A LEGACY OF THE

PROPAGANDA:
PHE
THE TRIPARTITE VIEW OF
PI1ILIPPINE HISTORY
HISTORY

by
Z. A. Salazar

The broad division of most national

histories in the
Third World into: precolonial, colonial and
its eguivalent in Philippine post-colonial has
consciousness.
historiography and
The Pilipino view, however was
historical
Worked Out
even before the Spaniards were driven out of the
country. It
was, 1n fact, a major weapon in the ideological armory of the
P1lipino struggle against the Spanish colonial régime. Elabo
rated during the Propaganda Movement, it became the historic-
al world view of the Revolution which was considered to be the
final struggle to bring about the period of freedom from colo-
nial
bondaje. Inbibed by Pilipinos of today as part of the
revolutionary heritage, it still dominates ordinary Filipino
thinking about Philippine history and history as such. By in-
extricably attaching our people 's history to the colonial
phenonmenon, i t in fact s t i l l nourishes what has been called
"Colonial mentality" down to the very depths of the popularr
professional) historical conscious-
(and, to an extent, e v e n

ness.

and the Revolution, however,

During the Propaganda had a positive
o u r national history
Chis tripartite view of national psyche. I t s power as an
errect on the burgeoning a highly
emotive r e a c t i o n a-

aee-force came from i t s being view of Philippine history

which
gdnst the Spanish bipartite historical consciousness.
Filipino
lda supplanted an e a r l i e r

Spanish Views
Indigenous and the
The
indigenous
arrival of t h e spaniards,an
at the
We had,
 108 The Ethnic Dimension

sense
of history, but scarce regard for the past as hist.
derives from the Greek
nilke the French histoire (which root, d had given co
wid,
Or inguiry" whose Indo-European o r "knOwledge" thic
and
can (German wissen, English wit)
krit Veda or "knowledge par excellence, mystical kowl edge
or unlike even the German Geschichte (From geschehen "to hap-
pen," as in a story or historY, which are the meanings of the
Substantive), our word for "history" in Tagalog does not
re
Ter knowledge, to
to the search for information o r to
what
happened in the past a s such. Kasaysayan Comes from saysay
which means both "to relate in detail, to explaln" and"value
Worth, significance." In one sense, thererore, Kasaysayan is
"story" (like the German Geschichte o r another Tagalog term,,
salaysay, which is probably sinply an extended form of
say-
say).But kasaysayan is also "explanation," "significance,"
or "relevance" (may saysay "significant, relevant" ;
walang
saysay or walang kasaysayan, meaning "irrelevant; senseless".
What was then important to us was the story and itss
cançe, in so far as this could be explained and made relevant
signifii
to a particular group. NoW apart from the lack of reference
to inquiry (the methodological aspect which, up to the end of
the Spanish ragime, was hardly heeded), that is exactly what
history i s all about, knowledge being actuallly meaning ren-
dered understan able and relevant to a group of people. From
eheir kasaysayan, however, our ancestors derived a
sense of history.
different

For our ancestors had a sense of the eternal re

currence of natural and hunan phenomena:
day and night, the
seasons, seed and plant, the cycle of life and death, the pas-
sing and caming of generations, youth and age, planting and
vesting, war and peace with neighboring har
barangays.
would therefore be myths and legends about these
There
recurrent
"events", for they had kasaysayan
to their lives, to be explained and-meaning
recountedand
in relevance
detaill to
everyone. Our ethnic literatures and
with these explicative stories. religions are replete
Equally relevant to the cOm-
munity were the genealogies which made families
the elite
descend from the gods, thus
explaining
pr imacy. It was a practice common
their SOcio-political
to the/ entire
closely connected with the religious archipelago
ideology
which, because they contained these "vain of thne epics
were
sung precisely under the auspices of genealogies"
just as later, in the lowlands, the the datus and be maharlk
chanted
in the epic fashion under pasyon would
the
principales, the converted datusperiodic
the
of
sponsorship
and maharlikas. All this had
kasaysayan, was meaningful and relevant but the imp1clhe
is-
torical sentiment behind every i n the
ancient world view was myth, legend or rituat
"cyclical".
To break away from this and
cyclical view of time
Legacy of the Fropaganda

109

auents, the
ancient
unexpected. This thecommunity needed some sudden
he Filipinos with Spanish advent jolt fr om tne
a
sequential provided as it
conIrONL
an external interpretation of their of events, together
view
Wltn
rent t ime frame. Of actions within
riars was allso cour se, the Christian non-recu a

cyClical
in the sense
started with Paradise where Adam that mankind's philosophy
of the

and Eve had to fall story

Heavenly Father"s grace before fr
GAve their descendants in this the Son could become Manom
the
to
ing of the Lord, Would world who, with the
second com
adisiac condition recover, if they merited it, the
of their
primeval par -

broad cosmic par ents.

framework, the friars thought and But,within that
Filipinos in linear terms.
The chronicles reported on
the
terms of change and movement, not of recorded events in
the timeless returning oE
form and ceremony, Even the recurrent
unique occurences because they feasts were considered
celebration to differed
from
celebration. In any case, the year year,Erom to
events were
taking place no longer in relation to the cyclical
tions of the various ethnic preoccupa
communities; they now had
sayan-- meaning and relevance-- in relation to the entire kasay
ar-
chipelago as a field for Hispanic colonial endeavor-- and,
of
course, to Spain as this "national" or Christian monarchic idea
was understood by the religious and, occasionally,
secular minds.
by more

A new direction was thus, being imposed upon the livess

and acts of Filipinos and that direction was understood and ex-
plained in the categories of a foreign historical conscicusness.

