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| William H. Taft's meeting with leading citizens to establish a provincial government was held in this house, the Piroco Mansion in the town of Boac that was gutted by fire last year, 2018. Photo courtesy of Bernardo Arellano
The 119th anniversary of the Battle of Pulang Lupa that occurred in Torrijos, Marinduque will be commemorated on Friday, Sept 13, 2019. It's a special non-working holiday in the province. In that battle Marinduqueno soldiers engaged the American forces in a running battle that ended in Masaguisi, Sta. Cruz, Marinduque where the foreign troops surrendered -two-thirds of the entire US army in Marinduque.
Environment Secretary, Gen. Roy A. Cimatu AFP (Ret.) will be the guest of honor. Governor Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr. and Cong. Lord Allan Velasco will lead the wreath-laying ceremonies. "Handog-Titulo' or the distribution of land titles to farmers is one of the highlights of the program.
But did you know that a couple of months after the September battle, the entire island of Marinduque became the site of US atrocities? That the island's six towns became the setting for the first-ever concentration camps in the Philippines as a tactic to subdue the inhabitants and cause the surrender of all Filipino soldiers?
This Marinduque story is prominently told in the book, "The Ruling Elite: The Zionist Seizure of World Power" by Deanna Spingola. Maniwala baya.
Excerpt:
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“After touring the islands, Commissioner William Howard Taft
wrote to the war secretary on February 24, 1901, regarding Smith’s
concentration campaign and destruction, the “work of pacification” on
Marinduque. He said, “The severity with which the inhabitants have been dealt with would not look well if a complete history of it were written out”…
“On March 15, 1901, Taft visited Marinduque with other
members of the Philippine Commission in order to establish civilian
governments. The commission met with leading citizens, who were now docile and
willing to accept the commission’s dictates. It planned to install a provincial
government by May if Marinduque remained peaceful. Taft manipulated the people by threatening to use the army’s concentration tactics on those who even
thought of resisting US sovereignty.
“US forces captured Emilio Aguinaldo on March 23, 1901, and
some of his forces soon surrendered their weapons. General MacArthur convinced
him to surrender and to swear allegiance to the US… On April 29, 1901, Smith
proclaimed the end of the insurrection on Marinduque. He terminated the
concentration policy and allowed the citizens to return to their homes. He
said, “That the misfortunes and desolations of war be soon forgotten under the
new conditions of peace.” The inhabitants left the filthy, overcrowded camps
and returned to their homes to plant a new crop before the beginning of the
rainy season. Marinduque’s population never again took up arms against America.
“Between April 1900 and April 1901, the army had conducted
142 operations on Marinduque. US losses totaled eight dead, nineteen wounded,
and forty-five captured. The army verified forty-eight Filipino deaths and
sixteen wounded. The United States had captured about 1,800 Filipino men.
Fatalities on Marinduque exceeded many more than those hit by bullets. The army
had destroyed the majority of the homes outside of the six concentration zones.
They had slaughtered about 3 percent of Marinduque’s cattle, 4 percent of its
caribou, and 17 percent of its ponies. By mid-1901, citizens had to import rice
in order to survice. Before the US invasion, they had been a major rice
exporter…”
