Dean Conant Worcester

Dean Conant Worcester
Born	October 1, 1866(1866-10-01) Thetford, Vermont
Died	1924
Fields	Zoology Public Official
Institutions	Philippine Insular Government

Dean Conant Worcester, D.Sc., F.R.G.S. (October 1, 1866 - 1924) was an American zoologist, public official, and authority on the Philippines, born at Thetford, Vermont, and educated at the University of Michigan (A.B., 1889).

From 1899 to 1901 he was a member of the United States Philippine Commission; thenceforth until 1913 he served as secretary of the interior for the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands. In 1910, he founded the Philippine General Hospital, which has become the hospital for the poor and the sick.

Aves de Rapiña

On October 30, 1908, El Renacimiento, a daily newspaper in Spanish, published an editorial written by Fidel A. Reyes (1878-1967), its city editor, titled Aves de Rapiña (Birds of Prey), which denounced an American official for taking advantage his office in exploiting the resources of the country for his personal gains.^[1]

Although the editorial did not mention names, Worcester felt that he was the public official referred to and filed a libel case against Teodoro Kalaw and Martin Ocampo, editor and publisher, respectively.

The lower court sentenced Ocampo to six months imprisonment and a fine of PhP 2,000 and Kalaw to twelve months imprisonment and PhP 3,000 fine and a verdict for moral and punitive damages for PhP 25,000. The defendants appealed to the Supreme Court of the Philippines, which affirmed the decision of the lower court^[2] and to the Supreme Court of the United States of America, which sustained the decision of the Philippine tribunals. However, Ocampo and Kalaw did not spend a day in jail because Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison pardoned them in 1914.

Publications

His publications include, besides various papers:

• The Philippine Islands and Their People (1898)
• The Non-Christian Tribes of Northern Luzon (1906)
• The Philippines Past and Present (two volumes, 1913; new edition, 1914)

References

1. ^ http://www.nhi.gov.ph/downloads/lt0037.pdf
2. ^ http://www.lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1909/dec1909/gr_l-5760_1909.html

External links

• Works by Dean Conant Worcester at Project Gutenberg
• PGH: An American Gift (archived from the original on 2007-01-08)
• American-Philippine Relations: A Guide to the Resources in the Michigan Historical Collections (Article with Dean Conant Worcester) by Thomas Powers

Persondata
Name	Worcester, Dean Conant
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 1, 1866
Place of birth	Thetford, Vermont
Date of death	1924
Place of death