Remnants of the Sixth U.S. Infantry in Balete

The town of Balete has 10 constituent barangays (political sub-units) of which 9 where named in memory of the landed few. One of these barangays is called Fulgencio, a vast agricultural area consisting of rolling hills bordering the municipalities of Banga in the north and Batan in the north-east. It has two major sitios, named Gama and Morton which could be made into two distinct barangays based on verifiable indicators of viability and projected capacity to provide basic services.

The name Morton was adopted after Capt. Morton of the 6th US Infantry who used to reside in the area during the American period (c. 1904). Old folks used to tell stories that the American official took sojourn in the locality during one of the skirmishes between the Filipino soldiers and the American colonizers. He later returned to the place and settled there for good. Some thought that he was even a general.

Sometime last year, I was given a copy of the book, A War History of the Sixth US Infantry (Cuban and Philippine Campaigns) written by Elkanah Babcock. It described the pacification of the Panay Is. during the Filipino-American War--something which the Americans never accepted as fact. The book introduced Capt. C.G. Morton of Company K, mustering officer and in charge of the operations in the Aklan valley during the American campaign in Panay. The photograph shown above is taken from that book and it shows Capt. Morton posing with captured or surrendered Filipino revolutionaries. Right behind Morton in white cap is the co-opted "Peace Commissioner" Mobi. The photograph was taken in 1901 at the heights of the Fil-Am War.