PILIPINAS NOON AT NGAYON

“Ang hindi marunong tumingin sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.”

-Jose Rizal-

As we look back in the 19th century of Rizal’s time, realization hits that Filipinos were unfortunate victims
of the evils of an unjust, biased and deteriorating power. Even Rizal has observed and experienced the
brutality of those in political power. But these happenings in 19 th century molded what we have today.
In this period, concepts such as industrialism, democracy, and nationalism cause changes in science,
technology, economics, and politics. If we compare what happen on the past and in this new period or
generation, we will notice changes and prosperity.

The 19th century or also known as the “Age of Enlightenment”, a period in which major changes occur in
man and society. Some of the injustice that is prevalent are Instability of colonial administration, corrupt
colonial officials, no Philippine representation in Spanish Cortes, human rights of Filipinos were denied,
no equality before the law, maladministration of justice, racial discrimination, frailocracy, forced labor,
Haciendas owned by the friars, and the Guardia Civil. To better understand these issues, we better recall
the Social Structure, Political System, and Educational System in the period of 19 th century.

First the Social Structure, the country was in the state of Feudalistic. This system was imposed by the
Spaniards, the conquistadores. The master-slave relationship between the Spaniards and Filipinos was
created by an Elite Class. The system made the poor become poorer and the rich, richer. Since the
Spaniards are in control on collecting taxes and tributes and pushed the natives into manual labor. The
colonization of the Spaniards formed a new hierarchy and in which advantageous to the colonizers.

The highest rank is called the peninsulares, it is composed of Spaniards that lives in the country. Next is
the insulares, Spanish people that is born in the Philippines. These two experienced the most
comfortable and rich lifestyle. The third class is a mixture of Spanish and a native Filipino, they are called
the creoles. Jose Rizal and Gomburza belongs to this class. Last in the rank would be the native Filipinos
called indios and these class mostly experienced racial discrimination among the society. Rizal as young
bright kid has read multiple books. When he was just 11, the martyrdom of GomBurza greatly influenced
him. Also, his brother Paciano narrated to him the injustices suffered by the Filipino priests. Thus, Rizal is
quite aware of what’s happening to his fellow Filipinos at such a young age.

The Political System in the Philippines was controlled by the Spaniards. They governed the Philippines
through Ministro De Ultramar (Ministry of Colonies) that is established in Madrid in 1863. The structure
of the system was headed by King of Spain. Next in line would be the Governor General, a king’s
representative in all matters mostly state and religious activities. Then it is followed by the alcaldes
mayors or provincial governments and the city governments called cabildo or ayuntamiento lead by two
alcaldes. Gobernadorcillo or also called as the Captain, chief executive and chief judge of the town.
Lastly the cabeza de barangay was the smallest unit in the government which situated in his barrio or
barangay. Their role was to maintain peace and collect tasks in his place. The guardia civil and
cuadrilleros are the police officer in this period. Their responsibility is to maintain peace and order. The
alferez are the head of this corps and usually a Spaniard.
INDUSTRIALIZATION – this
generally applied to the extraordinary
transformation in the method of:
production, transportation, and
communication through the
substitution of the manual labor to
machine.
INDUSTRIALIZATION – this
generally applied to the extraordinary
transformation in the method of:
production, transportation, and
communication through the
substitution of the manual labor to
machine.
In the Economics of the Philippines, the Galleon trade with the route Manila- Acapulco is the used
trading system. Labor systems developed by Spain namely Enconmienda to hacienda grants large
amount of land to settlers in America and claiming ownerships of the resources of the Filipinos. This
system developed to exchange among the natives to work in return of protection and education. The
Indulto de Comercio means that provincial governors has the privilege to engage in and monopolized
trade. Thus, Forced Labor occurred, wherein Filipinos were obligated to give personal services to
community projects. Next the Taxation, to support the colony many taxes and monopolies were
imposed that makes the natives became poorer.

