Davao’s peace and order, 1907
Davao City, today a truly booming socio-economic region, has gone a long way from being a rural community in 1907. As one of five towns in the area, it was not the center of American supervision in Mindanao but a secondary port for steamers principally docking at Zamboanga.
Seven months earlier, it was wracked by a shocking news of Davao district governor Edward Bolton’s assassination at Lacaron, Malita, Davao Occidental, on June 6, 1906. Along with his farm administrator, he was murdered by Tagakaulo ward leader Mangulayon.
Despite this disturbing event, Davao remained peaceful. In the Philippine Commission’s 1908 Report, Peter Bosseth, district director for the Moro Province, described the town as having only three policemen armed with Remington shotguns and their principal duty was to secure prisoners during night shift “otherwise they are useless.”
Newly-appointed chief of police Lt. J. R. Youngblood, though, had something to celebrate about. The police force in town would be raised to seven, doubling the men under him. In case there was a need to chase down criminals, he was also assured of asking help from the district police, which had a contingent of twenty-five operatives detailed in Davao.
In reaching Davao from the administrative center of Zamboanga, the government operated a subsidized steamship, Borneo, which made regular inspections of Mati and Davao. When the boat was chartered by the military and removed from its original service route, the Moro Province leased another vessel, Butuan, from Compañia Maritima, to take over the job.
To add more muscle to the maritime transport requirement in the region, Lt. H. F. Alexander, dstrict supply officer of the Moro Province, recommended that the Philippine Constabulary (PC) chartered a regular coast-guard cutter and one of its routes would be from Zamboanga to Tucuran, Malabang, Parang, Cotabato, Mati and Davao and then back to Zamboanga.
To ensure there was substantial support, the second company, “equipped with the new United States magazine carbines, remodeled, with bayonet” was deployed in the town of Davao at Calarian prison (probably the old city jail where the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas edifice now stands). The unit assigned in Mati was the first Davao company.
Other units, meanwhile, were issued Springfield carbines and ordnances such as web belts, waste belts, revolver holsters, cartridge ouches and revolvers, including Colt, double-action, caliber .45. The district supply officer even suggested “an ample supply of reserve ammunition, as well as spare parts for the new Krag-Jorgensen carbines.”
An exciting sidelight was the issue whether local recruits would be allowed to use shoes or not. Capt. Henry Gilheuser, who was field service commander of Cotabato before becoming district governor of Davao, had his opinion on the dilemma. He maintained, as cited in the Commission report of 1907, “that shoes are a needless impediment to a type of man who has gone without footgear from time immemorial.”
But Lt. W. J. Platka, who was a subordinate of then Davao district governor first Lt. Allen Walker, had his own noble take on the matter:
“The Filipino soldier should be issued shoes if for no other reason than the additional pride it leads him to take in himself and his appearance. We only cheapen our organization by compelling our men to go barefoot. To their minds we are forcing them back into the Tao class, stifling their ambition, and placing a restriction upon them which prevents their mingling with the better class of Filipinos.”
The work of the PC during this period was directly under the guidance of the district governor. But everything about the unit was not okay. The locals who were recruited were not happy with the way they were treated, a sensitive matter that led to their mutinyinf 1909.
Even the Commission’s report, issued a year earlier, was rather unkind to Filipinos. It said the “majority of the inhabitants [of Davao region] are wild pagans, of a low order of intelligence. They appeared to realize intuitively, however, that the Americans wish to them ‘a square deal’ and are quick to appreciate justice as they are t resent injustice.”
On the matter of handling the medical needs of the PC, Capt. E. W. Ames, a surgeon who co-founded the Sarangani Lodge No. 50, a Freemason group (which recently celebrated its centennial), opened a small ward that served the needs of the entire district. The dispensary was built across the present-day Camp Domingo Leonor police headquarters.
To maximize his medical efforts, Capt. Ames, on a monthly basis, visited the constabulary garrisons on the east coast and most of the time spent his time receiving calls, and visiting indigent families and the wild tribes in need of medical attention.
A private clinic along the Davao River, just adjacent to today’s Grand Men Seng hotel, complemented Ames’ mission; it was managed by American nurse Mary Mathewson, a former Red Cross volunteer. It was only in 1908 when the Davao Mission Hospital, now Brokenshire Medical Hospital, was opened under the auspices of Protestant missionaries.
