The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 29

Only persons familiar with the extreme timidity of many Filipino witnesses, and with the frequency with which they deny in court true statements previously made by them, can appreciate the dangerous character of this measure.

a.s.sembly Bill 170, "An Act obliging manufacturing, industrial, agricultural, and commercial enterprises in the Philippine Islands to provide themselves with a duly qualified physician and a medicine chest for urgent cases of accident and disease among their laborers, and for other purposes," would have had the effect of forcing the employment of a large number of incompetent Filipino physicians for the reason that no one else would have been available to fill many of the positions in question.

a.s.sembly Bill 172, "An Act protecting the plantation of the cocoanut tree," prohibited the damaging, destroying, uprooting or killing of any cocoanut plant or plants without the owner's consent. There was then going on a large amount of highway construction and widening. This bill would have strengthened the position of certain persons disposed to ask exorbitant prices for land needed for rights of way. At about this time the Manila Railroad Company was compelled to pay a large sum for orange trees on a piece of land through which its road was to pa.s.s. On investigation the orange trees proved to be cuttings from branches, or young seedlings, recently stuck into the ground, many of them being already dead.

a.s.sembly Bill 250 would if pa.s.sed have had the effect of depriving agents of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of the power to make arrests, and of compelling the payment of all fines imposed and collected through the efforts of the society into the insular treasury, so that the society would have been dependent upon direct appropriations for funds with which to prosecute its work. For three successive years there had been no appropriation bill. The Filipinos have little sympathy with the work of this society, and this was a scheme to kill it. Under the existing law one-half of the fines in question go to it for use in promoting its objects.

a.s.sembly Bill 251, "An Act to create rural guards in all the munic.i.p.alities organized under Act No. 82, and for other purposes,"

would seriously have interfered with the maintenance of a proper state of public order. The duties which it proposed to vest in rural guards are now performed most satisfactorily by the Philippine Constabulary. The effect of the bill would have been to restrict the administrative authority of the director of constabulary over the movements of his force, and to interfere with the administrative authority of munic.i.p.al presidents to utilize their police as in their judgment the public interests require.

a.s.sembly Bill 262 contained the following:--

"Provided: That the Director of Agriculture or his agents shall not adopt quarantine measures in provinces organized under Act No. 83 without previous agreement with the Provincial Boards concerned."

For many years no more serious problem has faced the insular government than that of stamping out the contagious diseases which were decimating the horses and cattle of the islands and threatening to render agriculture almost impossible. The director of agriculture was necessarily given wide authority in the matter of establis.h.i.+ng proper quarantines. This act would have taken necessary powers from him and vested them in provincial boards. Quarantining was very unpopular with the very people who were benefited most by it, hence the pa.s.sage of this act.

a.s.sembly Bill 282 was designed to do away with the public improvement tax in the provinces of Palawan, Mindoro and Batanes, and to subst.i.tute therefor the so-called double cedula tax. This would have resulted in decreasing by one-half the amount of money available for the construction of public works in those provinces and increasing in the same amount that available for paying salaries of officials and employees.

a.s.sembly Bill 312, amending "The Philippine Road Law" "so as to punish the violent occupation of land on both sides of any public highway, bridge, wharf, or trail at present occupied by other persons, since prior to the pa.s.sage of such Act," would have prevented the recovery by the government of highway rights of way where they had been encroached upon by ab.u.t.ting owners during the long period of neglect of road maintenance attendant upon war.

a.s.sembly Bill 319, ent.i.tled "An Act to prohibit, and punish judges for the issuance of orders of arrest at hours of the night or on days other than working days," was a most extraordinary measure, the object and effect of which are apparent from merely reading its t.i.tle. There are 365 nights and 63 legal holidays in the year, so that the time during which judges could issue orders of arrest without exposing themselves to punishment would have been somewhat restricted.

a.s.sembly Bill 324, ent.i.tled "An Act amending certain articles of the Penal Code of the Philippine Islands," had for its object the reduction of the age of consent of women to the crimes of abduction and seduction.

a.s.sembly Bill 348 provided for the formation of a "poor list," and regulated "gratuitous medical attendance at public dispensaries and hospitals in the city of Manila and the munic.i.p.alities, or public hospitals in the provinces."

