Review of activities of the District of Northern Luzon

Title

Language

English

Source

Khaki and Red : Official Organ of the Philippine Constabulary Volume XIII (No. 7) July 1933

Year

1933

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

July, 1933 KHAKI and RED PAGE 29 ·Review Of Activities Of The District Of Northern Luzon ~·O At the end of the thirty-second year of the existence of the org-anization, the District of Northern Luzon owing to the financial condition of the government had i~s forces reduced to 607 enlisted men and 44 officer~. Notwithstanding the reduc-· tion of personnel, law .and order during the yea1~ ·were considered good in the Distirct. There were a few violent crimes committed against persons and property but not of such propotion as to disrupt public order nor were there any organized bands which could be attributed to the acute depression. A ~eries of thefts in and around Aparri wbs the extent of that industry. "!he men responsible for these thefts are now awaiting trial before the courts of justice. One case of murder in the province of Cagayan because of the prominence and social 1 standing of the principal, Felix Villli.flor, ccmmanded much attention throughtout the valley and because of its similarity to the notorious Viola ease in Bulacan, it was given more publicity than is usually clue such cases. The murderer wla.s sentenced to serve 14 years, 8 months and 1 day imprisonment and indemnify the heirs of the deceased in a sum of P1000.00. Owing to the activity of Lieut. F. B. Villaluz in g-athering evidence which convicted Felix Villaflor of murder, this officer and two enlisted men of the org-anization are now under bond of P20,000 each-they having been ac~use:l at the instance of the Villaflor family of the murder of the late Rufino Samson in 1926. 'This case has several times COLONEL WILLIAM E. DQSSER Commander, District of Northern L'lfzon been investigated a11d dropped for the lack of eviq dence. Another murder ca1 se which disturbed the even tenor of existence in the peaceful Cagayan valley Wlas thart; of Manuel Manzano of Isabela, a pig venDISTRICT STAFF' OFFICERS, NORTHERN LU~ON Maj. EULALIO TANEDO Maj. VICTORIANO LUNA C111pt. A. N. VILLALOBOS A •• t. fo D. C. and lnspedor Dis(ricf Surgeon Di.trict Adjutant PAGE 3() KHAKJ ,and RED July, 1933 dor who awhile in company with other Christian peddlers en route to Natonin, Bontoc, was murdered by outlaw Gaddangs under the lclldership of Saguibu. The motive of the crime was robbery. In Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Chinese factions caused the Constabulary some sleepless nights owing to a kind of tong war brought )about apparently thr01.~gh the purchase of a consignment of Japanese goods during or prior to the boycott of Japanese products by a member of the Chine.c;e Protective Association. The purchaser felt obligated to ·accept the goodiS but it app~rs that the members of the Association felt otherw~se. To settle the trouble for all time an investi~1tion into the cause and the Chinese responsible for it is being conducted with' a view of deporting the responsible .person or persons. In countires where the inhabitants are still in a very low stage of civilization, the predominant offense is against person. The Mountain Provine:) proves no exception to the rule, although her record is very much lower than that of Sulu which probably tops ',all the provinces in the Philippines in criminality record. On account of the topographic conditions of the "Mountain", the people who are a few mile:s apart but divided by a mountain or range, were until recently antagonistic to each other and carried on tribial wars. • These feuds have since the American regime been partly patched up by peace-pacts entered into between the differene tribes or groups in which they agree to forget their past differences. These pacts also provide punishment for a tribe, community, or family violating them. The dying- embers of these feuds and the old-age t~'ladition of the people that an assaul'tl, injury or murder mu.st be av~nged, a:e mainly responsible for the great majority of cnmes ag:;J,inst person. . From statistics we see that during the p;aBt SIX ~e~r,s. 66 homicides, 92 murders and 145 physical lllJUnets were committed, Ifug.ao, with 20, 32 and 42, respectively leading the other subprovinces and Kalinga, wdth 11, 24 (<l.nd 38, respectively, ~ close _second. Ifugao, however, ha)S the biggest populatiOn which is close to 74,000 while Kalinga ~as only 29,000. Proportionately, therefore, Kahnga had a h"i.gher crimir.~lity r'eco· rd than all other subp:~vinces. /T,his is aubrihuted to the fact that tr~ditlon of avenging death of a relative has received a less blow here than in other subprovinces II Orders placed with advertisers in KHAKI & RED are assured of prompt service and square deal, if submitted thru the Chief, Advertising Department of KHAKI & RED, Oriente Building Manila. ' ' ' I Honesty It's Own Virtue? I ' ' ' . ~----------------------------------------------------------·------To the Personnel Philippine Constabulary, G t·eetin.gs: We wish to quote herebelow extracfs of a report made to the Superintendent, Intelligence Di.vision, P. C. by two P. C. investigators upon theJ request of the Public Service Commission as well as Section 825 of the Administrative Code: "Santiago Sambrano", "Florencio Lara", ''Gonzalo Ad vincula", ''Marcelo Farinas", "Emilio Acuna", "Rufino Rava,go", "Carlos Aguila", "Nolasco". "The reduction of fares by the above operators is already a common knowledge to the public. Not one passenger voluntarily rides on the truck before he makes a bargain." "Northern Luzon Transportation Co. (Norlutran) ." "This is the only operator that does not low:er its :r.ates and beO,ause of this most of its trucks going back and forth from San Fernando (U) to Laoag are empty." "This company is the only one that obf,erves its time and rate schedules." "If thi.s company is to continue opel4ating as it is now, it will sur~ly fall some day." "Section 825, Administrative Code:''I 'he Philippine Constabulary is the armed force of the Government of the Philippine Islands, established and maintained f~·r the preservation of peace, law and order within the Islands.". - Trusting that you will be able to read between the lines, we beg to remain, Yours sin~erely, I NORTHERN :LUZON TRANSPORTATION, INC. ' j (Norlutran) (Adv) ' owing to its i~olati6n until tecently from civilizing :f}actors parti~ularly the provincial government center, Bontoc. NJvertheless ethnologically the people of Kalinga subprovince do not all belong .to the tribe called Kalinga but a great portion of thetn pertains to the stock called Bontocs and these have no mean part in eleva:ting the criminal record of the subprovince. These data can not therefore served as a yard stick to determine which tribe in the "M.ountan" haJs the "revenge custom" most deeply rooted. It is certain, however, that government authority and other civilizing factors such as easy means of communication, schools nad religious missions are effective in disintegrating it.

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