“A Brief Review of Philippine Institutions” (Graciano Lopez Jaena)

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

In our previous articles we have proven the imperative need for the abolition of the tribute in the Philippine Archipelago. Trusting in the liberal principles of the party in power,1 we hope that the Minister of Colonies will not delay further his noble plan of bringing a little of the spirit of progress, something of modern right, a little freedom to the Philippines, which though not located on the Iberian Peninsula, is a piece of the heart of Spain.

And one of the reforms that should be carried out as soon as possible is the deletion from the Code of the Indies, as we have already stated in writing, of that odious and antiquated law, a sad and gloomy memento of oppressive feudalism, of overwhelming conquest, and one of the ignominious and black blots still in the records of our colonial history.

It will be readily understood that it is not possible to implement such a complicated reform, as we have already indicated in our previous articles, without touching on other substantive and related matters. Once the tribute, polo, folia,2 sanctorum, and personal service are abolished, the cabeza de barangay would no longer be needed and with him should disappear the entire patriarchal institution which our discoverers found established in the Islands and which they respected, considering it the best and convenient factor in the peaceful acquisition of the Islands. Indeed this ancient social organization of principalia and barangay, in view of the ignorance of the people then, and the absolute powers of the chiefs, despite its simplicity, was a profoundly wise system of government for those times; but at the present time no one ignores the very little utility and the great unpopularity of that institution, as we shall show presently.

For this purpose and in order not to leave unfinished the work we have begun, fulfilling our promise to the readers of Los Dos Mundos and confirming what we have written in our preceding articles, we are going to give a brief account of the structure of those institutions and the disrepute into which they have fallen today in the face of the present evolutionary movement which has brought about new social conditions. Afterwards we shall sketch the plan of municipal organization which, in our modest opinion, we believe can serve the purpose that is desired, which is to guide that people along the road to progress.

The Philippine municipal organization consists of the gobernadorcillo and his employees who are lieutenants of the first, second, third, and fourth ranks; three judges of police, field, and livestock; the ex-gobernadorcillos who are called "past captains", the incumbent cabezas de barangay and former ones who held the position for ten years.

All of them together formed the principalia of a town and its municipal council and government.

The seat of the municipal government is called Tribunal.

The gobernadorcillo presides over the sessions of the municipal council which are held in the Tribunal on Sundays and holidays after High Mass. The members have the right to present proposals pertaining to the government of the town. However, they have no vote. The council is merely a consultative body. It has no power to compel the gobernadorcillo to execute its

decisions. The gobernadorcillo can act and issue orders contrary to its decisions. Miserable remains of absolute empires!

Since the gobernadorcillo and the cabeza de barangay of all the members of the principalía play the most important role in the municipal government in the Archipelago, we shall confine ourself to describing the two officials.

THE GOBERNADORCILLO

As our readers must have realized the gobernadorcillo is the supreme authority in Philippine towns. He is the equivalent of the alcalde here in Spain, though he has very many more duties and responsibilities than he has.

Gobernadorcillo is his official title but ordinarily he is called capitán, in Bisayan, basal.3 He also performs minor judicial functions. He serves for a term of two years; he is elected and appointed.

The election is held in the Tribunal, presided over by the provincial governor or his delegate and attended by the Reverend Parish Priest, though his attendance is optional.

The electoral body is composed of thirteen members of the principalía, to wit: the outgoing gobernadorcillo who has the right to vote six chosen by lot from among former gobernadorcillos and cabezas de barangay who had served for ten years, and six incumbent cabezas.

The election board thus formed proceeds to vote by writing the names of their candidates on printed ballots distributed by the presiding officer. Each voter must write down the names of three candidates, two of whom are the choice of the voter and the third is outgoing gobernadorcillo. The ballots are then handed to the presiding officer who proceeds to count the votes. The two candidates who received the highest number of votes and the name of the incumbent gobernadorcillo as the third candidate are then submitted to the Central Government accompanied by the report of the chairman of the election board. The Central Government has the right to choose the new gobernadorcillo from among the three candidates and to appoint him.

It behooves us, above all, to state that the thirteen electors are jointly responsible to the Provincial Government and the Central Government for the actions of the gobernadorcillo during his term. For this reason, the law requires two witnesses to attest the acts of the gobernadorcillo.

Knowing how this Philippine town official is elected and and proclaimed, let us now look into his functions.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the scope of the position and office of the gobernadorcillo. The functions that this local official performs are so manifold that not even he himself knows them all, nor even one who has studied carefully the legislation of that country can reasonably determine the extent and limits of the powers, duties and rights of the gobernadorcillo.

Besides bearing on his shoulders the weight of the local government, which in itself is already most arduous, he is at the same time the local agent of public administration; he is the delegate

of the Court of First Instance with the duty to conduct the preliminary investigation of the crimes committed in his jurisdiction; he performs the duties of a public notary; he is the agent of public order, the police, and security. In coastal towns he is the delegate of the port captain. In short, as a delegate of the chiefs of the different branches of the Government in the provinces, "he has to perform, supervise, and do a multitude of errands that they may entrust to him. . . ."

In each one of these vast and heterogeneous functions the gobernadorcillo is subject to the chief of each branch, so that in the governmental branch his chief is the provincial governor; in the judicial, the judge; in the administrative, the administrator; and in the maritime, the port captain.

The gobernadorcillo also attends to slight infractions of the Penal Code and to the oral trials of suits between natives, Chinese, and Chinese mestizos, his decision having coercive force in accordance with law.

Assisting the gobernadorcillo is a kind of secretary without any responsibility. He helps him in the discharge of his duties. This employee is officially called directorcillo, I do not know if ironically. We will describe his office further.

The gobernadorcillo receives no salary from the Government, his office being honorary. The law grants him for representation expenses the miserly and ridiculous—it is shameful to even mention it—sum of twenty-five pesos yearly.

Hanging over the head of the gobernadorcillo, like the sword of Damocles, is the Reverend Parish Priest who controls him rigorously. He cannot do anything without the consent and approval of the parish priest. We put this on the record as it is very important in the development of our theme and lest it may pass unnoticed by our readers.

Finally, the gobernadorcillo has no book, manual, or guide to teach him his manifold and labyrinthine duties; to enlighten him in the discharge of his duties; to give him light to know by what to abide when his rights are trampled by superior authorities.

