Bernadette M.

Estela August 5, 2019

BS in Accountancy MW 1:30 – 3:00 PM

The Indolence of the Filipinos

Jose Rizal published his essay “The Indolence of the Filipinos” in La Solidaridad
around July 15, 1890 - September 15, 1890, in Berlin, Spain. It is an exploratory essay, and
he wrote it to defend the Filipinos being labeled as naturally lazy by the Spanish colonizers.
Rizal also explained through the piece the alleged laziness of the Filipinos during the time of
Spanish colonization, and he emphasized the factors that contributed to the idleness of the
Filipinos as what he observed.
To start with, Rizal admitted the indolence among Filipinos. Rizal even made an
analogy that the physician was the friars/Spanish, the patient was the Philippines, and the
illness was the indolence, and Rizal stated that one must study the causes of indolence before
curing it. However, he pointed out that way before the Spanish colonizers came, Filipinos
were industrious and hardworking. The Spanish were the ones who brought the decline in
the economic activities because of these factors: the establishment of Galleon Trade, which
cut off the association of Filipinos from the Middle East and China, and small businesses and
handicraft industries that thrived during pre-Spanish colonization continuously decreased,
and the Spaniards made Filipinos do forced labor such as being it destroyed the Filipinos’
love for work. The Spaniards made Filipinos work in shipyards to fight for Spain, do public
works and thus abandoning agriculture, industry, and commerce. Frequent wars, rebellion,
and pirate invasions also have brought chaos to the communities. There was a decline of the
number of native Filipinos because of the attack of the pirates who burned down towns,
captured and enslaved men, and Spain did not protect the Filipinos from them which results
to Filipinos not able to defend themselves because they were not provided with arms to fight
those pirates. Natives who have had enough of the abuse and were scared of these
happenings fled to the mountains and forests, and thus, their farms were abandoned. The
Spaniards made Filipinos believe that it is easier for a poor man to enter heaven than a rich
man, which became one of the reasons for Filipinos to slack off in any work and remain poor.
Spaniards introduced gambling and bets to Filipinos such as cockfights and playing of cards,
promising Filipinos that it will lead to sudden wealth. There was an unfairness of education
as Filipinos were only taught repetitive prayers instead of teaching them Agriculture,
Industry, etc., that could have helped Filipinos to think of ways to make progress for their
motherland. The Spanish rulers were a bad example of doing work as they do only work at
noon, which they do nothing at all, and be leaving early. Spaniards convinced Filipinos that
to get happiness; one must lay aside his dignity, attend mass, believe what it is told of him,
to pay the taxes, work, suffer in silence, and told Filipinos that it is evil for them to know the
Spanish language and should not be separated from his carabao. Friars also made Filipinos
pay big amount of taxes from what Filipinos have earned which went to the government or
the friars. Lastly, there was a lack of unity among Filipinos. They did not have the power to
fight the aggressive attacks of the Spanish government, no voice for them to speak out, no
leader to lead them.
As a Filipino, we have this habit of saying that we will do our tasks tomorrow, and it
is called “Mañana Habit.” Being exposed to this kind of mentality since I was a child, I
naturally thought that it was okay, and it would not affect anything in what I have to do. I
started to make mañana habit as an excuse for being lazy and not to my tasks because there
is still tomorrow for me to do these things anyway. However, it is not only mañana habit that
we still do but as well as gambling, drinking, and womanizing, which has now become
dangerously normal today. I believe that even though the Spanish colonizers were the ones
who introduced these negative practices and traditions to us, we, Filipinos, are still at fault.
This indolence of ours is not hereditary. We are still labeled as indolent because we continue
to do these practices and traditions when, in fact, we should not try to engage to any of these
any further. However, I realized that it is easier said than done. It is not easy to change what
we are already used to doing and even more challenging to tell people otherwise.