CHAPTER SIX Cholera and the origins of the American sanitary order in the Philippines Reynaldo C. Ileto zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUT Even nationalist writers in the Philippines find it impossible to inter- rogate the established notion that among the blessings of American colonial rule was a sanitary regime which saved countless Filipino lives. Take the historians T. A. Agoncillo and M. C. Guerrero. In their influential textbook they narrate in some detail the Philippine- American war of 1899-1902, highlighting the Filipino struggle to defend their independence 'through blood and tears'. In marked con- trast to colonial historians, they stress that although the republican commander-in-chief Emilio Aguinaldo had been captured in mid-1901, guerrilla warfare continued under the leadership of General Miguel Malvar until relentless American campaigns forced h i m to surrender on 16 April 1902. Agoncillo and Guerrero uphold their anti-colonial stance in the dis- cussion; several chapters later, of the educational system ('originally established as an instrument of pacification'). But upon reaching the topic of health and welfare, they seem to switch to another register: Before 1900, ravages of cholera, smallpox, dysentery, malaria, tuber- culosis, and other deadly diseases plagued the people. . . . When the Americans came, they immediately set to work to minimize the spread of diseases and to improve, on the other hand, the health of the people. Epidemics that used to migrate to the Philippines were either prevented or minimized by the establishment of the Quarantine Service supervised by competent American doctors and public health officers. The distinction between nationalist and colonial writing collapses. The task of educating the people in the 'elementary principles of hygiene and sanitation' was difficult, continue Agoncillo and Guerrero, because the Filipinos were superstition-ridden and ignorant of the strange power of the minute 1 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA [125]