The American Regime

When American imperialists replaced the Spanish at the turn of the twentieth century, the Ibaloi of southern Benguet put up some resistance, and several local baknangs even sent cash to the independent Philippine government (Scott 1986:82). Benguet as a whole, however, was quickly brought under American rule.

The early American administrators, availing themselves of the stable political structure they had inherited, undertook a selfconscious "experiment with civil government" in Benguet as early as 1900 (see Philippine Commission 1901, v. 1:33,34). Although Dean Worcester (n.d.:4) assumed credit for "[establishing] a provincial government in Benguet and . . . small autonomous township governments," in actuality his office had simply recognized the existing local governments. Since official correspondents found the local presidentes able administrators (Philippine Commission 1901, v. 1:34), this was simply the most effective and least troublesome mode of administration.

American tax policy, in contrast to that of the Spaniards, was intended less to demonstrate vassalage than to finance local government and public projects. Yet the Benguet region continued to run chronic deficits—a situation tersely justified by Governor Pack's relegating of the Igorots to the status of "governmental wards" (Philippine Commission 1906, v. 1:199). The colonial government's overall fiscal design in Benguet was to facilitate resource exploitation by Americans and to foster economic "modernization." Local public works, such as bridges and trails, were financed by poll

taxes and through corvée requirements (two pesos or ten days annually [Worcester 1930:44]). Governor Pack insisted that labor dues, the earlier regime's greatest curse, were instituted by the Igorots themselves (Philippine Commission 1904, v. 1:410); one can only wonder what coercive tactics may have been employed to enforce them.

In theory, the municipal governments were autonomous. Local councils passed their own ordinances, subject to the provincial governor's approval. But present-day Cordilleran scholars argue that the municipal governments held no real legislative power, functioning merely to rubber-stamp American orders (HamadaPawid and Bagamaspad 1985:192). But aside from the critical areas of land and resource policy, the Americans interfered relatively little.

Such noninterference reflected the limits of colonial power more than a lack of interest. Benguet funeral ceremonies, for example, appalled the hygiene-obsessed American functionaries (Philippine Commission 1903, v. 2:225), yet villagers easily tricked the sanitary inspectors sent to stop them. The Benguet colonial government was similarly frustrated in trying to limit interest rates on local loans (Moss 1920a :225), and in proscribing range fires (Philippine Commission 1906, v. 1:178). Overall, the most concerted police actions were directed against gamblers and "unemployed Americans" (Philippine Commission 1906, v. 1:265; Lehlbach 1907:11). Few civil or criminal cases internal to Benguet society ever reached colonial courts; Governor Pack reported in 1903 that he had served as Justice of the Peace on only eight occasions, as he could rely instead on the tong tongan system (Philippine Commission 1903, v. 1: 795).

The American authorities, like the Spaniards before them, did encounter one persistent military challenge in Benguet: the busols , or bandits, of the Palatang region northeast of Buguias. The busols ("enemies"), according to Buguias lore, were less a distinct community of people than a gang of thugs who plundered and terrorized their Southern Kankana-ey, Ibaloi, and Kalanguya neighbors. The American bureaucrats totally misunderstood the "busol problem," yet by the second decade of the century the brigands had been dispersed and pacified. Whether this was owing to the steadfast actions and conciliatory negotiations of the American

military, as its chroniclers would have it (see Philippine Commission 1906, v. 2:265), or to the unyielding opposition of Benguet citizens, newly fortified with a few shotguns, is another matter. Benguet elders insist that the busols disbanded only after one Carbonel, treasurer of Atok, dispatched their leader, Samiclay, with a well-aimed blast.