On the Indolence of the Filipino People Dr. Sancianco, in his work Progreso de Filipinas, based on the reports given by Spanish authorities, said that indolence does not exist in the Philippines. The word “indolence” means “little love for work.” In the Philippines during the Spanish period, all faults, shortcomings, and misdeeds are attributed to indolence. When a person attempts to give an explanation to events outside of what was usual, the person was usually persecuted. In this manner, the usual explanation of events either becomes a dogma or a ridiculous superstition. Part |. Life and Works of RizalExamining all available sources, the men of the Philippines who lived here since their childhood state that indolence does exist in the country. For Filipinos, the struggle against the climate, against nature and against men, but instead of indolence being the cause of the backwardness of the country, indolence is the effect of the backwardness of the Philippines-but no one has studied its causes. The objective of this essay is to examine the causes of indolence in a most truthful manner. First, the climate of the Philippines is very hot. The heat requires quiet and rest, just as a cold climate requires labor and action to produce heat. How do the Spaniards live in the Philippines or in any tropical country? They surround themselves with numerous servants, they ride in carriages, they need servants even just to remove their shoes. They live better, eat better, they work to make themselves rich with hopes that in the future, they will become free and respected. While the colonized were badly nourished, they had no hope; they toil for others, and worked under force! The excuse given is that white men cannot stand the severity of the climate. This is unacceptable because human beings live in any climate if he only adapts himself to the conditions of his surroundings. What kills a European in a tropical country was his abuse of liquors, to live according to the ways of Europe in a hot climate. Europeans can live in hot areas if only he adapts to the situation. The fact is that in hot countries, violent work is not good like those in cold countries. If one pushes for more work in a hot country, this results to death, destruction, and annihilation. Nature knows this, thus the lands in the hot climate are more fertile, more productive, the yields are a hundredfold. An hour's work under the burning sun is equivalent to a day's work in the cold temperatures. Isn't it that Europeans abandon their work during the few days summer time, close his office, go to the cafes, or stroll about? Why wonder about the person from the tropical areas, who continue to live and work under the hot sun, is reduced to laziness? Who is the lazy one in Manila? The clerk who comes at eight in the morning and leaves at one in-the afternoon with his umbrella, who writes and works for himself and his chief. His Spanish chief who comes by carriage at ten o'clock and leaves before twelve? He reads his newspaper, smokes with his feet up on a chair or table, and gossips with all his friends, The tendency toward indolence is natural and natural laws cannot be altered. Man is not a brute, he is not a machine, his objective in life is not simply to produce in spite of what the Christian whites do to the colored Christians. The Christian whites make them a motor power, more intelligent and less costly than steam engines. The objective of man is to seek happiness for himself and his kind through progress.The evilis notindolence but ‘among men and among nations, there exists aptitudes and tendencies ‘toward good and evil. To foster good and aid these, to. Correct evil and repress these are the duties of the society and the government. ~ Indolence in the Philippines is Magnified but it is the effect of misgovernment and backwardness, not the Cause. This will be proven. In the Philippines, indolence is a chronic malady, not a hereditary one. The Filipinos have not always been what they are, witnesses, like the first historians who came to the islands, have attested to this fact. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Filipinos carried an active trade ot only among themselves but with the neighboring countries as well. A Chinese manuscript of the 18th century, translated by Dr. Hirth (Globus, September 1889), speaks of China's commercial relations with the islands. It mentions of the activities and the honesty of the traders of Luzon who took the Chinese products and distributed them throughout all of the islands, traveling for nine months, and then returned them to pay religiously even for the merchandise that the Chinamen did not remember to have given them. Some of these products were crude wax, cotton, pearls, tortoise shells, betel Nuts, dry goods, and others. The irst thing noted by Pigafetta, the chronicler who came with Ferdinand Magellan in 1521'when they first arrived in Samar, the first island of the Philippines, they