"On marches and expeditions officers will march
with their commands; they will not be mounted
unless the men are . . ."
--Constabulary Manual
DURING 1905 and a portion of 1906, the Constabulary was engaged in the elimination of the last of the leaders who might be charitably considered as "insurgents," although their activities savored more strongly of banditry and murder. Some of these men had been dangerous figures since the days of Spanish occupation. Their organized depredations had grown to such proportions by 1905 that it became necessary to call in the army, and to set up a provisional district of Constabulary to suppress them.
It will be remembered that the notorious Felizardo and his confederate, Montalon, were still at large in the north in co-operation with other leaders of the old "Partido Nacionalista" movement. They now burst upon the scene with a final sporadic series of grim and murderous raids.
In December, 1904, matters had become intolerable within a few miles of Manila. With armed bands roving within seven miles of Malacanan Palace, where the Civil Government sat in solemn session, Governor Taft at last bowed to the inevitable and declared a state of martial law, with regulars in the field.
A large band of armed bandits descended upon Paranaque, seven miles from Manila city limits, and raided the Constabulary station of that town. The victory was complete. With arms and ammunition taken in that raid, the bandits then made their way to Taal, where they looted the municipal treasury of 15,000 pesos and carried away all the weapons of the police force.
These same ladrones, then, uniformed in captured tunics of Scouts and Constabulary, raided San Francisco de Malabon in Cavite Province. Here, on January 21, they rushed the cuartel and secured twenty-one rifles and a great store of ammunition. Dr. J. O. Neill, medical officer of the Scouts, was killed by rifle fire while escorting his wife and daughter to safety. The outlaws tried to capture Manano Trias, who was the Provincial Governor. Failing, they carried away his wife and daughter, who were later released when Constabulary pursuit became onerous.
The prestige of the bandits had grown to such proportions that on January 31, 1905, it was decided to set up a Provisional District of Constabulary within the provinces of Cavite, Batangas, Rizal, and Laguna, with a special force under separate command.
The area of greatest unrest centered about Cavite, the Tagalog province across the bay from the city of Manila. The region is a rolling country with few mountain areas, sparsely scattered with jungle, and covered for the great part with fields of high cogon grass. For four centuries the province had been overrun by cattle thieves and marauding bands, with the Spaniards unable to remedy the situation. From Cavite Province the outlaws had slipped over to Batangas, Rizal, and Laguna, and a reign of terror held the native population in a state of virtual servitude to the fences of stolen merchandise who were called pillos. Quite often these pillos, who acted as go-betweens, did not know the real leaders of the outlaw bands they served.
In these four provinces had grown to strength divers outlaw bands, all pseudo-political, and all owing allegiance to an ex-barber named Marcario Sakay, who was a self-appointed "President of the Philippine Republic.
" Although a military organization of bandits was ostentensibly present, with a sworn purpose to facilitate Philippine independence, the gangs were actually merely brigands. They wore no uniforms, and when forced to cover by the authorities, were accustomed to hide their arms and melt into the civil population.
It was to combat the bandit leaders, Montalon and Felizardo, underlings of Macano Sakay, that the Constabulary took the field.
In December, 1904, it was demonstrated that the slender police force could not cope with the emergency. The wave of banditry was beyond the capabilities of the Constabulary. After several months of inactivity, the regulars were called into the field.
The Constabulary were placed in command of Colonel D. J. Baker, Jr., and the writ of habeas corpus was suspended. General Corbin of the Philippine Division sent the third squadron of the 2nd Cavalry and the 4th company of the Infantry under Major F. W. Sibley to assist the Constabulary in restoring order.
With this regular army force augmented by a strength of 1200 Constabulary, a concerted action was undertaken. The oulaw bands were several in number. "General" Oruga, who still maintained pretensions of bona fide insurgency, was in command of the forces of "Colonel" Villanueva, "Lieutenant-Colonel" Vito, and "Major" Flores. "Major-General" Felizardo had the bands of "Lieutenant-Colonel" Caro, "Lieutenant-Colonel" de Vega, and "Major" Giron.
This entire Filipino force was consolidated under the supreme command of Montalon as "Captain-General of the Armies of Liberation."
In a series of comined Scout-army-Constabulary operations, Oruga was crushed by Thompson and Baker; the United States calvary detachment killed Caro in a fierce night fight atres Cruces, and Van Schaick and his Scouts pounced upon Felizardo at "Lit-Lvt. From this net Felizardo escaped, to be engaged again on June 14, 1905, by Lieutenant Lorenzo Ramos of the Constabulary. Ramos captured the outlaw camp and killed several of the outlaws, but Felizardo melted as usual into the bush.
Captain Van Schaik of the Scouts continued the pursuit with a night attack on June 21. The morning of June 22 found Felizardo wounded and half naked in the wilds of Cavite near Bacoor, but two men with him.
