The Suppression of Filipino Nationalism and the Filipinization of the Government

In 1902, the American colonial government designated the fourth of July, a date profoundly dear and
symbolic to the United States and its people, as the official end of the "insurrection" of their newly
acquired possession-the Philippines. This insurrection, labeled such by the US, was recognized by Filipino
revolutionaries as a legitimate war, which began in February 1899 during the San Juan Bridge incident
and ended in March 1901 with the surrender of President Emilio Aguinaldo. His surrender to the new
colonizers, who had been portraying themselves as benevolent peoples and friends to the natives, led to
the surrender of other revolutionary forces across the archipelago. However, Filipino resistance in
different areas, such as in southern Luzon and Mindanao, continued to threaten American rule in the
Philippines until 1913. One
of the last skirmishes recorded during the period was the Battle of Bud Bagsak which was fought
between the forces of Datu Amil of Sulu and General John Pershing of the United States Army.

Amidst these hostilities, US President William McKinley in early 1899 sent to the Philippines a mission
tasked specifically to assess the Philippine situation and to establish a civil government in the islands.
This delegation, called the First Philippine Commission or Schurman Commission, was headed by Jacob
Schurman, then president of Ivy League school Cornell University, together with George Dewey, Elwell
Otis, Charles Denby, and Dean Worcester. The commission gave some key recommendations to the US
President on how to proceed with the establishment of colonial rule in the Philippines. First, it suggested
that a civil government should supplant the existing military administration, established in August 1898
after the American victory in the Mock Battle of Manila and first headed by General Wesley Merritt.
Secondly, it recommended the creation of a bicameral legislature, with the lower house to be composed
of Filipino statesmen while leaving the upper house to American colonial administrators. And lastly, the
Schurman Commission likewise endorsed the improvement of the general sanitary conditions of the
Philippines and the founding of a public school system to educate the Filipinos.

A second delegation led by William Howard Taft was sent to the Philippines in June 1900. The Second
Philippine Commission, also known as the Taft Commission, proceeded to execute the
recommendations previously given by Schurman and his colleagues. In October of the same year, this
Philippine Commission was given the authority to exercise legislative powers in the Philippines by
President William McKinley. Ultimately, on July 4, 1901, a civil government was established, known as
the Insular Government, with Taft himself as the governor-general. A military governor, Adna Chaffee,
continued to administer unpacified areas until exactly a year later when the Philippine insurrection was
declared officially over.

In this particular chapter, with the use of primary sources, students will be looking into two subsequent
periods of Philippine history following the Philippine American War. First is the period dubbed by
nationalist historians as the era of suppressed nationalism, a time dominated by repressive American
policies and actions aiming to extinguish native nationalist sentiments to strengthen colonial control
over the archipelago. Second is the era of Filipinization, wherein a more active Filipino participation in
governance led to eventual independence. Some of the sources excerpted in this chapter are the laws
passed by the Philippine Commission that were thought to suppress Filipino nationalism namely the
Libel law, Sedition law, Brigandage law and the Flag law.

Excerpt of Act No. 292 or The Sedition Law of 1901

Another legislation intending to suppress Filipino nationalism, was likewise enacted by the Philippine
Commission in November 1901. The Philippine Commission Act No. 292, otherwise known as the
Sedition Law of 1901, prohibited the Filipinos from advocating Philippine independence or political
separation from the United States, covering all possible methods from the overt to the passive-including
speeches, publications, and literature. Those found guilty of sedition were sentenced to death or
imprisonment.

A play written by Juan Abad titled Tanikalang Ginto was considered seditious after it was staged in 1902
in different theaters in Manila, Laguna, and Cavite. It was about Dalita's daughter Ligaya, who was
forbidden to see her lover Kaulayaw by her uncle, Maimbot. Instead, Ligaya received a golden bracelet
from Maimbot which ultimately bound her to his control. Judge Paul Linebarger of a lower court in
Batangas found the drama seditious (many interpreted the rather cruel character of Maimbot as a
personification of the United States while Ligaya was the Philippines) and sentenced the author to two
years of imprisonment and a fine of $2,000. While the ruling for the first case was pending in the
Supreme Court after an appeal had been made, Abad was once again arrested for producing another
allegedly seditious play titled Isang Punlo ng Kaaway in 1904.² Another playwright who faced similar
accusations of enticing the Filipinos to resist American control was Aurelio Tolentino who authored
Kahapon, Ngayon, at Bukas which premiered in 1903. In it, Tolentino showed his audience the struggles
of Inangbayan and her son Taga-ilog in rejecting the foreign interventions of the Chinese, the Spanish,
and the Americans. And at one point, the script called for the actor playing Taga-ilog to tear and trample
on the US flag as a sign of triumph. This led to the immediate arrest of Tolentino and his company who
were found guilty of sedition by the Supreme Court in March 1906. Other plays which shared the similar
fate were Mariano Martinez's Pulong Pinaglahuan and Gabriel Beato Francisco's Ang Katipunan, to name
a few.³ Some important portions of the Sedition Law of 1901 are found below.

