It also happened that at the time, English was a foreign language to Filipinos as the Philippines was still a colony of Spain, hence the Filipinos only understood espanol and not English; therefore, the folks were not really responding to the Americans' question.
It also happened that at the time, English was still a foreign language to Filipinos as espanol was still the medium of instruction in schools. Hence the Filipinos that the Americans approached did not understand what the Americans were saying; therefore, the townfolks were not really responding to the Americans' question.