Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

POLITICAL SECTION

125

and those who accepted the Spanish sovereignty and the new
civilization fought with each other, is a record of numerous
deeds of daring on both sides. The marina sutil, with its
thousands of vintas and other craft, generally commanded and
manned by natives, constituted an effective instrument of the
public order for the prevention and suppression of these raids.
In the territory under the sovereignty of Spain, the elements
disturbing the public order were the Christian inhabitants who
abandoned the life of civilization and took refuge in the
mountains from the burdensome and sometimes insupportable
taxes in specie and the bandalas, a procedure by which the
government secured the articles and supplies required for its
maintenance and operation, by compelling the inhabitants or
taxpayers to furnish the government with various products
of agriculture and industry at less than the current market price
and paying the price after lengthy delays. This system of
furnishing supplies to the government, which was justifiable at
the outset of the Spanish occupation, had no reason for existing subsequently, and its continuation constituted an economic
error which perpetuated itself, notwithstanding the good intentions and just disposition of the representatives of the sovereign nation in this colony. Owing to this burdensome
system of taxation, there were always malcontents and rebels
who often caused disturbances and restlessness. There were
remontados, pagans disinclined to submit to the law and form
civil communities, brigands, and cattle thieves. It can, therefore, not be denied, that all these factors of disturbance of the
public order were the upshot of the administrative errors and
that their action was to a certain extent political and a result
of the times and of circumstances foreign to the will of the
civil and Christian population which was distributed over the
entire area under Spanish control, forming towns and cities
which were for the region concerned shining emporiums of
civilization, culture, wealth, production, and commerce, and the
whole forming the nucleus of the Philippine nationality within
which were grouped and united the various entities of population of the Archipelago, without excluding those who for a
long time had been elements of disorder, intranquillity, and
retrogression.