THE FILIPINO MIND

The Treason Act of 1901
Enacted November 4, 1901

From Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1902, Vol. 11, Acts of the Philippine Commission (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902). [No. 292.]

AN ACT defining the crimes of treason, insurrection, sedition, conspiracies to commit such crimes, seditious utterances, whether written or spoken, the formation of secret political societies, the administering or taking of oaths to commit crimes or to prevent the discovering of the same, and the violation of oaths of allegiance, and prescribing punishment therefor.

By authority of the President of the United States, be it enacted by the United States Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. Every person resident in the Philippine Islands, owing allegiance to the United States or the Government of the Philippine Islands, who levies war against them, or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the Philippine Islands or elsewhere, is guilty of treason, and upon conviction shall suffer death or, at the discretion of the court, shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than five years and fined not less than ten thousand dollars.

SEC. 2. Every person, owing allegiance to the United States or the Government of the Philippine Islands, and having knowledge of any treason against them or either of them, who conceals, and does not as soon as may be disclose and make known the same to the provincial governor in the province in which he resides or to the Civil Governor of the Islands or to some Judge of a Court of Record, is guilty of misprision of treason, and shall be imprisoned not more than seven years and be fined not more than one thousand dollars.

SEC. 3. Every person who incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authorities of the United States or of the Government of the Philippine Islands, or the laws thereof, or who gives aid or comfort to anyone so engaging in such rebellion or insurrection, shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned for not more than ten years and be fined not more than ten thousand dollars.

SEC. 4. If two or more persons conspire to overthrow, put down, or destroy by force the Government of the United States in the Philippine Islands or the Government of the Philippine Islands, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States or of the Philippine Islands, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States or of the Government of the Philippine Islands contrary to the authority thereof, each of such persons shall be punished by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars and by imprisonment, with or without hard labor, for a period of not more than six years.

SEC. 5. All persons who rise publicly and tumultuously in order to obtain by force or outside of legal methods any of the following objects are guilty of sedition:
1. To prevent the promulgation or execution of any law or the free holding of any popular election.
2. To prevent the Insular Government or any Provincial or Municipal Government or any public official from freely exercising its or his duties, or the due execution of any judicial or administrative order.
3. To inflict any act of hate or revenge upon the person or property of any official or agent of the Insular Government or of a Provincial or Municipal Government.
4. To inflict, with a political or social object, any act of hate or revenge upon individuals or upon any class of individuals in the Islands.
5. To despoil, with a political or social object, any class of persons, natural or artificial, a Municipality, a Province, or the Insular Government, or the Government of the United States or any part of its property.

SEC. 6. Any person guilty of sedition, as defined in section 5 hereof, shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding five thousand dollars and by imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or both.

SEC. 7. All persons conspiring to commit the crime of sedition shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding one thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding five years, or both.

SEC. 8. Every person who shall utter seditious words or speeches, write, publish, or circulate scurrilous libels against the Government of the United States or the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands, or which tend to disturb or obstruct any lawful officer in executing his office, or which tend to instigate others to cabal or meet together for unlawful purposes or which suggest or incite rebellious conspiracies or riots, or which tend to stir up the people against the lawful authorities or to disturb the peace of the community, the safety and order of the Government, or who shall knowingly conceal such evil practices, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the Court.

SEC. 9. All persons who shall meet together for the purpose of forming, or who shall form any secret society, or who shall after the passage of this act continue membership in a society already formed, having for its object in whole or in part the promotion of treason, rebellion, or sedition, or the promulgation of any political opinion or policy, shall be punished bye fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.

SEC. 10. Until it has been officially proclaimed that a state of war or insurrection against the authority or sovereignty of the United States no longer exists in the Philippine Islands, it shall be unlawful for any person to advocate orally or by writing or printing or like methods the independence of the Philippine Islands or their separation from the United States, whether by peaceable or forcible means, or to print, publish, or circulate any handbill newspaper, or other publication advocating such independence or separation.

Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding two thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding one year.

SEC. 11. Every person who shall administer, or be present and consent to the administering of, any oath or any engagement purporting to bind the person taking the same to commit any crime punishable by death or by imprisonment for five years or more, or who shall attempt to induce or compel any person to take any such oath or engagement or who shall himself take any such oath or engagement, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding ten years.

SEC. 12. Any person who administers, or who is present at, and consenting to, the administering of any oath or engagement purporting to bind the person taking the same, either;
1. To engage in any seditious purpose, or
2. To disturb the public peace or commit or endeavor to commit any criminal offense, or
3. To fail or refuse to inform and give evidence against any associate, confederate, or other person, or
4. To fail or refuse to reveal or discover any unlawful combination or confederacy or any illegal act done or to be done or any illegal oath or obligation or engagement which may have been administered or tendered to or taken by any person or the import of any such oath, obligation, or engagement:
And likewise anyone who attempts to induce or compel any person to take any such oath or engagement, and likewise any person who takes any such oath or engagement shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding five years, or both.

SEC. 13. Any person who, under such compulsion as would otherwise excuse him, offends against either of the last two preceding sections shall not be excused thereby, unless within the periods hereinafter stated he declares the same, and what he knows touching the same, and the persons by whom such oath or obligation or engagement was administered or taken, by information upon oath before a Justice of the Peace, Judge of a Court of First Instance, or Provincial Fiscal of the Municipality, or Province, in which such oath or engagement was administered or taken. Such declaration may be made by him within fourteen days after the commission of the offense, or, if he is hindered from making it by actual force or sickness, then within eight days after cessation of such hindrance, or on his trial, if that happens before the expiration of either of those periods.

SEC. 14. Any person who shall have taken any oath before any military officer of the Army of the United States or before any officer under the Civil Government of the Philippine Islands, whether such official so administering the oath was specially authorized by law so to do or not, in which oath the affiant in substance engaged to recognize or accept the supreme authority of the United States of America in these Islands or to maintain true faith and allegiance thereto or to obey the laws, legal orders, and decrees promulgated by its duly constituted authorities, and who shall, after the passage of this act, violate the terms and provisions of such oath or any of such terms or provisions, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or both.

SEC. 15. The provisions of this act shall not apply to the organized provinces of Batangas, Cebú, and Bohol, nor to any province where civil government has not been established, so long as insurrection against the authority of the United States exists therein, unless the Commanding General of the Army of the United States Division of the Philippines, shall authorize and direct prosecutions in the civil courts in such territories for offenses under this act, in which event it shall apply.

SEC. 16. All laws and parts of laws now in force, so far as the same may be in conflict herewith, are hereby repealed; provided: that nothing herein contained shall operate as a repeal of existing laws in so far as they are applicable to pending actions or existing causes of actions, but as to such causes of actions, or pending actions, existing laws shall remain in full force and effect, this act being entirely prospective.

SEC. 17. A foreigner, residing in the Philippine Islands, who shall commit any of the crimes specified in the preceding sections of this act, except those specified in sections 1 and 2, shall be punished in the same way and with the same penalty, as that prescribed for the particular crime therein.

SEC. 18. This act shall take effect on its passage.

Enacted, November 4, 1901.