Evening star., 1898-08-19
Filipe Buencamino, a Filipino, Deserts
\ SPANS Cause.
HIS INTERESTING REVELATIONS
Contained in the Proclamation He
Issued to the Natives.
BEFORE MANILA'S FALL
Correspondence Of the Associated Press.

IS d inpino VINO was friendly to Spain and
Joined in the compromise arrangement
whereby the Spaniards hoped to conciliate
the rebel leaders without sacrificing too
much. The Assembled Filipino was a ma
tive assembly, instituted with great -four
fsh Of trumpets, as a sort of home rule
parliament The insurgents say it is mere
ly ruse, countenanced only by hirelings
VINO are unpatrfotic and unrepresentative.
Ihe principal man associated with it is
feoro Paterno. who was chiefly instru-
mental in mediating between the author
tiles and the insurgent leaders last Decem-
ber, when Aguinaldo was induced to lay
down his sword and go away from the
| Philippines. This man Paterno had at one
time great influence with the natives and
espoused the cause of reform only for the
purpose of selling the cause to the Span
1ards for money, say his enemies. At any
rate, ne is now the advocate of the Span
ish authorities and issues piteous appeals
to the victorious insurgents to abandon
their evil ways and join hands with the
Spaniards against the common foe, the
American hereto, lest all alike perish, not
only in this world but also in the hereafter
Ihe insurgents, on their side, swear to
tear Paterno limb from limb as renegade
Filipino, foresworn and faithless, prosti-
tuting his race for dirty dollars hireling
scoundrel fit perhaps to be Spaniard, but
not Filipino.
Ihe proclamation.
| These predatory remarks are necessary to
explain the following proclamation:
Dear Brother Fflipinos:
With the intention of fulfilling a duty
| of brotherhood which 1 have to discharge
before the eyes of all honorable men,
bring to your notice the facts connected
with my mission from Lieutenant Colonel
Anda Zalazar, commanding the third sec
uon, spanish army, and with my present
position here in the rebel camp as a simple
servant of the people, just like all the rest,
from the dictator himself down to the low
est soldier.
"As the facts in question are set forth in
| a letter of this date from myself to the
captain general, Don Bsiio August
quote it in full, and thereby, in my opinion,
| best attain the above object:
'CAVITE, June 0, 1898
TO His Excellency, Don Baslio August.
My Respected General:
" 1 write to you this the 11th day Of
my confinement in this city of Cavite as
prisoner, and l write with the Dictator
Aguinaldo's permission, to tell all that has
occurred before my eyes since l came with
| your authority to negotiate with the said
Aguinaldo, with the object of securing his
| adherence to the Spanish cause.
He Was Not Welcomed
First, have to report that was re-
ceived with the reverse of a welcome
doubtless on account of Senior Aguinaldo
having on a previous occasion been igno-
mniously fooled by your exceIlency's pre-
decessor, General Primo de Rivera and by
| Don Pedro A. Paterno; for these gentlemen
most shamefully broke the conditions of
| the agreement made at Biak-na-bato l.
therefore, on my present mission was taken
| for another Palermo, and your eScellency
was regarded as another Rivera. Under
these unfavorable conditions l was ordered
[ to be detained and subjected to an inter
rogation. in which the first, and, in fact
the only question was: ''have you come
| with the document which Don Paterno pre-
sented to us in Biak-na-bato?'
" L said j had Eot, but had come on nv
own initiative with your excellencey's au-
thority, to state that, in view of the Amer.
lean invasion, the country was in arms
and that Aguinaldo's action in starting a
| fresh insurrection in favor of the Ameri-
| cans had led to civil war, which could
| have no other result but the ruin of the
country without doing the least good to
the one side or the other, and he would be
very stupid to contemplate giving the
Americans everything they could wish for,
and causing all of us to be destroyed. Ac
cCrding to my way of thinking / said 1t
would be great mistake. With this the
conference closed and 1 was notified that /
| was under arrest. because 1 had not salts
| factory credentials to support my claim
| to be a bona fide envoy. There We're some
| who urged that l should be shot as a spy,
| but the humanity Of the dictator prevented
that"
(Note by translator-As to these
suspicious of Buenoamino's bona fdes, 1t
was commonly rumored in Manila that sew
eral natives were trying to win the S25OoO
| offered by the Manila authorities for Agui-
| naldo's head. Any such person, railing TO
| get near Aguinaldo in any other way,
| might well try an envoy; and it is
strange that Buenoamino had no creden-
| tials. A suspect under arrest would write
any sort Of letter to bis principal, with the
hope OF conciliating his captors. On the
day of his arrest (May 2D Aguinaldo
promptly issued an order that in view OF
the price put on his (Aguinaldo's) head. he
would in future shoot anybody coming as
an envoy without proper credentials).
What He Saw In Prison.
Returning to my prison, which is the
house Of Ozorio the Chinaman, l was COM
pletely cut off from all communication for
several days, during which l saw through
tho window a constant stream of carts
laden with rifles cannon and ammunition
going to the wharf and being taken on
board all sorts and sizes of vessels day
after day, with great numbers of men-l
should think over thirty thousand. Ship
loads of arms and ammunition and former
rebels also came from Hong Kong, and
after my period of strict isolation expired
/ learned that on the 10th of May three
marines under Commandante Pazos were
captured between linus and Cavite Viejo,
while firing was heard all over the prov
ince showing how general the new revolu-
ton is. 1 also learned that General Pena
and staff surrendered almost without fir
ing shot, giving up cannon and small
arms, public funds and authority and two
hundred Apalit volunteers whom 1 myself
had recruited, although General Monet
transferred them to Captain ]. Roldan.
g L also learned that the Bacoor garrison,
two hundred volunteers of my contributing
and one hundred odd of marines under
Lieut.. Col. L. Toledo, was besieged and had
asked Colonel Pintos for help Che was the
man who replaced me at Parenaque). Pin
tos committed the blunder of sending one
hundred of my volunteers from Las Pinas
to the aid of Bacoor not rejecting that If
three hundred men could do nothing against
their besiegers sending paltry one hun
dred to break through the enemy was SIM
ply throwing the men away. And SO it
turned out. for the one hundred were sur
rounded on the way by over one thousand
and had to surrender, as had also the Ba-
coor post.
Treatment of Prisoners.
fThen followed list of other places cap
tured, of high officers, military and civil,
with their wives and families, taken and
well treated, and the statement of the cap
ture of $500 prisoners. 5000 rifles. eight
field guns, large quantities of money and