NOTE: This series is intended for the observance of the 80th founding anniversary of Catanduanes as a province on October 26., 2025. It is based on the author’s recent study on Catanduanes during the first decade and a half under the Americans. It is based on the Philippine Commission Reports, a set of thirteen volumes of documents pertaining to the conduct of the US colonial government in the Philippine Islands.
In Part 1, we wrote of the engagement of the American colonial regime with Catanduanes, mostly shaped by the fact of the island’s utter geographic Isolation from the mainland. But then the aim of the American mandate was to increasingly integrate Catanduanes to the mainstream of governance. An early measure was to connect Catanduanes to the Luzon telegraph line by cable. Then, most significant was the granting of subprovince status where Catanduanes became a distinct political community with a measure of autonomy, even if it remained under the oversight of Albay.
In this second part, we discuss at length the 1908 annual report made by Lieutenant Governor Felipe Olesco Usero. A native of Viga, Usero was born on August 23, 1868 and died on October 16, 1960 at the age of 92. He studied in a seminary but did not finish to become a priest, preferring married life instead. In all, he fathered nine children, one of them Alfonso who would become the first elected governor of the province of Catanduanes. His second marriage was to Rosela, the sister of Jose Vera of Pandan who would become a senator during the Commonwealth period. He derived livelihood as a landowner. At the age of 37, he took the position of lieutenant governor of the subprovince of Catanduanes.
Originally in Spanish and translated to English by the Commission’s translation bureau, the report covered the period from his appointment in July 31, 1907 up to the time of reporting, which spanned some nine months. It was rather a modest but frank report, indeed apologetic as regards the lack of achievements to speak of. It was mostly an analysis of current situation obtaining in the island so that, in his own words “the government, knowing the causes that retard them, may prepare the remedy and snatch them out of their sad and apocalyptical prostration.”
As such, the report was prefaced with an enumeration of woes in the third paragraph which could be summed up as saying “we lack everything”: no roads and bridges, no modern agriculture, no schoolhouses, etc., a situation that by Usero’s estimate had been the same since a century ago. If anything, it spoke well of the basic marginalization of Catanduanes in the larger scheme of things carried over from the three centuries of Spanish rule, and owing mostly to the island’s sheer geographic isolation. Here follows some of the highlights of the annual report.
Socio-political
According to Usero, he presided over a subprovince 40,000-plus strong. He added that this represented an increase of some 7,000 because of migrants from Albay, particularly from the town on the slopes of Mount Mayon. They came and settled along the western coasts of Catanduanes, beefing up barangays such as Manambrag and Mayngaway of Calolbon, and Hitoma, Jobon and Bocon of Pandan. Perhaps, this wave of migration also included fishing families on the south coast of Virac where we find the surnames beginning with “B” such as Broñola, Bonete and Brun who originated in Tabaco. My grandmother, who was born in 1901 and grew up in San Pablo, Virac recalled how newcomer ibongnon fisherfolk introduced the fishing of malughaw which the locals like her own father did not catch; they would only go for the big game. This might explain, too, why along the western side of the island facing Maqueda Channel people speak a mainland variety of Bikol. But why did they migrate? It could be a combination of push and pull factors. They may be avoiding persistent political instability in the hinterlands of Albay due to remnants of the anti-American resistance, or else were looking for more lucrative fishing grounds.
There were no reported non-Christian indigenous groups in Catanduanes. But there were 120 Chinese scattered in the municipalities. There were also two Japanese engaged in the manufacture and sale of baraquillos. So children of those days also relished the joys of this snack, which as a child of the 1960s was also my favourite. We bought ten pieces and stuck the wafer tubes into our fingers as a childish antic. Then we ate the baraquillos as if nibbling at our own fingers. Could it be that one of these Japanese was Miyoshi Arata who figured out famously during the War? He endeared himself to the folk by mitigating the negative effects of the occupation.
The peace in Catanduanes might have been an important attraction for the migrants. Usero affirmed in his report what had been consistently underscored in earlier documents as regards the peace and quiet of life in Catanduanes. No “ladrones or tulisanes” roaming around; the jails were empty. The people, poor and struggling, did not complain and fully cooperated with authorities.
The economy
Which brings us to the economy. Catanduanes was wholly dependent on agriculture. On this, Usero complained that the farmers (referred to in the report as “agriculturists”) did not generate the optimum potential of the land. He attributed it to several factors including lack of modern technology, of farm-to-market roads and of capital. For rice production, he specified that the abundant water flowing through rivers and creeks was not diverted to irrigate the paddies. The situation was greatly worsened by the rinderpest epidemic that came in two waves, one in 1901 and more recently in 1907 that almost completely decimated the carabaos necessary as beasts of burden in rice cultivation. Curiously, Usero cited the indolence of farmers, specifying that their numbers were decreasing (perhaps referring to those cultivating crops outside of abaca and coconut) and these remaining ones “scarcely concern themselves with the question of the morrow.”