The Manual del Gobernadorcillo,4 published by the illustrious Mr. José Feced y Temprado, deals only with his judicial and scriptory functions.

With regard to his other functions and duties, there is nothing written down except what is found in the famous Laws of the Indies, the Official Gazette, and La Colección Legislativa, which until the present no one has taken the trouble of compiling into a kind of guide.

As the gobernadorcillo ignores completely the royal decrees, resolutions and ordinances of the Superior Government of the Archipelago, which continually modify the duties of the gobernadorcillo, he is like a blind man without a guide as he goes about the performance of his duties.

From the above it can be clearly deduced that the gobernadorcillo, far from being a town official, is literally a slave of the Reverend Parish Priest and of the different heads of the provinces, as we shall prove in the course of these articles.

 

THE CABEZA DE BARANGAY

What we have said in our preceding article seems to us sufficient to give a clear idea of what is a gobernadorcillo in Philippine towns. Now let us say something about another institution no less interesting than the first: We refer to the institution of the cabeza de barangay.

According to the authors of Guía de Empleados de Hacienda de Filipinos, "the local agents entrusted with the collection of individual quotas are called cabezas de barangay, and as collectors they are under the direct orders of the gobernadorcillos of the towns and all the officials of the Administration of Finance of their respective province."

The Enciclopedia de Derecho y Administratión defines it as follows: "Cabeza de barangay—In the Philippine Islands the chief is thus called who is especially entrusted with the collection of the tribute of the forty or fifty Indio heads of families that form a barangay . . ." "Barangay—In the Philippines it is the group of forty or fifty families or persons who pay tribute, being under the authority of their chief, for which reason he is called cabeza de barangay. . . ."

According to tradition: Barangay is a Philippine term which means a small native craft where in those times forty or fifty kinsfolk gathered weekly and under the command of the oldest kin, they went out to the sea to fish for the food of the family.

Originally this word barangay was balangay, because in the ancient, unadulterated Philippine alphabet there was no r. The r was introduced by the Spanish colonizers in their eagerness to assimilate the Malayan languages to the beautiful Castilian language, thus resulting in the corruption of these dialects; the loss of their numerous words that might have been useful to the scholar in the study of the primitive religion and learning of that people; and finally the corruption, too, of the rich and majestic language of Cervantes. From this unavoidable assimilation of Philippine dialects to the Spanish language there has emerged a Spanish dialect there called popularly castellano de tienda, which is spoken not only by the uneducated but also by cultured persons and even Spaniards of long residence in the country.

Returning now to the question of the cabeza de barangay, we are going to explain its origin.

This institution of the cabeza de barangay existed in the Archipelago before the arrival of the Spaniards. "With regard to its form," as described graphically by Mr. Pedro Govantes de Azcárraga, our distinguished colleague and brainy writer, "before the conquest it was very simple. Under the cacique of the town were the cabesas who were the chiefs of the different barangays into which the town itself was divided. The barangay was composed of forty or fifty free families, but they were not nobles, being the descendants of the caciques and cabezas.

"The i, it is clear, did not have this name, which is Spanish, but they were styled in accordance with the different dialects of the country: Maginoo or Datto or Kamaranang. The datos formed the council of the cacique. The office of cabeza was generally hereditary, but it has lapsed in the majority of the provinces, the effect of historical circumstances."5

The authors of the aforementioned Guía say on this same subject: "The cabezas de barangay have assumed this title since very ancient times as a consequence of different orders of good government prescribed for these Islands in primitive times which accepted and wrote down that word that was purely original in the languages of the country, in order to make easier undoubtedly the local administration and economic organization of the settlements which were

then submitting to the Spanish Government. Before the conquest of the Islands, according to the version of various chronicles, that institution was already in existence, being chiefs of a certain number of persons or families, raised regularly to one hundred persons as confirmed by the fixing of taxpayers of 45 or 50 groups and not less for every barangay as provided in Article 82 of the Ordinances of Good Government of these Islands of 26 February 1768.

"That same Ordinance and various other orders, including many laws of the Indies, assign to the cabezas de barangay under the name of encomenderos de indios other tasks besides the collection and delivery of the amount of tributes assigned to the police and the administration; and without doubt these agents render at the same time some other services that are required by the provincial chiefs, the judges of the Court of First Instance, and the respective gobernadorcillos."

At the beginning, the barangay headship was hereditary, but. today it has become elective on account of the increase of population, except in the Province of Batangas, by virtue of municipal laws and orders that we are not citing here for the sake of brevity. The cabeza de barangay receives two per cent of the tributes collected and four per cent of the sanctorum. Besides, his wife is exempt from the payment of tribute and sanctorum, and he and his first born are exempt from rendering personal services as well. Notwithstanding, rare was the cabeza de barangay who, in winding up the affairs of his office after a three-year term, was not materially ruined due not only to the vicissitudes of the tribute-paying population, but principally to administrative immorality, as we shall explain in due time.

The office of the headship of the barangay is elective and the principalía of the town is responsible for his nomination and election.

The gobernadorcillo forwards his nomination to the provincial governor and to the chief of the finance office, accompanied with documents and reports revise (this condition is sine qua non) by the Reverend Parish Priest, attesting the qualifications and circumstances of the candidate and according to his opinion the election is approved or disapproved.

Similar to the office of gobernadorcillo, whose thirteen electors are responsible to the Central Government and the Provincial Government, the cabeza de barangay is required by law, besides giving his property as guarantee, which is considered mortgaged to the State, to conduct his office to the pleasure and satisfaction of the chiefs of the province.

Such is the story as briefly related by our humble but candid pen in the preceding paragraphs of two fundamental institutions which play a most important role in the government and administration of that people. In the next article we shall set forth the general causes of the inefficacy and the disrepute of these institutions and their subordinate agencies.

PRESENT STATUS OF THE INSTITUTIONS

Faithfully fulfilling our promise to the readers of Los Dos Mundos, in this chapter we shall inquire into the causes which have contributed to the decay and ineffectiveness of those venerable institutions.

In our humble opinion two factors have produced the inefficacy and uselessness of the traditional organization of that society. These are: one determinant, essential, necessary; the

other is contingent, external and dismal, to wit: immorality in the government, in religious affairs and economic administration. These are the only reasons why these institutions lack prestige.

As to the first, it springs from the very essence of those institutions which, being human, are always defective and therefore they can be perfected.

