LUKBAN
goods exported or imported directly from foreign countries , 50 cents charged on vessels that carry merchandise , and 1 peso for entry and clearance papers for each set 14
On March 27 , he was already sending an agent from Leyte , with 184,915.61 pesos invoiced to the general treasury somewhere in Northern Luzon . But the agent was frozen with fear in Nueva Caceres in May . He could not proceed north for fear of capture . The agent later became a turncoat , and the sum sent by Lukban may not have reached Aguinaldo . 15
On March 31 , 1899 , he reported that from March 28 to that date , he had collected 5,005.46 pesos . From this amount , he spent 92 pesos for the uniforms of his soldiers , the expenses of his arsenal , for headquarters expenses and other small items .
On July 8 , 1899 , Lukban wrote to the secretary of the treasury of the Philippines that since the first day of April , he had sent him over 78,000 pesos from Leyte and over 100,000 from Samar . He did not know whether these funds had yet been received , but reported that he had on hand 47,597 pesos . These sums must have been largely , if not entirely , received from the sale of abaca taken either as contributions of war or seizures . 16
In the words of his enemies :
“ Lukban is a man of a certain aptitude for commercial affairs and Samar , which exports a large part of the abaca … gave a field for the exercise of these abilities . Whether their employment were absolutely disinterested there is no way of knowing , but during the long period when the American force , elsewhere occupied , gave no attention to Samar , the hemp crop of the island was undoubtedly controlled by Lukban . Some of the returns from it passed into the insurgent treasury through drafts upon business houses in Manila .” 17
Blockade
But it would not be long before the Americans would take matters into their hands , starting with an economic blockade . The exact date when it was implemented in Leyte and Samar is not clear but the boats assigned to the region - the gunboats Manileño , Mariveles , Helena and the cruiser Charleston - started prowling the seas around Leyte and Samar in the last week of May 1899 . From the American point of view , the naval blockade “ struck at the crucial necessities of the insurgency .” This was especially true in Samar and Leyte whose population was dependent on other provinces ’ supply of rice , salt , sugar , kerosene , tobacco – things
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