ENGLISH TRANSLATION

How the Philippines are governed

Jose Rizal and Alonso

From a few years to this part, the future of those islands is concerned, not only to their inhabitants who
are most interested, but also many penalizers who until very recently ignored their geographical
situation and the race that inhabits them, ethnographically speaking.

Everyone sees, everyone lends, everyone is convinced that it's wrong, that something there leaves a lot
to be desired; some attribute it to one thing, others to another. The same supporters of the government
there are the same prevailing in the event evils necessary, without suspicion that they are falling into
great ridiculity or a regrettable delay of ideas. To tell a sick person that his illness is necessary and that
he should not try to fight it is to return to the primitive times of medicine, is to confesse powerlessness;
a doctor who says so to his patient, he should advise him to see other lumbrers.

The same frailes that benefit and govern the country, the same ones who are most interested in making
them believe that it all goes to the thousand wonders there; those who should argue that there is
everything perfect, inmejorable, celestial, so that no one will be turbated in the necessary and the same
frailes are the necessary, and that there are deficiencies, imperfections, and that there are the necessary
doctors who, missing customers, would like to ruin and mec a chronic disease in order to be charged and
eating at the expense of the sick and his suffering. And this has been tried and proven in their writings.

In addition, everyone agrees that the machine is not going the way it should go.

The causes of the dismobierno and slow death of life in that country vary from the case study. Most of
those who were employed or rulers there, those men who have perhaps remorse in their conscience for
failing to fulfill the duty imposed on the pay they received, these men scream and blame everything to
the Indian, the indie's indolence, perhaps to not believe that they can believe in their own own, and so
the own misconduct, may not be discovered. cowards who infuse value by the force of apostrophes, like
many busters who, after repeated lying, end up believing in their lies.

On the contrary, a paradoxical phenomenon!, those who have concienieniently fulfilled their obligations
and who have done what they should and could within the lumpy administrative maze of that country,
shrinked and threatened by the whims of the tyrant that from one mail to another can propose their
ceasement or send them under the registration, they are not the disorderly of the system of the
government, to the etc.

The phrasers have another system: the whole evil of the country attributes it to liberal ministers, who
because they are liberal have to be ignorant. On the other hand, the little good is attributed to
themselves: the retrograde ministers or their convent, who are only wise, do not do well or wrong: their
whole stalness consists of consulting and obeying them, and so they publish it in extensive telegrams
that reproduce in large characters the maine newspapers of their devotion.
In turn, the liberal peninsular elements in the Philippines blame the friars for the backlog they are, and
already more rightly, since ruling them as they are governed by the convents, the blame for the
disgloment has to fall on them.

However, these liberals forget the part they have in the barefoot: if they were not allowed to rule and
not serve as an instrument as it happens many times; if they were afraid of losing destiny they would
not transite with many things that repulsion their convictions; if they had more eternity, more faith in
their ideals, if they studied the country more and would not come to the and have the beaches of
Manila.

The Filipinos, in general, attach the evil and misery of their homeland to all above, to the frijol, and all
the pseglar elements that are not distinguished by their great character, by a manifestos love to the
country and the inhabitants and by a more or less entrepreneurial initiative on the issue of reforms. The
Filipinos, such as the liberals we have spoken to above and with whom they have much similarity, also
forget the responsibility they have in their present situation, because if it is true that where they send
the patron does not send a sailor, it is also the other that each country has the government it deserves.
The national spirit begins to give its first wandering; before there was only the feeling of the family or
tribe, barely that of the region, which made no foolish measure to provoke strong protests in public
opinion, but only in those whose relatives were more or less directly affected. Speaking of homeland,
every Filipino thinks: that she fixes herself, who salves herself, protests, who I must fight; I have not to
move, I am not the one to fix things; I have enough with my interests, my passions and my whims. For
others to get the chestnut out of the fire, then we'll eat it. The Filipinos seem to ignore that triumph is
the son of the struggle, that joy is the flower of many suffering and deprivation, and that all redemption
implies martyrdom and sacrifice; they believe that in regretting, crossing their arms and letting things
continue their course have done their duty; others, it is true, they are intended to do something more
and give pessimist or distressing advice. There are, however, those who start to see it clear and put
everything they can on their part.

