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C2014 | PROF.
OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER | 1

Part Two
Definitions and Theoretical Approaches

Rawls A Theory Of Justice
Chapter 1: Justice as Fairness
I.
GENERAL OVERVIEW:
This is the introductory chapter of the article by Rawls. It

begins by describing the role of justice in social cooperation and
with a brief account of the primary subject of justice, the basic
structure of society. The main idea of justice as fairness, -a
theory of justice that generalizes and carries to a higher
level of abstraction the traditional conception of the social
contract, is presented.
For purposes of clarification and contrast, the classical
utilitarian and intuitionist conceptions of justice as fairness is also
taken up. The guiding aim of the author is to work out a theory of
justice that is a viable alternative to these doctrines which have
long dominated the philosophical tradition.
II.
SUMMARY:
A. Roles of Justice
Justice the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is
of systems of thought. In a just society, the liberties of
equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured
by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the
calculus of social interests
society: although a cooperative venture for mutual
advantage is marked by a conflict as well as an identity
of interests
Principles of social justice: provide a way of assigning
rights and suties in the basic institutions of society
and define appropriate distribution of benefits and
burdens of social cooperation
Men, despite conflicts, agree that institutions are just
when no arbitrary distinctions are made between
persons in the assigning of basic rights and duties and
when the rules determine a proper balance between
competing claims to the advantages of social life.
Problems: efficiency, coordination and stability.
B. The Subject of Justice
Primary subject of justice: basic structure of society
or the way in which major social institutions
distribute fundamental rights and duties and
determine the division of advantages from social
cooperation.
There are essentially deep inequalities in society and so
the principles of justice regulate the choice of a political
constitution and main elements of economic and social
system.
It should be possible to formulate a reasonable
conception of justice for the basic structure of society
conceived for the time being as a closed system
isolated from other societies
Conception of justice: proper balance between
competing claims
Vs.
Conception of justice: set of related principles for
identifying relevant considerations which determine the
balance.
C. The Main Idea of the Theory of Justice
Guiding idea: the principles of justice for the basic

structure of society are the object of the original
agreement
Intuitive idea: Since everyones well being depends
upon a scheme of cooperation without which no one
could have a satisfactory life, the division of advantages
should be such as to draw forth the willing
cooperation of everyone taking part in it, including
those less well-situated.
Justice as fairness:
a. Interpretation of the initial situation and of the
problem of choice posed there
b. Set of principles which it is argued, would be
agreed to.
D. The Original Position and Justification
Concept of Original Position: most philosophically favoured
interpretation of the initial choice situation for the purpose of a
theory of justice
E. Classical Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism described: strict classical doctrine; the
main idea espoused being that society is rightly ordered
and just when its major institutions are arranged as to
achieve the greatest net balance of satisfaction summed
over all individuals belonging to it
The well being of society is to be construed from the
fulfilment of the systems of desires of the many
individuals who belong to it.
Social justice: principle of rational prudence applied to
an aggregative conception of the welfare of the group
F.
Some Related Contrasts
In a just society the basic liberties are taken for granted

and the rights secured by justice are not subject to
political bargaining or to the calculus of social interests.
1. While the contract doctrine accepts our convictions
about the priority of justice as on the whole sound,
utilitarianism seeks to account for them as a socially
useful illusion.
2. Whereas the utilitarian extends to society the principle of
choice for one man, justice as fairness, being a contract
view, assumes that the principles of social choice, and
so the principles of justice, are themselves the object of
an original agreement.
3. Utilitarianism is a theological theory whereas justice as
fairness is not. In justice as fairness, persons accept in
advance a principal of equal liberty and they do this
without knowledge of their more particular ends.
G. Intuitionism
Intuitionist: maintains that there exist no higher-order
constructive criteria for determining the proper emphasis
for the competing principles of justice. They have two
features
o Consist of a plurality of first principles which
may conflict to give contrary directives in
particular types of cases.
o Include no explicit method, no priority rules, for
weighing these principles against one another.
Believes that there must be a complete deprivation of
our judgments of social justice from recognizably ethical
principles; attempts to go beyond these principles either
2 | C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER

reduce to triviality or else lead to falsehood and
oversimplification.
Gives prominent place to the appeal to our intuitive
capacities unguided by constructive and recognizably
ethical criteria; denies that there exists any useful and
explicit solution to the priority problem
1.
Three kinds of judgments a citizen has to make:

a. He must judge the justice of legislation and
social policies.
b. A citizen must decide which constitutional
arrangements are just for reconciling confliction
opinions of justice. A complete conception of
justice is not only able to assess laws and
policies but it can also rank procedures for
selecting which political opinion is to be
enacted into law.
c. He must ascertain when the enactments of the
majority are to be complied with and when they
can be rejected as no longer binding.
2.
THE FOUR-STAGE SEQUENCE (A device for

applying the principles of justice)
H. The Priority Problem

Conception of justice will have to rely on intuition to a
certain extent BUT we should do what we can to reduce
the direct appeal to our considered judgments, do what
we can to formulate explicit principles for the priority
problem even though the dependence on intuition
cannot be eliminated entirely.
ROLE OF INTUITION OS LIMITED IN SEVERAL
WAYS
o Principles of justice are those which would be
chosen in the original position, they are the
outcome of a certain choice situation. Thus,
being rational, persons in the original position
recognize that they should consider the priority
of these principles.
o We may be able to find principles which can be
put in what author called serial or lexical order.
o Dependence on intuition can be reduced by
posing more limited questions and by
substituting prudential for moral judgment.
In addressing the priority problem, the task is that of
reducing and not of eliminating entirely the reliance on
intuitive judgments.
2 ways of dealing constructively with the priority
problem:
a. Single overall principle
b. Plurality of principles in lexical order
I.
Some Remarks about Moral Theory
A conception of justice characterizes our moral

sensibility when the everyday judgments we do make
are in accordance with its principles. These principles
can serve as part of the premises of an argument which
arrives at the matching judgments.
In describing our sense of justice, an allowance must be
made for the likelihood that considered judgments are
subject to irregularities and distortions despite the fact
that they are rendered under favourable circumstances.
Theory of justice theory of moral sentiments setting
out the principles governing our moral powers or our
sense of justice.
Rawls, John Chaper IV: Equal Liberty

Two Principles Of Equal Liberty
The first principle of equal liberty (primary standard for
constitutional convention) requires that fundamental liberties of
the person and the liberty of conscience and freedom of thought
are protected and the political process as a whole be a just
procedure. The second principle dictates that social and
economic policies be aimed at maximizing the long-term
expectations of the least advantaged under conditions of fair
equality of opportunity, subject to the equal liberties maintained.
Adopt principles of justice then move to a constitutional

convention.
Decide upon the justice of political forms and choose a
constitution that satisfies the principles of justice and is
best calculated to lead to just and effective legislation.
Design a just procedure by incorporating the liberties of equal
citizenship into the constitution. (i.e. libery of conscience and
freedom of thought, liberty of the person, and equal political
rights.) Select from among the procedural arrangements ones
which are most likely to lead to a just and effective legal order.
Define an independent standard of the desired outcome.
Legislative Stage. Statues must satisfy not only the
principles of justice but whatever limits are laid down in
the constitution.
Application of rules to particular cases by judges and
administrators, and the following of rules by citizens
generally.
3. CONCEPT OF LIBERTY
The general description of liberty: this or that person (or persons)
is free (or not free) from this or that constraint (or set of
constraints) to do (or not to do) so and so.
4. EQUAL LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE
Which principle should be adopted to regulate liberties of citizens
in regard to their fundamental, religious, moral and philosophical
interests?
Principle of paternalism: guide decisions on behalf other s
as they would choose for themselves as if they were at the
age of reason and deciding rationally.
a. Limited by the common interest in public order and
security
b. Limied only when there is a reasonable expectation
that not doing so will damage the public order
5.
POLITICAL JUSTICE AND THE CONSTITUTION

a. Political Justice requires that the Constitution
satisfies requirements of equal liberty and is framed
to result in a just and effective system of legislation.
b. Principle of Equal Participation requires a just
constitution that sets up a form of fair rivalry for
political office and authority.
6. RULE OF LAW
The conception of justice becomes the rule of law when applied
to the legal system. A legal system is a coercive order of public
rules addressed to rational persons for the purpose of regulating
their conduct and providing the framework for social cooperation.
Precepts of Justice Connected to the Rule of Law:
C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER | 3

a.
b.
c.
d.
Ought implies can. It must no impose a duty to do

what cannot be done. It conveys the idea that those
who enact laws do so in good faith.
Similar cases should be treated similarly.
There is no offense without a law.
A legal system must make provisions for conducting
orderly trials and hearings to preserve the integrity
of judicial process.
7. PRIORITY OF EQUAL LIBERTY

It means that the precedence of the principle of equal liberty over
the second principle of justice. Liberty can be restricted only for
the sake of liberty itself.
The force of justice as fairness arises from two things: the
requirement that all inequalities be justified to the least
advantaged and the priority of liberty.
First Principle: Each person is to have an equal right to the
most extensive total system of equal basic liberties
compatible with a similar system of liberty for all.
Priority Rule: The principles of justice can be restricted only
for the sake of liberty in two cases (a) a less extensive
liberty must strengthen the total system of liberty shared by
all (b) a less than equal liberty must be acceptable to those
citizens with the lesser ability.
Jurisprudence: Understanding and

Shaping Law
Reisman and Schreiber
CHAPTER 1
Jurisprudence: Is It Relevant?
Legal education reflects the common assumption is that
the role of lawyers largely involves court-related activities and
disputes which people become embroiled. Facts show though,
that very few lawyers in the United States devote their time to
courts.
This is attributed to the widening variety and ambiguity
of the roles and functions of people that are trained as lawyers
to the extraordinarily rich variety of commercial and political
functions lawyers must perform.
David Riesman posits that the lawyer is called upon
constantlyxxx to make policy judgments. xxx The agreed aim
of legal education is to turn students into better citizens and
community leaders. xxx" This reflects a key aspect of politics,
which is crafting the future.
Important questions to ask: What are the foci, the
segments of reality that lawyers must look at in order to
discharge their functions? And what are the specific skills they
require to perform these more comprehensive professional tasks
in an efficient and ethical fashion? To what extent is your legal
education equipping you for these tasks?
Sample Problem:
Imagine youre a junior member of a firm and your client
is Suzuki Industries. They want to decide on whether to invest in
the US, particularly in Penntown, Pennsylvania. Material on
relevant laws has been sent to Suzuki headquarters, but now
Suzuki asked you to visit Penntown for a more in depth report.
Arriving at Penntown, whom do you ask? What do you ask?
Some of the things you must take note of are the individuals,
groups and entities involved in making those critical choices in

Penntown which may affect Suzukis prospective operations
you want to know their behavior, given specific circumstances. In
other words, you need to inventory the actors in Penntown
involved in decision-making. You must also understand the
processes involved in decision-making. These are things that are
not found in black-letter law and formal material.
Consider for example, how most decision-making are
probably settled in informal means, like in country clubs,
business lunches, and so on. Conventional legal research is
indispensible, but there will be items, sometimes the most
important, which cannot be learned by consulting legal texts.
Thus, it is imperative to inventory the actors and
processesboth formal and informal.
Reisman, A Theory Of Law From The

Policy Perspective, In Law And Policy 79
(D. Weisstub Ed. 1976)
A Practical Guide to the Law in Context
Sample Problem:
Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Fawzi, who owns the little oil state of
Darab on the Persian Gulf, is sending his children abroad for
their university education. His youngest, Faud, is to be sent to an
American school. Though gifted intellectually, Sheikh Ibrahim is
concerned with Fauds social integration. He wants Faud to have
his share of fun, so the idea of a college fraternity appeals to him.
He wants to know more about fraternities, particularly Theta
fraternity, and so he has hired you to observe. You might contact
the National Theta Society and ask for their documents of
incorporation, constitution and by-laws, among other things.
Information you get from these, however, will not satisfy Sheikh
Ibrahim. What you need to know of, are the processes involved in
decision/policy-making, in short, you need to know the living
law.
Now consider an example, House Regulation 9 prohibits
females from staying in a resident members room beyond 9p.m.,
a decorous provision in its assumption that properly raised ladies
and gentlemen will not engage in sexual relations before 9p.m.
Regulation 9 was passed by the National Society in 1926 and a
fine of $10 was set. Over the years, however, the US dollar and
Theta morality have depreciated precipitously. Members of Theta
regularly entertain their ladies for the night and pay what is
jokingly called the shack fee. Therefore, an inquiry into the
social process is needed.
Summarizing this sort of inquiry, we get the following:

Focusing Comprehensively
Focusing in Detail on Relevant Features of:
a. The environment
b. The processes of effective power
c. The processes by which legal decisions are
made
d. The outcomesin terms of production and
distribution of things, (the burdens and
benefits, or values) that decisions involve,
including effects on the environment.
David Cavers has observed that Law is a problemsolving profession. It is at the point of translating knowledge,
values and ideas into a just and workable plan that the work of
the lawyer and legal scholar is likely to be most useful. This sort
of problem-solving involves: (1) determining what you want to
happen; (2) confirming that it is not likely to happen by itself; (3)
identifying relevant conditions; (4) clarifying the preferred

alternative and the methods of achieving it; and (5) calculating
the steps that can be taken to implement it under those sticky
conditions characteristic of the real world.

The basic handbook for making choices involves:

Clarifying goals.
Describing trends in terms of these goals.
Analyzing conditions that affected those trends.
Predicting, guestimating if necessary, future trends.
Inventing alternatives to achieve the goals.
Practice of law is the practice of problem-solving, for

yourself, for your clients, and for the community at large. In David
Riesmans words, the lawyer will be helping people determine
what they may and what they should want.
Sample Problem:
The Justices Dilemma
Claiming a communist threat, a junta of colonels has
seized control of Nijotas, a small, homogeneous and heretofore
democratic republic in Latin America. The constitution has been
suspended and Nijotas has been converted into a police state.
Leaders of the bar, cooperating with the junta, have drafted a
new constitution legitimizing the regime. Even the increasingly
frequent applications of official terror are being gilded with a
patina of sophisticated legalism.
Lopez-Alcalde, Chief Justice of Nijotas, has a deep
personal commitment to democracy, to legality and to human
dignity. He has a worldwide reputation as a jurist and a humanist.
The junta has already purged many on the Bench but Lopez has
not been removed. His reputation is being used to give the
regime a degree of legitimacy inside and outside the country.
Lopez is well aware of this fact and his commitment to certain
ideals generates a deep personal conflict.
What are Lopez alternatives?
I. Accept the reality of naked power and comply with it in
order to safeguard himself and his dependents.
II. Retreat inward and wait for change.
III. Continue as Chief Justice in a manner compatible with
safety and a low profile, but seek in each decision
to mitigate the evils of the junta.
IV. Go into exile and work against the regime from abroad.
V. Soak himself in gasoline and set himself afire on the
steps of the courthouse in protest over the regime.
VI. Join the guerrillas in the mountains.
Admissions and Hiring Dilemmas
Arkensota State Law School reserves twenty percent of
the places in each entering class for specified minorities; that
amount is roughly proportional to the percentage of these
minorities in the population at large. Dick White, with an average
of 76 is refused admission, but 30 minority students with
averages below 70, are admitted. In the same vein, faculty hiring
policy requires that at least 40% of all newly hired faculty
members come from minority groups until they constitute 20% of
the faculty. Jane de la Majorit, who applies, is rejected while a
minority member, whose credentials are alleged to be inferior to
hers, is hired.
Should the norms and operations of society be
structured to afford Dick and Jane relief or to grant minority
preferences? Why? If so, is the method being used the best
available? If Dick and Jane are entitled to relief, what should it
be?
Important ideas:
8. Lawyers should be wary of thinking in terms of yes-no
or of two exclusive options.
9. In a democracy, everyone is supposed to participate in
the determination of social goals.
10. As Robert Storey put it succinctly, Builders of the law

we must have, but somewhere in the profession we
must find those who can perform the services of
architects of the law
Chapter 2
Myths, Multiplicity And Elites:
Appearance And Reality In The Law
A key feature of social systems is the integrality and the
seamless symbiosis of controller and controlled. Certain
problems require that inquiry about legal control distinguish the
flow of behavior that makes up group life from those specialized
institutions that purport to control.
The picture produced by control institutions does not
correspond, point for point, with the actual flow of behavior of
those institutions in the performance of their public function. In
other words, there is a discrepancy between the way, as
institutions believe, groups ought to act and the actual way of
doing things.
Hence, two relevant normative systems arise: (1) that
which is supposed to apply; and (2) that which is actually
applied. Neither should be confused with actual behavior, which
may be dissimilar from both.
The norm system of the official picture (that which is
supposed to apply) may be called the myth system. Parts of it
provide the appropriate code of conduct for most group
members; for some, most of it is their normative guide. However,
there are enough discrepancies between this myth system and
the way things are actually done (that which is actually applied)
that forces the observer to apply another name for the unofficial
but nonetheless effective guidelines for behavior in those
discrepant sectorsthe operational code. For many actors
within a given social process, however, only the myth system is
law; hence operational code activities are perceived as illegal.
The myth system is different from legal fictions. Legal
fictions are authoritative statements whose patent falseness is,
by convention, never exposed. The device of the fiction permits
those charged with making decisions to make existing law
obsolete without changing it. A fiction is consciously false and
virtually all who use the fiction know it for what it is: a device for
circumventing a norm that is obsolete. Meanwhile, the myth
system is not widely appreciated as consciously false; does not
express values that are obsolete, rather affirms values that
continue to be important socially and personally.
PRIVATE SYSTEMS OF PUBLIC LAW
The hypothesis is that there are multiple legal systems,
such that within larger, conglomerate groups, all small groups
have their own normative codes. The operational code is
distinct in that is a private public law in systems in which public
law is supposed to be public.
Elites in power process are those who have more
power and influence than others. Their assumption is that they
bear a mixture of self-service and community service. Bearing
special responsibilities bring forth the feeling that they
sometimes, must take certain liberties. Their purpose is to
achieve what is the necessary objective while suppressing
publicization of the means they employed, so as to maintain the
myth system that has been violated in their operations.
Sample:
When President Kennedy authorized the 1961 invasion
of Cuba, one of his advisors wrote a confidential memo to the
president, advising:
The character and repute of President Kennedy
constitutes one of our greatest national resources. Nothing
should be done to jeopardize this invaluable asset. When lies
must be told, they should be told by subordinate officials. At no
point should the President be asked to lend himself to the cover
operation. For this reason, there seems to me merit in Secretary
Rusks suggestion that someone other than the President make
the final decision and do so in his absencesomeone whose
head can later be placed on the block if things go terribly wrong.
Practices, such as the sample above, change the
system of public order they are supposed to protect. New means
of justification are often created by the elites who are involved in
such defections. The code is a by-product of social complexity,
generated by the increase of social divisions and specializations.
All foci of loyalty have, by definition, at least the rudiments of a
normative code. Those who specialize in the manipulation of
power have their operational code. In the power context, the
operational code is a private system of public law.
Even with these popular responses, practitioners of the

operational code will often stand together to thwart the efforts of
those who uphold the myth system. It is likely that practices of
the operational code will nonetheless continue if those who
control them conclude that they are necessary for group life.
Sample:
A legislature may pass a very open-textured statute to
give increased discretion to those charged with applying it, after
being told in executive session that some things just have to be
done and it would be better for all if nothing were said about it.
What is characteristic of the operational code is that it is
shared by key members of the control apparatus, that its
deviations from the myth system are selectively tolerated and
depend on the contingency, the identities of agents and objects,
the purpose of the act and the probable effects on the larger
organization.
Lex imperfecta (imperfect law, or law without teeth) is
often a conscious elite design for dealing with aggravated myth
system and operational code discrepancies. As the late Alex
Rose remarked, To put people in law enforcement for the
purpose of non-enforcement is a very big attraction for
politicians.
POPULAR RESPONSES
Elites will find it beneficial to them to conceal the
operational code. This is to avoid other members of the group to
become disenchanted when they realize the discrepancy
between the myth system and the operational code. Group
cohesion then depends largely on the secrecy with which the
code is practiced.
Legality may refer to conclusions drawn by members of
the community as to the propriety of practices determined by
some method of logical derivation from the myth system. Virtually
all of the operational code discrepant from the myth system is
thus illegal. Lawfulness, in contrast, may refer to the propriety
of practices in terms of their contribution (or lack thereof) to group
integrity and continuity, of which the myth system is part.
Conclusions of lawfulness are teleological rather than logical and
will vary according to time, context, and group need.
Illustration:
Consider a director of intelligence who asserts he lied to
Congress for the good of the country may, in some contexts, find
considerable support for his deed. Though virtually no one will
say it was or should be legal, many may say it was right.
Precisely because of the discrepancies between myth
system and operational code, maintenance of the myth system is
a dynamic process requiring ongoing contributions from many.
One response may be the imposition of evils or
deprivations for deviations from the myth system. This is to deter
other members from verbalizing their perceptions or deductions
of the mythic quality of the formal normative code.
Another response may come from elites. As was
previously mentioned, they have a strong incentive to conceal
activities of the operational code.
Coercive efforts may also be regularly mounted. This is
to police belief in, and behavior in accord with, the myth system
by sanctioning defections from it.
A cognate species of lex imperfecta is a lex simulata.

Lex simulata performs a function similar to imperfect law, it is a
statutory instrument apparently operable, but one that neither
prescribers nor putative target audience ever intended to be
applied. Prototype of this is the Code of Hammurabi. A key
characteristic of such laws is that they do not have a meaningful
legislative history.
Such laws are legislated to reaffirm on the ideological
level that component of the myth, to reassure peripheral
constituent groups of the continuing vigor of the myth. It merely
provides an illusion that the government is doing what it should
be doing, but not for influencing pertinent behavior.
Sample:
I think one good example would be our very own CARP
and CARPER, or any of our land reform laws for that matter.
They were legislated only to appease the most basic cry of the
farmers and landless peoples that the government does
something about their situation. But in reality, our land reform
laws were never meant to provide for a genuine agrarian reform.
Reisman, A Theory Of Law From The

Policy Perspective.
In Law And Policy 84-85 (D. Weisstub
Ed. 1976)
Sample:
Consider the example of the fraternity Theta earlier
mentioned. To extend that example, the written code of Theta
does not condone cheating. Under their written Rules, a member
may be expelled when caught doing such act. Their actual code,
however, reveals a systematic way of cheating maintained as
status quo by members of Theta. When a member exposes the
cheating of another, he is in fact conforming to the written code of
the University and Theta that disallows cheating, but for his act,
he is expelled from Theta because he violated the actual code.

The situation above illustrates how conformity to the
operational code of a group may also render a person subject to
sanctions under the newer regime. Put simply, we are all
simultaneously members of different groups, each of which make
conflicting demands.
Most groups, in competition for the loyalties of
individuals, develop certain allocating principles akin to the rules
of conflicts of law, according to which the pre-eminence of
different groups will be recognized for certain social sectors.
Conflicts between demands are often left unresolved; this is
because each group may claim pre-eminence. This proves to be
a problem because a member of a particular stratum who feels
that his law is challenged by the nonconforming behavior of
another is likely to characterize the behavior as deviant. A more
disengaged observer, however, may identify competing systems,
in which pre-eminence is not clearly established in the
phenomenal world of the members.
-Owen J. Lynch, Colonial Legacies in a Fragile Republic: A
History of Philippine Land Law and State Formation with
Emphasis on the Early United States Regime (1898-1913), JSD
dissertation, Yale Law School (1991): Appendix One,
Methodology (Policy Science), pp. I-xv.
Owen Lynch, Methodological Overview

The dissertation uses policy science as a methodology from a
perspective of an anthropological lawyer and spans half a
century but is focused on the Taft era (1900-1913), the key period
of Phil.-land-law innovations. Its divided into 2 parts: Spanish era
(249301899) and US occupation (1898-1913).
POLICY SCIENCE
Its the methodology used in Prof. Lynchs
dissertation.
Definition of law in policy science: process of making decisions
in conformity with the expectations of appropriateness of those
who are politically relevant; a process of authoritative decision.
Goal of policy science: the promotion of human dignity by
providing a more comprehensive and enlightened understanding
of important socio-legal issues.
Policy science identifies the politically relevant
participants and emphasizes the political elites.The dissertation
goes back to the historical origins and state-created legal
processes which recognize and grant rights to own and use Phil.
Natural resources and is designed to enhance the processes of
policy-making.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL LAWYER
Prof. Lynch is not a legal anthropologist even though
people refer to him as such. He advocates rural peoples holding
undocumented ancestral-domain right and does inquiries into the
use of ethnicity and cultural distinctions to empower tribal
peoples and minorities. He is actually an anthropological lawyer!
He focuses on the Phil. state and is interested in the state and
citizenry, which contrasts Phil. Historiography. So, his dissertation
reflects a state-centric perspective.
Prof. Lynch came to the Phils. In August 1980 for the
first time. After staying for 7 years, he still felt as an outsider
which he thought was a handicap in his effort to understand Phil.
History and culture. He did find it easier disengage and observe
intellectually.
LAND TENURE
The dissertation eschews the premise that land tenure
means people can own land or other natural resources. It
employs the insight of Wesley Newcombe Hohfeld who believed
hat all legal relations are between persons. In short, its not about
the rights to land, rather the rights to the social status created.
This is, he says, is the nature of land ownership in the Phils.
Part Three
Pre-History and Indigenous Culture in

the 21st Century
Culture as History
By: Nick Joaquin
The medium itself is the message, and the message is,
metamorphosis.
Introduction
Joaquin started his essay by relating history to culture. We have
come to accustom culture with lofty dicta as literature and arts
and quite forgot that we are being shaped by the tools we shape;
and the culture is the way of life being impressed on a community
by its technics. For instance, the advent of the printing press
paved for the ear culture to shift to the eye culture, the worship
of literacy, and the vast results are individualism, nationalism, etc.
These however are not studied with regard to their original case.
He further elaborates our lack of appreciation to the cathedrals
we built, the taste in utensil and furniture, folk-art, folk-tale. These
are all culture concentrated in the literate eye, as compared to
the European literary sense of culture, the rift being ours is one of
FOLK culture and theirs PRINT culture. But these are all in
danger of being obsolete, given the dawn of technology. Such
shift being an illustration of culture as history, of which point is not
on how we use a tool but on how it uses us, to our unknowing
transfiguration.
Tools as Agents of History
McLuhans thesis is his centerpiece. According to McLuhan, the
drama of history is a crude pageant whose inner meaning is
mans metamorphosis through the media.
Tools introduced to history recede to the background, upstaged
by their effects, and regardless merely as tools, no longer as
powerful agents of history.
Reasons: (a) those who introduced them are already familiar
with these tools and were in no position to gauge the effects on
people for whom they were wondrous novelties; (b) when we
began writing history, we focused on the outrage caused by the
intervention in our own history and reject the intervention as
not our own.
Joaquin proposes through McLuhans framework, that we
should shift emphasis from conventional history to the history
of culture, which is a manner of perceiving 1521-1565 as a
time not of the coming of the West to our land, but the coming
to our culture of certain tools as the wheel, plow, cement, road,
book, printing press, etc, and how we acted with and reacted
to, these tools. In short, to read the period as the epoch of the
Filipinos metamorphosis through the media.
Relevance of Tool as Culture as History to the People
If the medium is itself the message, then metamorphosis
started right with the arrival of the new tools from the West.
Joaquin relates the subsistence economy of the pre-Spanish
Philippines, which transformed into an export economy after
the introduction of tools

The technical revolution i.e. the introduction of the PLOW,
the drafting of the carabao are the economic factors which
amounted to the change.
Two critiques: (a) the introduction of tools did not affect the
Filipino way of life; (b) if it did had effects, then the effects were
more corruptive than helpful
Joaquin defends this through illustrating how painting is
affected by photography. He said that photography corrupted
painting only if painting had continued to do what photography
now can do better, but in reality, it is otherwise.
An introduction of a new media creates a new culture
altogether, not a corruptive force of the existing.
In fact, the Philippines is transformed from the subsistence
culture to the first world economy of modern times as seen in
the galleon trade
Joaquin also points that our lament over the ignorance of our
forefathers are misplaced, because these people are the one
who created the grandiose cathedrals and many other complex
structures we look up as functional beauty during these times.
All these tools brought about the two most notable features of
our new identity (a) a sense of history; (b) a sense of
national community.
Another thing to note is the lack of chronology of the Filipinos
before the Christian settlers came. This had vast effect over
the historical sense of ownership of lands, since deeds of
ownership of lands are history in document, while an oral
tradition of land ownership (in the case of our ancestors)
is mythical ownership.
auspices, would have guaranteed us a culture with an Asian

accent.
In terms of civilization, we seem to have gotten none of the
basic media from our Asian neighbors.
Joaquin claims that if the West had not come, we could have
been portrayed the same way as Samoans, as a small Pacific
pocket of paganism, with various Muslim city-states on the
coasts, various kingdoms in the interior, various clan-turfs
in the hills, etc.
In culture as history, we get a corrective to history as
superstition, because the culture itself provides the evidence
with which to check and culture double-check the history when
no data are available.
The plow did not corrupt, it begot the Filipino
The attitudes of our neighbors to us are ignorant and

indifferent, not when the Spanish epoch dawned, we ceased to
be terra incognita, the sudden change in treatment by Asia is
apparent
The technics, our training in common in new media was what

forged the identity we now term Filipino
This is antithetical to those who believe that Filipinos exist
even before the tools came. But according to Joaquin,
repugnance will also mean being anti-historical, because we
have not yet reached a Methuselah to antedate the term. He
said, we are not fellahin (a peasant or agricultural worker in an
Arab country).
Joaquin claims that before 1521, we could have been anything
and everything not Filipino; after 1565 we can be nothing but
Filipino
He cites Spengler in articulating about the soul of culture being
untouched by invasion, he says that the course of culture could
be affected, but not its soul.
Test on Philippine Prehistoric Culture