were treated with courtesy and kindness of the inhabitants. “To honor our captain, they introduced them to their boats where they had their merchandise. They sold cloves, cinnamon, pepper, nutmegs, mace, gold, and other things." They made us understand through gestures that these articles were to be found all over the islands. Pigafetta narrates of vessels and utensils of solid gold that he found in Butuan where he learned that they worked on mines. He described the silk dresses, the daggers with long gold hilts, and scabbards of carved wood, the gold sets of teeth, etc. He mentioned cereals and fruits, rice, millets, oranges, lemons, panicur, and others. He further added that wealth abounded the islands. There was an abundance of foodstuff in Paragua where the inhabitants all tiled their own fields. At this island, the survivors of Magellan's expedition were well-received and provisioned. A litte later, the same survivors captured a vessel, plundered and sacked it. They took prisoner the chief of the island of Paragua, his son, and his brother. In the same vessel, they captured bronze and lombards, This is the first mention of artillery of the Filipino, These lombards were Useful to the chief of Paragua against the savages of the interior.They let him ransom himself within seven days. The Spaniards demanded 400 cavanes of rice, 20 pigs, 20 goats, and 450 chickens. This is the first act of piracy recorded in Philippine history. The chief of Paragua paid everything and voluntarily added coconuts, bananas, sugar cane, and jars filled with palm wine. His conduct, while it may reveal weakness, also demonstrates that the islands were abundantly provisioned. This chief was named Tuan Mahamud, his brother Guantil and his son Tuan Mahamud. (Martin Mendez, purser of the ship, Victoria. From the Archivo de Indias). In the same account, it narrates of the facility of the natives to have learned Spanish, fifty years before the arrival of the Spaniards in Luzon. In 1521, there were natives of Luzon who understood Castillan. In the treaties of peace that the survivors of Magellan made-with the chief of Paragua, through the servant interpreter, they communicated with one another. He was a Moro who was captured from the islands of the King of Luzon and this servant understood Spanish (Martin Mendez). Where did this interpreter learn Castillan? In the Moluccas? In Malacca, with the Portuguese? Spaniards did not reach Luzon until 1571. Theislands maintained relations with distantand neighboring countries as proven by ships from Siam which were laden with gold and slaves. These ships paid duties to the King of the island. In the same year, the survivors of the Magellan expedition met the son of the Rajah of Luzon. He was the captain general of the Sultan of Borneo and the admiral of his fleet who had conquered the great city of Lave (Sarawak?). Antonio Morga was the Lieutenant Governor General of Manila for seven years. After his term of office, he was appointed as criminal judge of the Audiencia of Mexico and the Counsellor of the Inquisition. His testimony is highly credible because his contemporaries have spoken very highly of him, and his written work was done with great circumspect and care. According to the accounts of Morga, the islands on the seas float like emeralds on a paten of bright glass. The seas were traversed by junks, paraus, barangays, vintas, vessels so swift as shuttles and so large that they could maintain a hundred rowers on aside. They arrived at the island of Cebu, “abounding in provisions, with mines and washings of gold and populated with natives," according to Morga. “Itis very populous, and at a port frequented by many ships that came from the island and kingdoms near India," as Colin says: and even though they were peacefully received, discord soon arose. The city was taken by force and burned. First destroyed were food supplies, famine broke out in a town ofahundred thousand people. The neighboring islands quickly relieved the need because of the abundance of their areas. The histories of those first years abound in accounts of industry and agriculture of the natives, of mines, gold washings, looms, farms, barter, naval Construction, raising of poultry and stock, weaving of silk and cotton distilleries, manufactures of arms, pearl fisheries, civet industry, horn and hide industry, etc, these are the things encountered at every step. Considering the times and the conditions of the islands, these prove that there was life, there was activity and there was movement. The seas bore commerce, industry, agriculture, by the force of the oars that moved in rhythm to warlike songs telling to the genealogies and achievements of the Philippine divinities (Colin, Chapter XV). Legaspi's expedition met in Butuan various traders of Luzon with their boats laden with iron, cloths, porcelain, etc. (Gaspar de San Agustin). The ancient writers, like Chirino, Morga, and Colin, take pleasure in