GOLDERMAN, OCTOBER 15, 1902

FORT DU PONT, DEL., October 15, 1902.

The JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL, U. S. ARMY,
Washington, D. C.

SIR: In reply to your letter of October 6, I have the honor to make the following statement:

On or about December 30, 1899, I accompanied an expedition of about 100 soldiers, sailors, and marines to Dumangas, Iloilo Province, Panay, P. I. The expedition left Iloilo in the morning, returning late the same day. The trip was made by water. I was acting as topographical officer, and had no command.



We met with no opposition, and upon entering Dumangas were received by a number of native priests, one of whom was Padre Augustine de la Piņa. The officer in command questioned him on several points, and mainly, I believe, as to the whereabouts of Col. Quintin Salas, an insurrecto leader of considerable cunning and daring.

Padre Augustine was quite a stout man, weighing probably 200 pounds, and seemed to be a man of considerable intelligence. He and the rest professed ignorance as to the whereabouts of Salas, or any other insurrectos.

This was the only time I ever saw Padre Augustine.

I afterwards heard that he was considered the leader and backbone of the insurrection in Panay, collecting and distributing all the money to maintain the insurrecto troops in the field. A brother of his, Juan de la Piņa [must be referring to Joaquin de la Peņa], was right-hand man to Quintin Salas, and was credited with the invention and perpetration of some of the most diabolical and fiendish schemes for torturing prisoners known in the islands.

During the latter part of 1900 it was rumored that Padre Augustine had disappeared, and later that he had died while a prisoner. All of this, however, was mere rumor and told to me by friendly Filipinos while I was in command of the pueblo of Santa Barbara, Iloilo Province, Panay, P. I., distant fully 15 miles by air line from Dumangas or Banate.

During my service in Panay there came to me rumors of the "water cure" having been administered to natives. My principal source of information was from the natives.

Very respectfully,

PHILIP S. GOLDERMAN,
First Lieutenant, Artillery Corps,
Late First Lieutenant, Twenty-sixth Infantry, U. S. Volunteers.