Taft Commission

Article 1, Section 1 of the United States Constitution specifies that the U.S. Congress exercises legislative power. Since the Philippines was in a state of war, however, the Executive Branch ran affairs there without much congressional intervention. President McKinley's instruction to the Philippine Commission in April 1900 directed that, "... Beginning with the 1^st day of September 1900, the authority to exercise that part of the power of government in the Philippine Islands which is legislative, is to be transferred from the Military Governor to this commission." The instruction also gave the Commission the power to appoint officers under the judicial, educational, and civil service systems and in the municipal and departmental governments. The instruction charged the Commission, "... In all the forms of government and administrative provisions which they are authorized to proscribe, the Commission should bear in mind that the government which they are establishing is designed not for our satisfaction, or the expression of our theoretical views, but for the happiness, peace, and prosperity of the people of the Philippine islands, and measures adopted should be made to conform to their customs, their habits, and even their prejudices, to the fullest extent consistent with the accomplishment of just and effective government.".[5][9]

In a statement published on September 1, 1900, the commissioners announced the holding of public meetings every Wednesday and Friday to allow interested parties to comment and make suggestions on proposed legislative matters. The open sessions were mainly conducted in English and Spanish. As the Americans became familiar with Spanish, the commissioners allowed their guests to use the language of their choice.[10] William Forbes, later Governor General of the Philippines, wrote that he could not remember any instance where a commissioner protested because he could not understand an issue on linguistic grounds.[11]

A few months before the inauguration of Taft as governor-general, Senator John Spooner filed a bill giving unprecedented powers to the executive branch in the development of colonial policy in the Philippines.[12] The Democrats ferociously attacked the bill, resurrecting anti-imperialist arguments they had employed at the time of the Treaty of Paris. By February 1900, a filibuster was in full cry, with the Democrats determined to curb the powers of the Philippine Commission and reserve for Congress the right to grant franchises and sell lands in the Philippines.[13] The Spooner bill was rejected on September 1, 1900, but McKinley nevertheless granted the Taft commission legislative powers.[14] Legislators repackaged it as an amendment to the 1901 Army Appropriation Bill.

The passage of the Spooner amendment was a significant milestone in the development of U.S.–Philippine policy because it allowed the president to govern the Philippines by the authority of Congress and not by his wartime authority as commander in chief.[15] Emilio Aguinaldo wrote in 1957 that the Spooner Amendment had laid the basis of a far-sighted and enlightened economic policy in the Philippines.[16]

Historical marker near the Baden Powell Hotel on Governor Pack Road in Baguio commemorating the first summer session of the Taft Commission to be held in Baguio, the "Summer Capital of the Philippines."

The Philippine Organic Act of July 1902 was a basic law for the Insular Government (1901–1935). (The term "insular" refers to an unincorporated island territory.) The act provided that future appointments of the civil governor, vice-governor, members the Philippine Commission, and heads of Executive Departments shall be made by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The act also provided for the establishment of a bicameral legislature composed of a lower house, the Philippine Assembly, which would be popularly elected, and an upper house consisting of the Philippine Commission. The two houses would share legislative powers, although the upper house alone would pass laws relating to the Moros and other non-Christian peoples. The act also provided for extending the United States Bill of Rights to Filipinos and sending two Filipino resident commissioners to Washington to attend sessions of the United States Congress. The Philippine Assembly elections of 1907 were held on July 30, 1907 and the 1st Philippine Legislature opened its first session on October 16, 1907.[7][17][18]

The Commission created and reorganized government offices, including the following:[21]

President McKinley had declared in his message to Congress in December 1899 that Philippine reconstruction should proceed by building up from the bottom.[22] McKinley's instruction to the Commission stressed that the establishment of civilian government should start from the smallest unit of political organization and gradually move towards Manila. In compliance with this, on January 31, 1901, the Commission enacted Act No. 82, a Municipal Code to guide the formation and management of towns, and six days later passed Act No. 83, a Provincial Government Act which dealt with the procedure for the creation of provincial governments.[23]

In some instances, the Commission doled out government offices to persuade leaders of the resistance movement to give up the fight. General Martin Delgado, for example, was appointed the governor of Iloilo and similar moves were done in Cavite, Bulacan, and Laguna with the appointment of Mariano Trias, Pablo Tecson, and Juan Cailles, respectively.[24]

The first major legislation passed by the commission was Act No. 5, the Civil Service Act, enacted on September 19, 1900. From the passage of this act until the departure of Taft from the Philippines, the number of Americans and Filipinos applying to serve the government continued to increase, as follows:[21]

General Elwell Otis had taken the initiative on September 1, 1898, of establishing a public school system, organizing seven schools in Manila. While the war was raging, American soldiers took time out to organize schools, and to teach classes. When General MacArthur assumed command, he continued the public education project and increased its budget. When the Taft Commission arrived in Manila, the Army had organized 39 schools in Manila with a daily attendance of between 4,500 and 5,000 students.[26]

