THE NATIONAL ARMY OF OPERATIONS ILOILO, OCTOBER 1, 1900

EXHIBIT 1301

[Original in Spanish. Unsigned draft. P.I.R., 1054.4]

OCTOBER 1, 1900.

The disastrous moral effect produced in the situation of the country by the innumerable voluntary and other surrenders of prominent persons who filled important offices under the revolution, is undeniable. A change of ideals and of nationality as if a change of clothing were made, a renunciation, impelled by the force of circumstances and by the dictates of convenience, of their country, their flag and of the dignity of being honored and free citizens, and the treading under foot of an oath taken at a most solemn moment on the altar of the country, find in no Code of the world a commensurate punishment which could satisfy the honor of a nation outraged in its dearest sentiments, in what is most sacred in its entire being. Terrible will be the sentence of public opinion for those who conduct themselves in this manner. The present age, rife with horrors and crimes, has placed upon the forehead of those miserable persons the stamp and stigma of prescribed beings, eternally damned by their kin and brothers; the pages of Philippine history are horrified on recording those names abhorred by civilization in general, and the blood shed of so many sainted martyrs, and will incessantly call for vengeance upon the perjurers; from their graves will come terrible threatening and prophetic shadows which will fill space with the cry of "Vengeance and Malediction."

Ah, gentlemen; you opportunists: tremble and fear the penalties which are reserved to you by your own consciences; reflect on the morrow of the Philippines and of the generations to come; remember that your unheard-of and tremendous crime is not washed out either by tears or blood. Now is the time to return to the original line of conduct which you have traced upon the best days of the Nation. Hasten to take shelter under the magnanimous shadow of that tricolored insignia which waves above the camps of the struggle. Do not be hard hearted: look and you will see that there is not an inch of ground that is not soaked with blood nor an atom of the air which is not blackened by the smoke of battle. It is your brothers, children of the same mother who go along with their heads held high, and with a serene conscience to the altar of the sacrifice to give up their lives upon the holocaust of the country or to have their foreheads crowned with the ever fresh laurels of victory.

In view of these grave considerations, we hereby formulate the following articles, which shall have the character and force of law from the date of their publication:

ARTICLE 1. A period of forty days from date is granted for all civil and police authorities to retract the oaths of allegiance to the flag of the United States, and to renounce completely, even at the cost Qf their lives and interests, the offices which have been conferred upon them, publicly swearing that they recognize no other sovereignty than that of the Government of the Philippines.

ART. 2. Those who. have voluntarily presented themselves or surrendered motu proprio to the American military authorities, later taking the prescribed oath required of them in order to be considered and placed in liberty, shall be treated as traitors and perjurers.

ART. 3. Known traitors, and those indifferent to the cause, may be pardoned, within the period fixed, if they publicly or by virtue of overt acts show their true repentance for their passed errors.

ART. 4. The three local presidentes and the local board shall unite in all their administrative functions and proceedings, in order that tbe enemy may see that there exists a consolidation of ideas and that our way of working in favor of the propositions of the government which has constituted them may become patent. They shall never permit that the star spangled banner shall fly within the municipal jurisdiction, nor much less shall they take an oath of fidelity to, and in recognition of, American sovereignty.

Let the foregoing be published for general information.

THE NATIONAL ARMY OF OPERATIONS, ILOILO.

OCTOBER 1, 1900.