There is a total absence of sea in Philippine folklore
There is absence of any native tradition on our supposed
voyagings in pre-West Asia
Joaquin commented that what the porcelains from China
publicize is not any cultural interplay, but only a lack of
technology on our part and on the part of the Chinese, an
exploitation of that technological ignorance and therefore a
desire to maintain it in order to keep us a captive of colonial
market.
These porcelains are unimportant in our culture as toy totems
The Pre-West Philippines is unknown and unknowing
The West brought us to Asia

It is thanks to the mediation of the West, which brought us into
Asia and vice versa
Asia in general enter our culture only after we had been
opened up by the West; and having been entered, we
proceeded to become more thoroughly Asianized during the
early colonial era in all the previous ages
But we had little such Asian identity because we had little
share in the progressive culture of Asia
Final Note
There must be a self to have a soul

SPENGLER: When diverse elements fuse into a unit that
begins to feel itself a culture community, a people, a nation,
then a soul has been born, xxx that soul deny it or resist it or
try to change it, these very denials and revolts will only
advance the destiny of that identity, as every change will at last
be found to have merely evolved the identity on a farther plane.
The blame must fall on Asia
If it be true indeed that we were Westernized to the cost of our
Asian soul, then the blame must fall, not on the West, but on
Asia.
We say that we were Christianized to our cultural disaster but
do we ever ask why we were not Buddhicized, or Taocized, or
Hinducized.. to our cultural salvation? We are bypassed by our
Asian neighbors. Mother Asia refused to share her soul with
us. And we had to wait for the West to bring us such tools.
Asia disdained to initiate us in the craft and the answer
covers the entire mystery of our non-initiation into Asian
technics when such an initiation, being conducted under Asian
Joaquin thinks that we should begin to realize that during the

colonial period, there are two processes: Westernization, and
Asianizing.
Joaquin: Culture itself is history
McLuhan: The medium is the message (theory of
metamorphosis)
Spengler: The method of a science is the science itself (theory
of soul-formation)
What is truly Asian, does not necessarily mean, a true Asian
in its stereotypical, typical sense.
Our guilt or shame springs from the confusion of identification,
as Joaquin puts it, we cant identify ourselves strictly between
fish or fowl, between East or West. With these he claims that
we should take pride in our uniqueness instead rather than
lament it over.
Why isnt it enough to be just Filipino?
This attitude springs from a static view of culture, which
breeds the illusion that history can be rejected at will. We
preferred to measure Philippine culture not by the highest it
has reached but by the lowest it has stayed backward.

th
th
Rejected or not, Joaquin believes that the 16 and 17

centuries remain the epoch, meaning the turning point, in our
history because then was started the process of the making of
the Filipino his Westernizing, but also with his Asianizing.
Culture as history being existentialist, its dictum on this would
probably be that the epoch that evolved the objects of culture,
they being history, affect Filipino everyday living; and those
who would slight or skip history are trying to edit these objects
from Philippine life.
-Perfecto V. Fernandez, Custom Law in Pre-Conquest
Philippines:
Chapter One: Pre-conquest Society and Custom Law, pp. 1-19;
Chapter Six: Household and Domestic Relations, pp. 74-98;
Chapter Seven: Property and Contracts, pp. 99-110;
Chapter Nine: Remedies and Procedures, pp. 126-136, UP
Law Center (1976).
CHAPTER 1
Pre-Conquest Society and Custom Law
Identification of custom law
Identification of custom law
Custom law refers to the body of customs and usages dealing
with liability in preconquest society and enforced, or permitted to
be enforced, by political authority in the communities concerned.
The rules belonging to the system is simplified through
recognitional rules.
Technique of identification in every brgy during the conquest,
custom laws are easily identifiable because of the presence old
people knowledgeable of such rules.
There is a need to sift the custom aw rules from the mass of
material and to set them apart for analysis and comparison.
Criteria of legality:
1.
2.
Normativeness general character prescribing a

specific norm of conduct
Existence of sanction by the political community
concerned.
Regional Diversity of Custom Law
Custom law- OBLIGATORY or BINDING in character; it is a

highly integrative force. With custom law, there is a substantial
degree of political unity in a certain area or region. Within the
political community, government existed, but it was diffused not
centralized, as evidenced by barangays.
Diversity Within the Regional Community
The lack of a centralized administration of custom law

fostered its break up as a system, through increasing
divergence in the rules applied. Since there was no central
authority to overrule innovations, tendency towards steady
differentiation in the rules applied could not be prevented.
The emergence of barangays as a political entity, aggravated

by the physical/geographical barriers , also fostered diversity
in the custom law of the region. The barangays represented
a different or separate jurisdiction administering an
independent system of law.
Barangay Organization
DATU generally functions as the leader of his peers; executed
the laws; mediator; conciliator sometimes has functions of the
judge, and sometimes of the legislator.
General Aspects of Custom Law
Uniformities persist, especially as regards fundamental
precepts.This is particularly true of the principles governing
liability.
Common rules are traceable to a common cultural inheritance of
the preconquest Filipinos reinforced by similar conditions of
environment.
Comparison of the early custom law with the present legal
system in the Philippines:
1. Absence of specialization and the paucity of rules.
2. Government was minimal
3. No specialized machinery of justice
4. No officials performing special functions of policemen or
judge.
5. No compilation of rules
6. No distinctions between fundamental law and statute.
7. Absence of great mass of legal concepts and standards.
Social and Legal Change in the Preconquest Society
Custom law should NOT be taken to suggest that one system of

law had prevailed throughout preconquest Philippines. Many
accounts describe customs and usages of particular ethnic
groups, notwithstanding considerable uniformity of basic
concepts and principles
Regional Political Communities
Barangays extensive political communities of early Filipinos. It

was an acceptable belief that it was the most extensive political
communities and that no regional government existed.
Political community a society where there is prevailing
recognition of cases when the use of force is wrongful, and cases
when it is priviledged or legitimate; requires compresence of both
LAW and GOVERNMENT operating with respect to the group.
ACTUALLY, political communities more extensive than the
barangays had existed, since there were large areas or regions
under the sway of fairly coherent systems of custom law
(contrary to the common belief).
Law is the creation and wears the image, of great social

needs. Law mirrors cultural growth in its principal contours. It
cannot stand still but must respond to the dominant needs or
interests generated by the social process. On the other
hand, the growth of law is tied to the possibilities of growth in
the society that it serves.
Legal change, while a necessary concomitant of social
change, is usually preceded by the latter.
In the preconquest society, acceleration of trade and
commerce was producing disturbing changes; recruitment of
alipin was stimulated since more working hands are needed.
There is widespread use and acceptance of precious metal
like gold as medium of exchange.
FOUNDATIONS FOR AN EXCHANGE ECONOMY were being

laid.
At the time of conquest, the native communities were undergoing
subtle but RADICAL changes. There existed definite trends
towards territorial expansion, centralization of authority, increased
governmental activity, and economic specialization. ( reflects
economic changes)
Secular Orientation
Orientation of custom law was SECULAR.

Political authority was never derived from any religious
leader. DATUs have no religious roles or functions.
Religion in preconquest society was a household affair, a
concern of the family, not the community.
Functions of Custom Law

Custom law should be evaluated in terms of the social need s
and how it addressed those needs.
Its greatest task: regulation of use of force in the resolution of
conflicts.
Such task is discharged in many ways:
1. It prescribed conditions for legitimate resort to the use of
force.
2. Offers alternative remedies
3. Determined who had the authority to resolve conflictsm
and by what means
4. Determined the order of labor.
Preservation of the Peace
Custom laws central function: preserve the peace.
1. Creates a system of pecuniary fines and highly rational
proceedings.
2. The same remedies were available for different (all)
wrongs.
Order of Labor
2 types of Obligation of service:
1. Obligations of the households within the brgy.
2. Generally economic in origin.
BARANGAYS WERE ECONOMICALLY INDEPENDENT AND
SELF SUFFICIENT.
Households Contrasted with Ancient Hebrew and Roman
families
1. Household head was never domineering.
2. Women in our society need not submit to legal inferiority.
3. Duties are conjugal when it comes to family issues.
EQUALITY between sexes.
Status in Custom Law
Principalia ruling households; wealthiest

Common households modest resources
Alipin dependents; have little or none.
Birth or lineage was important, but not decisive.
Status of members determined by birth.
Little distinction between legal rights of men and women.
GENDER NEUTRAL.
Women had rights to own properties, obtain divorce,
remarry, entitled to share of conjugal earnings.
CHAPTER 6
HOUSEHOLD AND DOMESTIC
RELATIONS
I. KINSHIP IN PRE-CONQUEST SOCIETY
Kinship is the most important determinant of status in preconquest community. Parentage determines his position,
prerogatives and obligations. Generally the children succeeded
his or her fathers position, rank and estate.
Kinship also determines liability. A crime is imputable to the whole

household and retribution can be taken against the whole family.
Kinship also imposed the obligation of vengeance. It is the duty
of the family to hunt for a family members murderer. Kinship can
also sometimes be a mitigating factor i.e. when a family member
kills another family member, the death penalty is not imposed.
Kinship however didnt mean that family members treated each
other different from strangers. As long as you are from a different
household, loans and other property claims were enforced as if
the parties were strangers. This practice is due to the belief that
one has to provide for ones need in the afterlife.
The subordination of the demands of kinship to the interests of
the household was partly due to the system of multiple kinship.
Unlike ancient systems in Europe, bilateral kinship is recognized.
A child is related to the fathers relatives as well as the mothers.
When either parent dies, the assets are divided among the heirs
including the family of the couple. In this case, the household
rather than the family endures.
Bilateral kinship was important because it regulated peace and
order in the barangay. Since people are related to both the father
and the mothers relatives, generally, most households in the
barangay are related by blood. When conflicts arise, bilateral
kinship provides for conciliation or at least neutrality.
Consanguinity was supplemented by the presence of the
practices of adoption and blood-compact wherein the adopted or
the blood brother becomes part of the household.
II. THE HOUSEHOLD IN CUSTOM LAW
Custom law largely pertains to relations between households
rather than individuals. The term household includes the
following:
a. The immediate family. (wife and unmarried children)
b. Close relatives. (elderly people)
c. Married children when they dont have homesteads yet.
d. In some cases, concubines and their children.
e. Extended family (alipins and their families)
Evidence shows that the generally, earnings are communal under
the administration of the head. Custom however recognized the
right of household members to their own belongings and property
mostly items of personal use or adornment. Even the alipin were
entitled to hold property.
Decisions were naturally made by the head but was always
influenced by other members of the household especially the
spouse and the elder folk.
III. RELIGION AND THE HOUSEHOLD
Religion was primarily a household concern emphasizing
ancestor worship and propitiation of the dead. The body of widely
held community beliefs included nature worship, animism and life
after death. There were numerous deities in charge of the
important things in the community. They varied in function, name,
authority, and most of them were good but some evil.
Central to pre-conquest religion was the belief that departed
ancestors became subordinate deities with powers to ward of
harm and protect the living. The household make up the faithful,
the house the temple, and the rituals were often sacrifices to the
deities during times of crisis.

They also worshipped idols called diwata by the Visayans and
anitos by the Tagalogs. Its not surprising that when the
Spaniards came, they found little in the way of organized religion
pertaining to places of worship, established doctrines, sects or
the presence of a priestly class.
However, it shouldnt be thought that religion was casual for preconquest society. Rather, it simply highlights the fact that
religious practices were household concerns and not communal.
Marriage is deemed celebrated when the dowry is paid and the

bride is delivered to the grooms household. The degree of
extravagance was determined by the parties rank. The climax of
the ceremony was the announcement before the gathered throng
of people once the couple has eaten from one plate drunk from
the same cup. (the marriage ceremony is detailed in the readings
but arent too important or relevant, digesting it would simply be
the same as copying it)
VIII. HUSBAND AND WIFE
The ceremonies of mourning and burial eased the transition from

this life to the next and were elaborate and costly. To insure the
welcome of the deceased in the spirit world, he was provided
with the best of whatever was needed for his last journey. Much
like the Egyptian practice, they bury the body with all that the
person will require in the next life.
Consequently, these practices entailed heavy expenses for the
household which in turn promulgate the attitude of accumulation
and materialism so to speak.
IV. MARRIAGE
Concubinage was fairly widespread but the general rule was that
only the legitimate wife took charge of the household and its
affairs. Among the wealthy Visayans, two or more wives were
allowed. Polygamy was not usually done except in cases where
the wife couldnt bear a child.
While a daughter remains unmarried, she is under parental
authority and cant old property unless she is the head of the
household. The general property regime governing couples is
conjugal partnership of gains but when an investment was made
solely by a single party, the gains were exclusive.
Marriage in pre-conquest society was largely a private affair.

Regulation was minimal. However, when it comes the property
arrangements, custom law governs. The groom compensated the
brides household with the loss of the potential revenue brought
about by the brides work. The gain of the grooms household
should be offset by the payment to the brides household.
A double standard exists regarding chastity. Concubinage

committed by the husband was not punished but adultery by the
wife is sanctioned. It is deemed the right of the husband to kill the
wife and her paramour if he caught them in the act.
Rank wasnt a bar to marriage. People can marry others of

different rank although usually, people marry within their rank.
Kinship also wasnt a bar to marriage. Marriage between first
cousins were common but the sexual taboo of sexual union
between members of the same family was still present.
Recognizing the consensual nature of marriage, separation and

divorce is allowed especially when there are valid reasons. The
party causing the separation was subject to the economic
sanctions. Upon the separation of the spouses, the property is
divided between the spouses in equal shares.
V. BETROTHAL
X. PARENT AND CHILD
Marriage were generally agreed upon by the heads of the

households so in some cases, the betrothed were only children.
Betrothal is considered as a solemn undertaking and any party
who breaches it is subject to a fine. People should be careful
regarding what they say regarding marriage. If a man says in a
drunken feast that he will mary a girl, not fulfilling this will
consequently render him with a fine.
The continuity of the household demanded procreation and the

birth of children whose interests were accorded full protection. To
conserve the resource of the household, only legitimate children
were entitled to succeed. Regardless of the number of marriages
a man might make, all children born of such marriages are
entitled to inherit. It is not the custom to disinherit anyone as long
as he or she is of legitimate birth.
VI. MARRIAGE GIFTS
Children remained under parental authority until they came of

age. Males can be emancipated before marriage. Women
remained under parental authority until they marry. If the couple
marries at a tender age, they live under the brides household
until they come of age. Illegitimate and adulterous children
remains under the mothers parental authority.
As previously said, marriage in pre-conquest society involved the

groom paying the relatives of the bride the compensatory amount
of the loss of the brides revenue to the household. This is why
the practice is usually mistaken as the family selling the girl. The
compensation to the bridges family is called bigay-caya. This
compensation is conditional in the sense that if the bride stops
rendering the service to the grooms household, the bigay-caya
should be returned. Where there are children, the dowry goes to
the children.
Besides the bigay-caya, the groom also gives panhimuyat which
is given to the brides mother in recognition of her effort to rear
and train her daughter. Another gift, called the pasoso is given to
the woman who nursed the bride.
In the situation where the bigay-caya exceeds the customary
amount, the brides household is obligated to make a return gift
called a pasonor.
VII. MARRIAGE CEREMONY
IX. SEPARATION AND DIVORCE
XI. SUCCESSION AND INHERTICANCE

Custom law in pre-conquest society extended not only to material
estate but embraced as well status and political office.
In the case of the chief or dominant household, the successor
became not only the head but also the datu. First preference
went to the eldest son, followed by the next and so on according
to age. In case there were no male children, the daughters
succeeded and in the absence of daughters, the nearest relative
succeeded.
Generally, illegitimates had lesser successional rights. Spurious
or adulterous children generally had no inheritance but they were
still given property by the legitimate descendants or by will. An

exception is when a father pays the fine of an illegitimate child he
had with another free woman, the child becomes legitimate.
The order of succession gives preference to hose in the
household, then kinfolk in other household. Succession first
pertains to the children, then to the brothers and sisters, then to
other relatives or kin.
Kinship was strictly observed in the devolution of inherited
property. Generally, a husband or wife do not inherit from each
other. If the couple doesnt have children, the estate goes to his
or her own relatives.
Custom law before didnt consider ascendants as preferred heirs.
This is because by the time that they had married and had
established separate households, the needs of their own
households would be preferred.
Among the Tagalogs, illegitimates born of concubines, were
entitled by custom to a share in the estate of their father at the
rate of half of the share of a legitimate child. Among legitimate
heirs, the estate was divided in equal shares.
XII. ADOPTION
Because of the natural fertility of women, adoption wasnt as
important as it was in the ancient law of Rome. Sources are silent
regarding the formalities and ceremonies of adoption. The
adopted gains the right to inherit. The right to inherit is apparently
personal because it if the adopted dies before the adopter, the
right extinguishes.
CHAPTER 7
PROPERTY and CONTRACTS
Underdevelopment of Property and Contract Rules
The law of contracts was the least developed in pre-conquest
custom law.
Reasons:
1. Abundance of resources meet the requirement of brgy
life.
2. Economic organization of barangay society (self
sufficiency)
3. Nature of the exchanges that occurred barterno
further expectation on the parties; protection of
properties not needed.
Scope of Property
Rights over things are purely a creature of law. Man acquired

things first before they acquire property (things become
property when they gain right over it)
Society was in a process of transformation. It is starting to
assume the aspects of entrepreneurial enterprise.
While the conquest interrupted the commercial evolution in a
barangay society, the foundations of legal development had
already been laid. There were rules on sale, partnership and
loan, although very SCARCE.
Lands as Property
Chief objects of private ownership land, gold, slaves and

articles for personal use or consumption.
Unoccupied lands- whoever cleared and cultivate it was

recognized as the owner and possessor. These are not sold
but rather are passed to the descendants through
succession, although seizure of lands by creditors or
emergency selling of lands do happen.
Commerce in Movables
Factors of Growth of commerce :
1. Abundant resources and fertile lands production
exceeds the needs. Surpluses are sold.
2. Location of the barangays were generally favorable to
trade.
Weights and Measures
Availability of weights and measures in most regions

evidences intense commercial activity.
Measure of quantity caban; ganta; chupa;
Linear measurement: arms length; width of the hand;

etc.
Barter and Sale not for market economy.
Subsistence economy - Absence of a standard medium

of exchange.
In some regions, market system is emerging. Prices are

fixed at a specific weight of gold.
LOANS
Commercial growth- indicated by prevalence of loans.
Practice of lending was widespread and attended with

abuses.
Sangla a spreading form of loan.

USURY
General view: Practice of usury was condemned.
However such view was only the reflection of the

Catholic Church stand. They considered usury as a sin.
What to the native leaders was a reasonable charge for

the use of their property was quite viewed by the friars
negatively.
PARTNERSHIP usual form of business association;

contribution to a common fund by the parties and
sharing the profits and losses in proportion to their
contributions.
System of mandatory ransom if a partner was seized

or captured while undertaking partnership business,
partner remaining behind must pay half the ransom
price demanded for release.
Treated as just one of the risks in business.

__oOo__
CHAPTER 9
REMEDIES AND PROCEDURE
I. DEVELOPMENT OF JUDICIAL SYSTEM
At the time of conquest, three techniques were in use for the
settlement or resolution of disputes:
a. Mediation and conciliation
b. Arbitration
c. Formal adjudication
In household relations, the established usage was to deal
through an intermediary. This is because:
a. Use of a third party prevented the humiliation and loss of
face
b. An intermediary greatly enhanced the chances of a
successful transaction
Where an intermediary is used, it is customary to reward him in
case his efforts were met with success. Sometimes, the mediator

is entitled to a share in the amount or property recovered in
consequence of his intervention.
A mediator serves actually as a champion of one party. By
placing his own resources on the side of the claimant, he made it
impracticable for the other side to resist by force and therefore
paved the way to peaceful settlement or compromise. Soon, the
arbitrator became more akin to a judge. Later on, the ruling
households acquired overwhelming power, and their authority
was consolidated and the datus adjudicated claims as true
judges. This practice was an outgrowth of the principle of
reciprocity.
II. RELIGION AND JUSTICE
The system of justice in pre-conquest society was deeply rooted
in religion, magic and myth. There was established a highly
rational procedure featuring stages now found in our remedial
law.
The foremost of which is the oath. At that time, due to
techonological constraints, testimonies were crucial as they were
almost always the sole source of proof. Religion plays its part as
supernatural retribution facilitated the telling of truth.
barangay. Still in others, the datu merely acts as mediator or

arbitrator. In cases like these, it is customary that the old men of
the barangay who decides according to prevailing customs.
VI. PROCEDURE IN CONTESTED CASES
When the controversy is not settled despite efforts at mediation, a
trail or hearing of the cause was held. The first step is for the
chief to get an oath from both parties. The trial simply consisted
of testimonies and declarations from both sides. After both sides
are heard, judgment was made and sentences pronounced
accordingly.
The outcome heavily relies on the weight of the evidence as
measured by the number of witnesses in favor of the cause.
Where both parties were equal, the difference of the claim and
counterclaim if any was split.
The sentence, whatever it may be, is executed without delay. The
chief or judge with the winning party enforces it sometimes with
the use of force. The proceeds from the judgment is then split
into three. One part going to the judge or chief, another part to
the witnesses, and another to the successful litigant.
VII. DETERMINATION OF GUILT BY ORDEAL OR MAGIC
There was also trial by ordeal. This obviously is rooted in religion

as the belief that gods will intervene and have a hand in
punishing the wicked and protecting the innocent.
III. OATHS
Underlying all oaths taken in connection with litigation, civil and
criminal was the supernatural belief in deities and their powers to
punish those who have falsely sworn.
This is applicable in the practice of sangla as it corresponds toa
bond or surety for performance. The function of the oath was to
reinforce belief in the declaration to which it relates by invoking
some deity as the guarantor of its truth wherein the affiant is to be
chastised in case the deity was made party to a false declaration.
IV. TECHNIQUES OF SETTLEMENT
Owing to the looseness of political organization in pre-conquest
society, the preponderant method of settling disputes and wrongs
was through mediation and conciliation, accompanied by
arbitration.
In case some great wrong is done, common friends of the
warring parties undertook to bring about a reconciliation. This
usually took the form of composition of the offense, through
payment by the offender of a sum determined in accordance with
the customary schedule.
In case parties are willing to settle a dispute but could not agree
on a specific issue, this was resolved through arbitration. An
impartial person is chosen generally from another village. Men
with reputations of being fair are usually chosen.
Even when the aggrieved party is the one who initiated the suit,
it is part of the chiefs procedure to try to effect a settlement.
V. POWER OF ADJUDICATION
Barangays in different regions of the country were at the time of
conquest, naturally in different stages of integration. In some
advanced barangays, we find that the task of adjudication
pertained solely to the chief. In other communities not so
advanced, the datu shared the authority with the old man of the
At the time of conquest, there were also less rational procedures

specially in cases of theft. One of them was trial by ordeal.
Several suspects were required to bring un a bundle of cloth
wherein the stolen article can be hidden. They are jumbled and
opened, and if the stolen article is present, the case is dismissed.
If the item is still not there, they are subjected to different tasks.
One of which is the first person to come out of the river for air is
declared the criminal. Another is the person who refuses to put
his hand into pot filled with boiling water is held liable for the
penalty. Lastly, the person whose candle first burns out is
declared the criminal.
VIII. COMPOSITION
For most offenses, the customary mode of redress was
composition. The offender pays the established fine may it be
gold or jewels. In case the parties could not agree, the datu
comes in who adjudicates and compels payment.
Even some offenses subject to vengeance had to be settled by
composition. When the offending party successfully evades the
vengeance of the offended party, the offended party is forced to
accept a fine in lieu of vengeance.
This is reasonable because if vengeance is dragged on, it will
disturb the peace and order of the community for a long time.
Furthermore, the passage of time removes the justification of
vengeance due to fury and blood-lust. When the vengeance
drags on, the datu intervenes and arbitrates and fixes a fine.
In some cases wherein the death penalty is imposed, the guilty
party can sometimes pay to get out of the sentence, in effect
buying off the community.
Part Four
The Mythical Regalian Doctrine

Chapter 1
Spanish Sovereignty: The Legal Bases
Owen Lynch

1415 Portugal initiated European colonial expansionism by
seizing the Muslim port-city of Cueta on the African side of the
Gibraltar Straits.
1456 Pope Calixto III gave papal blessing s to previous and
prospective Portuguese acquisitions of territories.
1492 Christopher Columbus entered into a commercial contract
with Los Reyes Catolicos, Ferdinand and Isabella. This is a
journey across the Atlantic Ocean.
The contract gave no heed to the prior understanding
between Portugal and the pope. Spain only invoked domestic law
to legitimize its colonial claims. But for fear that the Portuguese
might decide to occupy the islands discovered by Spain by
invoking papal briefs, Spain decided to legitimize their
expeditions. Because the Spanish Crown enjoyed considerable
leverage at the Vatican it was able to gain the support of the
Pope. Pope Alexander VI was Spanish-born and was indebted to
Spain for the appointment of his sixteen year old son as
archbishop of Valencia.
Declaration of Alexander: Papal Bulls
1. Inter Caetera Grant discovered territories to Spanish
envoys provided that the place is inhabited. (Spain not
satisfied because it was a private communication not
public)
2. Eximiae Devotionis Granted the Spanish Crown the
same rights given to kings of Portugal. But was with a
proviso that the inhabitants and dwellers will be
instructed the Catholic faith.
3. Piis Fidelium Licensed the missionaries and
empowered Ferdinand to select them.
4. Another Bull also named Inter Caetera Laid the
foundation for the Treaty of Tordesillias. Divided the
world into two. Dudum Siquidem laid the rule that Spain
gains all territories discovered by sailing West;
Praecelsae laid the rule that Portugal gains territories
discovered by sailing East.
Magellan and the Islas de San Lazaro
Magellan, an experienced Portuguese mariner secured
the patronage of the Spanish king Charles I for a daring effort to
reach Moluccas by sailing around the southern tip of the new
world. But strangely, instead of going directly to Moluccas it
changed course and reached the Philippines. March 17, 1521,
they reached the shores of Samar and named the unexplored
archipelago Islas de San Lazaro and the island of Samar was
referred as Felipinas later during Villalobos expedition. The first
mass in the Philippines was held in Limasawa on March 31,
1521. In that afternoon a wooden cross was planted atop a
nearby hill. It symbolizes the papal right to proselytize.
Contrary to the prevailing Regalian Doctrine, neither the
pope, the Spanish King, nor Magellan purported to usurp
unilaterally all of the customary property rights, or even the
sovereign rights, of the natives.
Sovereignty and the Alexandrian Declaration
Nearly thirty years elapsed between the discovery of
the Americas and Magellans arrival in the Pacific archipelago. By
the time Miguel de Legazpi arrived in 1565, Spain had already
garnered a considerable degree of experience in the
management and exploitation of its overseas possession. King
Philip II wanted to prevent any repeat of the brutal conquests of
Mexico and Peru. Dominican theologian and renowned humanist,
Francisco de Vitoria said that non-Christian leaders must be
obeyed by their subjects even Christians subjects provided that
the leaders do not violate natural law. This view was inspired by
Thomas Aquinas: Temporal rule emanates from nature and the
dictates of nature are universal. Vitoria said that natives rights
over their properties could not be usurped. This view of Vitoria

clashed with the Alexandrian Declaration. Vitoria argued that the
pope only has dominion over Christian or Catholics and thus
cannot use the bulls to legitimize rule over non Christian
areas/people.
The Manila Synod of 1582
First phase of Spanish occupation was notable for harsh
treatment inflicted by soldiers and colonial officials. The most
serious abuses were caused by encomenderos. Spaniards
would provoke incidents and thus provide themselves with an
excuse for making a just war. Second phase was heralded by
the arrival of the first Bishop of Manila, Domingo de Salazar.
In 1582, an ecclesiastical synod was convened in
Manila to address the problem of tribute collection of the
encomenderos and to formulate a novel theory upon which Spain
would stake its legal claim to sovereignty over the archipelago.
The synod said that the claim can be justified by arguing that
providing military protection of converts against their pagan
neighbours is needed. Also the synod also justified Spanish
occupation by claiming that Filipinos are culturally inferior, and
the Spaniards are there to give Filipinos Civilization and
Christianity. Through baptism, the natives were deemed to
become subjects of the popes spiritual sovereignty while
remaining subjects of their own local leaders. But the crown is
able to promulgate rules to protect the rights of spiritual rights of
native Christians.
Sovereignty and Consent
Philip decreed on February 8, 1597 that the consent of
the natives to Castilian sovereignty should be secured. So the
first plebiscite in the archipelago was held. According to Spanish
accounts, the result was overwhelmingly favourable. Native
collaborators voluntarily and solemnly chose the king as their
sovereign and natural lord. But the plebiscite participants of
course did not speak for everyone. There are still a lot of
inhabitants in the archipelago not reached by the Spaniards. Only
the coastal populations of Luzon and the Visayas had been
Christianized. The rugged terrain plays a role in this isolation.
Other areas of the Philippines was subjugated through the use of
force such as steam powered gunboats and other vastly superior
weapons. But Igorot resistance proved to be frustrating to the
Spaniards. Spain technically never acquired full sovereignty over
the entire archipelago. Regions inhabited by unconsenting
peoples retained their sovereign rights.
Spanish Sovereignty and International Law
At the time Spain ceded its Philippine rights to the
United States in 1898 the prevailing international theory was that
an area inhabited by people not permanently united for political
action was deemed territorium nullius (empty territory). But this
was an ambiguous term which could mean lands totally vacant of
people or merely not inhabited by peoples possessing those
religions and customs that Europeans recognized as equal to
their own.
In actuality, the Philippines was not an empty territory
because local governments such as barangays and sultanates in
Mindanao is already existing. But when Spain ceded the
archipelago, there was never any need to invoke these theories.
The Spanish was just assumed to be valid. Thus, the US does
not need to prove that Philippines was then territorium nullius.
The U.S. Relied on the international character of the cession and
claimed sovereignty over the entire archipelago, including the
territories which fell under the jurisdiction of Muslim sultans and
principalities.
In December 1902, Pope Leo XII promulgated the
apostolic constitution Quae Mari Sinico. The Constitution
terminated any remaining privileges still enjoyed by the Spanish
friars who remained in the colony after 1898. It also rescinded the

