts and assaults committed
by the soldiers, and in answer to my questions, Don Simeón
Adriano y Villa, Major and Sanitary Inspector and doctor of
this battalion, whom I have stationed there for lack of a
competent person, tells me that he has always punished and
offered advice to officers and soldiers in order to prevent
the recurrence of thefts and assaults, but he has never been
able to suppress them completely, because the soldiers are
abandoned by their officers, and because of lack of example
on the part of the latter; they do not understand that it is
a great blot when they commit these abuses, since when they
discover the goods or house of a Spaniard they believe they
have a right to appropriate everything which they encounter.
"I have learned lately, that some foreigners, residents in that
province, among them some employees of the Tobacco Factory,
'El Oriente' and of the firm of Baer Senior & Co., who have
Spanish employees in various pueblos of that province, have
some very serious complaints to make of assaults committed
against them prejudicial to their interests; however, I
hope that now with the arrival of General Tirona he will
regulate matters, although I believe that this gentleman
is not sufficiently energetic in proceeding against the
officers and soldiers, as I have seen when I reprimanded
and punished them for faults committed he has pardoned them,
and it appears that he censures energetic acts which we must
use in order to subject them to rigorous discipline. The same
thing happened when Major Sr. Victa wished to discipline them;
it appears that the Colonel reprimanded him when he punished
some soldiers for gambling in their quarters, since, as you
know, that gentleman believes that he who is right is the one
who comes to him first, and who is best able to flatter him.
"The Colonel has agreed with me that his first act on arrival
at the province of Isabela should be to disarm and take all
the money he finds among the soldiers of the 4th Company
(Panamitan) in order to serve as indemnity for the property
of the foreigners in case they should make any claim.
"I request that you send some leader or officer in order to
superintend our actions, and to lift the doubt which hangs
over the person who has worked faithfully and honourably in
the sacred cause of our Independence.
"I am filling the position of First Chief in the Port of
Aparri temporarily on account of the absence of the Colonel
who has conferred on me all his duties and power. After the
military operations which were carried on as far as the last
town in Isabela, being tired and somewhat sick, I was put in
charge of these military headquarters, which I found to be
very much mixed up, the town, moreover, being desperate on
account of the assaults committed by my predecessor, Rafael
Perca, who was appointed by the Colonel, and who was formerly
2d Captain of the steamer _Filipinas._ After arriving and
taking charge, having received numerous complaints against
him, I had him arrested and I found that he had been guilty
of robbery, unlawful use of insignia, illegal marriage, rape
and attempted rape. I hold him in custody only awaiting the
arrival of the Colonel in order to convene a court-martial
for his trial, in which the Colonel will act as President
and I as Judge Advocate.
"With nothing more to communicate, I hope you will attend
to my just claim and send a special delegate to investigate
our acts and see the truth, for perhaps if a statement comes
direct from me you will not believe it.
"I am your affectionate and faithful subordinate, who kisses
your hand,
(Signed) "_J. N. Leyba_." [292]
Blount states that conditions existed "just like this, all over Luzon
and the Visayan Islands." [293] Unfortunately this was only too true!
The troops complained of by Leyba were made up of Aguinaldo's fellow
townsmen. They never obeyed any one else, and left a trail of murder
and rapine behind them. Aguinaldo never punished them, and from the
time when one of them tried to murder their commander until a guard
composed of them murdered General Antonio Luna in June, 1899, they
are mentioned only with fear and execration.
Blount describes with enthusiasm the establishment of civil government
in Cagayan.
Perhaps Americans will be interested in knowing who was its head and
how it worked. The "elections" were held on December 9, 1898, and Dimas
Guzman was chosen head of the province. He was the man subsequently
sentenced to life-imprisonment by Blount, for complicity in the
murder of Lieutenant Piera. In describing his method of conducting his
government he says that the people doubted the legality of attempts
to collect taxes; that the abuses of heads of towns caused rioting in
the towns, in which only Ilocanos took part; and that he not only did
not report these things but contrived to conceal them from foreigners
in the province. [294]
His failure to report these troubles and disorders to his government
is of interest, as Blount alleges [295] that differences between the
local authorities were in a number of cases referred to the Malolos
government for settlement.
Blount says [296] that General Otis's reports were full of inexcusable
blunders about the Tagálogs taking possession of provinces and making
the people do things, and cites the relations between Villa and Dimas
Guzman to illustrate the error of these allegations.
He has elsewhere [297] referred to Villa as the "arch-fiend" in the
matter of torturing the unhappy Spaniards as well as the Filipinos who
incurred his ill-will. We have seen that Guzman proved an apt pupil
and did credit to his instructor in connection with the torturing
of Lieutenant Piera, but it nevertheless appears from Guzman's own
statements that his relations with the Insurgent officers and their
subordinates involved some rather grave difficulties. Of Major Canoy,
for instance, he says:--
"I must add that the said Major Canoy is such a remarkable
character that he saw fit to give my cook a beating for not
taking off his hat when he met him. He insulted the delegate
of rents of Cabagan Viejo for the same reason. He struck the
head man of the town of Bagabag in the face. He put some of
the members of the town council of Echague in the stocks,
and he had others whipped." [298]
It was really incautious for Governor Guzman to complain of these
conditions because Major Canoy and his party won, and the Governor
had to resign.
But the day of reckoning came. It was in consequence of the atrocities
committed by the Tagálog soldiers in the Cagayan valley that Captain
Batchelder was able a little later to march practically unopposed
through the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela and Cagayan with one
battalion of American negro troops, for whom he had neither food nor
extra ammunition, and that Tirona surrendered the Insurgent forces
in the valley without attempting resistance!