Ambition and Identity: Chinese Merchant Elites in Colonial Manila, 1880–1916

6. Benevolent Merchants or Malevolent Highbinders?: The Deportation of Agapito Uy Tongco et al., August 1909

6 Benevolent Merchants or Malevolent Highbinders? The Deportation of Agapito Uy Tongco et al., August 1909 186 On the afternoon of Friday, August 20, 1909, officers of the Manila police department and the United States Secret Service, acting under orders from their respective chiefs, took into custody twelve reputed members of two Chinese societies, the Ban Siong Tong (Minshangtang) and the Gee Hock Tong (Yifutang). The twelve Chinese were taken to the Legaspi landing on Manila Bay, where their identification papers and migration documents (section six certificates) were confiscated, effectively denying all twelve legal reentry into the American colony.1 The twelve were then placed on the steam launch Bohol and, under the watchful eyes of secret service agents, conveyed to the steamer Yuensang. Having secured their prisoners on board the steamer, the secret service agents returned to the pier, and the Yuensang sailed for China. Within the span of an afternoon , the American authorities had summarily deported twelve subjects of the Qing empire without trial. By Saturday morning, the events of the previous afternoon had become a citywide sensation. The major dailies in Manila carried bold headlines alternately praising and condemning the colonial authorities . For the rest of the year, the deportation was a popular topic of conversation and editorial not only for what it revealed about the Chinese community, but also for what it said about the nature of American administration in the Philippines. This chapter examines this deportation and the reasons why Agapito Uy Tongco (Huang Youdang), a rising member of Manila’s Chinese elite, was not only among the deportees but had been the major target of the sweep. Uy Tongco’s removal was engineered by a group of his social and eco- Benevolent Merchants or Malevolent Highbinders? 187 nomic rivals within the Manila Chinese General Chamber of Commerce , who portrayed him as a gang leader, a drug dealer, and an extortionist . Colonial officials, for their part, overreacted to this specter of Chinese gang (tong) violence, and their obsession with law, order, and good government left them open to manipulation by the established Chinese elite. Uy Tongco may have been a criminal, but he was more of a danger to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce because of his charitable works and community activism. Therefore, more than the legal validity of the deportation, the case of Agapito Uy Tongco is illustrative of the extent to which the Chinese elite had mastered the new colonial environment and could manipulate the fears and aspirations of their rulers. Under American rule, the social and economic order in the Philippines had diversified and matured. For the Chinese, new economic opportunities and the application of the exclusion laws had altered the occupational landscape and reinforced the value of those elites who could facilitate transnational flows of talent and wealth. At the same time, American colonial rule, especially after the passage of the Payne-Aldrich Act, followed the Spanish example by promoting an economic environment that was conducive to Chinese entrepreneurial spirit. Despite the radical nature of many efforts at “social engineering ,” the Americans were unable completely to displace social, political, juridical, and economic conditions that carried over from the Spanish period.2 The rulers of the Philippines were thus beholden to local elites—chino, mestizo, and indio—to maintain order and, most important, to fill key middleman roles in the colonial enterprise . This laid the groundwork for Chinese dominance of key sectors of the Philippine economy and for the emerging dynasties of Filipino elites. Local power as the merchant and landholding elite, in turn, translated into influence with and privileged access to the American authorities. One factor that demonstrated increasing economic dynamism was a rise in the crime rate. Chinese organized crime, which included smuggling, gambling, prostitution, unlicensed opium dealing, and extortion were all on the rise in the early American period, especially in wartime Manila. A career of choice for some and a last resort for others, crime was a product of an unstable economy that was plagued by a protracted crisis. Criminal entrepreneurship was also the result of the application of American law to the islands. American opium policy, in particular, ended cabecilla monopolies, opened the market 188 Chapter 6 to petty entrepreneurs, and encouraged smuggling. The same was true for gambling and prostitution. Crime was also indicative of greater complexity in the Philippine economy and the markets of opportunity in...