One of the great things which the American government has done for the Philippines is to bring medical and surgical service of a high order within the reach of a very large number of poor persons. By the proposed bill free service to Filipinos was limited to those who declared themselves to be paupers. Many of the deserving poor would have preferred to perish miserably rather than make such a declaration. Most of the self-respecting poor of the islands are not paupers. Free service could be rendered to foreigners only on presentation of certificates of poverty from their consuls, usually residing in Manila, which would have worked great hards.h.i.+p on such persons living in remote parts of the islands and in need of immediate attention. Charitable free service furnished by the government was objected to by certain Filipino physicians, who hoped to get paid for attending the persons thus relieved. The practical result of the bill would have been to force the poor to depend on these people, and to pay their charges, which are frequently very exorbitant.

COMMISSION BILLS DISAPPROVED BY THE a.s.sEMBLY

SECOND LEGISLATURE

Commission Bill 55, amending "The Philippine Administrative Act by including vessels within the provisions of Sections 322 and 323 of said Act," was designed to make vessels responsible for the transportation of contraband cargo, or for smuggling merchandise, in the same degree that attached to vehicles for land transportation, the attorney-general having held that the word "vehicle" used in the existing law could not be construed to include vessels. This measure was important in connection with the suppression of opium smuggling.

Commission Bill 59 amended an act providing for the punishment of perjury "by changing the punishment for perjury and by punis.h.i.+ng persons who endeavour to procure or incite other persons to commit perjury." Its object was to remedy a defect in existing law under which there is no punishment provided for subornation of perjury in official investigations.

Commission Bill 60, "An Act defining habitual criminals and providing additional punishment for the same," had for its object the breaking up of petty thieving, the records of the Bureau of Prisons showing that one hundred twenty-nine persons had been convicted twice, twenty a third time and one as high as thirty-two times. It would unquestionably have been a very useful measure.

The Supreme Court of the United States had found that certain punishments of the Spanish Penal Code, particularly with reference to the falsification of public and private doc.u.ments, were cruel and unusual, and under its decisions a number of criminals, who should have served moderate sentences, were turned loose because the sentences actually imposed were admittedly too severe. The Penal Code fixed the penalties in such cases and gave no option to the judge to impose lesser ones. This decision of the Supreme Court of the United States had the practical effect of making it impossible to penalize certain crimes at all. Commission Bill 61 remedied this situation by providing moderate penalties. The bill was asked for by the secretary of finance and justice, who is a Filipino, and by the president of the code committee, but the a.s.sembly would not pa.s.s it.

THIRD LEGISLATURE

First Session and Special Session

Commission Bill 59 provided "more severe punishment for illegal importers and dealers in opium."

Great difficulty has been experienced in endeavouring to check the use of opium in the islands.

Commission Bill 70 provided for gradually restricting c.o.c.k-fighting by decreasing from year to year the number of days on which it was allowed. It imposed annual license fees of $5 on each fighting c.o.c.k or c.o.c.k in training, prohibited persons under 18 years of age and women, except tourists, from entering c.o.c.k-pits, and forbade all games of chance of any kind on the premises of a c.o.c.k-pit.

This very cursory review of some of the acts which have failed of pa.s.sage will serve to show, in a general way, the att.i.tudes of the two houses toward a number of important questions.

Had the commission not prevented the pa.s.sage of much dangerous and vicious legislation approved by the a.s.sembly the public service would have suffered seriously, and public order would have been endangered.

Heretofore the commission has prevented the enactment of really vicious legislation. By giving the Filipinos a majority in this body a very important safeguard has been removed.

Another serious result will follow. It was undoubtedly the will of Congress, when its Act of July 1, 1902, was pa.s.sed, that Americans should control legislation for the Moros and other non-Christians; hence the power to legislate for the territory which they inhabit was reserved by Congress for the commission. Under the new arrangement Filipinos will control in this matter also, and so the will of Congress will be defeated, although the letter of the law is not violated. The outlook for the backward peoples of the islands, under these circ.u.mstances, cannot fail to arouse grave apprehension among all who are genuinely interested in them.

