Chattel slavery existed in the Philippine Islands when Magellan discovered them in 1521. It exists there to-day.
Morga, who was in the Philippines from 1595 to about 1608, and is admittedly the most reliable chronicler of the events of those early days, has given the following interesting account of the conditions then existing:1—
“There are three classes of persons among the natives of these Islands, by which the commonwealth is divided: principales, of whom I have spoken before; timawa which is the same as plebeians, and slaves, of principales as well as of timawa. These slaves were of various classes: some are in entire servitude and slavery, like those which we have, and these are called sagigilir; they served in the interior of the houses and so also the children descended from them; others, who have their own dwellings, which they inhabit with their family, away from the house of their master, and these come in at times to help the latter in their fields and crops, as also aboard the vessel when they embark, and in the construction of their houses whenever they erect such, and they also serve in their houses whenever there is a guest of some distinction, and they are under obligation, whenever the master has them called, to come to his house and to serve him in this ministry without pay or other stipend; these are called namamahai, and their children and descendents are slaves of the same condition. Of these slaves sagigilir and namamahai there are some who are slaves entirely, and others who are only half slaves, and others who are slaves only for a fourth part. This originates thus: if either the father or the mother was free and they had a single child, the latter was half free and half slave. If they had more than one child, the children were distributed in this way: the first followed the condition of the father, be he free or a slave, and the second that of the mother; and if the number was uneven, the last child was half free and half slave; and those descended from such child, if they had a free father or a free mother, remained slave only for a fourth part, because they were children of a free father, or mother, and of a half slave. These half or quarter slaves, namamahai or sagigilir, serve their masters only every second month, respectively, in proportion to their condition as slave.
“Among the natives the ordinary price of a slave sagigilir used to be, if much, ten taes of good gold, worth 80 pesos, and if he is a namamahai half of that, and thus in proportion the others, taking into account the personality and age.
“It cannot be established as a principle from where these classes of servitude among the natives arose, for they are all of the islands and not foreigners; it is understood that they made them in their wars and differences; and the most certain is that those who were most powerful made and took as slaves the others for slight causes and occasions, and most often through loans and usurious contracts current amongst them, the payment, risk and debt increasing with the lapse of time until they became slaves; and thus all these forms of servitude have their violent and unjust origin, and it is about them that there arise the greater part of the lawsuits that exist among the natives and with which they keep busy the judges in the forum of the court, and the confessors in that of the conscience.”
To the last of the preceding paragraphs Rizal makes the following annotation, which, mutatis mutandis, should give leading Filipinos of to-day matter for reflection:—
“This class of slaves exists even now in many parts, and before all in the province of Batangas, but it must be confessed that their condition is very different from that of a slave in Greece, or Rome, from that of the negro, and even of those made in later times by Spaniards....
“Filipinas, in spite of so many centuries of christianization, in spite of the efforts of some few noble minds, priests as well as civilians, continues still, and is desired to continue, almost in the same state as formerly, for those who direct the country look more to the present than to the future, and because they are guided not by confidence, but by fear. The efforts of the religious corporations to improve this state of things have never been as efficacious, nor as strenuous, as might have been expected from them.”
A Mandayan Boy.
Morga continues:2—
“These slaves are the greatest wealth and capital which the natives of these islands possess, because they are to them very useful and necessary for their labors and farms; and among them they are sold, exchanged, and made objects of contract, like any other merchandise, from one pueblo to the other, from one province to the other, and likewise from one island to the other. For which reason, and in order to avoid so many lawsuits that would arise, if the question of these servitudes, their origin and beginning, were taken up, they [the slaves, Tr.] are retained and kept as they were kept formerly.”
Rizal comments on this passage as follows:—
“Thus catholicism not only did not liberate the poor class from the tyranny of the oppressive, but with its advent in the Philippines increased the number of tyrants. Time alone, and instruction, which with it brings suaver customs, will ultimately redeem the Pariahs of the Philippines, for we see that the apostles of the peace did not find in themselves sufficient valour to battle with the oppressors, and this in times of great faith; on the contrary, they rather contributed indirectly to their misery, as we see from the foregoing.”
