Further details are
obtained from the account of the American Occupation written by W. Cameron
Forbes, as follows:
The insurgents
were driven northward until, on November 12, 1899, American troops entered
Tarlac and the insurgent organization dissolved, Gene. Aguinaldo,
retiring with his bodyguard into the mountains of Benguet, narrowly escaped
capture by the advance point of General Lawton’s column, under Brigadier-General
Samuel B. M. Young, near Pozerubio, November 15th. The insurgent secretary
of state, Don Felipe Buencamino, other high insurgent civil officials,
and Gen. Aguinaldo’s mother and son were captured or sought the protection
of the American troops against the people of that region who were hostile
to the Tagalogs. [37]
General Aguinaldo,
accompanied by a small bodyguard, continued his flight northward through
the mountains of Benguet and on December 7, 1899, when overtaken by an
American force, he again escaped capture as the result of a rear guard
action in which the youthful General Gregorio del Pilar sacrificed his
own life in order to permit his chief to escape. Aguinaldo, with
a few companions, then made his way eastward through the mountains to the
Pacific Ocean. His whereabouts remained unknown to the American forces
until a short time before his capture In March 1900. [38]
By the end of March
1900, the occupation of all large towns in the Islands had been effected
and the important ports opened to commerce.
Organized resistance
on the part of the insurgents was at an end but small bands of insurgents
in various parts of the Islands carried out an “exceedingly vexatious and
annoying guerrilla warfare of a character closely approaching
brigandage” until April 1902. The last of the insurgent
leaders to surrender was General Miguel Malvar, who surrendered to the
American authorities in Mindoro on April 16, 1902. [39] |
From the
foregoing account it is evident
that from September 1898, until November 1899,
the Philippine Revolutionary Government was the control governing
authority of a large part of the Philippines. Immediately
after the surrender of Manila on August 13, 1898, the Americans were in.
control of only the city of Manila and the town of Cavite. The Spaniards
were still in control, and remained in control for some months thereafter,
o Iloilo, Jolo and Zamboanga. Elsewhere in the Philippines, the insurgents
were in control. Concerning the functions of government
which were actually performed by the Revolutionary Government, Major Palmer
wrote as follows:
…The Revolutionary
Government, was for many months, a de facto government exercising
within a large territory and over a large population by no means wholly
native, all the functions of a bona fide government, including taxation,
military service, civil regulations, etc…. mail and telegraph services
were organized, the railway was operated, and such other means of
communications were adopted as conditions permitted; letters were
required to bear stamps, and registry service was provided and used in
many places. The stamp issues cannot therefore be regarded as either
unnecessary or speculative, but were bona fide in all respects. [40] |
THE
STAMP LAWS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT
It appears from the
specimens of documents, which have survived that in the territory
subject to the Revolutionary Government, as well as in Manila during the
same period, relatively, little change was made in the stamp tax laws,
which were in force at the close of the Spanish regime.
It is apparent, however,
that in the territory subject to the Revolutionary these laws were not
as rigidly enforced as they were in Manila. This probably may have been
due, at least in part, to a lack of adequate supplies of stamps and stamped
papers, particularly during the first few months of 1898.
THE STAMPED PAPER
OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT
At Malolos in September
1898, the Central Revolutionary Government organized a department
of Communications, which assumed control of the
postal and telegraph services, and a department of Revenues and Property,
which took charge of the collection of taxes. The printing
of adhesive postage, telegraph and revenue stamps and of revenue stamped
paper was immediately ordered. These were printed by a firm of lithographers
in Manila and were smuggled out of Manila. The adhesive stamps are said
to have been issued in September 1898. Apparently the stamped paper
did not become available, however, until late in December 1898, or early
in 1899. |