The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 20

The printing of the report was delayed until July 19, 1913, and I brought it up to that date, as evidence continued to pour in.

In this doc.u.ment I gave specific cases of chattel slavery in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Isabela, Tarlac, Zambales, Pampanga, Batangas, Palawan, Agusan, Ambos Camarines, the Moro province, the Mountain province and Manila itself, describing quite fully the conditions under which Ilongots, Ifugaos, Negritos, Tagbanuas, Man.o.bos, Mandayas, Moros and Filipinos are bought, sold and held as chattel slaves.

I will here only briefly summarize them.

The Negritos are savages of low mentality, and most of them lead a nomadic or semi-nomadic life. They constantly get the worst of it in the struggle for existence and to-day are found only on the islands of Mindanao, Palawan, Tablas, Negros, Panay and Luzon, where for the most part they inhabit very remote and inaccessible mountain regions. Owing to their stupidity and their extreme timidity it is comparatively easy to hold them in slavery, and they are probably thus victimized more than are the people of any other tribe. They are constantly warring with each other in the more remote of the mountain regions which they inhabit. It would be going too far to say that their moral sense has been blunted. It is probably nearer the truth to say that they never had any. It is therefore a simple matter for Filipino slave dealers to arrange with Negritos for the purchase of their fellow-tribesmen. The latter then proceed to obtain captives by raiding some hostile group of their own people, killing ruthlessly if occasion arises.

They are more ready than are the people of any other Philippine tribe to sell their children or other dependent relatives, and do this not infrequently when pressed by hunger, a condition apt to arise because of their utter improvidence. Unfortunately, the matter does not end here. It is by no means unknown for Filipinos to join in their slave-hunting raids, or even to organize raids of their own, killing Negrito parents in order to get possession of their children. I submit the following case to ill.u.s.trate this latter procedure:--

"Camp Stotsenburg, Pampanga, P. I., "September 26, 1910.

"The Adjutant, "Camp Stotsenburg, Pampanga, P. I.

"Sir: I have the honour to inform you that a report has this day been made to me that a party of hostile Filipinos, about 15 in number, armed with 1 rifle, 1 revolver and the remainder with bolos, presumably ladrones, entered a small Negrito barrio situated about one and one half miles directly southeast from the Post during the forenoon of Tuesday, September 20, 1910, and killed three men and carried away two small children. I have visited the barrio and the body of one man showing frightful mutilation, both head, feet and hands completely severed from the body, was found. This settlement is situated in a dense jungle and the other bodies were presumably carried away or hidden, so that they could not be found.

"But one person can be found who witnessed the affair, an aged Negrito woman, who can scarcely walk from the treatment she received at the hands of these outlaws. She states that she would be able to recognize and identify some of the party. I am informed by Negritos living in the vicinity that this party of outlaws has a rendezvous a short distance east of Solbac where they might be apprehended.

"The killing took place without the reservation, but the matter is of sufficient importance, since all the Negritos living in the vicinity of the post are greatly excited and disturbed, to warrant the recommendation that it be referred to the Senior Inspector of Constabulary, San Fernando, Pampanga, P. I., for such action as he may desire to take.

"Very respectfully,

(Signed) "Kyle Rucker, "1st Lieut. and Squadron Adjutant, 14th Cav. Intelligence Officer."

The subsequent fate of these Negrito children is made plain by the following letter:--

"Philippine Constabulary, "San Fernando, Pampanga, P. I.,

"October 4, 1910.

"My Dear Holmes: We have a case up here of murder committed near the town of Angeles in which several Negritos are mixed up.

"We managed to locate two Negrito children who had been sold by the man who killed their father. They were in the possession of a man named Ambrocio David who says he paid sixty pesos for them and says they are his property.

"I think that we can convict the murderer of the children's father, if we can catch him, but this sale of Negritos has gone such a pace that almost every family in Pampanga has at least one as a 'Companion' of their children, they say, but really as a slave.

"The Fiscal says there is no law against the sale or purchase of Negritos and I cannot find it, although I seem to remember a law, but whether it alludes to Negritos or only Moros I am unable to say.

"If there is a law, what number is it, and if not, can you get me an opinion of the Attorney-General or some ruling so as to show us how to act in this and future cases of this kind.

"Yrs.

"W. S. North, "S. I."

In this case one of the kidnappers was convicted of murder, but nothing could be done to him for selling the Negrito children nor could anything be done to Senor Ambrocio David for buying the children or for claiming that they were his property.

Like many primitive peoples, the Negritos are inordinately fond of strong alcoholic drinks. It is strictly against the law to give or sell any of the white man's liquors to them, but this naturally does not restrain slave hunters, who frequently get adults deeply intoxicated and then trade with them for their children or kidnap the drunken persons themselves and drag them away. Negritos are held to-day in bondage, in considerable numbers, in provinces like Zambales, Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan and Cagayan. While they are not displayed for sale in any market in Pampanga, they can be readily negotiated for in several different public markets of that province; and if none happen to be available at the moment, the would-be purchaser is a.s.sured that the supply in the mountains is inexhaustible and that his needs can soon be met.

The publication of my report has caused consternation among slave owners in many provinces. Some slaves have since escaped and little effort has been made to recapture them. Others have been voluntarily set free by their masters, but in Pampanga the trade still goes merrily on. Until recently Negritos have been peddled around the country adjacent to Manila like carabaos or horses, and it is but a short time since their purchasers have in some instances refused to give them up, stoutly a.s.severating that they were their property. Now, however, warned by experience, owners make no such claim, but advance various more or less ingenious explanations of the fact that they have Negritos in their possession and deny that they are slaves. Some of them insist that it is a Negrito custom to kill orphan children, and that they have taken orphans out of kindness in order to save their lives. Patient investigation has failed to show the existence of any such custom among the Negritos.