Thus, then, it is nothing more than the result of the progressive movement which impels man to move and decide for himself by his own power and examination and without abandoning altogether the old, to search for a new way of existence and bring about a different way of life, according to the counsel and inspiration of new ideals.

The march of civilization, though slow and too late in those Islands, has introduced profound and transcendental changes in social and economic life, converting what three centuries ago were simply settlements into towns today with a certain measure of culture and enlightenment, which maintain commercial and industrial relations with peoples the largest number different in character, laws and customs, thus breaking down the tribal bond that united the members of a tribe, as it used to be said formerly. Because of the facilities of transportation and communication, members of the same family are now scattered in different provinces and towns in search of work, thus breaking up the barangays.

All this combination of circumstances brought about by progress removed the people from the system of government which hitherto has been the basis and the rule not only of individual life, but also of social relations and order. Through the force and transforming virtue of civilization all these innovations were naturally reflected on the two institutions of the gobernadorcillo and the cabeza de barangay, the base on which rests the structure of the entire civil and administrative organization of the Archipelago, whose importance is now known by all.

With regard to the second factor, we already know the bad and vicious administration cast in the narrow and imperfect molds of the famous Laws of the Indies.

This second cause then is nothing more than the consequences of the dismal colonial regime in those Islands.

Thanks to it and the pressure exerted by our colonial laws there are the thousand and thousand vexations, abuses, outrages committed by the higher officials of the administration, the government and justice, and by the devout and Reverend Parish Priest of each town on the persons of the gobernadorcillo and the cabeza de barangay who represent the Philippine institutions, and hence the natives look with horror on such honorary positions and shun them whenever possible.

We know that we are treading on troublesome and slippery ground, and before expressing our ideas on this delicate point, we should state that we have no intention of wounding the susceptibility of the persons who had occupied and occupy official posts in those Islands with our affirmations and account of deeds which are more or less abominable and punishable. We only think that it is our duty to state the truth with prudence, in accordance with our noble purposes in order that the great evils suffered by that people may be remedied as soon as possible, thereby contributing with this, in the sphere where we can do it, to raise that country, which is our own, to the highest level of civilization and progress.

Hence we write with the impartiality of one who expects no reward or hides bastard emoluments behind his back.

At the outset we can assert without any kind of exaggeration that the gobernadorcillo, cabeza de barangay and other members of the Philippine municipality, far from playing the role of local authorities, are treated like slaves, in the first place, by the ecclesiastical authority of the town, or the curate of souls, and in the second place, by the civil, military, administrative and judicial officials of the respective provinces. With great accuracy and eloquence a famous orator said that "the whole European policy in the Orient can be summarized in one word: Exploitation."6

At this point it is necessary for us to clarify the statement of such an illustrious tribune to save the honor of our Mother Country: that exploitation, as far as Spanish colonial possessions are concerned, is not national but individual; it is not the idea of the Metropolis, but exclusively of individuals who, eagerly desirous of gold, instead of fulfilling their civilizing mission, devoted themselves to satiate their thirst for riches.

In the meantime, let us examine the defects of the backward and anachronistic organization of the Philippine municipality. We shall point out in the operations of these institutions the facts which manifest the dismal influence of the friars in particular and of other officials in general.

COERCION IN THE ELECTIONS

As our readers must have noted, the election of the gobernadorcillo and some other members of the municipal council is entrusted, according to law, to thirteen electors chosen by lot from among the principalia and cabezas de barangay. This procedure, besides being absurd and antithetical any way to the philosophy of law, is a method of election that is highly fatalistic and tyrannical, since the will of thirteen electors chosen by chance predominates and is imposed upon the people and above all on the principalía who, as councilors, bear the responsibility for the acts of the elected gobernadorcillo.

This can pass and could be endurable if it were a fact, because, after all, it is a provision of the law; if the vote of the electors in favor of their candidate were most free and spontaneous, or in accordance with the common decision of the principalía reached at their previous meeting.; but such is not the case.

The jurisdiction over affairs of State and control of the people granted to the friars, placed by the grace of God, of the Apostolic Holy See and the national government in charge of the spiritual administration of the people of those Islands could not produce more deplorable results.

This being understood and knowing how the Reverend Parish Priest needs the gobernadorcillo to serve him in his business and private purposes, nothing is easier to understand why he shows such solicitude and exerts such influence so that the candidate he favors should be elected.

Let us see how he does it. A day or two before the election, the principalía and the outgoing gobernadorcillo hold a meeting generally in the house of the outgoing gobernadorcillo, or in that of a principal, or in the Tribunal, wherein they agree on the candidates to be nominated on election day. At this grand meeting the parish priest is never absent, with or without an invitation, coming freely and fresh. And there, after delivering a harangue in the dialect of the region, which he pronounces poorly, having learned it by halves and very badly ordinarily, he

presents his candidate, and with the supreme power that he has by law, he commands the Principalía to vote for him on election day.

Always or almost always the principalía accepts the candidate designated by the parish priest, for if the gobernadorcillo and the parish priest are not in accord, the parish priest with the powers granted him by law can obstruct his administration, his approval of every official act of the gobernadorcillo being required by law to render it legal or valid.

It can be deduced from all this that the candidate favored by the Reverend Parish Priest almost always was elected; the falsehood of election by limited suffrage exercised by the principalía and the cabezas de barangay; the election always falls on persons without education and even illiterates most of the time, in violation of the letter and spirit of the law.

And for the confirmation of what we have revealed, read the formidable accusation against the friars presented to the Madrid Government by former Governor General Simón de Anda y Salazar, from which we quote the following:

Thus like the bishops (those of the Philippines) living within their diocese are honorary bishops, so is the King in the Philippine Islands: His Majesty resides in them by the authority granted to their President and Audiencia, Mayors, Governors and Magistrates of the provinces, but neither the President, Audiencia nor the rest of the Ministers give the orders but indeed only the priest does.

With regard to jurisdiction, it is admitted that no gobernadorcillo of the Indios carry out any order of the President, Audiencia, or Alcaldes without the permission of the priest. The priest punishes him instantly with one hundred lashes if he obeys the royal Magistrates and judges.