This historical consciousness, for all its linearity,

could have been acceptable t o Filipinos, particularly when in
the nineteenth century they had begun to understand and to
feel the need for the Spanish archipelagic frame of reference.
But the archipelago was even then considered simpl1y as the
stage for the action of Spain, so that the historical cons-
Clousness t h a t viewed and integrated such action was,
in the
end, One which saw PhiliPpine history as merely that of "Spain
consciousness help
that could not
1n the Philippines." I t was a action
object of historical
Dut consider the Indio as theself-conscious by
his own view of himself, was
the Spaniard who, in
his political will (through
Che conscient subject exercisingof a religious and civilizing
the colonial state) in pursuit
mission.

v i s i o n of Spain in the Philippines

The h i s t o r i c a l of
the b a r b a r i a n and pagan condition
Was thus b i p a r t i t e , with i t s first epoch and, as
Indios in the prehispanic past as
e one, the
advent of Spain and the
S second and continuing i n f l u e n c e s i n terms of polity and r e -
pread of i t s civilizing
 The Ethnic Dimension

1 10

gets
from the chronici.
the chronicles to
often
The image that one ot transition
that
is aom
ligion. historical
view
progressive
maturitv
uch
this to
1llustrate infancy to the
darkness to light, from
naturally
satistying
Span-
an historical
ideoloqy
was
who had
been fully detached
lards and to hispanized
matrix.
Indios
But, with rapid
the
acculturation
numberof h
cultural in
from their increase
century,
the consciousness di1..
nineteenth in a
ln the resulted
panized I n d i o s and
mestizos
enough
for this. In the
tirst place,
ma among them. the Tintensified
h e r e are conversion or the
reasons

Filipino éli+
them
te
necessarily icentify
did n o t
to western cultural norms

the r e a l l y
"civilized ones," for
With the t r u e Westerners,
to be of
the n a t i v e e a r t h . Their
s t i l l felt themselves r e a l basis, which
they this sentiment
some

early upbringing gave

v i s - à - v i s the
c u l t u r e of their forbears
t h e i r guilt complex fundamenta1. In the sec-
i n t e n s i v e and
more
r e n d e r e d a l l the t h e i r easy accept-
number e x c l u d e d
ond place, their increasing é l i t e , not only becausse
into the "civilizing"
Spanish.
ance conditions ot colonial
and political
o f the s o c i o - e c o n c m i c b e c a u s e of. the weight of
more importantly,
r u l e but, perhaps historic-
derived from the bipartite
the é l i t e m e n t a l i ty t h a t
Indeed, what would happen
if the Filipinos
al ideology. historical moulding?Clear-
ceased to be the object of Spanish
w i l l of t h e i r own,
they woula then acquire a n h i s t o r i c a l
Y d i f f e r e n t h i s t o r i c a l unit which
constituting themselves into
a
action in the world (a destiny, in
possessed i t s own model of historical ac-
fact), an explanation for such an independent
n a t i v e s while sub-
tivity. Finally, s t i l l féeling themselves
consciously wanting to be (and sometimes being) Spaniards,the
hispanized youth of the second half of the nineteenth century
were the ones who could really react to the racial and cultu-
ral calumny behind the bipartite view of Philippine historY:
the Indio's basically barbarian nature (even when dressedas
intel-
a Spaniard and speaking Spanish), his incapacity for
lectual and artistic pursuits, his ingratitude to the Spanis
"motherland" and the Mother Church, etc. of
The majority
Filipinos in the rural areas knew no Spanish and met no Span
iard save the priest to understand or care about all that i n
sult to their ethnic honor. The vision of his
tory a s Spanish action in the
Philippine be
felt
could Philippines therero
only by the educated Indio or mestizo. And he could not
accept it, if
only because he knew his own worth but, in p ac-

tice, felt its denial as a racial

slur on his own pers
-and

that in the midst of what he i

enced quite clearly saw
and
experi-

as tyranny over his own

people. A c o u n t e r - v i s i o n
had
thus to be conjured, a his-
new and native
tory formulated. interpretation O

THE TRIPARTITE VIEW

This was the task of the
the Filipino thinkers of
 Legacy of the
A Fropaganda
111
propaganda and the Revolution.
sa triparti te view of
Was What they
brought into. being
Old consist of the Philippine history
nhy of revision
history and the
addition of a two-part
of the
Spanish
which,essentially
+orical triptych represented third epoch. ThisphilosO
his
a common world view
+ivists of the Propaganda and the Revolution. among the ac-
aists and the revolutionists differed The propagan-
finer point, however in some of
the third epoch.
primarily with regards to the role of Spain
the
in

On the whole, the

to concede some
positive propagandists
role for Spain in quite prepared
were
which, however, they now Philippine history
considered different
simply that of somehow from
"Spain in the
Phillippines." Por instance, in
his "protest" against disparaging article
a
which dwelt
the apathy and indolence
of the upon
"those charged by the Mother Filipinos, Lopez Jaena faulted
Country of
laws, o f spreading progressive ideas andimplementingcolonial
the
vilization", for selfishly trying "to keep the teachings
of Ci-
the pr imitive stage in which inhabitants in
they were founå by our unforget-
table discoverers Magellan and
Legazpi." In fact, in his
"Brief Review of Philippine
Institutions," Jaena would admit
that, "though slow and too late in those Islands,"
of civilization had introduced
thhe march
"profound and transendental
changes in social and economic life, converting what three
turies ago were simply settlements into towns today with
certain measure of culture and enlighternment." If for this
reason alone, however, the Filipinos should not be denied the
innate intellectual and cultural capacity for progress. To be
Convinced of this capacity, one only had to turn to Negros and
Iloilo somewhat backward still, but nonetheless pulsating with
native labor and commercial activity! Furthermore, in his
tribute to Luna and Hidalgo, Jaena would trace this capacityy
back t o prehispanic times, observing that 1n the history of
"those Islands of Malaysia, " more emphasis and merit were given

to "the civi1lizing mission of Spain" than to "the civilization

of the race that inhabited that beautiful but ill-appreci ted
and
Archipelago-- the race to which Messrs. Luna
the h i s t o r i c a l error
Hidalgo
of
be-
"con-
long." It was to correct
time
that r a c e a s a horde of savages roaming in those
sidering civilization." For, "before the
Torests without any notion of
arrival of the Spaniards on her
coasts" (a phrase which, in
history textbooks and, through
Varied versions, s t i l l haunts cour
o n s c i o u s n e s s ) , o u r native land
them,
Cnem, the popular historical
 112 v a l u a b l e
jar.
very
and
those

and
e x q u i s i t e l y

made
round
L i b m a n a n

decora
ted u n k n o w n ,
found in the
ically
shaped,
age
are and Manila-
and P a n g a s i n a n ,

whose o r i g i n s P a m p a n g a ,
and China .
in Japan
e x c a v a t i o n s
esteemed
in Ethnographi
the
in
highly
jars s0 now
found