The most frequent cause, already mentioned above, from which these conditions of servitude arose, is again pointed out by Morga in the following passage:3—
“Loans with interest were in very common practice, excessively high rates of interest being current, so that the debt doubled and multiplied all the time during which the payment was deferred, until there was taken from the debtor what he possessed as capital, and, when ultimately nothing more was left, his person and his children.”
Of these statements Rizal says:—
“This is the sad truth, and so much the truth that it subsists until now. In many provinces, and in many towns, there is taking place, word for word, what Morga says, it being to be lamented that at present not only Indios [Filipinos, Tr.] continue this usury, but also the mestizos, the Spaniards, and even various priests. And it has come to this that the Government itself not only permits it, but in its turn exacts the capital and the person in payment of the debt of others, as occurs with the cabeza de barangay.”
It would be easy to compile passages similar to the preceding from other authors, but those given are explicit and authoritative enough to make it clear, first, that slavery existed in the Philippines at the time of the conquest as a general tribal institution of social and economical character and in minutely regulated form; and, second, that although it lost, with the advent of the Spaniards, the character of an institution, and indeed was formally abolished by early edicts from Spain, it continued to exist as an unauthorized practice, so that Rizal, writing at the close of the nineteenth century could say that slaves still existed in many parts of the country.
In a statement recently published in the New York Evening Post, Señor Quezon, Resident Delegate from the Philippines to Congress, has said:—
“Since there is not, and there never was, slavery in the territory inhabited by the Christian Filipinos, which is the part of the Islands subject to the legislative control of the Assembly, this House has refused to concur in the anti-slavery bill passed by the Philippine Commission.”
Whom will the American public believe, Morga, the historian, and Rizal, the Filipino patriot, or Quezon, the Filipino politician?
While I entertain no doubt as to the answer, I shall nevertheless discuss at length the more recent history and present status of slavery and peonage in the Philippines, because of the vital importance of full knowledge of the facts to intelligent consideration of the claim that the Filipinos have arrived at a stage of civilization comparable with that of the more advanced nations of the world, and are capable of establishing and maintaining a just and humane government.
The Spanish Penal Code did not prohibit or penalize slavery, or the purchase or sale of human beings. It did contain provisions against forcible detention of individuals and the abduction of minors, but in the Philippines at least they were more honoured in the breach than in the observance during the Spanish régime.
The Moros raided the towns of the peaceful Filipino inhabitants of the Visayan Islands and of Luzón until within quite recent times. An unhappy fate awaited the prisoners whom they took. Men were frequently compelled to harvest for their captors the crops which they themselves had planted, and were then mercilessly butchered. Women, girls and boys were carried away into slavery, the former to serve as household drudges or as concubines, and the latter to be brought up as slaves pure and simple. Some men met a similar fate. The only reason that more were not enslaved was that it was usually considered too much trouble to make full-grown individuals work. Slaves were held as chattels if it suited the convenience of their masters to retain them, and otherwise were sold, bartered or given away. Zamboanga was at the outset largely populated by escaped Moro slaves who had sought the protection of the Spanish garrison there. Coming originally from widely separated parts of the archipelago, these unfortunates had no common native dialect, hence there arose among them a Spanish patois now known as Zamboangueño.
The American occupation brought many and brusque changes in political conditions. The attitude of Americans toward slavery and peonage was very different from that of the easy-going Spaniards, who had never sanctioned it but had never made any determined effort to break it up.
From the effective establishment of United States sovereignty in 1899 until July 4, 1901, the Philippines were under military rule, which has one great advantage: its methods usually bring quick results.
