1 Majul, Cesar A., The contemporary Muslim movement in the Philippines (Berkeley: Mizan Press, 1985), pp. 20–21Google Scholar.

2 See, for example, Che Man, W.K., Muslim separatism: The Moros of southern Philippines and the Malays of southern Thailand (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1990)Google Scholar; George, Thayil J.S., Revolt in Mindanao: The rise of Islam in Philippine politics (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

3 Abinales, Patricio, Making Mindanao: Cotabato and Davao in the formation of the Philippine nation-state (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2000)Google Scholar; Corcino, Ernesto, ‘American entrepreneurs in Mindanao’, Mindanao Journal, 8 (1981): 97–129Google Scholar; Douglas T.K. Hartley, ‘American participation in the economic development of Mindanao and Sulu, 1899–1930’ (Ph.D. diss., James Cook University of North Queensland, 1983).

4 Leonard Wood to William Howard Taft, 8 Apr. 1905, General correspondence, Library of Congress, Leonard Wood Papers.

5 Pelzer, Karl J., Pioneer settlement in Asiatic tropics: Studies in land utilization and agricultural colonization in southeastern Asia (New York: American Geographical Society, 1945)Google Scholar, p. 129.

6 Hartley, ‘American participation in the economic development of Mindanao and Sulu, 1899–1930’, p. 184.

7 There is little difference between both Acts in terms of their aims: to increase the production of rice and other agricultural products; to equilibrate the distribution of the population; and to allow, for some, the opportunity of becoming landowners, placing public land under cultivation. One hidden political agenda behind both these Acts was to test peaceful living between two settler groups: the Christian settlers and the Muslims. See Pelzer, Pioneer settlement in Asiatic tropics, p. 129; United States War Department, Division of Customs and Insular Affairs, ‘Special report of Frank McIntyre to the Secretary of War to the Philippine Islands’ (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1916). On Commission Act 2280, see also United States Philippine Commission, Journal of the Philippine Commission (hereafter JPC), (Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1914), pp. 85–6Google Scholar.

8 James Robertson criticised the Assembly: ‘The measures favored by the majority were also doubtless largely arranged in informal gatherings, some of which, it is asserted, were held at the house occupied by the Speaker […] At the beginning of each meeting, the Assembly hall was cleared of all visitors and roll-call and the mapping of the day's work, and other matters conducted in secret. As a result, many of the open meetings were very short, and the procedure was entirely formal and cut and dried, consisting in the reading or passing of bills by title.’ Robertson, James A., ‘The extraordinary session of the Philippine Legislature, and the work of the Philippine Assembly’, American Political Science Review, 4, 4 (1910): 516–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Daniel Barizo, ‘The making and establishment of the first Philippine Assembly’ (M.A. thesis, Ateneo de Manila University, 1977), p. 145; Camillus Gott, ‘William Cameron Forbes and the Philippines, 1904–1946’ (Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, Bloomington, 1974); Jenista, Frank, ‘Conflict in the Philippine Legislature: The Commission and the Assembly from 1907 to 1917’, in Compadre colonialism: Studies on the Philippines under American rule, ed. Owen, Norman G. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1971), pp. 77–101Google Scholar.

9 The four American commissioners were Henry Clay Ide, Luke Edward Wright, Dean Conant Worcester and Bernard Moses.

10 United States Philippine Commission, Report of the Philippine Commission (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1900), vol. I, pp. 97–121 (hereafter RPC).

11 Forbes, W. Cameron, The Philippine Islands (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1928)Google Scholar, I, p. 123.

12 Taft, William H., ‘Civil government in the Philippines’, Outlook, 71, 5 (1902): 305–21Google Scholar; Alfonso, Oscar, ‘Taft's views on “the Philippines for the Filipino”’, Asian Studies, 6, 3 (1968): 237–47Google Scholar.

13 Escalante, Rene R., The bearer of Pax Americana: The Philippine career of William H. Taft, 1900–1903 (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 2007), pp. 303–3Google Scholar; Forbes, The Philippine Islands, I, p. 161.

14 James LeRoy, ‘The Philippine Assembly’, World Today, 15, 2 (1908): 847–52.

15 The Act's intention was ‘temporarily to provide for the administration of the affairs of civil government in the Philippine Islands, and for other purposes’, and was introduced by Republican Representative Henry A. Cooper of Wisconsin. Zaide, Gregorio F., Documentary sources of Philippine history, vol. 10 (Manila: National Book Store, 1990), pp. 416–53Google Scholar.

