Instability of colonial administration

The chaotic Reign of King Ferdinand VII (1808-1833) marked the beginning of

political mayhem in Spain.

From 1834-1862, Spain had adopted four constitutions, elected 28 parliaments,

and installed not less than 529 ministers with portfolios; followed in subsequent

years by party strifes, revolutions, and other political upheavals.

The political instability in Spain affected Philippine Affairs because it brought

about recurrent periodic shifts in colonial policies and periodic rigodon of colonial

officials.

Spain’s political instability resulted to the loss of many of her colonies in America.

Spain changed its policies in the Philippines and made periodic replacements of

Spanish officials. These frequent changes of the administration in the Philippines

hampered down the economic and political conditions of the country.

Philippine economy and politics grew from bad to worse at that time.

Corrupt Spanish Officialdom

Corrupt Officialdom was another evil of the Spanish Colonial System.

 Many colonial officials became rich by illegal means or by marrying the

heiresses of rich Filipino families.

 Mostly ignorant and profligate, they conducted themselves with

arrogance because of their alien white skin and tall noses.

  General Rafael de Izquierdo (1871-73) - was a ruthless governor

general, aroused the anger of the Filipinos by executing Fathers Mariano

Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora. (GOMBURZA) Martyrs of 1872.

Admiral Jose Malcampo (1874-77) - was a good Moro fighter, but was an inept

and weak administrator.

General Fernando Primo de Rivera (1880-83) and (1897-98) – enriched

himself by accepting bribes from gambling casinos in Manila which he operated.

General Valeriano Weyler (1888-91) - was a cruel and corrupt governor

general. He arrived in Manila a poor man and returned to Spain a millionaire by

receiving huge bribes from wealthy Chinese who evaded the anti – Chinese law.

Filipinos called him “tyrant” because of his persecution of the family of Rizal in

Calamba.

General Camilo de Polavieja (1896-97) - was an able militarist but a heartless

governor general, responsible for Rizal’s execution.

And as early as 1810, some Spaniard, barbers, and lackeys, were appointed

provincial governors and soldiers and district magistrates.

The Social System

Feudalism was the social structure in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial

period.
The structure of the Philippine society was pyramidal. And this is consists of

three layers:

Topmost layer- Spanish officials, the PENINSULARES

Middle Layer- few favored Filipinos, the MESTIZOS and

CREOLLOS (those Spaniards born in America)

Lowest Layer- INDIOS (the lowest kind)

Encomienda System

-this is a system where Spanish monarch granted lands to certain individuals

who had rendered great services to Spain. And this individual could take care a

certain territory in the conquered lands.

-came from the word “encomendar” which means to commend or entrust to

one’s care.

-the person in-charge was called “encomendero”.

Rights of encomendero vested by Spanish Crown:

• the right to collect tributes.

• the right to use the personal services of the inhabitants.

• required to protect the people and to give them some education.

-greed and cruelty mainly filled up the encomienda system.

-proof given by Antonio de Morga:

“They employ the Indians in building houses and large vessels, grinding rice,

cutting woods, and carrying it all to their houses and to Manila and then pay them

little or nothing at all for their labor.”

TRIBUTE

• Filipinos before paid tribute as a symbol of servitude to Spain.

• it consisted of eight(8) reales <one peso>, payable in kind or money.

• in 1851, the tribute was increased to twelve reales. But in 1884, the cedula

replaced the reales.

The Filipinos hated the tribute for two reasons:

• It reminded them of their bondage to Spain, and

• it spawned Spanish abuses.

Philippine Representation of Spanish Cortes

 Motive of Spain -gain the support of her overseas colonies

1810-1813

Philippine experience her first period of representation in the Cortes

Ventura delos Reyes

• Took active part in framing of the Constitution of 1812

• Abolition of the Galleon trade

(1820- 23) and (1834- 37)

Less fruitful because the Philippines delegate were not as energetic and

devoted in parliamentary work as Delos Reyes

1837

 it was abolished in 1837 and the Philippine conditions worsened because

there was no means b which the Filipino people could expose the

anomalies perpetrated by the colonial officials

Garciano Lopez Jaena

One of the patriots who pleaded the restoration of the Philippine

Representation in Spanish Cortes but plea only ended in deaf ears

Human Rights Denied to Filipinos

People of Spain enjoyed

• Freedom of Speech

• Freedom of the Press

• Freedom of Assembly

The Spanish authorities who cherished these human rights or constitutional

liberties in Spain denied them to the Filipinos in Asia.

No Equality Before the Law

Spanish missionaries in 16th Century taught that all men, irrespective of color and

race are children of God and as such they are brothers, equal before God.

To the imperialist way of thinking, brown Filipinos and white Spaniards may be

equal to God, but not before the law and certainly not in practice.

Spanish colonial authorities arrogantly treated the brown-skinned Filipinos as

inferior beings, not their Christian brothers to be protected but rather as their

majesty’s subjects to be exploited.

Leyes de Indian (Laws of the Indies)

• Promulgated by the Christian monarch’s of Spain

• To protect the rights of natives in Spain’s overseas colonies to

promote their welfare

• But it wasn’t implemented by the officials

• Filipinos were abused, brutalized, persecuted and slander by their

Spanish maters.