The Educational System in the Philippines has no systematic government supervision of school, they are
free to administer their own curriculum and set qualifications to their teachers. In the year 1855,
Spaniards realized the need to establish a system of public educations for indios. Followed by the year
1861 the Commission that was organized by Gov. Gen Crespo completed the report and forwarded it to
Spain. Then Educational Decree was issued in 1863. The provisions in the Educational Decree are;
Establishments of Teacher Training school, Government supervises the public school system, the use of
Spanish as medium of instruction in all schools and the establishment of one primary schools for boys
and for girls in each city. But there are issues that occurred, one of it was religions was highly
emphasized. The Friars was the high position in the Education System thus, obedience to friars was
instilled in the mind of the people. The indios were constantly reminded that they have inferior
intelligence and were fit for manual labor only. Rizal has experienced the power and injustice of Friars.
He kept in his diary the memories that he experienced in the era of 19 th century.

“When shall the night come to shelter me so that I may rest in profound sleep?” Rizal wrote in his Sept.
11, 1878 entry (he was just 16 years old) about his childhood in Calamba. “Only God knows. Meantime,
now that I am separated in the springtime of life from those I love best in the world, now as I sadly write
these pages.”

What also stood out in Rizal’s Memorias was that about his mother Doña Teodora Alonso, who was
arrested when Rizal was just 10 years old on the trumped up charge that she acted as an accomplice in
the attempt to poison her brother’s wife.

Rizal’s mother was eventually acquitted by the Supreme Court, but only after almost two and a half
years of incarceration.

“Returning to Calamba, the family was in disarray. The imprisonment of his mother influenced Rizal who
suffered a bit and became very sickly,” Habana said, she is the one who translated the diary of Rizal.

“I cannot tell you the emotion and the profound grief that over empowered us. From then on, while still
a child, I lost my confidence in friendship, and I mistrusted men,” Rizal wrote about his mother’s arrest
in his diary entry on Nov. 1, 1878.

The Events of the 19th Century was crucial to the formation of Rizal’s love to our country. He observed
in his childhood and sophomore years how the Filipinos were being deprived of their religious rights. He
even experienced it personally. He also observed that the Filipinos had to live depending on the
government which did not care about them. Injustices were prevalent. Thus, all of these was resulted in
writing books to awaken the consciousness of Filipinos.

Now if we compare the past to what we have today. We need to thank our heroes. There was a big
difference. First in Religious matters, the friars have more power in the past. They can be a preacher,
confessor, even a tax collector, teacher, and a substitute to governor-general. Religion was highly
emphasized and Catholic is the only religion, others was banned. But right now, in our era, people have
the freedom to choose and many religions occurred. Yet there are still practices that is passed on from
the past. For instance, Senakulo is still practiced, as well as Pasyon and festivals. Next in political aspect,
the country became independent. We have the Democratic- Republic type of government in which it has
three branches. These are the Executive (lead by the president), Legislative (senators and house of
representatives and lastly the Judiciary headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Women were
also allowed to vote. We are very lucky unlike in the past the Philippines was colonized by Spaniards and
the Monarchy. Governor-general lead the country and men were the only one who is allowed to vote. In
Social Aspect, in the past women only stayed in their homes and in schools which is supervised by nuns.
They are not allowed to study any professions that requires in the society. They were merely taught how
to be a good wife, a mother and not to socialize with men. But in our generation, women are now free.
They can pick their professions and can-do men’s responsibilities and they are now free to have friend
with men. In Economic relations in the past Filipinos only get 2 pesos as their wage and some of them
were even forced labor. The Galleon trade was the main trading system and Filipinos were not allowed
to trade. But now Filipinos are now allowed in trading by following the legal process.

The past may cause trauma in our country, but we cannot deny that at some point it resulted to more
learnings and cultures in our country. As we look back to the past, I can’t help but to be thankful to our
heroes. They did an amazing job to give this country a better future. Jose Rizal said that “Ang hindi
marunong tumingin sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.”. These totally remind us
that the past leaves us learned lessons and these can be use to build a better country for the future of
other generations.

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/791899/the-young-jose-rizal-in-his-diary-
memorias#ixzz7MrVqxRS6