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63 Phil. L.J. 249 (1988)
Invisible Peoples and a Hidden Agenda: The Origins of Contemporary Philippine Land Laws (1900-1913)

handle is hein.journals/philplj63 and id is 256 raw text is: INVISIBLE PEOPLES AND A HIDDEN AGENDA: THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE LAND LAWS (1900-1913)* Owen I. Lynch Jr.** The Legal Landscape The United States Government was legally bound by the 1898 Paris peace treaty, which declared in Article VIII' that the Philippine cession cannot in any respect impair the property or rights which by law belong to peaceful possession of property of all kinds, of provinces, public or private establishments, ecclesiastical or civic bodies, or any other associations having legal capacity to acquire or possess property.l The origins of Article VIII remain uncertain, but in 1914 the general assumption was that the Spanish commissioners secured its insertion at the instigation of monastic orders which had acquired large holdings in the Philippines.2 Similar sentiments had been openly expressed for more than a decade. In 1902, a liberal U.S. weekly, THE NATION, opined in an editorial that the U.S. commissioners in Paris, with incredible lightness of heart and lack of foresight...tied up the [U.S.) Government by a sweeping guarantee of the personal and property rights of the very men who had done most to drive the Filipinos to insurrection.3 The friars, of course, were not the only beneficiaries of Article VIII. Tens of thousands of natives and mestizos had secured documented property rights during the Spanish regime. Like the friars, their rights This article is the last of a four-part series being published in the Philippine Law Journal and excerpted from the author's doctoral dissertation at Yale Law School. The dissertation is titled Invisible Peoples: A History of Philippine Land Law. ** Visiting Professor, College of Law, University of the Philippines; Graduate Fellow, Yale University Law School; Member, Minnesota Bar. IA copy of the Treaty of Paris can be found in 2 W. FORBES, THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 431-436 (1928) or V. MENDOZA, FROM McKINLEY'S INSTRUCFIONS To Tm NEW CONSTTUTION: DOcUMENTS ON THE PHIUPPINE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM 56-.63 (1978). For additional background on its passage and provisions see the first part of this series in 62 PHIL. L. J. 279 (1987). 21 J. LEROY, THE AMERICANS IN THE PHILIPPINES: A HISTORY OFT-E CONQUEST AND THE FIRST YEARS OlTmE OCCUPATION wrrH AN INTRODUCTORY AccOUNT OF SPANISH RULE 376 (1914). 3Gowing, The Disentanglement Of Church And State Early In The American Regime In The Philippines, in 1969 STUDIES IN P1LIUPPINE CHURCH HISTORY 207-8.

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