16 Taft, ‘Civil government in the Philippines’, p. 314.

17 Forbes, The Philippine Islands, II, pp. 133–6; Nieva, Gregorio, Philippine Assembly official directory, first Philippine Legislature (Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1908)Google Scholar; James LeRoy, ‘The Philippine Assembly’, p. 848. According to LeRoy, the law of elections required six months' prior residence in the district to be eligible as a representative. However, ‘residence’ was interpreted very liberally: a number of assembly members, who really spent most of their time in Manila, were chosen to represent provinces of which they were natives, or where they had acquired residence only before the 1907 Assembly election.

18 Forbes, The Philippine Islands, I, pp. 161, 593.

19 Elliot, Charles, The Philippines to the end of the Commission government: A study in tropical democracy (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merill, 1917)Google Scholar, p. 93; Abinales, Making Mindanao, pp. 18–23.

20 Philippine Free Press (hereafter PFP), 9 Nov. 1907; 16 Nov. 1907.

21 PFP, 9 Nov. 1907; 16 Nov. 1907.

22 Zaide, Documentary sources of Philippine history, pp. 416–53.

23 Anderson, Benedict, ‘Cacique democracy in the Philippines: Origins and dreams’, New Left Review, 169 (1988): 11Google Scholar.

24 Robertson, ‘The extraordinary session of the Philippine legislature’, p. 518.

25 Go, Julian, American empire and the politics of meaning: Elite political cultures in the Philippines and Puerto Rico during U.S. colonialism (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, p. 279.

26 JPC, 26 Mar. 1908, pp. 110–1.

27 Ibid.

28 Ibid., pp. 64, 70, 105, 109–12.

29 United States Bureau of Census, Census of the Philippine Islands (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903), II, pp. 28–30Google Scholar.

30 PFP, 16 Nov. 1907.

31 Ibid.

32 PFP, 21 Dec. 1907.

33 US War Department (hereafter War Department), List of bills introduced in the Philippine Assembly during the inaugural, first and second sessions of the first Philippine Legislature, United States National Archives, Record Group 350, Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs (hereafter BIA), 26854/13.

34 JPC, 1910, pp. 593, 613.

35 War Department, Rejected bills first Legislature, pp. 176–85, BIA 364/150.

36 JPC, Manila, 1913, p. 696.

37 United States Philippine Assembly, Diario de Sessiones de la Asamblea Filipina (hereafter Diario), (Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1911), pp. 651–2Google Scholar.

38 JPC, Manila, 1911, p. 713.

39 War Department, Rejected bills second Legislature, pp. 192–9, BIA 364/151.

40 Ibid.

41 Diario, 1912, pp. 142–4.

42 JPC, 1912, p. 880.

43 United States Philippine Assembly, Actas de la Asamblea Filipina (Manila, 1913), pp. 128, 212, 223, 227 (hereafter Actas)Google Scholar.

44 JPC, 1913, pp. 612–14.

45 Ibid., p. 625.

46 Ibid.

47 Robertson, ‘The extraordinary session of the Philippine legislature’, p. 521; Barizo, ‘The making and establishment of the first Philippine Assembly’, p. 135.

48 The Actas and Diario provide little information on how each bill was discussed by the committees of the Assembly, unlike the reports of the Philippine Commission. The lack of substantial data such as committee reports considerably obscures the actual workings of the Assembly.

49 Philippine Commission, RPC (Manila, 1912), pp. 22–3, 39–41; Miller, Hugo H., Economic conditions in the Philippines (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1913), pp. 33–4Google Scholar. In 1911, the Philippines took urgent measures to import 11,400 metric tons of rice, equivalent to 1,715,552 pesos in value, and to recommend corn as a substitute food. See JPC, 1913, p. 23.

50 The Filipino People, I, 4 (1912), p. 19; Gleeck, Lewis E., Nueva Ecija in American times: Homesteaders, hacenderos and politicos (Manila: Philippine Historical Conservation Society, 1981), pp. 81–2Google Scholar.

51 JPC, 1913, p. 23.

52 ‘Translation from El Renacimiento’, 17 Aug. 1905, BIA 14464.

53 Manila Times (MT), 21 Aug. 1905.

54 The sovereignty of territory, though having a limited autonomy, belonged to the Federal government. As early as 1901, the US Supreme Court decided that the Philippines was classified as ‘an unincorporated territory’. See Go, Julian, ‘Introduction: Global perspectives on the U.S. colonial state in the Philippines’, in The American colonial state in the Philippines: Global perspective, ed. Go, Julian and Foster, Anne L. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, p. 7.

