MONASTIC SUPREMACY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Marcelo H. Del Pilar’s La Soberenia Monacal en Barcelona, Spain, in

1889, and reprinted in Manila in 1898
The following are excerpts from Marcelo H. Del Pilar’s La Soberenia
Monacal en Filipinas, first published in Barcelona, Spain, in 1889, and
reprinted in Manila in 1898. Its publication in Spain was hailed by Spanish
liberals and former Spanish administrators in the Philippines, including
former governor-general Emilio Terrero (1885-1888) and Benigno Quiroga,
former director general of the civil administration in the Philippines, and such
scholars as Miguel Morayta and Ferdinand Bluementritt. Jose Rizal, the most
cultured of the reformist group called Del Pilar’s work as one that had ‘no
chaff; it is all grain’. The following translation was made by Dr. Encarnacion
Alzona in 1957.

IT’S POLITICAL ASPECT

The interference of the friars in the government of the
Philippines is so ingrained that without difficulty the friars control the status
quo of the country in defiance of the national and the institutions.
In charge of almost all the parishes, their parochial mission takes on
the double character of a political organ and popular patronage. This mission
gives the curate great power in each locality; and this power, as it does not
lose its monastic character, is at the command of the regular prelates under
whose guidance the parish priests think, preach, confess, and act with
marvelous uniformity.
Perhaps the guarantee of the moderating power of the parish priests
maybe self to society to balance and harmonize the interests of the people
and the institutions; but the fact is that the convents are opposed to this
equilibrium and harmony.
The hatred and distrust between both elements constitute the life of
the convents. To frighten the government with the rebelliousness of the
country and frighten the country with the despotism of the government- that
is the system that the friars have so skillfully evolved to be able to rule at the
expense of everyone.
They offer the government to suppress the country’s rebelliousness
and the government gives them all its autocratic support, going to the
extreme if the friars so demand, while they portray the ruler as the
personification of tyranny and despotism. They offer the people to soften
that tyranny and the people place its wealth in their hands so that they may
defend them against official rapacity.
The basis of monastic wealth is the lack of union between the people
and the government and it is necessary to foster it by fanning the
resentment of the first and the despotism of the second. To achieve this, they
count on the diversity of language among the rulers and the ruled; and to
preserve that diversity, to impede popular education, and to avoid at any
cost that the people and the government come to understand each other,
are the best way of keeping them in perpetual antagonism.
In the Philippines, however, religious amortization is very conspicuous.
Ignorance and fanaticism encouraged by the monastic institutions and
ignoring the claims of blood relations as if they were contrary to divine law
have been responsible for centuries for the immense number of disinherited
families. The best lands, the best estates, thus passed to the control of
monastic communities.
Today the convents are the millionaires of the country; their large
funds cannot be alienated. Their land are cultivated without the stimulus of
the owners and with the discouragement on the part of the tillers. They are
leased and the rent increases from time to time and in proportion to the
improvement introduced on the land. On more than one occasion the voice
of poverty has exhaled touching complaints; but who listen to the voice of
poverty? Monastic properties are subject to land titles of ten percent and the
increase in their income ought to favor the government treasury, but does it
perchance?
 We don’t know. The government finance officer relies on the sworn
statement of the convents, and what official would dare verify that Olympics
declaration, as in view of monastic predominance government employees
are daily in danger of losing their positions? In the year 1887 the provincial
government of Laguna tried to get information about the increase in the
income of the lands in Calamba belonging to the Dominican friars. It found
out that the annual income of five thousand pesos has been sextupled,
amounting to more than thirty thousand pesos. The finance office learned
about it; and ….. nothing more.
The Filipinos pay direct taxes consisting of the personal cedula, urban
tax, industrial subsidy and additional municipal tax, and personal loan; and
besides these, the indirect one of the markets, vehicles, horses, stamps and
surcharges, slaughter of cattle, river tolls, and others. Well then; besides the
direct and indirect taxes there exists another which, though it does not figure
in the financial plan of the Philippines, nevertheless is a burden on her
interests.
This is what we should call the tax of the religious festivals. The papal decree
of 2 May 1867 aimed to relieve the Filipino catholic of this burden by
reducing the number of feast days and ordering that each diocese have only
one patron saint to be named by the Holy See, and in fact this was done. But
it is evident that the will of the Pope is ineffective and impotent so far as the
regular curates in the Philippine Archipelago are concerned.
Each parish church has the tutelary patron of the town besides the
patron saint of one or more confraternities and patron saints of secondary
importance venerated in some churches according to the curate’s devotion.
Their respective saint’s day are celebrated with pomp at the expense of the
people. For each celebration are collected large sums of novena, masses,
sermons, procession, music, bands, singers, sacristans, bell-ringing, bell-
men, curtains, altars, silver candelabra, chandeliers, candles, and the like.
During these celebrations the townspeople has to keep open house,
entertaining lavishly. In addition, there are fireworks of thousands of
skyrockets that reduce to smoke the saving of the fervent devotee.
Aside from these numerous and costly festival, in every district
where fifty families dwell, a chapel is erected at the cost of the least one
thousand pesos; there are some costing five, ten, and fifteen thousand
pesos. The dues of the stole and the foot of the altar are a legitimate source
of revenue of the priesthood. They are not just mere alms as they think, they
are a just remuneration; Jesus Christ and common sense declare that he who
works deserves to eat.
But the exaggerating collection of some dues without the sanction of
Jesus Christ hurt the interests of the Catholics and led them to impious
reflection and to inquire in the light of the economics about the productive
value of this social element whose manifestations are purely those of the
consumer.
The Reverend Fathers are empowered to name the person who ought
to be deported; and the government solemnly declares that the parish
curate’s opinion suffices so that the deportation may not be arbitrary.
It is no longer fanaticism that builds this opulence, no: it is fear of
the group which has been raised to the power which, with no one stroke of
the pen or a low whisper, can kill the happiness of one who obstructs or does
not cooperate in the development of its schemes of exploitation.