Declaration of Alexander and thereby formally extinguished the
last legal remnant of Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines.
contemplative acquiescence in which up to that time they

had accepted the established system, and which until then
had appeared to be eternal and immutable.
Part Five
The Spanish Era Colonial Government

Chapter 2: Madrid and Manila Secular
Spanish Participants
Owen Lynch
An Insular Overview
- Instead of focusing on colonizing the Philippine Islands,
greater priority for Spain was to ward off other potential
European predators and make money from the galleon trade,
the land, and the labor of the natives.
- (Note: Why was Philippine Colonialism peripheral to Spain?
Its far.)
- During the Spanish regime, the number of full-blooded
Spaniards never reached that many. In 1604, there were
1,200 and by 1842, the count reached only 1,500 plus 3,500
insulares (pure-blooded Spaniards born in the Philippines).
Most Spaniards lived in Manila except for priests.
- This made the Spaniards rely on indigenous institutions and
leaders. Since there were few Spanish personnel, the legal
impact (right to determine and enforce substantive policies) of
the Spaniards on the native communities was muted.
However, the Spaniards collected tributu (taxes mostly paid
in kind) from the natives, Chinese, and Chinese mestizos.
Though they also collected duties on exports and imports,
anchorage fees, government monopolies and sold
government properties, the regime was subsidized by a
situado (allowance) from the viceroyalty of New Spain
(Mexico).
- After the British occupation in Manila, Madrid appreciated the
Philippines arable land resources more which led to the rise
in monocropping and production for export. Also, there was
shorter travel time and lower transportation costs between
Europe and the Pacific after the opening of the Suez Canal in
1869.
Castilian/ Spanish Monarchy
Four objectives of the Spanish Crown for the Philippine
colony:
a. to break the Portugese spice trade monopoly;
b. to establish and maintain direct contacts with China
and Japan;
c. to take advantage of the economic
possibilities/benefits inherent in every colonization;
d. to Christianize the inhabitants of the archipelago.
An elaborate system of laws was made which were designed
to protect the natives from injustices by the Spanish citizens
and to enhance the colonys self-sufficiency and eventual
profitability.
Charles Cunninghams 1919 legal history entitled The
Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies as Illustrated by the
Audiencia of Manila said that the colonial legal machinery
was impressive because of its failure to effect deliberately
the division of powers.
st
1 two centuries promote agribusiness or resourceextraction endeavours
Bourbon monarchy in 1700 redefine culture as that which
leads to happiness here and now, and place economic
development on a scientific basis expansion of
monocropping and an intensified competition for arable
resources.
Political developments were felt in Manila so some formally
educated native elites awoke from their state of
Council of the Indies/ Overseas Ministry

Established in 1542
Undifferentiated executive, legislative, and judicial powers
Fourteen high-level officials and a large number of
functionaries (political conduits)
Until 1812, internally contradictory legal framework with
official positions, courts, central and municipal governments,
and other government institutions created for the colony.
Until Mexican independence in 1820, the Philippines was
treated as a Mexican province - autonomous branch of the
viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico). However, laws enacted in
Madrid in response to developments in Mexico had little to
do with the Philippines. This led to an impairment of
legislative responsibility in the colony which retarded and
discouraged the progress of the government and gave the
colonial laws the effect of detachment from the actual
conditions they were meant to remedy.
Abolished in 1812
In 1863, the Ministerio de Ultramar (Overseas Ministry)
assumed primary jurisdiction and had the power to remove
and appoint all important officials in the colony. The minister
was assisted by the Consejo de Filipinas (Council of the
Philippines) which was created in 1870. Membership in the
council was limited to individuals who had served in the
Philippines at least two years in a senior administrative
capacity.
The first codification of colonial laws promulgated by the
Crown and the crown was completed in Mexico during 1545
and given royal sanction in 1548.
st
1 majore, empire-wide codification of the Laws of the
Indies, El Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reynos de los
Indios, approved in May 18, 1680, published in 1756, 1774,
1791, and 1841, made to regulate the various colonial
regimes in Spains vast empire but it had many
contradictions.
th
Additional laws in Siete Partidas, a 13 century compilation
made under the orders of King Alphonso X of Castile.
Governors/ Captains-General
Due to the distance from Madrid and the usual two year
length of time needed to communicate, colonial officials had
a greater degree of discretion and autonomy than expressly
provided for so the office was easily exploited.
The Philippine office of the Governor/Captain-General was
created in 1567. Official title was Governor, Captain-General,
and President of the Royal Audiencia until 1861. In 1874,
title became Governor-General. He is the personal
representative of the Crown. His direct superior was the
viceroy of New Spain (Mexico). He could consult with the
viceroy which was good since the viceroy was incharge of
the annual subsidy (situado). Despite the supervisory and
financial leverage, the Philippine colony was largely
independent of the viceroy.
The selection of the governor was made personally by the
king from a list of names submitted by the Council of the
Indies. Mostly military men with no Philippine experience so
as not to allow them to develop close intimacies and
personal relationships.
Edward Bourne in his historical introduction to Blair and
Robertsons compilation, said that the colony constituted a
kingdom which was placed under the charge of a governor
and captain-general whose powers were truly royal and
limited only by the check imposed by the SC (the Audiencia)
and by the ordeal of the residencia.

-
The governor was responsible for: (1) civilian administration

including appointment of local officials not assigned by
Madrid; (2) collecting revenues, establishing government
monopolies, and nominating encomenderos; (3) vicepatron
of the church with the right to select people for ecclesiastical
positions below that of the bishop; (4) captain-general and
chief of the Army and Navy with legal right to invoke armed
might against those who challenged or resisted the colonial
regime; (5) can suspend the effectivity of laws from Madrid
(power of cumplase I obey but t do not follow. Hard to
appeal to the king due to the lengthy delays.); (6) right to
allot boletas or tickets which entitled cargo space on the
Acapulco-bound galleon; (7) president of the audiencia with
the power to control the actual function of the colonys
highest judicial body and the authority to determine the
judicial, governmental, military, or ecclesiastical character of
a particular dispute and then assign it to the proper tribunal
or department so he was the supreme arbiter
The residencia is a judicial examination or trial at the end of
an officials term of office which serves as a primary restraint
against abuse but he designated judges and participated in
the meeting. Any governor threatened by a potentially
negative report knew that he would have to use a certain
percentage of his profits to bribe his way out of the colony.
Real Audiencia of Manila/ Oideres

Audiencias were established as a means to relieve colonial
governors of judicial duties and thereby check their alleged
excesses.
Established on May 5, 1583
Governor was president. Four other oideres (member of the
tribunal who investigated and decided the outcome of
disputes and performed other judicial and administrative
functions.)
They were referred to as fiscal, prosecuting on behalf of the
Crown and defending its interests in all cases tried before
the audiencia, obliged to serve as el protector de los
Indios.
It could promulgate real acuerdos of royal resolutions,
referred to as decrees and regarded as authoritative
domestic legislation which was compiled and referred to as
the autos acordados/ judicial agreements.
Charged (1) to always take great care to be informed of the
crimes and abuses which are committed against the Indians;
(2) to monitor provincial bureaucrats so that they will not be
remiss in their duties appoints visitador sent on an
inspection tour of various local governments.
The audiencia tended to regard their appointments
(visitador) as commissions to engage in profitable ventures
and business undertakings.
The only effective limitation on the governors power was the
legal requirement that there should always be at least one
oider of royal appointment.
A royal cedula on January 30, 1855 established uniform
rules and procedures.
In 1861, it was divested of its executive and administrative
functions and became simply the supreme court of the
archipelago.
On January 5, 1981, an organic law of judicial power in the
colonies beyond the sea was made.
The Philippine Bureaucracy
Official appointments, and the right to any emolument were
considered as grants of royal favour or mercedes, sold to the
highest bidder so the position was viewed as a private
investment
1784 Intendencia de Ejerto (Intendancy of the Army) and the
Superintendencia de Hacienda (Superintendant of Finance)
financial management was removed from governor to

independent government organization.
Confusion of functions and duplication of administrative
powers.
Civil registry offices were set up in each municipality
pursuant to Royal Order No. 250 of December 3, 1861.
Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines was officially
integrated in 1861 as a component of the Department of
Grace and Justice.
CFIs were created in 1860 and local justice of the peace
courts were made in 1890.
Educational decree of 1863.
Laws on taxation was compiled in 1867.
1887 - Civil Code of Spain was extended to the Philippines.
In 1888, a Code of Civil Procedure was made. In 1889, a
Code of Commerce and a Notorial Law was made. In 1847
and 1893, there were municipal reforms.
1855 - Inspeccion General de Montes was established with
jurisdiction over land and forests. Then the I.G. de Minas for
mines and mineral deposits.
August 3, 1866 - Law of Waters. May 14, 1867 - Mining Law.
1884 - Definitive Forest Laws and Regulations for the
Philippine Forest Service.
Colony wide land registration was done in 1880.
1889 Law on Mortgage and registration of Property.
February 13, 1894 Royal Decree - Maura Law
The legal reforms and increasing reliance on the native and
Chinese mestizo professionals failed to correct the colonial
bureaucracys fundamental weakness internal moral
corruption of its members.
The Philippines was a dumping ground for people unfit to
serve Spain.
Rapid turnover of colonial personnel, including the governor,
contributed to the overall malaise, as did the political
instability in Madrid.
Chapter 3
Foreign Influences in the Provinces:
Encomenderos, Governors, Priests, and
Businessmen
Owen Lynch
Encomenderos
Were usually Spanish soldiers, given an royal grant
(encomienda cities, towns, castles) for their participation
in the war
They DID NOT possess a real property right. They were only
ordered to collect tributes from natives within a given area. In
return, they must maintain law and order, promote the
Christian faith, aid the people in their respective areas
The encomenderos abused their powers. They exacted
tribute even if the people had no money. If no payment,
forced labor. The tribute that they collected exceeded the
official rate. They also accepted scarce goods, which they
sold for a high profit. This resulted in problems with local
subsistence economies, and acute rice shortages.
Augustinian friars denounced the injustices in the tribute
collection, and a synod came about. This synod lashed out
at the encomenderos and ordered them to be just with their
practices, and this was supported by Philip II. He ordered the
new governor, Gomez Perez Desmarines to resolve this
issue, together with Dominican Bishop Domingo de
Salazar.
But these 2 also clashed: Salazar was on the side of the
natives, while Desmarines believed that Salazar was only
using this to expand the powers of the Church.

-
Desmarines issued an ordinance that ordered the collection

of the full tribute, but will be given back to the natives in
the form of health services. This w/o religious interference.
Salazar went to Philip II in Madrid to appeal. But the King
took Desmarines side on May 25 1596. From then on, it was
held that the encomiendas were legitimate (because they
were royal grants) and that the baptized natives
voluntarily accepted the power of the King and therefore
had to pay the tribute WON there are religious
instructions to do so.
In the end, the encomienda system failed to provide
sufficient revenue for the King. The encomiendas were also
eliminated between 1621-1655. But the tribute continued to
be collected until 1884, collected by the alcaldes mayor and
their goons.
Provincial Officials/Alcaldes Mayor/Corregidores

Before, there were 9 provinces/alcaldias mayor: Cagayan,
Ilocos, Pangasinan, Pampanga, Laguna, Camarines in
Luzon, and Cebu and Arevalo in the Visayas
th
17 century - these became 12, and some were subdivided
into corregimientos
1840 : 32 provinces20 alcaldias and 12 military areas
under corregidormientos
1880 : 47 provinces (15 under civil rule, 23 politico-military, 7
military)
The King appoints alcaldes and corregidores, but governor
can make ad interim appointments, and this power was
abused and the office was sold.
Provincial governors (i.e. alcalde mayor / corregidor)
Exercised executive, judicial and military powers, often
arbitrarily
They are a 1-man court. Decisions are appealable to the
Audiencia but futile
Tasked with implementation of colonial laws, protect peoples
and property rights, utilize armed forces to preserve peace
and order, supervise lower level officials
Are often ex-soldiers or itinerant Spaniards who chose to
remain in the Phils, or even hairdressers, sailors, deserters.
They are forbidden to have personal or business ties with
the natives.
Their most important responsibility: collection of tributes
(mostly in the form of farm produce). So they used their
position to enrich themselves. They had a small salary, plus
a sobresueldo (a bonus, a percentage of their total tribute
collection)
There was an ordinance from the governor-general that
prohibits them from buying lands w/in their area. So they
turned to trade and commerce and they became alcaldesnegotiante, or merchant-governor, using their position to
monopolize everything
Can also call upon the guardia civil for assistance in the
administration of justice. But the guardia civil abused their
powers.
Changes in the provincial government:
Sep 23 1844 there was a decree providing for criteria for
ranking provincial governments according to amount of
revenues collected, using seniority for ranking provincial
officials, and qualifications for alcaldes (at least a lawyer
or 2 yrs in a law office), and the removal of trading
privileges. This was extended to corregidores in Jun 25
1847. So these officials lost their monopolies.
Sep 1 1859 a Royal Decree ordered the separation of
judicial functions of Manila alcaldes, and transferring them
to the Office of Civil Governor. July 30 1860 it was applied to
provincial alcaldes mayor.
May 29 1885 a Royal Order directed a justice of the

peace (over civil and criminal issues) to be placed in all
provincial capitals
Feb 26 1886 Another Royal Decree, for the separation of
judicial and executive functions in the provincial
governments
Ecclesiastical Officials
The Roman Catholic Church was a partner in the
administration of the colonies. Their power came from the
Vatican and Madrid.
There was an order by Philip II to the governor-general in
1594 to divide the Phils. into missionary districts. Each
religious order was given a separate area.
There were jurisdictional conflicts between church authorities
and secular colonial officials, mostly because of patronato
real (royal patronage), which guaranteed financial support
from the Crown to the Church in return for the right to
nominate candidates for monastic and Episcopal benefices.
This evolved into pase regio (royal consent), which gave the
Crown effective control over all important religious
appointments in the colony.
So, the governor-general had great powers of supervision
and control over the Phil. clergy. The Crown controlled the
Church, and this made the latter very bitter.
Still, the Church has great political power in the Phils. They
dominated governors and audiencias. The most powerful
political figure is the archbishop of Manila. 3 times he served
as governor, and in 1719 the archbishop brought about a
governors murder then succeeded him.
The influence of the Church was reduced by liberalism, intrareligious quarrels, and abuses towards the natives. In 1768,
the Jesuits were expelled from the Phils. When they came
back in 1859, the government officials realized how
important they were in the administration of the colony. In
1860, the Church became an official component of the
government. They were necessary not because they were
religious, but because they were Spaniards, who are there to
keep the natives loyal to Spain. In lowland Luzon towns, the
priest was the only Spaniard there, and the most important
political figure there, with the gobernadorcillo deferring to the
priests opinion.
However, Rizals Noli emphasized how these friars, with their
large estates farmed by hungry natives, actually were
perceived negatively by the natives.
Even though the friars were influential, they were few. From
the 1600s to 1800s, there were only about 200-400 priests.
In 1898, there were only 1,642 priests, most of them in the
urban areas, catering to about 6.5 million Catholics in 1,043
municipalities.
So, the Crown had to recruit native clergy since 1677. The
first native priest was ordained in 1698. In 1702, there was a
royal decree for the opening of a seminary for natives, but it
was implemented only in 1772. From the 1720s up to 1768,
an average of 1 native priest a year was ordained. But they
often served as subordinates of the foreign clergy.
1768-1773 a large number of natives and Chinese
mestizos were ordained to fill the vacancy created by the
expulsion of the Jesuits. Their lack of training showed while
they were in office, so this created a negative impression on
the foreign clergy. In 1826, there was a royal order that
stopped the native secularization of parishes. Not one
Filipino priest was raised to the episcopate during the entire
Spanish rule.
But the native and mestizo seminarians were educated and
learned of the Spanish abuses. They grew increasingly
agitated until in Jan 20 1872, there was an uprising of native
soldiers and laborers in Cavite. This made Gov-Gen Rafael
de Izquierdo a chance to silence the native clergy. He

arrested prominent native and mestizo clerics, lawyers,
merchants, and the 3 native priests Jose Burgos, Mariano
Gomez, and Jacinto Zamora. The 3 priests, after a mock
trial, were garroted in Feb 17 1872.
1861, the church was officially integrated into the colonial
regime. It merged with the Audiencia to form the
Department of Grace and Justice.
Commercial Resource Extraction Enterprise
st
For the 1 200 yrs of Spanish rule, there was little
investment in agribusiness or resource extraction endeavors.
Many people decided to invest on the galleon trade between
Manila and Acapulco. At first, Manila was only a port
between China and Spanish America. But it was boosted by
the British East India Company. It and other companies and
the Chinese built merchant houses in the Phils to export agri
products and buy imports. The export business soon
boomed. They also were not Manila-based, but they dealt
with Muslim sultanate in Sulu, Chinese sugar planters in
Western Visayas, and hemp farmers in Bikol.
1875 - Manila was opened to Asian shipping
1789 a decree authorized European ships to trade with
Manila
1834 Manila was formerly opened to world trade, and also
Cebu, Iloilo, Zamboanga and Pangasinan in 1855.
Spanish ships brought imports, while foreign ships carried
away exports.
Tariff was imposed heavily on necessities, not on luxuries
The merchant houses and other foreign enterprises are a
major boost to the Phil economy. They were the ones who
exported raw materials and imported manufactured goods,
and gave credit to local producers. More land was then
devoted for export products: sugar cane, rice, tobacco,
Manila hemp. However, they did not own the land for the
haciendas and plantations. Mestizos and native elites still
did.
Chapter 4:
Native Actors: Collaborators,
Entrepreneurs, and Proto-Nationalists
Owen Lynch
Principalia
In view of the existence of a relatively uncomplicated, but
dynamic, two-tiered social structure that existed before and
during the Spanish era.
Definitions:
Loosely defined native/mestizo elite.
A pool of local leaders from which colonial officials
appointed gobernadorcillos and cabezas de
barangay.
Intermediaries between the indios and their colonial
overlords for: a) collecting taxes, b) directing labor
gangs, and c) leading native troop contingents.
Until 1786, membership in the principalia was
inherited by the sons of traditional leaders, while
some gain membership by the completion of a
successful term of office as an appointed
gobernadorcillo or cabeza de barangay. Hence, the
group gained legitimacy from within its community
and not from the colonial state.
Membership in the principalia:
Through collaboration with the colonists.
The leading members of the community.
By the whims of local officials.
There came a change in the customary criteria with the rise
of Chinese mestizos to local prominence. These people
showed strong affinity for Catholicism and the emerging
Hispano-Philippine culture.
Illustrations of the effects of the change in the customary

criteria:
In Pampanga, the new criteria were adopted during the time
of increasing agricultural intensification. It therefore helped
facilitate the political and economic displacement of
traditional native elites by Chinese mestizo entrepreneurs.
In Bicol, the new criteria made it possible for outsiders to
move into the region after the abaca boom.
Municipal Reform Decree of 1847 limited the membership in
the principalia to present and former municipal and barrio
officials, particularly but not exclusively, to gobernadorcillos
and cabezas.
The other side of the state of the principalia:
In Batangas, members of the principalia were not
wealthy, nor were they mostly politically powerful.
In Bikol, it was found by Norman G. Owen that the
provinces political and economic elites were not
usually the members of the prinicipalia.
Municipal Leaders/ Gobernadorcillos

The position of a gobernadorcillo is the highest colonial office
attainable by natives and Chinese mestizos during the
Spanish regime.
Definitions:
Petty governor.
Subordinates of the then alcaldes.
Chief native representatives of the colonial regime
serving within their pueblos de los Indios.
Present-day mayors.
By the 1880s, 725 pueblos were in existence. In 1898, it
became 1,043. Neither the pueblos nor its constituent
components, the barrios, had any documentary corporate
th
character prior to the 19 century. Municipal finances were
centralized and administered by the alcaldes.
The office of the gobernadorcillo:
Usually limited to more prosperous natives and
Chinese mestizos.
Once selected, a person was obliged to serve
except in cases of the following: old age, ill-health,
and extreme poverty.
No one can be removed from this office unless
authorized by the audiencia.
The shortage of Spanish personnel ensured that the
office was held only by a native or a Chinese
mestizo. It was therefore an overgeneralization to
say that the Spanish colonial rule, in all its levels,
was indirect.
Municipalities
were
superterritorial
entities
which
encompassed previously autonomous villages.
For the selection of municipal leaders, the Spanish
provided for a limited electoral franchise:
th
i. Until the end of 17 century- all tribute
payers
ii. 1801 Ordinances of Good Governmentfurther narrowed the franchise
iii. Municipal Reform Law of 1847- further
narrowed the franchise
A typical election of municipal leaders after 1847 took place
on April 1:
Meeting in the municipal hall where all the members
of the principalia were invited:
i. Sorteo - casting of lots; involved the
selection of 12 people, along with the
current gobernadorcillo, who would
provisionally elect the next mayor. Electors
were picked by lot: 6 ex-gobernadorcillos
and ex-cabezas of 10 years standing.
Nominees for gobernadorcillo were legally
required to read, write, and speak
Spanish, and to have been an ex-cabeza

or ex-teniente mayor.
ii. Electors cast written ballots for their first
and second choices.
iii. Oral votes were cast for 4 other municipal
officials: the teniente mayor (deputy
mayor), the juez de policia (chief of
police), the juez de sementeras (superintendent of the fields who kept watch over
the boundaries of cultivated land), and the
juez de ganados (superintendent of the
livestock who looked after the branding of
the livestock).
Names of the top 3 vote-getters in the different
positions would be submitted to the regime.
The alcaldes mayors would make the selection.
The primary responsibility of the gobernadorcillo was
collecting tribute from their constituents. In return:
They were exempted from payment o the tribute
and other taxes.
They were exempted from the annual forced labor
required.
They were entitled to .5% of the total tribute
collection.
Local officials were held liable for the shortcomings in the
tribute collection, or they were punished for it:
Imprisonment
Collection of their goods
Hence, some officials became fugitives in order to escape
punishment.
As for the masses, the tribute collection increased their deptpeonage.
Gobernadorcillos had final jurisdiction over civil and petty
criminal cases between native litigants, and settled
questions concerning land boundaries and ownership.
The aforementioned judicial responsibility of the
gobernadorcillos was taken over by the juez de la paz or the
justice of peace by virtue of the Royal Decree issued in
1890.
In order to interpret and implement colonial laws,
gobernadorcillos enlist the aid of priest because the former
were not usually proficient in Spanish.
Municipal (Maura) Law
The last municipal government law promulgated by
the Spaniards decreed on May 19, 1893. However,
this was subsequently set aside by the governorgeneral.
It would have established in each municipality, a
council of 12 electors chosen by the principalia, the
parish priest, and the outgoing gobernadorcillo. The
council was to be empowered to elect the
gobernadorcillo (later on renamed as municipalcaptain) and his 4 lieutenants. These 5 were to
compose a tribunal which shared powers with the
council.
The municipal government was also to be
empowered to impose taxes for its own
maintenance.
Barrio Leaders/ Cabezas de Barangay

Duties and perks of the job:
Stood as the leaders of the barrios.
Collected taxes and other imposts within the barrio,
where they were usually entitled to keep 1.5% of
the total collection. However, they usually pocketed
more.
Their wives and eldest sons were exempted from
payment of tributes.
The function and format of the barangay and the cabeza

were modified in 1786.
Abolition of hereditary succession in favor of
elections by the principalia.
Hence, by 1840s, hereditary leaders and statesanctioned leaders were often the same.
This accelerated the erosion of communal solidarity.
Changes in the procedure for election of cabezas by 1863:
They must speak, read, and write Spanish.
Exemption from forced labor would be limited to
those qualified to hold important local offices.
Participation in the selection of local leaders was to
be contingent on the extent of an individuals
material contribution to the colonial enterprise.
Chinese/ Chinese-Mestizos
Chinese presence dates back to the time when merchants
from Fukien province along Chinas southeastern coast had
been trading with various communities in the Philippines.
By 1603, the Chinese community had grown to as many as
20,000 people that Spaniards issued expulsion orders
between 1606 and 1766. Later on, Spaniards also initiated
the physical segregation of non-Catholic Chinese. In addition
to these, 2 other colonial strategies were employed:
Promotion of the conversion of Chinese residents
Encouraging the Chinese to marry natives
i. In 1620, the Council of the Indies enacted
a law to induce Chinese Catholics to marry
native women in front of Catholic priests.
This was rewarded by granting them
uncultivated tracts of land.
ii. The mestizo offspring of Malay-Chinese
marriages were often Catholics. This
shows that the direction of cultural
assimilation was toward a hispanized
Philippine culture.
The most important social phenomenon of the century 17501850 was the rise of Chinese mestizo to a position of
economic and social prominence. Reactions were:
Envy of the indios.
Fear of Spaniards of losing even more of what they
had, hence, they decreed the exclusion policy or
the exclusion law in 1850 which removed
prosperous Chinese merchants from rural economic
life.
Provincial and Municipal Elites
According to Nicholas Cushners Spain in the Philippines,
there were 3 other native social classes in addition to the
principalia:
Landed aristocracy
Middle class
Peasant class
Michael Cullinane, on the other hand, provided 4 categories
which provide a convenient means for identifying who,
th
during the late 19 century, wielded more power and
influence:
Provincial elites
Municipal elites- political influence usually confined
to their municipality
Urban aristocracies
Urban middle sectors
Not mutually exclusive and do not purport to be class
divisions: wealth, status, power, ethnic origin and
educational attainment varied among the individuals in each
category.
Glen May also identified 4 elite factions in Batangas who
vied for power in municipal elections:
Those coming from the wealthy families.

-
Those led by the local Spanish priests.