Ose per fect-

which
is they shoW
of What do the cayea
ple
seum of Berlin? e x c a v a t e d
1n
n
possoa.
mummies. . still the
embalm ina
i n h a b i t a n t s

preserved
ly of
whose
art of with
some

Egyptians?
d i f f i c u l t
Samar, ancient
of the the
knowledge
as
done by mining
industr
herbs the
aromatic
significance
of
IgorotS who, for c
What is the savage
so-called 1n the form of
the
(among) mining c o p p e r . . in Europe
have b e e n
considered

turieS, processing
is
whose
Pyrites
to very complicated?

c i v i l i z a t i o n at the
had a
ancestors
a maior
that our disproving
clear
thus not only
It
advent
was

of Spain.
Jaena was
he was
likewise givingg depth
view; token, o p e n -
of the b i p a r t i t e and, by
thiS
premise
prehispanic past to the
to our country's historical
consciousness
the new prehistorians
horizons of Filipino
the the
ing researches of Beyer and wake.
subsequent come in his
who would
anthropologists
and

civilization prior
had their o w n
I f the Filipinos Jaena's timee to
conquest and c o n t i n u e d in
to the Spanish then whatever they
i n n a t e capacity f o r
progress,
pOssess a n the responsibi1-
then was onlY peripherally
had achieved t i l l w e r e prevented from
As a m a t t e r of fact, they
ity of Spain. a s they could have by
the circumstan-
progressing a s rapidly For the backwardness of the
ces of Spanish dominancee.

Philippines, asserts Jaena in "The Indios of the Philippines,"

was
it
t o culture" a s
was due not so much to " her r e s i s t a n c e by
friar who,
"due- l e t us say i t very loud-- to the
. . .

found him
submerging the Indio in ignorance and fanat cism,In his home-
to be an inexhaustible vein of exploitation."
naje to Luna and Hidalgo, i t was more appropriately theocra
"amidst shadows
cy, "always despotic and ignorant" and living being
and myster ies," that prevented the PhiliPpines from
But that
admitted "to the concert of modern civilization."
S
"lugubrious night lasting more than three hundred years
now about to end, for upon the Philippines was dawning "the
splendorous sun of justice."

in
This new dawn in Filipinas was the third epoch
the how
new tripartite philosophy. Why was i t coming and
was one to bring about 1ts advent? Despite the friars,prog-
ress was evident in the in
Philippines.
The Indios of the Philippines," the opening of
As Jaena remarks
the Philip
A Legacy ot the
Propaganda
113

aines to foreign trade

had now made
if nott on the
leel, almost i t "a commercial center,
tant in the world." of the
stature of the most
+he normal
But all that imPOL
process of change, "of was simply the result of
which impelS man to move and decidethe progressive
movement
for h imself. and
out abandoning altogether the with ..

existence" (Ct. "A Brief Review ol, to search for a n e

of Philippine way o
The obstacle to such relentless
change should thus be elimi1-
Institutions")
nated; otherwise, i t would " in the end be thrown down
headlong by the currents of civilization from
. ..

(cf. "Tribute"). foreign shores"

Consequently, for Filipinas to finallY "see
the sun of progress, Liberty, and law
shine over her hori-
zons," i t was imperative "for us all in solidum
to pull it
the manzanillo or poisonous
tree of friar
roots and thereby render an immense service rule/
to our up by tne
Motherland
the Philippines and to all humanity" (cf. "To the Filipinos ") .

At first, Jaena thought that the task could be car-

ried out in cooperation with the progressive forces in Spain
which in i t s liberal image. as Motherland, had always been
considered as well disposed to its "daughter" Filipinas. But
by 1891 Filipinas was herself already the Motherland for Jaena.
In a l e t t e r to Rizal from Barcelona i n the same year, he con-
fided that "nothing can be expected from Spain nor from its
Government, that if the Philippines wishes t o enjoy rights
and liberties, she herself must work for her redemption." In
fact, barely two months later, on October 2, thinking that El
Filibusterismo concluded in an atmosphere of "anxiety, gloomn,
doubt, and incredulity which thinking men can easily Com

prehend but impossible to be understood by the masses, "Jaena

suggested to Rizal that he write "another book that gives a

to the problem in order to hasten the advent

speedy solution
the beautiful day of our redemption," Thirteen days later.
of
he would recommend to Rizal his Asociación Filipina of Hong-
whose members should be. pure and genuine Filipinos, "so
Kong, "
Above all, Rizal shouldà
realized.
t h a t o u r purposes may be
from joining thhe AsOCiación
prevent "Kastilas and foreigners
as members. "
Rights and l i b e r t i e s , "
a s well as independence,
with her blood. For independence she
Filipinas "must win revolution."
a
Could obtain "only through

conception of Philippine his-

Marcelo H. del Pilar 's
d i f f e r e n t from that
of Jaena. It however
Tory was not too view of Philippine
c u l t u r a l inferiority
accepted the Spanish 1n i t s civilizing mission, was
which,
at the advent of Spain In tact in the Plaridel-
Filipinas.
a "mother" to "daughter" between Sikatuna and Legazpi,
blood compact
an myth of the of Spain to help Filipinas along the" way to
twas the duty "white man's burden,
internalized
so to
an
civilization at f i r s t
entrusted to the encomenderos,final-
say. This task,
 The Ethnic Dimens ion
114

who, a t the
of the religious t o r t h e i r start
ly fel1 upon the laps own
l a t e r worked mo
g u l t e responsible t r u s t e e s , indivisible

and p o w e r against
the bonds
nastiC i n t e r e s t s and España
a t t h e b l o o d compact im
rorged between Filipinas in the
mortalized as a fundamental
contract
social famous
monastiC o r d e r s
would thus be-
The
p a l n t l n g by Juan Luna. as well as in
Come o b s t a c l e s to p r o g r e s s ,
in the P h i l i p P i n e s
be made
or
Consequently, they had t o disappear to
Spain. history a r e i n e s c a p a b l e . " In the
disappear, for the "laws of del P i l a r would
a r t i c l e on "Problemas Filipinos,
"
ex
same
plain that
A Social. institution is fecund only as long as

i t responds t o the
necessities of progress which
become evident in a particular evolution of
From the moment i t s interests become
society.
incompatible with the unfolding of progress the
institution loses its efficacy, dies out, ex-

pires, and there is n o human pOwer capable of

reestablishing i t s force against the Currents
of social evolution.