Doubtless the majority of the slaves then held in the islands were too timid, and too suspicious of the character and purposes of Americans, to appeal to them for protection; but there were not a few whose lives had become so unbearable that they were prepared to take almost any risk on the chance of securing release. People of this class ran away from their masters and sought the protection of army officers. I am glad to say that in every such instance which has come to my knowledge it was promptly given. Not only were they advised that they could not be held in bondage, and were free to go where they pleased, but when practicable their masters were warned against attempting to regain control over them. It is probable that the large majority of such cases were never officially reported. Most of the army officers concerned were in some doubt as to their legal status in the premises, but they knew that the constitution of the United States prohibits slavery; their sympathies went out to the wretched human beings who appealed to them for aid, and they decided to be a law unto themselves.
After the establishment of civil government some army officers continued to exercise arbitrary powers in dealing with such cases of slavery as came to their attention, while others contented themselves with reporting them to the civil authorities.
The conditions which prevailed in the Moro Province in 1902 are concisely described by its military governor, General George W. Davis, in a report written on August 25 of that year. He said:—
“With a people who have no conception of government that is not arbitrary and absolute; who hold human life as no more sacred than the life of an animal; who have become accustomed to acts of violence; who are constrained by fear from continuing the practice of piracy; who still carry on slave trade; who habitually raid the homes of mountain natives and enslave them; who habitually make slaves of their captives in war—even when of their own race; who not uncommonly make delivery of their own kindred as slaves in satisfaction of a debt for liquidation of which they have not the ready money; who habitually observe the precepts of the Koran, which declares that female slaves must submit to their masters,—it is useless to discuss a plan of government that is not based on physical force, might, and power.”
Señor Quezon, in describing conditions in the Moro country, has said:4—
“American authorities made treaties with the Sultan of Joló whereby slavery was legalized and recognized among the non-Christian Moros and received the protection of the United States army and civil authorities. This state of things continued for a long time under official recognition and even after the treaties in question were abandoned it was allowed to go on despite the protests of Filipino and American students of the question.”
It is true that General Bates attempted to negotiate a treaty with the Sultan of Joló, in which he felt himself compelled to recognize slavery as an existing Moro custom. This action was unauthorized and was disapproved by his superiors. It did not legalize slavery. Neither Moro nor any other kind of slavery was ever protected by the civil authorities.
The act providing for the organization of the Moro Province was passed on June 1, 1903, and hardly had the civil officers therein provided for been appointed when, on September 24, 1903, the legislative council passed an act entitled “An Act defining the crimes of slaveholding and slavehunting and prescribing the punishment therefor,”5 which was promptly approved by the Philippine Commission and thus came to have the force and effect of law. Under it active measures were adopted to break up slavery in the Moro Province. They have resulted very successfully, and persons who have captured others to be held or sold as slaves, as well as persons who have actually sold, bought or kept slaves, have been convicted and punished.
Señor Quezon’s statement relative to the attitude of the civil authorities in this matter is therefore recklessly false.
The existence of slavery in the Moro Province was well known from the outset, hence the immediate enactment of legislation to meet the special conditions which prevailed there.
Little by little the commission learned that slavery was by no means confined to Moro territory, and that peonage was general throughout the islands.
Before going further, I wish to make clear the sense in which I use these terms.
I define slavery as the condition of a human being held as a chattel and compelled to render service for which he is not compensated. As food and clothing are necessarily furnished by the slave owner, they are not considered to constitute compensation.
Peonage I define as the condition of a debtor held by his creditor in a form of qualified servitude to work out a debt.
On April 28, 1903, the senior inspector of constabulary in Isabela wired the first district chief of constabulary, Manila, as follows:—
“In this province a common practice to own slaves. These are bought by proprietarios [property owners.—D. C. W.] from Igorrotes and Calingas who steal same in distant places from other tribes. Young boys and girls are bought at about 100 pesos, men 30 years old and old women cheaper. When bought, are generally christened and put to work on ranch or in house, and I think generally well-treated. In this town a number sold within last few months, and as reported to me, Governor has bought three. Shall I investigate further? Instructions desired.
