With the manner of holding elections which prevailed, the governors must have been men who were in favour of the military party in force, for otherwise they would not have been elected.

[374] It is not probable that the number of provinces under civil governors much increased.

If in Pangasinan Province, where there are many Tagalogs, organizations opposed to the rule of Aguinaldo could cause serious disorders, as was the case, it must have been considered expedient for the success of the attempt of the Tagalogs, who form only a fifth of the population, to dominate the archipelago, that all provinces in which an effective majority of the people were not of that tribe, should be kept under military rule.

The municipal governments which had been established in Luzon were in the hands of Aguinaldo's adherents, or of men who it was hoped would prove loyal to him.

They were men of the Spanish-speaking group, which has always dominated the people of the islands.