Particularizing what we have related, we cannot help bringing to the attention of our readers that if the reverend and devout parish priest displays unusual activity in his spiritual administration and in the preparatory work for the municipal elections, it is to insure that his favorite candidates, who are his proteges, win the election and appointment as gobernadorcillos, cabezas de barangay, and other members of the municipal government. In this regard the provincial chiefs and judges of the Court of First Instance are not behind him, although these officials operate in a distinct manner in securing the election of their candidates. The friar, of his own accord and ignoring others, imposes on the principalía, while the others are diplomatic and polite, communicating their wishes to their friends and these in turn tell the electors who vote for the candidates in order not to incur the ill-will of the high officials.

Always following the principle of impartiality, which is our guide, we should state that in towns where the provincial governor and the judicial, administrative and maritime officials reside, the friar behaves differently from the way he does in towns where there are no Spaniards. Here he lives like a real feudal lord, his reverence being the most important figure there. Neither does he recognize any authority above and superior to his nor does the gobernadorcillo or any other municipal official give orders there except he. Thus, he rules despotically and tyrannically, he punishes barbarously and cruelly if his orders are not obeyed; in a word, he is a cacique in the towns far from the provincial capital. However, in the provincial capitals his behaviour towards his fellow Spaniards is hyprocritical. With cunning and deceit he tries to be in harmony with all the local Spanish officials to win their friendship and to gain their innermost sympathies, and afterwards, having won their goodwill, he acts as it suits him.

Be it as it may, then, the truth is that the members of Philippine institution, the gobernadorcillo, the cabeza de barangay as well as the entire principalía, are in general ignorant men without any education, who do not have the slightest notion of their duties, and indeed they are only automatic machines, blind instruments of the friars, the provincial governor and other Spanish officials to carry out their private ends. And do not think that in the majority of those towns there is a lack of cultured, educated and very competent men to hold these positions; but such men, if they are sometimes elected and appointed, resort to all means to get out of their predicament, now bribing a physician to certify that he is suffering from an extraordinary chronic ailment that will make it impossible for him to hold the position, now obtaining a recommendation from an influential person in the Central Government to be relieved of his post.

It is easy to. understand such repugnance for public office. If injustice is evil, infamous, it is worse to submit oneself to it. Considering the few securities and guarantees of municipal officials, who of the educated class would be willing to expose himself to the net of abuses, vexations, secret persecutions that show through the all-embracing powers of the Spanish authorities and the weight of the predominant influence of the religious communities? Woe to the gobernadorcillo who tries to check the caciquism [bossism] of the friars and the offences and outrages of his superiors!

Why?

Because, in truth, the gobernadorcillo and the whole principalía are slaves of the Reverend Parish Priest of the town and the provincial officials, for they are the ones who furnish the materials that are lacking in their kitchens. As to the gobernadorcillo, God only knows how they handle him! The daily feed of the horses of the Reverend Parish Priest; the chickens, capons, that are served on the table of the magistrate and provincial governor; and still not satisfied with all this, they employ them as agents of their private business.

In this way the Filipino people go from one arbitrariness to another.

All these sharp practices of the friars, magistrates, and provincial governors are related in great detail by Mr. Sinibaldo de Mas in his Informe de Filipinos.7

COMPLEMENTARY INSTITUTIONS

In order that our account of Philippine institutions may not be incomplete, we are going to describe briefly certain positions which are complementary to the two principal institutions aforementioned.

These posts are a later creation than those of gobernadorcillo and cabeza de barangay. It can be affirmed that they date to the latter part of the last century when they were established to meet the needs of the time.

They are, namely, the teniente mayor (first lieutenant), whose counterpart in Spanish towns is the teniente-alcalde, acts in the absence of the gobernadorcillo or when the gobernadorcillo cannot perform some of his duties, so numerous are they.

There are three judges:

The judge of agriculture inspects the fields and farm work and adjust the misunderstandings among the field workers.

The judge of livestock under whose jurisdiction are the slaughter, purchase, sale, marking, sealing and resealing of cattle.

The judge of police and fomento is in charge of public embellishment, order and neatness, and the inspection of primary schools.

These three judges, each in his own branch, act like fiscal in the complaints brought by the citizens of the town before the gobernadorcillo or teniente mayor.

Besides these officials, there are second, third, and fourth lieutenants who take turns in serving as night guard and reserve guards in the Tribunal.

All these officials are chosen by nominal voting. The three judges can be chosen form among former gobernadorcillos, but no former gobernadorcillo can be a lieutenant. The first lieutenant is chosen from the principía or the rest of the citizenry.

 

The posts are honorary and without representation expenses.

For every visita8 or barrio there is a lieutenant, a judge, and a peace officer (alguacil). They are appointed by the gobernadorcillo. He also appoints one alguacil in charge of the postal service and official dispatches and another one in charge of the municipal jail, serving as watcher (alcaide).

Finally, there are the cuadrilleros who are, as in Spain, keepers of public order; and the directorcillo who acts at times as municipal secretary. As he plays an important role in municipal administration, we are going to devote some lines to him.

As the majority of gobernadorcillos are persons with meager education who do not understand Spanish and at time do not know how to read and write, the law allows them to have a secretary called directorcillo in Philippine office jargon.

In giving him this title, the same as that of gobernadorcillo, our insular government seems to have a tendency to ridicule he local officials it has itself created.

The directorcillo in the municipal government writes all public documents; he prepares the report on judicial proceedings; he answers official correspondence; and he serves as interpreter between the higher authorities and the gobernadorcillo and the principalía.

Among his fellow citizens he plays the sad role of amanuensis.

Notwithstanding his very important office, the directorcillo is exempt from any responsibility for his official acts. All the responsibility, in case of error or deceit, rests on the poor gobernadorcillo.

Before the law, he is not answerable for anything. He is therefore a little ruler, an irresponsible power. The gobernadorcillo and the principalía are the responsible officials before the higher authorities, not before the people, because in all this it is a cipher. His misdeeds are not few.

For all his very interesting role in municipal administration he is paid the miserable sum of thirty pesetas monthly, which is not even enough for his buyo.9 Hence, in the performance of his work he commits many fibs, not a few tricks, and numerous irregularities.

Generally, the directorcillos are the creatures of the friars who are wont to place in that position their majordomos or servants who have a smattering of Spanish, having learned it through hearing the reverend fathers speak it. His masters, the friars, are his omnipotent auxiliary in different situations. Sometimes the directorcillo is a philosophy or secondary school student who has failed in the seminary or the university in Manila; but, whether one or the other, all directorcillos serve the interests of the friars. If they did not, they run the risk of being denounced as filibusteros or seditious persons to the provincial governor and exiled to the Marianas Islands or Jolo.