Those which reflected the growing anti-clerical and
anti-Spanish sentiment of the local elite.
Those with personal grievances against the regime.
Their competition for local preeminence, including control
over land resources, was intense.
Provincial elites often competed for mid-level positions and
promotions within the colonial bureaucracy. These are
usually college-educated natives who held degrees and
membership in the medical or civil law professions.
Los Ilustrados
Definitions:
Young native-mestizo men
The learned, most-hailed from Luzon and urban
areas in the Vizayas
Most usually came from families which had
prospered under the Spanish regime
Formally educated at the university level
Their emergence marked the apex of Spanish
cultural influence in the Philippines
Ilustrados include Jose Rizal, Graciano Lopez
Jaena, and Marcelo H. del Pilar, who also became
the well-known propagandistas.
-
The propagandistas:
According to Cesar Majul, this is a politically distinct
group from the ilustrados.
Most of them were not rich.
Their foremost goal was the complete assimilation
of Filipino and Spaniard, with the former enjoying
the rights theoretically guaranteed to him as a
Spanish citizen.
Other principal concerns: absence of civil liberties,
economic mismanagement, corrupt government,
and deficient education.
Asociacion Hispano-Filipina:
A Madrid-based group of ilustrados during 1888.
They proposed the enactment of various laws to
address these problems, especially those for:
i. Obligatory teaching of Spanish
ii. Registration of property rights and other
civil matters
iii. Reformulation of tariffs and public
administration
iv.
Promotion of other measures to
stimulate economic development
Part Six
The Spanish Era Colonial Natural

Resource Laws
3.
1987 fire destroyed Manila repository of documents

containing recognized property rights
Customary rights
King Philipp II - In fear of a repeat of the atrocities committed by
his subjects in the Americas, he declared that the Spanish
colonial policy to be conducted in the Philippines should treat the
natives as new Xians and should respect their property rights.
Various laws were promulgated to guarantee such and some
even applies to non-Xians.
Instructed Legazpi to respect the private property of the
Indians.
His policy was reiterated many times, indicating that it
was occasionally disobeyed.
Land practices of precolonial Filipinos
Land-tenure practices or system is unknown or lost
Communal in character
Ownership based on contingent and actual use
Maura Law of 1894 - ceased the recognition of customary rights.
Spanish Colonial Law (Pre-Maura)
Customary property rights - equated with titles held fee
in simple
Only private property can be alienated. Alienation of
communal illegal.
Recognized the communal customary rights but
procedures for securing registration never promulgated.
Created an opportunity for some Spaniards and also
native and chinese ellites - to illegally usurp this lands.
More illegal usurpation in Manila and nearby localities.
Manuel Bernaldez - proof of ownership - tradition and
desposition of witnesses. - called for proper
documentation of these lands.
Unheeded: ancestral owners became squatters of their
land.
Terreneos Realengos
Modes for granting rights to royal lands:
Titulo real - royal grant (none made in the Phil)
Titulos de concesion especial o extraordinario - special
documented grats
awarded on the Crown's behalf at the dicretion of the
governor.
Titulos de compra - lands purchased from the colonial
government.
Titulos de gratuito - free grants - awarded to settlers
(some indigenous) in theform of repartimientos
(apportionments)
Owen Lynch - Chapter Five: Emergence

of the Documented Property Regime
Two types of private property (Early colonial regime)

1. Customary rights - uasge and possesion
2. Crown - terreneos realengos - all lands not used by the
natives.
Spain's problems on land rights and land registration:
1. Land laws numerous and unorganized.
2. Spanish admin kept no systematic records of agri lands regime did not levy land tax.
Titulos de composicion con el Estado - Gives legal

sanctions on subsequent enroachment on documented
lands.
Terreno communal or dehesa (pasture) communal land granted to newly est. pueblos.
Bienes propios - royal lands used by a municipality or
barrio for the payment of public expenses.
Royal Grants:
208 land grants (concessiones especial) - made for
colonial officials, soldiers, Spanish citizens and natives who were believed to be deserving for a reward.
Size measurements - used the ones used in Nueva
Espana (Mexico):
o Estancia para ganado mayor - large estate cattle ranching

o
o
o
o
-
Estancia para ganado menor - 3/5ths of mayor

- grazing
Cabellaria - 68 hectares
Cabalito/peonia - half of Cabellaria
Pedazo - irregular plots of unknown size.
The Governor General decided whether grants are merited,

but he cannot approve grants on land already settled and
cultivated.
Most of the land covered by royal grants was located in or
near Manila.
Those in Tondo are all made in behalf of Spaniards.
Pampango principales recieved most grants amongst the
natives, presumably for aiding the Spanish colonists.
Due to failure of the lands covered by royal grants to
produce food, a food shortage ensued and prompted a
discontinuance of issuing land grants. After this the only legal
means of acquire documented registration of lands is
through purchase or donation of customary right.
Many Spaniards who took up farming lost their lands to
religious institutions thorugh mortgage, sale or donation.
The royal land grants introduce the concept of private,
individual ownership of land which bred the commotification
of land rights.
Initially, there was a royal prohibition against as land
ownership of religious institutions but it was revoked upon
the urging of Manila Bishop Domingo Salazar in 1951. Soon
after Church owned property grew unprecedentedly.
These occupied much of the fertile provinces outside Manila,
which were mostly acquired through purchase and donation,
transcated illegaly by native chiefs and datus.
Once established these lands grew by illegal encroachment
of its adjoining areas.
The lands were populated by the orders by initially financing
tenants. Eventually the lands became productive and
profitable.
There are ocassions when friars animated by Christian
principles would speak up against illegal acquisition of land,
but most of the time they were the ones taking the lands
themselves.
The audencia was responsible for seeing that customary
rights were respected. They failed miserably.
Many traditional Tagalog leaders sold inalienable village
lands to each other or to Spanish citizens.
Colonial laws were ineffective in preserving communal
holdings because the Spaniards were hesistant to
antagonize the principilia who were alienating inalienable
communal lands because they are useful for the
maintenance of the colonial power.
In response to the rising clamor (of people complaining
about the orders encroaching on their farms), the colonial
government required the orders to prove titles to the lands in
the same manner that was required of other corporations
and individuals.
Juan de Sierra Osorio an oider of the Mexican Audencia
was commissioned to go to the Philippines and investigate
the land situation. He summoned the friars and gave them
one year to prove their ownership for the lands they claimed.
The friars refused to comply, claiming that pursuant to a
1967 papal bull, Sierra had no authority over them.
Juan Ozaeta y Oro replaced Sierra because his fruitless
inquiry. He deemed that the titles of the friars were in proper
legal form.
The people from the Philippines and the other colonies did
not quiet down. Their complaints reached Madrid which
alarmed the crown, not only reagarding the peace and
stability of the colonies, but more so, regarding their financial
viability. This required that the native control over land
resources could not be completely usurped. The colonial
regime, therefore, was obliged to ensure that native holdings

did not entirely disappear.
Pedro Calderon Enriquez requested the friars to provied
him with records of all the lands they claimed to own. Again,
the frairs flaimed ecclessiastic exemption. Calderon
proceeded without them and ultimately ordered them to
vacate the illegally usurped lands.
Generally, even after Calderon, complaints against friar
lands rarely prospered. Even Calderon opined that the friars
should just be left alone except in cases of notorious
injustice.
The previous dampened the native populations faith in
colonial legal processes.
Composicion de Tierras defective land titles are legitimized

upon payment of a fee to the insular regime. It was ideally a way
to preventnillegal encroachment. But in the end, it just
established to fill King Philip II epmty coffers.
Owen Lynch Chapter Six: Agricultural

Intensification and the Theoretical
Extinguishment of Ancestral Domain
Rights
The Rise of the Mono-cropping and Production
Intermediaries
The Spanish Bourbon Monarchs, beginning with Philip
V, assumed the throne in 1700.
They were more concerned with making the colonial
endeavor economically profitable; less emphasis on
religious proselytization.
Nevertheless retained theoretical legal protection of
undocumented customary rights.
Royal Decree of October 15, 1754 declared that
justified long and continuous possession was sufficient
basis for recognition of native ownership. It also
stressed that indegenes need not possess documentary
titles in order for their land rights to be recognized.
was ineffective and illegal usurpations of ancestral
domains continued.
Governor-General Simon It is certain that, by public
report, if those holding documented land rights had to
show their titles to those lands it would be found that
many, if not all of them, had been usurped from the
Indians.
Ordinance of Roan declared that it was of great
importance to the State that all the Indians have the
necessary lands. The territory of native reductions
and villages ... is communal. expressly prohibited the
sale of customarily-held lands, unless permission was
first secured from the fiscal of the audiencia.
Governor-General Jose Basco y Vargas issued
monopoly licenses for the cultivation of coffee, spices,
indigo, tobacco and other crops.
Tobacco Monopoly immediately profitable, it was held
by the regime and endure for one hundred years; put
the Philippines fiscally on its feet.
Royal Philippine Company made substantial
investments on sugar for the regime; boosted sugar
exports from 100 tons in 1788 to 4,500 tons in 1796.
Few natives benefited from all these economic and
agricultural advances.
Basco suggests that land is wasted in the natives and
that natives cheat through testimonies regarding
customary ownership.

-
Native and Mestizo elites benefited from the above, their

lands grew, most through usurpationof the smaller farms
around large farms estates.
These large farms became impossible to be managed
without help, thus the rise of the inquilinos and
kasamas.
Inquilinos (fixed-rent tenants) the hacenderos or large
land owners leased portions of land to inquilinos for a
fixed fee and then the inquilinos sublet these land
portions to kasamas.
Kasamas (sharecroppers) they are the manual
laborers of the farms, the cultivators.
The Penultimate Century

Four classes of estate proprietors: (1) Religious orders, (2)
Spanish Entrepreneurs, (3) Principal Mestizos and Indians &
(4) All Other Natives.
Members of the 3rd class are popular called caciques (from
caciquismo, traditional native leaders in Haiti).
Chinese Mestizos because of their previous accumulation
of commercial capital, they were in the position to finance
agricultural production.
The phenomenon above prompted absentee ownership.
Although, during pre-contact existing, the unprecedented
gap between owner and tenants make it see like a
parasitism.
Another product of the above phenomenon is the landless
laborer.
During the Penultimate century, large forested plains which
were first homesteaded by small tenant-cultivators were
taken over by large haciendas, mostly through usurpation.
The usurpations were carried out by getting to sign
finnancially distresed small farmers denuncias
(denunciations). The thrust of these activities started the
wholesale dispossession of village populations.
Pacto de Retrovenda
Pacto de Retrovenda (Tagalog: Sanlang-bili) usurious

mortgage usually employed to take over privately
owned, undocumented land rights. The rights to a land
are used as collateral, and when the mortgagors are
unable to pay, the collateral is taken by the prestamista
(money lender).
1768 the colonial government passed a law against

the Pacto. This did not stop the Chinese mestizos who
lived close to the indio and knew his needs.
After the colonial government realized that it cannot stop

the Pacto, it was legalized and codified in the civil code
of 1889 and was renamed contract of conventional
redemption.
Land Registration
Notarized transactions were used in place of actual land

registrations.
Earliest efforts to register land was motivated by the desire

of creditors to legally acquire the rights to a land of his
borrowers whose loans were guaranteed by land.
Escribania de Cabildo (secretary of municipal council) an

office whose duty is to register all apportionments made by
municipal officials.
Contadurias de Hipoteca (Mortgage Registration Offices)

manned by municipal secretaries (escribanos de
ayuntamiento)
Land registration generated little political opposition because

it posed no threat to elite interests.
Comprehensive land registration is different because it

granted registration based on mere possession which the
church and pressumably other elite groups opposed
because of their anomalous practices in securing property

rights.
Royal Decree of June 25, 1880 imposed limits on the size
of lands which could be acquired by purchase.
provided a one year-period for the voluntary, colony-wide
registration of private property rights over what had been
once Crown lands. Unless registered, ownership rights were
vulnerable to usurpation.
Registration became a problem because it was too much for
one office to handle. Later, to solve the problem, the
registration was decentralized. Land registration was divided
into three categories (1) under 10 hectares, free from
conflict, handled in the municipal level (2) between 10 and
50 hectares, handled in the provincial level (3) more than 50
hectares, handled by the forestry department.
By 1888, the Spanish regime acknowledged the registration
processes wer not going well because it led to legalization of
past usurpations and the perpetration of new ones.
The regime abolished registration on the municipal level,
narrowed the jurisdiction of registration at the provincial
level, below 30 hectares. Anything above 30 hectares
becomes the jurisdiction of the forestry department.
The colonial registration processes proved to be impervious
due to corruption of officials.
Spanish Mortgage Law provided for a comprehensive
registration of all existing rights and possessory claims.
Owners who liked titles of ownerhsip can register their
interests in an informacion posesoria proceeding. If
everything was in order,the registrant would be issued a
record of possessory information which can be converted
into a title in fee simple after 20 years (later reduced to 10) if
all conditions are met.
Maura Law of 1894
last law of the Spanish regime pertaining to land.
Specified a period to register all claims to lands, even

customary, after which, all that is unregistered will be without
effect.
Empowered the colonial regime to deny recognition of

customary propewrty rights.
Proved the colonial regimes insensibility to the plight of the

natives who where not used to written titles.
It also provided the legal basis by which the U.S. colonial

regime denied any effective recognition of ancestral property
rights.
The philosophy behind the Maura Law provided the legal

foundation for the Regalian Doctrine.
The Revolutionary Denouement
Two years after the enactment of the Maura Law, a

revolution against Spanish rule erupted.
Contrary to popular belief, by the end of the 19th century, the

friars owned less than 10% of the officially documented
private property rights in the colony. It was the mestizos and
native elites who owned most of the land.
The sons of the principalia, who were also the target of the
revolution along with the friars, became ilustrados who
agitated for reform within the Spanish colonial context. The
elites were generally content with colonial bureacratic and
legal infrastructure, so long as they controlled it.
The peasantry yearned for a restoration of a less

complicated world.
The urban laborers and slum dwellers were prepared to risk

their lives to sever the Spanish tie.
July 7, 1892, the Katipunan was formed, led Andres

Bonifacio. It endeavored to stir up nationalist sentiment and
sever the Philippines ties to Spain.
Emilio Aguinaldo, the titular leader of the revolutionary army,

ordered the execution of Andres Bonifacio on trumped-up
charges.
The Malolos Congress was dominated by affluent and
educated Filipinos many of whom held colonially recognized
rights to large tracts of lands.
The sole concern of the Malolos congress was to show the
Filipino preparedness for political independence and prove
that the Philippines was worthy of recognition by the world of
nations. None of the delegates, nor any of the ilustrados,
advocated for agrarian reform.
The revolutionary leadership was content to perpetrate the
legal and customary colonial approach to land acquisition.
Any disposition of friar properties was for income generation
and not redress of long injustices.
These were not the results of ignorance, but a desire to
preserve status quo on the part of the leaders of the
revolutionary government who were huge land owners
during the colonial regime.
Part Seven
th
The 19 Century and the Denouement

of the Spanish Colonial Era
Cracks In The Parchment Curtain
William Henry Scott
Overview:
The article talks about how historians find it hard to truly
know the history of the Philippines especially in the Spanish era
since the documents, books, articles, etc. are all produced by the
Spanish colonial regime, which only talks about what they are
interested in. But through the cracks in these documents, we get
a glimpse of how Filipinos actually behaved and reacted toward
the Spanish colonies. We also see how exaggerated articles and
letters pertaining to the events in the Philippines reveal, in
passing, the culture or tradition at that time. Documents like these
contain data which the author included unintentionally but which
may be of great historical revelation. One document may have
different significance for different readers depending on the
interest of their particular research.
Terms:
Iron Curtain/ Bamboo Curtain The state control of

information in the Soviet Union and the Peoples
Republic of China which make it impossible for outsiders
o learn of true condition of their citizens circumstances.
Parchment Curtain Official documents of the Spanish

colonial regime which prevent modern Filipino from
forming clear picture of ancestors conditions
Cracks unintentional and incidental to the purpose of

the documents containing them (i.e. complaints among
conquistadores, appeals for support, reward and
promotion, long-winded recommendations, decrees)
contains little Filipino glimpse for which he was not
looking and which did not interest the author of the
document.
Examples of Documents with Cracks:
Testimonies of Juan de Salcedo which revealed that he

never discovered Igorot gold mines. When he
circumnavigated 200 leagues of coast, he discovered
the provinces of Pangasinan, Ilocos, and Cagayan
which he says is a land rich with much gold. But he
suffered many hardships and risked their lives by
waging war against the natives because the natives
were many and armed and fortified with artillery. Also,

the natives tried to give them poison for their food and
drink to kill them.
A notarized document of April 18, 1571 which formalized
Legazpis occupation of Manila. It exaggerates the
events that took part when leaders in Manila openly
received the blessings of Christianity and wanting to
become vassals of the King. However, Soliman
counterattack the Spaniards weeks later. We can from
the Filipino standpoint, no real peace pact had been
concluded.
History Of The Inarticulate

Many historians believe that it is impossible to write a
history of the Filipino people during the Spanish regime because
all source materials were written by Spaniards for Spanish
purposes with Spanish prejudices. But Renato Constantino
believes that there is an exception to this. Although the Filipino
people may have been influenced by the Spaniards, the Filipinos
have also influenced Spanish policy and Spaniards, whether they
realize it or not. He opines that the challenge is to reconstruct the
history of the inarticulate.
Correspondence, for example, by Spaniards (i.e.
officials, friars) may yield clues on the history of the inarticulate.
The Spaniards who lived at that time reacted and interacted with
the environment and with the people. Although not much detail
can be gathered, but available data may allow us to reconstruct
broad trends and tendencies. Correspondence may not just yield
to clues of the history of the inarticulate, it may actually preserve
the sound of their voice. The faceless images of Filipino
obstacles to Spanish programs take on individual features with,
for example, the cool rhetoric of a Maguindanao datu like
Pagdalanum addressing a whimpering Jesuit captive in 1613.
Constantino also calls for deductive reasoning and
investigation, especially in the case of popular stereotypes which
have blotted out ordinary evidence from the written record. Some
examples would be that, before the Spaniards came, Filipinos
were already in the slave trade industry, but because some parts
of the Philippines were restricted by the Spaniards to the trade,
they only became victims instead of being traders themselves.
Also, it has been proven that there were a lot of
independent Filipinos calles tinguianes. They live in symbolic
relationship with subjugated Filipinos in the plain by providing
them with raw materials like beeswax, without which the tributepaying Christian couldnt light a candle in the church. One would
wonder how many independent Filipinos were required to supply
the ritual needs of their subjugated brethren. These independent
people become attractive to vassal Filipinos to run away and join
them because of the harshness in the pueblos. In 1881, more
than 1/3 of Samars population was independent. It just goes to
show, that even with the waning of the Spanish rule, the
Philippines has not been completely conquered.
History books are written and read by an articulate
minority interested only in the activities of others of their kid. We
are informed of the introduction of foreign capital and
development, but not the decrees and penal legislation which
affected the lives of the inarticulate.
We can read less about the inarticulate themselves,
despite their behaviour causing the edicts and decrees to be
promulgated in the first place.
Documentary references in the Philippine National
Archives to Spanish attempts to keep Filipinos literally in their
place, to prevent them from moving someplace other than where
they were legally registered, reached almost paranoid
th
proportions during the 19 century. The inhabitants obviously
dislike settling in a common center. Evidence of these include
regulations set at that time. Among the regulations established

for the Carabineras de Seguridad Publica in 1835, forerunners of
the Guardia Civil, the two longest articles are nos. 26 and 26.
They concern suspicious dwellings separated from twon centers,
and those whose occupants have no fields, cattle, or known
means of support, all of which are to be put to the torch.
The Carabineras were authorized to apprehend anyone
even domestic servants for quarrels inside the house, lack of
respect, etc. The Guardia Civil, in 1863 were given more explicit
instructions, mostly to restrict Filipinos freedom movement.
There were naturally stringent regulations against
firearms or other weapons. An 1844 proclamation decrees a fine
of P30 or two months in prison or at public labor, double for a
second, triple for a third, etc.
The restrictions though had exemptions. It appears that
anybody who owned anything in the colony was called upon to
defend it by the force of his own arms. The history of the
inarticulate is ambiguously written in the mountain of legal
documents whose unrealized purpose was precisely to prevent
the growth of inarticulate power which finally brought the writing
of Spanish history by Spaniards in the Philippines to an end.
Historical Background of the Friar

Lands Policy
Chapter 2 of Escalante
Negotiations in Rome
The purchase of the Friar Lands took 3 years before it was
consummated on December 22, 1903. The negotiations started
with Pope Leo XIIIs desire to discuss certain ecclesiastical
issues with the US gov.
Objectives of the Taft Commission when it went to Rome:
o Consummate the sale of the friar lands in Rome
o Appeal to Pope Leo XIII to withdraw the friars from
the Philippines
At the beginning, Taft proposed to:
o Create a tribunal of arbitration ot determine the
price of the land based on the principles of justice
and equity
o Peg the value of the land in Mexican dollars as it
was the currency in the Philippines
o Secure from the Pope his commitment to withdraw
the friars from the Philippines
In turn, Taft pledged that the ecclesiastical properties formerly
owned by the Spanish king would be conveyed to the Catholic
Church and settle the longstanding issues regarding the Obras
Pias, and expressed their intent to pay the rent for the churches,
convents, and other facilities the American soldiers occupied.
Cardinal Mariano Rampolla, Papal Secretary of State, handed the
Vaticans reply to Tafts propositions. All except the withdrawal of
the friars were accepted. However, subsequent developments
suggest that the Pope simply waited for the proper time and
opportunity to commence the graceful exodus of the friars.
Americans failed to achieve their major objectives because:
o Pope did not believe that all desired the expulsion
of the friars
o Friars have the right to remain in the Philippines
due to the Treaty of Paris
o They were mistaken in viewing the Holy See as a
corporation that owned the friar lands; details had to
be negotiated not with the Pope but with the owners
themselves
Conclusion: Tafts mission to Rome is a FAILURE.

Negotiations in Manila
Jean Baptiste Guidi was designated representative of the Pope.
He discovered that the friars had already conveyed the land titles
of their estates to their respective holding firms and since this
holding firms were private, Guidi could not invoke the
ecclesiastical mandate given to him by the Pope. In the legal
point of view, he cannot assume jurisdiction over the friar lands.
Two Critical Issues:
o Taft unilaterally shelve the idea of determination of
price through arbitration and propose the use of
negotiation
o The determination of the estates to be included in
the sale.
Taft thought that the friars would get a good price if arbitration
was employed and so he opted for negotiation. However, the
asking prices set forth by the friars does not correspond to their
actual market value. To settle the price, Taft asked Juan Villegas
to survey the friar lands and determine their actual market value.
Villgas classified the land according to productivity, quality of soil,
and proximity to the market. Guidi rejected Villegas valuations in
the public hearings because the investments of the friars were
not taken into account.
The friars wanted to reserve some of them for their survival and
the Insular Government didnt want to buy all friar lands; only the
ones where agrarian unrest existed. This is due to the lack of
funds of the Insular Government. Eventually the friars softened
their stand as Tafts term is nearing its end as they were afraid
they might not get better terms with Tafts replacement.
Taft included in the sale the unoccupied and distant estates in
Mindoro and Isabela even if he knew buying them were not
necessary. But since they were in troublesome provinces, the
Insular Government (IG) decided to acquire said estates.
The IG postulated conditions such as that all books and
documents bearing upon ownership should be surrendered and
that the vendors should transfer to the IG all claims for rent
coming from the tenants. The IG did not pay the friars right away
due to non-compliance with some of the requirements.
Cheating Friars
Friars cheated the IG. For example, Dominicans removed the
sugar mills and railroads in their haciendas and sold them to third
parties. They also only sold their haciendas when they are no
longer practical to cling to them and at the highest price at that.
Frontiers
John Larkin, Sugar and the Origins of Modern Phil Soc
OVERVIEW:
The years from 1836-1920 is characterized by
enormous expansion in sugar exportation and cultivation. Sugar
society became linked to the world market economy and
responsive to its fluctuations. Sugar growers transformed the
Philippine countryside from deep jungle into extensive sugar
haciendas, such as that of Negros and Pampanga. But these 2
provinces grew up very differently.
EXPANSION OF THE SUGAR TRADE
The world economy supplied an ever-increasing
demand for sugar. Between 1836-1910 exports rose
st
dramatically. By 1836 sugar had achieved 1 place on
the list of exports.
The destination of Philippine sugar exports varied

considerably over the period.
o US purchased on a more consistent basis.
th
Britain bought more in the 19 century.
Australia faded after it acquired sugar from
other sources and to develop its cane industry.
Declining exports during the American occupation had
several causes:
o Outbreak of cattle disease, outbreak of human
cholera, severe drought and locust infestations
o Philippine production had to compete with other
sugar suppliers, and other importers began to
obtain more sugar from their colonies;
lessening of Cuban duty coupled with cheap
transportation and free entry to Hawaiian and
Puerto Rican sugar kept the Philippines at a
competitive disadvantage on the American
market.
Hence, sugar producers focused on the need to get tariff
concessions on the American market.
o But this took time to succeed, as American beet
and other cane producers lobbied the US
Congress to limit preferences for Philippine
sugar.
o It required the influence of WH Taft plus efforts
of other lobbyist for the Philippines to gain
import privileges.
Under Payne-Aldrich Bill of 1909,
Philippines received 300k ton duty
free share in US market
Under the Underwood-Simmons bill,
the weight limitation was dropped.
Despite these concessions, it still had to compete with
heavy suppliers as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii.
The problem was quality gap: world market demanded a
high degree of purity of sugar.
o Other sugar exporters were already using
innovations on processing sugars, while
Philippine hadnt. This is due to the high cost of
erecting sugar mills/processors.
For the most part, Philippine growers did not even care
to invest in better farming techniques to improve their
profits, and it possessed the lowest yield per hectare of
all the major sugar-producing regions of the world.
Potential investors in Philippine centrals faced
formidable obstacles:
o Problem of cane supply, since acquisition of
large tracts of public lands was illegal. This was
resolved through:
Circumventing the Public Land Act, which allowed
corporations to buy lands formerly owned by religious
orders
By the establishment of San Carlos Milling Company,
which will grind all of the sugar cane grown for the term
of 30 years, in return this company would receive 40%
of sugar manufactured
Participants lack the resources and incentives to
purchase expensive factories. Local lending institutions
could not supply such amounts; private families feared
making big investments. This was solved in many ways:
o Large infusions of foreign capital, mainly
American.
o American tariff situation promised better market
opportunities
o The opening of Panama Canal reduced
transportation time and costs to the east coast
refineries where Philippine sugar sold best.
NEGROS OCCIDENTAL: THE FORMATION OF PLANTATION

SOCIETY
Between 1845-1918 annual sugar production in western
Negros increased, while population rose more than
1,021%. The extension of agricultural lands resulted
from the creation of hundreds of plantations out of
jungle areas.
Migrants to Negros included farmers who established
homesteads.
Negros did not begin to attract hacenderos until 1850s
because:
o Of the threat of Moro coastal raiders. But this
was eliminated by Governor Emilio Saravia
who defeated them
o Negros lacks social and physical amenities of
communities on the neighboring islands. The
advent of Augustinian Recollect friars to
exercise religious concern alleviated this
concern.
o There is no need to consider Negros as a field
of investment. But because of the business
enterprise of the foreigners, mestizos were
driven out of the industry. These conditions
sent them to search for new areas of economic
activity, and they found Negros as an
investment alternative.
Other factors began to pull investors:
o The lifting of Crimean war, and boosting of
world prices, made them to consider risking the
establishment of plantations in Negros.
To facilitate this, British Vice-consul
Loney acted as stimulus:
On the positive side, he
arranged the flow of the
British milling equipment
On the negative side, by
importing British cloth, he
helped drive mestizos out of
the textile business
Iloilo opened to international commerce, making it
possible for exporters to bypass Manila as a
transshipment point and thus reduce shipping costs
Sugar flourished on Negros because of a new
generation of entrepreneurs who created large
plantations, employing imported and local labor to do
the initial clearing and then work estates for them
Planters coming from the 1850s to 1860s acquired land
by buying the rice fields and unused property of local
residents. Heirs would often clear farm lands adjacent to
theirs rather than move to the more dangerous interiors.
In this way, Negros grew out form the edges of prior
settlement rather than from widely scattered nuclei in
the middle of the jungle.
The matter of titling lands remained informal, given the
absence of government surveys, good records, and land
offices.
o Purchase agreements might include handdrawn map outlining the property or statement
approximating the location of the land.
Descriptions did not specify exact dimensions.
Legitimation for the acquisition of large blocks of land
began in mid 1870s, when the Spanish government
devised a way for distributing public lands (realengas),
considered as unoccupied and, hence, belonging to the
crown. Petitioners could purchase lands at a giveaway
prices or with proof of cultivation (denuncia) could claim
them gratis. The majority of the petitions involved more
than 100 ha of frontier land
On the other hand, the US regime did not prove so

generous in making large grants of public domain. The
homestead act of 1902 granted maximum of 16 ha for
individuals.
Actual registering of land is a problem in Negros, for
there was no functioning land office until 1890, and the
process of surveying the property and establishing a
clear title was cumbersome.
o During the process of claiming, amassing, and
titling estates, planters sometimes displaced
small farmers and the migrants. The
removal/eviction could occur legally, as when
planters with proper claims removed squatters,
and illegally, as when eviction took place with
the aid of falsified documents through the
collusion b/w corrupt officials and hacenderos
o The plight of aboriginal inhabitants is more
tragic. Since they possessed no formal titles,
their land became officially crowned property
and could thus be granted to others. To resist
the government meant to risk extermination.
This constant traffic in land was a reminder that
transforming the Negros frontier was the first and
foremost a capitalistic enterprise. Other forms of
business included supplying agricultural credit,
transporting sugar to market, and sugar brokerage.
Foreign and native entrepreneurs, if they had cash,
turned to these activites.
o Supplying credit offered the best entre to a
sugar-related business activity, for a shortage
of working capital plagued farmers on Negros.
Foreign firms loaned money to
planters to acquire rights to their
sugar, usually at slightly below market
price. This anticipatory crop loans
worked effectively.
Hacenderos also obtained mortgages
and pacto de retro contracts from
private individuals and sugar firms.
At the heart of economic and social life lay the hacienda.
o Lack of easy transportation on Negros caused
most haciendas to remain isolated, selfcontained communities.
o However, those wealthy enough chose to
reside in town rather than in barrio or hacienda,
because of the luxuries of life found in the
former, such as entertainments, amenities, and
th
20 century niceties like electricity, telegraph,
etc.
Absentee ownership is the common feature
o Each hacienda had a planter in charge,
leaseholder(acsa/agsador),
or
surrogate/overseer (administrador)
Acsador system was more popular, for
it offered many protections not
available under cash tenant system,
such as protection against fluctuating
sugar prices.The acsa acted as
planter, taking complete responsibility
for the performance of the estate.
The most common system of sugar farming in Negros
was owner or employee management of hacienda of
salaried workers.
o Under the supervision of the administrator, the
hacienda was broken into 8 units, each under
the control of encargado. The administrator
kept the books, oversaw the machine shop,
supervised distribution of tools, and allocated
the tractors. Encargados oversaw cabos
(foremen) responsible for the daily work

activities
of
the
dumaan
(permanent
employees), who prepared and maintained
fields and look after carabao and other stock.
Dumaans are subsistence workers on estates.
o During peak labor season, planters employ
sacadas (migrant labor) to help dumaans as
the latter could not handle all the work at that
season. Planters hire contratistas (contractors)
to enlist such persons.
Once on plantations, workers found themselves bound
there for life.
o Local public officials were selected from the
ranks of hacienderos
o Pattern of chronic indebtedness and lack of
alternative means of livelihood hold dumaans
on plantations
o Hacenderos possessed firearms and used
them to keep workers docile
But planters had less control on sacadas. The latter
demanded more money and simply took it and never
showed up in the field.
Despite these difficulties, sugar plantation system
functioned well to the advantage of the hacenderos.
o Colonial government never interfered with them
o Church sided with them
Conversion of the Negros frontier into a plantation
society represented a complicated process involving
both foreigners and native Filipinos form all sectors of
society.
PAMPANGA: THE FORMATION OF A TENANT SOCIETY

