THE PHILIPPINES IN RIZAL’S TIME

OVERVIEW OF SPANISH SLAVERY

Was there slavery in Spain in the time of Bishop Dominggo Salazar? Or did Spain practice
slavery? The answer is yes.
The 16th century Spain made it a custom to hold a non-Christian slave. People considered such
a practice legitimate. The Spanish city Seville was considered second largest slave market place at
the time Legaspi settled in Sugbu(Cebu).
Slaves were usually blacks imported from Africa, brought and sold by the Portuguese slave
traders. But some slaves were Moros, taken captive in wars. And, just like some other imported goods
from other countries, an import fee was imposed on the slaves in Seville. Slaves were considered
goods. Scott showed how the selling of slaves was done:

They were taken to the main market in the Calle de las Gradas,
where official bills of sale were executed, giving the name,
profession, and legal status of both parties, as well as their
obligations, rights and duties, and the sex, age, race, name, place
of origin, and price of the slave. They were then sold at public
auction or to dealers already contracted, or hawked through the
streets until an interested crowd gathered. Costumers of high
social standing naturally did not make their purchases but sent
authorized subordinates – like the Bishop of Seville’s chaplain,
Fr. Francisco de Cepeda, who brought a 25-year-old Brazilian
slave.

The masters employed their slaves to different kinds of work. Slaves were made to work as
bakers, blacksmith, jewelers, stonemasons, tailors, and weavers. A master could also rent his slave to
another, or sent his slave for his (master’s) personal debt, or made his slave serve a jail in his (master’s)
place. Also, two masters might own one slave. Christian clergy and religious orders were allowed to
hold slaves and even to sell them.
Fray Pedro Mejia was one of the most prominent slave exporters. Bishop Rodriguez de Fonseca
put up slaves in Seville markets “as naked as they were born.”
A child of a slave was automatically the master’s possession, no matter who the father was. If the
master himself was the father, he set the child free. The child of a clergy was automatically the slave
of the Church, no matter who the mother was.
The Laws of Indies included the following statement, “Tariff duties are to be collected on slaves
the same as on merchandise.”
This was of course an inhuman practice. But people in slave trade considered it morally
acceptable. This Spanish legal practice on slave trade was also carried over to the colonies, such as
Filipinas. In fact, some Spaniards who came to this country brought with them their own slaves. Some
other Spaniards also had indios as their slaves here in this land. And, the Spanish Christians – seeing
the indio slaves as doing unchristian practices, meaning, continuing in their primitive faith – prohibited
them from taking communion.

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 THE SPANISH COLONIAL SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

The Political System

Spain governed her colonies through the so-called Ministro de Ultramar (Ministry of Colonies).
This body helped the Spanish monarch in governing the colonies. This body exercised legislative,
executive, judicial, and religious powers.
The Governor-General was the representative of the Spanish king in the Philippines. Because of
the distance of the Philippines from Spain, the governor-general exercised the power of the
monarch, for he could even declare war or peace with other Asian nations and appoint
ambassadors. He had the following power at hand:
1. State power
2. Power over religious matters, such as finances and appointment of priests in some
ecclesiastical positions.
3. Power to issue executive orders and proclamations
4. Power to act as the commander in chief of the armed forces of the Philippines
5. Power over all financial matters
6. Power over all the affairs in the Philippines, and
7. Power to supervise and discipline, which gave him opportunity to play favoritism

The governor general, however, did not possess absolute and independent power. He was still
subject to higher powers. The Royal Audiencia, the Residencia, and the Visita were the agencies
that checked the governor general.
The Royal Audiencia was the Supreme court in Spain. It possessed judicial, legislative, and
executive powers. It could do the following:
1. As governor-general in case the post was left vacant
2. As promulgator of laws for the colonies
3. As Auditor general to the colonies, and
4. As judge of all criminal cases in the land

