Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 18.pdf/594

 A PHILIPPINE COURT

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THREE CASES FROM THE CRIMINAL DOCKET OF A PHILIPPINE COURT BY W. F. MANUEL BUTRON was a Spanish mes tizo, living and doing business in one of the smaller Visayan Islands at the time of the insurrection against the Spanish gov ernment. Sometime subsequent to the American occupation, but during the trou blesome times preceding the establishment of a settled civil government, a gang of men armed with bolos went at night to the store of the Spaniard, which they looted, taking the proprietor captive and shortly after put ting him to death. The circumstances of the case, which illustrate the procedure of similar bands in numerous like cases, were substantially as follows: The band num bered some ten men, under the apparent leadership of Maximo and Roberto, both of whom were under the influence of the real instigator, Vicente, who did not enter the house but remained without, where he was concealed by the darkness, insomuch that it was difficult to establish his identity at the trial. Upon entering the building, which served as both store and dwelling to Senor Butron, Maximo and Roberto seized and bound the proprietor with strips of rattan. The band ransacked the shelves of the store as well as a box of money found within an inner room. After helping them selves to all that they cared to carry away, in which operation they were aided by two domestics of the Spaniard, who turned traitor to their master, the gang proceeded to the seashore, only a short distance from the store, taking Senor Butron with them, Maximo and Roberto guarding him on either side. At the beach a barota was in waiting, guarded by one of the malefactors detailed for that purpose. Maximo and Roberto, forcing their prisoner to accompany them, went aboard the boat, sitting beside him. Some witnesses state that the captive was unbound after reaching the boat, others

NORRIS that he was bound to the last. Four of the party took oars and rowed out to sea. They rowed some distance before any action was taken. Suddenly the two leaders drew their bolos and stabbed the captive, who fell to the bottom of the boat. The principals then tied weights to the body and threw it into the sea. After the murder they re turned to land and the gang scattered. Cowardly murders of this character were not uncommon during the interval between the suppression of the insurrection and the reestablishment of civil government. It is difficult to tell the motive in this, as in many other instances. There may have been a racial feeling against the victim on account of his Spanish blood. This was undoubtedly the case in many similar crimes, as Span iards or men of Spanish blood were fre quently the victims. Robbery generally accompanies such murders, the booty being, probably, the chief incentive to the rabble who follow the two or three instigators of the outrage. It is sometimes impossible to tell who of the party were ready accom plices, and who were forced by threats to take part in the transaction. By the Span ish-Filipino Penal Code, which is still in force in the Philippines, the party who has been compelled by force or threats of death to commit crime is exempted from punish ment. The plea of compulsion is very fre quently urged by the defendant and in num erous instances is undoubtedly true, as the leaders of the predatory bands press into their service whatever unfortunate wight crosses their path, stilling his murmurs of protest with the uplifted bolo, threatening to use its edge after an application of its side to the body of the dissentient. Juana and Aniceto lived together as hus band and wife by mutual consent but without any marriage ceremony; no unusual arrange