For sometime the trail was lost, but the Constabulary never relinquished its efforts, and one day in the little barrio town of Batangas, a bandit appeared and demanded food from an old Filipino. The Filipino tapped him on the head with his rice pestle, killing him. He and his companions took the body to a cliff and threw it over. They hiked into the nearest Constabulary station and reported that they had surrounded a bandit who had leaped to his death rather than be taken. Baker was so impressed with the bravery of a ladrone who would jump to his death rather than be taken that he ordered the body sent through to Tanauan for indentification. Many natives looked at it and said, "Felizardo." The last man to identify it said that he had a broken tooth. Baker was convinced that Felizardo was dead, because they opened the bandit's mouth and found the broken tooth on the left side. The 5,000-peso standing reward was paid.
And as a conclusion to the campaign, Van Schaik was sent to the Province of Cavite as Civil Governor. He had not been there very long before he crossed to Manila to have lunch with his old friend, Harry Belden. Mrs. Belden said, "My washerwoman told me a remarkable story. She said she was in Bacoor the day Felizardo's funeral took place. 'I saw Felizardo's mother,' said the washerwoman, and as the body came down the street I stepped out and put my hands around the weeping mother's shoulders. "Do not cry anymore. Nothing could be done." The old mother, without turning her head spoke out of the corner of her mouth and said, "Get out. I saw him half an hour ago." Then she let out a fresh wail and followed the body down the street.' "
The story had a ring of truth, so Van Schaick left at once for Constabulary headquarters to check on the washerwoman's story. At headquarters it was decided to start all over again and to question his death until the definite indentification of his body.
A fine officer named Aurelio Ramos and two enlisted men, started the campaign. Ramos abused the two soldiers at drill in the presence of witnesses. He let them work all day in the hot sun on the parade ground, and the two men would at night go down to a tienda where an old mistress of Felizardo lived. Ramos further set the trap by refusing to trust the rest of his men, taking all their guns away at night and locking the arms up in a little nipa house. The two soldiers went to the woman of Felizardo and told her that they were deserters and asked her where they could find Felizardo. She told them to go to Bacoor to the house of Captain Damaso Mareuz. They went, and Damaso told them to go to a certain point in the woods at three o'clock in the morning and camp until daylight. They followed his instructions, but nothing happened. They went back to Damaso. He told them to do the same thing the next night. Out of the shadows came a guide to lead them to Felizardo. They told Felizardo how badly they were treated, how crazy Captain Ramos was, how foolish he was to put all of the guns where they could be stolen so easily. Finally they suggested to Felizardo that they go to Camp Nicolas and capture the guns. Felizardo consented, and turned out fifty barrio people, who helped him. Felizardo told the barrio people to wait and took the lead himself, with the Constabulary soldiers following him closely. As they passed under the shade of a great mango tree, the two soldiers laid down their guns, because the last time Felizardo was killed, he did not stay dead and they wanted to be sure and finish him this time. After they dropped their guns, the two soldiers closed in on Felizardo. The arm of one of them went around his neck from behind. The fight was a terrific one. Finally one soldier had been kicked entirely to one side, and as the other started to come in again, Felizardo half lying, half sitting, stopped them with the very force of his personality. He said, "Carpio, you are my cousin. I did not expect this from you. Don't you think we had better stop and talk it over?" Carpio weakened, but the other man who had been kicked to one side reached for his bolo, and creeping up from behind, crushed Felizardo's skull. Then the two soldiers paraded to their camp and Ramos, with a group of men, surrounded the mango tree. He ordered them to step forward and pick up the body. Not a man moved. They still felt that Felizardo would not stay dead. Ramos himself lighted a flare, and took the body and shoved it so as to show the men that Felizardo was dead. Ramos and one of the men climbed into a little carromata. They put the body on the seat between them and drove twenty miles to Manila. There, the body was positively identified by a little thirteen-year-old boy named Lucino who had been Felizardo's muchacho, as well as by other people. So the second reward was paid to the men of the Constabulary who had rid the country of another notorious bandit.
There is every indication that Felizardo himself collected the first reward paid for his death, obtaining it through an agent. The body of the man turned in for the reward is believed by many to have been killed by Felizardo himself.
Lieutenant Walker of the Scouts and Lieutenant McLean of the Constabulary were conspicuous in these northern campaigns. The fighting closed with the surrender of Montalon. With the "Captain-General" came his lesser satellites, Carreon, Benito Natividad, Lucio de Vega, and Leon Villafuerte. The most important capture of all had been the taking of Macario Sakay, who was the organizing genius and unofficial commander of the rebellion.
The next year the unsavory quartette were tried for murderous offenses that stretched across a decade. Montalon and Villafuerte were saved from execution, to be given a life prison sentence. Sakay and De Vega were hanged.