The Residencia was a judicial body. It put under trial those outgoing governors and other Spanish
officials, forcing them to give account of their leadership and checking their deeds during their term
of office. The purpose was to uncover the corruption of the Spanish officials. Some of them were
convicted on the charge of enriching themselves through such means as encomienda.
The Visita was an investigating agency. The investigating officer was called Visitador. In being
sent to the colonies such as the Philippines, the visitador was to investigate the conditions of the
country and the works of the governor-general and other Spanish officials. His other duty was to
investigate cases, such as conflict between governor-general and the Royal Audiencia and to
pronounce judgement over the case.
Next to the central government in Manila, headed by the governor-general, was the provincial
government. The known provinces were called Alcaldias, headed by an Alcalde mayor (civil
governor), and the unknown provinces were called corregimientos, headed by a Corregidor, usually
an army officer.
Aside from the provincial government, there was also the city or municipal government, or
Ayuntamiento, headed by two alcaldes en ordinario (mayor and vice-mayor). The chief judge of a
town was called gobernadorcillo or, as fondly called, capitan.
The smallest unit of government was the barangay. The so-called cabeza de barangay, usually a
Filipino or a Chinese mestizo, headed the barangay. The function of the cabeza was to maintain
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peace and order and to collect taxes from the people. The guardia civil, headed by an alferez,
helped the cabeza de barangay in maintaining peace and order.

The Social System

Feudalism was the social structure in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period. This
resulted from the way Spain owned the lands in the colony.
The structure of Philippine society was pyramidal. It consisted of 3 layers.
1. The topmost layer: the Spanish officials, the peninsulares, the insulares
2. The middle layer: the few favored Filipinos; the mestizos
3. The lowest layer: the indios, considered as the lowest kind of human beings

THE EVILS OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM

The following were the evils of the Spanish colonial rule in the country. The main source of the
abuses was the appointment of officials who were immoral, corrupt, unqualified for the position, and
lacking dedication to duty. This usually resulted in abuses, since these officials referred to by Elias
when he said:
So much power in the hands of men, ignorant men filled
with passions, without moral training, of untried
principles, is a weapon in the hands of a madman in a
defenseless multitude.

The Encomienda System

The Spanish monarch granted lands to certain individuals who had rendered great services to
Spain. This individual could take care a certain territory in the conquered lands. This was the so-called
encomienda system. Encomienda came from the word “encomendar”, meaning, to commend or
entrust to one’s care. The person in charge was called encomendero.

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 The Spanish crown vested upon the encomendero the right to collect tributes and to use the
personal services of the inhabitants. The Crown, however, also required the encomendero to protect
the people and to give them some education.
But the encomendero only fulfilled the right to collect tributes and to use the personal services
of the inhabitants; he failed to protect the people and to give theml some education. Exercising his
power to the full, he rather treated the inhabitants as his slaves.
Thus greed and cruelty mainly filled up the encomienda system. The encomendero
enrichedhimself in this way. He imposed numerous services on the inhabitants. One example given by
Antonio de Morga:
“They employ the Indians in building, houses and large vessels,
grinding rice, cutting word, cutting wood, and carrying it all
to their houses and to Manila and then pay them little or
nothing at all for their labor”.

The Tribute
The Filipinos paid tribute as a symbol of vassalage to Spain. It consisted of eight reales (one
peso), payable in kind or money. But in 1884, the cedula replaced the reales
The Filipinos hated the tribute for two reasons:
1. It reminded them of their bondage to Spain, and
2. It spawned Spanish abuses

The historian Renato Constantino gives a more specific and detailed account of the tribute.

It was levied on all Filipinos from nineteen to sixty with the

exception of incumbent gobernadorcillos and cabezas and their
families, government employees, soldiers with distinguished
service, descendants of Lakandula and a few other native
chieftains. Also exempted: government witnesses.

The tribute collectors – alcalde mayores, encomenderos,

gobernadorcillos, and cabezas – often abused their offices by
collecting more than the law required and appropriating the
difference. The act itself of collecting was the occasion for much
cruelty. Since the people did not regard the exaction of tribute to
be justified, they often defied the authorities and refused to pay
it. Encomenderos often had to send soldiers to collect the tribute
by force. Many who did not pay, or could not pay, were tortured or
imprisoned. Others fled to the mountains only to have their houses
looted or burned down by the Spaniards in punishment for their
defiance.

A more sophisticated method of abuse took advantage of the proviso

that the tribute could be paid in cash or in kind. By depriving them
of their right to choose the form of payment, the tribute collector
could increase the profits from his office. During periods when
money was scarce or produce plentiful, the alcalde or the
encomendero required payment in cash. When there was scarcity
goods and high prices, he insisted on payment in goods, which he
then sold at the prevailing high prices. Goods offered as tribute
payments were invariably underpriced.