Foreigners, among whom we put the Chinese on the front line, laugh at everything that happens and
take advantage of the misconduct and flaws of governing and rulers to use them. They're the happiest:
they come when they want, they stay all the time, they're gonna get them away when they get
accommodated. They do not owe them any duty to the country or care that the Government is more or
less serious, nor that its inhabitants are more or less slaves: like lobster, they cut the field without taking
care of the sower or the ground. The saddest thing is that there are peninsulares and Philippines who
look like these lobsters in their way of thinking and working.

We believe everyone is partly right. The parties can be thrown to each other the dead, the peninsulares
in the Philippines, the philes to the liberals and the liberals to the frijols; we believe that even the same
Chinese have the right to laugh at the Government and the country, it is justice in the end of the
country, and the very much of these misery, about this horrific.

Yeah! Analyzing the government form we are in a rude mistake from the beginning, with a barbaric
institution that of the Ministry of Ultration.
It is this center that has to govern countries sometimes placed, more than 3,000 leguas away, with a
population, climate and customs and different from those in the region where it is, and has to
encourage him and make him a man walk, precisely the apprentice in the art of leading the peoples,
who may have the fate of his such. You figure a man who has so far been only an unhappy, treated
between winks and malicious smiles, having overnight of the fate of nine million individuals, of a power
that his other colleagues, more hazed and more prestigious, do not have, and decide whether so fast
ascension should not disturb his head to the point of not making him. And add to this the painful
thought that men who enjoy such gangsters. In general, they have never been in the countries that have
to rule, nor may they know their geographical situation, nor have they ever taken care of them, and
decide that luck has to fit such governors. Decide one: be you Minister of Ultrate, it is so much
equivalent to: rule Vd. the moon or inhabitants of Saturn, with the only advantage that such astrons can
be seen from the ministry, and the Philippines not.

Sometimes we give an apprentice to the minister, a man of consciousness and reason, and as such he
wants to study the portfolio between his hands, if fear of the crisis leaves him calm in the few free time
when he does not dictate discontinuations or appointments. But study and learning require many
months, during which the eight or nine million inhabitants envy the happy luck that rabbits enjoy in the
laboratories of great doctors: the eight or nine million have to suffer all the experiences, sicut in anima
Vili, from the apprentice minister and can thank God if, during them, the operating apprentice, as who is
not sure what he will do and listen to you look like, he does and unds, short and swers, injects or bleeds,
forcing the poor patient to doubt when he should have fever, reaction, etc.

But what is commonly happening is that we are already meeting an apprenticeship who has a form of a
criterion, the criterion of not learning anything or doing anything again. Worse is meneallo, They say to
themselves; so far the mechanism has not exploded, we will not get into composers now and we'll all
get it lost. You have been able to continue here, why won't it continue until a crisis comes? I will not be
an Ultrate minister again.

It must be confessed that such men are very honored and come with all consciousness; the blame is not
for them, but for those who put them in such a tight place. All the good thing they can do is, in fact, do
nothing. When they leave the wallet, they will have the consciousness clean and the heart will beat
regularly. They have done their duty: nemo dat quod non habet.

Others are (and these are the fearful) that without the goodwill of the first, nor the modesty of the
seconds, but with the common ignorance of both, they want to spend their months of learning doing a
lot and proceeding from the beginning with a truly phenomenal aplom. These ladies are often inspired
by the views of a party, let themselves guide, impose, manage and believe to do a lot by dismaying each
other, naming others, canceling real decrees, provisions of their predecessors; they think it is something
when they are actually nothing but mandates and obedient servers. These happy mortales leave power,
happy and satisfied, believing to have been great rulers.

However, ministers have been aware of the lack of practical knowledge with their insight, untreated
intrigue with the righteousness of their character, guessed evil and thought about combating it. Two or
three remember the names and the Philippines regrets that many of its reforms have been under way.
Of as many ministers as we have had, only one seems to have been at Ultramar, we are not very sure.
We don't know any of them who before taking the wallet has been released because they were aware of
the things of the colonies. There has been a long-standing portfolio offered to a distinguished Lord, and
he would honestly say that nothing understood colonies. And let him know that the last employee who
has been at Ultramar intends to be aware of everything, to know everything on the finger and can
present four or five programs in the absence of one! That Mr has had this value - courage is needed to
confess ignorant in a country where the last barber knows how to criticize a situation - and this value
says much about the honourability of that aristocrat; but have the others who were so appetitous
position?