An accelerated deve lopment was evident in the Philippines by

the middle o the nineteenth century, with the opening of
the Suez Canal. In fact, del Pilar would agree with Fray S.
Font and the Dominican P. Ruiz in the view that thhe Philip-
pines in their time had made more progress since the opening
of the Suez Canal than during the three preceding centuries
of Spanish colonial rule.

A "new phenomenon" had ensued from all this,a "new

social movement" resulting from contact with "the other na-
tions of the universe. " This moral revolution was indeed
implicit in the verY differences in ideology among assimila-
tionists, autonomists, and separatists within the Filipino
people which del Pilar then believed could only be Composed
of all "the sons of Filipinas, born in the under
same land,
the same sun and climate and stirred
by the same environment.
And history taught that, if provoked o r
disregarded
revolutions such as the one which now engulfed the' land
moral

generated generally into "material revolutions". de

Thisclearly the last phase of the period that

was
had begun with the blood compact,
whose intent to fuse "irom
that time on the aspirations of
Spain
into a single ideal" was subverted
and thhe Philippines
establish and perpetuate their by the friars in order to
supremacy in the Philippines.
Clearly, the next great in period
be launched with the Philippire
history Would

Philippine affairs ,
elimlnation
of friar
of the
in
interference
intermediary role of monks in tne
 115

1onial
co l
state under the pretext of preserving "national in-
tegrity".

That the friars would soon the

find themselves in
A11stbin of
historY was in del Pilar's view, e v i d ent
quitesince
rOm the Filipin people's disaffection with them the
Cavite Mutiny in18/2 which, in its
wake, produced on era of
ersecutions,
pe
an atmosphere of denunciations and calumnies,
the imposslbilitY of Life in law" The only question now was how
.

+he f r i a r s and t h e i r view of Philippine history were to be

consigned to their proper place of historical retirement. One
way was revoluEion, but i t should be availea of "only as a
last remedy," for an uprising "does not establish any aim. "

Nonetheless, once the struggle was begun, the Filipinos would

fight"Éor their right, for their reason and for their justice
irrespective of consequences. " Indeed, the revolutionary way
1ike surgerys Was "more expeditious than apply ing mere band-
ages to the p a t i e n t . " Yet, as late as 1894, del Pilar
s t i l l prefered to ask for redress of grievances from Mother

Spain. To the very end, if we are to believe Zapanta, he in

fact rema ined true to the program of assimilation - i.e. ,the

integration of the Filipino people into the broader Spanish

nation. And all that this program required was the expulsion
of the friars and the introduction of broad sociopolitical r e
forms which would make the Filipinos true Spaniards, at least
in rights and privileges.

Whatever might happen, F i l i p i n a s was destined

free h e r s e l f from f r i a r rule. The archipelago, because of
its very situation and wealth, could not remain isolated from
nations and neighboring colonies are a
"the progress other
The day was not f a r when F i l i p i n a s would r e a l -
wakening to."
ize her "great destiny in the Far East" and inevitably find
c i v i l i z a t i o n . " That was the
herself "side by side with world
to the
future that del Pilar saw for his country, "according
would s e e that
law of history." And i t was hoped that spain
with "her deserved importance
such a future was in congruence "
e a s t e r n countries. All that Spain
i n the history of the far
to the require-
had to do was "to render her justice according
the r e f o r m s demanded, fuse Span-
ments of the country, grant
and t h e r e would be progress for both
1sh-Filipino interests"
Colony and metropollis.

in Philippine history would there-

The third period in a Common future
be of progress, preferably
ore a n e r a
Beyond this, del Pilar did not find
with the Mother Country. I t was Rizal who tried to
precise.
n e c e s s a r y t o be nore his anos.His
in Filipinas dentrO de cien
Peer into the futureaccording t o him, was o t c o u r s e the assimn+
Ereferred s c e n a r i o ,
 The Ethnic mension
116

the Spanish n a t i o n , where th

Filipinos into 1iberal reforey
1lation of the free and
egalitarian 1aws and would
Would enjoy " however,
then P i l i p i n a s
free
t h i s did not
happen, and crlne, after m
bloodshed mor-
"at the c o s t of much executioOn
herself c o n f l a g r a t i o n s , m1lltary
talconflicts, murders, did not r e c o r d "any 1
etc." For h i s t o r y of
amine, misery, Over another, dif-
I e r ed
notmri
ancae , n oe
f xd
eirv
ceis
resd by a people
ts
io e usages and customS Or O P p o s id
teriven
ng and
masters werce
divergent ideals. "
Either the foreign
or were absorbed.The Sna
an-
else the natives perished
out, or
away the Arabs after
themselves were able t o drive -
1ards Filipinas, i t wass
for
As im-
en Centuries of domination. not
people, .

only
o s s i b l e to e x t e r m i n a t e
her six m i l l i o n
third of its
at l e a s t a popu-
because that would c o s t Spainwas u s e f u l l w i t h o u t i t s natives
Lation but because n o colony

third period of Phil-

then would this liberated
How
course of the struggle,
ippine history look like? In the the
"bathed in blood and drenched in gall
and tears," colo
the Mother Country of neces-
while
ny would "perfect itself'"
sity weakeneda. Conflict would thus have afforded
the Fili-
opfortunity "to improve and strengthen
their
pinos the
ethical nature." All the islands would unite to establish
"the freest government," probably a federal republi.If they
attained this freedom "after heroic and stubborn conflicts,"
the colonial powers like England, Germany, France, and Hol
land would not dare take up what Spain had been unable to
hold. Nonetheless, Rizal recognized the potential dangerss
to such a fledgling republic, which had to be strong to be
able to protect itself from the powers which, in his view, in-
cluded not only the traditional colonialists of the area but
likewise Japan, Russia, and the United States of America.
Fortunately, he thought, there would not be any real threat
from any of them, except probably America, i f one were to
judge from the geopolitical situation in the late 1880's.
Nonetheless, Rizal also knew that the Philippines would very
likely "defend with fierce courage the liberty secured at
the price of so much blood and sacrifice." New men would
spring from the Filipino soil who "with the recollection of
their past" would perhaps"strive
to enter freely the
wide road to progress," all laboring together to
upon
strengthen
their fatherland "with the same enthusiams with which a
youth falls again to tilling the soil of his ancestors sO
long wasted and abandoned through the neglect of those who
kept i t from him." And then

the mines will be made to

for relieving give up their gold
distress, iron for weapons, copper
lead, coal, etc. Perhaps the country will r e v i v e
the maritime and mercantile
life for which the 1s
A Legacy of the Propaganda

117

landers are
fitted
and once more by nature,
free, 1ike ability and
instincts
cage, like the the bird that
flower leaves its
recover the old that opens to the air will
virtues that are
become addictedgradually
out and will dying
ful, happy
again to peace, cheer
Such, despite a l possiible
joyous,
hospitable and fear less.
for the third epoch in the dangers, was the future Rizal saw
inevitable if Spain did not history
"give
of
Filipinas. And i t was
six million Filipinos
rights so that they may be
truly their
before Filipinas dentro de cien Spaniards." In fact,shortiy
anos was serialized in
Solidaridad, Rizal had confided in a letter to La
Blumentritt
that, in Pardo de Tavera's view, "if Conditions do not
better, within ten years, there wi1l be a great become revolution. "

This was the 8th of May 1889 and Rizal enjoined Blumentritt
to keep to himself the information which Rizal was communicat
ing to him "as a good friend."