But the major cash crops that kept the economy going were hemp and copra. The big problem was the decreasing prices of these commodities. Hemp prices had dropped by some 30% while copra was cheaper by 20%. Meanwhile, the cost of the staple rice ballooned to about a third. The effect was the overall deterioration of the standard of living among the people. Usero made a clear picture of the situation by showing the balance of trade in the island. So the exports of hemp and copra together amounted to 465,820 pesos for the year. Consider that against the import of consumer goods that amounted to 644,181.85 pesos, resulting to a deficit of 178,361.85.
Such economic ill-health of Catanduanes Usero attributed to the profiteering of traders in the island dominated by three trading houses in Virac whose principals were Manila-based. They were unnamed but it most probably included the Dos Hermanos Gutierrez that prevailed up to the 1960s, which had its quarters in the once-opulent Cavada mansion in Sta. Cruz, now used as storehouse by a Chinese trader. Another possibility was the Spanish Achaval that built the three-storey structure that is now the Museo Catanduanes a.k.a. “Old Capitol.” These two buildings were the first high-rises in Virac during the American period that made use of reinforced concrete.
Coming as a second layer to the three big houses were the Chinese businessmen. According to Usero, there were 17 Chinese establishments in Virac and Bato alone. All these two layers of traders engaged in the export of hemp and copra, and controlled, too, the import of consumer goods such as rice and kerosene. The Chinese particularly monopolized the selling of clothing. Calling their practices “usurious,” Usero claimed that trade and commerce in Catanduanes were under the command of “foreigners” that together made the native population suffer. Had it not for their manipulation of prices, Usero further asserted, the deficit in the balance of trade would have sufficed. The deflation of prices in abaca and copra, dis-incentivized the farmers such that production had slumped, worsening the situation.
As regards industries, the locals engaged in manufacture of rattan products, weaving of abaca cloth (sinamay), and nipa products such as roof shingles (tiklad) and wine (paog). But despite the general economic decline due to the challenges suffered by the major products, the lieutenant governor noted that it had not resulted to a famine as the people were able to hold on by their sheer industry and resilience.
Usero reported that the collection of revenues had improved, thereby enhancing the local government’s resources. These revenues included land tax and cedulas but curiously listed “opium certificates” among the items. Apparently, the Americans allowed the consumption of opium. This would have been mostly practiced by the Chinese who must have acquired the habit from their homeland China courtesy of the British opium trade. My mother told me of how she as a child witnessed a Chinese, lounging under a mosquito net in his home, glazy eyed and smoking apyan.
Education
In Part 1, we took note of the formidable challenges faced by the program for education, considering that this was supposedly a centerpiece aspect of the American regime in the Philippines. In Catanduanes, there were the serious lack of facilities, the teachers suffering from low morale and the people not exactly warm to the promise of American popular education.
But all that seemed to have been reversed by the time of Usero’s report. By 1908 there were already 16 schools all over the island being served by 33 teachers, quite a long way from the three schools and three teachers in 1901. This was one thing that can be taken as a positive effect of the grant of subprovince-hood. Local leaders appeared to have prioritized education, surmounting the chronic lack of resources provided by government. In the accounts of the Historical Data Papers (HDP) for Catanduanes, this has duly been reflected wherein the locals volunteered materials and labor to build school houses. In his report, Usero wrote of how local authorities went the rounds convincing parents of the premiums of education. His son Alfonso would later become a pioneering educator, having founded the Catanduanes Standard High School in 1937.
Health
By 1908, there were still no professional medical personnel serving in Catanduanes. People resorted to traditional methods in health care. Usero made mention of vaccinators from the mainland coming to the island to vaccinate for an unnamed disease but were pulled back to the mainland even if they were not finished covering the target. In another report, the reason was that it was found out that the positive effects of the vaccine were only minimal. During the period of the report’s coverage, Usero mentioned that lepers in the island (one in Calolbon and two in Virac, according to a previous report) were removed and sent to Culion. While the past year was not so bad in Catanduanes in terms of health, the problems remained. Usero was hoping that a physician can visit Catanduanes at least one a month. He also proposed that the island be made into a subsanitary district but was disapproved because of “the absence of any law that allows it.”
Natural resources
As for this aspect, Usero reiterated what has been described elsewhere in previous reports. Firstly, that Catanduanes was teeming with virgin forests of trees and other resources such as rattan. He said that hardly one sixth of the mountains were cultivated (perhaps referring to the cultivation of hemp and of homestead upland farming). There were also minerals such as gold, gypsum and coal, but which remained unexploited by commercial mining. It must be mentioned that the Americans have been keen in exploiting minerals in the colony, and Catanduanes had been mentioned a number of times on this regard.
There we have it, an intimate picture of Catanduanes a hundred and seventeen years ago, starting to flourish as a subprovince, and on the verge of independent provincehood that would come some four decades later. In the last part, we try to reflect on how far we had gone in the present: Arog sinda kaidto, pan-o man daw kita ngonian?
(to be continued)