Rizal on Agrarian Issues

By

Sarreal D. Soquiño

Agrarian problems in the Philippines during the late 19 th century were apparently known to the
famous Filipino national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Such familiarity and interest on agrarian matters
have clearly reflected in his selected works and writings. These materials can help us understand
how Rizal had formed his views or opinion concerning the matter which he, undoubtedly,
regarded as a complicated socio-economic problem that could result to economic dislocation,
loss of trust to the justice system, revolt and violence.

His Participation in the Calamba Land Dispute

Rizal was already well aware about the worsening land conflict in the town of Calamba,
Laguna between the hacienda management and the group of tenants before he returned home ,
after many years of his stay in Europe in 1887. These tenants, including his family and some
relatives, leased tracts of agricultural lands from the Dominican Order1, owner of the vast
productive hacienda in the province of Laguna. The conflict rose from the continued
unreasonable increased of rentals, land confiscation and other exploitative practices of the
hacienda management. These caused financial hardships to the tenants, and worsened by other
factors such as poor harvests, crops destroyed by unfavorable weather and pestilence. Upon his
arrival from Europe, the beleaguered tenants of Calamba asked him to conduct an investigation
regarding the controversial fertile lands owned by the Dominican friars in relation to the
agricultural problem that pitted the tenants against the wealthy powerful owners. The findings of
his investigation, which he formally submitted to the colonial government, were the following: 2

1. The hacienda of the Dominican Order comprised not only the lands around
Calamba, but also the town of Calamba.

2. The profits of the Dominican Order continually increased because of the

arbitrary increase of the rentals paid by the tenants.

3. The hacienda owner never contributed a single centavo for the celebration of
the town fiesta, for the education of the children, and for the improvement of
agriculture.

4. Tenants, who had spent much labor in clearing the lands, were dispossessed of
said lands for flimsy reasons.

5. High rates of interests were charged the tenants for delayed payment of
rentals, and when the rentals could not be paid, the hacienda management
confiscated their carabaos, tools, and homes.
 As Rizal already got the ire of the friars (Spanish priests from religious congregations)
after the publication of his first novel, Noli me Tangere, became known to the latter, their hatred
to him intensified further, particularly to the Dominicans, because of his involvement in the
investigation on the land problem in Calamba. On that same year, 1887, Rizal left for Europe
again to conduct historical research, write the second novel – El Filibusterismo – and
undoubtedly, to stay away from his enemies. His exposure to the problem in Calamba gained
him important materials which he used as source that enriched the sequel of the famous 1887
novel.

In 1890 while in Brussels (Belgium), Rizal learned that his family, relatives and some
tenants who were in conflict with the hacienda management in Calamba were dispossessed of
their lands after the court in Madrid issued its conclusion in favor of the Dominican Order. The
suit filed by the landowning friars against the tenants was a response to the refusal of Don
Francisco Mercado, father of Dr. Rizal, to pay the land rents because the hacienda management
continually raised the cost of the rental. More tenants also refused to pay the rentals which they
also viewed as unreasonable. Thereafter, some family members of Rizal and other tenants faced
persecution from the authorities in relation to the agrarian conflict in Calamba. Paciano (Rizal’s
older brother) and his brothers-in-law Antonio Lopez and Silvestre Ubaldo were deported to
Mindoro, while Manuel T. Hidalgo, another brother-in-law, was banished, for the second time, to
the island of Bohol.3

The agrarian problem in Calamba that worsened in 1887 until it caused the dispossession of
the tenants of their land in 1890 had encouraged Rizal to establish a Filipino settlement in the
island of Borneo, which was at the time under the British protectorate. Rizal wanted to move
landless Filipinos including his families and friends to North Borneo (Sabah) to occupy assigned
lands for them offered by the British North Borneo Company, engaged in lucrative agriculture
and rebuild their lives. Rizal successfully obtained an agreement with the British authorities of
Borneo that allowed the potential Filipino colonists to occupy around 100,000 acres, a beautiful
harbor, and would provide them a good government for 999 years, free of all charges. 4 This is
known as the Borneo Colonization Project which was enthusiastically endorsed or supported by
many friends of Rizal including prominent figures in our history like the Luna brothers (Juan and
Antonio), Graciano Lopez-Jaena, and his Austrian friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt. Unfortunately,
Governor-General Eulogio Despujol rejected the project because he argued that the Filipino
immigration to Borneo was contrary to the interest of Spanish colonial rule.