Thus, then, the directorcillos are always the minions of the friar priests and under their shadow the directorcillo commits many infamies against the people and with his official astuteness the friar parish priest is able to frustrate all local officials and to dominate brutally the people.

As the directorcillo serves as substitute judge of instruction in distant towns in the province, it is not rash to assert that many persons must have been condemned to death or life imprisonment undeservedly on account of the fault or crass ignorance of the directorcillo.

When a murder is committed, the directorcillo goes to the place of the crime with the Manual del Gobernadorcillo under his arm. He opens the book, looks for the form, copies it from top to bottom, taking care only to write down the name of the deceased and of the witnesses.

Thus, in this manner is done the first inquiry into a crime in some Philippine towns.

The friar priest takes great care that the directorcillo be to his liking and loyal to him so that he can resolve and do things arbitrarily in the municipality.

For this reason, the directorcillos are almost always persons of no account, incompetent and of very meager education.

What we have said and written is sufficient to enable one to form an exact opinion of the deplorable condition of Philippine institutions.

We recommend their complete overhauling.

 

Endnotes

1 The party in power referred to was the Fusionista, that is, the fusion of the constitutionalist and centralist group. It was headed by Praxedes Mateo Sagasta, gaining power in February 1881 and losing it in October 1883.

2 Falla was a tax amounting to one real and a half imposed on the Indio and mestizo for each day that he failed to render manual service in the convent of his parish.

3 Basal is a Bisayan word which means ringing of bells. As presiding officer of the municipal council he held a bell in his hand during the sessions of the council.

4 This book has three editions, the first having the title Manual de Gobernadorcillo . . . (Manila, Imprenta de Ramirez y Giraudier, 1867); the second, corrected and expanded, has the title Manual del Gobernadorcillo . . . (Manila, Ramirez y Giraudier, 1867); and the third with the same title but published in 1880. López Jaena must be referring to this edition.—T.A.A.

5 See the collection of Revista de Filipinas for the year 1876, p. 565, article titled "Instituciones Filipina" by Pedro Govantes de Azcárraga. (Footnote in the 1891 edition of López Jaena's Discursos y Artículos Varios.)

6 See Rafael M. de Lara, La Colonizacion en la historic, vol. II, 349. (Note in the 1891 edition.)

7 He refers to Sinibaldo de Mas, Informe sobre el estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1842, 3 vols., Madrid 1843. The third volume is extremely rare, very few copies of it having been printed. It was said that he distributed the few copies "very cautiously". In this volume he recommends the granting of independence to the Philippine Islands.

8 Visita is a small rural division with a chapel.

9 Buyo is a local chewing preparation consisting of a bit of areca nut, lime and the leaf of a certain vine, locally called ikmo.

 

Monachism in the Philippines (by Del Pilar, Marcelo)

In the Philippines today, something spectacular is becoming evident—something which we believe will reveal the secret of the much exalted influence of the clergy on the life of the Filipinos.

It has always been said that the friar handles the Filipino as he pleases. Based on this assumption, the government, with all the democratic principles it advocates, abstains from emancipating the schools in the Philippines—from theocratic-monachal tutelage.

Truth will always reveal itself in time. Meanwhile any one can find out what is going on in these islands, at present, by simply focusing his attention on religious-administrative matters as published in the Philippine press.

Wanting to enforce the sanitary measures which have been violated without any justification, the Board in Charge of Civic Administration, represented by Mr. Quiroga Ballesteros, sought to confront the powerful influence behind the violations. A wound hurts unbearably when a finger is thrust into it and causes the wounded to go into violent convulsions. In the same way the

sensibilities of those on whom the responsibility for the violations was pinned were so hurt that they reacted in the ways which call for very serious reflection.

Through a circular dated last October 18, the said Board cautioned the provincial chiefs against giving their consent, regardless of the circumstances to the customary, to the very unsanitary practice of taking the dead to the churches and making them lie in state while funeral rites are held for them. This practice greatly endangers public health for, in a tropical country like the Philippines, the temperature accelerates the pace of decomposition. At the same time, the Board earnestly urged the necessity of proceeding with the closing of the cemeteries situated within the town limits.

This very timely measure was received by the country with general applause. But the regular clergy saw in it nothing more than a probable preterition of their functions and a subsequent diminution in parish fees.

Orally and in writing, in the pulpits as well as in diocesan pastorals, dogmas, rites and all the most sacred things were very subtly invoked by the clergy in defense of their casual collections and against the principle that public health is the supreme law of the nations.

The friars initiated a vigorous campaign in defense of their interests and—in pretended concern over the country's safety, from lips consecrated to the truth—allowed the escape of phrases threatening government officials and at the same time slandering the Filipino people.

According to the women, the religiosity of the people is affected when their dead relatives and friends' bodies are not allowed to lie in state in the churches to receive the solemn and very pompous benediction of a priest. They can foresee how wounded religious sentiments can provoke a popular uprising—an uprising which the priests had told them—they would not be able to handle.

The regular clergy is accepted almost always as the most unquestionable guardian of Spanish integrity. The very powerful regular clergy always boast of their having averted and suppressed rebellious sentiments in this country. But surprisingly, these clergy now doubt their power to suppress uprisings because this particular uprising will be favorable to their collection of parish fees!

Spain can laugh at the threats of the friars, at the people's uprising, and she will be giving an eloquent proof of her prudence and common sense.

Funeral services and ceremonies, whatever these may cost, are an imposition on the Filipino people. And we can cite thousands of cases when a lack of means to pay for funeral ceremonies has made destitute orphans shed bitter tears.

The poor has swallowed all these abuses in silence, for it cannot but accept that in the Philippines it requires great effort to reveal the truth and it has always been difficult, if not impossible, to obtain justice when the defendants belong to the regular clergy.

A calced Augustinian, the parish priest of Navotas, was sued criminally for various delinquencies, one of which was his refusal to administer the sacrament to a very sick person whose family would not compromise to pay the expenses of a costly funeral should the patient

die. For this offense and for many others, "Christ's name was invoked" and a penalty of nine days spiritual retreat was imposed on him.