(Signed) “Sorenson.”
Senior Inspector Sorenson was instructed to make a thorough investigation of, and a detailed report on, the slave question.
On May 2 he complied with these instructions,6 describing the conditions under which slaves were taken by the neighbouring Kalingas and Ifugaos, whom he wrongly calls “Igorrotes,” the methods employed in selling them, and the treatment subsequently given them by their purchasers.
He also furnished a list of “Igorrotes” sold in the province during the past year, with names of the purchasers and prices paid. The ages of these unhappy individuals varied from eight to twenty-seven years, the prices paid for them, from one hundred and ten to two hundred and fifty Mexican dollars.
This report led Governor Taft to write to Governor Dichoso of Isabela, who was charged with owning a slave, asking him for a frank statement of the facts as to the prevalence of slavery in his province.
Governor Dichoso’s reply, dated September 9, 1903, will make interesting reading for those who claim that slavery does not exist, and has never existed, among the Filipinos. I give it practically in full, omitting only the titles of the governor:—
“Having noted the contents of the official letter of the Honourable the Civil Governor in the Philippine Islands, Mr. W. H. Taft, dated the 8th of August, last, and of the copy of the report annexed thereto, which were received yesterday, I have the honour to respectfully reply that during the 21 years, more or less, that I have resided in this provincial capital (Ilagan), I have never thought of buying a member or a child of the race mentioned in the report, or of any other tribe, to serve as a slave in my household, not for the reason that this is prohibited and punished by section 484 and the following sections of the Spanish Code now in force, relative to the crime of kidnapping, but because it goes against my nature to treat in this manner a person who, like all human beings alive, is a likeness of the Highest. This I prove by means of the documents annexed hereto.
“I could easily have done so in time of the late Spanish Government, because I had good opportunities for doing so, and could have afforded to do so on account of my social position from that time on up to date, during which period I held successively the following public offices:—
* * *
“This having been my status, and considering the power and the opportunity which I had for obtaining slaves, I might not have had only one, but enough to harvest the tobacco on my plantation, and the other crops which I had planted.
“Under the past Government there existed slaves in this province, but only a small number, for only wealthy families could afford to keep them. The same was the case in the neighbouring Provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Cagayan; in the former they also used to have slaves of the Ifugao tribe, and in the latter Negritos, but very few of these.
“Since the glorious Star-Spangled Banner has been unfolded over the Province of Isabela, the slaves existing in the same, which had been purchased in that time and recently, are very well treated and seem to be members of the family, because the military authorities prohibited their masters from ill-treating them as they were wont to do. Since then many of the slaves have run away from their owners and have sought new masters who treat them well, as it happened in the case of an Igorrote woman of the Ifugao tribe, who was about 40 years of age, and who had been in the service of a lady in the pueblo of Echague for many years. When, in the year 1900, the military enforced the prohibition of ill-treatment of slaves in the said pueblo, this Igorrote woman ran away and presented herself at my house, I being at this time justice of the peace of this provincial capital, and asked me to employ her as servant. My principle not to have slaves preventing me from complying with her wishes, I directed her to apply to Mr. Andres Claraval and his wife, Filomena Salinas. They accepted her, and a short time afterwards they had her baptized and christened Magdalena Claraval. She is being treated like an adopted daughter by them.
“The gentlemen who are mentioned in the report as having purchased slaves really acquired Igorrotes by purchase and keep them in their house, some of them having died since. Some of these transactions were made in the Spanish times, as in the case of the late Mr. Policarpo Gangan, who bought 6 or 7 Ifugaos, whom on his death he left to his children, Mr. Pedro Gangan, Mrs. Susana Gangan, Miss Maria Gangan, and Mrs. Rufina Gangan, and others were made recently and secretly, while I was absent from town on official business in the pueblos of this province. Mr. Thomas Gollayan, the late provincial secretary, bought two Igorrotes while I was in Manila in December and January, last. They were well aware of the fact that I prosecuted kidnapping with tenacity, my object being to put a stop, if possible, to this abominable practice, which has since some time prevailed in the pueblos of this province....