The 1889 Article

Rizal wrote many articles or essays published in the La Solidaridad – a reformist Filipino
newspaper – that aimed to promote Filipino dignity, interest, and introduced political reforms in
the country albeit within the colonial framework. Considered as one of the earliest articles he
wrote for the said newspaper was entitled, Los Agricultures Filipinos or “The Filipino Farmers”.
It was published on March 15, 1889, In this article, Rizal commended the intention of the
Minister of the Colonies to encourage the development agriculture. However, he suggested that
the colonial government should consult the Filipino tillers who would surely be affected by the
program of the Ministry. He wrote:
 “We recommend, nevertheless, that he consult the farmers also – those who are
in direct contact with the soil, those who, with their own capital and labor make
the soil productive and who put into practice the methods that science or
experience dictates.”5

Natural calamities like floods and locust pests that caused poor harvest, if not a total
destruction of their crops, were not the only problems of the farmers. Rizal emphasized that
colonial institutions imposed by the colonial regime like Forced Labor and the Constabulary
(civil guards) also contributed to the problems of the farmers. The policy of Forced Labor or
polo y servicio that required native males, from 16 to 60 years old, to render labor services to any
government projects like construction of bridges, roads, ship-building, etc., was an example of an
abusive economic colonial institution that affected the Filipino farmers. Rizal explained that the
landlord lost his farm workers hired to cultivate his field or harvest his crops because they were
taken away by colonial authorities to work in any government projects as required by the policy
of forced labor. The abuses of civil guards against the farmers or the landlords, Rizal exposed,
also exacerbated the already difficult situation. Farmers could no longer tend their fields once
they were accused by civil guards of violating certain regulations because accused were forced to
clean the barracks.6 Thus, no one was available to take care of the farm because workers spent
most of their time cleaning the barracks. In order to free himself from the abuses of those who
are in power, the landowner resorted to bribery like giving gifts or other forms of favor.

On the other hand, those farms located away from the towns were confronted with
different enemies – the bandits. Rizal narrated;7

“For those who have their farms far from the towns, it is the robber –
bandit that is a terrible enemy. There can be no favors gained, like in the
others, by giving him gifts and bribes, which do secretly, because he
would then be plunged into abyss: whosoever deals with the bandit is
accused of connivance and being an accomplice of the evildoers and this
would mean certain torture, and later, exile.”

However, Rizal recommended a solution to the problem caused by the robber-bandits.

Since the colonial government, or the civil guard in particular, could not protect the farmers or
the landowners, the latter should carry a firearm and “face the danger everyday”8 as they
confront the marauding bandits. Amidst rising acts of banditry coupled with the failure of the
authorities to curb such lawlessness, Rizal strongly believed that a peaceful and law-abiding
farmer or landlord must own a firearm to protect himself, his family and properties against
lawless elements who unashamedly flourished from the vulnerabilities of the unarmed members
of society. Rizal was a pro-gun advocate. But to acquire license from the government for an
acquisition of a firearm was not easy because an applicant had “to obtain the goodwill of the
neighborhood, of the civil guard, and of the parish priest”9 before the application would be sent
to the central government in Manila. This ridiculous long bureaucratic process was further
lengthened because it took many months for the applicant to wait before the Manila government
would act on the petition. After Rizal enumerated and discussed the defects and abuses of the
colonial government, in general, in relation to the problems encountered by farmer and
landowners in the islands, he asked the Ministry of the Colonies for solutions which he described
as urgent:

“It would be necessary to correct this, Mr. Minister of the Colonies, lest
some malicious mind say that since the government there is helpless, it
makes friends with bandits by handing over to them the disarmed
inhabitants; that it desires to cultivate lands by speeches, plans, and
agreements, a policy that should be enforced by tying the hands of the
farmers and forcing them to till the soil under the new system. Agriculture
cannot be improved by this method. What is needed is aid to those who are
engaged in it.”10

Note that this article, The Filipino Farmers, does not mention about serious agrarian-
related issues like unjust land confiscation, unreasonable increases of rentals by hacienda owners
imposed against their tenant, and providing lands for the landless direct tillers. The notion of
social justice in relation to agrarian problems was not emphasized as the said article/essay
merely discussed matters that had prevented farmers from cultivating their lands, with higher rate
of productivity, free from external circumstances like abuses of the civil guards and banditry
which were actually soluble.