describing them as well- featured, with good aptitude for any thing they take up, keen and susceptible and of resolute will, very clean and neat in their persons and clothing, and of good mien and bearing, according to Morga. Others delight in minute accounts,of their intelligence and pleasant manners, of their aptitude for music, drama, dancing, and singing. They had facility in learning not only Spanish but also Latin which they acquired almost by themselves (Colin). Others of their exquisite politeness in their dealings and in their social life, others, like the first Augustininans, found them more gallant and better mannered than the inhabitants of the Moluccas. According to Morga, they live off their husbandry, their farms, fisheries, and enterprises; they travel from island to island by sea and from province to province by land. InChapterVII, according to Morga, “the natives are very farfrom exercising those trades and have forgotten much about farming, raising poultry, stock, and cotton, and weaving cloth as they used to do in their paganism and for a long time after the country was conquered.” The whole of Chapter Vill of his work, Morga deals with this moribund. activity. And not only Morga, nor Chirino, Colin, Argensola, Gaspar de San Agustin, and others agree on this matter. Even modern travelers after two hundred and fifty years assert the same thing. Dr. Hans Meyer, when he saw the unsubdued tribes cultivating beautiful fields as they worked energetically, asked if they would not become indolent when they, in turn, should accept Christianity and paternal government. The Filipinos, in spite of the climate, in spite of their few needs, they were not indolent creatures, even their ethics and their mode of life. How then,in what way, was that active and enterprising natives of ancient times were converted to lazy Christians as writers claimed? How is it that the Filipino people have given up its ancient habits of work, trade, navigation, etc. to the extent of completely forgetting its past? MW A fatal combination of circumstances has induced the decline of labor. First came the wars, the internal disorders that the colonization naturally brought with it. It was necessary to subject the people either by cajolery or force; there were fights, there was slaughter. Those who submitted peacefully seemed to repent of it. Insurrections were suspected, some occurred, there ‘were executions and many capable laborers perished. There was the disorder brought about by the invasion of Limahong. There were the continuous wars \hich the inhabitants ofthe Philippines were plunged to maintain the honor of Spain, to extend the sway of her flag in Borneo, Moluccas, and Indochina, To repel the Dutch, costly wars, fruitless expeditions, in which each time, thousands of native archers and rowers were recorded to have embarked. If they returned home or not, it was never stated. Gaspar de San Agustin says, “although anciently there were in this town of Dumagas, many people, in the course of time, they have greatly diminished because the natives are the best sailors and most skillful rowers on the whole coast, and so the governors in the port of lloilo take most ofthe people from this town forthe ships that they send abroad. When the Spaniards reached this istand of Panay, itis said there were on it more than fifty thousand families; but these diminished greatly... and at present, they may amount to some fourteen thousand tributaries.” From 50,000 families to 14,000 tributaries in alittle over halfa century! |n the time oftheir fits bishop, thats ten years after Legazpi, Philip I said that they had been reduced to less than two-thirds. ‘Add to these fatal expeditions that wasted all the moral and material energies of the country the frightful inroads of the terrible pirates from the south, instigated and encouraged by the government to get complaints and afterward disarm the islands, make the population subjects, made inroadstthat teach to the shores of Manila. Malate was seen in baleful glow of the villages, sirings of wretches who were unable to defend themselves, leaving behind them the ashes of their homes, the corpses of their parents and children. Morga, who recounted the first piratical invasion, “the boldness of the people ‘of Mindanao who did a great damage to the Visayas islands, because of the fear and fight which the natives acquired. The Visayans were in the power of the Spaniards who held them subject, from whom tributes were exacted, and the people unarmed in such manner that they were not protected from their enemies or were they left any means to defend themselves as they Jose Rta: Soil Reformer and Patiot ‘Study of HisLifeand TimesUsed to when there were no Spaniards in the country. These piratical attacks Continued to reduce the number of inhabitants of the Philippines since the independent Malays were especially notorious for their atrocities and murders, or sometimes because they believed that