After the Ultrar Minister is the Captain General of the Philippines, the autocrat, the virking, the only
Spanish who has the greatest power on the earth, without exception the king himself, and also the one
of the least responsible of all. Mandating eight million submissive, obedient and docile subjects; being a
lord of lives, honors and finances; having gold, a lot of gold, favorites, flatters; being able to commit with
the greatest freshness, and to order order to do not last their prestige, and to be able to do not last, pali
them, and to order them. etc.``What do you want more? Isn't it a beautiful fat prize that is taken out in
the Spanish lottery every three years and who wins without even buying a tenth? What does it take to
win it then? perhaps the best Spanish on the Peninsula, having, like the president of the United States,
the wisest. Because so much power is given to a single man, they must assume qualities little less than
divine and well-meaning for style. A man who is allowed to have the fate of his such people must be fair
as God and as He, incorruptible and infallible; in order to rule peoples he does not know or understand,
he must have a great talent and extraordinary knowledge; to rule so different entities, to the and to
remedy all the evils of a people, he must be a man in the government of the people, to the a nation that
seeks to colonize and wants with civilization to make peoples forget the loss of their freedom and
independence, must be equipped with a true prestige, deep moral convictions, a great love to humanity,
an exquisite touch and a delicate prudence.

Well, all this is an illusion, heavenly music!

That position, the highest man can occupy on land, because he has only real rights and null
responsibilities; that position, to occupy him, is enough to be an army general or captain general when
the most.

It requires nothing but purely military knowledge.

Sometimes for reasons of high politics it is occupied by those who in court can be a sneeze for the
purposes of certain public men, or those who, having provided great services to certain causes or to
certain parties, demand a good reward. Sometimes not this is necessary; it is enough to promise such or
which powerful corporation to serve it in its interests, to make it work for him to be elected.

Radying evil in such large and main roots, what can we expect but the sava is bad, the racractic tree and
the bitter fruit? What should be from the man whose head changes every two months, and whose will
not belong to his body? And such a regime will continue, because we have criticized you so that you
don't change it, because it is necessary to sustain prestige and routine and because you prefer the
appearance of knowing to true science. Correcting is equivalent to confessing your mistake, and before
confessing it, first perish. As the one who is attacked by a monomany is first convinced that everyone
will dismantle before admitting the assumption of his illness, and dies with it blaming everything but
himself, so also certain predestined governments. Get the routine and step on the colonies!

The Solidarity 45 (15 December 1890).

SUMMARY [EDITED]

HOW THE PHILIPPINES WAS GOVERNED

For a number of years now, the future of those islands has concerned not only their residents, who are
most interested, but also many peninsular people who, up until very recently, may have been ignorant
of their geographical location and the ethnographical race that calls them home. Everyone can see it,
everyone can feel it, and everyone is certain that something is wrong and that it could be much better.
Some people put the fault on one thing, while others put it on another. Even the government's followers
in that country acknowledge that there are inevitable evils without realizing how absurd or unfortunate
their philosophical positions are. Like lobsters, they cut down the field without caring about the sower
or the land because they have no obligation to the country, don't care how serious the government is, or
whether or not its citizens are slaves. The most tragic aspect is that there are peninsular and Filipino
people that behave and think like these termites.

These gentlemen are typically motivated by a party's objectives; they allow themselves to be directed,
imposed, and managed and think they are accomplishing a lot by removing some people, appointing
others, and repealing laws and royal decrees put in place by their ancient ancestors. They mistakenly
believe they are more than just servants and leaders. These contented individuals depart from office,
happy and confident in their ability to lead well.

The majority of Filipinos believe that everything up there and all the things that are not marked by great
character, a clear love for the country and its people, and a degree of initiative towards reforms are to
blame for all the evil and suffering in their country. The Filipinos, like the liberals we spoke about earlier
and with whom they share many traits, also downplay the responsibility they face in their current
situation because, even if it is true that they do not send mariners where they send patrons, it is also
true that each nation has the government it deserves.

https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com
References

"Cómo se gobiernan las Filipinas" / José Rizal y Alonso. (n.d.). Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes.
Retrieved November 4, 2022, from https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/come-se-gobiernan-
las-filipinas-877107/html/701753c4-91c5-493f-94b7-f2865deaf18e_2.html#I_0_

José Luis Gómez-Martínez, Antología del Ensayo Hispánico. (n.d.). Proyecto Ensayo Hispánico. Retrieved
November 4, 2022, from https://www.ensayistas.org/antologia/XIXE/rizal/