PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



565 



and at Surigao. Every effort that the insurgent 

 leaders made to mass together enough men to 

 crush one of the garrisons failed. The recrudes- 

 cence of disturbances began in August, and in 

 September the situation became so much worse 

 that Gen. Mac-Arthur asked for and received re- 

 enforcements to his army of 65,000 men. So many 

 men were required to furnish supplies to distant 

 garrisons, escorts for wagon trains and for mili- 

 tary and civil officers, and the protection of peace- 

 ful natives against ladrones and vengeful insur- 

 gents, as also the Government property scattered 

 among the numerous stations, that few were left 

 for active operations against the remaining insur- 

 gents and robber bands. In September the country 

 north of Pasig, including all Bulucan, became dis- 

 turbed, as well as the south, including Tayabas. 

 At Mavitac, Capt. Mitchell with 140 men attacked 

 800 insurgents in position, and eventually they 

 were forced to retreat, but the 2 chief officers and 

 22 men of the Americans lost their lives. Several 

 small engagements took place in the Ilocan prov- 

 inces. In October the insurgents redoubled their 

 activity, although without having any centralized 

 military organization. Their civil administration 

 had entirely disappeared when their army was 

 broken up and the United States troops occupied 

 the provinces, except that wherever municipalities 

 were organized by the Americans riv,al municipal 

 authorities secretly collected contributions and ex- 

 ercised judicial and executive powers in the name 

 of the Philippine Republic. In some instances they 

 were the very officials whom the American Gov- 

 ernment had installed, who seemed to carry out 

 their proper official duties and their treasonable 

 activities with equal zeal. One band of about 400 

 insurgents the troops pursued vigorously and 

 wiped out because it was led by an American 

 deserter. In an engagement fought on Oct. 24 a 

 small force of Americans was compelled to retreat 

 before several thousand insurgents. Gen. Vicente 

 Lukban and his men had full sway in the island 

 of Samar with the exception of Catbalogan, Cal- 

 bayog, and Labuan, and the American garrisons 

 in these seacoast towns he worried constantly and 

 defied. Other such freebooters flourished in places 

 where the Americans could not develop military 

 strength, growing rich from the tribute they levied 

 on the planters and merchants, but having no com- 

 munication with each other or with Aguinaldo, 

 who was still in hiding. A Filipino representative, 

 Agoncillo, appeared at this time in the United 

 States and issued a proclamation declaring that 

 the war would last until the Filipinos gained in- 

 dependence ; that such was the desire of the entire 

 population; and that even if the Americans tri- 

 umphed, peace would be only temporary, and a 

 strong army would be required to hold the people 

 in subjection. 



After the presidential election was over the ex- 

 traordinary rebel activity subsided at once. No 

 insurgents were left excepting marauding bands of 

 ladrones and the independent military chiefs who 

 lived by blackmail. Notorious desperadoes who 

 feared punishment for their crimes kept a few 

 followers together in the mountains. The rest of 

 the insurgents gradually surrendered, and in 

 provinces such as Iloilo, in the island of Panay, 

 where the bulk of the people, through rebel sym- 

 pathies or fear of rebel vengeance, had hesitated 

 to take the oath, they came in thousands to swear 

 allegiance to the United States. The Katipunan 

 Tagalogs, who were the backbone of the revolution, 

 and the native padres, who had done most to en- 

 courage the spirit of resistance, accepted American 

 sovereignty with apparent sincerity or resignation. 

 The submission of the Tagalogs set the troops free 



to re-establish peace and introduce orderly govern- 

 ment in the southern islands. 



Organization of Civil Government. The 

 Philippine Commission, appointed to report on the 

 question of civil government for the islands, com- 

 posed of J. G. Schurman, George Dewey, Charles 

 Denby, and Dean C. Worcester, reported to the 

 President in January, 1900, recommending the ap- 

 pointment of an American governor, to be assisted 

 by a council containing both natives and Amer- 

 icans, and of provincial governors, who should be 

 Americans. The constitution of a Legislative As- 

 sembly was suggested, part of the members of 

 which should be elected and the others nominated, 

 the acts of this body to be subject to veto by the 

 United States Government. The islands should 

 be subdivided into administrative divisions, and 

 natives as well as Americans would be eligible 

 for administrative offices. A new Philippine Com- 

 mission was appoint- 

 ed to report to the 

 President on the con- 

 ditions of the islands, 

 to legislate in civil 

 and financial matters 

 subject to the ap- 

 proval of the mili- 

 tary authorities, and 

 to formulate schemes 

 for local self-govern- 

 ment and the devel- 

 opment of civil insti- 

 tutions to supersede 

 the military author- 

 ity after the estab- 

 lishment of order. 

 The decree introduc- 

 ing autonomous and 

 decentralized munici- 

 pal government was 

 promulgated by Gen. 

 Otis on March 29, 

 1900. The laws for 

 the government of 

 the Philippine mu- 

 nicipalities were pre- 

 pared by a board of 

 which Cayetano Are- 

 llano, Chief Justice 

 of the Philippines, 

 was president. The 

 municipal govern- 

 ment of each town 

 was vested in an al- 

 calde and a munici- 

 pal council, to be 

 chosen at large by the qualified electors of 

 the town for the term of two years from 

 the first Monday in January next after the 

 election and until their successors are chosen 

 and qualified. The number of councilors varies 

 from 3 in towns of fewer than 10.000 inhabitants 

 up to 18 in towns of the first class with over 

 25,000 inhabitants. Each elector before casting 

 his ballot is compelled to take an oath that he is 

 not a citizen or a subject of any foreign power, 

 and that he recognizes and accepts the supreme 

 authority of the United States of America, and 

 will maintain true faith and allegiance thereto. 

 The electors are those who have held office under 

 Spanish rule as municipal captain, gobernador- 

 cillo, or lieutenant : those who pay $30 or more 

 in taxes; and those who speak, read, and write 

 English and Spanish. Ecclesiastics, soldiers in ac- 

 tive service, persons receiving salaries from mu- 

 nicipal, provincial, or Government funds, debtors 

 to such funds, contractors of public works and 



A TAOALOG, NATIVE OF 

 MALABON. 



