Detroit evening times., 1945-08-13

Word
In Review

EDITORS NoTE-Moj. Gen.
DnUid p. BarroWs (rstired) has
returned TO the p hii ippine
Islands, whsve he has served in
eiVii and military positions oVsr
a period Of many years. During
his visit 10 the islands he WiH re-
sumo his articles on The World
IN Review." dealing Dith present
insuiar conditions.
MANILA (by MaiD-Lt. Gen.
AVA Tomoyuki Yamashita, COM
mander of the Japanese armies
in the Philippines, recently was
believed TO have escaped by air.
plane 10 Japan, but today IT is
reported as probable that he is
making a last stand in the
mountainous region of northern
Luzon. near Kiangan.
He has only a small remnant
of his force with him, and has
wholly refused TO surrender.
kiangan is a region which
slopes Southeasterly from the
summit of Mt. Polls 10 the Prov
inCe of NueVa Vizcaya.
1t is the territory Of the lfu-
gao, one of the several divisions
of the Igorot people who inhablt
the Cordlllera Central of Luzon.
In the last years of Spanish
rule in the Philippines, kiangan
was one of several "politico-mlli-
tary Comandancles, established
by the Spanlards TO penetrate
and subdue these pagan noun
taineers.
A Spanish army officer, with
both military and civil authority,
was the comandante. He had a
force of Filipino troops, some
times a raccinator and a school
teacher, and always, as fellow
worker in the task Of reducing
these pagan peoples, a mission
airy frlar.
THE IGOROTS everywhere
l. were stubbornly resistant TO
conversion.
The Commandments were SUBJ
iect TO constant attacks, and
when the Philippine insurrec-
tion OF 1896 came. all were
abandoned or destroyed except
Benguet, which had been long
est occupied.
kiangan was the post Of the
celebrated Dominican friar,
Father Juan Villaverde, for
whom is named the Juan VIII
laVerde Trail. now become a
mountain road.
He seems 10 have been a
laboriouS and devoted mission
airy, though his few converts
Immediately relapsed. when he
was forced TO leave the noun
tans in 1896.
Shattered by hardship and
encouragement, he died at sea,
on a return voyage to Spain.
In December, 1899, Major
March, afterwards General
March and chief of staff of our
armies in 1918, with a bat
talon of the 33rd L. s. Volun-
teers, pursued General Emilio
Aguinaldo from the Ilocano
coast into the mountains of
Bontoc.
Both flight and pursuit were
extremely arduous, but on
Christmas night the two par
ties were in sight of each other
on the summit of Mount Polls,
which the American soldiers
dubbed Christmas Mountain"
In the night. ..Aguin aldo.s
party escaped into the kiangan
territory. and the trail of this
famous insurrectionary leader
was lost.
TT WAS a year and a quarter
L later that Gen. Aguinaldo was
located at the isolated Tagalog
town of Palanan and captured
by Gen. Funston.
Following these events the
Cordlllera and its Igorot peoples
were abandoned and they pur-
sued their own wild ways.
But in the summer of 1901,
being then chief of the bureau
of non-ChriStian tribes, ! began
six months reconnaissance of
these mountains. and with an
armed escort reached kiangan.
The IfugaoS had destroyed all
buildings of the Spanish post,
except the "Convento' or resi-
dence of Father Villaverde.
This they had respected and
protected.
IN 1901 the whole lfugao
Il region was in a condition of
interCommunity warfare.
Human heads, the trophies OF
their village feuds. were dis
played in every village.
1t is hard to explain why
American authority was so
peacefully established in these
Igorot mountains. where the
Spanlards had been fiercely re-
sisted for centuries.
But the lgorots welcomed our
governors and gave them
friendship and cooperation.
One Of the most remarkable
of these young men was 1t.
Gov. Galtman. who single
handed brought the whole
lfuGao people, numbering prob
ably $4,000 souls, into cheerful
obedience.