Another parish priest from the province of Bulacan, also a calced Augustinian, had been denounced for the infringement of sanitary laws during the cholera epidemic of 1882. A legal suit was issued against him by the Senior Mayor, Mr. Juan Piqueras. All the acts denounced were proven violations of the law, but the priest only grinned unrepentantly at the laborious work of censure presented in the investigation of his transgressions and in his subsequent indictment. So did his other brothers in Christ.

Such is the success of even the most well-founded complaints which reach official circles. After the complainants have gore through all kinds of inconveniences, after their patience has been exhausted, the complaint is declared null and void and only God knows how those who denounced the friars or bore witness against them are persecuted.

This is why the government never learned or even gets a hint of the deep hidden regrets of the father who had to bury the body of his dead son in some open field because he could not pay for the funeral rites which these inhuman ecclesiastics hold before a burial. Neither does it get to know about the tears of a son who for the same reason has been forced to bury the body of bis dead mother outside the cemetery, later, to become exposed to the voracity of dogs. Thus, it is impossible for the government to realize the extent of the hatred which is inspired by these friars who now pretend to invoke the religious sentiments of the Filipinos.

We insist that the government make an effort to investigate carefully and in detail the actual campaign which the friars are waging against the authorities in this archipelago for only after an extended study will it realize why monachism in the Philippines deserves very serious thought.

Residents of the Philippines who aspire to identify their colonial interests with those of the mother country and demand that laws in the Peninsula be made applicable in these islands are believed to be rightly accused of filibustering and are cruelly persecuted at the behest of the regular clergy.

On the other hand, the element which refuses such an identification, the very rich communities which detest the laws of lire mother country and constantly undermine the principle of authority—corporations which, while pretending to represent traditionalism and Carlism, have made themselves masters of this country and owners of her wealth —win the confidence of the mother country and with their powerful influence are able to encroach upon the administrative measures of the different government departments.

Why a theocratic-monachal tutelage for the institutions in the Philippines? Must Spain give in to the friars because she is afraid of their influence over the masses? Is it because of the unparalleled role in which the people have cast them? Spain should not believe so readily the statements not based on recorded facts.

Does the influence of the friar really incline in a specified way the opinion and sympathy of the Filipinos?

If this influence is truly persuasive, if it is true that the regular clergy can handle the Filipinos as they please, will it not be better for both the government and the reigning dynasty to promote the

influence of a third party whose aspirations will at least be incompatible with the interests of one of them and will add to the stability of the other?

If this influence is not real, then, this instinctive attachment to the friars is not well established in the hearts of the people. For how can the Filipinos exist in harmony with elements who absorb their wealth and rights, and who try to blunt the keen edges of their intelligence, rob them of their liberty and hinder their progress? If the people only see in the friar an enemy of their well-being, a constant and cruel persecutor, the power agent in the numerous and mysterious deportations which cause tears of desperation to flow from the eyes of the families and friends of the deportees and thus make resentments over such cases pile up to be set aflame later, why then must the government support and promote this element which terrorizes the Filipino people?. Why must Spain be solidary to this monstrous hatred which the friar inspires in the hearts of so many oppressed Filipinos?

The government needs to reflect much. Spain is interested not only in her integrity as a nation. She is also interested in the glory and honor of her dynasty. Monachism is cosmopolitan and is not limited to one part of the world; hence it is not exclusively Spanish.

 

Part IV: On the Indolence of the Filipinos (Jose Rizal)

"The good curate," he says with reference to the rosy picture a friar had given him of the Philippines, "had not told me about the governor, the foremost official of the district, who was too much taken up with the ideal of getting rich to have time to tyrannize over his docile subjects; the governor, charged with ruling the country and collecting the various taxes in the government's name, devoted himself almost wholly to trade; in his hands the high and noble functions he performs are nothing more than instruments of gain. He monopolizes all the business and instead of developing on his part the love of work, instead of stimulating the too natural indolence of the natives, he with abuse of his powers thinks only of destroying all competition that may trouble him or attempt to participate in his profits. It matters little to him that the country is impoverished, without cultivation, without commerce, without, industry, just so the governor is quickly enriched!"

The great difficulty that every enterprise encountered with the administration contributed not a little to kill off all commercial and industrial movement. All the Filipinos, as well as all those who have tried to engage in business in the Philippines, know how many documents, what comings, how many stamped papers, how much patience is needed to secure from the government a permit for an enterprise. One must count upon the good will of this one, on the influence of that one, on a good bribe to another in order that the application be not pigeonholed, a present to the one further on so that he may pass it on to his chief; one must pray to God to give him good humor and time to see and examine it; to another, talent to recognize its expediency; to one further on sufficient stupidity not to scent behind the enterprise an insurrectionary purpose; and that they may not all spend the time taking baths, hunting or playing cards with the reverend friars in their convents or country houses. And above all, great patience, great knowledge of how to get along, plenty of money, a great deal of politics, many salutations, great influence,

plenty of presents and complete resignation! How is it strange that, the Philippines remain poor in spite of their very fertile soil, when history tells us that the countries now the most flourishing date their development from the day of their liberty and civil rights? The most commercial and most industrious countries have been the freest countries: France, England and the United States prove this. Hongkong, which is not worth the most insignificant of the Philippines, has more commercial movement than all the islands together, because it is free and is well governed.

The apathy of the government itself toward everything in commerce and agriculture contributes not a little to foster indolence. There is no encouragement, at all for the manufacturer or for the farmer; the government furnishes no aid either when poor crop comes, when the locusts23 sweep over the fields, or when a cyclone destroys in its passage the wealth of the soil; nor does it take any trouble to seek a market for the products of its colonies. Why should it do so when these same products are burdened with taxes and imposts and have not free entry into the ports, of the mother country, nor is their consumption there encouraged? While we see all the walls of London covered with advertisements of the products of its colonies, while the English make heroic efforts to substitute Ceylon for Chinese tea, beginning with the sacrifice of their taste and their stomach, in Spain, with the exception of tobacco, nothing from the Philippines is known: neither its sugar, coffee, hemp, fine cloths, nor its Ilocano blankets. The name of Manila is known only from those cloths of China or Indo-China which at one time reached Spain by way of Manila, heavy silk shawls, fantastically but coarsely embroidered, which no one has thought of imitating in Manila, since they are so easily made; but the government has other cares, and the Filipinos do not know that such objects are more highly esteemed in the Peninsula than their delicate piña, embroideries and their very fine jusi fabrics. Thus disappeared our trade in indigo, thanks to the trickery of the Chinese, which the government could not guard against, occupied as it was with other thoughts; thus die now the other industries; the fine manufactures of the Visayas are gradually disappearing from trade and even from use; the people, continually getting poorer, cannot afford the costly cloths and have to be content with calico or the imitations of the Germans, who produce imitations even of the work of our silversmiths.

