Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1901-05-02
CRUELTIES OF
THE FILIPINOS.
Records Of Military Commissions Show
Some Startling Cases.
ASSASSINATION And BURYING ALIVE.
Findings of Trial Court DiSapprOved In
Several Cases and Commented en-
by General Macarthur.

Washington, April 29.-The latest Phil
ippine mail brought the records of the
proceedings in a number of cases disposed
of by military commissions ii the islands.
The accused were all natives, and the
charges for the most paIt were murder,
robbery and arson. Some of the cases
are especially interesting because of the
unusual measure of cruelty attached to
the crimes, and others because Of the COM
ments which General Macarthur, the re-
viewing authority, made upon the findings
of the commissions. In two cases where
murder was the charge and sentence of
death imposed, General Macarthur dis
approved the findings of the commissions
and ordered the prisoners set at liberty.
In one case native was robbed, forclbly
carried away from his home, bound with
rope and thrown to his death into a river.
Two natives were on trial to answer for his
death, and the military commission which
tried them acquitted one, but sentenced
the other to be hanged. In reviewing
this case, General Macarthur pointed out
that the facts alleged against each of the
accused were identical, and, finding no
adequate reason why the convicted native
should not be acquitted also, set him at
liberty.
Eulalio Fernandez was charged with
knitting another native and the commits
sion sentenced him to death. In this case
General Macarthur found that facts neces-
sary to make out felonious killing were
not available, and that the evidence in
favor of justifable homicide was consistent
with the probabilities of innocence. ''To
hold this accused guilty of murder" says
General Macarthur, "under the condi-
tions presented in this case, when it is
notorious fact that murderous bands are
industriously kidnapping, assassinating
and even burying alive their countrymen,
is to make the law blind to the aCtlal con
ditons prevailing here and thereby dstort
its true spirit of protection OF the lives of
Just men into a written code so inflexble
as to make it ali engine of wrong" The
accused was set at liberty.
One, Torones, was charged with being a
member of a band of FiIipinos who burn
ed no less than 10 dwelling houses in the
barrio of Napnapan, IloilO province, with
no other apparent motive than mere want
onness and a desire to terrorize the COM
munity. He was sentenced to confine-
ment at hard labor for twenty years, and
the sentence was approved.
A case of unusual cruelty was that in
which a native ruthlessly hacked Span
ish prisoner to death with bolo, because
the latter had asked to be excused from
performing a menial duty during a holi-
day. The military commission which tried
this case sentenced the native to he con-
fined at hard labor tie rest of his life at
place "beyond the limits of tue Filipino
archipelago, as the reviewing authority
may direct" In his review General Mac
Arthur called attention to the fact that
the commission had gone beyond its judi
cial functions in designating the place for
the execution Of the sentence, and selected
the preside of Manila as the place of con-
finement for the prisoner.
A native charged with violation of his
oath of allegiance to the United States was
tried by a commission, and General Mac
Arthur approved a sentence OF ten years
Imprisonment at hard labor.