Those Elusive Executive Orders of Gov. Gen. Francis Burton Harrison





When I was researching about local history at the National Library of the Philippines and the Thomas Jefferson Cultural Center in Makati, I was particularly ferreting for those bundles of Executive Orders issued by then Gov. Gen. Francis Burton Harrison. That search led me to the National Historical Institute and the National Archives of the Philippines to no avail. It is a known fact that Balete was reverted back into a mere arabal of the newly created Municipality of New Washington in 1904 and was supposedly reestablished as a full municipality in 1920. Textual analyses will prove this assumption even without the support of documents factually stating the organization of my town. Nonetheless, I am intrigued of having a copy of such executive order to serve as reference point in coming up with executive proclamation marking the foundation of Balete as a municipality during the American period.

Now, all of a sudden, by just tinkering on my laptop and by just "goggling" about it on the web, I am presented with such materials, almost too great for me to apprehend:
  1. Annual Reports/United States. War Dept, Volume 3, 1920. Page 40 mentioned Balete, Capiz as one of those municipalities organized effective January 1, 1920. The Executive Order was signed by Gov. Gen. Harrison on December 31, 1919. By that time, the Philippines has 881 municipalities and 279 municipal districts. Sadly, this publication is not available in the Philippines.
  2. Annual Report of the United States Philippine Commission (1900-1916), Volume 6, 1906. Page 204 thereon states that the Jimeno (Altavas)-Balete-Banga road was not yet done and that the best means of transportation from Capiz to Calivo was by water through Lagatik
  3. Report of the Governor General of the Philippine Islands. 1931. Finally, it is reported in this documents that the Banga-Balete-Jimeno road is now complete. It is being regarded as a second class road approximately 60.9 kms and is now open to vehicular traffic.
  4. Curas de Almas, Volume 1, 2, 3 and 4 by Regalado Trota Jose. The UST Publishing House released it in 2008 as part of the 400 year anniversary of its foundation. It accounts the rich local history of the parishes in the archipelago during the Spanish period. Herein, it affirms that Fr. Diego Albao was parish priest of Balete from 1857-1860.
Indeed, our town is so rich with stories of the here and then, But somehow, we lack storytellers to leave the next generation with traces to follow. Why then not start your own blog to documents those events coming out every now and then?

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