it was to preserve their independence, itwas necessary to weaken the Spaniards, they had to reduce the number of his subjects. Or there was the greater hatred, a deeper sense of resentment inspired them against the Christian Filipino, who being of their own race, served the stranger in order to deprive them of their liberty. These harmful expeditions lasted forthree centuries, being repeated four to five times a year, and each one Costing the island over eight hundred prisoners. With the invasion of the pirates from Sulu and Mindanao, Fr. Padre Gaspar de San Agustin, referring to the island of Bantayan in Cebu, “has been greatly reduced because they easily captured the people there, since the latter had no place to fortify themselves and were far from help from Cebu. The hostile Sulus did great damage to this island in 1608, leaving them almost depopulated.” To make headway against calamities, to secure their sovereignty, to take offensive in these disastrous contests, to isolate the warlike Sulus from their Neighbors, to care for the needs of the empire of the indies (a reason why the Philippines was kept for its strategic location between New Spain and the Indies), to wrest from the Dutch their growing colonies of the Moluccas and get tid some of their troublesome neighbors, to maintain the trade of China with New Spain, it was necessary to construct new and large ships which were costly to the country because of their equipment and the rowers they required. Father Fernando de los Rios Coronel, he fought in the wars of conquest and later became a priest, described the King's ships. “They were so large, the timber needed was scarcely to be found in the forests, thus it was necessary to seek it with great difficulty in the most remote of them. When found, the timber has to be hauled and convey it to the shipyard the towns of the surrounding country had to be depopulated of natives who get it with very great labor, damage, and cost to them. Itwas the natives who furnished the masts for a galleon, according to the Franciscans. The governors of the provinces in which these were cut, the provinces surrounding the Laguna de Bay, say that to haul them, seven leagues ‘over very broken mountains, needed 6,000 natives who were engaged for three months, without furnishing them food. The natives have to seek these themselves. And Gaspar de San Agustin says: “In these times (1690), Bacolor has not the people that it had in the past because of the uprising in that province when Don Sabiano Manrique de Lara was Governor of these islands and because of the continuous labor of cutting timber for his Majesty's shipyards. This hinders the natives from cultivating the very fertile plain that they have.”“The natives were executed, others lft their wives and children and fled to the mountains, others were sold to slavery to pay the taxes imposed on them, according to Fernando de los Rios Coronel. Philip I reprimanded Bishop Salazar about “natives” sold by some encomienderos to others, those floggeq to death, the women who are crushed to death by their heavy burdens, those who sleep in the fields. They bear and nurse their children, some die because they were bitten by poisonous vermin, many were executed, others died of hunger or those who probably ate poisonous: herbs. There were mothers who kill their children in bearing them. These are some of the reasons why in less than thirty years, the population of the Philippines was reduced by a third. According to Fr. Gaspar de San Agustin, an anti-Filipino Augustinian, he mentioned in his works of the farms and fields once flourishing and well- cultivated, but the population of the towns thinned when these were formerly inhabited by leading families. The sense of discouragement was infused into the spirit of the people living in the islands. In the midst of the calamities, they don't know if they planted, they would see the sprouts of the seeds or will their fields be their graves or that the crops they will harvest feed their executioners? i On one hand, the friars tried to free their parishioners from the tyranny of the encomienderos by advising them to stop work in the mines, abandon their commerce, break their looms and pointing to the heaven for their only hope and preparing them for death as their only consolation in the misery of this life. In the 17th century, a friar wrote of fertile plains that were submerged, others were depopulated, leading families exterminated. About the Cagayan Valley, Padre Agustin speaks of a great deal of cotton which were made to: very good textiles that the Chinese and Japanese came and bought these every year. In Padre Agustin’s time, the industry and trade have come to an end. Man works for an object. Remove the object and you reduce him to inaction. Even the most active man stops his actions when he understands the madness that his work is the cause of his trouble, the cause of dissatisfaction at home. This is never a consideration