Commissioner Bernard Moses, who had been an educator at the University of California, worked with Captain Albert Todd and Dr. Fred Atkinson to draft Act No. 74, also known as the Education Act of 1901.[27] The act was largely based on a report which Todd submitted to the Commission on April 17, 1900. Some of the recommendations in the Todd Report were:[28]

• That a comprehensive modern school system for the teaching of elementary English be inaugurated at the earliest possible moment.
• That industrial schools for manual training be established as soon as a fair knowledge of English has been acquired.
• That all schools under government control be conducted in the English language so far as in any way practicable, and that the use of Spanish and the dialects be only for a period of transition.
• That English teachers, well trained in primary instruction, be brought over from the U.S. in sufficient numbers to take charge of the schools of the larger towns at least.
• That a well-equipped normal school be established for instructing natives to be teachers of English.
• That in the larger towns a portion, at least, of the schoolhouse must be made of a modern structure, plainly but well and properly equipped.
• That the school supported by the Government be divorced from the Church. If the natives desire schools in which religious instruction is to be given, that they furnish the entire support for the same from private sources, but attendance from the latter schools shall not excuse the children from attendance at the public school where English is taught. Also, the Parochial Church school, if such are maintained, shall be required to be equal in character of the general instruction to the public school.

On January 21, 1901, the commission enacted Act No. 74, establishing the Department of Public Instruction. Section One of the act provided that primary instruction should be free of charge and open to all Filipinos.[27] Commissioner Bernard Moses became Secretary of Public Instruction and Dr. Atkinson became General Superintendent of Public Instruction. Atkinson was tasked to put up a school in every pueblo and empowered to fix the salaries of teachers, formulate curricula, purchase school supplies, construct school buildings, and disburse the funds of the Department. A Superior Advisory Board assisted Atkinson in policy-making concerning educational needs and the condition of the islands. Act 74 divided the archipelago into divisions composed of school districts and ordered the creation of Normal and Trade schools in Manila and a School of Agriculture in Negros.[29]

At the time Taft arrived in the Philippines, the student-teacher ratio was one teacher for 4,179 students.[30] Section 15 of Act 74 empowered the general superintendent to import 1,000 teachers from the U.S. The first batch of 48 American teachers arrived in June 1901. The second batch of 509 teachers (386 men and 141 women, accompanied by 4 nurses, 13 spouses) arrived in August, and became known as the Thomasites, after the United States Army Transport Thomas, one of the ships which transported them.

From the very start, serious problems threatened the success of the educational program. Problems encountered included opposition from Catholic clerics, language difficulties, health problems and difficulty in adjusting to the tropical climate, financial problems brought on by delayed salary payments, lack of school buildings (many of the 2,167 primary schools existing before the war had either been destroyed or pressed into use by the army as barracks, prisons, or hospitals[31]), etc.[32] Cultural values which had developed under Spanish rule also posed a severe hindrance. The Thomasites had a difficult time convincing their students to give more importance to activities that developed critical thinking than to those which simply required rote memorization, or that coming an hour late or being absent to attend a town fiesta was a big shortcoming.[33]

Another problem encountered was difficulty in promoting equality among the students, as children of wealthy families thought they were entitled to special privileges. Some wealthy parents openly opposed the American educational system because of the insecurities it created. For them, education was a privilege of their class and should not be extended to the common people. They believed that general education would create an imbalance in the country's workforce, with the labor market having a surplus of people seeking white-collars and a shortage of people willing to engage in manual work. To address this concern, education officials propagated the trade and agricultural schools, explaining that graduates of these schools were at par with those earning degrees from the normal school and universities.[34]

As the years went by, the Thomasites won the respect and admiration not only of their students but also of their parents. The parents admired the way the American teachers treated their children and managed classroom activities. Specifically, they lauded the abolition of corporal punishment. The Thomasites' friendliness, informality, and approachability were admired by many Filipinos, who still remembered bad experiences with the aristocratic Spanish.[35]

• Blount, James (1913), American Occupation of the Philippines, 1898–1912, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
• Elliott, Charles Burke (1917), "Appendix C: Instructions of the President to the Taft Commission", The Philippines: To the End of the Commission Government, a Study in Tropical Democracy, pp. 485–490.
• Forbes, William Cameron (1945), The Philippine Islands, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Francisco, Luzviminda; Fast, Jonathan (1985), Conspiracy of Empire: Big Business, Corruption, and Politics for Imperialism in America, 1876–1907, Quezon City, Philippines: Foundation for Nationalist Studies.
• Linn, Brian MacAllister (2000), The Philippine War, 1899–1902, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, ISBN 0-7006-0990-3.
• Leopold, Richard W. (1954), Elihu Root and the Conservative Tradition, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 978-0-316-52114-7.
• Pobre, Cesar P., Philippine Legislature 100 Years, ISBN 971-92245-0-9.
• Willis, Henry Parker (1905), Our Philippine Problem: A Study of American Colonial Policy, New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• Zaide, Sonia M. (1994), The Philippines: A Unique Nation, All-Nations Publishing Co., ISBN 971-642-071-4.

• Philippine House of Representatives Congressional Library