The Philippines of Rizal’s Time

Evils of an unjust, bigoted and deteriorating colonial power

Instability of Colonial Administration

•Brought about frequent periodic shifts in colonial policies and a periodic rigodon of colonial officials•1835 to 1897: 50 Governor-Generals

each serving an average term of only one year and three months

Corrupt Colonial Officials

• Highly corrupt, incompetent, cruel or venal• Gen. Rafael de Izquierdo • (1871-73): executed the innocent GOMBURZA

• Gen. Fernando Primo de Rivera• (1880-83; 1897-98)

• Gen. Camilo de Polavieja • (1896-97)

Philippine Representation in Spanish Cortes

•1810 – 1813: Ventura de los Reyes•1837: Representation was abolished

Human Rights Denied to Filipinos

• Freedom of speech, of the press, of association and other human rights (except freedom of religion)

No Equality Before the Law

• Brown skinned Filipinos as inferior beings• Spanish Penal Code • Heavier penalties on native Filipinos or

mestizos and lighter personalities on white-complexioned Spaniards

Maladministration of Justice

• Notoriously corrupt and courts of “injustice”• Costly, partial and slow

Racial Discrimination

• Filipinos as inferior beings who were infinitely undeserving of the rights and privileges that the white Spaniards enjoyed• Indios• Pigment of his skin, height of his nose, color of

his hair and shape of his skull

Frailocracy• A unique government in Hispanic Philippines (government by

friars)• Augustinians, Dominicans and Franciscans dominated the

religious and educational life• Filibustero or to jail• Policy of obscurantism, fanaticism and oppression in the

country• Janus-faced friars

Forced Labor

• Compulsory labor imposed by the Spanish colonial authorities on adult Filipino males in the construction of churches, schools, hospitals, building and repair of roads and bridges, building of ships and other public works

Haciendas Owned by the Friars

• Dominicans• One of the victims in Calamba

The Guardia Civil

• Rizal himself experienced the discrimination of how the guardia civil (either Filipino or insulares) treated the Filipinos

Evolution of Filipino Nationalism(1810-1912)

Romeo V. Cruz

• Presents an unorthodox idea of the evolution of Filipino nationalism as going through four stages:

• 1. Hispanism• 2. Filipinism (Peninsular Spanish)• 3. Creolism or Assimilationist Filipinism • (Propaganda Movement or Reformism)

• 4. Katagalugan • (Katipunan Indio Filipinism)

Nationalism(sentiment)

race

culture

history

territory

HISPANISM (1809-1820)• Central Revolutionary Junta at Aranjuez• Detailed in the Constitution of Cadiz of 1812• United Spanish peoples all over the world• Sovereignty and powers of government• Election of representatives in the Spanish Cortes

FILIPINISM (PENINSULARS)(1821 – 1880)

• Creoles (Manila Spaniards)• Opening of Manila to the World Commerce in 1834• Opening of Suez Canal in 1869• Madrid at that time became convinced, regardless of the

government’s anti-church policy, that the friars were a necessary evil in the Philippines

• Campaign for Secularization headed by Fr. Juan Pelaez inherited to Fr. Jose Burgos

• Spanish Revolution in 1868 and coming of Carlos Ma. De la Torre in 1869

• Martydom of GOMBURZA and sent in exile and other penal colonies

ASSIMILATIONIST FILIPINISM (1880 – 1896)

• The Propaganda Movement/Reformism• Indio-ilustrados and the wealthy businessmen all belonging to

the burgeoning middle class (indulto de comercio)• Revolutionary crisis (hidden and unstated assumptions)• Not merely demanding assimilation but ideas for the

restructuring of the empire into a federal system instead of unitary system / a separate and independent state would be established and administered by the Indios

KATAGALUGAN (1892 – 1912)

• Indio-Filipinism• Foundation of the KKK in 1892• Envisioned a new nation independent from the Spanish

Empire• Radical nationalism• Organize a new society which was liberal, democratic and

ethically virtuous based on the brotherhood of all Filipinos / “A NATION OF TAGALOGS” or KATAGALUGAN

• Based on the code of ethics and moral principles contained in Decalogue and Kartilla

1. What was the condition of the Philippines in early times?

2. What is the condition today?3. What will be the condition in the future?

CORRECT ANSWERS:

1. Filipinos were “happy and independent”2. Spaniards “did nothing to civilize” the

people3. Spanish cruelties “will be remedied in

time and freedom will be redeemed”