Republic of the Philippines

Bicol University
POLANGUI CAMPUS
Polangui, Albay

LIFE AND WORKS OF RIZAL

(LEARNING MATERIAL)

LESSON 9

I. LESSON TITLE : THE PHILIPPINES A CENTURY HENCE

II. BACKGROUND OF THE ESSAY :

Originally entitled “FILIPINAS DENTRO DE CIEN AÑOS” which appeared in

four parts in La Solidaridad, September 1889 to January 1890

III. OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. To analyze the message of the essay “The Philippines a Century Hence”
2. To evaluate the main ideas of the essay
3. To appreciate the foresight of Dr. Rizal regarding the plight of the
Philippines

IV. CONTENT

The Philippines a Century Hence

• The starting point of Dr. Rizal’s essay was about the situation of the
Philippines during his time.
• The said situation called for a fundamental change in the relationship
between the colony and the mother country, between the dominant and the
subject people.
• That change was inevitable. It could not be stopped and it was useless to try
and stop it. However, change can still be directed and he gave two
alternative directions in which the change could take place, and it was still
possible to choose between them.
• To choose rightly it was obviously necessary to understand the situation that
called for change; and to understand that it was necessary to understand the
causes that produced it.
• It is in history that Rizal begins his premise.
• Spanish rule in the Philippines was imposed through conquest
• But before the country was conquered, the Filipinos have their own culture.
They developed their own forms of economic and social organization.
• They were governed by their own rulers under their own laws. They
worshipped their own gods, spoke and wrote their own languages.
• They had the beginnings of a native literature and a native art. It was all
admittedly primitive but it was all in the process of normal development.

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• The Spanish conquest forced the Filipinos to abandon their own culture and
embraced the Spanish culture which they never completely understood nor
assimilated.
• The result of which is that the Filipinos lost their nerve. They lost confidence
in their past, faith in their present and hope in their future.
• The Filipinos remained in the state of subjection for three centuries.
• During those three centuries the Spanish colonial government not only
deprived them of their own culture but imposed upon them heavy burdens
and exactions of every sort. But the Filipinos offered no resistance. They
remained passive and apathetic. Why?
• What happened to rouse the Filipinos from the sleep of centuries?
• He attributes the change not to an economic or political or social cause but to
a psychological one.
• The Spaniards added insult to injury
• During the earlier phase of Spanish rule, the colonial government demanded
much from the Filipinos but it did not despise them.
• They treated the Filipinos as subject, but not an inferior people. They
exploited them but they also recognized their essential humanity and equality
with them.
• But in the latter phase of the colonial period, a different attitude began to
prevail among the Spaniards
• They began to treat the Filipinos with contempt as essentially inferior beings,
“mere muscle, brutes and beasts of burden,” and they are incapable of being
anything else.
• By adopting this attitude, the Spaniards wounded the Filipinos in the most
sensitive part of his spiritual being: his amor propio or his self-esteem, his
sense of personal dignity.
• Thus, Filipino reaction to Spanish contempt was instantaneous and
passionate. Not only local but ‘national’.
• It was national: not on a particular group or Filipino but to Filipinos, as a
nation. This brought about nationalism!
• Conscious now of their common misery Filipinos began to agitate for reforms
on a national scale.
• For him the movement started from a group of young Filipinos who were
educated.
• How will Spain propose to stop progress in the Philippines? He could think of
four ways: – The educational system designed to impart ignorance
rather than knowledge
– The effect of which was bound to be the exact opposite of what was
intended – Limit the population of the Philippines to make it extinct:
an impossible task!
– The fourth method is setting the Filipinos against each other and thus
will prevent them from combining against a common enemy or
working for a common interest.
• If Spain persisted in her intransigent policy, the inevitable will happen.
• The Philippines would be compelled to seek by force of arms its complete
independence.

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• The Filipinos still recognized moderate reformers as their leaders, but if they
lost hope of obtaining justice through peaceful means they will transfer their
ideals to violent means.

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 Would the Filipinos be deterred from attempting a war of liberation by the
near-certainty of failure?
• Yes, they will fail, but not always. Geography and demography are in their
favor, and they will be more determined to be free.
• Once free the Filipinos had a fair chance of keeping their freedom.
• True, every European power was on a lookout for colonies: but this will be in
favor of the Philippines
• He cited the Germans, English, France, Holland, China and Japan as possible
conquerors
• Perhaps the American Republic, but it will be contrary to her traditions.
• How will Spain preserve the bond between her and the Philippines? Not as a
mastersubject relationship but a more fundamental change is needed.
• It must become a partnership, and even more than that.
• Reforms should be taken not only by Spain but also of the Filipinos
themselves.

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