Pampanga exhibited a far less dramatic response in
sugar than did Negros.
o The population did not double
o The number of towns did not change
Major change is the Manila-Dagupan railroad, which
eliminated dependence on water transport for sugar.
Settlement of Pampangas sugar region resembled that
of Negros
o Clearing jungles and planting cane
o Small towns and settlements became large
communities
The most notable difference b/w Negros and Pampanga
was that in Pampanga, expansion occurred under the
aegis of indigenous elite rather than outsiders.
o It had fewer Spaniards because of the
unavailability of large tracts of land
o Chinese did not interact socially and politically
with elite, but they participated in sugar
industry by buying sugar, operating distilleries,
and running steam machinery.
o This
phenomenon
has
important
consequences:
Pampangan elite utilized different
sources of credit to facilitate their
expansion. They depended on pacto
de retro than on credit sources
Farmers had scattered landholdings
rather than big haciendas. The
tendency among landowners to sire
large families and the prevalent
system of equal inheritance among
children reduce the size of the larger
pieces.
Owners possessed both rice and
sugar lands. In times of poor sugar
markets, owners and their tenants
preserved a degree of flexibility in
crop choice that could alleviate the

distress.
Capampangan
transferred
their
traditional labor system to new lands.
The sacaman contract was adapted to
sugar production.
Landlord
furnish
cash,
equipment, etc.; the aparcero
contributed tools, animals,
labor;
tenants
planted
harvested and transported
cane to the mill. Proceeds
were 50-50.
Planters carried to new lands their old forms of sugar
production, methods difficult to change because of the
socio-econ relations.
Pampanga society significantly changed.
o Landowning class became more oriented
towards business dimensions of farm
management.
o Upperclass earned a reputation for extravagant
lifestyle
o Province became one of the most progressive
and wealthiest in the islands.
Landed families did not comprise a single,
homogeneous economic group; rather, they fit along a
continuum that ranged from extremely rich hacienderos
down to inquilinos.
Wealthy capampangan compared favorably with other
planters, and they ranked among the wealthiest in the
islands who can truly be called sugar barons. Members
of the landholding families dominated those political and
bureaucratic offices.
Members of the less wealthy and less notable families
filled the lower positions in the government.
With regard to the professionals, they must own an
agricultural land to achieve a full elite standing and to
hold higher political office.
Old peasants didnt improve in their livelihood, and
records do not show peasants rising to landholding
status.
SUGAR AND PHILIPPINE SOCIETY, 1836-1920
Sugar industry is an economic giant which represented

1/3 of the Philippine foreign trade, and boasted the most
advanced modern technology. However, it was
vulnerable as it depended largely on foreign demand
and access to duty-free US market.
Yet the very status of sugar industry worked to the
detriment of other Philippine enterprises. It soaked up all
the credit available to local commerce. Further, because
of peak harvest labor demands, hacenderos
discouraged cultivation of other crops, including
important foods.
During Spanish times, collaboration b/w sugar planters
and officials sanction political hierarchies. Political
domination by elite in Negros and Pampanga was
complete. Ironically, the very influence planters had with
colonial government hindered development of their own
industry. Spaniards cannot exact tax on agricultural
property, and Americans imposed a modest one. No
other group received gentler treatment than did
landholders of sugar country.
In both Negros and Pampanga, the chief beneficiaries of
the frontier era were entrepreneurs of the sugarlandia
who gained wealth, prestige, and influence. Class
differentiation b/w planters and workers became more

pronounced as time passed. The sugar industry
enchained Philippine field hands and left them little
recourse against further exploitation.
Chapter Five: Nations and States, 1872-1913

Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso, State and
Society in the Philippines
The Final Years of Spanish Rule
The greatest challenges to the state were an impoverished and
disconnected peasantry and a wealthy but disgruntled elite.
Philippines was slowly being integrated into the global

marketplace.
Conflict within the Church
In the 1770s, a royal decree had ordered the

secularization of the Philippine parishes. This meant the
transfer of parish posts from friars of the religious orders
to secular clergy of the dioceses.
Secular clergy: under the jurisdiction of the bishops from

which the religious orders were autonomous
The secularization of the parishes was stalled several

times by political reaction in Spain but not before the
principalia began to gravitate toward the church for
careers more rewarding than service in the government.
The priesthood was influential both morally and

politically.
The seculars served as pawns of the bishops; they were

given lower positions in order-controlled parishes where
they angered friars.
Filipino priests: most intellectually able men; Spanish

friars: had limited education
Liberal government
a. For the friars: undermine the Spanish power in
the Philippines
b. For the secular clergy: leveled the playing field
The Jesuits returned to the Philippines and were

followed by new orders, which claimed parishes.
This confrontation with the Jesuits and the secular

clergy was the context for the execution of the
GomBurZa.
Struggle against Church and State
There was a brewing tension between the interests of

the elite and the friars.
The higher value of land caused the friars to increase

land rents.
The major site of social conflict was higher education.

Spanish language was prohibited from being integrated
to the curricula.
The outflow of higher education to Europe produced the

ilustrados (enlightened ones).
Most valuable education: seeing the backwardness of

Spain in relation to other European countries.
The majority of the ilustrados abandoned Catholicism

for the anticlerical Freemasons. Masonry didnt practice
racial discrimination. Its tradition of secrecy was suited
to the need to develop ideas outside the hearing of the
friars.
The ilustrados effort was embodied in the Propaganda

Movement waged in Manila by the organization La
Solidaridad.
The Propagandist program was was an administrative

reform that aimed to eradicate the corruption in the
government and recognize Filipino rights. They also
hope for the extension of Spanish laws to the country

and the curtailment of the powers of the Spaniards.
Famous propagandists include: Marcelo del Pilar, Jose
Rizal.
The Propaganda Movement was unable to sustain itself
(internal differences and financial difficulties).
The death of del Pilar and Rizal closed the chapter on
reform movement.
The Katipunan
After Rizal was exiled in Dapitan, Andres Bonifacio went

to form Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng
mga Anak ng Bayan Katipunan. It was committed to
overthrowing the Spanish rule. From Rizal to Bonifacio,
the shift of the movement is apparent from elite
reformism to lower-class radicalism.
The Katipunan was unable to remain underground for

long. Spanish knew of its existence which caused
Bonifacio to launch a preemptive rebellion in the
working-class districts of Manila.
Bonifacio refused to acknowledge Aguinaldos

leadership and was arrested on charges of undermining
the revolution and secretly executed.
Emilio Aguinaldo declared the Biak-na-Bato Republic on

November 1, 1897.
The republic was intended to have a constitution,

supreme council and centralized government. Instead,
the revolutionary leadership accepted a truce and exile
in Hong Kong.
The Malolos Republic
U.S. colonization was different from Spains conquest.
The Philippines existed as a state and as a nation.

Filipino reaction to the new colonizers was not a
continuation of the revolution against Spain. It was the
reaction of an emerging nation-state in defense of its
imagine community. This was realized in the
Constitutional Republic of the Philippines commonly
called the Malolos Republic.
The newly drafted Malolos Constitution provided for a

representative form of government, separation of church
and state, detailed Bill of Rights and the dominance of a
legislative branch over executive and judiciary.
The constitutions articles on property rights protected

what was owned after a century of land accumulation,
not what the dispossessed might claim by moral right.
Felipe Calderon said that the single-chamber legislative

supremacy was a defense against tyranny by an
insurgent army. But members of the Congress had not
been among the antifriar principalia, had fought with the
Spanish against the Katipuneros and were already
considering pacifying with the Americans.
Aguinaldos adviser Apolinario Mabini opposed the

legislative power over the executive. Mabini proposed
amendments to give the president various emergency
powers to legislate when Congress was not in session,
to arrest those who acted against the state and to veto
bills.
Calderon rejected these proposals saying that

Congresss power was more representative that that of
the presidency.
Part Eight
The Transition: Colonialism and the US

Constitution
Chapter 7
The Transition: Colonialism and the
U.S. Constitution
Owen Lynch
Colonial Preludes
Contrary to McKinleys declaration that he did not know
what to do with the Philippines, US entry in the country was
actually well-planned with the goal of using the country as an
important way station to the vast Chinese market. Also, US
commercial interests saw potential in the colony for a coaling
station.
Dates:
1. April, 24, 1898 the attack in Manila was sanctioned by
the President at a conference in White House
2. April 25, 1898 US declared war against Spain as a
response to Spanish abuses being inflicted on the
Cuban people
This declaration of war spurred developments in the
Phil
3. May 1, morning Commodore George Dewey led his
fleet into Manila Bay
12:30pm, Spain had surrendered and US was
poised to establish and secure a sovereign claim
over the Phil
Persons:
1. Pres. William McKinley was quoted as saying that he
didnt want the Phil and didnt know what to do w/ them
claimed that his decision to acquire the colony
came only after he got down on his knees one night
and prayed to God for light and guidance
the truth, however, is the attack in Manila was
sanctioned by him
his obfuscation was meant to hide his imperial
ambitions until US public opinion gelled in favor of
acquiring the colony
2. Alfred T. Mahan renowned US historian and former
naval officer
Published several works in the 1890s w/c
aggressively promoted expansionism
His premise was that the growth of US naval power,
including the power to control sea lanes and
acquire new territories, was vital to national strength
and survival
his premise found favor with many influential people
3. Henry Cabot Lodge found Mahans premise
favorable
4. Theodore Roosevelt Under-Secretary of the Navy
during President McKinleys first term
Also a supporter of Mahan
5. Protestant missionaries pined for access to Spanish
possessions and even more exotic, for a gateway to
China
their dream was to evangelize the world in a single
generation
6. US Catholic episcopate were eager to mediate
between the Vatican and the US govt and to acquire
control over the churchs extensive Phil holdings
Other important info:
the main purpose of the attack in the Phil was not to
strengthen Americas commerce in the Far East but
to weaken Spain by depriving it of the revenues
derived from the islands
China loomed large in the national psyche, and Phil
was an important way station

-
US commercial interests saw potential in the colony

for a coaling station
Manila was an entrepot to the vast Chinese market
and a potentially profitable one
5.
6.
The Sugar Trust and Tariffs

The acquisition of the Philippines by the US was mainly
to give McKinleys most influential supporter, Havermeyer, land
for growing sugarcane and to ensure tariff-free importation of
sugar. This came after US effort to secure the annexation of
Cuba, another country well-suited for growing sugarcane, failed.
Dates:
April 21, 1898 US Congress attached the Teller

Amendment to a pro-administration resolution
demanding that Spain withdraw and relinquish its claim
to Cuba
August 12, 1898 a protocol between Spain and US

was signed in Washington
August 13 unaware of the Washington protocol,

Spanish and US officials carried out a pro forma
capitulation of the Spanish Army w/in Intramuros
Persons and groups:
1. Henry O. Havermeyer Pres. McKinleys most
influential supporter
President of the American Sugar Refining Co.
Believed that if the US were to acquire sovereignty
over Cuba, Cuban sugarcane could be imported
tariff-free
2. Senator Henry Teller author of the Teller Amendment
Advocate of Cuban independence and supporter of
the US domestic sugar beet industry
3. Sugar Refineries Company aka American Sugar
Refining Co. also called the Sugar Trust
Controlled the refinement of 98% of all sugar
consumed in the US
4. Spreckels Refinery California-based
Main rival of Havermeyer
Concepts/terms:
1. Sugar tariff a major revenue-earner in the US, at
times providing as much as 1/5 of total receipt in the
pre-income tax Treasury Dept
Emerged as the leading political issue during the
1880, 1884 and 1888 presidential elections
2. Raw sugar cane the largest commodity being
imported into the US
3. Teller Amendment required the US govt to disclaim
any intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or
control of Cuba except for its pacification
Required that US asserts its determination when
pacification is accomplished to leave the govt and
control of the island to its people
Not drafted w/ the interests of the Cuban people in
mind but was meant to prevent Cuba from being
incorporated w/in the US tariff umbrella
Was passed because anti-monopoly sentiment
against the Sugar Trust grew and because of the
joint efforts of the sugar beet industry and the antiimperialists
4. McKinley Tariff named after Ohio representative,
William McKinley
Enacted in Congress in 1890, 2 years after the
Republicans won the elections and took control of
the White House and both houses in Congress
Eliminated the duty on sugarcane imports and
provided, for the first time, a US govt-paid bounty,
or price support, on domestically-produced sugar
Unstated purpose was to undermine the Hawaiian

Reciprocity Treaty of 1876
Hawaiian Reciprocity Treaty of 1876 enabled the
Spreckels to import Hawaiian sugar duty-free
August 12 Protocol between Spain and US:
Art III entitled the US to occupy and hold the city,
bay and harbor of Manila pending the conclusion of
the treaty of peace
Art V, Spain committed to meet US in Paris by Oct 1
to determine the control, disposition and govt of the
Phil
Other info:
rd
Phil was considered as the 3 largest sugarcane
supplier after Cuba and Java
The Treaty of Paris: Negotiation
Originally, Spain only wanted to give up Luzon. But US
did not want to break up the country. After negotiations, Spain
finally agreed to give up the whole archipelago for a price.
Dates:
Oct 1, 1898 negotiations commenced
Oct 12 US sent cable to commissioners in Paris that all of
the Phil should be taken
October 26 secretary of state sent another letter saying
that its either all of the Phil or none
December 10, 1898 signing of treaty of Paris
January 4, 1899 treaty was submitted to the US Senate for
ratification
Persons:
1. 5 Commissioners of the US for Paris Negotiations
a. Cushman Davis of Minnesota Republican
Senator; an imperialist
b. William P. Frye of Maine Republican
Senator: imperialist
c. Whitelaw Reid publisher; imperialist
d. George Gray of Delaware Democratic
Senator
e. William R. Day former secretary of state
2. John Hay Secretary of State
a. Sent the secret cable to the commissioners
regarding the cession of all the Phil
archipelago or none at all
3. US Archbishop Placido Chapelle the Vatican
observer to the negotiation
a. Mediated bet US and Spain
Other info:
McKinley met with the commissioners and told them that
the US had no design to aggrandizement and no
ambitions of conquest; however, his instructions to the
commissioners declared otherwise
o That the success of the attack of Manila
imposes on the US obligations w/c they cannot
disregard
o That the US cannot accept anything less than
the cession in full right and sovereignty of the
island of Luzon
One week after the negotiations, Spain acceded to all
US demands regarding Cuba, Puerto Rico, and
Ladrones (Guam), the Phil was the only obstacle to a
final agreement
Spain said that what will be recognized is just the US
temporary military presence in Manila
McKinley and his advisors felt that the colony should not
be split up; they were also aware of the US public

opinion against any suggestion that Spanish rule be

continued
McKinley wanted all of the Philippines but since public
opinion was still deeply divided and with the
congressional elections coming up in November, he
could not publicly reveal his position; thus, the secret
letter sent by Hay
Hay sent another letter which says that Phil can be justly
claimed by conquest
US commissioners used Art III of the August Protocol
which, according to them, entailed the relinquishment of
Spanish sovereignty over the Phil
The Roman Catholic Church attempted to break the
deadlock
o Wanted the transfer of sovereignty of the Phil to
be by purchase and not by conquest since this
is accompanied by an implied duty to respect
property rights which had been recognized and
documented by the previous sovereign
o Purchase will safeguard the legal titles of the
friar estates and other church holdings
After the congressional elections, US presented its final
proposition of buying the Phil for $20M with a Nov 28
deadline wherein US would resume armed hostilities
Spains response was to propose that US pay $100M,
an amount more accurately reflecting the colonys
estimated value
Spain finally agreed to US demand after a renewed
outbreak of hostilities and because they lack sufficient
military strength to resist effectively
Treaty of Paris: Ratification

Ratification of the treaty was not easily secured because
of the oppositions regarding the acquisition of the Philippines and
because the US intentions regarding the islands were not clear.
The treaty was nevertheless ratified after urgings from the
Democratic party leader, William Jennings Bryan. After the
ratification of the treaty, two resolutions were passed: the
McEnery resolution and the Bacon resolution. The McEnery
resolution won over the Bacon resolution.
Dates:
December 6, 1898 Senator George Vest of Missouri

proposed an amendment w/c would have provided for
relinquishment of Spanish sovereignty rather than
cession to the US and declared that under the Consti of
the US no power is given to the Federal Govt to acquire
territory to be held and governed permanently as
colonies (Vest Amendment)
Persons:
1. George Frisbie Hoar of Massachussetts a
Republican
a. Delivered what was considered the outstanding
speech in the Senate in opposition to the
acquisition of the Phil
b. Claimed that under the Declaration of
Independence, the US cannot govern a foreign
territory or to subjugate them against their will
2. William Jennings Bryan leader of the Democratic
Party
a. Urged his surprised colleagues in the Senate to
vote for the ratification
b. Justified his position by insisting that ratification
instead of committing the US to a colonial
policy, really clears the way for recognition of a
Phil Republic
3. Senator Samuel McEnery of Louisiana proposed
the McEnery resolution:
a.
4.
Was indefinite as to the potential duration of the

colonial enterprise
b. Was specific in denying Filipinos any status as
US citizens
c. Did not incorporate the inhabitants of the Phil
into the US citizenship nor annexed the country
as an integral part of the territory of the US
Senator Augustus O. Bacon proponent of the Bacon
resolution:
a. The US disclaims any disposition or intention to
exercise permanent sovereignty or control over
the Phil
b. The US will transfer to the Phil govt all rights
secured under the cession of Spain when a
stable and independent government have been
erected therein entitled to the judgment of the
govt of the US and to leave the islands to the
governance and control of its people thereafter
Presidential Election of 1900

The presidential election of 1900 is supposed to present
the US public the opportunity to either repudiate or uphold the
colonial endeavor by voting for or against Pres. McKinley and his
congressional allies. The Democratic Party nominated Senator
Bryan as its presidential candidate while the Republican chose
Pres. McKinley. The Democratic Party was against the Philippine
policy not only because of the incompatibility between democracy
and colonialism but also because of its belief that granting
Filipinos US citizenship will endanger their civilization. Both
parties were willing to give the Philippines its independence after
erecting a stable government. In the end, the Republicans won
especially after rumors that Bryan was negotiating with Gen.
Emilio Aguinaldo to stop fighting if Bryan wins.
No other important dates, persons, etc.
The Spooner Amendment of 1901
The Presidents power as commander in chief not go
beyond the use of necessary and proper means to carry
out the aim of the military operations (pacification of the
islands)
o Cannot allocate legal rights to natural
resources/grant permanent franchises
Mar. 2, 1901 Congress passed an amendment to an

army appropriations bill
o Amendment proposed by Sen. John C.
Spooner
o Made the Philippine Government really civil,
deriving its power from Congress and not from
the President
o Did not create a procedure for the
establishment of civilian colonial government
o Merely ratified actions already taken by the
president and his subordinates
The Amendment
a. Provided that all military, civil, and judicial powers to
govern the Philippines shall be vested in the
Commission unless otherwise provided by Congress
b. (in a form of bill Spooner introduced the year before)
gave Commission to alienate and dispose of forests,
minerals, and public lands [attached to a Military
Appropriations Bill]
c. Opposed by the sugar beet industry, domestic
sugarcane and rice powers, and anti-imperialists
d. A form of subservience to big businesses and the Sugar
Trust

e.
provide economic incentives for the development and

pacification of the islands.
Charles Magoon an attorney in the Department of

War
o Ordered to draft the administrations response
to tafts question (Is cutting public timber
prohibited?)
o The reply was inclined to the continued
commercial exploitation of at least forest
resources
o Contended provision: no sale or lease or other
disposition of the public lands/the timber
thereon/the mining rights therein shall be made
o Elihu Roots reply: Do not interfere with
established forestry regulations provided for by
the Spanish law as modified by Order 92
Order 92: prohibited all cutting/harvesting without

license of public forest products, as well as the
unauthorized clearing of public lands for farming
purposes
o Established a licensing procedure
The Commissions interpretation: they are authorized to
continue issuing timber license (contrary to
Congresspoint)
The Constitution and Colonialism

Art. IX of the Treaty of Paris: in Puerto Rico and in the
Philippines, the civil rights of the natives shall be
determined by the US Congress
Does the Constitution follow the flag?
Northwest Ordinance of 1787 territories organized
under its provisions were to be divided into states and
admitted into the union with full Congressional
representation
o Territories were within the purview of the
Constitution
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (1857 Dred Scott
decision):
o Federal Government has no power to
establish/maintain colonies bordering the US/at
a distance nor to enlarge its territorial limits
except by the admission of new states.
Magoons report: it is incontrovertible that the
unorganized territory of the US is not bound and
benefited by the Constitution and its laws until Congress
has made provisions about it.
o Constitution did not follow the flag
o Congress could do as it pleased unless there is
an unlikely political uproar among the US
electorates
McEnery Resolution: passed by the Senate
o US government did not intend to extend US
citizenship to the Filipino peoples/to annex the
archipelago permanently
The Insular Decisions
Most of SCs decisions concerned commercial interests
affected by the legal realignments which followed the colonial
expansion
Domestic agricultural producers were mostly delighted
because if the tariffs were not upheld domestic
producers could not compete on unequal terms which
would be forced upon them with like products from the
territories.
Severe blow in the sugarcane industry (American Sugar
Refining Co.); duty-free sugarcane importation from the
territories no longer certain
Sugar beet growers were delighted; increase in the

amount of land planted with sugar beets
Civil libertarians and anti-imperialists were outraged
Filipino reactions almost no reaction; not aware of
implications
Philippine Commission mixed emotions
De Lima v. Bidwell: Puerto Rico ceased to be a foreign country

upon ratification of the Treaty of paris; it became a territory; no
need for tariff duties.
Downes v. Bidwell: Puerto Rico is a territory but not covered
within the revenue clauses of the Constitution; tariff is
constitutional
Pepke v. US: The 14 Diamond Rings from Puerto Rico was not
imported from a foreign country
The writ of habeas corpus was written in McKinleys Instructions
with regard to the Bill of Rights but many prisoners without
warrant and ignorant of their detention remaines
Part Nine
Images and Divisions: Colonial

Discourse and Divisive Description of
Native Peoples
Chapter 8
The Colonial Dichotomy:
Attraction and Disenfranchisement
Owen Lynch
Overview: This chapter first talks about how colonizers looked
down on brown colored people and how they think that their race
is superior over us. Then it talks about how the Americans
colluded with the collaborating ilustrados in order to gain goodwill
and so that the ilustrados will cooperate with them. Taft used his
charms and influence to gain the confidence of the ilustrados. He
treated ilustrados as equals with their American counterparts.
The ilustrados collaborated with the Americans so that they can
remain in power or be more powerful. It is important to note that
during the US occupation, laws were applied equally here in the
country to US citizens and collaborating Ilustrados. Ilustrados
were given key positions in the government but still, the
Americans said that Filipinos are not capable of self-government.
White Men and Indios
Indio applied to indigenes throughout the vast Spanish

empire
India synonym for all of Asia east of Indus River
First European imagery of los indios from writings of

Columbus when he published a letter written during
1493 described the cannibalistic Carribs
Amerigo Vespucci instrumental in creating early

images of los indios
Letters of Columbus and Vespucci twin criteria of

Christianity and civilization
Friars and colonists disdainful of the cultural level of

the Filipinos
Philippine officials indiscriminate in labeling of native

peoples all those with Malay blood were referred to as
los indios
Spanish legislation regarded the indios as the equivalent

of legal minors or immature wards resulted to double
edged paternalism
Native people could not bring suit against a Spaniard
who violated their rights unless another Spaniard sued
in their behalf
White Men and Filipinos
Spanish distinguished Filipinos in 2 categories

o Those who submitted to their rule
o Those who refused to submit to their rule los
infieles, hindi binyag
Local leaders initially referred as principalia or cacique
Common reference to Luzon Hispanized masses

timawas
Luzon Hispanized elites maginoo
Mountain people of northern Luzon tribus

independientes
Moro Islamicized populations in the southern portions

of the archipelago
Spaniards description of indigenous cultures

universally negative Pre-Hispanic cultures were a
manifestation of the devil; contributed nothing of what
constitutes a civilized society
White peoples indisputably at the apex of human

evolutionary development
Colorphobia disease of epidemic proportions in the

US
Unchallenged practice use of skin color to determine a

persons value
Most effective tactics used by US against RPs

annexation to stir up colorphobic anxieties by
threatening to insist that full citizenship be extended to
Filipinos
US Soldiers referred Filipinos as gugu, monkey men
Secretary of War Root considered Filipinos to be cruel

and savage barbarians
John Foreman, agent for an English machinery firm

the Philippine native is a good imitator, not efficient in
anything and has no loyalty
Dean Worcester praised Foremans work as an

excellent book
James LeRoy, US official and Philippine Historian

refer to Filipino inferiority like children.
Roosevelt appointed a special commissioner to answer

sociological questions in the Islands appointed T.
Thomas Fortune, a black writer and a US citizen
Fortune stayed for 6 wks and found that the prevalent

attitude among the white community akin to
stereotypes in Kentucky or Tennessee dominated by
race hatred and personal vituperation
Ilustrados and White American Men
Ilustrados saw themselves as legitimate leaders and

spokesmen of the Philippine peoples
o They convinced the Americans that they were
the rightful leaders
o Tomas del Rosario said educated classes
have always been supported by the masses of
the people
o They were also victims of prejudice
o Regarded as inadequate apex of human
evolutionary development among native
Filipinos
Taft on illustrados: the educated class boasts that there

is a great difference between them and the common
people; incapacity for self government
Tafts perceptions shared by Worcester
Worcester seldom differentiated between elites and

impoverished masses
Bernard Moses another commissioner characterized
Filipinos as being at a stage of civilization lower than the
civilized peoples of the West
Luke Wright another commissioner believed in the
superiority of the white race
Policy of Attraction: Tafts Most Important Discovery
Taft in order to neutralize the political threat in the US,

Filipinos have to be converted.
Taft realized how deeply ilustrados wanted to be treated

as legal and social equals used his power and
charms to build a system of Filipino American
clientelism
Leading ilustrados publicly treated as social equals of

Americans; color line was never drawn at official and
unofficial dinners/receptions
This is where Taft dances with Pardo de Taveras wife
Charles B. Elliot, associate justice of the SC insincere

to Filipinos just to generate goodwill and cooperation
Social courtesies were accompanied by an important

change in the legal status of the natives within the
colony, all laws applied EQUALLY to US citizens and
Hispanicized Filipinos
Policy of Attraction: The Philippines for Filipinos
Slogan Philippines for Filipinos meant to allay fears

among Philippine elites of large scale foreign
exploitation
Filipino First policy every measure should be weighed

in the light of the welfare of the Filipino people
Taft almost any form of US investment would make for

the benefit of Filipinos
Any economic activity was justifiable!
Taft believed that wealth generated by capital intensive

development eventually trickles down and benefits
everyone
Best policy because colony was short of capital and

external sources needed to be drawn in
Profit derived must be large to convince investors to risk
Attraction policy generated opposition among American

businessmen who had arrived to make quick fortunes in
the islands
Policy of Attraction: A Retrospective
Officially the policy applied to all Hispanicized Filipinos
Unofficially, it was geared towards ilustrados
Large number of prominent Filipinos declared their

allegiance to the new colonial sovereign
Taft said 10% of Filipinos are educated, intelligent and