IT’S RELIGIOUS ASPECT

In the performance of their duties, the municipal officials depend on
the parish priest. To report the conduct of a citizen the testimony of one
hundred members of the Principalia is not enough. The essential requirement
is the curate’s approval. The signature of the curate is necessary to the
census of residents in a municipality, to the conscription of eligible young
men, to formalize accounts and other official documents; to everything and
for everything the curate’s signature is an essential requisite.
 On the other hand, there exists no ruling prescribing the condition
under which the curate should grant or withhold his approval. The curate
approves it or denies it, according to his will or the order or his prelates.
Supreme orders are carried out if the curate so pleases. If the
superior authority tries to demand an energetic enforcement of his orders,
the curate informs the prelate of his convent and this one obtains dismissal
of the public official. His powerful argument which produces a magical effect
is that national integrity is in danger.
The foundation of a building is to be laid in the curate does not like it,
then national integrity is in danger; public health demands that the corpses
should not be brought into the churches; well nothing, well nothing national
integrity is in danger and the same litany in everything.
The guarantee of national integrity is not the church nor can it be in
the friars; it is in the same popular aspiration of fusing and identifying the
interest of the Philippines with those of the country that gave her political
life, that shaped and educated her to be worthy of modern civilization and
sheltered her from the covetousness of foreign nations.
To consolidate the fraternity between Spanish and Philippines is the
best defense of national integrity; it is Spanish ideal; it is the dream of the
Philippines. If the divisive plan of the friars offers advantages to monastic
exploitation, it however jeopardizes the future of the Philippines as well as
the highest interest of both countries.
Even if we assume that the divisive plan of the friars succeeds and
for the reason the antagonism between the rules and the ruled intensifies,
what means of pacification do the convents offer? They will not be the
government forces, for in the case the power of monastic saddles would not
be necessary. Neither can they command public opinion. This rejects them: if
the friars command public opinion, from who will come the danger to
national integrity?
Ah, let the government consider that, let Spain consider that. As for
us, we don’t believe it prudent to leave national integrity in the hands of the
friars. Neither it is good for the reigning monarch nor for any political interest
does that monasticism continue to be the arbiter of the fate of Spain in the
Philippine Island.

IT’S ECONOMIC ASPECT

The law that regulates the foundation and development of convents
in the Philippines are undoubtedly based on the belief that monastic life is
unproductive. Numerous are the regulations pertaining to the manner of
supplying their need for wine, oil, and other thongs of the kind.
But the abundance found in the convents makes laughable the pity of
the government. The Philippine government lacks resources to undertake
public works; on the other hand, the monastic orders build grand and costly
convent in Manila and each parish of three thousand souls, they erect a
spacious place for the residence of the regular curate.
The government establishes primary school in each town. The
government houses are made of light materials, like those destined for the
tribunal which hardly approximate the stable of the friar curators.
The government finds a thousand obstacles in collecting taxes from the
tax paying public; but the monastic orders empty without the difficulty the
purse of the same public in return for heavenly promises.
The government worries about meeting its peremptory financial
needs, but the monastic treasuries are over flowing with money so that their
only worry is how to send away from the country their copious savings that
foster the banking interest of foreign trade.
The government refrains from creating of new sources of revenue in
order not to burden Filipino interests, but the friars invent every day new
forms of devotion, some very costly, and the public pay, not because of
fanaticism, but rather, for fear of displeasing the friars whose power they
know has sent many innocent victims to exile.
 Because of this, there is a notable contrast between the poverty of the
government and the opulence of the vow of poverty. Let us analyze this
innocent to exile.
The amortization of lands is fatal to agriculture everywhere.
Experience and economic have shown the needs for laws of disentail. In the
country where such wise measures have been adopted, capital was
immediately channeled to great and better production. The sale of religious
objects that rise in price by reason of priestly blessing constitute a true and
indisputable simony; and notwithstanding, one of the principal source of
income of the monastic order is the trade in religious objects.
The ready-made belt without priestly blessing cost and is sold at four
or five pesos a hundred, but the moment the priest blesses it and the belt
passes on the class of spiritual things and becomes an objectof papal and
Episcopal indulgences, from that moment the price rises one hundred
percent at least. To the new member of confraternity, it is sold at sixty-two
cents, four eight of a peso each belt, the price going down until twenty-five
cents minimum when the buyer is an old customer.
What is true of belts is also true of scapulars of the Recollect fathers,
of the rosaries of Dominican fathers, of the cords of Franciscan friars, and of
various others too many to enumerate.

