The Philippines 100 Years From Now
Table of Contents
The Filipino people, not being master of its liberty, is not responsible for its misfortunes.
But in reality, we have a large part, in the continuation of such a disorder.
The following, among other causes, contributed to foster the evil and aggravate it:
the constantly lessening encouragement that labor has met with in the Philippines.
Fearing to have the Filipinos deal frequently with other individuals of their own race, who were free and independent, as
The following are free:
- Borneans
- Siamese
- Cambodians
- Japanese
These are different from the Chinese whom the Spanish distrust severely.
These nations consumed Philippine products. When all communication with them had been cut off, consumption of these products also ceased.
The only 2 countries with which the Philippines continued to have relations were China and Mexico.
From this trade, only China and a few private individuals in Manila got any benefit.
It, fact, the Celestial Empire sent, her junks laden with merchandise, that merchandise which shut down the factories of Seville and ruined the Spanish industry, and returned laden in exchange with the silver that was every year sent from Mexico.
Nothing from the Philippines at that time went to China, not even gold.
In those years, the Chinese traders would accept only silver coin.
To Mexico went little more: some cloth and dry goods which the encomendoros took by force or bought from the natives at, a paltry price, wax, amber, gold, civet, etc, but nothing more, and not even in great quantity, as is stated by Admiral Don Jerónimo de Bañuelos y Carrillo, when he begged the King that “the inhabitants of the Manilas be permitted (!) to load as many ships as they could with native products, such as wax, gold, perfumes, ivory, cotton cloths, which they would have to buy from the natives of the country
Thus the friendship of those peoples would be gained, they would furnish New Spain with their merchandise and the money that is brought to Manila, would not leave this place,” (21)
The coastwise trade, so active in other times, had to die out, thanks to the piratical attacks of the Malays of the south
Trade in the interior of the islands almost entirely disappeared, owing to restrictions, passports and other administrative requirements.
Of no little importance were the hindrances and obstacles that from the beginning were thrown in the farmers’s way by the rulers, who were influenced by childish fear and saw everywhere signs of conspiracies and uprisings.
The natives were not allowed to go to their labors, that is, their farms, without permission of the governor, or of his agents and officers, and even of the priests as Morga says.
Those who know the administrative slackness and confusion in a country where the officials work scarcely two hours a day; those who know the cost of going to and returning from the capital to obtain a permit; those who are aware of the petty retaliations of the little tyrants will well understand how with this crude arrangement it is possible to have the most absurd agriculture.
This absurdity would be ludicrous had it not been so serious. For some time, it has disappeared.
But even if the words have gone out of use other facts and other provisions have replaced them. The Moro pirate has disappeared but there remains the outlaw who infests the fields and waylays the farmer to hold him for ransom.
Now then, the government, which has a constant fear of the people, denies to the farmers even the use of a shotgun, or if it does allow it does so very grudgingly and withdraws it at pleasure; whence it results with the laborer, who, thanks to his means of defense, plants his crops and invests his meager fortune in the furrows that he has so laboriously opened, that when his crop matures, it occurs to the government, which is impotent to suppress brigandage, to deprive him of his weapon; and then, without defense and without security he is reduced to inaction and abandons his field, his work, and takes to gambling as the best means of securing a livelihood. The green cloth is under the protection of the government, it is safer! A mournful counselor is fear, for it not only causes weakness but also in casting aside the weapons strengthens the very persecutor!
The sordid return the native gets from his work has the effect of discouraging him. We know from history that the encomenderos, after reducing many to slavery and forcing them to work for their benefit, made others give up their merchandise for a trifle or nothing at all, or cheated them with false measures.
Speaking of Ipion, in Panay, Padre Gaspar de San Agustin says:
It was in ancient times very rich in gold, …………… but provoked by the annoyances they suffered from some governors they have ceased to get it out, preferring to live in poverty than to suffer such hardships.
Speaking of other towns, he says:
“Goaded by the ill treatment of the encomenderos who in administering justice have treated the natives as their slaves and not as their children, and have only looked after their own interests at the expense of the wretched fortunes and lives of their charges.
In Leyte, where they tried to kill an encomendero of the town of Dagami on account of the great hardships he made them suffer by exacting tribute of wax from them with a steelyard which he had made twice as long as the others”
This state of affairs lasted a long time and still lasts even if that breed of encomenderos has become extinct.
A term passes away but the evil and the passions engendered do not pass away so long as reforms are devoted solely to changing the names.
The wars with the Dutch, the inroads and piratical attacks of the people of Sulu and Mindanao disappeared; the people have been transformed; new towns have grown up while others have become impoverished; but the frauds subsist as much as or worse than they did in those early years.
We will not cite our own experiences, for aside from the fact that, we do not know which to select, critical persons may reproach us with partiality; neither will we cite those of other Filipinos who write in the newspapers; but we shall confine ourselves to translating the words of a modern French traveler who was in the Philippines for a long time:
“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!”
Yet the traveler has been unfair in picking out the governor especially: Why only the governor?
We do not cite passages from other authors, because we have not their works at hand and do not wish to quote from memory.