Following the resignation of Davao governor Francisco Sales on October 28, 1921, American governor-general Leonard Wood announced the selection of an American to assume as acting provincial governor. Sales’ resignation took place fourteen days after Wood assumed as the country’s ninth American administrator.
Sales, originally from Leyte, was an inspector of the provincial advisory census board in 1918 while Wood was a retired officer-physician of the US Army with the rank of major general.
Wood intended to install an American as acting governor until a new provincial leader had been elected in the first gubernatorial polls in Davao slated on June 6, 1922, and later proclaimed and confirmed by the governor-general in an executive order.
His choice was Col. John P. L. Tharp, a Philippine Constabulary (PC) officer known for his dedication and integrity. He joined the PC on April 6, 1903, and was, as a lieutenant, assigned in Bacoor, Cavite. He also became the second head of the Department of Mindanao and Jolo.
Col. Tharp’s nomination, however, did not fly. In a meeting attended by members of the Nacionalista Party and Partido Democrata in Davao, they spoke highly of the endorsee. Still, the consensus of the two cliques was to appoint another Filipino to succeed Sales.
In yielding to the popular request, Wood, who only served a year in office as governor-general after being given a leave of absence from his post as provost of the University of Pennsylvania, consequently installed Alfredo Zamora, then Davao’s secretary-treasurer, as acting governor.
The opposition to Wood’s proposal, interestingly, got a space in the Washington-based publication, The Sunday Star, which carried an article titled ‘Filipinos of Davao Province Oppose Man Chosen by Wood’ in its January 8, 1922, issue:
“A protest against appointment by Governor General Leonard Wood of Col. John P.L. Tharp of the constabulary as acting governor of the Province of Davao was made at a mass meeting of Filipino members of the Nacionalista and Democrata parties at the town of Davao, according to official advices received today.
“Speakers at the meeting expressed high personal regard for Col. Tharp but desired a Filipino to succeed the Filipino who recently resigned.”
The reason for the resignation of Sales is unclear, but there was strong indication it had something to do with his role in the 1918 Lukban case. As Davao governor, he signed the receipt confirming the arrival of around 170 hospitality girls forcibly exiled from Manila. He was, fortunately, dropped from the charge sheet when the incident became a full-blown court case.
Wood, Sales, and Zamora, sooner or later, left public office for different reasons.
Wood, returned to the United States and died from brain tumor on August 7, 1927, in Boston, Massachusetts, while undergoing surgery. Sales, unclear if he agreed to take another government post, returned to civilian life in the end. Zamora, who was involved in the appointment of ex-Ilocos congressman Mariano Marcos, the grandfather of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., as governor-at-large of Davao during his gubernatorial watch (1921-22), regained his old post.
Historically, the Democrata Party, founded by Juan Sumulong in 1917, split from Progresista Party before merging with the Nacionalista Party decades later due to a common cause—to obtain Philippine Independence from the U.S. In 1935, following the formation of the Commonwealth under the 1932 Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act enacted by the U.S. Congress, it was dissolved.
Had Wood’s intent to appoint an American as acting governor materialized, this would not make a difference given that the 1923 local elections were only a few months away.