for those who cry out against the indolence of the Filipinos. The abandonment of the fields by the cultivators, wars, and piratical attacks, these are more than enough to reduce to nothing the produce of many generations. In the Philippines, abandon the lands for a year and the cultivators will have to start all over. The rains wipe out the furrows, the floods will drown the seeds and plants. Bushes grow everywhere. Seeing that his labor was useless, the Filipino farmer deserts his plow. Morga, thirty two years into colonization, stated that the "natives have forgotten much about farming, raising poultry, stock, and cotton, and weaving cloth as they inen Rizal: Social Reformer and PatriotUsed to do in their paganism and for a long time after the country had been conquered. The Filipinos, though, continued their struggle for a long time but their enemies were so numerous that, finally, they gave up! Vv What fosters and sustains indolence? What contributed to foster the evil and aggravate it? Fearing thatin dealing with the other individuals of their own race, those who remained independent, who had customs and feelings that were different from the Chinese, like the Borneans, the Siamese, Cambodians, Japanese, the Spanish government acted toward them with mistrust and Severity. According to Morga, eventually they ceased to come to the Philippine islands. Since these people were the ones who consumed Philippine products, when communications were not allowed, production also ceased. The only Countries that continued to buy Philippine products were China and Mexico or New Spain. Only a few people benefitted from this exchange. The Chinese emperor sent junks laden with merchandise that shut down the factories of Seville and ruined the Spanish industry. These junks returned laden with silver that was sent annually to Mexico. There was nothing from the Philippines. To Mexico wentalittle bit more, some textile and dry goods thatthe encomienderos took by force from the native farmers or he bought at very low price. Wax, amber, gold, civet, and nothing more and not in great quantities. According to Admiral Don Jeronimo de Benuelos y Carillo, he begged the King that “the inhabitants of the Manilas be permitted to load as many ships as they could with native products like wax, gold, perfumes, ivory, cotton, dloths which they would buy from the natives." Friendship of the people will be gained and they can furnish New Spain with their merchandise, money can be brought to Manila. In this manner, money would not leave the Spanish empire. The coastwise trade, once active, died out due to the piratical attacks of the Malays from the south. Trade in the interior of the islands almost disappeared due to the restrictions, passports, and other administrative requirements. For the native farmers, fearing conspiracies and uprisings, they were not allowed to go to their farms without permission of the governor or his agents and officers, according to Morga. Spanish officials were very slack and come to work barely two hours a day. For the natives, to go to the capital and return from the capital, this situation becomes most absurd. The Moro pirates may have disappeared but outlaws infest the fields and harm the farmers. Others hold the farmers in captivity for ransom. The government, however, denies the people to arm themselves but was impotent to stop brigandage; the farmers were defenseless, without security thus preferring inaction and abandons his field. He takes to gambling as a source of livelihood. Fear is a strong motivation, it caused weakness and being weaponless, it strengthens the bad elements of the society.In Ipion, Panay, Fr. Gaspar de San Agustin says, “it was in ancient times when the town was very rich in gold but because they suffered from governors, they ceased to go to their fields, preferring to live in poverty than suffer the hardships of labor.” In speaking of other towns, he says: “Goaded by ill treatment of the encomienderos who treated the natives as their slaves and notas their children." In Leyte, the natives tried to kill an encomiendero of the town of Dagami because he caused great hardships. He exacted from the natives tributes of wax and made them work for a steelyard twice longer than needed. This situation lasted for a long time even if this kind of encomienderos no longer existed. The evil and the passions do not pass away as easily. People have been transformed, new towns have grown while others have become impoverished but the fraud continues to exist, sometimes worse than before. A modern French traveler who lived in the Philippines for a long time noticed, “the good curate had told me about the governor, the foremost official of the district. He was concentrated on getting rich and tyrannized the natives.” The governor's function was to rule the country and collect taxes in the name of the Spanish government but he devoted himself totally to trade. All his actions were