Father with franciscans in Samar.pdf

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extracted text: October, 1929 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 9 offered are less than the cost of production. If diversification means new crops, who is to be the John D. or Edison who will lead the way—at a price? If it means diversification of known crops, it leads back to doing each other’s washing. What we need is a Society of Amigos de Paisanos and not Amigos del Pais. All these things were tried, weighed in the balances and found wanting, as any one can ascertain if he cares to read history. For four long centuries we have found out what crops can be produced here under our peculiar climatic limitations. It now remains to be seen what new ones can be introduced under our peculiar political limitations. We are inclined to believe from past performances that Juan will let some George do it, for he has only a few eggs in his basket which he knows are good eggs. Farther with Franciscans in Saman For two months we left the Franciscans labor ing in Samar, at the many missions taken over by them from the founders, the Jesuits, upon the latter’s expulsion from the Philippines in 1768. Other matters have claimed space, and our friend, the companion of the vicar of Santa Clara convent, has been making a vain fight against cancer of the throat. Samar was a familiar book to him, he was a parish priest there for so many years. He was short, stout, and sunny-natured. He knew how to suffer excruciating pain and die of it—with philosophic THE MANILA HOTEL LEADING HOTEL IN THE ORIENT Designed and constructed to secure coolness, sanitation and comfort under tropic climatic conditions Provides every Western convenience combined with every Oriental luxury Finest Dance Orchestra in the Far East Management - - WALTER E. ANTRIM uncomplaining thoughts, merry-smiling lips even when the voice was but a whisper, and faith that all is ordered for the best. Oh, an old formula enough; but a formula that made of our friend a very fine man to know. If anyone would make fine acquaintances, let him insinuate himself into the friendship of some of the friars in the walled city whom he thinks he should like to know; and let him go and visit with them, and they with him. He shall better his Spanish, revise his views perhaps, and fill his memory with quaint reminiscences out of which good tales may be made. The friars’ geniality is spontaneous and unfailing. They may think little enough of many present-day institutions, but they always think well of their fellow man. Some want Spanish teachers. Why not a friar friend? We could wish that the old priest from Samar had not had to succumb to cancer, but he seemed to mind it little enough. Faith was his nurse maid, submission his physician. When we occasionally took groups of children to the convent and went up into the vicarage, he gave each one some religious token—a picture of one of the saints in a plush or silken frame the nuns had made for it. He gave our daughter the Nazarene, which has become a cherished symbol to her; and on his hand, when he gave it, was the palsy of death, but on his lips and in his merry eyes gleamed a smile that knew not that mysterious halting, or unexplained shifting of course which men call death—wanting a better word. Many another friar living out his days among us, but with so very few of us, is a character who will bear acquaintance. If our traditions come to be as eloquent as theirs, taken with all their faults, but with their virtues too, great indeed will be our annals in these islands. Father Julian, God rest him. Now let us see some more of the Franciscans’ work in Samar: For the others he has neither capital, time nor inclination in the face of existing conditions. The proof of the feasibility of introducing n<ew crops here lies in the melancholy fact of sums aggregating into the, millions spent here by those who tried and were beaten. And the crops were many from peanuts to pineapples, kapok to cam phor, castor-oil-beans to champacas, and a score of other efforts in agricultural pioneering. Tired of the fruitless struggle and saddened by the loss of their capital they have long since disappeared from the scene. The introduction of new crops is the work of efficient experimental stations carried on by entities that can afford to lose at first if there is ultimate hope in prospect. These again would be organizations of some magnitude which desire to invest in a stable country with the hope of a continuity of existence. Sulat, meaning Writing. At the edge of a beautiful and fertile plain on the east coast of Samar, on the right bank of the Sulat river and on the shore of secure cove. “The church, dedicated to St. Ignatius Loyola, is of stone, built by the Jesuits and repaired by Fr. Enrique de Barcelona in 1844, who at the same time built a bell tower of stone (no doubt