Subject: tulisan bandit

Culture: Tagalog

Setting: banditry, Cavite mid-late 1800s

Event Photos

* Bankoff 1996 p62

"Bandits ... frequently used diversion and guile. They would deliberately light fires at one end of town then loot houses in the ensuing confusion at the other end. According to the gobernadorcillo of Silan in Cavite, bandits used this ploy to 'enter and pillage' certain houses on the night of 27 March 1833. A favored ruse was to disguise all or some of the gang in uniforms of the local police so they could gain uncontested access to a house. Once inside, bandits then resorted to more forceful methods to elicit information. Fire and pitch were employed to torture a Caviteño householder into disclosing the whereabouts of his money in 1833. Inserting bamboo thorns into a victim's skin, suspending him by ropes, and threatening the life or virtue of female members of his family were other measures. While certain stratagems were commonly used by most bandits operating among lowland communities in Luzon, the motivation and form that banditry took in any locale was more the product of socioeconomic factors." [references omitted]

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Field Notes