TAXATION DURING THE SPANISH PERIOD

THIS IS A BRIEF DISCUSSION of the revenues enjoyed by the
Spanish government for more than three centuries of their occupation of the
Philippine Islands. Only the salient features of the central or insular revenue
system that has historical significance were included in the discussion.

TAXES IMPOSED BY THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES

Taxation during the Spanish period was compulsory. All Spanish
colonies in America and the Philippines were required to pay taxes for two
reason: (1) as recognition of Spain’s sovereignty over the colonies, and (2) to
defray the expenses of pacification (the act of forcibly suppressing hostility
within the colonies) and governance, thereafter.
Several colonial laws on taxation were made by the Real y Supremo
Consejo de las Indias (Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies) for the
Spanish monarch. These laws were embodied in the compilation of
legislations related to the New World called the Recopilacion de leyes de los
reynos de las Indias. It was a four- volume collection of laws relating to the
Indies, which was published in Madrid in 1861.
Taxes during the Spanish period in the Philippines were the tribute,
sanctorum, donativo, caja de communidad, and servicio personal (Boncan,
2016).
1. Tributo was a general tax paid by the Filipinos to Spain which
amounted to eight Reales. Those who were required to pay the tribute
were the (1) 18 to 50 years old males, (2) the carpenters, bricklayers,
blacksmiths, tailors, and shoemakers, and (3) town workers such as
those in road construction, and those who is public in nature.
2. Sanctorum was a tax in the amount of 3 Reales. These were required
for the cost of Christianization, includmaterial including the
construction of churches and the purchase of materials for religious
celebrations.
3. Donativo was a tax in the amount of half Realfor the military campaign
of the government against the Muslims. In later years, however, the
amount collected from donativo was almost exclusively used for the
Spanish fort in Zambuanga.
4. Caja de comunidad was a tax collected in the amount of 1 Real for the
incurred expenses of the town in the construction of roads, repair of
bridges, or the improvement of public buildings.
5. Servicio personal also called polo y servicios was a form of forced
labor during the Spanish period in the Philippines. All able-bodied
males, 16-60 years old were required to work in the construction of
bridges, churches, and galleon ships. They were called polista. Earlier,
the polistas required to work 40 days; however, the number of days
was lowered to 15 days in 1884 as a result of the tax reform issued
through a Royal Decree. Some of the polistas were brought to fight
against the Muslim and others were brought in the Spanish
expeditions. The only way that polista can be freed from forced labor
was when he paid a falla, or fine. But only very few could afford to pay
the fine. The gobernadorcillo, cabeza de barangay, and other members
of the principalia were exempt from forced labor and falla.

THE TAX REFORM OF 1884

One of the good reform which Spain introduced in the 19 th
century was the Tax Reform of 1884, as provided by the Royal Decree
of March 6, 1884, this tax reform contained two important provisions:
(1) abolition of the hated tribute and its replacement of cedula tax, and
(2) reduction of the 40-day annual forced labor (polo) to 15 days.
The Cedulas Personales. Cedulas were first issued based on the
Royal Decree on March 6, 1884. All men and women residents of the
islands- Spaniards, foreigners, and natives who were over 18 years old
were required to obtain a cedula. The only exceptions were the
Chinese, who paid another poll tax, the remontados d infieles, th at
were not subject to the local administration, and the natives and the
colonists of the archipelago of Jolo and of the island of Balabac and
Palawan.
All in all, there were 16 different classes of cedulas. Originally, there
were nine classes taxed, the rates of taxes ranged from 1.50 pesos to
25 pesos, and a tenth, gratis, for priests, soldiers and privileged
classes.