serving as a fortress against the Moros too), a beautiful baptismal chapel and a cemetery surrounded by a stone wall, outside the town and well situated. The convento is also of stone, strong and spacious. There is a wooden town hall and a primary school supported by the community fund, the building being by Father Barcelona; the other buildings, excepting about ten wooden ones, are of nipa and in the usual style of the country.” When Father Huerta wrote, in 1865, he also mentioned the chapel in the visita of Catalaban, on the island of that name at the mouth of the cove. San Antonio de Padua, always good to the poor in their afflictions, is the patron of this chapel; San Isidro Labrador, who encour CONJECTURE AS to whether or not you need glasses is unsafe and you are courting trouble if you indulge in it. There is only one way to make sure, and if there is the slightest doubt in your mind about your eyes, settle it now by having our experienced Optometrists give them a scientific examination and learn the facts about the condition of your vision. Always the best in quality but never hi ¿her in price ages thrifty husbandry and blesses the crops, is the patron of the ermita at Meytigbao. Of course, if their intercessions are unsuccess ful, man is at fault—never the kindly saints. Ah, that man should sin: he should ever heed the homilies from the parish pulpit and properly behave himself. The friars’ recipe for a good life was simple, and, perhaps in part for the reasons about to be stated, not very difficult to follow: “The boun daries of this town extend five leagues north and south and on the west are not marked at all. The mountains abound in fine woods suitable for building and for cabinet-work; there is a diversity of palms, rattans, edible plants, resins, gums and wild game of every variety. . . . Ex cellent sea fish abound in the coastal waters. Cultivated lands yield rice enough for all re quirements, especially a black rice known as muiniis, which ordinarily is given to the sick. Coconuts, Manila hemp, taro and yams are also abundantly produced. The people are devoted to agriculture, the stripping of Manila hemp, the making of coconut oil, hunting and fishing, the women to weaving; and all the surplus products are exported in the people’s own boats to the provincial capital and Manila. . . . This parish is served by Fr. José Mata, minister, 27 years old.” In such pastoral isolation and plenitude simple virtues were not of course exceptional; all author ity being in the parish priest, they were the rule. Borongan. “The name of this pueblo sig nifies Cloudy Place, from the fogs from two rivers betwee n whose opposite banks the pueblo is situated.” As was the case with the other towns of Samar which were early established, the Franc' scans took over Borongan from the Jesuits in 1768, when there were 751 tributos in the town and a population of 4,999. Fr. Juan de Mora was the first Franciscan sent there as a parish priest. The church is under the advoca tion of Our Lady of the Nativity. Burned down in 1773, Fr. Roque de San José rebuilt it in 1781; Fr. Juan Navarrete gave it a new roof of tile in 1843 and defrayed from his personal funds the expense of a fine tower in 1853. Na varrete erected other buildings in the town. The church in one of the barrios, Meydolong, “was built by the infidels converted by the zealou Fr. Vicente Mérida about the year 1820, who began paying tribute in 1844”; an other village, converted to Christianity by Na varrete “began paying tribute in 1849.” That was the process, then; first, teaching the seminomadic animists the Catholic faith and respect for established government, then set tling the neophytes in a village round a church (Please turn to page 11) IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1929 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 11 Farther with Franciscans in Samar (Continued from pa¿e 9) and plaza, then levying and collecting taxes for the carrying on of local government and the support of the crown government in Manila. Father Huerta describes Borongan as surrounded by fertile lands; Fr. Juan Navarrete introduced there the cultivation of Manila hemp, “all the products of this pueblo were doubled and tripled under the zealous direction of the oft-mentioned Navarrete.” Pavanas. This pueblo when taken over by the Franciscans from the Jesuits in 1768 had 310 tributos and a population of 985. The stone church which the Jesuits had built, under the advocacy of St. Peter and St. Paul, burned down, and a second built by the Franciscans met the same fate in 1835, but Fr. Leon de Tembleque built a third one which is no doubt that still in use. The terrain is fertile, the bordering mountains on the one side and the sea on the other abounding in products more than sufficient for the community. Laoang. “The first founders of this pueblo, about the year 1680, were three