page last updated October 12, 2000
In this section of our website, I have posted the names of the different collaborators during the American period and their corresponding background of each. While many history sites discuss about the biographies of famous heroes, we've decided to make it a little different and unique by telling not the heroes but their counterparts, the villains, as being called in the movies. These people who are so called the collaborators during the American period thought that the Americans were the liberators of the Filipino people. They are also the so called Ilustrados during the Spanish period or the elite group in other terms. They are the ones who found security and assurance in the generous hands of the Americans. Here are the famous ones:
Cayetano Arellano
During the Spanish regime, Arellano held a position in the Manila Council to which only men of distinction and of Spanish origin were appointed. He was also appointed to the Consultative assembly. He steadfastly declined Aguinaldo's offers of high position but later reluctantly accepted the Foreign Affairs portfolio. However, pretending to be in ill health, he never attended the meetings of the Council of Government. He resigned from his post in the Malolos government in Januray, 1899 in order to openly side with the Americans. His pro-American sympathies were quickly rewarded with his appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
T.H. Pardo de Tavera
He had also been a member of the Spanish Consultative Assembly. Despite his pro-AMerican sympathies, he was still appointed by Aguinaldo on Spetember 15 to represent the province of Cebu in the Malols Congress. On September 29, Gen. Otis appointed Tavera to the Board of Health and on October 1st, Aguinaldo made him Director of Diplomacy, a post he subsequently resigned to go to the Americans once and for all. He was the also appointed to the Philippine Commission in 1901.
Benito Legarda
He had also been a member of the Municipal Council like Arellano and teniente-mayor of the district of Quiapo in 1891. On August 14, 1898, Aguinaldo appointed him as one of his commisioners (together with Felipe Buencamino, Gregorio Araneta, And Teodoro Sandiko) to confer with Gen. Merritt regarding the unwarranted exclusion of the Filipinos in the surrender of Manila. He also served as Aguinaldo's private secretary. In September, he was elected to the high position of Vice-President of the Malolos Congress only to desert the said post in just less than 3 months when an armed conflict between the Americans and the Filipinos was becoming more evident. He was the also appointed to the Philippine Commission in 1901.
Jose Luzuriaga
He was the third member of the Philippine Commission. He had been a justice of peace and later judge of the Court of First Instance under the Spaniards. He was also one of the prominent men who formed the provisional government of Negros in Novermber, 1898. In January 1899 he was elected delegate to the Malolos Congress but because he had a plan to join the Americans, he did not dischrage the duties of his office. Instead, heaccepted appointment as auditor of the American military government in Negros from 1899 to 1900. The Americans then appointed him governor of Negros Occidental and finally member of the Phil. Comm.
Gregorio Araneta
During the Spanish regime, he was an auxilliary registrar of deeds in Manila and later prosecuting attorney. He also became a member of the Spanish Consultative Council. He was elected first secretary of the Malolos Congress and later appointed as Secretary of Justice. He then moved to the American's side where he was appointed as one of the justices of the Supreme Court under the military government. He was the prosecuting attorney from 1901 to 1908 and was later appointed Attorney General. In 1907, he became a member of the Phil. Comm. and subsequently Secretary of Justice and Finance.
Florentino Torres
He was one of those appointed by the Americans to the Supreme Court. He held an important judicial position in the Spanish regime. He was the one sent by Gen. Otis to Malolos to persuade Aguinaldo to enter into negotiations. During the said negotiations where he was appointed by Aguinaldo to head the Philippine Panel, he watered down the Malolos government to the point of supporting a protectorate under the United States.
Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista
He can remembered for being the adviser of Aguinaldo in the military government. He was appointed by the Americans to the Supreme Court while he was still the Audito-General of War in the revolutionary camp of Aguinaldo, which he resigned from on June 28, 1899. He later became judge of the court of first instance of Pangasinan.
Pedro Paterno
He can be remembered for being the negotiator of the betrayal at Biak-na-Bato. He was appointed president of the Spanish Consultative Assembly. In September, he became the president of the Malolos Congress and later premier of the so-called Peace Cabinet.
Felipe Buencamino
He had been Gov. General Augustin's emissary to Ahuinaldo to offer the latter a high commission in the Spanish army. He was the Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the Paterno Cabinet. He also quickly became an enthusistic American collaborator going so far as to declare in 1902 before the US Committee on Insular Affairs that:
I am an American and all the money in the Philippines, the air, the light, and the sun I consider American.
Bonifacio's Detractors
Mariano Trias
a Caviteņo general close to Aguinaldo who had been elected Aguinaldo's vice-president at Tejeros and again at Biak-na-bato, was subsequently commissioned in the Filipino Volunteer Militia under Spain. He became the Secretary of Finance with Aguinaldo's return and was appointed in 1901 as the first civil governor of Cavite by the Americans.
Daniel Tirona
He can be remembered as the one who questioned Bonifacio's competence to occupy the post of Director of the Interior because Bonifacio did not have a lawyer's diploma. However, Tirona's own qualities as a leader was revealed when he was seen acting as muchacho boy for the captain he surrendered to. He could be seen standing beside the American captain serving his meals and cleaning his shoes.
The facts presented here are taken from The Philippines: A Past Revisited by Renato Constantino. If you have Comments, Suggestions, Reactions e-mail the Webmaster