A Group of Bagobos.
These people have, until within a short time, made human sacrifices in order to propitiate their divinities. They live in Mindanao, near the Gulf of Davao.
“In order to prove that I endeavoured to make the proper investigation for the purpose of proving whether slavery really existed in this province, I have the honour to annex an affidavit by Agapito Telan, a resident of Ilagan, in which it appears that he sold Igorrotes of the Ifugao tribe to several residents of this town. I was unable to ascertain the numbers of Igorrotes of the same tribe sold by Modesto Sibal, Lorenzo Montevirgen, Lorenzo Montalvo, Andres Castro, and Cosme Ferrer, who are engaged in the same business as Agapito Telan, as it appears from the deposition of the latter, for the reason that these persons did not appear before me, although in 1902 I had on several occasions verbally requested the late municipal president, Mr. Pascual Paguirigan, to cause them to appear in an unofficial manner. I was not surprised that they did not appear before me, as Paguirigan was involved in the investigation, as it happened in the case of the aforesaid Agapito Telan, who appeared before me when I asked the acting municipal president to have him do so.
“I was afraid to direct those persons to appear before me by means of written orders, because I had not document or complaint whereon to base them, as required by the procedure now in force, and feared that on account of the unlawful nature of the summons they might proceed against me for coaccion, and sue me besides for damages.
“According to my personal observation and to what I have seen in the other pueblos of this Province of Isabela, but principally in the provincial capital, the Igorrotes who are said to be slaves cannot be considered as such since the times of the military government, as they are considered and treated as members of the family of the chief of the household. Nevertheless, I am and shall continue to be inexorable in the prosecution of slavery, as it is a crime and should be prosecuted as such, in order to prevent at least that the persons engaged in this business commit this crime again.
“It is my humble opinion that an act should be passed to the end of eradicating this practice which has become general throughout the Cagayan Valley.7 Otherwise, as I have seen in my continual efforts, the provincial authorities cannot do anything to check the evil, however they may try. It is necessary that some one should be made to feel the rigour of the act suggested and suffer the punishment designated by it.
“As a rule the inhabitants of this province already understand personal liberty and know that a person is entitled to go wherever he pleases, which liberty has given birth to the humane treatment of the fellow-men which now prevails.
“Caciquism is still existing in parts of this province, but I am confident that with the coöperation of sensible persons in my continuous efforts it will be completely eradicated, and personal liberty will reign supreme, as in every republic where the laws assure complete and real liberty, the liberty from slavery.”
As supporting evidence Governor Dichoso forwarded with his letter a number of statements from persons resident in the capital of Isabela to the effect that during the twenty-one years that he had lived there he had never purchased, intended to purchase, or kept in his house any Igorrote of the Ifugao or any other tribe.
In addition he forwarded a somewhat unique document in the form of a sworn statement by a slave dealer which is of such interest that I give it in its entirety:—
“I, Agapito Telan, a resident of this provincial capital (Ilagan), certify: On the 19th of June, 1903, I was summoned by the provincial governor, Mr. Francisco Dichoso y Reyes, and when I was with him in the office of the provincial government, he and the secretary took my sworn deposition, as follows:—
“Upon being asked to state the number of children of the infidel tribe of the Ifugaos sold by me to several residents of this provincial capital, the approximate age of these children, the names of the persons to whom they were sold, the number of children bought by these persons, the value of each of the said children, their sex, and the year, month, and day on which the said sales were made, deponent replied that in the year 1902, in the month of September, and on a day which he cannot remember, he sold to the late Policarpo Gangan two Ifugao boys, of the ages of 8 and 9, respectively, for the sum of 360 Mexican dollars, another boy, 9 years of age, he sold to Juan Dauag for the sum of 180 Mexican dollars, and another boy, 8 years of age, he sold to Seferino Malana for the sum of 160 Mexican dollars, the latter two being sold on the same month and year aforementioned, and in Ilagan also.