Perhaps the commonest procedure of all is to claim that Negrito slaves are "adopted children" or "members of the family." The presumption against a Filipino's taking into his family one of these little woolly-headed, black, dwarf savages is strong. In no single case have I been able to obtain evidence of real, legal adoption. The following doc.u.ment ill.u.s.trates the procedure which seems invariably to have been followed:--

"On the 25th of December, 1912, I, the authorized curate of this district, Lubao, Province of Pampanga, baptized solemnly, and put on the blessed Oleos in this church in my charge on one Negrita ten and eight years of age (18), and have given the name of Juana, daughter of a father poor and unknown. The foster mother, Dona Pia Vitug, married in this town received the charge as a parent to care for the spiritual welfare and other obligations.

"I for the truth sign,

"Friar Pedro Diez."

(Girl given the name of Juana de Jesus Vitug.)

A doc.u.ment of this sort imposes no legal obligation whatever on the owner of a slave, and makes no change in the status of the slave, but merely serves as a basis for the claim that he or she "is treated as a member of the family."

This is a cheap and easy method of securing a slave, and the child thus "adopted" may be compelled to labour for a lifetime without compensation, or turned over for a consideration to be similarly "adopted" by some one else.

Other Filipinos who do not claim that their Negrito slaves are members of their families find complete justification for purchasing them in the allegation that they have taken them to Christianize, thus preventing their going to h.e.l.l!

In the provinces of Agusan and Surigao the slave-taking raids of the Mandayas and Man.o.bos are historic. In the more remote parts of these provinces they continue from time to time up to the present day. While one of them lies within the territory for which the commission has been able to legislate, what shall we say of those who contend that slavery does not exist in the Philippine Islands in the face of such occurrences as have taken place there? The same query holds for the sub-province of Ifugao in the Mountain Province and for Nueva Vizcaya. The Ifugaos have been especially victimized. The following kinds of servitude are recognized by them:--

Jim-but. This is the name applied to real slaves. The Jim-but becomes an article of commerce and often changes owners several times before reaching the country of the Ba-li-uon (Christians).

Nij-cop. This is the name applied to children who have been really adopted under a formal contract made with their parents or nearest relatives in case the parents are dead. The Nij-cop acquire certain property rights from their new parents-by-adoption.

Baj-al. This is the name given to orphan children who have been formally taken in charge by some well-to-do Ifugao and who are unable to support themselves. The Baj-al is a tentative Nij-cop, for if he turns out to be bright and industrious, he may become a member of the family and acquire property rights.

Ta-ga-la. This is the name applied to servants who receive regular compensation.

It is a matter of common knowledge throughout the sub-province that there are living to-day in Isabela hundreds of Ifugaos who have been sold to Filipinos as slaves.

In Nueva Vizcaya it has been possible to deal with the more flagrant cases since the pa.s.sage by the commission of the law above referred to, but the commission is powerless to pa.s.s a law effective in Isabela.

The holders of slaves now seek to evade the law by nominally hiring them at a monthly salary which is not paid. The promulgation of Act No. 2071 prohibiting and penalizing slavery enabled Lieutenant-Governor Jeff D. Gallman of Ifugao to liberate some forty boys and girls held by Filipinos in Nueva Vizcaya. In no single case, however, could it be proved that the child had been sold. The persons who held them testified in each instance that they were "hired servants."

When they learned of the provisions of the above-mentioned act they were easily prevailed upon to pay "salaries" long overdue to their "servants" and the latter were allowed to return to their homes.

It was found that some of the persons originally sold into slavery in Nueva Vizcaya had run away from their masters and become vagabonds. Few really wanted to return to their parents, whose language in many cases they had almost forgotten.

I wish this were the worst, but the worst is yet to come. Not only do the Filipinos buy, sell and hold the wild people as slaves, but Filipino children have been kidnapped, or enticed from their homes, by other Filipinos, and sold as slaves to their own kind. Young girls have been sold outright to Chinese who purchased and kept them for immoral purposes. They have been sold to panderers and keepers of houses of prost.i.tution and compelled to enter upon lives of shame. Filipino children and young women have been sold to Chinese who have taken them to China. G.o.d only knows what fate may have befallen them there. In such cases the victims disappear from these islands, never to return.

Some slaves are well treated. Others are half starved, brutally beaten, injured or even killed. The Man.o.bos and Manadayas of Agusan and Surigao, and the Bagobos of the Moro Province, have been accustomed to sacrifice slaves to appease their heathen deities. The Man.o.bos on occasion even have their boys take lances and try the effect of different thrusts on slaves tied to trees or posts.

Those who desire long lists of specific cases of slavery will find them in my report. I think that I have here abundantly demonstrated the fact that genuine slavery exists in the Philippine Islands. It can never be successfully checked until there is a law of general application throughout the archipelago penalizing the sale, barter, or purchase of human beings. What reason has the Philippine a.s.sembly for refusing to pa.s.s the necessary act?

Without hesitation I a.s.sert that, apart from false and foolish pride which makes the persons concerned unwilling to admit the fact of the existence of slavery, their chief reason for objecting to this law is that it would not only prohibit and penalize slavery, but would prohibit and penalize peonage, which is so common and widespread that it may properly be called general. Indeed, I have no hesitation in a.s.serting that it prevails in every munic.i.p.ality in the Philippine Islands.

Slavery is a serious matter, but peonage is far more serious because of the very much larger number of persons involved. It lies at the root of the industrial system of the Philippines.