toward the attainment of monetary gains. He monopolized all businesses, he destroyed his competitions thus causing indolence amohg the people. He doesn't care that the country was impoverished, without commerce, without industry, the governor just wanted to get wealthy in the shortest possible way. In the Philippines, putting up. business was very difficult causing commercial and industrial desires not to prosper. How many documents, how many papers to be stamped, how much patience is needed to secure permits from the government. To obtain the necessary papers, they must have the goodwill of one official, the influence of the other; they have to bribe others so that the application will not be lost. The native must pray to God to give him humor and time to see and examine the situation. Hopefully, the native will have sufficient stupidity not to see the long time spent in taking baths, hunting animals or playing cards with the reverent friars in their convents or country house. The native must have great patience, great knowledge on how to get along, have plenty of money, a great deal of politics, many salutations, great influence, many presents and complete resignation to the situation. How strange that the Philippines remains poorin spite of the fertile soil? In the situation of the world at this time, the most flourishing countries cite their progress because of their liberty and civil rights. The most commercial7 en Countries have been the freest countries like France, England, ' : saa Hong Kong has more commercial movement than all of Philippine islands put together because itis free and well-governed. The trade with China, which was the whole occupation of the colonizers of the Philippines, na é ‘Was prejudicial to Spain and to all her colonies. When the Spanish Officials found an easy means to get rich, they paid no attention to cultivating the soil or to foster industry. China furnished the trade and the Spanish officials have only to take advantage of this. The Spanish officials Surrounded themselves with servants; they despised manual and corporal labor as unbecoming of nobility and chivalrous pride of the heroes of many Centuries. Their lordly airs and the desire of dominated to be equal with the dominators, at least in their manners, all of these naturally produced aversion to activity, fear, or even hatred for work. "Why work” asked the native. The curate says that the rich man will not go to heaven. The rich man on earth is liable to all kinds of trouble, to be appointed as cabeza de barangay, to be deported if an uprising occurs, to be forced as banker of the military chief of the town, He seizes his laborers and his animals to force the native to beg for mercy and pay. Why be rich? All the officers sees your actions, enmity may be raised against the native, you will be indicted, a whole story concocted against you where no Native can get away from the charges. The natives, whom the Spaniards look at as an imbecile, find it then ridiculous to work. He prefers to live in a miserable and indolent life than play the part of a wretched beast of burden. Gambling was also introduced. The passion for gambling was innate especially in the sense of adventure and excitable races. In the narratives of Pigafetta, he mentioned cockfighting and bets in the island of Paragua. Cockfighting must have existed in Luzon and probably all islands for the terms are Tagalog, sabong and tari. Morga does not speak of itin spite of having stayed in Luzon for seven years but he described the different kinds of fowls, jungle hens, and cocks. He also mentioned gambling, vices, and other defects. Other words for cockfighting are Spanish like soltada (setting the cocks to fight and the fight itself), pusta (Spanish, apuesta, bet), logro (winning), pago (payment), sugal (from jugar, to gamble). The Tagalog word Jaro (to play) is not equivalent to the Spanish word sugal. The word taya (tallar, to bet), paris-paris (pares, pairs of cards), politana (napolitana, winning sequence of cards), sapote (to stack the cards), kapote (to slam), monte, and so on all prove the foreign origins of gambling. These Spanish words indicate that gambling was unknown in the Philippines before the arrival of the Spaniards. Along with gambling, breeds dislike for steady and difficult soil because of its promise of sudden wealth. The appeal to the emotions, together with lotteries coupled with prodigality and hospitality of the Filipinos all factoredinto the misfortunes of the Filipinos. The religious functions, the numerous fiestas, the long masses and numerous novenas, the nights of processions and rosaries are major factors that contribute to the indolence of the natives, ‘Add to this was the lack of capital and absence of means paralyzed the native, The impositions, exactions, payment to the priests for scapularies, candles, books for novenas. The natives were taught by the priests to irrigate his fields during dry seasons not by