“In the year of 1903 the deponent sold a boy and a girl of the Ifugao tribe, who, judging by their physical development, were about 6 and 8 years old; the boy, six years of age, he sold to Pascual Paguirigan, late municipal president, and the girl to Doña Rufina Gangan, for the sum of 180 Mexican dollars each. This was in January, but deponent does not remember the day.
“In February he sold a boy and a girl of the same tribe, 8 years of age, the former to Cirilo Gantinao and the latter to Salvador Aggabao, for 180 Mexican dollars each. The purchasers are residents of this town.
“Upon being asked who are the other persons who, like deponent, are engaged in taking Ifugao children from the settlements of the infidels and then selling the same to whomever wants them, and that he state where they reside, deponent replied that the persons who are engaged in the same business as he, are Modesto Sibal, Lorenzo Monte-Virgen, and Lorenzo Montalvo, residents of the pueblo of Gamú, and Andres Castro and Cosme Ferrer, residents of this provincial capital.
“Upon being asked whether he knew if these persons are like him engaged in the purchase of minors and what was the number of children taken by each during the year of 1902 and 1903, and if so, to state to whom they were sold, and at what price the deponent replied that he is completely ignorant of the matter in regard to which information is requested, but that it was possible that they had taken more children, as they are living nearer to the settlements from which they are taken, and as they are able to make the trip three times to the defendant’s once.
“Asked what methods they employ for the purpose of getting children from that tribe, deponent says that all they do is to enter into a contract with those whom they consider their dattos or chiefs, and who come down from the mountains with the children, which are purchased from them by the persons engaged in this trade.
“Asked to state the price of the children bought at the accustomed places for these transactions for the purpose of reselling them, the deponent states that the children are sold at the same price at which they are purchased at that place.
“He having thus stated, the foregoing was read to him, and he agreed to it, signing it after the Provincial Governor, which I, the secretary appointed for this act, attest.
“Francisco Dichoso,
“Provincial Governor.
“Agapito Telan,
“Fernando Domingo.
“Secretary appointed.
(Sgd.) “Agapito Telan.
“Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of September, 1903.
(Sgd.) “Francisco
Tauad,
“Clerk of the Court, Ilagan.”
The existence of slavery in Misamis, a regularly organized province, had been disclosed at a still earlier date.
In May, 1902, its Filipino governor, Sr. Manuel Corrales, was asked to report, and did report, on slavery in that province, under the following circumstances:—
On May 2, 1902, General George W. Davis telegraphed the Adjutant-General, Manila:—
“Following telegram respectfully repeated: ‘Zamboanga, May 1, 1902, via Malabang, to Wade. Commanding Officer, Misamis, reports April 30, that Presidente notified him that he was going to send armed party to capture two Moro slaves which have escaped from their Filipino master whose names were not given. Says there are many Filipinos who own slaves. Presidente was told that the troops had nothing to do with civilian affairs. I have no doubt but that the Filipinos on the north coast here have many slaves. At Butuan I saw one in November that had been recently purchased.’”
Governor-General Wright referred a copy of this telegram to Governor Corrales with an indorsement—
“calling his attention to the within communication. Information is desired as to whether or not the within facts are true as stated, and also whether there are any persons held in involuntary servitude other than convicts within the province, and if so, that full particulars be given.”
Governor Corrales himself has none too good a record in connection with the treatment accorded the non-Christians of his province, and would certainly not paint a darker picture than was called for by the facts, yet in his reply8 he gives the names of six towns in which “one still finds a few slave servants, most of them acquired many years ago.” He adds:—
“At the present time, there are but few sales of slaves proceeding from the mountain tribes, which are now relatively civilized. In Iligan and Misamis, I have heard that such sales were more frequent, for two reasons: (1) the Moro race is more despotic and more numerous; (2) the weekly market in Iligan gives them an opportunity to carry on that sort of business, although they have to do it by stealth, on account of the watchfulness of the authorities.