Rizal must have therefore felt that the "hundred

years" did not necessarily mean a full century. I t waS, as

the French would say, a "clause de style." In this sense, EL

Filibusterismo (1891) should not be taken as a novel against
revolution but rather as a treatise on how i t should not be
carried out, considering the defects that Rizal recognized on-
In the first place,a revolu-
ly too well in his countrymen.
motivation was, a mat-
tion could n e v e r be, as Simoun's prime
t e r of personal vengeance. It w a s the awakening o r reawaken-
consciousness.It
to a common
ing of a people to civic virtue, work of a single man with a
could not be the conspiratorial
Secondly, since i t could only be the handy-
few hirelingS.
had to be true unity of
wil1 a-
there
Work of all Filipinos, indolenciaa
earlier, in Sobre la
mong them. But barely a year
noted that a man in the Philip-
Rizal had
de los Filipinos, not a member of a nation. "
was "only an i n d i v i d u a l ; . . . fellow
pines his pro
solidaritY, e v e n among
There w a s s o l i t t l e whom he reproached
in a l e t t e r
Solidaridad,,
pagandists of the gambling) which
28, 1890 of v i c e s (like
to del P i l a r on May of liberty" could
render
of making Filipinos "worthy revolution was a
instead Finally,
of slavery." to tyran-
fight
them only "worthy
necessitated
not onlyY the will
but also moral to
technique which mainly m i l i t a r y ,
capacity
- -

which w a s victory and

ny but the conclusin,
out to i t s logical of liberty. This was
carry i t a l l the consequences
and Boni-
the a _ s u m p t i o n
of b e t w e e n Riizal
disagreement
the d i s p a s s i o n a t e as-
c r u x of but
to be the Viewed from
the most opt imistiC situation of the
facio.
international

and l a t e r d is-
national h i m s e l f would
sessment of the And Bonifaci
of the
right. t h e anak ng bayan
time, Rizal wtarsa g i c a l l y , even among the s a m e
instability

COver, q u i t e for intrigue, e x p e r i e n c e d among

his
same
passion and
Katipunan the had seen
Rizal
Character that
I
COuntrymen in Madrid.
 The Ethnic Dimension
118

deals really with the

Filibusterismo
El
Pnd yet, recognized, despite its
revolution a s Jaena , fact,qivec
necesSlty of ln it,in
least one passage
cryptic vagueness At
reconciliatlon with Spain.
for
the d e a t h blow to a l l hopes assimilationist desire of
the
For Simoun, in this p a s s a q e , rights and for the
B a s i l i o and his f r i e n d s
for parity of result in
could only
h i s p a n i z a t i o n of the Filipinos

destruction of your national iden-

death, the the ra-
of your homeland,
tity, the d i s a p p e a r a n c e become of
What i s to you?
tification of tyranny. without freedom:
nation
A people without a soul,
a
your very
borrOwed, even
will be
everything in you t h e teaChing of Spanish,
defects Now you ask for
. . .

would be r i d i c u l o u s i f i t did
a n aspiration that
conseguences. For you
not entail such deplorable than forty
to the more
Would add o n e m o r e language
these islands, n o
doubt s o that
already spoken in less and less!
one another
you may understand

. A gross mistake! What wil1l you do

. . .
With
will get to speak it?
Spanish, the few of you who and
individual personality
You will only ki.ll your
to other minds. Instead of
Subject your thoughts
making yourselves free, you will only make Your-
selves truly slaves .... as long as a people keeps
it.s own language, it keeps a pledge of 1iberty, just
he can think for him-
as a man is free as long as
self. Language is a people's way of thinking.....

The Filipinos should not become poor imitations of Spaniards;

they "should aim higher. "If Spain refused their integration,
then so much the better! Basilio and his friends could then
take the lead "in forming your own individuality," in havin
"the foundations of a Filipino nation." Then they could cul-
tivate their own language, "make i t more widely known, keep
alive our native culture for our people, and instead of as-
piring to be a mere province, aspire to be a nation, develop
an independent; not a colonial, mentality."

That Simoun's thoughts were those of Rizal is cleaar

enougha. On July 27,1888, Rizal wrote to Ponce that the day
that all Filipinos thought 1ike Plaridel and "like us, that
day we shall have accomplished our arduous mission, which 1s
the formation f the Filipino nation." On 20 July 1890,Riza
likewise wrote to Blumentritt that

Your article on the

language of the Philip
ines has given me an important lesson, Your remark
that " these nations will be better absorbed by
a
major Malay nation than by a etc." has
Spanish,
 Legacy of the
a
Propaganda
119

never Occurred to me
rectness; I before; I
of affinity. have never realize
now
its COL
thought of it. It is a law

+was
It clear
to him that
est would be much one Filipino
lipinos. better than language
absorbing the
One
FiLipino Spanish being learned
+ion of all the nation by all
amOng them was much better nattive (Malay) resulting
from the
ethnic groups by a
unifica-

the Spanish nation. Ethnic than all of them being major one
absorbed by
and
take care of both
processes. All of Rizal'saffinity linguistic
Would
1inquistic studiesr including his ethnographic and
phabet and his translations reform of the
Tagalog al-
ready supportive of that into Tagalog, were i n fact a l
formed which, in the finalconception. A new nation had to be
analysis, would have to be
rate and independent from that sepa-
of Spain. Thus, for Rizal, the
third epoch in Philippine
ient nationhood, of history would also be one of incip
sity.
nationality evolving out of ethnic diver-

Rizal's second period between the

and the birth of a new Filipino nation was coming
of Spain
lyzed as the third. just as wel1l ana-
It was not, as the
Spaniards
and wanted Filipinos to believe, one in which
believed
a "civilizing" mission.
Spain fulfilled
For Filipinas, it was in fact a per-
iod of decline, which culminated in the "social cancer" des-
cribed "faithfully and ruthlessly" in Noli Me Tangere.