building canals but by prayers, masses, and lots of holy water. For his animals, he was charged by the friars of five dollars per animal if these are blessed using holy water. Locusts that infest the fields during the dry seasons were driven away by processions along with the image of St. Augustine. It was best to trust wholly in God. We have noticed that the countries that believe most in miracles are the laziest. The fact is that the Filipinos were less lazy before the word "miracle" was introduced to their language. Add the vagaries of the climate and natural calamities; these are enough to the native of all his energies. The curtailing of the individual liberty, the accusations of rebellion or even just a suspect does not need proof or the production of the accuser causes continuous alarm from the population that they are liable to a secret Teport. The apathy of the government toward commerce and agriculture, there is no encouragement at all for manufacture, there is no aid when poor crop comes or-when locusts sweep over the fields or when typhoons destroy the lands on its path of destruction. The government does not take any trouble to market the products of its colony, its consumption not encouraged in its mother country? In Spain, aside from tobacco, nothing of the Philippines is known. The name of Manila is known only from those clothes of China, heavy silk shawls, which are beautiful but coarsely embroidered. Thus, our products like the delicate pia, and fine jusi fabrics disappeared. Our trade disappeared, industries died out. The poor people are getting poorer and they could not afford the more expensive textiles. The best tracts of our lands in the provinces, especially those that are profitable, these are in the hands of the religious corporations. The orders know how to select the fertile plains, the well-watered plains to make rich plantations. The priests claim that these plantations prosper because of theit care. They make sure that the people remain ignorant, in a state of semi- starvation so that the natives are easy to govern. The state of his wretched existence a necessity for the priests and the towns do not prosper in spite of the efforts of the inhabitants. ‘Add to this lack of material inducement, the absence of other stimulus points to the natives’ indolence. When a native student excels in his studies, when he rises above his classmates, when he sacrificed, took long hours ofraining without any help from any governmentinstitution, he finishes hisstudy in the University. A competitive examination is held to fill a certain position, through knowledge and perseverance, he won ‘the position by passing a competitive examination, and this position is abolished. A municipal laboratory was closed while the office ofthe press censor was preserved. The reason given was that the light of progress might injure the people. In the same manner, when a young native won a prize inaliterary competition, as long as his origins were unknown, his work was discussed, the newspapers praised it and called it @ masterpiece. When they knew that the person was a native Filipino, and the second place was a peninsulare, the newspapers extolled the peninsulare and there was nothing on the native! The Orders have done a great contribution to the islands, for instance, the Jesuits and the Dominicans, for example, Fr. Benavides, O.P. founded an educational institution. Colleges and schools of primary institutions were also established. These efforts are not enough. In the later years of higher education, the native student will come in contact with priests who proclaim that it is evil for the native to know Spanish language. That he should not be separated from his carabao and he should not seek further education. The native receives daily preachings that attempt to make his person a kind of native animal, depriving him of his dignity. Deprive a man of his dignity, he is deprived of his moral strength and makes the person useless, Every creature has its stimulus; man’s is in his self-esteem. Take it away from him and he is a corpse. With the lack of confidence in the future, the uncertainty of the rewards of labor, everybody yields to fate. The writers of the present times find that the native is a creature something more than a monkey but much less than a man, an anthropoid, dull-witted, stupid, timid, dirty, cringing, grinning, ill-clothed, indolent, lazy, brainless, immoral, etc. What are the causes of these regressions? The Filipino is convinced that to get happiness, it is necessary for him to lay aside his dignity as a rational creature, to attend mass, to believe whatis told to him, to pay whatis demanded of him, to pay, to work, to suffer and be silent without aspiring anything, without separating himself from his carabao as the priests told him, without protesting against any injustice, arbitrary action, against any injustice, against assault, that is not to have heart, brain, or