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The Polo (Forced Labor)
Aside from the tribute, the polo, instituted in 1580, was also imposed on the Filipinos, except on
the chieftains and their sons. The Filipinos were required to serve 40 days in the forced labor pool or
the polo. It was reduced to 15 days only in 1884.
The polo system only gave each polistas (the name of the person who rendered forced labor)
¼ real with some rice per day. But the worst thing was that the polistas were seldom paid. Thus, the
communities to which the polistas belonged were the ones to provide them food in order to keep
them alive. The fields that were supposed to be tilled by the polistas were then being abandoned
due to shortage of manpower. This resulted in shortage of crops produced which in turn caused
hunger and death.
During harvesting and planting seasons, the polistas, however, were not supposed to render
services such as public works of non-military nature. But this provision was being violated. Instead, the
authorities required the polistas to work in mines and to cut trees for building ships needed for war.
Quoting Fray Pedro de San Pablo, Renato Constantino writes:
When personal services are commanded, the Indian, in order not
to go to the forests to cut and haul the wood, subject to the
cruel treatment of the Spaniard, incurred debt, and borrowed
some money at usury; and for the month failing to him, he gave
another Indian six or seven reales of eight at his own cost, in
order that the other should go in his stead. He who was taxed as
his share one-half of arroba of oil went, if he did not have it in
his own harvest, to the rich man who gathered it; and, not having
the money therewith to buy it, he became the other’s slave or
borrowed the money at usurious rates. Some natives took to the
woods; others were made slaves; many others were killed; and the
rest were exhausted and ruined.

The misery of the people was the result of the corruption of the alcaldes. They recruited men
more than what was needed in building ships. Some men paid some amount of money, called falla,
to be exempted from work; but the money was just being pocketed by the alcaldes.

Bandala
In the first half of the 17th century, governor-general Hurtado de Corcuera introduced Bandala,
another exploitative economic device. Bandala was the annual quota assigned to each province. In
every province, everyone had to make a compulsory sale of his products to the government.
In this, the worse condition was that the government brought the people’s products at a much
lower price than the prevailing prices in the market. And the worst condition was that when a person
failed to meet his quota, he had to buy some products from another at a high price and then sell
them at a lower price to the government. Even if rats destroyed the crops, the people still had to buy
something to give to the government. Bandala inflicted terrible sufferings on the people’s lives.

Divide and Rule

The Spanish military force was just small in the country. So it had to be backed up by the
natives. The military used the services of the natives for their purposes by employing the divide-and-
rule strategy. The Spaniards recruited the natives in one region to support them. But the military
merely used them to put down the revolts in another region.
In effect, the Spaniards only made the natives or Filipinos fight and kill each other. The lack of
national consciousness among the natives facilitated among the natives facilitated the Spaniards’
divide and rule technique.
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The Guardia Civil
The Guardia Civil (Constabulary) was instituted in 1852. The Guardia Civil was supposed to
maintain peace and order in the Philippine Islands, especially in the provinces. At first it performed its
job well.
But most of the members of the Guardia Civil were untrained and ignorant. Thus they turned
out to be agents of abuses. “They maltreated innocent people, looting their carabaos, chickens, and
valuable belongings, and raping helpless women”. Rizal witnessed all these abuses by the Guardia
civil. Rizal witnessed all these abuses by the Guardia Civll. Again, through the mouth of Elias, Rizal
said:
So much power in the hands of men, ignorant men filled
with passions, without moral training, of untried
principles, is a weapon the hands of a madman in a
defenseless multitude.

Failure of the Colonial Administration

Spain’s political instability resulted in the loss of many of her colonies in the Americas. The
chaotic condition of Spain also affected the Philippines. Because of this, Spain changed its policies in
the Philippines and made periodic replacements of Spanish officials. These frequent changes of the
administration in the Philippines hampered the economic and political conditions of the country. In
other words, Philippine economy and politics grew from bad to worse to worst at that time.

Corrupt Spanish Officialdom

Corrupt officialdom was another evil of the Spanish colonial system. General Rafael de
Izquierdo enraged the Filipino people by executing GomBurZa in 1872.
Izquierdo’s successor admiral Jose Malcampo was a weak official.
Then General Fernando Primo de Rivera came to power. He enriched himself through bribes
and gambling clubs in Manila.
The Spanish general Valeriano Weyler came to Manila a poor man and went back home a
billionaire. The people called weyler a “tyrant’ because of his brutal persecution of some of the
people in Calamba, especially the family of Rizal.
Governor Camilo de Polavieja was hated by the people for executing Dr. Jose Rizal.
And as early as 1810, some Spaniards, barbers, and lackeys, were appointed provincial governors
and soldiers and district magistrates.

