d largely of ex-officials of the municipalities. The choosing of
an electoral body by the military commander of a district probably did
not seem strange to the people. The provincial and municipal officials
were established in office by armed men, and they were obeyed because
they had been installed by armed men; but it was a form of election
to which people, as a rule, saw no reason to object. There were,
however, in many cases bitter complaints of the abuses committed by
the officers thus "elected."

This form of government spread with the advance of Aguinaldo's
arms. Municipal elections were held in Tarlac in July, in Ilocos
Norte and Tayabas in August, in Benguet and the Batanes Islands in
September, 1898, in Panay in December, 1898, and in Leyte and Samar
in January, 1899.

On December 27 Antonio Luna wrote that all the provinces of Luzon,
Mindoro, Marinduque, Masbate, and Ticao, Romblon, part of Panay,
the Batanes, and Babuyanes Islands were under the jurisdiction of
the insurgent government. [372]

By October 7, 1898, 14 of the 36 provinces and districts into
which Luzon had been divided by the Spanish government had civil
governors. [373] These 14 were Tagalog provinces or provinces which
the Tagalogs controlled. The other provinces were still under military
rule, and, indeed, even the provinces under civilians were dominated
by their military commanders. With the manner of holding elections
which prevailed, the governors must have been men who were in favour
of the military party in force, for otherwise they would not have
been elected. [374]

It is not probable that the number of provinces under civil
governors much increased. If in Pangasinan Province, where there
are many Tagalogs, organizations opposed to the rule of Aguinaldo
could cause serious disorders, as was the case, it must have been
considered expedient for the success of the attempt of the Tagalogs,
who form only a fifth of the population, to dominate the archipelago,
that all provinces in which an effective majority of the people were
not of that tribe, should be kept under military rule. The municipal
governments which had been established in Luzon were in the hands of
Aguinaldo's adherents, or of men who it was hoped would prove loyal
to him. They were men of the Spanish-speaking group, which has always
dominated the people of the islands. They were probably not as a rule
men of means. Many of them, perhaps most of them, had been clerks