The extent of the reign of terror occasioned by these four men can be gauged by the testimony at the trial and the findings of the court. The transcript of the trial shows that the bands had "killed a constabulary private on a peaceable survey party; hung Lorenzo Amigo, a resident of Caloocan; brutally cut the tendons of the hands and feet of Natalie Anitares and Candido del Mundo and then slew them; slashed to death Tomas Panuelpa and his brother; shot Benigno Martin and Teniento Juan at Bacoor; hung Melicio Alcantara and Alejandro Jesus; poured petroleum over Patriarco N. and burned him to death; hamstrung and cut off the lips of Bias Cabrera; cut off the upper lip and severed the tendons of the right foot of Martin Piol; hamstrung Vicente Castillo and Isidro Camiuac; mutilated and crippled for life Simeon de Quiros and Calexto Rollo; hamstrung German Oliveros; captured two female servants in Malabon and repeatedly outraged them; carried off and outraged Rosa M. of Tanauan and while resisting her rescue killed policeman Francisco Guevera and wounded Sergeant Gonzales; seized the father of Justa M. of Bacoor and under threats of death obliged him to withdraw his 13-year-old daughter from a convent in Manila and deliver her to the brutal embraces of Felizardo, and finally carried away the wife and two baby children of retired General Trias and in the depths of the mountains submitted this gentlewoman to treatment worthy only of brutes and savages."
Prior to and coincident with the Cavite and Batangas campaigns after Felizardo and Montalon, the Constabulary were elsewhere engaged in writing final chapters to the careers of many of the northern bandits. In Isabela Province, Manual Tomines was executed, and his aide, Maurice Sibley, the American deserter from the 16th infantry, was sentenced to a long term in Bilibid prison.
The outlaw Sarria, who had been affiliated with Ola and Toledo, was killed in Ambos Camarines by Captain R. H. Griffiths, and this same officer removed another menace to the peace in the person of Francisco Gamboa a few months later.
Meanwhile, Faustino renewed his depredations, and it was not until April, 1905, that Captain Grove, after an eight-day march, corralled Faustino and most of his band in a blockhouse. Eleven of the pulajans were picked off by sharpshooters and the expert pistol work of Grove, and the balance fled to the hills before the spirited charge of the Constabulary which resulted in the capture of the blockhouse.
Then on July 28, a Constabulary unit under Lieutenant O'Conner located Faustino in the center of the mountainous region between Dagami and Ormoc, where the "Pope" had built a strong fort defended by 100 men and several brass cannon. O'Conner attacked with a small force, and after a savage assault and siege that lasted for more than three hours, Faustino was wounded in the chest, his two sister "Saints" were captured, and thirty-two of his followers were slain.
The "Papa" escaped again, and after a long series of operations, with Lieutenant Jones of the 8th Infantry conducting a campaign and Lieutenant Snodgrass again wounding the "Papa," Faustino was at last brought to bay for the last time. He was killed, with twenty-one of his men.
The other serious menace to the peace of Leyte was a ladrone named Juan Tomayo, who operated in the lowlands of Jaro and Garigara with a small band of ruffians. His course of murder was cut short by the municipal police of Zumarrange, on the island of Buad, which is opposite Catbalogan Samar. He was killed there in a raid upon the municipality, by the efficient city police.
These campaigns against the ladrone chiefs were grim and unromantic affairs. During this entire period of guerrilla warfare there was hardly a day that the patrols remained in barracks. The splendid organization of some of the bandit gangs made them worthy foemen, and the records of the period are filled with examples of fanatical bravery on the part of the ladrone chiefs. The weird religious rites they practiced apparently had some effect upon the weaker members of the enlisted personnel of the Constabulary, for in Colonel Taylor's report of 1905, we find the following:
"Following an engagement near Ormoc, two privates were heard to say, 'There must be something to the anting-antings as we fired repeatedly at pulajans and never hit any.' They were discharged for expressing this belief in the powers of the pulajan anting-antings."
Other than these minor delinquencies, the morale of the Constabulary was excellent, for there is record of but nine desertions in the period from June 15 to November 15, 1905.
The destruction of "Papa" Faustino and Juan Tomayo had been a long step in the establishment of order in Leyte, but the virulence of the pulajan movement was not expended with their elimination. New leaders arose to replace the old, and the bands were soon consolidated again to renew hostilities.
The next year the pulajans came down under the guidance of Felipe Ydos to assault the town of Burauen, Leyte. Their attack upon the police barracks resulted in the deaths of five Constabulary and the wounding of seven. The pulajans withdrew with fourteen rifles and a quantity of ammunition.
Lieutenant L. E. Jackson took twelve men in pursuit of Ydos, and Major Henry C. Neville was in the field with two companies. This combined force combed the jungle for a week with no trace of the raiders to be seen. Finally, on July 5, Major Neville, with forty men, attacked a strong pulajan position near Mantagara, west of Burauen, and lost seven men in pitfalls filled with erect spears. He was unable to capture the position and sat down to wait reinforcement.