Philippine Representation in the Spanish Cortes

The Spanish government granted representation of the Philippines in the Spanish Cortes
(Senate). In 1810-1813, the first Philippine delegate to the said Cortes was Ventura delos Reyes. He
was active in the framing of the 1812 Spanish Constitutions. He was able to make the galleon trade
abolished.
Two other delegates to the Spanish Cortes followed in the periods 1820-1823 and 1834-37. But,
unfortunately, the Philippine representation was abolished in 1837. And the lack of Philippine
representative in the Spanish Cortes prevented the exposure of the anomalies or corruption of the
Spanish officials in the Philippines.
Again, the condition of the Philippines grew from bad to worse. Some patriots, like Graciano
Lopez Jaena, pleaded the restoration of the Philippine representation in the Spanish Cortes, but the
plea only ended in deaf ears.

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Denial of Human Rights and Inequality Before the Law
The Spanish constitution of 1812 made several changes in Spain such as:
1. Freedom of the press
2. Freedom of speech
3. Freedom to association

All these the Spaniards enjoyed. And the Spaniards in the Philippines cherished these human
rights themselves. But they denied these rights to the Filipinos.
The Spanish missionaries taught the Filipinos one of the most important tenets of Christianity:
the equality of all men before God. But Spaniards in the Philippines discarded this concept. They
rather regarded the brown-skinned Filipinos as inferior, lesser kind of beings before the eyes of God.
The Laws of the Indies provided good laws for the Philippines, but these were not implemented.
Instead, the Filipinos were being abused, brutalized, and persecuted, some of them being exiled to
distant lands. For example, while the Penal Code of the Phili[ppines imposed heavier penalties on the
Indios and mestizos, it imposed light penalties on the white Spaniards. Concerning this, Rizal wrote to
Blumentritt thus:

The provision of the penal Code that a heavier penalty will

be imposed on the Indio or mestizo irritates me exceedingly,
because it signifies that every person not born white is in
fact a latent criminal. This is very great injustice that
seems enormous and unjust for being embodied in law.

Maladministration of Justice
Corruption characterized the courts in the Philippines during the time of Rizal. In fact, from the
viewpoint of the Filipino victims of injustices, these courts were rather rightly called “courts of
injustice’. Justice was costly, partial, and slow.
The poor almost had no access to court for justice; but the rich had. Wealth, prestige and
color of skin were the factors in winning a case in court. Justice was oftentimes delayed, if not denied
at all. The saying, “Justice delayed is justice denied” was true. There were many victims of such
injustices, such as GomBurZa, Rizal and his family, and many others.

Racial Discrimination
Filipinos were regarded as inferior beings. Racial prejudice was rampant in the Philippines,
especially in the offices, in the military, in social gatherings, even in school (such as Rizal’s experience
in the University of Sto. Tomas)
Man’s merit was based on the color of the skin and hair, the shape of the nose and of the
head. Fr. Jose Burgos lamented the racial discrimination done by the Spaniards to the Filipinos.

Frailocracy
The powerful friars practically governed the Philippines. The archbishop even commanded the
governor-general what to do.
The situation at that time was that Manila was dependent on the interior part of the land, that
is, on the peasants. But the Spanish administration was not interested in the development of the land.
The government lacked the initiative to reach the peasants in remote areas.
It was the Church that served the people in the religious aspect. So practically, the Church
was the only link between the small foreign community in Manila and the mass of peasants in the

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countryside. To reach the people practically required the help of the Church. Thus, the governor-
general, or the government, depended on the help of the friars in reaching the peasants.
Now, even though the Church of Rome (or Vatican) made the governor general the vice-
patron of the Church and granted him ecclesiastical authority, he (governor general) had no
command over the friars and could not automatically obtain the latter’s allegiance. Practically, the
governor general could not command the friars, or the churchmen. Thus, if the governor general
needed the help of the friars or churchmen, then he had to submit himself to the will of the friars, that
is to say, if he wanted to win the latter’s allegiance. This situation gave opportunity to the friars to put
their hands on the reign of governance. In other words, while the governor general needed the help
of friars to reach the people, so the friars themselves, in exchange, asked the governor general to
follow how they (friars) wanted him to govern the country. This allowed the friars to govern the
country indirectly. This was known as frailocracy.
Source:
Rizal
By: Emiliano C. De Catalina