'These Brothers of Ours': Poblete's Obreros and the Road to Baguio 1903-1905

On July 21, 1903, some two hundred labourers recently recruited to construct the Benguet Road linking the Americans' erstwhile summer capital of the Philippines at Baguio with the railhead to Manila refused to report for work and peremptorily marched out of camp. While the incident is barely if at all remembered, it became something of a cause célèbre at the time. The affair was made much of by a nationalist press owned by Manila-based literati deeply involved in non-military confrontation with the new colonial administration. The Americans were equally as anxious to prove they were different to other colonial regimes and that nothing was amiss. The workers, of course, the obreros simply disappear once again into the historical twilight but not before leaving behind them a glimpse at the changes that were taking place in the local labour market. While it may be premature to talk about the dawning of a distinctive worker consciousness as yet, there were significant socio-economic developments in Filipino society at this time that were just as significant as the much more contestable political ones. It is against these wider considerations that the events surrounding the recruitment of labour on the road are played out. Named after the chief recruitment agent, Pascual Poblete, the affair is one of those rare occasions when long term historical developments at work in the less visible strata of late colonial society come to the surface.