Primary Source

Act No. 292, November 04, 1901

AN ACT DEFINING THE CRIMES OF TREASON, INSURRECTION, SEDITION, CONSPIRACIES TO COMMIT

SUCH CRIMES, SEDITIOUS UTTERANCES, WHETHER WRITTEN OR SPOKEN,

THE FORMATION OF SECRET POLITICAL SOCIETIES, THE ADMINISTERING

OR TAKING OF OATHS TO COMMIT CRIMES, OR TO PREVENT THE DISCOVERING OF THE SAME,

AND THE VIOLATION OF OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE, AND PRESCRIBING

THE PUNISHMENT THEREFOR.

By authority of the President of the United States, be it enacted by the United States Philippine

Commission, that:

SECTION 1. Every person, resident in the Philippine Islands, owing allegiance to the United States or the
Government of the Philippine Islands, who levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving
them aid and comfort within the Philippine Islands or elsewhere, is guilty of treason, and, upon
conviction, shall suffer death or, at the discretion of the court, shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not
less than five years and fined not less than ten thousand dollars.

SECTION 2. Every person, owing allegiance to the United States or the Government of the Philippine
Islands, and having knowledge of any treason against them or either of them, who conceals and does
not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the provincial governor in the province in
which he resides or to the Civil Governor of the Islands, or to some judge of a court of record, is guilty of
misprision of treason and shall be imprisoned not more than seven years and be fined not more than
one thousand dollars.

SECTION 3. Every person who incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection
against the authority of the United States or of the Government of the Philippine Islands, or the laws
thereof, or who gives aid or comfort to anyone so engaging in such rebellion or insurrection, shall, upon
conviction, be imprisoned for not more than ten years and he fined not more than ten thousand dollars.

SECTION 4. If two or more persons conspire to overthrow, put down, or destroy by force the
Government of the United States in the Philippine Islands or the Government of the Philippine Islands,
or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States or of the Philippine
Islands, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States or of the Government of
the Philippine Islands, contrary to the authority thereof, each of such persons shall be punished by a fine
of not more than five thousand dollars and by imprisonment, with or without hard labor, for a period
not more than six years.

SECTION 5. All persons who rise publicly and tumultuously in order to attain by force legal methods any
of the following objects are guilty of sedition:

1. To prevent the promulgation or execution of any law or the free holding of any popular election.
2. To prevent the Insular Government, or any provincial or municipal government or any public
official, from freely exercising its or his duties or the due execution of any judicial or
administrative order.
3. To inflict any act of hate or revenge upon the person or property of any official or agent of the
Insular Government or of a provincial or municipal government.
4. To inflict, with a political or social object, any act of hate or revenge upon individuals or upon
any class of individuals in the Islands.
5. To despoil, with a political or social object, any class of persons, natural or artificial, a
municipality, a province, or the Insular Government, or the Government of the United States, or
any part of its property.

SECTION 6. Any person guilty of sedition as defined in section five hereof shall be punished by a fine of
not exceeding five thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or both.

SECTION 7. All persons conspiring to commit the crime of sedition shall be punished by a fine of not
exceeding one thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding five years, or both.

SECTION 8. Every person who shall utter seditious words or speeches, write, publish, or circulate
scurrilous libels against the Government of the United States or the Insular Government of the
Philippine Islands, or which tend to disturb or obstruct any lawful officer in executing his office, or which
tend to instigate others to cabal or meet together for unlawful purposes, or which suggest or incite
rebellious conspiracies or riots, or which tend to stir up the people against the lawful authorities or to
disturb the peace of the community, the safety and order of the Government, or who shall knowingly
conceal such evil practices, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars or by
imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the court.

SECTION 9. All persons who shall meet together for the purpose of forming or who shall form any secret
society or who shall, after the passage of this Act, continue membership in a society already formed,
having for its object, in whole or in part, the promotion of treason, rebellion, or sedition, or the
promulgation of any political opinion or policy, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand
dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.

SECTION 10. Until it has been officially proclaimed that a state of war or insurrection against the
authority or sovereignty of the United States no longer exists in the Philippine Islands it shall be unlawful
for any person to advocate, orally or by writing or printing, or like methods, the independence of the
Philippine Islands or their separation from the United States, whether by peaceable or forcible means,
or to print, publish, or circulate any handbill, newspaper, or other publication advocating such
independence or separation.
Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding two
thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding one year.
[...]

SECTION 17. A foreigner, residing in the Philippine Islands, who shall commit any of the crimes specified
in the preceding sections of this Act, except those specified in sections one and two, shall be punished in
the same way and with the same penalty as that prescribed for the particular crime therein.

Enacted, November 4, 1901.