Part 30 (1/2)

In the presence of the undersigned Peregrin Albano, member of the village council, there being also present the president of the Munic.i.p.al Board of Health, Mr. Tomas San Pablo, and the princ.i.p.al men of the place, there has this day occurred the burial of the corpses, victims of the Pulajans, in the cemetery of this place, to wit: The officer of volunteers, Rafael Rosales, and the following volunteers, viz., Gualberto Gabane, Juan Pacle, Dionisio Daisno, Pedro Damtanan, Carmelo Lagbo; also the two women, Eustaquia Sapiten and Apolinaria N., also one unknown Pulajan. This in fulfilment of the official letter of instructions No. 136, from the office of the presidente of the town of Wright dated to-day. Said burial ceremonies were conducted by the Reverend Father Marcos Gomez, and were attended by the whole volunteer force of this place because of the death of their officer Rosales.

Tomas San Pablo, President of the Board of Health.

Peregrin Albano, Councillor.

(Illegible)----Moro, Captain of Volunteers. [436]

Fancy having doc.u.ments like the foregoing handed you with ever-increasing regularity as you sauntered, morning after morning, from your bath to your coffee and rolls, preparatory to the daily sifting of incidents such as that which included the burning of the American flag on the head of the munic.i.p.al representative of American authority already mentioned, and other like acts of poor misguided peasants stirred up by trifling scamps representing the dregs of insurrection. Motiong was not only within seven miles of the court-house at Catbalogan, but it was so near to Camp b.u.mpus, over in Leyte, where the 18th Infantry lay, that an order to them to move in the morning would have made life and property in all that brigand-harried region safe that night and continuously thereafter.

General Wm. H. Carter, Major-General U. S. A., well known to the American public as the able officer who, in 1911, commanded the United States forces mobilized on the Mexican border during the Mexican revolution of that year, that ousted President Diaz and seated President Madero, was in command at the time--the fall of 1904--of the military district of the Philippines which included Samar and Leyte. A word of request to him would have made life definitely safe in all the coast towns and their vicinity within two or three days after receipt of such a request.

Besides Gandara, Catbalogan, Calbayog, and Wright, Lieutenant Calderon's list included the trio of ill-fated munic.i.p.alities set forth below, concluding with the ill.u.s.trious name of Taft:

MUNIc.i.p.aLITY OF CATUBIG

Poblacion September 5 Tagabiran August 11 San Vicente August --

Catubig was toward the north end of Samar. On the day of the burning and sacking of the poblacion of Catubig, September 5th, which was done by a force of several hundred Pulajans, the scouts and constabulary, so it was afterward reported, killed a hundred of the Catubig Pulajans in an engagement. If this report were correct, as is likely, it was the biggest single killing of natives since the early days of the insurrection. [437] But it did not in the least check the Pulajan insurrection, which simply swerved its fury from the Catubig region toward the coast (the Pacific coast), descending upon the towns, villages, and hamlets of the towns.h.i.+ps of Borongan and Taft, thus:

MUNIc.i.p.aLITY OF BORONGAN

(Calderon's List of Barrios Burned, continued)

Sepa Sept. 23 Lucsohong Sept. 23 Maybocog Sept. 23 Maydolong Sept. 23 Soribao Sept. 23 Bugas Oct. 10 Punta Maria Oct. 10 Canjauay Oct. 11

MUNIc.i.p.aLITY OF TAFT

(Calderon's List continued)

Del Remedio Sept. 22 San Julian Sept. 22 Nena Sept. 22 Libas Sept. 22 Pagbabangnan Sept. 22 San Vicente Sept. 21 Jinolaso Oct. 3

Of the twenty-five pueblos or towns.h.i.+ps of Samar, the Calderon list only pretended to throw light on events in nine of them, those being the only ones from which definite news had then reached headquarters. But as a reign of terror prevailed all over Samar at the time, the rest may be imagined, though it can never be ascertained. Of these nine, the last two were:

MUNIc.i.p.aLITY OF LLORENTE

Pagbabalancayan Sept. 23

MUNIc.i.p.aLITY OF ORAS

Concepcion Sept. 23 Jipapad --

Now it feels just as uncomfortable to be boloed in Pagbabalancayan as it would in a place with a more p.r.o.nounceable name, and the same is true of the comparatively mellifluous Jipapad. True, some of these places were mere hamlets of twenty to forty houses, but you may be sure there were five or six people, on an average, to each house. On the other hand, glance back again at the list of towns of the towns.h.i.+p of Taft that were sacked and burned, and consider that San Julian was about the size of the provincial capital, Catbalogan, and that Catbalogan, the town proper, contained a population of four thousand, though looked at from the amphitheatre of hills which surround it, Catbalogan does not look like such a very large group of houses. Filipino houses are usually full of people. It is easier to live that way than to build more houses.

After the Pulajan descent on Llorente, the people of Llorente all went off to the hills to the Pulajans for safety. They were not allowed to have firearms. This was forbidden by law, except on condition of making formal application for permission, getting it finally approved, and giving a bond, conditions which, in practical operation, made the prohibition all but absolute. The law was general for the whole archipelago. The theory of the law was that the inhabitants were under ”the peace and protection of a benign civil government.” The real reason of the law was that if the people were allowed to bear arms it was very uncertain which side they would use them on, our side or the other. But, by 1904, the lowland and coast people of Samar would have been glad enough to have stuck to us and gone out after the mountain robber bands had we armed them. Left unprotected, a feeling seemed to spread in many places that about the only thing to do to be safe was to depart from under the ”protection” of the American flag and take to the hills and join, or seem to join, the uprising.