“I will call your attention to the fact that the slaves proceeding from the Moro district constitute, in the Moro villages, an inferior social class, the slave family, whose origin is due to the prisoners taken by the Dattos on their expeditions; when they are transferred to the Christians in Iligan or Misamis, because their masters wish to make money, or are hard pressed by the famines which are so frequent in the region of the Lanao, their condition is considerably improved by the good treatment and the better and more abundant food which they obtain in their new situation, by the mere fact that they live with a more civilized people.
“Those who come from the mountain tribes are not born slaves; with few exceptions, the chiefs and principal men of these tribes do not own slaves which they use for their service or for agricultural work, as the Moros do. Slaves are generally obtained in the following way:—
“It happens that a chief with bellicose and sanguinary instincts, who leads a nomad life and does not belong to the peaceful class which is given to farm life, organizes a gang of men of his sort, makes incursions in the wildest parts of the woods and raids the lone huts inhabited by savage and nomad families; he kills by treachery the grown-up people and carries off the children, which he can easily master; he then sells them to the peaceful farm dwellers, who sell them in their turn to the Christian pueblos.
“As I have already said, such cases are happily rare. In Iligan and Misamis, which are far from the capital of the province, and therefore from the Court and the provincial authorities, the slaves have had less opportunity to claim their rights, and it is not astonishing that neither the slaves nor their masters have a true notion of what is meant by individual liberty, although the former are at least sure of their lives since they left the jurisdiction of the Moros, at whose absolute mercy they were, and are much better treated among the Christians.
“I intend taking all necessary measures within my jurisdiction in order to put an end to such a hateful trade, and wait for any further instructions which you may deem it convenient to give me.”
Unfortunately neither the measures taken by Governor Corrales nor those adopted by his successors have sufficed to end this “hateful trade” in the province of Misamis.
In July of the present year,9 a man accused of holding two Bukidnon children in slavery did not deny the charge, but set up the defence that he was a resident of Misamis, where there was no law against this crime. He had been proceeded against under an anti-slavery law passed by the commission for the provinces under its exclusive jurisdiction, on the theory that he resided in Agusan. He won his case, proving that his house was about a hundred yards over the line.
The revelations contained in the reports above mentioned naturally called for action. Inspector Sorenson’s report was referred to the commission with the following indorsement:—
“Office of the Civil
Governor,
“Manila, August 13, 1903.
“The Senior Inspector of Constabulary in the Province of Isabela reports that there is quite a slave trade in the Cagayan Valley. The report of Sorenson, the Inspector, is submitted to the Commission and I suggest a reference to Commissioner Wright in order that he may include in the Criminal Code some clauses which will enable us to reach this abuse.
(Signed) “Wm. H.
Taft,
“Civil Governor.”
The report was, by direction of the commission, referred to Commissioner Wright as suggested by Governor Taft for consideration in connection with a proposed new Criminal Code which was being prepared, under his general supervision, for enactment. An immense amount of work was necessary on this code, and it was never completed and enacted. Various matters needing attention have since been reached through the medium of special laws, and it is obvious that it was intended to pursue this course in this instance, as is shown by the fact that Governor Dichoso’s reply was forwarded to General Wright on October 19, 1903, with the following indorsement:—
[First Indorsement]
“Executive
Bureau,
“Manila, October 19, 1903.
“Respectfully referred to the Secretary of Commerce and Police, for his information and consideration in connection with the proposed Act denouncing slavery and kidnapping and kindred offences as crimes.
(Signed) “Wm. H.
Taft,
“Civil Governor.”