Cabesang Tales

The story of Cabesang Tales in Rizal’s second novel, El Filibusterismo, underlines an

inevitable reality of the brewing agrarian conflict during the 19 th century that concluded to a
peasant revolt, an integral ingredient of the 1896 separatist revolution. His story as a tiller
occupies the entire Chapter 4 of the said novel. He brought his whole family to a thickly forested
land, cleared the area and cultivated the fertile land which caused the death of his wife and elder
daughter, Lucia, due to extreme hardwork and disease. The land was planted with crops and
eventually yielded bountiful harvests. The tragedy began when a religious order that owns vast
agricultural lands in the neighboring town claimed ownership of the rich fields cleared by Tales
and his family. The administrator of the estate of the Order demanded for an annual rental from
Tales since the latter has occupied, and earns from the friars’ property. The poor tiller gives in to
the administrator’s demand, unwilling to invite any trouble or conflict with the powerful
hacienda owner. Tales finally lost his patience when rental continues to increase every year
accompanied by threats of “dispossession” from the alleged owners if he refuses to comply with
the financial requirements they imposed. He finally refuses to pay the rent, insists that he legally
owns the land, and brings up the matter before the court of justice. Unfortunately, Tales lost his
case. The story ends with Tales becoming an outlaw, a “bandit”, or a “robber”. His name has
been mentioned several times in the novel aside from Chapter 4. In Chapter 38, A Trick of Fate
(translated by Leon Maria Guerrero), Tales is already known as Matanglawin (eagle’s eye),
leader of an armed group of outlaws who have been engaged in violent activities against the
colonial administration. His rebellious activities have been felt in many parts of Luzon. Rizal
wrote:11

“One day they would burn down a sugar mill and its fields in Batangas,
on the next murder a municipal judge in Tiani, on another take a town in
 Cavite by surprise and seize the arms in the town hall. Matanglawin
plundered the provinces of the Central Valley from Tayabas to
Pangasinan, and his sanguinary name echoed as far as Albay and as far
north as Kagayan.”

These acts of brigandage are reminiscent of the native armed groups during the period
between 1820s and 1830s in the province of Cavite and other towns in Southern Tagalog led by
known leaders like Luis Parang, Juan Upay and Juan Balat who were accused by colonial
authorities as involved in “lawless” activities like robberies, cruelties, violence and
assassinations.12 This period in the local history of the province of Cavite, in particular, is called
the tulisanismo phenomenon. It is also interesting to note that tulisanismo activities
coincidentally appeared during the height of peasant unrest in rice and sugar-producing
provinces like Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, Tondo, Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Bataan where
vast friar haciendas were located.13

The tale of Cabesang Tales, though fiction, was derived from real experiences of people
whom Rizal knew quite well like his family and relatives who were unjustly dispossessed of
their lands in a lawsuit with the Dominican Order during the height of agrarian conflict in
Calamba. His father, Francisco Mercado, was the first one who refused to pay the unreasonable
rent imposed by the owners of the land they tilled which some tenants followed suit that
infuriated the Dominicans in Calamba. Like Tales, who joined the “bandits”, many natives
refused colonial subjugation, preferred to spend their lives in the mountains, and fearlessly
challenged the social order. Colonial authorities called them names like bandits, robbers, or
outlaw – the tulisanes.

La Liga Filipina, 1892

The formation of the Liga Filipina in July 3, 1892 in Tondo, Manila had again
demonstrated Rizal’ interest on matters related to agriculture. The said association, founded and
inaugurated by Rizal himself, was also a society that was exclusive only for Filipinos that aimed
for national unity, reforms and defense against violence and injustice. One of its aims or
objectives was to encourage instruction, agriculture (emphasis mine), and commerce. Clearly, he
believed that a developed agricultural sector is a requirement to a genuine social and economic
progress. A nation like the Philippines, primarily an agricultural country, can never achieve a
genuine material progress if its agricultural sector is neglected and undeveloped. Rizal wanted
that his stillborn organization could provide assistance to the Filipino farmers, and pursue
technical improvements in agriculture.

