We will be commemorating the 116th year of the start of the Philippine-American War on February 4. On that day in 1899, the first Filipino fighter was felled by a soldier from the American occupation army in a skirmish at Sta. Mesa, Manila.
Let us r
efresh the memories of the new generation of Filipino youth on the genocide, the crimes and brutalities committed by the US military against the Filipino people and the latter’s heroic struggle for national freedom and democracy.
Gen. Elwell S. Otis, the US military governor in the Philippines (1899-1900) led the first round of the violent suppression of the Filipino people. The US Army used the tactics of reconcentrating civilians in military camps, the “water cure” in interrogations, and the “scorched earth” campaign which involved burning down entire communities. These did not only happen in Batangas and Laguna, but were likewise widespread in Bicol, the Visayas and parts of Mindanao.
Eminent historians estimate that up to 1.4 million Filipinos, or more than 10% of the Philippine population at that time died from 1899 to 1905, the first years of the Philippine-American War. Up to 600,000 died in Luzon, including 300,000 reported by the US military to have died in Batangas alone in the face of wanton killings and atrocities. These figures do not include the thousands of Moros killed by American soldiers.
Despite their superior weapons, US military forces failed to quickly defeat the Filipino people’s resistance. The brutality of the US military incited widespread resistance. The Filipino people mounted an armed revolution lasting close to 15 years, using old rifles, revolvers, machetes, daggers, arrows, spears and other indigenous weapons.
Hamletting. The military camps where Filipinos were forcibly herded were known as reconcentrados. The camps were severely cramped, leading to the spread of disease and widespread deaths. One camp that was little more than three kilometers long and half a kilometer wide housed 8,000 Filipinos. In another report, 8,450 out of 298,000 people incarcerated in reconcentrados died between January and April 1902.
Areas outside of the reconcentrados were called “free-fire zones,” meaning anyone seen outside the camp without a cedula or residence certificate was to be shot. General J. Franklin Bell claimed in a letter that he organized the camps to “protect” friendly Filipinos from the “ladrones” or thieves (which was how the revolutionaries were called) and “assure them an adequate food supply” while teaching them “proper sanitary standards.”
“Scorched earth policy.” Notorious examples of the policy of burning down entire villages was Gen. Jacob Smith’s orders to his men in Samar to “kill and burn,” “Kill everyone oven ten years of age!" and "Turn (Samar) into a ‘howling wilderness’ so that ‘even the birds could not live there.’”
It was General Smith’s retaliation for the successful raid on September 28, 1901 by revolutionaries under Gen. Vicente Lukban on Company C of the 9th US Army Regiment then stationed at the Balangiga town center in Eastern Samar. The 74-man company suffered 48 killed and 26 wounded. The revolutionaries were able to seize 100 rifles and many rounds of ammunition.
Some of the American soldiers survived when they were able to ride a dugout canoe to Basey, Samar province. Company G commander Capt. Edwin V. Bookmiller later returned to Balangiga and burned the town to ashes.
“Water cure” and other US Army crimes. American soldiers systematically used the “water cure” and other forms of torture on captured Filipinos, in a desperate attempt to quell the armed resistance. In a letter to his family in the US on November 25, 1900, Sgt. Charles S. Riley recounted how they gathered the presidente (mayor), the priest and another local leader, and investigated them. The mayor evaded some questions, and he was soon bound and subjected to the water cure. He was made to lie face up under a water tank while water flowed to his mouth. Another man sat on his belly to prevent him from drowning. The mayor begged for mercy and talked. He was subjected a second time to the water cure until he divulged all the information that they sought from him.
The people of Panay likewise fell victim to intense brutality in the hands of the Americans. A letter by a man named Mr. Nelson to the Boston Herald on August 25, 1902 recalls the burning of Panay:
“There was talk of indiscriminate burning by General Smith. The 18th Regulars marched from Iloilo in the south to Capiz in northern Panay, with orders to burn all towns allied with the resistance. This resulted in clearing an area 60 miles wide from end to end”—meaning the American soldiers had burned down an area of more than 96 square kilometers.
Suppressing information. Otis suppressed all reports regarding such military tactics to prevent them from reaching anti-imperialist newspapers and the American Anti-Imperialist League of which writer Mark Twain was a member. Otis also ordered particular unit commanders to order their men to reverse or retract their initial statements reported in the US media.
Meanwhile, Otis launched his own counter-propaganda, claiming “Filipino bandits” were the ones torturing their American captives. This was belied by reports from other foreign reporters and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) like F.A. Blake.
When Blake arrived in Manila to investigate the atrocities, Otis confined him to his office in Manila. Once, when Blake was able to shake off his military escorts and venture into the field, he saw burned houses and “horribly mutilated bodies of Filipinos, with stomachs slit open and occasionally decapitated.” Blake recounted this to an American reporter upon his return to San Francisco, California, USA.
[Ang Bayan is the official news organ of the Communist
Party of the Philippines
http://www.philippinerevolution.net/publications/ang_bayan/20150107/hold-the-us-accountable-for-its-crimes-during-the-philippine-american-war-1899-1913
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