Spanish- speaking while 90% are non Spanish speakers
Taft was to leave the Philippines
Philippine CJ Arellano sent a telegram to Roosevelt

saying Filipinos would be hurt by Tafts departure
Dominador Gomez called Taft a saint
Pedro Paterno Taft turned a dying people to the light

and life of modern liberties
These prompted Roosevelt to let Taft continue as civilgovernor for another year
Impoverished majority NEVER benefitted from Tafts

reappraisal of Filipino capacities
Worcester blamed lazy and ignorant Filipinos for the

failure of the regimes land allocation programs
Taft said colonial policies were designed to prepare

Filipinos for self government not to promote oligarchy or
aristocracy
Policy of attraction benefitted those who had prospered

under the discredited Spanish regime
Collaborating
ilustrados
were
able
to
reestablish/improve upon their privileged positions
Policy was considered to be a personal and political
success for Taft and colleages because it helped launch
Tafts successful bid for the US presidency
Luke Wright, Tafts successor, promoted a new slogan
equal opportunity for all
Internal Revenue Law of 1904 established basic tax
structure;
Wealthy Filipino interests fared well even without Taft
Because of the policies, a political system emerged in
which it gave the people the form of democracy without
its substance
Ilustrados and Natives
collaborating ilustrados were enhanced by the disdain

for indigenous cultures
James LeRoy noted the penchant of conservative

ilustrados to paint the primitive Filipinos as savages,
pure and simple
Pardo de Tavera epitomezed these tendencies he

th
believed that 19 Century Hispanic-Philippine culture
was comprised of nothing but miserable vestiges of an
incomplete civilization
Jose Rizal by understanding pre-Hispanic Philippines,

Filipinos can understand themselves; his annotated
edition of Morgas Sucesos de las Islas de Filipinas
glorified the indigenous past and hated the Spaniards
because they have broken their pacto de sangre
because they exploited Filipinos
Rizals effort failed
Breed of leaders emerged that are identified with the

colonizers
The Collaborative Counterweight
Policy undermined the ethnocentric argument that

Filipinos were incapable of governing themselves
If ilustrados can become Philippine commissioners, SC

justices, provincial governors, why are they incapable of
self government?
Chapter Twelve:
The Non-Christian Fiefdom:
Disenfranchisement Qua Paternalism
Owen Lynch
Malayan which also included Mangyans, were numerically

dominant but not all were civilized.
Indonesian were located in Mindanao, physically superior
over the other tribes.
Official emphasiss on the so-called non-Christian tribes,

meanwhile, made it necessary to define and specify who
belonged to ethnic groups deemed to be on the bottom of
the Philippine socio-cultural hierarchy.
A complication arose as the dichotomy varied.
th
At the end of the 18 century only a small number of
indigenes were hispanicized in any significant degree. A
mere century later, social sscientists divided several society
into
several
different
categories:
civilized/wild,
christian/pagan.
This was even if non-christians were sometimes timid and
that the Muslims, clearly, were not pagan.
Taft personally said that the population was homogenous; all
Filipinos are alike.
Worcester considered this distinction appropriate
The legally determinitave identification of the non-christian

tribes, however, was to be found in the Philippine Census of
1903; responsibility for which was incumbent upon David P.
st
Barrows (1 director of the Bureau for Non-Christian Tribes)
a 28 y/o anthropologist from the University of Chicago.
Barrows relied extensively on Blumentritts scheme. He,
however, believed that there was a superlative number of
designations for what are practivally identical people.
Blumentritt explained the presence of the unhispanicized
peoples by a static three-wave migration theory. The nonchristian tribes of Northern Luzon consisted the first wave of
Malays to reach the archipelago. The second wave had a
higher civilization and... conquered the older population
groups and drove them from their homes along the coast
into the hinterland. The third, Islamic wave, was partially
hindered and by the arrival of the Spaniards.
Bureaucratic Beginnings
Reification of the Prejudice
Despite lack of information and his lack of anthropological

training, Worcester went ahead and categorized the natives
as:
Negritos 21 groups, that included the distinctly Malayan
Mangyans of Mindoro, as weaklings of low stature who
were at or near the bottom of the human series in matters
of intelligence.
The first Philippines Schurman Commission found favour in

British policies of indirect rule on the Malay Peninsula. Yet,
delimited such to semi-civilized and barbarous people.
Recommendations were reflected in Pres. William Mckinleys
famous instructions of April 7, 1900 oft-quoted phrase (at
best reflects the ignorance of the Native American
experience): to adopt the same course followed by
Congress in pemitting the tribes of North American Indians to
mantain their tribal organization and government... Such
tribal government should, however, be subjected to wise and
firm regulation and without undue or petty interference,
constant and active effort should be exercised to prevent
barbarous practices and introduce civilized customs.
Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes (BNCT) was created, w/o
benefit of public hearings.
The BNCT fell under the Dept of Interior, headed by
Commissioner Worcester.
Primary task was to conduct ethnographic research among
the unhispanicized people, including those of Muslim
Mindanao.
Illustrados then soon objected. They were ashamed of the
cultural heritages they shared with the massed and BNCT
reminded them of that link.
The BNCT devoted much of their resources to the
preparations for the Louisiana Purchase Centennial
Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. The board spent over $1.4
M. The expo was an invaluable opportunity...to give the
American People and Capitalists a clear idea of conditions
in the archipelago. To appease the illustrados, 50 honorary
commissioners, were to remain in the U.S. , chiefly in St.
Louis, for the purpose of...representing the Filipino people
upon all occasions, when such representation will be
necessary or proper.
U.S. Indian Precedents
Publicly, neither Barrows, Worcester, nor any other colonial

official ever even considered the possibility that ancestral
domains were not public.
After five months in the U.S. investigating laws and policies
pertaining to Native Americans, it is inconceivable that
Barrows remained ignorant about aboriginal titles, the core
issue concerning Native American rights (General Allotment
Act of 1887). Barrows knew (and probably Worcester also),
but he kept quiet and thereby lent his support to the regimes
clandestine effort to deny any recognition of ancestral land
rights.
Harbingers of a Disenfranchisement Policy
Nov 22 1900. First local government established was

established in Benguet Province.
Not motivated by democracy rather in the spirit of preventing
a growing number of U.S. miners from gaining political
control over the mineral-rich region.
Two months later, the electoral franchise of the for the
peoples it had officially deemed to be civilized or at least
Christian, whilst, non-Christian tribes were outright excluded.
The electoral formula was revied in Nueva Vizcaya. Which
proved to be a harbinger of more political and legal
disenfranchisement among the un-Hispanicized people.
Section 69 authorized the provincial governer to disposses and

relocate non-Christian populations, subject to the scrutiny of Sec
Worcester, when he deemed it necessary in the interest of law
and order.
Section 70 the constant aim of the governor is to aid the
people of several non-Christian tribes of his province to acquire
the knowledge and experience necessary for popular local
government.
Section 71 empowered the provincial board to determine
whether any settlement of non-Christians has advance
sufficiently to be organized under the first 67 provisions of the
act.
It must be noted that no tribes were ever deemed to have

advance sufficiently in compliance to the requisites and
effects of section 71.
Atty-General Lebbeus R. Wilfley, issued an opinion regarding
land taxation in un-Hispanicized areas. Stated that lands
within the settlements of Non-Christians are not subject to
the land tax
The tax exemption was less motivated by paternalistic
considerations than a realistic assessment that most peoples
who had lived outside or on the periphery of the Hispanic
grasp, was almost by definition reliant on subsistence
economies and had little or no money to dispose of.
Remarkably, Christians who owned land within non-Christian
settlements were likewise exempt from real estate taxes.
As a result, the collaborating elites were provided and
incentive to extend their claims and recognized land rights
into ancestral domains.
Township Governments and Special Provinces
Two colony-wide special policies furthered the jurisdiction

Worcester had.
Along with the act providing for the organization and
government of the Moro Province, these laws placed under
the very direct control of the American officials, at least
twenty-percent of the colonys population, and well over hald
of its natural resource base including areas rich in minerals
and forest products.
The public rationale was that the wild nature of unHispanicized peoples required special forms of governance.
SPGA (Special Province Government Act)
Section 68 a large majority of the inhabitants of Nueva Vizcaya

were members of non-Christian tribes who have not progressed
sufficiently in civilization to make it practicable to brig them under
any form of municipal government. The commission appointed a
provincial governor who in turn appointed officers from among
the members of said tribes.
By March of 1903, 463 municipal-level, non-Chrisitian

governments had been established.
The Benguet precedent was chained with the establishment
of these governments in Paragua (Palawan), Abra, Mindoro,
Bataan, Zambales, Misamis (except for muslim areas),
Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Tayabas, Antique and
Ilocos Sur.
Empowered the secretary of interior to appoint all local

officials in the provinces and municipalities covered.
It also authorized the commission to appoint five provincial
officials namely, governor, secretary, treasurer, supervisor,
and fiscal. Residence in the province was not a requisite for
the appointment.
Worcester admitted that the powers conferred upon officers
of the so-called special government provinces were arbitrary
and are therefore liable to abuse.
When the provincial board decided that the inhabitants if
any township or settlement have advance sufficiently in
civilization and material prosperity to make a such a course
possible, it was authorized subject to the prior approval by
the secretary of the interior, to remove existing tax
exemptions.
Non-Christian tribes however were not automatically freed
from all taxes. Sec 19 of SPGA provided for a unique tax
reminiscent of impositions made on subjugated populations
during the Spanish regime.
It sanctioned an annual tax of two pesos on all males 18-60
years of age.
One who became delinquent in the payment of the tax was
obliged to work for ten days on the roads, trails, or public
works in the province under the direction of the provincial
supervisor. Worcester referred to this as the most important
tax in the special government provinces.
He further claimed that it was only after the first having been
made when the people themselves learned to comprehend
the usefulness to them of the improved means of
communication that I made the public tax applicable to
them.
Despite this pronouncement there were widespread
complaints about forced labor in Ifugao and Bontoc. 20, 000
Ifugao were fulfilling their obligation by way of manual labot
mostly as trail builders. Scores, however, fulfilled their
obligations by serving as cargadores or porters, when
Worcester would make his annual visits laden down by gifts,
cameras, and even a phonograph with which he recorded
Ifugao dance rhythms.
TGA (Township Government Act)
Authorized males over 17 to vote for township president,

vice president, and as well as his barrio councillor, provided
that he had lived in the community for at least six months
prior to the election.
Eligible voters could also be disqualified on account of tax
payment delinquency or by giving aid or comfort in any
manner whatsoever... to any person or organization in the
Philippines Islands in opposition to or in arms against the
authority of the sovereignty of the United States.
Electoral disqualification criteria were seldom invoked.
Most townships were governed in accordance to Section 61
which authorized provincial governors, subject to the
approval of the Secretary Worcester, to appoint township
officers in areas where non-Christian inhabitants had not
progressed sufficiently in civilization.
Section 62, was seemingly in the tradition of reduccion, i.e
in resettling the natives near the village center. Members
who refused face charges of imprisonment for a period not
exceeding 60 days.
Worcester countered such sentiments, claiming that the
attacked section merely provided a way for dealing with
headhunters.
Neither the SPGA nor TGA made any provision for due
process, let alone just compensation, to peoples unwillingly
removed from their ancestral domain.
The purely subjective criteria also meted out a chance of nil
to the pronouncement of any unhispanicized group to have
advanced sufficiently to participate in local governance.
The only possible avenue for redress was through a popular
representative. But as he was laden with the special
privileges of immunity from arrest (except in cases of
treason, felony, breach of the peace) he was probably
beholden to the secretary and would only serve to further the
cause of the latter.
Section 7 of the Organic Act ensured that even after the
Philippine Assembly was established in 1907, Worcester
could retain the powers over the SPGAs and TGAs.
Worcester: The White Apo
Worcester wanted to posses the same powers in Islamicized

areas that he exercised in other non-Christian territories.
When he realized this was not possible, he waged a
vigorous campaign to at least expand his turf by establishing
a special province in north-central Mindanao.
The commission split the Bukidnon plateau off from the
regular province of Misamis and incorporated into the
Special Province of Agusan.
The plateau, well-suited for cattle-raising and the mineral
rich Cordillear mountain range of Northern Luzon proved to
be Worcestersto favourite upland locales.
His first interest in Bengeut was piqued by the claim of
forestry officials he met in Mindoro that it was a region of
pines and oaks blessed with a perpetually temperate
climate. Equally he was piqued by the mineral deposits of
great wealth that lay in the land.
He visited small villages and slept in native homes.
Worcesters first visit to Bukidnon was in 1907. Upon action

on complaints of landgrabbing by lowland migrants.
He grasped the economic potential of the plateau. In short,
he wrote, rice can be grown in Bukidnon as wheat is grown
in the U.S., and the company which goes into business on a
large scale should make money.
As chronicled in Frank L. Jenistas book, THE WHITE APOS:
AMERICAN GOVERNORS ON THE CORDILLERA
CENTRAL, Worcestesr was able to garner respect as the
supreme leader and decision-maker in the province of by
developing a highly personalized, loosely structured, two
track legal system which utilized varying degrees of Ifugao
and American law.
Munalon Ifugao despite-mediators, were appointed as
cabecillas, an office institutionally akin to cabezas de barrio.
The lines between the two systems became blurred and
soon the cabecillas came to have a de facto role as local
juges.
The most common cases involved disputes between Ifugaos
over land rights.
The many requests for the provincial governor to intervene
was largely due to the fact that Ifugao law took precedence
even when it conflicted with provisions of the official law
codes.
In effect, the Apos set themselves up as buffers between the
Ifugaos and outsiders, whether Filipino or American.
The concept of buffer was dear to Worcester as it left the
decisions practically to his whim.
Worcester set the un-Hispanicized peoples apart until
gradual familiarization with the [colonial] legal system
prevented unfair advantage.
Familiarization was to take place by means of formal
education, but few resources were invested. As a
consequence, by Feb of 1914 only 3, 205 were students in
schools in stark contrast to the population of the region at a
quarter million.
As such, and also brought about by Worcesters obsessive
focus on the so-called non-Christian tribes only served to
exacerbate many of their problems, and served to entrench
the prejudice of lowland elites towards them.
More to the point, it reified the legal disenfranchisement of
Worcesters self-appointed constituents and prompted
policy-makers to overlook similar problems among the
Hispanicized problems. Particularly on the issue of ancestral
domain rights.
He misdirected the people, ostensibly, when he boasted of
the pyrrhic victory in Cario v. insular Government stating:
before we came here they (non-Christian tribes) had no
rights which anyone was bound to respect. Now they have
learned that all men stand equal before our law.
The Creation Of A Cultural Minority

Ethnic minorities are Filipinos whose ancestors resisted
assimilation into the Spanish and American empires and retained
more of the culture and customs of their tribe. Our main
th
knowledge of them is derived from 20 century tourist
descriptions or anthropological studies.
Cultural minority is a concept which arose in response to
a historic process which was the creation of it. An illustration of
the process is how the Isneg people of the Sub-Province of
Apayao of the Province of Kalinga-Apayao in the mountains of far
northen Luzon have gone farther up in the mountains. Both
Spanish and contemporary sources consider mountains

impenetrable barriers to communication, and modern Filipinos
have accepted this impenetrability as the explanation for the
cultural communitys existence in this area. However, it was
Bishop Aduartes observation of how the Spaniards remained in
the province, and the inhabitants not wanting to stay with them,
withdrawing farther into the interior. This also became one of the
techniques by which the Igorots resisted Spanish occupation for
centuries.
Because of the mission in the lowlands, most tribes,
went further and further into the mountains. Some who have
become Christianized remained independent-minded, so the
annual tribute-collector had to come in well-armed and quickly
depart. The Isnegs were masters enough of their own destiny to
be able to accept or reject foreign missionaries as they chose.
Aduarte calls them living farther upstream or higher in the
mountains Mandayas which is a term literally meaning those up
above.
There has been a pagan-Christian or independentvassal dichotomy. When the town would be burned, others
migrated back to the hills to escape the tribute after they had
fallen into hopeless debt to the mayor when they had been
prevented from working their fields. Some depend on the parish
priest for emergency rations.
Agustinian Fray Antonio Mozo, who never set foot in
Apayao describes the Isnegs as bloodthirsty savages who lay in
wait along the highways to cut the heads off unwary travellers.
This kind of notion spread over to those in the low lands, and
those living in pueblos. Thus, the converted people, though at
first small in population, but because they had the same belief
became the majority over the different tribes with different
cultures.
Over the years, the Filipino people had steadily been
divided into the submissive and unsubmissive. The Isnegs,
clearly belong to the latter who were seen as outcasts, brigands
and savages. They were different from other Filipinos, and
therefore deserved different treatment. They became cultural
minority. These cultural minorities were all composed of
baranganic communities whose relations with each other,
whether the same language or different, varied from isolation to
cooperation or conflict according to circumstances.
As the years of occupation passed, the submissive
Filipinos gave up more and more of their own culture to
assimilate more and more of their conquerors culture. The
Isnegs, or the unsubmissives, preserved more and more of the
culture of their ancestors and so came to look less and less like
their acculturating neighbours. This divergence created a real
Filipino majority for the first time in history. Those who changed
became todays Filipinos while those who changed least were
actually denied this designation by a former president of the state
university. In this way, a cultural minority was created where non
had existed.
Department of War/Bureau of Insular Affairs

Primary Colonial jurisdiction rested on 3 possible
departments:
Department of State
Department of Interior w/experience in admin of

territories and public lands
Department of war disorganized

December 3, 1898: Division of Customs and Insular
affairs (DCIA) was established in the Office of the
Secretary of War and was given admin responsibility
over Phils, Puerto Rico, Cuba
Root:
Part Ten
The USA and Colonial Government
Chapter 9
Distant Overseers: U.S. Based
Participants And The Oranic Act Of
1902
Owen Lynch
The President
3 conservative Republican Presidents during first 16
years of colonial enterprise:
Theodore Roosevelt: least impact, did not care

as much, relied on administrators
o William Taft: more sensitive to aspirations of
Filipinos, influence was more visible
o William McKinley: more sensitive to aspirations
of Filipinos, influence was more important,
established legal and bureaucratic foundations
of U.S. Colonialism
Until passage of Spooner Amendment (March 1901)
exercised absolute political power, not bound by SC or
by any precedent
Favoured big businesses, implemented 1890 McKinley
Tariff
o
DCIA:
-
August 1, 1899: Appointed Elihu Root (corporate lawyer

with stron ties to the Sugar Trust) as Secretary of war
-efficient, also a political conservative averse to

restrictions on businesses
wrote a letter to Roosevelt in December 1899 sharing
his beliefs on strengthening of businesses
-declined the position initially due to financial reasons
but eventually reconsidered after intermediary informed
him that the president wanted him for the position
-espoused distinction between CONSTITUTIONAL
RIGHTS and INALIENABLE RIGHTS (same was
espoused by his subordinate Charles Magoon but was
sanctioned later by the SC)
-1899: Annual Report of the Secretary of War: Justice
was taught to the Filipinos through the example of the
U.S. Constitution
-This helped obfuscate shocking innovation in
U.S,.Consti jurisprudence
-Philip Jessup, his biographer: believed in Roots
sincerity
-Root, however, admitted that he was confused as to
how to handle the Philippines
-He compensated by relying on subordinates in the
Philippines and on Washington bureaucracy more
specifically, Lt. Col. Clarence R. Edwards (took charge
of DCIA on Feb 18, 1900)
-Most important Philippine actions were the drafting of
nd
McKinleys instructions to the 2 Phil. Commission and
the Organic Act of 1902
-Reorganized into the DIA (Division of Insular Affairs),
the only civil division in the war dept. during Dec. 1900
-In 1902 it was upgraded into the Bureau of Insular
Affairs (BIA) supervision of Philippine Colonial Regime
was the only function in all 41 yrs of existence.
-U.S. Depository and clearing house of all official
documents and records pertaining to the Phils.
-Overall: minimal impact on formulation, enactment or
implementation of colonial policy

nd
Recommended that people be given chance to perfect

their titles:
-seemed positive but actually implied
that aboriginal/native titles were
imperfect and undermined symbolic
and legal efficacy of customary land
rights; used the term equitable.
Taft returned in 1901 to lobby for the proposals, took up

residence in Roots place where they planned for the
hearing. The biggest problem was the allowable size of
corporate holdings within the public domain
Draft was completed by 1902:
a. Mining claims and timber licenses were allowed up
to 1001 by 1000 meters
b. Agricultural public lands of up to 160 acres could be
leased to individuals, up to 5000 to corporations for
5 yrs.
c. 25,000 acres all in all could be sold or leased to
corporations
Bill was introduced by Lodge in Senate and Cooper in
the House then 5mos of hearing began. Root was the
first to testify.
Root:
1. Overlooked that more than 7% of the colony
were considered as private property by the
Schurman Commission and claimed that Spain
never permitted indigenes to own land.
2. Said that colonys total land mass has never
been surveyed
3. about 5000 acres are owned privately and
68M still remaining and have been vested to
the U.S. by way of the Treaty of Paris.
4. There are 2 or 300,000 squatters and bill would
enable them to get titles.
Taft
o More cautious and acknowledged that the
Filipino prefers to own land.
o Focused on allowable size of corporate
holdings.
o Believed that 5000 acres would be inadequate
and that land could be leased for 50yrs as a
compromise
Joseph Rawlins:
Taft et al. Refer to land policy that covers
76,000,000 acres
aimed to assist foreigners
seeking enrichment
Supported by Gen. McArthurs testimony that
selling vast tracts would be disastrous to Filipinos
Instructions to the 2 Phil. Commission:

-issued by the Pres on April 7, 1900
-ordered commissioners to report directly to the
secretary of War and gave degree of autonomy to the
insular regime (de facto and de jure autonomy)
Congress and the Organic Act of 1902/Philippine Organic
Act/Phillipine Bill
Act was written by Root in collaboration with Taft in 1901

Amended and passed in July 1902
Followed Spooner Amendment (March 2, 1901)
Huge impact on legal rights to land, forestry and mineral
resources
U.S. Imperialism supported by Republicans (enjoyed
th
majority as 20 century commenced):
Senate: Henry Cabbot Lodge of New Hampshire,

Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, Marcus A.
Hanna of Ohio, Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana,
Orville H. Platt of Connecticut and John C. Spooner
of Wisconsin
House: Henry A. Cooper of Wisconsin, Sereno E.

Payne of New York
Lodge: Within a week of Deweys 1898 victory was

already describing potential of Phils as a country
Beveridge: delivered controversial March of the Flag
speech saying in essence that Colonial Expansionism
had the potential to be econ. profitable. ON Jan. 9, 1909
gave a powerful pro-imperialist speech which included
invocation of racial superiority.
1902: support for colonial enthusiasm began to wane

due to accounts of brutality and torture
Senate investigation was commenced in Jan. 1902
hence causing legislators to be cautious with regard the
Philippine Bill.
Among those who opposed were:
1. Democrats: Richard Pettigrew of South Dakota,
Augustus O. Bacon of Georgia and George G.
Vest of Missouri
2. Populist: William V. Allen of Nebraska
3. George Frisbee Hoar of Massachusetts and
Henry M. Teller of Colorado
Democratic opposition was led by
William A. Jones, ranking minority
member of House Comm. on Insular
Affairs and until 1901, by Speaker
Thomas B. Reed of Maine.
The Organic Act: Preliminaries

Taft sent recommendations (patterned after public land
laws) to sec. Of war 3 mos. Before Congress hearings
on the Act; included sale leasing, homesteading of
public lands, free patents
Commission:
Commission saw no need for limits in potential U.S.
Corporate investors and instead proposed size
restraints in acquisition by farmers
Like McKinley, they were pro big businesses and
claimed that there were applications for purchase of
Crown lands.
After hearings, the House Committee on Insular Affairs

was in favour of the amended draft but focused on the
Bill of Rights for Filipinos.
Senate Committee on the Phils. Gave prominence to
provisions on natural resources, and focused on
temporary nature of the bill.
6 members of the Democratic minority opposed bill and
proposed establishment of Philippine protectorate, and
a complete overhaul of the bill.
Bill hearings were poorly conducted and participants had
scarce knowledge about the country
Root wrote Taft on Jan. 23, 1902 said that What will be
good for the Phils. is its most insignificant part.
The Organic Act: Content

Passed in Senate 48 to 30 and in the House 140 to 9
Signed by Roosevelt on July 2, 1902
88 sections

1.
Opening sections: echoed Spooner Amendment

and ratified McKinleys actions (i.e. Phil.
Commission and BIA)
2. Sec. 1 9: Empowered Senate to advise President
on appointments so governorship, commission,
dept. secretaries and the colonial SC
3. Sec 5: emasculated Bill of Rights without rights to
trial by jury and to bear arms
4. Sec. 7: Bi-cameral legislature with Commission as
Upper Chamber and Elected assembly as
counterpart
5. Others: issuance of municipal bonds, franchises
and coinage
6. Bulk Sec. 11- 65: Allocation of forest, land and
mineral resources.
7. Sec. 12: natural resources to be administered for
the benefit of the Filipino people.
a. specific restriction on size of prospective
corporate land acquisitions
b. placed public lands under control of insular
govt.
8. Sec. 15: Only 2500 acres could be sold to
corporations (result of lobby by anti-imperialists and
domestic grown U.S. sugar interests)
a. no insular laws will be given legal effect
without approval of Pres.& Congress
9. Sec. 13: Regime to classify public land according to
agricultural character and productiveness
a. commission to make rules and regulations
for sale, lease or other disposition of public
lands other than timber or mineral lands
b. authorized and empowered commission to
promulgate legislation for granting of sale
to actual occupants or settlers of up to 40
acres of agricultural public land.
10. Sec. 16: in allocation of public domain preference
will be given to actual settlers
Congressional ignorance about Phils: disallowed

complete overhaul of Bill
After it was enacted Taft wrote Lodge: The Bill is a good
piece of work
In 1902 Annual report of Phil. Commission: Filipino
people received passage of act well.
Taft and allies tried immediately to amend the act, esp.
Sec. 15.
Nov. 11, 1902: Commission officially recommended
corporate limitation to be increased to 25,000 acres or
that commission be given power to least up to 30,000
acres repeated til Taft was defeated in 1912.
By `1906, Phils. had become a bore.
Autonomy act of 1916 established Phil. Legislature
and empowered it to enact laws for allocating legal
rights to natural resources BUT left intact most of the
provisions and the latter remained effective til similar
provisos were ratified in the Commonwealth Consti of
1935
Commercial Interests
In May 1898: almost no support for colonial expansion
Many powerful men began to believe during 1893-1897
recession that their survival depends on markets of the
world but this dod not mean colonies must be acquired.
1898 concern was that war with Spain might dampen
ongoing domestic recovery
Agrarian interests were opposed to the same and feared
competition from producers of similar crops who could
avail of cheap labor
McKinley: understood concerns of farmers and

merchants; upon election wanted 4 years of peace and
stability but once Spain fell to U.S. was quick to stress
economic advantage of expansion and prompted
change in American Opinion
1901: Root declared that forests is striking element of
wealth in Phils
1902: Taft, in collaboration with other annexationists
including U.S. military governor of Cuba, Maj. Gen.
Leonard Wood, co-authored Opportunities in the
Colonies and Cuba intended to generate business
enthusiasm.
Its intro to the Phil. Portion said it was aimed to provide
knowledge of actual conditions in colonies.
However, M.E. Beall, employee of war dept.s division of
Insular Affairs was less restrained and expressed Phils
financial potential.
Still, direct U.S. investments in the colony were
comparatively meagre. Most were concentrated in public
utilities, mining and industries geared for export to U.S.
markets.
July 1902: excitement regarding acquisition was
replaced by more caution than avarice.
Commissioners attributed it to the booming U.S.
economy which made difficult American capital to enter
the islands
1909: Exclusive free trade relationship bet. U.S. and
Phils. Marked profound change in colonial economy.
1898 treaty of Paris: For 10 yrs obliged U.S. to
guarantee Spanish and other foreign ships same trading
privileges that North American vessels enjoyed. This
expired on April 11, 1909
Aug. 5: Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act was enacted; removed
most U.S. Phil. Trade barriers and established liberal
quotas on U.S. imports on Phil Tobacco and sugar.
Sugar quota provided that up to 300 tons of duty-free
raw Phil. Sugar could be imported each year.
Passage of Tariff Bill was a political triumph for Pres. Taft
Free trade hastened economic integration of colony into
economic orbit of U.S.
However, despite domestic sugar consumption, sugar
imports remained substantially the same levels between
1900 and 1912.
Other exported products: abaca, coconut oil, copra
tobacco and coconut
Agriculture and forestry products were dependent on
large amounts of land but restrictions on corporate
holdings prevented U.S. corporations from acquiring
direct ownership of large landholdings.
th
Large haciendas established in 19 century were
preserved and allowed to expand; same went for
smaller holdings of local elites
Foreign capital was invested in modern sugar mills and
other aspects of product processing and the latter were
then exported within the Phil. Market
1910: earlier belief of the islands being of great
economic advantage had been disapproved.
Incapacity of Filipinos for self-government remained as
the only reason for continued retention of the colony.
Chapter Ten
Insular Actors: Governors and
Commissioners (1898-1903)
Owen Lynch
I.
The Military Regime