The Dapitan Farm

Farming was in the heart of the hero. The material wealth of the Mercado family came
from large-scale farming in the vast fertile lands of Calamba. The expensive bahay na bato
(expensive concrete residential building) where the young Jose grew up and nurtured by a caring
and religious family was surrounded by assorted fruit trees and various plants. Such beautiful
natural environment around him had possibly contributed to his natural propensity for farming.
Upon his arrival in Dapitan, Rizal already thought of transferring his family and relatives who
were dispossessed of their lands in Calamba, to this remote rich island where they could work
together, develop agriculture, and live a peaceful life free from their enemies. When he won a
second prize in a lottery that earned him, 6,200.00 pesos, he immediately bought seventy (70)
hectares of arable land by the sea. Rizal introduced to his young students in Dapitan the value of
hard work and importance of agriculture as he involved them in the cultivation of the land he
won a second prize in a lottery that earned him, 6,200.00 pesos, he immediately bought seventy
(70) hectares of arable land by the sea. Rizal introduced to his young students in Dapitan the
value of hard work and importance of agriculture as he involved them in the cultivation of the
land he owned and planted it with sugarcane, corn, coffee and a variety of fruit trees like lanka
(langka or jackfruit), santol, mango, and mangosteen.14 The farm Rizal had developed in Dapitan
must be seen as a symbolic expression of every 19 th century Filipino farmer who simply wanted
to till his own field, harvest the yields of his hard work, and enjoy with his family the generosity
of nature free from persecutions of the greedy landowning friars and abuses of the civil guards
and bandits.

Conclusion

Rizal knew very well that the development of agriculture in the country is fundamentally
vital to its social and economic progress. The society he formed, La Liga Filipina, sought for the
unity of the whole archipelago as one nation, encouraged education for all, and observance of
justice but such aspirations, if achieved, may not be completely meaningful to the nation’s life
majority of its people remains poor and economically unproductive. Thus, La Liga’s fourth aim
was the encouragement of agriculture and commerce. On the one hand, an article he wrote
emphasized the role of the government in the development of agriculture. Instead of pressing the
issues of landlessness and unreasonable increases of rents by big landowners, Rizal delved into
equally urgent matter related to the obligation of the government in giving protection to the
beleaguered farmers against the abuses committed by civil guards and bandits.

Rizal’s story on Cabesang Tales and his findings on the agrarian conflict in Calamba in
1887 brought to the fore the exploitative agrarian set-up created by the vast friar estates. The
friar haciendas became the source of oppression, poverty, and peasant discontentment that led to
armed revolt that challenged the Spanish colonial structures. Rizal fully understood that the
agrarian problems that surfaced during his time was a socio-economic problem because it
affected not only the farmers or peasants including their families, but its impact also generated
serious circumstances like economic dislocation, poverty, and revolt. Thus, Rizal knew very well
that agrarian conflict could ignite a national revolution.

Notes
1
Sonia M. Zaide and Gregorio F. Zaide, Jose Rizal: Life, Works and Writings of a Genius, Writer, Scientist and
nd
National Hero, 2 Edition (Quezon City: All-Nations Publishing, Co. Inc, 1994), 69, 120.
2
S. Zaide and G. Zaide, 1994, 120-121.
3
S. Zaide and G. Zaide, 1994, 171.
4
S. Zaide and G. Zaide, 1994, 206-207.
5
“The Filipino Farmers”, La Solidadridad Quincenario Democratico, vol. 1, 1889, Translated by Guadalupe Fores-
Ganzon (Pasig City, Metro Manila: Fundacion Santiago, 1996) 43-45.
6
La Solidaridad Quincenario Democratico, vol., 1889, 45.
7
La Solidaridad Quincenario Democratico, vol., 1889, 45.
8
La Solidaridad Quincenario Democratico, vol., 1889, 45.
9
La Solidaridad Quincenario Democratico, vol., 1889, 45.
10
La Solidaridad Quincenario Democratico, vol., 1889, 47.
11
Jose Rizal, El Filibusterismo, Translated by Leon Ma. Guerrero, (London: Longman Group Ltd., 1965), Chapter 38,
p. 309.
12
Isagani R. Medina, Cavite Before Revolution, 1571-1896, (Quezon City: University of the Philipines Press and
Cavite Historical Society, 2002), pp. 66-69.
13
Medina, 2002, 67.
14
Leon Ma. Guerrero, The First Filipino, (Pasig City, Metro Manila: Guerrero Publishing, 1998) 324. See also Corona
S. Romero, Julita sta. Romana, and Lourdes Y. Santos, Rizal and the Development of National Consciousness, 2nd
edition (Quezon ave., Quezon City: KATHA Publishing, Co., Inc., 2006) 60.