principales, headmen, of the pueblo of Palapat, Kahundik, General Dorey Leaves—Last of Mohicans! Brigadier General Halstead Dorey, U.S.A., left Manila, September 20, to return to the United States and assume command of the army divi sion which has its headquarters at San Antonio, Texas. Some of the newspapers honored his departure with stories on his army career; the Journal will not repeat the data recorded in Who’s Who in America, but will endeavor to furnish its readers with some of the more salient facts involved in America’s administration of Mohammedans in the Philippines—this being the work to which Dorey was devoted when first associated with Leonard Wood in Mindanao and Sulu in 1904 and thereafter for some years, and later, from 1925 to the time of Wood’s departure from Manila in the spring of 1927, when Wood was governor of the Philippines and Dorey was his chief adviser, handling Mohammedan affairs particularly. Dorey was absent from the islands during most of the time Vice Governor Eugene A. Gil more was acting governor, but returned to Manila to hold the same post under Stimson (and for three months under Davis) that he held under General Wood. His departure from Manila in September leaves no old-timer at Malacañang whose experience carries back through the whole period of America’s sovereignty over the Mohammedans of the Philippines. No capable lieutenant is left behind: Dorey, in Mohammedan affairs, is the last of the Mohicans, to overstrain a familiar allusion; and he is probably not to return to the Philippines. Governor Davis’s direct reliance will be, it would seem, Ludovico Hidrosollo, director of the nonchristian-tribes bureau created by pro vision of the islands’ organic act of 1916, the Jones law. This young man, first of the young Fihx :nos Taft pensioned to America for college trainmj is naturally very ambitious for con tinued success in his career, guided heretofore in measurable part by the counsel of American friends, Dorey being the last, who had first hand knowledge of our Mohammedan wards and, in most cases, a decided sympathy with them. Hidrosollo’s task is not an easy one, since it involves, by policy of the government, eventual abandonment of Mohammedan custo mary law and its entire substitution by the civil and criminal codes of the Philippines. In other words, it is the aim of the govern ment to leave the Mohammedans alone only in their religion; and even in the field of faith the proselyter will of course pursue his missionary labors under the protection of the law. This is no new thing, it began when the American regime began; the government feels that with the education of Mohammedans up to the point where they can scrawl their names upon notesof-hand and bills-of-sale, and the names of candi dates upon election ballots, transition from tribal practices to the formal legal instruments of Christian civilization will be the next and quite a natural step. And, rather unfortunately, sometimes, the Mohammedan has much the Surahan and Anodanod, who kept the pueblo in subjection to Palapat until 1768, at which time and as soon as we received the adminis tration of Samar from the Jesuits, the town was separated from Palapat and Fr. Antonio de Toledo was assigned there as the first parish priest.” The archangel St. Michael is the patron saint; the church, stone and timber, was built during the period from 1848 to 1852 by Fr. Sebastian de Almonacid, “who at the same time directed the construction of a town hall, tribunal, of stone and timber, and another build ing of the same sort where a primary school supported by the community fund is establish ed. . . The lands cultivated, fertilized by a multitude of small streams, produces much rice, tobacco, Manila hemp, coconuts and palms. The people are devoted to farming, producing hemp, coconut oil and nipa-palm wine, this palm abounding in the vicinity. Cattle raising and fishing are other industries.” The women, in Father Huerta’s time, were diligent weavers of native cloths which they sold in Catbalogan, while the rice not needed at home was sold in Albav. Cal viga is the next Samar town in the Fran ciscan list. Our next journey commences there. same feeling—that he is being led on to commit ments of whose consequences he is not fully aware. This is not to suggest insincerity, the govern ment seems very sincere in what it does; and it may be granted that it always has been. Some criticism adhered to the speed with which Frank W. Carpenter, succeeding Pershing in 1914 as Mindanao-Sulu governor, h.urried the process along; but the record indicates only a difference Bulletin Photo Halstead Dorey of degree in what he did and what the others did before him—Bates, Wood, Pershing. However much any of these governors wished to respect the Mohammedan people’s laws and customs, it must have been very hard to follow that which they did not know; the tendency was, and is, to