Part V: On the Indolence of the Filipinos (Jose Rizal)

Nurtured by the example of anchorites of a contemplative and lazy life, the natives spend theirs in giving their gold to the Church in the hope of miracles and other wonderful things. Their will is hypnotized: from childhood they learn to act mechanically, without knowledge of the object, thanks to the exercises imposed upon them from the tenderest years of praying for whole hours in an unknown tongue, of venerating things that they do not understand, of accepting beliefs that are not explained to them to having absurdities imposed upon them, while the protests of reason are repressed. Is it any wonder that with this vicious dressage of intelligence and will the native, of old logical and consistent—as the analysis of his past and of his language demonstrates—should now be a mass of dismal contradictions? That continual struggle between reason and duty, between his organism and his new ideals, that civil war which disturbs the peace of his conscience all his life, has the result, of paralyzing all his energies, and aided by the severity of the climate, makes of that eternal vacillation, of the doubts in his brain, the origin of his indolent disposition.

In addition to this, love of peace and the horror many have of accepting the few administrative positions which fall to the Filipinos on account of the trouble and annoyance these cause them places at the head of the people the most stupid and incapable men, those who submit to everything, those who can endure all the caprices and exactions of the curate and of the officials. With this inefficiency in the lower spheres of power and ignorance and indifference in the upper, with the frequent changes and the eternal apprenticeships, with great fear and many administrative obstacles, with a voiceless people that has neither initiative nor cohesion, with employees who nearly all strive to amass a fortune and return home, with inhabit, ants who live in great hardship from the instant they begin to breathe, create prosperity, agriculture and industry, found enterprises and companies, things that still hardly prosper in free and well-organized communities.

Yes, all attempt is useless that does not spring from a profound study of the evil that afflicts us. To combat this indolence, some have proposed increasing the native's needs and raising the taxes. What has happened? Criminals have multiplied, penury has been aggravated. Why? Because the native already has enough needs with his functions of the Church, with his fiestas, with the public offices forced on him, the donations and bribes that he has to make so that he may drag out his wretched existence. The cord is already too taut.

Without education and liberty, that soil and that sun of mankind, no reform is possible, no measure can give the result desired. This does not mean that we should ask first for the native the instruction of a sage and all imaginable liberties, in order then to put a hoe in his hand or place him in a workshop; such a pretension would be an absurdity and vain folly. What we wish is that obstacles be not put in his way, that the many his climate and the situation of the islands afford be not augmented, that instruction be not begrudged him for fear that when he becomes intelligent he may separate from the colonizing nation or ask for the rights of which he makes himself worthy. Since some day or other he will become enlightened, whether the government wishes it or not, let his enlightenment be as a gift received and not as conquered plunder. We desire that the policy be at once frank and consistent, that is, highly civilizing, without sordid reservations, without distrust, without fear or jealousy, wishing the good for the sake of the good, civilization for the sake of civilization, without ulterior thoughts of gratitude, or else boldly exploiting, tyrannical and selfish without hypocrisy or deception, with a whole system well-planned and studied out for dominating by compelling obedience, for commanding to get rich, for getting rich to be happy. If the former, the government may act with the security that some day or other it will reap the harvest and will find a people its own in heart and interest; there is nothing like a favor for securing the friendship or enmity of man, according to whether it be conferred with good will or hurled into his face and bestowed upon him in spite of himself. If the logical and regulated system of exploitation be chosen, stifling with the jingle of gold and the sheen of opulence the sentiments of independence in the colonies, paying with its wealth for its lack of liberty, as the English do in India, who moreover leave the government to native rulers, then build roads, lay out highways, foster the freedom of trade; let the government heed material interests more than the interests of four orders of friars; let it send out intelligent employees to foster industry; just judges, all well paid, so that they be not venal pilferers, and lay aside all religious pretext. This policy has the advantage in that while it may not lull the

instincts of liberty wholly to sleep, yet the day when the mother country loses her colonies she will at least have the gold amassed and not the regret of having reared ungrateful children.

The Philippines A Century Hence (Jose Rizal)

Then began a new era for the Filipinos. They gradually lost their ancient traditions, their recollections--they forgot their writings, their songs, their poetry, their laws, in order to learn by heart other doctrines, which they did not understand, other ethics, other tastes, different from those inspired in their race by their climate and their way of thinking. Then there was a falling-off, they were lowered in their own eyes, they became ashamed of what was distinctively their own, in order to admire and praise what was foreign and incomprehensible: their spirit was broken and they acquiesced....

So the Philippine peoples have remained faithful during three centuries, giving up their liberty and their independence, sometimes dazzled by the hope of the Paradise promised, sometimes cajoled by the friendship offered them by a noble and generous people like the Spanish, sometimes also compelled by superiority of arms of which they were ignorant and which timid spirits invested with a mysterious character, or sometimes because the invading foreigner took advantage of intestine feuds to step in as the peacemaker in discord and thus later to dominate both parties and subject them to his authority.

Spanish domination once established, it was firmly maintained, thanks to the attachment of the people, to their mutual dissensions, and to the fact that the sensitive self-love of the native had not yet been wounded. Then the people saw their own countrymen in the higher ranks of the army, their general officers fighting beside the heroes of Spain and sharing their laurels, begrudged neither character, reputation nor consideration; then fidelity and attachment to Spain, love of the fatherland, made of the native, encomendero [1]1 and even general, as during the English invasion; then there had not yet been invented the insulting and ridiculous epithets with which recently the most laborious and painful achievements of the native leaders have been stigmatized; not then had it become the fashion to insult and slander in stereotyped phrase, in newspapers and books published with governmental and superior ecclesiastical approval, the people that paid, fought and poured out its blood for the Spanish name, nor was it considered either noble or witty to offend a whole race, which was forbidden to reply or defend itself; and if there were religious hypochondriacs who in the leisure of their cloisters dared to write against it, as did the Augustinian Gaspar de San Agustin and the Jesuit Velarde, their loathsome abortions never saw the light, and still less were they themselves rewarded with miters and raised to high offices. True it is that neither were the natives of that time such as we are now: three centuries of brutalization and obscurantism have necessarily had some influence upon us, the most beautiful work of divinity in the hands of certain artisans may finally be converted into a caricature.