-
While the debate on the constitutionality of US

imperialism was ongoing, the colonial regime in the
Philippines was recreated.
European nations, particularly Germany, wanted to
take advantage of the tense situation in Manila, but
Admiral Dewey made sure they were
unsuccessful.
Several General Orders were promulgated:

o General Order No. 20 (May 29, 1899)
the Audencia, which now consists of 9
judges including 6 Filipino lawyers, was
reinstituted to have jurisdiction over civil
and criminal cases.
o General Order No. 21 (June 5, 1899) the CFI and Justice of the Peace Courts in
Manila were reconstituted.
o General Order No. 58 (April 23, 1900) The Code of Criminal Procedure replaced
old Spanish codes.
September 15, 1898: General Otis bluntly refused

that the Filipinos helped the U.S. forces in the
defeat of Spaniards.
December 21, 1898: McKinley issued the
Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation, saying
that:
Late June 1898: The first American troops arrived in

Manila
July 14, 1898: Major General Wesley Merrit
arrived. He served for 6 weeks, and during that
time, the U.S. troop grew in number.
August 29, 1898: Elwell S. Otis, an arrogant man
who inspired only a few of his subordinates,
replaced Merrit.
May 5, 1900: Major General Arthur MacArthur
took over.
August 13, 1898: The Spanish formally surrendered
to General Merritt.
August 14, 1898: Merrit, based on a letter sent by
President McKinely to the secretary of war, issued a
proclamation address to the Filipinos informing
them that they will be governed by rules of
international law, which pertained to military
occupation. This proclamation expressed:
o A commitment by the military commander
to protect the personal and religious rights
of all persons who, by active aid or honest
submission, cooperate with the US.
o That the Filipino people will not be
disturbed in their persons and property, if
they preserve the peace and perform their
duties towards the representatives of the
US (except if it will be necessary for the
good of the services of the US, and the
benefit of the Filipinos)
o That the government established is a
military occupation, but existing municipal
laws that affect private rights of persons
and property, regulate local institutions,
and provide for punishment of crimes, will
still be in force, and will still be tried in
ordinary tribunals. But, this will be
administered by officials appointed by the
government of occupation.
The mission of the US is one of

substituting the mild sway of justice for
arbitrary rule.
o It alluded to the supremacy of the US.
Since references to US supremacy would inflame
nationalists, upon the influence of illustrado
collaborators, Otis reworded the proclamation, to
reassure ilustrado and landowning elites. It
reaffirmed the status quo, giving an assurance of
continued protection by the colonial state of
property rights documented during the Spanish era.
February 4, 1899: Hostilities broke out between US
and nationalist forces. US forces were obviously
more superior. However, the situation was different
in the provinces. By June 1899, it was apparent to
US military officials that victory would require
presence of more troops. However, sending more
troops would be a major political risk for McKinley,
especially since there was a presidential election
coming up.
June 21, 1899: General MacArthur announced an
amnesty for Filipino citizens who, within a period of
90 days, would formally renounce all connection
with the revolutionary forces and acknowledge US
authority over the Philippines. This did not work, so
US military posts grew until December 1901 when it
reached 639.
o
II.
The Philippine (Schurman) Commission

Consisted of 5 members:
1. Cornell University president Jacob G.
Schurman he was appointed by
McKinley to silence his domestic critics
and gain some leeway in establishing a
colonial government
2. Commodore Dewey represented the
Navy
3. General Otis represented the Army
4. Col. Charles Denby U.S. Minister to
China for over 14 years
5. Dean C. Worcester ornithology
professor at University of Michigan
As an investigative body whose powers are only
recommendatory, they were tasked to:
1. Discover ways to promote the most
humane, pacific, and effective extension of
authority
2. Secure with the least possible delay the
benefits of a wise and generous protection
to life and property
The promulgations it set forth were:
Possibility of home rule and a nonexpoitative colonial government. Officers
of the US Armed Forces were against this,
but it brought the commission closer to the
conservative Filipinos.
Worcester dominated the Schurmann Commission.
He practically wrote the whole final report of the
commission, which concluded that the Filipinos
were not read for self-rule. Here, it said that:
1. The intelligent Filipinos themselves
opposed independence.
2. Thus, they proposed that political authority
in Manila and pacified areas be transferred
to local civilian control. This would
reconcile the Filipinos to American
Sovereignty more.

-
Otis, however, was against this. McArthur was

likewise against it,
By early 1900s, McKinley felt that keeping the
Philippines under military rule during an election
year would prolong unrest in the colony; thus, he
sent a more powerful commission.
III. The Philippine (Taft) Commission

Purpose
1. Implement a program for local, limited selfgovernment independent of the military
2. Begin preparations for a complete transfer
to civilian rule
Their task was to establish municipal governments
where the natives will be afforded an opportunity to
manage their own local affairs.
The commission was told to bear in mind that the
regime was not designed for the satisfaction of the
US, but for the happiness, peace, and prosperity of
the Filipino people. Thus, measures to be adopted
should conform to their customs, habits and
prejudices.
IV. President/Commissioner William H. Taft
Taft was a US Circuit Court judge in Cincinnati for
almost 9 years.
He was summoned by President Mckinley to the
White House on January 1900 to ask him to change
careers and be a member of the second Philippine
Commission.
Taft was opposed to colonial acquisition of the
Philippines, but he believed that the Filipinos are
not capable of governing themselves. He also
believed that the colonial acquisition was not
against the US Constitution.
He claimed that the problem of the Philippines was
that of reforming the government.
He believed that the profitability of the colonial
endeavor and the welfare of the natives, was
entirely dependent on the fast introduction of
American capital; thus, he wanted the Spooner Bill
to be passed, where public lands would be issued
to US corporations. However, there was strong
opposition to this bill in the US congress, so
Spooner withdrew his proposal.
Taft later became secretary of war, where he had
primary jurisdiction over all US colonial
possessions.
When he became US President, he secured a
passage of a mutual free trade agreement between
the US and the Philippines.
V. Commissioner/Secretary Dean C. Worcester
a. Introduction
Worcester was the only person to serve in
both the first and the second Commission
1901-1913: He was Philippine
commissioner and colonial secretary of
interior.
1901-1902: When Taft was absent, he
served as Acting President of the
Commission.
Worcester promoted the legal and
bureaucratic disenfranchisement of
indigenous populations, particularly in unHispanicized regions of the colony.
Worcester was fixated on non-Christian
tribes. This was what kept him in the
Philippines for so long.
Born in Vermont as a son of a doctor, he

was raised with the New England values
of hard work and public service.
1887: Worcester first visited the
Philippines as a student volunteer on a
zoological expedition led by his professors
at the University of Michigan.
1889: He returned to the Philippines to
travel widely in the southern 2/3 of the
colony.
1895: Worcester, from the strength of his
research in the Philippines, was appointed
assistant professor of zoology at University
of Michigan
Worcester was considered an expert on
the Philippines. He published a book
entitled Philippine Islands and Their
People, which because a success.
Worcester, upon the influence of the
president of the University of Michigan,
was able to meet McKinley. McKinley was
impressed by Worcester, so he made him
member of the Schurmann Commission.
After this appointment, Worcester stayed
in the Philippines until his death in 1923.
However, Filipinos did not like him
because he was known for his contempt of
Tagalogs, as seen by articles he writes. In
addition, he was brusque and arrogant, so
this personality generated him many
enemies.
b. Early Allegations
Illustrados and members of the PhilippineAmerican community did not like
Worcester, but he was proud of the fact
that he had more staying power than any
of them.
Several complaints were filed against him:

Lebbeus Wilfley, the attorneygeneral, called attention to
Worcesters capacity for raising a
blister whenever he comes in
contract with heads of
departments. He was a source of
irritation and weakness. Taft
however took no action on this.

George Ahern, chief of the
Forestry Bureau, alleged that
Worcester profiting from his
governmental positions. However,
Worcester confronted Ahern, who
produced no evidence for his
claims.
After the incident with Ahern, no more US
officials complained about him. This was
because of his skills at political infighting
and the support he always got from Taft.
c.
The Illustrados Nemesis

Illustrados didnt like Worcester because
of:

His racist outlook, and his
stubborn, high-strung, selfrighteous, and abrasive
temperament.

His insistence on highlighting the
presence of un-Hispanicized
peoples.

The 1902-1904 cholera epidemic.
Worcester was the senior official
responsible for public health. The
measures he adopted to contain
the outbreak inconvenienced a lot
of influential Filipinos.

Worcesters interest in surveying
natural resources, with a view of
encouraging exploitation by US
capitalists.
October 30, 1908: Worcesters bitterness
towards Filipinos magnified when in the
Manila newspaper, El Renacimiento, an
editorial titled Aves de Rapina referred to a
man who acquires national wealth for his
personal benefit.

Worcester filed a libel suit for
P100,000 in damages against the
publisher and four staff members
of the newspaper. Worcester
won.

He also filed for civil damages for
damages on account of his
wounded feelings and mental
suffering, and injuries to his
standing and reputation.

Because of this, the newspaper
was sold at public Auction. It was
actually Worcester who obtained
possession of the paper.

The press was bitter about what
happened. The Free Press
demanded that Worcester resign.
The most the press got was for
the new governor-general to
commute the prison terms of
those sued for libel.
October 10, 1910: In a meeting of the
Young Mens Christian Association,
Worcester argued against Independence
saying that Christian Filipinos could not be
trusted to treat the non-Christians in a just
and human manner, citing an incident in
Bukidnon where Christian Filipinos
exploited it dwellers.

This caused an uproar.

The Municipal Council of San
Fernando, Pampanga passed a
resolution saying Worcesters
remarks constitute an outrageous
insult to the honor of the
Philippines.

It called on Taft to remove
Worcester because his conduct
shows an absolute disdain for the
most sacred sentiments of the
People of the Philippines.

February 3, 1911: Even the
Philipine Assembly passed a
similar resolution, but did not ask
for Worcesters dismissal (taking
into account Worcesters strong
ties with Taft). It simply expressed
that Worcesters remarks were
improper and censurable, and
were violative of McKinley;s
instructions.

The resolution was forwarded to
Taft, but secretary of war Jacob
M. Dickinson first made a

comment on Worcesters remarks
saying that it might have lead
people to the conclusion that
Worcester believed the Christian
Filipinos to be cowardly, weak,
cruel and dishonest, however, he
is confident that Worcester did
not intend to express such views.
However, he was still against
Worcesters remarks. This did not
have any effect though, as
Worcester remain in his positions.
September 15, 1913: Worcester resigned
when Woodrow Wilson defeated Taft in the
1912 Presidential Elections.
1915: Worcester decided to return to the
Philippines as a businessman in Cebu.
Initially, a group of prominent Cebuanos
were against Worcesters plans, but
eventually, the leading organizers of the
group themselves, Dionisio Jakosalem
and Celestino Rodriguez, even profited
from Worcesters business.
VI. Other Philippine (Taft) Commissioners

The following were additional members of the Taft
Commission:
1. Luke E. Wright instrumental force
behind the Revised Penal Code, and the
reorganization of the Philippine
Constabulary. He became governorgeneral after Taft.
2. Henry C. Ide worked on the Code of
Civil Procedure, which Taft highly praised.
3. Bernard Moses supposed to manage
the Department of Education, but did not
fare well because of the tropical climate,
4. Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera - a
bibliographer, historian, physician,
landowner and firm believer in
modernization.
5. Benito Legarda a lawyer educated at
UST. He owned a controlling interest in
one of the colonys larguest manufacturers
of alcoholic beverages, and also had large
landholdings on the sugar-producing
island of Negros
6. Jose R. Luzuriaga also a large landholder on the sugar producing island of
Negros
De Tavera, Legarda and Luzuriaga were all
previously involved in the revolutionary
government. They belonged to the Spanish
mestizos, and acquired great wealth during the
Spanish regime; thus, they had reasons for wanting
colonially documented property rights to be
recognized by the incoming regime.
The addition of the 3 was done only after the major
legislation for the political reconstruction of the
Philippines had been completed. It was consistent
with the plan of Root to have the commission
evolve into a permanent legislative body.
Only 3 Filipino commissioners were appointed to
make sure that the American commissioners would
still be followed.
Later on, other Americans, James F. Smith and W.
Cameron Forbes, replaced the original US

commissioners. These replacements still promoted
US investments.
Owen Lynch
I.
Local Officials and the Revolutionary Interlude

Due to the success of the revolutionary forces
during 1897 and 1898, Spanish priests and officials
fled the provinces and went to Manila. This led
Aguinaldo to issue a decree to recognize the local
governments in those areas. With this, the
governments duty was to interpret faithfully the
popular will.
However, such duty was not fulfilled, as those
eligible to run for government were limited to:
o Males 21 years or older
o Those who are most distinguished for high
character, social position and honorable
conduct
o Lovers of Philippine independence
This showed Aguinaldos reliance on Filipino elites,
especially since their material support was vital in
the success of the revolution.
However, the wealth of these elites was extracted
from rural peasants.
Inevitably, the victory by Aguinaldo is not liberation
from colonial forms of oppression. It caused greater
oppression, this time by native decision-makers,
rather than foreign ones.
US Historian Glen May challenges the notion that
the revolution received support from rural people in
Luzon. The rural peasants were allegedly just
obliged by their patrons and landlords to join the
revolution. Filipino Historians Guerrero and Illeto
however do not agree with this.
Ultimately, there were variations in intensity of
support for the Katipunan. But whats more
important is that peasant support for the revolution
ultimately failed to effect structural change. Filipino
elites were still the victors of national
independence, as reinforced by the outcome of
local elections.
II.
Continuity: The Municipal Code

May 1899: First elections under US supervision
was held in Baliuag, Bulacan. The motive behind
this was to gain the support of local leaders, and
not to secure the democratic consent of those being
governed.
January 31, 1901: Act No. 82, or the Municipal
Code, was enacted, to supposedly provide
municipalities with a greater degree of power and
autonomy than they had previously possessed.
Several legislations were enacted in line with this:
o November 22, 1990: Organizing municipal
governments in Benguet. Officers were
appointed by the civil governor, subject to
the consent of the commission.
o Extension of electoral franchise to:

All males 18 years old or older

Resident of the province for at
least 6 months preceding the
election
o Extending the electoral franchise didnt
mean a commitment to democracy. This
was just to preempt US miners who have
been moving into the province in large
numbers and were threatening to take
over local political organizations.
VII. Philippine Commission: Process and Output

The commissioners had de facto autonomy
because it took months before communication with
Washington can be made.
Each commissioner held various committees:
1. Taft civil service, crown property
including public lands, public institutions,
and religious orders.
2. Worcester agriculture, forestry, minerals
and fisheries, health, immigration, and
municipal organizations
3. Ide organization of courts, civil
procedure, land titles and registration,
banks and currency.
4. Taft, Ide and Wright (the lawyers)
revision of the civil code
The president of the commission, who was also
civil-governor, remained governor-general later on,
had no veto power. Nevertheless, he emerged as
primus inter pares.
-
Procedure for Legislation by the Commission:

1. Bills are proposed by the commissioners
2. Initial reading in executive session (away
from public)
3. Proposals were considered by the
commissioners sitting as a committee
4. Proposed legislation is resubmitted to the
commission in executive session
5. Second reading
6. If approved, translated into Spanish and
published in the newspapers
7. Third reading in a public session
8. Final vote
9. Law is enacted, 500 copies are to be
printed in English and Spanish
This procedure was criticized for not allowing
sufficient public debate. Also, special procedures
could be invoked whenever it is shown to be
desirable. However, Taft defended the commission.
Taft claimed that most legislative work fell under 3
commissioner-lawyers.
1. Worcester drafted several bills on natural
resources and local governments
2. A total of 1,033 acts had been passed, of
which 403 were amendments, and 118
were repealed previous legislation.
The Output of the Commission was described as:
based on a vague belief in Destiny and the
universal applicability of Anglo-American
institutions
an immense quantity of ill-considered
legislation enacted without much debate
Taft however described their output as saying that
they did not disturb the substantive law of the
Philippines. However, Taft failed to mention laws
which pertained to natural laws and Philippine land
laws.
In conclusion that the laws effect was just to
empower the US regime and Philippine elites by
legally disenfranchising millions of rural peoples.
Chapter Eleven
Insular Actors: Subordinate
Officials and Politicians
10 weeks after the enactment of the Municipal

Code, the commission wanted to have a more
restrictive electoral franchise because it deemed

that the Filipinos were not yet fit to exercise a share
in governing their communities. To participate in the
elections, new requirements were set:
o Must be males 23 years old or older
o Held public office during the Spanish
regime
o Could read and write English or Spanish
o Paid a minimum of P30 per year in real
estate taxes
This limited eligible voters to 2.5% of the
population. As such, the Municipal Code just
perpetuated the stratification rather than the
democratization of Philippine society. Landed elites
were just empowered more.
The Municipal Code also provided for municipal
autonomy, where municipal councils are authorized
to design their own projects, and make
appropriations for lawful and necessary municipal
expenditures. This gives way to the Philippine real
estate tax, where:
o Portion of the revenues collected would be
turned over to the municipality where the
land was located.
o Some funds were designated for support
of free public primary schools
o However, The municipal council had
discretion to expend the remaining
amounts

This led to problems, because
the municipal councils just voted
that the remaining amounts be
allocated for their salaries, and
not for the repair of roads,
construction of buildings, etc.

It was easy to do his because the
municipal presidents appointed
the municipal treasurer. So as a
solution, the prerogative was
transferred to the provincial
treasurer. Also, the municipal
treasurers were required to
belong to the civil service.
III. Innovation: The Provincial Government Act

Purpose: To recognize provincial governments in
Hispanicized areas.
Criterion to set-up a province: Whether armed
insurrection exists in any form in the province
concerned.
Source of funds: Real estate taxes.
Composition: governor, provincial treasurer and
provincial supervisor (in charge of public works).
Function: Legislation, Supervision of municipal
governments.
How they are put into office: They were
previously appointed by the military governor or the
commission, but later on they were elected by the
municipal government officials.
-
There were criticisms before that provincial

governors did not occupy a sufficiently important
place. In an effort to put such criticisms to rest, Taft
said that governors who have been in Manila are
convinced that they are important. These governors
held celebrity status. They were even permitted to
sit with members of the Philippine commission to
discuss a wide range of issues.
Two of the most prominent governors were Manuel

Quezon of Tayabas and Sergio Osmena of Cebu.
IV. The Federalista Party

A group of native elites who favored the imposition
of US colonial rule.
They were otherwise called Americanistas.
Their members include Chief Justice Arellano and
the 3 Filipino members of the Philippine
Commission (de Tavera, Legarda, Luzuriaga).
Most members held offices under the Spanish
government, and many were also active in the
revolutionary government.
The party had a platform that called for a 2-stage
process:
o First stage

Acceptance of US sovereignty

Restoration of peace and order

Separation of Church and State

Guarantee of Civil Liberties and
documented property rights

Establishment of autonomous
local governments
o Second Stage: The Constitutional
Period

Achieve representation in the US
congress

A colonial assembly and senate
was to be created where half are
appointed by the civil governor,
and half elected by municipal
presidents
The party grew because of its return to the politics
of patronage. Inevitably, most of the people
appointed by the colonial regime were Federalistas.
However, this did not last long. Luke Wright, Tafts
replacement, began to appoint Filipinos with other
political affiliations when it sensed a lack of popular
support for the Federalistas.
Their demise was attributable to the fact that
provincial governors were no longer appointed. At
first, the Federalistas did well in the elections, but
when political competition shifted from Manila to the
provinces, it did not fare well anymore.
o 58/80 of positions were won by the
Nacionalista Party (this included Quezon
and Osmena). Only 16 gubernatorial seats
were won by the Federalistas (who
changed their name to Nationalista
Progresista)
The elections revealed a trend: personal
relationships and money make all the difference.
Ideology and party labels were not important
already.
V. The Philippine Assembly
The official justification for creating this assembly
was for the need to introduce Filipinos forms and
processes for self government. However, it was just
an effort to co-opt ilustrados and secure their
support for the colonial imposition.
The assembly served as the lower house
counterpart of the commission, which served as
the upper house, in a bicameral Philippine
Legislature as mandated by the Organic Act of
1902.

Areas inhabited by Moros or other nonChristian tribes, however, were exclusively
under the commission.
o For all other areas in the country, laws had
to pass through both houses.
July 30, 1907: The first elections for the assembly
were held.
o The same elitist criteria for eligibility was
used.
o Choices made by the electoral pool were
predictable.
o 26% of the Assemblys original members
already held official positions in the
Spanish regime.
o 73% secured official access to political
power in the conservative revolutionary
government.
o Reynaldo Ileto: This was a rebirth of the
1898 Malolos congress
o
October 16, 1907: The Assembly was inaugurated.

Taft, in his opening address, said the assembly was
generally conservative.
The Assembly wanted to eliminate the bureaucratic
centralism which characterized the regime and
hindered the native elites in their struggle to secure
legal control over various economic and natural
resources.
Osmena was elected as speaker

Quezon was floor leader
The Assembly affirmed its conservative bias in favor

of the landed elite by:
o Passing bills for a 5-year tax exemption on
al privately owned uncultivated land
outside Manila
o Empowering provincial boards to suspend
provincial land taxes for 2 years
o Exempting all lands worth less than P50
from any tax
Likewise, the Second Assembly (1909-1911),
o Sanctioned the work of unlicensed land
surveyors
o Undermined the regulatory powers of the
Bureau of Lands
o Abolished the Court of Land Registration
and Bureau of Lands
o Suspended the payment of the 1912 land
tax
The Third Assembly (1911-1913)
o Attempted to suspend the land tax
However, all these enactments were disapproved
by the commission.
Antagonism between the Commission and the

Assembly:
o Annual appropriations bill was impossible
to be passed; thus, Section 7 of the
Organic Act had to be amended so that if
there are no appropriations approved, the
last approved appropriation will be
deemed appropriated.
o In 1913, the impasse was over
because the Assembly were now
eager to have their emoluments
increased.
VI. The Nacionalista Party
The victory of the Nacionalista party proved that

political independence was a popular aspiration.
The commission felt threatened, so it amended the
Sedition Act of 1901, and passed other laws, to
make it criminal to
o utter or make any statement or speech
which tends to stir up the people against
the lawful authorities.
o Display, or cause or permit to be
displayed, any flags, banners, emblems,
or devices which had been used on behalf
of the revolutionaries during the Phil-Am
war or belonged to the Katipunan.
However, US officials believed that the party, led by
Quezon and Osmena, didnt really want
independence. Both were indebted to Americans,
so they would be willing to collaborate with the
rulers.
It wouldve been unwise for Quezon and Osmena to
say their real sentiments, so they just continued
governing by demanding immediate independence
and strict controls over foreign investments.
VII. The Philippine Legal Profession

Filipino lawyers were largely supportive of colonial
reimposition.
During the Spanish rule, Native-born ilustrados who
were lawyers were largely appointed to many
influential positions in the colonial bureaucracy.
Under the US rule, the colonial judiciary became
the most Filipinized branch of the colonial
government. In fact
o 6 out of 9 appointees by the military
regime to the SC were ilustrados
o 4 of their replacements were also
ilustrados.
o Such appointments raised hopes that
Filipinos will still be appointed in the future
Taft did not agree to this, telling Elihu Root, US
secretary of war, that Filipino judges do not expect
to work more than 2 hours a day.
Because of this, the Taft Commissioners were
initially inclined not to appoint any Filipino judges
into the CFI, when it was reconstituted in 1900.
However, 59 members of the Philippine Bar wrote
to Taft saying that all judges appointed should be
Filipinos. This created a buzz, so Taft and his
colleagues just opted to appoint natives to 6 of the
less important bench openings, where they wont
make any difference if they are not efficient.
Most appointees were young lawyers who were
ambitious and anxious to understand the system of
law of America.
For the commission to enhance their leverage over
these young lawyers, they provided a salary
ranging from $3000-$5500 depending on the district
they are assigned.
Later on, since there were less US citizens in the
colony, the commission had to appoint Filipinos as
justices of peace.
o Its not a requirement that they are
members of the bar.
o These justices were not paid salaries.
o They were instead permitted to collect
fees for the judicial services they
rendered, which made them inaccessible
to the poor, and increased corruption and
other abuses.