follow what is known—our own laws. Nevertheless, Dorey witnessed a tremendous change during the 25 years he knew our Moham medans. When he went to join Wood, first Mindanao-Sulu governor, at Zamboanga in 1904, the Philippine Commission had just created that province and provided a legislative council, Wood at the head of it, to enact laws conforming as nearly as possible to the lawful customs of such peoples and leaving the chiefs the same authority over their people as they now exercise. The organic law even provided that the customary laws be codified, printed in dialect and Arabic as well as in English, and made applicable to all civil and criminal cases involving Mohammedan litigants only. There were five districts, each under an American governor, and the governors settled disputes between chiefs and had the power of enforcing their decisions upon such differences. Some remnant of this remains, justices of the peace are expected to have recourse to the customary law where its application is plainly indicated and would not conflict with what we have from Justinian. The original arrangement seems to have been very liberal, as is said, but it was in fact a drawing away from the Bates treaty (with the Sultan of Sulu) and really looked toward what has follow ed. The Mohammedans had not kept public order as the treaty pledged them to do, Congress had balked at slavery and had never ratified the treaty, and the President was considered absolved from executive observance of the treaty because the other party had failed of compliance. The treaty recognized the sultan’s civil and religious sovereignty over his people, and we see that the Mindanao-Sulu act placed civil power in the new government it created and aggrand ized local chiefs. Wood had everything to organize, of course, in 1904. Taft had a solid foundation upon which to erect modern administration in the other parts of the archipelago. It is not intended as a reflection upon what Taft did to say that Wood made his own foundations and patiently built upon them, gaining the confidence of the Mohammedans as Taft did that of the Christians; and it was upon Wood’s reports that the Phil ippine Commission depended in drafting the organic law for Mindanao-Sulu, the Moham medan province. These are proud memories for Dorey, devoted as he is to Leonard Wood’s patriotic achievements. For he was there helping his general, such being his invariable allusion to the comrade in civil and military duties whom he loved, as a son might love a father, and admired as a hero. Few men have ever endured more inconsolable grief than Dorey still endures over the death of Leonard Wood. But however benevolent the paternal government of the Mohammedans Wood advised, it long ago succumbed to the nationalism that pervades the land, and, therefore, to the policy, as already intimated, which made provision for it as an expedient. One of the most rational devices was the tribal wards, with ward courts on which the peers of the lit igants sat as assessors and authorities on the customary law. The wards have since become municipal districts, and the tribunals courts of justices of the peace—mostly Christian im migrants. The five districts are now provinces, Davao, Cotabato, Lanao, Sulu, and Zamboanga; four of them enjoy all the paraphernalia of democ racy, they are organized under the general provincial-government act. Only Sulu has an appointed American governor, the one now in office, pending confirmation of his appointment by the Philippine senate, being James R. Fugate, a Dorey selection, of whom reports are good. The Mohammedans were disarmed in 1911, by Pershing; the outlawry prevalent theretofore has since abated perceptibly, but is not entirely a thing of the past and heavy detachments of the Philippine constabulary are always on duty in Mindanao-Sulu. In Zamboanga, at Petit Barracks, a memento of old times, there is a garrison of Federal scouts, Filipino soldiers. The commander, Colonel Fletcher, is at this writing gravely ill in Sternberg hospital in Manila. On his sick bed Dorey had to bid him good-bye. The old order changes. “The Philippine government,” says one of Hidrosollo’s reports, “as well as the Filipino people is greatly indebted to the work of pacifica tion undertaken by the (American) military authorities with no less great sacrifice of life. This pacification which immediately followed the general disarmament (in 1911) undoubtedly paved the way for the implantation of civil government.” Lanao and Sulu were the most recalcitrant provinces; in Lanao the Moham medans are frugal, conservative, illiterate farmers, and in Sulu they are the immediate descendants of pirates and tribute-demanding headmen. With the abolition of the department has come a change in fiscal arrangements. The depart ment used to have all the local revenue and the
Date: 1929
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