The priests of that epoch, wishing to establish their domination over the people, got in touch with it and made common cause with it against the oppressive encomenderos. Naturally, the people saw in them greater learning and some prestige and placed its confidence in them, followed their advice, and listened to them even in the darkest hours. If they wrote, they did so in defense of the rights of the native and made his cry reach even to the distant steps of the

Throne. And not a few priests, both secular and regular, undertook dangerous journeys, as representatives of the country, and this, along with the strict and public residencia [22] then required of the governing powers, from the captain-general to the most insignificant official, rather consoled and pacified the wounded spirits, satisfying, even though it were only in form, all the malcontents.

All this has passed away. The derisive laughter penetrates like mortal poison into the heart of the native who pays and suffers and it becomes more offensive the more immunity it enjoys. A common sore, the general affront offered to a whole race, has wiped away the old feuds among different provinces. The people no longer has confidence in its former protectors, now its exploiters and executioners. The masks have fallen. It has seen that the love and piety of the past have come to resemble the devotion of a nurse who, unable to live elsewhere, desires eternal infancy, eternal weakness, for the child in order to go on drawing her wages and existing at its expense; it has seen not only that she does not nourish it to make it grow but that she poisons it to stunt its growth, and at the slightest protest she flies into a rage! The ancient show of justice, the holy residencia, has disappeared; confusion of ideas begins to prevail; the regard shown for a governor-general, like La Torre, becomes a crime in the government of his successor, sufficient to cause the citizen to lose his liberty and his home; if he obey the order of one official, as in the recent matter of admitting corpses into the church, it is enough to have the obedient subject later harassed and persecuted in every possible way; obligations and taxes increase without thereby increasing rights, privileges and liberties or assuring the few in existence; a régime of continual terror and uncertainty disturbs the minds, a régime worse than a period of disorder, for the fears that the imagination conjures up are generally greater than the reality; the country is poor; the financial crisis through which it is passing is acute, and every one points out with the finger the persons who are causing the trouble, yet no one dares lay hands upon them!

True it is that the Penal Code has come like a drop of balm to such bitterness. [33] But of what use are all the codes in the world, if by means of confidential reports, if for trifling reasons, if through anonymous traitors any honest citizen may be exiled or banished without a hearing, without a trial? Of what use is that Penal Code, of what use is life, if there is no security in the home, no faith in justice and confidence in tranquility of conscience? Of what use is all that array of terms, all that collection of articles, when the cowardly accusation of a traitor has more influence in the timorous ears of the supreme autocrat than all the cries for justice?...

So then, if the prudence and wise reforms of our ministers do not find capable and determined interpreters among the colonial governors and faithful perpetuators among those whom the frequent political changes send to fill such a delicate post; if met with the eternal it is out of order, proffered by the elements who see their livelihood in the backwardness of their subjects; if just claims are to go unheeded, as being of a subversive tendency; if the country is denied representation in the Cortes and an authorized voice to cry out against all kinds of abuses, which escape through the complexity of the laws; if, in short, the system, prolific in results of alienating the good will of the natives, is to continue, pricking his apathetic mind with insults and charges of ingratitude, we can assert that in a few years the present state of affairs will have been modified completely—and inevitably. There now exists a factor which was formerly lacking—the spirit of the nation has been aroused, and a common misfortune, a common debasement,

has united all the inhabitants of the Islands. A numerous enlightened class now exists within and without the Islands, a class created and continually augmented by the stupidity of certain governing powers, which forces the inhabitants to leave the country, to secure education abroad, and it is maintained and struggles thanks to the provocations and the system of espionage in vogue. This class, whose number is cumulatively increasing, is in constant communication with the rest of the Islands, and if today it constitutes only the brain of the country in a few years it will form the whole nervous system and manifest its existence in all its acts.

Some governors have realized this truth, and, impelled by their patriotism, have been trying to introduce needed reforms in order to forestall events. But notwithstanding all that have been ordered up to the present time, they have produced scanty results, for the government as well as for the country.

The press is free in the Philippines, because their complaints rarely ever reach the Peninsula, very rarely, and if they do they are so secret, so mysterious, that no newspaper dares to publish them, or if it does reproduce them, it does so tardily and badly.

When the laws and the acts of officials are kept under surveillance, the word justice may cease to be a colonial jest. The thing that makes the English most respected in their possessions is their strict and speedy justice, so that the inhabitants repose entire confidence in the judges. Justice is the foremost virtue of the civilizing races. It subdues the barbarous nations, while injustice arouses the weakest.

1. An encomendero was a Spanish soldier who as a reward for faithful service was set over a district with power to collect tribute and the duty of providing the people with legal protection and religious instruction. This arrangement is memorable in early Philippine annals chiefly for the flagrant abuses that appear to have characterized it.

2 No official was allowed to leave the Islands at the expiration of his term of office until his successor or a council appointed by the sovereign inquired into all the acts of his administration and approved them. (This residencia was a fertile source of recrimination and retaliation, so the author quite aptly refers to it a little further on as "the ancient show of justice."

3 . The penal code was promulgated in the Islands by Royal Order of September 4, 1884.

“State of the Philippine Islands, 1820” (Tomas de Comyn)

Thomas de Comyn, a Spanish official of the Compania Real de Filipinas, examines the socio-economic conditions of the Philippines in the early 19th century. He estimates the population of the natives and Sangleys or Chinese using the padron or list of tribute payers made by local colonial officials and Spanish friars. De Comyn, furthermore, criticizes the backwardness of the Philippines? burgeoning cash crop economy and manufacturing sector. His book offers a comprehensive description on the state of the Philippines? external and domestic commerce. He also discloses the shortcomings of the revenue-generating schemes of the Spanish colonial government. He advocates for revenue and bureaucratic reforms. His work also analyzes the state of civil and spiritual administration of the Philippines. The friars, he says, have controlled the local civil administration due to lack of competent Spanish officials. He heaps praises on the

friars whom he credits for the colonization and Christianization of the Islands. The last part of his book contains his remarks on the Spanish-Muslim wars and the attempts of the colonial government to subjugate Islamic sultanates in Mindanao. He claims that the pacification of the Muslims will ensure peace, increase the native population, and boost comerce.