Agent of Pacification: Prelude of the American Public Education in Capiz, Philippines, 1900-1905

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue III, March 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Agent of Pacification: Prelude of the American Public Education in Capiz, Philippines, 1900-1905

Sarreal D. Soquiño and Ferlee Fernando-Soquiño
Filamer Christian University, Philippines

Abstract: The Bureau of Education created by the 2nd Philippine Commission in 1901 was unquestionably viewed as a valuable public institution which strategically advanced American colonial interests in the Philippines. Its formation was based on the fundamental belief held by the McKinley-led U.S. government that a colonial public school system for the Filipino children could gradually dampen anti-occupation resistance. Thus, the American-sponsored Bureau of Education played its vital role as agent of Pacification obviously aimed at earning trust and support from the inhabitants of the province of Capiz beginning its establishment in 1901. This paper explored the role of the American public school system, directly carried out by the Bureau of Education, as an integral part of the pacification campaign specifically in the Visayan province of Capiz during the early years of American occupation between 1900 and 1905. This paper examined the two basic functions the Bureau of Education assumed as an agent of pacification; and underscored how it contributed to the capitulation of the entire province.

I. INTRODUCTION

The inhabitants of the province of Capiz (Ilaya and Aklan) exhibited opposite responses on the presence of the American occupation forces beginning 1900. But one thing was explicitly clear to the locals – the American government intended to occupy Panay island and the entire archipelago as its colonial territory. That was an inevitable reality they had to contend with. Several groups of local guerillas in Capiz stubbornly resisted American occupation forces, and the newly-organized Philippine Constabulary (PC), deployed in the province between 1900 and the first quarter of 1905. Series of armed encounters between the two contending forces were commonplace during the early years of occupation amid the establishment of a provincial government and other civil institutions, e.g. the Bureau of Education, Board of Public Health, and the Philippine Constabulary, which constituted a new form of colonial administration. That was the first response demonstrated by certain groups of the local population. The other response may be aptly described as pacific and collaborative; a stark contrast unleashed by indigenous armed resistance groups. Obviously, the pacific response came from the educated and wealthy class. They were the ones who attended the people’s conference or assembly hosted by the 2nd Philippine Commission led by Governor General William Howard Taft on April 14-15, 1901 which resulted to the formation of the civil government in the province of Capiz. Taft appointed a local politician, Simplicio Jugo Vidal as provincial governor of Capiz, and Simeon Mobo Reyes from Aklan as provincial secretary (RPC 1901, 150). The establishment of the provincial civil government of Capiz received tremendous support from the educated and wealthy class – the principalia – of the said province. A group

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