This decay was the result of the Spanish Conguest

and subsequent misgovernment. In La Indolencia de los Filipi-
nos, Rizal contrasted the backwardness of Filipinas in his
time with the condition of the islands in the sixteenth cen-
when the early friar histories abounded
tury,
. in long accounts of the industry and agricull-
ture of the people -mines, goldplacers, looms
cultivated farms, barter, shipbuilding, poultry-and
distiller-
stock-raising, s i l k and cotton-weaving,
manufacture of arms, pearl-fisheries, the
ies
horn and l e a t h e r industry, e t c . . .
civet industry,

to all men, stemmeda at

ndolence, itself, a tendency common for
r e s u l t a n t backwardness
misgovernment
and i t s
Once from there w e r e the w a r s that F il-
After the conguest,
Pilipinas. for Spain both in Filipinas
i t s e l f (against the
pinos fought as well as
a b r o a d in the Moluc-
and the Dutch) sent
nlnese pirates Indochina. Like the Athenian youths
sBorneo and
the Minotaur,
the Filipinos who
devoured by of Spain" or
a r l y to be to m a i n t a i n "the honor
expeditions " t h e i r country fare
Olned these her flag"
had t o bid
* e n d the "sway of
 rhe Ethnic Dimension
120

as a
well forever. "
Entire areas
were
depopulated
result.
of 50,O00
instance, where
population
a fam-
lke Panay, for taxpayerS
in a 1 i t t l e over
a
hai
1 l i e s was reduced to 14,000 f o r c ed labor for
together with t h e the
These wars, t r o m t h e cultivation
century. of
building of ships, took the peasantrY
their fertile fields.

too discouraged Pilipino incentive

Spanish rapacity
to slavery and forced labor. the
After reducing many Filipinos
rest s e l l them t h e i r products at an
encomenderos "made the or c h e a t e c them with false
insignificant price o r for nothing
f r i a r s o f the time, in
measures.
The "pious and impotent"
"

order to free their parishioners from encomendero tyranny,

advise them "to stop work in the
abandopn mines,
could
their only
industries, . . . (and) destroy their looms, pointing to
them heaven as their sole hope." In his own t ime, Rizal not
ed the great difficulty that entrepreneurs encountered with
the administration, which contributed " not a little to kill
movement." In order to securce
every commercial o r industrial
a permit from gcvernment, for example, one had to count "on
the good will of this one, on the influence of that one, on a
good bribe to another so that he would not pigeonhole the ap-
plication, a aift to the one further on so that he may pass
i t on to his chief." Only that applicant was successful who
was armed with "much patience, a great knowledge of how to
get along, plenty of money, nuch politics, many bows,complete
resignation."

Rizal was more snecific about the decadence of Fil-

ipinas under Spain in his notes to chapter eight of Morga's
Sucesos. Commenting on Morga's observation that the Filipinos
of the early seventeenth century had "£orgotten much of farm-
ing and the raising of fowls, cattle, and cotton, and the
weaving of cloth, which they used to do in the days of their
paganism," Rizal concluded that

The coming of the

...
Spaniards to the Filipinas,
and their government,
of the Chinese, killed
together with the inmigration
the andindustry
agriculture
of the country The indolence, then,of the in-
habitants of the Filipinas, is deriveda from the
lack of foresight of the
government
He likewise cited Colinto show that the
Catanduanes had
"also
retrograded"
from the time of
could be said of Mindoro Morga. Indeed, tne same

which, in the nineteenth century *a*s

SO depopulated that the Minister of Colonies
order to remedy this result of Spanish colonisato
Wishes to send there the of the
worst desperadoes
A Legacy of the
Propaganda
121

peninsula, to see if qreat

colonists and
farmer s. ...
ciminals will make good
Tn
shipbuilding tO0, the
Filipinos
..
.retrograded," fobr had "far from
progresSing
The
country that once
2,000 toneladas, built ships of about
today has to go to
as
Hongkong, to give the gold foreign ports,
poor in exchange for wr enched from the
rivers a r e blocked unserviceable cruisers The
rior of the islands up, and navigation in the inte-
is
obstacles created by a perishing, thanks to the
of government
tinid and mistrusting system
Even in the moral sense, the Filipinos had
people which once "had a regressed,
great horror of theft,"
for this
a fact which
"the most anti-Filipino historian" could not deny, now "have
lost horror of that crime.

tion
The Span iards
in editing 1orga.
perfectly
To Retana,
understood Rizal's inten-
for instance, i t was an

... arduous labor directed towards demonstrating the

indemonstrable that the indios of yesterday were
more worthy than those of today, that the conquerorts
drowned a rising civilization, and that had .that
civilization been permitted to develop, the Pilipi-
nos of today would have been different from what
they are .
conceived a s
Dedicated the Filipinos, the book was in fact
to
of "the a c tual condi
comlementary to the Noli's description Rizal
tion of o u r country." For, in annotating the Suces0S
his ocountrymen "the last moments of
wanted to conjure before
the shadow of the c i v i l i z a t i o n oof
Our former nationality ... in them " t h e consciousness
awaken
ancestors," in o r d e r to
our
rectifying "what has been falsified and cal-
of our past" by
umniated."
the f i r s t perioá of
rehabilitating
thus
Rizal was
the resrrected glory
Philippine history.
For only against the Filipinos reallyy
could
civilization
pre-contact under Spanish rule
ot their their
retrogression

the extent of historical thesis that

neasure
viciousness
of the Spanishw o r d s of Rafael Palma, " 1 i t -
d n d the in t h e civilized
appear, not have been
made the Filipinos
(who) would coming of the
han savages. providential
tle less and Spanish
the timely and the
other early
Were i t n o t for Morga to confirm
For Rizal, used
extensively
Spaniards." h o m he
Chroniclers
like Colin,
 The Ethnic Dimension
122

about the eariy F i l i p i n o s and th

their
observations
the former's Level of Filipino
the very high Ci
Culture clearly showed well as the move
c o n t a c t point
with Spaln as ve-
w h i c h h a d extensive co
civilization at
archipelago, Com-
ment and activity in the e r A s i a n nations
relations with o t h like
mercial and c u l t u r a l t h a t Filipinas h.
Rizal even tried tO prove
China and Japan. through the Greek do
known to Europe
tore Spanish advent w a s
including Ptolemy who mentioned
"Maniolas"
which,
Ographers, equivalent to "Manilas". He as
With Colin, he believed to be
the b a s i c uniformity of cus-
Pleased with Morga's underlining d i f t e r e d only "in some
toms in the islands, whose "provinces"
o t Laws . ( a n d )gen
Such "fundamental agreement
respects."
"that mutual r e l a t i o n s . ..
were
eral uniformity" proved that
friendship more frequent than
widespread, and the bonds of "
were wars and quarrels.