Why such an act was not drafted and passed I do not know. I was then absent on leave, and did not even learn of the existence of any of the above-quoted documents until years afterward. My personal attention was forcibly drawn to the existence of slavery outside of the Moro territory when I first inspected Nueva Vizcaya in 1905. The territory occupied by the Ifugaos, since separated as a sub-province of the Mountain Province, was then a part of Nueva Vizcaya, which had been organized as a province under a special act and was, in a way, subject to my executive control.
Moro Boats coming out to meet the Philippine Commission at Jolo.
Its governor, Louis G. Knight, called my attention to the fact that Ifugao children were frequently enslaved by Filipinos of Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela. I asked him to get specific data so that we might prosecute the offenders. He soon sent to the Executive Secretary a report10 which gave full details of a number of recent cases of the buying and selling of Ifugaos as slaves, contained a statement that Governor Knight, who was himself a lawyer, could “find nothing whatever in the penal code defining or punishing as a crime the buying or selling of human beings,” and recommended that “this crime be defined and punished in the proposed new penal code.”
The report was referred to me by the executive secretary on September 20, 1905, and on September 22 was by me forwarded to the Honourable Luke E. Wright, governor-general, with an indorsement—
“inviting attention to the inclosed statements from the Governor of Nueva Vizcaya, relative to the traffic in Igorrote children in his province.
“The undersigned has reason to believe that Negrito children and children of other non-Christian tribes are occasionally bought and sold by civilized natives, and is strongly of the opinion that in case the Penal Code does not provide adequate punishment for such offences, it should be so amended as to make it possible to inflict severe penalties upon those who buy and sell human beings in this Archipelago.
(Signed) “Dean C.
Worcester,
“Secretary of the Interior.”
The papers were referred by Governor-General Wright to the Attorney-General—
“for an opinion as to whether there is not some provision in the present Penal Code which will provide adequate punishment for such offences as are related herein.”
The opinion of the Attorney-General rendered in response to this request11 encouraged me to believe that something could be done under existing law.
I returned the papers, together with the opinion, to the governor of Nueva Vizcaya and three test suits were brought as promptly as possible.
One of them has become historic. It was brought against Tomás Cabanag, a well-known slave dealer who made a business of buying and selling Ifugao children. He was charged with illegal detention in connection with the admitted sale, by him, of an Ifugao girl named Gamaya.12
He was convicted in the Court of First Instance. I quote the following extract from the decision of the court:
“The Congress of the United States has declared that human slavery shall not exist in these islands and while no law, so far as I can discover, has yet been passed either defining slavery in these islands or affixing a punishment for those who engage in this inhuman practice as dealers, buyers, sellers, or derivers, the facts established in this case show conclusively that the child Jimaya was by the defendant forcibly and by fraud, deceit and threats unlawfully deprived of her liberty and that his object and purpose was an unlawful and illegal one, to wit, the sale of the child for money into human slavery. This constitutes the crime of Detencion ilegal defined and penalized by Article 481 of the Penal Code and this Court finds the defendant guilty as charged in the information.”
The case was promptly appealed to the Supreme Court and was there lost on March 16, 1907.
Gamaya, a thirteen-year-old Ifugao girl, had been purchased from her mother for pigs, hens, rice and a cloak, under the absurd pretext that the object of the purchase was to keep her at home, where she would, of course, naturally have remained in any event. She was allowed to stay with her mother during a period of some three years. In this manner the purchaser was saved the cost of boarding her while she was growing up. Having now reached what the Igorots consider a marriageable age, she was sold to a man who was engaged in the business of buying in Nueva Vizcaya children to sell in the lowlands of Isabela; in other words, to a slave dealer. He sold her to an inhabitant of the town of Caoayan, in Isabela, who had instructed him to buy a girl. Caoayan is distant many days of hard overland travel from this girl’s home. When taken there she was among an alien people of another tribe and another religion, and although, as stated by the Supreme Court, she was not kept under lock and key and although that court held that:—