spirit. Unfortunately, the native protests, he still has aspirations, he thinks and strives to rise! Vv Peoples and governments are correlated and complementary. A fatuous government would be an anomaly among righteous people; just as corruptpeople cannot exist under just rulers and wise laws. Like people, like governments. The causes can be reduced to two classes: the defects of training and lack of national sentiment. The very limited training in the home, the tyrannical and sterile education of the rare centers of learning that blind subordination of the youth to one of greater age, influence the mind so that a man may not aspire to excel; those who preceded him must merely be content to go along. Stagnation forcibly results from this, he devotes himself to copying, divests himself of other qualities suited to his own nature. Indolence is derived both from lack of stimulus and vitality. The daily and constant depreciation of the mind deadens the energies, paralyzes all tendericies. Nurtured by lazy but religious life, he spends his life by giving their wealth to the Church in the hope of miracles and other wonderful things. Their will is hypnotized; they learned to act mechanically, without knowledge of the objects because of their training from the earliest days of their childhood. They were taught to pray endlessly in a language they did not understand, accepting beliefs that are not explained to them, accepting absurdities while reason is repressed. You cannot know more than this! Don't aspire to be greater than the priests! You belong to an inferior race! You don’t have the energy! This is always told repeatedly to the native child, and repeatedly told, it becomes engraved on their minds, this molds and pervades all his actions. The child, as he grows into a youth, tries to be anything else. The curate ridicules him, strangers regard him with compassion, and his relatives regard him with fear. It is necessary that his spirit, although cowed by elements, store up energy, seek higher purposes in order to struggle against obstacles in the middle of unfavorable natural conditions. In order to progress, it is necessary that a revolutionary spirit should boil in his veins since progress requires change. It implies overthrow of the past, defied by the present; the victory of new ideas over the ancient and accepted one. Lack of national sentiment is still more lamentable and transcendental. Convinced by his sense of iriferiority, his spirit harassed by his education allows himself to be guided by his self-love. He changed his religion for the external practices of another. His spirit, well-disposed toward everything that looks good to him, they forced upon him its God and its law but did bring to him iron, hoes to till the fields but stamped papers, crucifixes, prayer books. The native did not have the ideal and model of a tanned and vigorous laborer, instead that of an aristocratic Lord, carried in a luxurious litter. The imitative natives became bookish, devout, and prayerful, he acquired the ideas or luxury and ostentation, this did not improve his means of subsistence.- The lack of national sentiment brings another evil. The man in th Philippines is only an individual: he is not i Sins was forbidden and denied thea : : no a member of a nation. Since he uoget Aes wha aca e right o association, therefore he was weak and - offered 6 the ch a Peace and honor accept administrative position ddindaie Wve. These were the few who submit to everything, they who prices and exaction of the curate and Spanish officials. They accepted the lower spheres of power; there was great fear and administrative obstacles. The people are voiceless, they had neither initiative nor cohesion while the Spaniards aim to amass fortune and return to Spain. It was the inhabitants who lived in great hardships from the moment they began to breathe. The natives should create prosperity, agriculture and industry, establish enterprises and companies-things that prosper in free and well-organized communities. Without education and liberty, no reform is possible. What we wish is that obstacle will not be put across his way, for enlightenment, whether the government wishes it or not, comes. Policies or laws should be frank and consistent since this will be highly civilizing, without reservations, without distrust, fear or jealousy, wishing good for the sake of good, without ulterior motives, hypocrisy, or deception. Leave the governmentto the native rulers, then build roads, lay out highways, foster freedom of trade. Let the government heed the material interests of the people than the needs of the friars and lay aside religious considerations, letit send out intelligent employees to foster industry. Just judges should all be well-paid so that they will not be venal pilferers. This policy is also advantageous to Spain, for when Spain loses its colonies and gotten its wealth from the colonies, the natives will not be ungrateful children.