Rizal's interest in the maligned epoch of his coun

the reform of Ta-
and culture made hin work
on
try's history
galog orthography,write a Tagalog grammar
and learn Visayan
while in Dapitar.. Beyond this, he saw the ethnic similarity
of his people to the "other Malays" of Kal inantan, Malaya
and
B l u m e n t r i t t on the sub-
Indonesia, writing n u m e r o u s letters to
which he
ject. Within the I ndios Bravos, an organization
founded in Paris, a secret comm i t t e e was to OccuPY itself with
the 1iberation of all the Malayan peoples from colonialism,
starting with the Malays of the Philippines (i.e. the F'ili-
pinos) and exttending later to the racial brothers in Malaya,
Indonesia and Kalimantan.

Compared to del Pilar and Lopez JJaena, Rizal typi-

cally had the most comprehensive tripartite view of Philip-
pine history. His was also the most consistent in negating
the self-imposed ish "civilizing mission"in
summarized
Filipinas.The
differences in the three tripartite views may be
graphically in the following manner:

Author Pre- Colonial ; Colonial Post- Colonial

Filipinas had in- } Encomenderos first; Friars must go.
ferior civiliza-{charged with civi-; Revolution has
tion. Blood com- lizing mission. advantage of be-i
del pact made in or-iThen friars, who i ing surgical.But
der for "mother" ,establish frailo-; liberal reform
Pllar
Spain to civi-! cracia and hamper, better. Integ-
1ize and christ-iprogress , which
is; ration aut of
ianize "daughter" , inevitable (Suez nomous Filipina
Filipinas. Canal). with Spain.
A Legacy of the
Propaganda
123

Ambivalent view. Filipino

One capaci- El iminatiion or
moment,Fili-
Pinas thought to
ty for progress friar rule. At
LOpe be in impeded by "mo-
"pr imitive, nastic first assimi.la-
Jaena state". Then
as}Progresssupremacy".tiona
due to later
having "a civili-1Filipinos alone
r
aena
d
favored

zation, a degree, and to external Revolution "with

, free
of enlightement". ;forces. dom won
t h e blood of
Filipinas. "
Filipinas had a iDecay and retro- Release of crea-
civilization of igression under tive forces of
her Own and was {Spanish rule.Ci-}the race with
Progressing,amed ; vic virtues lost.attainment of
Rizal with her Own Vices taken over.freedom. Probab-
capacities and Social cancer in;ly through Revo-
virtues. late 19th lution.Tactical-
ly through Re-
centurY
formS.

One seesthat Rizal's conception of the tripartite

the most extreme.
h i s t o r i c a l ideology of the Propaganda
was
Rizal saw the problem
In c o n t r a s t to Jaena and del Pilar, entire cultur-
fron the perspective of the
more holistically,
and not s imply from
al development of the Filipino people social
of political power by any
that of the actual possession i t was not just
o r local. Thus, for him,
group foreign at cause: thee
"monastic supremacy" which was
"frailocracy" o r w a s at the roott
from i t s very inception
e n t i r e Spanish regime by the 1late
c a n c e r which
had d e c l a r e d i t s e l f
of the s o c i a l del Pilar, Rizal quite
With Jaena and
nineteenth century. the Filipino for
i n n a t e capacity of
believed in the as such
naturally was the colonial system
progress; but, to him, i t which was the
domination
existence of Spanish Monkishpr e-
t h e very afflicted Filipinas.
disease that a symptom of the
c a u s e of the was in
t h i s c a s e just
i t were, t h e nation. For this
dominance, a s vital parts
of
t h e medical
cancer that
gnawed a t likewise
Conceived in
i s c reative
t h i r d period released the
reason, the recovery whichn
sone
kind of
new 1ife,new s t r e n g t h :
terms as
giving Fllipinas
the p a t i e n t , t h e r a p y u s e d a c t u a l l y
mattered very
forces of of reme-
The kind even t h e m o s t benign
a future. t o try in
willing implore passers-by
was
Rizal
little. in Noli
he would even times.But his diagnosis--

for which biblical pointed

dies, as in and Jaena
- -

temple, del
P1lar
front of the analyses
of both
appropriate
therapy.
the as the
as well as surgery
swift
Clinically
to
 The Ethnic Dimension
124

CONCLUSION

The Filipinos a t Spanish

advent had an
indigenous
cyclical, was concerned
sense of history which, basically to a
parti-
r e l e v a n t (may kasaysayan)
Wlth history as story intwo-part
a histori-
cular group. The Spaniards brought trame of re-
consciousness and the broader a r c h i p e l a g i c
Cal was the dec-
the c o l o n i a l enterprise which
terence. Relevant to the Philippines,
was to
lared "mission" of Spain in
" n a t i v e s " of t h e 1slands which
c h r i s t i a n i z e and c i v i l i z e the
Felipe segundo. Kasaysayan
got the name of the Spanish King, history of Spain in the
"the
came thus to be conceived a s considered
period as
Philippines," with the e n t i r e previous to the
task of bringing light
the prelude to the Spanish
civilizing mission, the Fil-
"Felipinas." As objects of the but savages.This the
ipinos would have to be not only pagans of the l a t e nineteenth
hispanized i n t e l l e c t u a l s (ilustrados) the Filipinos were
century could nct accept For del Pilar,
the monastic
actually being hampered from progressing by of the Spanish
orders, although i t had indeed
become the duty
on the road to enlight-
motherland to lead daughter Filipinas
For Lopez Jaena, whatever progress Filipinas had
enmentt.
themselves and to foreign-
attained was due to the Filipinos
ers and in spite of the monks. Finally, for Rizal, F i l i -
rule.For all,
pinas in fact experienced decline under Spanish
the second period of Philippine history was thus intolerable
and, because i t was a product of tyranny, would have to be
superseded bY a third one of freedom and creative endeavor.