On July 11 the pulajans abandoned their fort at the approach of a strong body of Constabulary, and a week later they appeared before Patock. Captain Beazeley was in pursuit, but after two days he lost the trail and retired from the field. Lieutenant Williams had a short fierce battle west of Burauen with indecisive results.
Then, late in July, the band was reported in the vicinity of Burauen, and Lieutenants Williams and Worswick went with thirty-four men to investigate. Two miles west of the Burian-Dagama road they were attacked in force by a band who opened fire from ambush.
After a scattering volley from the jungle edge, the Constabulary was rushed on the left flank by bolomen. As they retired, twelve soldiers, Lieutenant Worswick, and the American civilian, McBride, were killed.
McBride will be remembered as the battling civilian who had accompanied Lieutenant Poggi in the assault of the pulajan fortifications on Cebu. Constabulary and army records frequently conclude with the sentence, "They were accompanied by a civilian named McBride."
The man was a true soldier of fortune--a strange figure who has marked the pages of Philippine history. He owed allegiance to no recognized group of fighting men--he bobs up here and there, apparently serving indiscriminately with Scouts or army or Constabulary. He was found where the action was heaviest, and he was famous for his stock of bush lore. In passing, one wonders about this unique, romantic figure who wandered about continuously seeking a fight.
When McBride went down before the flashing pulajan blades near Dagami, the surviving American, Lieutenant Williams, broke through to report the disaster.
On the following day, Neville and Lieutenant Jeancon, with fifty Constabulary, joined forces with Captain McMasers, who had a platoon of Company E of the 24th Infantry. With them, another platoon under Lieutenant Silcox arrived at Tabontabon to continue the pursuit.
At Tabontabon, the pulajans were located and immediately attacked by the American forces, who inflicted a crushing defeat on the fanatically brave pulajans. The actual count, after a limited search of the thick bush, was forty-nine natives killed and three wounded.
A few months previous to this action, Neville had walked with two of his men into the camp of a band of fifty-seven armed outlaws. He was far in advance of the main body of his command, and finding himself in the camp of the men he was pursuing, he began to issue sharp orders as though he were in complete mastery of the situation, thus holding them for forty minutes until his support arrived on the scene. He was the finest pistol marksman of the corps; even the irrepressible Garwood bowed, in open competition, to this silent Major. Neville was noted for great coolness under fire and a methodical disposition of his men in positions to retain every possible advantage.
On June 23, 1905, Captain James R. Lewis was awarded the Medal of Valor. . . .
A small detail of the Constabulary under Lieutenant Harry L. Beazeley was in co-operative service with a volunteer force of bolomen under Captain Lewis. They were high in the mountains of the Leon country of Ilo-Ilo on a special mission that was concerned with the capture of the noted outlaw, Tomas.
Tomas had been an elusive shadow who struck and vanished, and returned unexpectedly to strike again. The Constabulary was eager to find Tomas. They found him, that morning in 1905.
As was their custom, the patrol was pushing into the jungle with flankers out in anticipation of ambush. The flankers had cut their way through the rank bush but they missed Tomas, who had been there, shielded by the liana-hung forest trees. The sound of shots . . . the thud of bolo blades; Tomas was upon the detail before a retaliatory shot could be fired. It was one of the few skirmishes of the period that was fought almost entirely with blade weapons.
The bandit hurled himself upon Captain Lewis as his special object of attack. The forest was filled with sound as bandit and Constabulary soldier paired in individual combat.
The rifle of Captain Lewis jammed as he attempted a snap shot at the oncoming bandit chief. He hurled it from him and drew a blade from his belt to oppose the swirling bolo that reached for his head. Back and forth they twisted and dived and feinted and plunged--a strange duel to the death, with white officer and native bandit measuring their strength with the weapon of the country. Bolo against bolo in that blood-slippery jungle clearing.
With a supreme effort Lewis cornered the shifty Malay and almost decapitated Tomas with a blow. As Tomas fell, Lewis twisted in mid-air to face a new menace. On the ground, a wounded bandit was drawing a bead with a rifle on the Constabulary Captain. Lewis severed the head from the body before the bandit could pull the trigger.
In the few minutes that Lewis had fought for life, bullets had passed through his hat, grazing the skull: through his shirt, between the left arm and the body; and through his trousers, wounding the left knee.
With the destruction of Tomas and his band, a leader with a long record of murderous assault was eliminated, and a long existing menace to life and property was removed from Ilo-Ilo Province.
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Original publication © 1938 E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.
Filipiniana Reprint Series © 1985 Cacho Hermanos, Inc.
This publication (HTML format & original artwork) © 2001 Bakbakan International.
Transcription courtesy of Ashley Bass.