55 Mindanao Herald (MH), 22 July 1905; 12 Aug. 1905; 26 Aug. 1905; 2 Sept. 1905; 9 Sept. 1905; 16 Sept. 1905; Wayne W. Thompson, ‘Governors of the Moro Province: Wood, Bliss, and Pershing in the Southern Philippines, 1903–1913’ (Ph.D. diss., University of California, San Diego, 1975), p. 115. During Taft's visit to Zamboanga, a special issue of the MH requesting a territorial government for the Moro Province was distributed; see MT, 21 Aug. 1905.

56 Samuel Kong Tan, ‘The Muslim armed struggle in the Philippines, 1900–1941’ (Ph.D. diss., Syracuse University, 1973), pp. 180–81.

57 Extracts from annual report of the governor of Moro province for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1909, BIA 14464/19.

58 Resolution passed by the Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce at a general meeting held at Zamboanga, Moro province, Philippine Islands, 10 Jan. 1910, BIA 14464/18.

59 MH, 8 Apr. 1905.

60 MH, 12 Aug. 1905.

61 Thompson, ‘Governors of the Moro Province’, p. 122.

62 MH, 26 Aug. 1905.

63 McIntyre to Eliot, 19 Sep. 1906, BIA 14464/4; de la Vina to Edwards, 26 Jan. 1907, BIA 14464/11.

64 Translation from La Vida Filipina, 10 July 1906, BIA 14464/3; MT, 10 July 1906.

65 Fergusson to Wiederkehr, 1 June 1907, BIA 14464/13.

66 MT, 9 Aug. 1910.

67 McIntyre to Governor of Misamis, 1 May 1906, BIA 14464/1.

68 Rao to Taft, 19 Aug. 1906, BIA 14464/7; Municipality of Dapitan to Taft, 12 Sept. 1906, BIA 14464/10; Veloso to the Philippine Commission, 11 Dec. 1906, BIA 14464/12.

69 Roosevelt to Eliot, 13 Sept. 1906, BIA 14464/4.

70 Forbes to Dickinson, 5 Aug. 1908, BIA 5075/30.

71 Capistrano to Dickinson, 11 Aug. 1910, BIA 14464/21.

72 US War Department, Special report of J.M. Dickinson, Secretary of War, to the President on the Philippines (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1910), pp. 37–40.

73 Rafael, Vicente, White love and other events in Filipino history (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2000), pp. 19–51Google Scholar.

74 Zaide, Documentary sources of Philippine history, p. 421.

75 El Renacimiento, 10 Aug. 1905.

76 Gowing, Peter G., Mandate in Moroland: The American government of Muslim Filipinos, 1899–1920 (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1983), pp. 112–16Google Scholar.

77 One good example of this is Datu Ali of Cotabato. Ibid., pp. 151–4, 156–9.

78 Beckett, Jeremy, ‘The defiant and the compliant: The datus of Magindanao under colonial rule’, in Philippine social history: Global trade and local transformations, ed. McCoy, Alfred and de Jesus, Ed C. (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1982), pp. 391–414Google Scholar; Kramer, Paul A., The blood of government: Race, empire, the United States and the Philippines (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006)Google Scholar; Salman, Michael, The embarrassment of slavery: Controversies over bondage and nationalism in the American colonial Philippines (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2001)Google Scholar; Tan, ‘The Muslim armed struggle’.

79 Forbes, The Philippine Islands, II, p. 44.

80 Ibid., p. 45.

81 MT, 24 Aug. 1910.

82 Ibid.

83 Address by Jacob Dickinson, Secretary of War at Zamboanga, 23 Aug. 1910, BIA 19289/53; Can the Filipino and the Moro be amalgamated, BIA 5075/94/B.

84 MT, 24 Aug. 1910.

85 Churchill says that the Assembly provided the political leaders with a forum where they could cultivate political sentiments on independence. See Churchill, Bernadita Reyes, The Philippines independence missions to the United States, 1919–1934 (Manila: National Historical Institute, 1983)Google Scholar, p. 4.

86 Anderson, Benedict, Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (London and New York: Verso, 2006[1983])Google Scholar, p. 140.

87 Fry, Howard, ‘The Bacon Bill of 1926: New light on an exercise in divide-and-rule’, Philippine Studies, 26, no. 3 (1978): 257–73Google Scholar.