This tripartite historical view worked out by the

Propaganda, particularly in Rizal 's version of it, became
part of the ideology of the Katipunan and, consequently, of
the Revolution. In the rites of entry into the Katipunan , the
new member had to know the correct answers t o three ques-
tions derived from the tripartite view i.e., Concerning
the condition of Filipinas before the Spaniards came,her con
dition since then, and her condition after liberation from
Spanish rule The answers were to be found in' d e t a i l in Bo-
nifacio's Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog (What the Taga-
log Should Know). "Of old, prior to the arrival of the
Spaniards," according to Bonifacio," these Islands were go-
verned by our own compatriots who were then 1iving in the
greatest abundance and prosperity," Furthermore,they main-
tained good relations with the neigboring countries 1ike J a
pan, trading with them in "commodities of all sorts." Wealth
and good customs were then "a common patrimony" and everyone
knew how to read and write i n the ancient Filipino script.
Then came the Spaniards and "with the pretense of peace....
 A Legacy of the
Propaganda
125
Aaceived
am
(us) by their
offers
dom and increased to quide us on the
act was then broken prosperity."
by the
This Plaridelian paths of w1s
imunificence Spaniards, social Con-
With rewarding
ead of guiding them treachery," blindinq the
stea Filipino
he
Plaridelian
"on the
path of FilipinOs 1n
blood
Aecadence under Spanishcompact knowledge."
with Rizal' Then
mixing
rule,
s thesis of Filipino
iards"have endeavored to Bonifacio adds that the Span-
make
Anitiatingthe
people in "a falseus belief"
abandon our qood
customs
honor "into the mire." and dragging its
t w a s therefore
dictated, that necessary, as Reason

.we must rely

trust our 1ife to upon ourselves alone and never en-
in sentiment anyone else . (and) be unitedd
and purpose, so
that we may aouire the
strength necessary to crush the evil
ing our people; that is affect

consecrate all our strength to the

with unshakable and good cause,
absolute faith in its success,
and in the ultimate
prosperity, so anxiously desird
by us, of the land of our birth.
This was the third epoch which was to s e e the freedom
Filipinas after the elimination of Spanish rule by force
arms. Later Mabini would add to this external revolution the
internal one of perfecting the Filipino, of taking him back
to the old virtues of the race. I n part, Jacinto had earlier
already begun to do just this through his Mga Aral ng Katipu-
nan ng Mga Anak ng Bayan (Teachings of the Katipunan) which,
when put to practice by the Katipuneros, would "bring tco our
people, one in blood and brotherhood, happiness without end.
to make up for the lives sacrificed,. the labors undergone, the
sufferings endured to obtain i t "

TO this day, our historical consciousness as a peo-

Ple i s drenched in the t r i p a r t i t e view of the Propagandaa and
the Revolution. Our continuing vices, including Rizal'ss pet
- gambling, we s t i l l tend to a t t r i b u t e to
peeve in Europe
Some moral decadence brought about by Spanish colonialism (or
imperialism) We are still
Even by the m o r e recent American
.

civilization
s t a t e of before the
Sensitive to s l u r s on o u r re
the average Filipino s t i l l knows
Spanish advent, although " f a l s i f i e d and calumniated" past.
atively 1 i t t l e about our have l i k e w i s e not c e a s e d to Work
uprofessional historians
i t a point of
frame. At least one makes
t h i n the t r i p a r t i t e c o l o n i a l period until the Cavite
nor to reject the Spanish decadence thesis).
of Rizal's
Mutiny as l o s t history" (an avatar if
the "prehispanic period" with the necessary
Lle treating add to the "colonial" and
Others simply
desultory respect.
 The Ethnic Dimension
126

with or without the "Amerin-.

"post-colonial" (taken e i t h e r
periods a more extensive disC
and "Japanese" interludes)
Sion of"pre-Spanish" or " precolonial"
PhiliPpines with DA
par-
"influences" from our own Asian
ticular predilection for
These "prehispanic influences" from all parts twere
neighbors. some years back in a mammoth parade to exteriori z
dramatized
What was then revealed of
the national historical psyche.
clearly to a thesis of Lopez Jaena and
this psyche pointed
del Pilar i . e . that the forces of change have always COme
to our shores from abroad with the corollarY that i t iss
to
and pace of our
national
toreigners that we owe the rhythm
history. Paradoxically, both the psychological predisposi-
tion to development aid and the constant attribution of the
country 's economic, cultural and moral i l l s to imperialism
seem to spring from the same mentality.

All this deserves another study. For the moment,

however, i t would appear that the tripartite historical ideo-
logy has outlived its revolutionary purpose. For, by attach-
ing thee unfolding of our people ' s history to the colonial
phenomenon and other exogenous factors, our historians and
Pilipinos in general fail to see that we are responsible for
our own
history, that there is (or there must be) an internal
mechanism for our becoming one people, a particular
to our national thrustE
history. In any case, there i s an urgent
need for rethinking the
Towards this end,
periodization of Philippine
history.
should perhaps
one first comprehendi what
the Propagandists really wanted to
different vantage points from which accomplish.
they viewed Despite the
the chal-
lenge of the Spanish historical
and del Pilar all desired to thesis, Rizal, Lopez Jaena
show that the Filipino was
ing the active part in making his own play-
lieved in the Filipino's "innate history. Jaena be-
capacity
although he seemed to have identified
for civilization,"
Western form and in the Western "civilization"
direction.
with its
ceptance of the Spanish thesis of Despite his ac-
agery", del Pilar was nonetheless Filipino prehispanic "sav
also convinced that his
countrymen were made for "progress" and could
ively to the challenge of change. respond creat
inner strength of Finally, Rizal felt the
the arrival of the Filipino civilization which, .vigorous at
der Spain from some Spaniards, was really only suffering u n
cultural contamination
bound to recover and once from which it was
ivity. again give free rein to its creat

It is in relation this to
resources and directions of
the areativity, to the inner
ience that one can Filipino historical1 exper-
spirit more probablyperhaps begin --once again in the
of Rizal
stand and reformulate our than of del Pilar and to
national history.
--

under