Felipe was arrested in 1930 by an American Marine patrol man in the San Ramón district of Hagåtña. This area is behind the Cathedral, all the way to the bottom of San Ramón Hill, mainly taken up by the Courthouses today.
What was Felipe's crime?
Peeping through the cracks of the floor board of the house of a man named Vicente and his wife while the couple were in the house.
Felipe was hiding in the påpa' såtge, the open area under a house raised on stilts or columns.
The patrolman caught Felipe and called him out, and Felipe ran, but then stopped running.
Appearing before the judge, Felipe said he was in the påpa' såtge answer the call of nature, and when he realized a patrolman was chasing him, stopped running.
The patrolman's version of the story was that he noticed the legs of someone under the påpa' såtge, so the patrolman crouched down to inspect who it is and aimed his flashlight at Felipe. Felipe ran and only stopped because the patrolman shot his pistol once in the air.
Due to Felipe's admissions, despite his own reasons for doing what he did, he was found guilty of prowling and resisting arrest.
Raising houses above ground kept the house cooler, kept flood waters and critters out and created storage space underneath.
But, if one was not careful, a raised floor meant people could take advantage of peering through the cracks between the planks or floor boards.
THE PÅPA SÅTGE'
is the open area created under a house on pillars
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