But the US had an altogether different agenda. It kept the Filipino forces from entering the city, signed a treaty of surrender with Spain and American troops entered Manila all by themselves, proclaiming the start of the US Occupation, on Aug. 13, 1898.
Dewey had destroyed the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on May 1, and land troops, newly arrived under Gen. Wesley Merritt, took possession. They had to wait, however, for the Treaty of Paris in which Spain ceded a colony it no longer held to the US for $20 million, and started in February 1899, a first military encounter with Filipino troops holding the trenches around Sta. Mesa. The Filipino-American War was formally settled in 1902, after the capture of Aguinaldo in his mountain hideout in Palanan, Isabela, in 1901. But Filipino guerrilla action against the US forces did not end until 1907 when the first Filipino parliament was allowed by the US America spent $300 million more pacifying the Filipinos they thought they had bought at the bargain-basement price of $20 million.
Having survived the Revolution against Spain, Sakay was, at the beginning of the Philippine resistance to the US, an undercover man in Manila where he tried to reactivate the Katipunan, organizing commandos and intelligence and sabotage units. While head of the Dapitan section of the K.K.K., Magdiwang in Manila, Sakay was arrested and jailed by US authorities and released under the general amnesty of July 1902. He quickly took to the hills and organized huge guerrilla forces which operated in Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and the foothills of Mt. Banahaw. No ragtag band, just one of Sakay’s commanders had 4,000 troops.
In his mountain lair, he proclaimed, on May 6, 1902 the establishment of the Kapuluang Katagalugan (The Tagalog Archipelago) with himself as president, Francisco Carreon as vice-president and Lt. Gen. Julian Montalan as chief of staff. The terms “Tagalog Archipelago” were chosen in contrast to the “Philippine Republic” of the rival Aguinaldo Magdalo.
In a second manifesto, a constitution was enacted and published in Tagalog and Spanish in newspapers edited by Lope K. Santos, proclaiming the Tagalog Archipelago as the “true revolutionists, with a government at Dimas-Alang,” beseeching the representatives of other nations “for help in acquainting the world with our true intent and aims for our unfortunate country.” Sakay’s government had a flag, a system of taxation, a disciplined army consisting of regular battalions and regiments of infantry, artillery, engineer and medical corps with separate commands in full uniform. It operated in total defiance of the hugely superior, first modern foreign army, infuriating and mocking US authorities in Manila. It was a hard state with strict laws impersonally and impartially executed, especially capital punishment and physical maiming imposed on informers, collaborators, and spies of the US government. It took the Americans 3,000 troops and two more years to think they had defeated Sakay. Although, “pacification” had formally ended, there was no let-up in the attacks of Sakay’s forces on US installations.
At last in 1905-06, the Americans devised a more successful trap. First, they passed a Brigand Act defining all forms of resistance to US rule as criminal acts deserving of capital punishment. American officials were able to wean many of the ilustrado elite from their anti-colonial advocacies. Men like T. Pardo de Tavera formed the Federalista Party that aspired to statehood in the US Union; the Paternos, Aranetas, Benitezes participated in other events; Epifanio de los Santos became a delegate to the US Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. Alongside with Sakay’s guerrillas, bands of highwaymen, robbers, cattle-rustlers operated in the Luzon countryside and, when caught, claimed to be Sakay’s troops. Sakay himself, a dashing, romantic figure, was rumored to have kidnapped the comely wife of a provincial governor who vowed revenge. One of the most charming, persuasive ilustrados, Dr. Dominador Gomez, was asked by the Americans to approach Sakay and discuss amnesty for his thousands of soldiers.
Gen. Leon Villafuerte later testified that Dr. Gomez had told Sakay and his officers that, “The American governor-general has promised to create a national assembly of our countrymen elected by the people where our leaders can be trained for eventual self-government. As soon as we prove ourselves capable, we shall be granted independence.” After long treks to Tanay and several visits by Dr. Gomez, Sakay, Carreon, Villafuerte, Montalan and de Vega came to Manila on a safe-conduct pass from the Americans. Dressed in rayadillo uniforms, carrying pistols and daggers, their long hair neatly combed, they came on foot with hundreds of overjoyed townspeople showering them with food and other gifts, guitar music and singing. People acclaimed them as celebrity heroes and they were feted at banquets and dances.