The Spanish Penal Code

• Enforced in the Philippines

• Imposed heavier native Filipinos or Mestizos

• Lighter penalties on white-complexioned Spaniards.

Racial Discrimination
During Rizal’s time a white skin, high nose and Castilian lineage were a badge of

vaunted superiority.

• Filipinos were regarded as INFERIOR BEINGS. Racial prejudice is

rampant in the Philippines especially in the offices, military, social

gatherings and in schools.

• Man’s merit was BASED on the COLOR OF THE SKIN, HAIR, the Shape

Of The Nose and of the HEAD. Fr. Jose Burgos lamented the racial

discrimination due by the Spaniards to the Filipinos.

Maladministration of Justice

• Corruption characterized the courts in the Philippines during the time of

Rizal. In fact, from the view point of the Filipino victims, these courts were

rather rightly called “COURTS OF INJUSTICE.” Justice was costly,

PARTIAL and SLOW.

• The poor almost had no access to the court but the rich had. Wealth,

prestige and color of skin were the predominant factors of winning a case

in the court. The saying, “Justice delayed is justice denied” was true.

Among the victims were Rizal and his family and the GomBurza.

Frailocracy

-is a unique form of government in Hispanic Philippines.

-“a government by friars.”

Friars (Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans)

• They were the ones who controlled the religious and educational life of the

Philippines.

• Later in the 19th Century, they came to acquire tremendous political

power, influence, and riches.

• Aside from their priestly duties, a friar:

* was a supervisor of local elections,

* the inspector of schools and taxes,

* the arbiter of morals,

* the censor of books and comedias (stage plays),

* the superintendent of public works, and

* the guardian of peace and order.

• He could even send a patriotic Filipino to jail or denounce him as a

filibustero (traitor) to be exiled in a distant place or to be executed as an

enemy of God and Spain.

Manila

• was dependent on the interior part of the land, that is, on the peasants.

Church
 • acted as the only link between the small foreign community in Manila and

the mass of the peasants in the countryside.

Governor General

• depended on the friars in reaching the peasants.

Rome

• made the Governor General the vice-patron of the Church and granted

him ecclesiastical authority, but the Governor General had no command

over the friars.

Forced Labor

• known as the Polo.

• was instituted in 1580

• was the compulsory labor imposed by the Spanish Colonial

Authorities on adult Filipino males ( except chieftains and their sons

) in the construction of churches, schools, hospitals; building

and repair of roads and bridge; the building of ships in the

shipyards and other public works.

Males 16 – 60 years old

were obliged to render forced labor for 40 days a year.

Polista
the name given to those who performed the forced labor.

Polo System

only gave each polista ¼ real with some rice per day and the worst thing was

that the polistas were seldom paid.

Harvesting and Planting Seasons

The polistas were not supposed to render services such as public works of non

military nature. But this was violated. Instead, the authorities required the polistas

to work in mines and to cut trees for building ships needed for war.

Royal Decree of July 12, 1883

• Implemented by the New Regulations, promulgated by the

Council of State of February 3, 1885 increased the minimum

age of the Polistas from 16 – 18 and reduced the days of

labor from 40 – 15.

• Also provided that not only native Filipinos but also all

male Spanish Residents from 18 – 60 must render

forced labor, but this was never implemented in the

Philippines for obvious reasons.

Falla

A sum of money paid to the government to be exempted from the polo but the

money was just being pocketed by the alcaldes.

Bandala

Governor General Hurtado de Corcuera

Introduced Bandala in the first half of the 17th Century.

Bandala

• Another exploitative economic device was the annual quota assigned to

each province.

• In every province, everyone had to make a compulsory sale of his

products to the government.

Divide and Rule

The Spanish Military Force was just small in the country. So, it had to be backed

up by the natives.

Military

Used the services of the natives for their purposes by employing the divide-and-

rule strategy.

The Spaniards recruited the natives in the region to support them but the

Military merely used them to put down the revolts in another region.

Haciendas Owned by the Friars

Spanish friars belonging to different religious orders were the richest landlords.

• They owned the best haciendas (agricultural lands) in the Philippines.

 • The rural folks (including Rizal’s family) who have been living in the

haciendas and cultivating them generation after generation became

tenants.

• Naturally, they resented the loss of their lands which belonged to their

ancestors since pre-Spanish times;

• Legally, however, the friars were recognized as legal owners of said lands

because they obtained royal titles of ownership from the Spanish crown.

• One of these bloody agrarian revolts was the agrarian upheaval in 1745-

1746.

• In 1768, Governor Anda strongly recommended to the Madrid government

the sale of the friar estates.

Unfortunately, his wise recommendation was ignored.

THE GUARDIA CIVIL

• the last hated symbol of Spanish tyranny.

• it was created by the Royal Decree of February 12, 1852 as amended by

the Royal Decree of March 24, 1888.

• its purpose is to maintain internal peace and order in the Philippines.

• it was patterned after the famous and well-disciplined Guardia Civil in

Spain.
• most of the members of the Guardia Civil were untrained and ignorant.

Thus, they turned out to be agents of abuses.

• they maltreated innocent people, looting their carabaos, chickens, and

valuable belongings, and raping helpless women.