The elections for delegates to the a.s.sembly have caused endless trouble in many of the provinces. Neither the people at large nor the candidates themselves have as yet learned cheerfully to accept the will of the majority, and the number of protested election cases is out of all proportion to the number of delegates.

In many towns, like Cuyo, these elections have given rise to serious feuds which have brought their previously rapid social and material progress to a standstill, divided families against each other, and in general have produced very disastrous results. Many of the best people of Cuyo are now begging to have the right to elect an a.s.semblyman taken from their province, on the ground that otherwise there is no hope for the restoration of normal conditions.

The a.s.sembly is the judge of the qualifications of its members. It has seen fit to admit a number of very disreputable characters. In my opinion neither the character of its members nor that of the legislation pa.s.sed by it has justified its establishment, much less the "Filipinization" of the commission.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE PICTURESQUE PHILIPPINES

Having now devoted a good deal of time to the consideration of political conditions in the Philippines, let us turn our attention to the islands themselves and consider their physical characteristics, their climate and their commercial possibilities.

There has been much discussion as to the number of islands in the archipelago. The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey has counted them. Big and little they number thirty-one hundred forty-one, of which ten hundred ninety-five are large and fertile enough to be inhabited.

The total land area is a hundred fifteen thousand twenty-six square miles. The Philippines lie between 5 and 22 North Lat.i.tude and 117 and 127 East Longitude. It follows that the lowlands throughout the archipelago have a tropical climate, and in the past those two words have been very generally considered to spell danger for people of the white race. In this connection it should be said, first, that the Philippines have one of the most healthful tropical climates in the world, and second, that the results of sanitary work both there and within the limits of the Panama Ca.n.a.l zone have largely eliminated the tropical climate bugaboo. There is plenty of malaria in some portions of the archipelago, but that is a matter of mosquitoes, not of climate, and there is no difficulty in freeing any given region from this disease if drainage is practicable.

The two great drawbacks to life in the tropics are admittedly heat and humidity. Curiously enough the heat in most parts of the Philippines is never extreme. We do not have in Manila anything approaching the high temperatures sometimes experienced in New York or Boston. Humidity in the atmosphere makes heat trying, and is responsible for what we call "sultry" days. The dry-bulb thermometer shows how hot one is, but it takes an instrument with a wet bulb to show how hot one feels. Fortunately, the periods of greatest heat and greatest humidity do not coincide in the islands. April and May are the hottest months, while August and September have the highest humidity.

It must be remembered, however, that very extreme heat for a few days, followed by cool weather, is not so debilitating as is a lower temperature which is nevertheless continuously high. There are often many days in succession during May when the thermometer stands in the nineties, but there is usually a cool northeasterly breeze at that season, and throughout the Philippines, except in the Cagayan valley and in one or two other inland regions of the larger islands, hot nights are almost unknown. Indeed, it is doubtless due to the fact that the land area is broken into myriad islands, and is therefore swept by the cooling sea breezes, that it has such an exceptionally healthful climate. The heat is never trying when the monsoons blow, and they blow much of the time.

Speaking of the islands in general one may say that they have a wet season from July to October and a dry season from December to May, the weather during June and November being variable. On the Pacific coast, however, these seasons are reversed, and in the southern Philippines they are not well defined, the rainfall being quite uniformly distributed throughout the year. During the months of November, December, January and February weather conditions are usually ideal, with bright, clear days and cool and decidedly invigorating nights. Comfort throughout the year is largely dependent on occupying well-ventilated houses from which the winds are not shut off.

The following table shows for each month the highest temperature, the lowest temperature and the average temperature recorded at Manila from 1885 until 1912:--

Month Highest F. Lowest F. Average F.

January 93.0 59.0 76.8 February 96.1 60.3 77.5 March 97.2 61.2 79.9 April 99.9 64.4 82.8 May 100.9 68.7 83.3 June 99.7 70.9 82.2 July 95.4 70.0 80.8 August 95.4 69.1 80.8 September 95.5 69.6 80.4 October 95.2 67.3 80.2 November 93.0 62.2 78.6 December 92.3 60.3 77.4

The highest temperature ever recorded at Manila is 103.5 Fahrenheit, in May, 1878; the next highest, 101.9 in May, 1912.