-
In 1911 however, they were paid salary, and they

were required to have passed the bar, the civil
service, or a special examination.
Taft didnt think highly of Filipino lawyers. He said
that few of them are good, if judged by American
standards. Because of this, Filipino lawyers just
opted to practice their profession in private.
US lawyers were competing with the Filipino
lawyers. Many of the former wanted to secure
appointments to the colonial judiciary, while some
were just content to profit from the opportunities
colonialism had created for them.
These US lawyers insisted that English be the
official language of schools and the executive,
legislative and judiciary; however, ilustrados who
were already educated in Spanish were against
this. The illustrados won, but ill-will still lingered
within the Philippine legal profession.
o Felipe Calderon: Americans just want to
monopolize the profession to the detriment
of Filipino lawyers, and to the injury of the
Filipino public
In terms of our system of jurisprudence, an AngloAmerican system was not followed. Instead, a
Hispano-American hybrid was created,
characterized by the innovation of Americans in
amending Spanish codes considered still valid:
o Code of Criminal Procedure - arbitrary
practices perpetrated in the Spanish
regime were removed
o Code of Civil Procedure the qualification
and duties of lawyers were outlined
Such codes became an instrument for
strengthening the position of the Filipino upper
class.
The Study of Law in the Philippines
o During the first decade of the US regime:
Filipinos law students continued their
studies in Spanish at UST.
o 1910: First English-language law
curriculum was offered by the Educational
Department of the American-European
YMCA of Manila.
o 1911: UP established a College of
Law, which replaced UST as the
leading law school. George A.
Malcolm became dean of UP. He was
silent about the regime and its laws.
He however expressed disappointed
over the lack of an advocacy for legal
reform. He recognized that good
books prepared by Filipino authors
were not prepared to advocate
reforms and have not caused radical
changes in statute law.
Abinales and Amoroso, The Filipino

Colonial State, 1902-1946 (Chapter 6)
POLITICS AND THE PHILIPPINE ASSEMBLY
Whereas when Spaniard governor-generals thought

about the problems of the Philippines they thought
about the state, American governor-generals (in keeping
with their political and ideological slant) thought about
democracy.
Accordingly, this meant the quick establishment of

representation from the municipal to the national level.
The article contends that even in the US the purely
national institutions such as the Executive, et al had far
less political clout than the regional institutions, such as
Congress.
Upon the establishment of this representative system
from the municipal level up, the Filipino political scene
gradually grew. No longer constrained by the need to
pander to the holders of centralized power, Filipino
politicians then turned to their localities for support. The
three key ingredients of a politicos campaign are: 1)
support from family, friends, and business associates; 2)
party affiliation, and; 3) the support of an American
padrino. By the time of the 1907 election of
representatives to the Philippine Assembly, the Spanish
effort to centralize power had been all but reserved.
This new regime, having severed the strings that all but
puppetized Philippine politicians to the friars, introduced
a political ladder for the new politicos to climb. The effort
to engage in politics therefore becomes worthwhile
because for the first time, a higher government position
actually means more power.
Outside the Assembly, which became the center of all
locally based power, socializing continued. This was the
first step in the formation of the national elite and the
realization of the Philippine political landscape as it is
today.
Manuel Quezon came from Tayabas, and rose from
provincial bureaucrat to provincial governor thanks both
to his indomitable qualities and his padrino, American
constabulary chief Harry Bandholtz. Sergio Osmena on
the other hand was born to a prominent family in Cebu,
opening the door to associations with American and
Filipino officials there and in Manila. After becoming
provincial governor, he then allied with like-minded
governors, which included Quezon, with whom he tagteamed to lead the Partido Nacionalista.
These two powerful men, however, were not content to
just lead the Nacionalistas, not when important
departments like education, natural resources, and the
tax bureau were all still centralized institutions. Filipino
politicians came to the conclusion that they should
abandon change through the legislative process and
that they should just encroach as much as possible on
executive power. This they did, and though initially they
suffered defeats via Tafts veto power being used on
self-serving laws and their own relative inexperience, by
1909 Quezon and Osmena had become experts on the
game of favors and political back-scratching. The next
step was to get into the Executive branch.
FILIPINIZATION
American Republicans and Democrats largely differed

on the matter of Philippine independence only on the
timeframe: the Republicans wanted it later, the
Democrats wanted it sooner. When Wilson won in 1912
he had a chance to change the previously-Republican
track taken on Filipino independence.
Wilson appointed Francis Burton Harrison, whose main

mission was the Filipinization of the colonial state.
Quezon had lobbied hard for this guy, and he wasnt
disappointed. Harrison implemented the following: he
ordered a curtail of American executive power especially
oversight-wise; he cut executive salaries in order to
expedite the resignation of many American bureaucrats;
he gave the Nacionalistas the power to appoint local
and provincial officials; he did not object when the
Assembly reserved the right to compel executive

officials to submit documents and testify; he did not
object when the Assembly claimed the right to
appropriate the budget; he transferred the authority to
deal with Moros and other non-Christian tribes from
Americans to Filipinos (effectively assimilating them into
the Assembly and incorporating a new, Filipino-held
Department of Mindanao and Sulu and ushering in a
long period of stability in the Muslim South), and, upon
the passing of the Jones Law of 1916, which abolished
the Philippine Commission and passed on its legislative
functions to the newly-created Senate, he created the
Council of State to harmonize the Executive and
Legislative, and mandated that all executive bureaus
except Public Instruction be headed by Filipinos. (sorry
big deal si Harrison eh! Mikey)
CRONY CAPITALISM CIRCA THE 1920s
The majority of the new legislature were men with

upward mobility, hence the understandable desire for
enrichment. There were two paths to this.
The first path was through the State itself, through

budgetary allocations that go to cronies.
The second path was through the economy, through

state corporations established to promote colonial
economic development. So bad was it that one Osmena
protg involved in irregularities got jailed, and even his
patron could not help him.
It was a mix of corruption and competence that would

become a pattern ; how then to account for it? A
tentative explanation can be found in the regime of
colonial accountability. Despite feeling entitled to the
spoils of high position, Filipino officials were also
compelled to prove capable of self-governance. There
was only a very limited sense of accountability to the
Americans, however. Osmena was able to use
nationalism to put Filipinos in top positions, and
disarmed American critics by labeling them antiFilipino. There were some Filipino voices of malcontent
against the corruption in the system, such as Vicente
Sotto, but voices like his were few and far between.
RESTRAINING POLITICS
The American business community in the Philippines

served as a deterrent to crony capitalism, with its antiFilipino stance and location in strategic sectors such as
power, telecoms, and export agriculture.
US Congress, however, weakened the position of this

community by legislating a limit on land ownership by
Americans on Philippine soil at the behest of domestic
agriculture. When the Assembly moved to block foreign
access to public land and vital economic activities such
as interisland shipping, the American business
community couldnt oppose it.
Anticorporate agitation, the American sense that the

Philippines was too far away for profitable investment,
the greater attraction of the Chinese market, and
impending self-rule kept American business interest in
the Philippines weak, leaving most of the crucial cronycapitalist industries such as the emergent industrial and
service sectors in the hands of Filipinos.
Leonard Wood was appointed governor-general by new

Republican president William Harding, and attempted to
undo most of the changes Harrison had implemented,
notably the dealings with the Muslims. He was popular
with them, and having convinced them that Philippine
independence was still far off, they endorsed the reappointment of American bureaus to manage Muslim
affairs in the Philippines.
Osmena and Quezon tried to battle Wood by ordering all

Nacionalistas to resign from their positions in the
Executive, refused to pass Wood-sponsored bills, and
attempting to override Woods vetoes. They also cut
budget support to Woods pet projects and accused him
of abusing his executive power, not to mention painting
him as a useful symbol of the anti-Filipino American.
But Wood won these skirmishes because he had the
backing of the Republican administration in America;
unfortunately for him, he abruptly lost the skirmishes
against Osmena and Quezon because he died in
surgery. His successors lost interest in trying to
strengthen the American position in the Philippines once
it was decided to grant the Filipinos independence.
Osmena and Quezon eventually split and vied for
control of the Nacionalista Party, but they reunited once
again in order to deal with the drafting of the constitution
per the Tydings-McDuffie Act, and the peasant uprisings
north of Manila.
POPULAR INSURGENCY
Contrary to the Nacionalista claim that theirs is a

government for the people, they did not actually
pay much attention to the poor and landless during
the first twenty years of their reign. Suffrage then
was limited to the Spanish- or American-literate who
owned property, excluding much of the population
even upon the expansion of the literacy
requirement to embrace those literate in native
languages. The people was mainly useful as a
bludgeon, in that the Filipinos in power can threaten
the Americans with a popular vote for immediate
independence, which was a popular sentiment.
This changed, however, when the 1935 Constitution

was promulgated, which gave women the right to
vote and removed the property qualification. The
people and their concerns suddenly became that
much more prominent.
Popular protest was instigated in the lower classes

by so-called popes, those that would lead the poor
to salvation. These instigators had learned how to
build a mass base long before the Nacionalistas
did, largely because the Nacionalistas saw no need
for it. Among the disenfranchised urban and rural
poor, it is not difficult to find, sow, and cultivate
malcontent.
In the 1930s, the Sakdalistas, founded by erstwhile

Quezon adherent Benigno Ramos, spread across
urban and rural areas. Their appeal was their
criticism of the Nacionalistas maladministration;
their demands were these: complete and immediate
independence, the abolition of taxes, equal or
common ownership of land, investigation of friar
estates gotten through illegal means, the formation
of a Philippine Army, the use of local languages in
public schools, lawyers for poor defendants, lower
pay for officials and increased pay for laborers,
teachers, and policemen, and the adoption of voting
machines to prevent election fraud. Finally, they
attacked the Nacionalista armor, accusing them of
actually being satisfied with American rule.
The Sakdal movements initial successes in the

political arena were impressive, scoring 3 seats in
the House of Representatives. Colonial officials
worried that the fledgling movement and its
Philippine-style populism would coalesce with that
of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP). A
chance came to disarm this threat when the
Sakdalistas started to discuss strategy: would it be
better to take militant action instead of actually

taking seats in Congress, where they can do little
harm? The former option was fast becoming more
attractive to the urban and rural poor.
When municipal authorities began to restrict
Sakdalista movement outside Manila, they
respondent violently but ineptly. Armed with only
bolos, knives, sticks and old rusting guns, they went
up against gun-armed constabulary units and
miserably lost, losing over a dozen of their number
to death and hundreds more to imprisonment. The
provincial backbone of the movement collapsed.
Since the national electorate was largely untouched
by the Sakdalista movement, the Nacionalistas
were able to paint their uprising as a dangerous
one; in the national elections for president the
slogan Quezon ran under was Quezon or chaos,
and he won. The question raised however, in the
advent of mass suffrage was: elections or mass
action?
THE ORIGINS OF PHILIPPINE AUTHORITARIANISM?
Quezon used the Sakdal uprising to justify the

centralization of power to the executive. He rationalized
that a stronger president is needed in order to address
the problems presented by such revolts. But some older
motivations for this might have been in play. For
instance, Quezon and Osmena (now vice-president) had
spent so many years getting to where they currently
were, and it would be quite important to expand his
powers even as president.
Quezon uprooted the Senate from its regional base by

making them nationally elected officials, effectively
making it an extension of his executive authority. He
also tightened control over the departments of the
government, especially those that have to do with the
budget. He created a Philippine Army and, to ensure
their loyalty to him, appointed officers he could trust and
entrusted his friend and business partner Gen. Douglas
MacArthur to command it.
Quezon was very hands-on with regional politics as

well, especially since he was building a government
from the ground up. Provincial governors sought his
praised and feared his rebuke. On the flip side, Quezon
was very generous to those who proved their loyalty to
him, disbursing budget monies to them as he saw fit.
The Sakdalistas forced an adjustment to the Quezon

system, however, making him expand the beneficiaries
of his progressive conservatism. His Social Justice
program aimed to provide for the splitting of landed
estates and the distribution of the parts, 8-hour
workdays, minimum wage, expanded rights for laborers,
increased access to the courts, and official resettlement
programs to move families from densely populated
areas to land-rich Mindanao. All of these passed except
the landed estates proposal, sowing the seeds of future
discontent. The Americans watched mostly with
trepidation and discomfort as the democratic processes
and institutions eroded, but they supported Quezon
because they saw no alternative to him. Manuel Quezon
became the quintessential corrupt competent. In bouts
of megalomania he calls himself the Philippines, but it is
mixed with a genuine identification of the self as Filipino,
and thus he sees in himself the interests of every
Filipino.
SOCIAL CHANGES ON THE EVE OF WORLD WAR II
True, the upper class remained the upper class as the

Philippines entered the 1940s. But a new middle class
is being formed out of the need for economic

specialization. By 1939 90 percent of the professional
workforce in Manila were Filipinos, in fields such as
nursing, medicine, teaching and lawyering.
The middle class also served as an avenue for cultural
change, bringing with it Hollywood and jazz and
imported magazines and American consumer culture.
The political leanings of this middle class were more
influenced by the Nacionalistas than by the older
revolutionary generation. They considered themselves
fiscalizers, those who want to see the government
work better.
Chinese citizens were once again marked as outsiders.
The Philippine Commission extended American
exclusion laws to the Philippines, ending Chinese
immigration until 1941, where a quota of 500 immigrants
per nationality were allowed per year. As a result, the
Chinese became unified and cohesive in order to better
lobby their rights to the state. The protected US export
market however forced the Chinese back into domestic
retail where they dominated groceries and hardware
(HAHAHA ANG RACIST NUNG ARTICLE Mikey).
Those who survived the efforts of the Filipino elite to
nationalize the economy spoke English, were Christian,
had highly educated children, and maintained close
contact with Americans and Filipinos.
WORLD WAR II AND THE SECOND REPUBLIC
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor the war

between Japan and the US was on. A few hours
afterward, the Japanese attacked military facilities in the
Philippines. No military force opposing the Japanese as
a conventional military unit could stand up to its
awesomeness just then. MacArthur left for Australia
vowing I shall return carrying in tow a sick Quezon,
Osmena, and certain of their staff, in order that they can
establish a government in exile.
Japan justified its invasion as an expression of fraternal

solidarity of Asians with Asians (the Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere). Japan still allowed the
Philippines to run the government albeit with much
stricter regulation. In 1943 the Japanese granted the
Philippines independence and installed a puppet
Second Republic.
Whereas regionally the Japanese invasion of SEAsia

marked the beginning of anticolonialist sentiment, the
Philippines bucked this rule. Those who collaborated
were pragmatic: the Americans had abandoned them,
and anyway Quezon had left a directive to cooperate
with the invaders if only to prevent social and political
breakdown. These collaborators provided the continuity
from the Commonwealth to the Second Republic.
There was a segment of the Philippine elite that saw the

Japanese occupation as a chance to restore the parts of
Philippine history glossed over by the Americans, plus
teaching and writing in Filipino languages and
developing the perspective of the Philippines as Asian.
Laurel defended the new order as an opportunity to

revive anti-imperialist sentiments. His justification of
collaboration in nationalist terms came from his being
Batangueno, where the pacification of the local guerrilla
forces had been harsh, and where his family activity
supported the revolutionaries. Laurel, though, was
abandoned by his political colleagues who were more
concerned with self-preservation upon American return.
Most of the guerrilla forces fought hard and long; the

others did so halfheartedly, waiting only for MacArthurs
return; still others turned to infighting. The only
sustained armed resistance was that organized by the

PKP: the Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon, or Huks.
During the war it broadened its ideological enemy range
to include fascism, making the Japanese legitimate
targets for militant action. They believed that when the
Americans come back the would be regarded as allies;
however, they were seen as a threat to be disposed of
later by both the United States Armed Forces in the Far
East (USAFFE) and the Filipino elites. By the end of the
war and through all the casualties, after Manila had
been destroyed to the point of it being the next most
devastated city in the war (next to Warsaw) the
collaborators were tried by a returning Osmena, but
MacArthur had already taken sides on the issue,
protecting business partners and friends from
prosecution. No major political figure experienced
significant jail time, i.e. The elites survived.
The Colonial Roots of Criminal Procedure

in the Philippines
Amy Rossabi
I. Introduction:
1565 Spanish establishment of a colonial government that
permitted natives to continue living according to their indigenuous
customs instead of imposing their law that is deried from the old
Roman Law.
For legal matters not covered by the Laws of the Indies the
following shall apply:
o Code of Castile: Fuero Juego, Fuero Real, Siete
Partidas of Alfonso X, all written prior 1266)
o Novisima Recopilacion de Castilla
Recopilacion de las Leyes de los Reyes de las Indias /
Law of the Indies not cohesive collection of laws compiled
and issued on May 18 1680, was composed of:
Cedulas, which were a collection of orders carried out in the
name of the king;
Decretos, which were orders concerning the church that
were carried out in the name of the king
Resoluciones, which are orders rendered by some superior
authority on questions duly submitted and thereafter sent to
inferior authorities for guidance
Reglamentos, written instructions from the central
government
Ordenamientos and Pragmaticas, orders of the King
relating to matters not covered on the Cedula.
B. Spanish Courts in the Philippines

Council of the Indies Audiencia (SC) Alcade
Mayor (Spanish) Gobernadorcillo (Filipino)
1.
2.
1898 When the Americans came to the Philippines, they began
incorporating Roman law but was still permissive of customs.
White Man's Burden the duty of the Americans to civilize the
natives; but not to socialize with them.
3.
General Order 58 instituted in 1900 the code of Criminal

Procedure in the Philippines consonant to American Ideals, is
relatively unchanged until 1997; was introduced to demonstrate
that the rights of the accused were paramount in a just and
democratic society;
~judiciary officials were not elected to determinative roles as
Americans feared to have judiciary that would pose a challenge
to their authority.
Dual Legal Structure - colonial powers limiting the indigenuous
access to their own legal system, while the foreigners have their
own laws; Was seen during the time of the Dutch Traders when
they abided by Dutch laws instead of the native adat customs of
the natives.
Daniel S. Levi a scholar of Indonesian Law - legal systems
facilitated efficient exploitation of the indigenuous peoples
Ilustrados Philippine elite; were used by the Americans to
legitimize their rule. (Americans introduced changes, facilitated
by the ilustrados, that are procedural rather than substantive in
nature.
II. The Spanish Era (1521 1898)
Ferdinand Magellan a portuguese navigator employed by the
Spanish; had two groups of men catholic missionaries and
colonial administrators, who compromised to reach their goals of
religion and profit; the Spanish empires was then an inseparable
union of the Church and State
A.
-
Roman Law in the Philippines

John Phelan historian; dowry and inheritance received
recognition from Spanish Law as customary law in inter
Filipino litigations.
4.
Gobernadorcillo village leader; mediates and

resolves conflict on local levels without resorting to
formal proceedings with jurisdiction on civil cases and
petty criminal disputes.
Alcalde Mayores presided over all initial criminal
cases and civil suits involving substantial sums; petitions
for the decisions can be directed to the Audiencia
Territorial de Manila.
Audiencia remained the highest court of the land
during the Spanish Rule; reviewed all criminial cases,
WON appealed, and with the power to overrule all other
courts although the governor general who presides
over the audiencia has the final say over all cases;
composed of:
a. chief justice
b. two presidents of chambers (civil and
criminal branches)
c. eight associate justices
d. additional justices for vacancies
(magistrados suplentes)
e. attorney general
f. and other officials
Council of the Indies (Spain) the last appellant
body; most cases never reach this as Spanish generally
thought of Filipino issues as minor disagreements.
Revised Penal Code of 1887 enacted on the eve of Spanish

withdrawal from the Philippines; crimes = punishment; no rights
for the defendant, and no procedural guidelines for trial
proceedings
C. Criminal Law and Procedure.
The Spanish never implemented a sustem of jury trials in their
tenure of the Philippines but instead only had a judge to render
all decisions.
1. Sumario - begins after the prosecution files a case in
the lower court; equivalent to period of discovery in the
US, where each side investigates and conducts
research; takes years to complete with the defendant
left languishing in prison.
2. Trial - accused offers evidence against the charges
against him, Note that the burden and production of
proof lies on the defendant. State and elite interests
predominated over individual rights

5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
D. The Spanish Catholic Church in the Philippines

The clergy often served as link between the Filipino people and
the colonial administration, so that the Filipinos did not feel
isolated from the government. The government also depended on
the clergy to control and in large part administer its colony.
E. The End of the Spanish Era
Asociacion Hispano Filipina - a group of ilustrados fighting
for rights such as reform in the judiciary and penitentiary,
development of Philippine Agriculture, construction of roads,
governmental administration, compulsory teaching of spanish
and establishment of secondary schools.
A defendant demurs when he admits all the allegations

of the complaint but asserts that such allegations are
insufficient to forma a cause of action rendering the
plaintiff's case invalid. A plea on the other, is a direct
response to the charge.
Four types of applicable pleas:

o guilty
o not guilty
o former judgment of conviction or acquittal of the
offense charged, which may be pleaded either
with or without the plea of guilty;
o once in jeopardy, which may be pleaded with or
without a plea of guilty.
A defendant with a guilty pleas may at any time before
judgment on the plea, withdraw it and substitute a not
guilty plea, then defendant proceeds to a trial
Reforms given by the Spanish for each city:
Juez De Paz gobernadorcillo
Alcades Mayor civil governor

However the government was still inefficient:
lengthened the process
audiencia still had the ultimate power
spanish justices still caused delays

III. The American Era
introduced rights of the defendant

preliminary examination
burden of proof on the prosecution
allowed bail
right to habeas corpus
right to a speedy trial
D. Right to a Jury Trial
Benevolent Assimilation justified the virtual annexation of the

Philippines, but implied that the rule of the Europeans is going to
be different than those of the Americans; that they adopted the
Philippines under Trusteeship which implied moral responsibility
for the welfare and evolution of the dependencies
The United States did not want to extend such a right

because that would mean that the US constitution has
to apply to the colony, for neither General Orders no. 58
nor any other laws the Americans introduced addressed
the issue of a jury trial.
Changes:
The shift from Roman law to common law;
separation of church and state
A Filipino at his best has only learned half his duty to

mankind. He can be tried but he can't try his fellow man
Americans and Filipino ilustrados alike have capitalized

on their shared perception that ordinary Filipinos were
somehow incapable of self government. They
(Filipinos) are undoubtedly without political preparation,
totally ignorant, and do not know what is good for them.
American colonists often denigrated Philippine culture in

order to justify their efforts to Westernize the Filipinos.
The great mass of them care but little under what form
of government they live, and the educated and
intelligent among them as a rule recognize their utter
inability to maintain an independent government of their
own.
A region had to have solely American laws only if it

became a US territory and was no longer a foreign
country. No precedent of Jury Trial has existed in the
Philippine Islands, hence the Americans are not
depriving them of their right.
Treason treason in the Philippines according to

George Hoar is a cruel and harsh punishment as
Filipinos charged with treason are actually reacting
against foreign rule, advocating independence.
A. Military Rule The Schurman Commission
Adopted the policy of passing no laws except in case of

emergency
Enacted the legislation to give Filipinos the right to vote
but limited to males with land properties essentially
limiting and reaffirming the status of the ilustrados in the
country.
General Order 68 the law that introduced civil
marriage initial step in separating church from state
B. Initial Collaboration:
Owen Lynch law was the most attractive profession,

enables the collaboration of elites and Americans;
passport to political arena ilustrados dominated the
Filipino Judicial process ie. Cayetano Arellano as CJ in
1899 June.
C. General Order 58 The Code of Criminal Procedure
clause includes that all existing laws shall remain valid

unless otherwise repealed or modified; military
government to adopt new procedural laws only
innovation however includes writ of habeas corpus

guaranteed by the US constitution as a test of legality
of the detention or imprisonment and release a person
from unlawful imprisonment
Changes:
1. timeliness of filing
2. focus on the offense
3. correct jurisdiction
4. one offense = one complaint
E. The Philippine (Taft) Commission and the Philippine

Assembly (1901- 1907)
Spooner Amendment - transferred power over the

Philippine Islands from the President of the United
States to the Congress and made the GovernorGeneral the sole executive authority in the Philippines
Philippine Bill of 1902 - first major legislation for the

islands; formally shifted the government of the
Philippines from Military to Civilian rule, the Judiciary is
also Filipinized Filipinos started to become members
of the courts, and local laws were considered when
there was no existing common law on the issue and
when the traditions were not in conflict with American
belief. However, criminal cases had to be argued still in
front of American judges. Spanish laws were still applied
in both civil and criminal laws but American procedural
law was used to conduct criminal trials.
IV. A Brief Look at the End of the American Era and Post
Independence Years
A. Jones Law of 1916 a bill passed to satisfy Filipinos and
quell criticism; giving large control over domestic affairs without
impairing the rights of sovereignty by the people of the United
States. Congress replaced the American-dominated Philippine
Commission with a legislature that contained an all-Filipino
Senate and House of Representatives with popularly elected
officials. However American Government Generals still retained
veto power and right to appoint all Cabinet officials.
Moreover American justices comprised the majority on the
Philippine Supreme Court and the highest court of Appeals
remained in the US Supreme Court.
B. Commonwealth with Independence
Tydings Mc-Dyffie Act of 1934 created the

Commonwealth of the Philippines and provided for the
independence in 1946
Rules of Court - Promulgated in July 1, 1940, virtually

unchanged until present; includes rules on criminal
procedure codified from General Order 58 as rules 106
to 122.
People vs. Plaza case incorporated by the SC to the

ROC which permitted the party to amend a complaint at
any time before the defendant entered her plea.
g.
the evidence he or she has hear, a judge will enter

a judgment within three months from the date of
submission of the case.
Part Eleven
The USA and

Colonial Natural Resource Laws
-Chapter Thirteen: Invisible Peoples
and the Public Domain Bureaucracy
Owen Lynch
The Legal Landscape: The development of a legal framework
by which the U.S. Insular Regime was able to establish the scope
of the public domain
Art. 8 of the Paris Treaty provided for the non-impairment of the
property rights of the friars and mestizo elites with documented
property rights, usually secured through fraud or force.
Nevertheless, most of the Philippine land mass was covered by
undocumented property rights held by indigenous and migrant
farmers. President McKinley ordered the Taft Commission to
ensure that no person shall be deprived of property without due
process of law and just compensation, in line with the U.S.
Constitution. This was reiterated in the Organic Act of 1902.
The Taft Commission ignored these directives, and instead
claimed that Art. 8 vested ownership of 92.3% of the total
Philippine land mass (27.7m ha) in the U.S. Government, as U.S.
public domain. This, compared to the earlier estimate made by
the previous Schurman Commission: that private land comprised
only around half of the Philippine land mass. The Taft position
was reinforced by the 1901 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the
Insular Cases (i.e. that the U.S. Constitution does not extend to
the Philippines and its peoples) and the Maura Law of 1894
(Regalian Doctrine; confiscatory in nature).
C. Marcos Years
1. 1985 Code of Criminal Procedure: Introduction of
revisions:
a. where to file a criminal complaint
b. how the state could initiate action on the
deceased's behalf when a victim of sedition,
abduction or rape who had no surviving relatives
died before filing a complaint
c. how to incorporate Luma vs. Plaza case hich held
the the prosecution need to present sufficient facts
to the judge to convince him or her that probable
cause for arrest exist.
3.
Contents of Criminal Procedure that were relatively

unchanged:
a. determine whether the crime was actually
committed
b. if so, whether sufficient grounds exist to justify an
arrest
c. if sufficient grounds exist following the pre-arrest
investigation
d. the police authorities took the suspect into custody,
and the prosecution begins preliminary
investigation
e. requires parties to hold an arraignment and pretrial
conference in hopes of settling the case through a
plea bargain
f. if case is unresolved trial will commence with at
least 2 days notice prior to proceedings
U.S. Congress, however, posited limitations on the disposal of

these public domain lands: (1) that they be administered for the
benefit of their occupants; (2) that only agricultural lands could be
privately alienated; and (3) that there be a limit to the size of
public property rights which could recognized, granted, or sold.
The Land Registration Act of 1902 provided a procedural
framework for the recognition and allocation of legal rights to
natural resources, according to the limitations imposed by U.S.
Congress. Later laws were enacted, pertaining specifically to
public lands: the Public Land Act of 1903 and the Forest Act of
1904.
Invisible Peoples: How the Taft Commission effectively
rendered the Philippine majority invisible with respect to their
property rights
The Taft Commission appointed William Tipton as Chief of the
Bureau of Public Lands. Tipton believed that a substantial
number of landholders had absolutely no documentary evidence
of title secured from the previous Spanish regime, and were thus
only able to prove their ownership through occupancy and
cultivation. On the other hand, the Taft Commission, through
Worcester, used an estimate made by Gregorio Basa, that there
were about 400,000 unfinished pending legal actions
(expedientes) relating to the disposal of Crown lands, in claiming
that these expedientes represented an estimate of the number of
people occupying lands within the ostensible public domain.
Accordingly, they claimed that a mere 5% of the colonial

population was deemed to reside on over 92% of the colonial
land mass. This figure completely omitted the Moro population
and rural communities, revealing the extent to which the
Philippine majority had been marginalized and labeled as
squatters on public domain.
Natural Resource Bureaucracies: The establishment of various
bureaus in charge of natural resources; ultimately, jurisdiction
over the Philippines natural resources went to Worcester
Forestry. The Taft Commission soon created a Forestry Bureau
that was beset by a shortage of personnel and general
corruption. Their primary responsibility was to implement and
enforce regulations governing the use of forest products. George
Ahern was appointed as its first officer-in-charge.
Mining. The Mining Bureau was slow to promulgate procedures
for addressing mining claims, due in part to the Spooner
Amendment of 1900, which prohibited the disposition of mining
rights in public lands. This was limitation was later eased by the
Organic Act of 1902. In 1903, the Taft Commission removed the
bureaus legal jurisdiction over mining claims and transferred it to
the provincial level. The bureau was later converted into a center
for scientific research and data collection. Lt. Charles Burritt was
appointed as its first head.
Public Lands. The Bureau of Public Lands had no predecessor
in the Spanish or U.S. military regimes. Established in 1901, the
bureaus primary responsibility was to collect data. Worcester
claimed that its limited mandate was due to the limitations
imposed by the U.S. Congress by way of the Spooner
Amendment. William Tipton was its first appointed head. Most of
his recommendations were distorted or ignored by the Taft
Commission.
Legal jurisdiction pertaining to natural resources was really
concentrated in Worcester, who was later appointed as Secretary
of Interior and placed in charge of the Forestry, Mining and Public
Lands Bureaus, and later those of Fisheries, Pagan &
Mohammedan Tribes, and Agriculture.
Chapter Fourteen: The Allocation of

Tenurial Rights and the Public Land and
Forests Acts
Owen Lynch
The Public Land Act of 1903: Administered by the Department
of Interior (Bureau of Lands), the PLA was the means by which
the insular regime contravened undocumented property rights.
The Public Land Act (PLA) of 1903 was enacted in accordance
with Sec. 13 of the Organic Act, which required the promulgation
of rules for the disposition of public land resources. Authority to
administer the PLA belonged to the Department of Interior's
Bureau of Lands. The PLA was largely patterned after U.S. public
land laws. Ch.6 of the PLA was the exception, as it provided that
no title, right or equity in any public lands may be acquired by
prescription or adverse possession. This lack of the right of preemption (i.e., the right to settle on and improve unappropriated
public lands and later buy them at a minimum price) empowered
the insular regime to challenge the authenticity of undocumented
private rights. Long-term occupancy of ostensibly public lands
would no longer vest any rights in the occupants.
Homestead Patents: Homestead patents allowed eligible people
to appropriate a certain amount of agricultural public lands.
Hindrances to this were: lack of compliance with procedure, and

ostensible prejudice against Filipinos.
According to Ch.1 of the PLA, Filipino and U.S. citizens over the
age of 21, or the head of the family, were eligible to homestead
up to 16 ha of previously unoccupied and unappropriated
agricultural public land. Less than 20,000 homestead applications
(covering 245,000 ha) had been filed by 1913, but only 58
homestead grants were made, mostly in Nueva Ecija. The 5-year
waiting period was cited as a reason for the poor showing. But, a
leading U.S. newspaper attributed the meager results to the
supposed fact that Filipino farmers had no desire to own or live
on the lands they cultivated. The Bureau of Lands claimed that
they only granted a small number of patents due to procedural
deficiencies such as failure to pay application fees.
After the promotion of Cameron Forbes to governor-general, the
number of homestead applications increased. This was likely due
to the fact that the 16-ha limit had been raised to 50 ha, which
induced more people to apply.
Sales Patents & Leases: Very few sales patents and leases
were granted by the Bureau of Public Lands
Ch.2 of the PLA concerned sales by auction of unoccupied, nonmineral agricultural land of up to 16 ha for an individual and up to
2,500 ha for a corporation. Ch.3 covered leases of up to 2,500 ha
by individuals and corporations, for a maximum period of 25
years (renewable). Public land leases did not allow for the
removal or disposal of any timber or natural resources from the
concession area, and lessees were liable for waste and forest
regulation violations. No lease could interfere with any prior
claims by settlement or occupation without the consent of the
occupant. By 1913, 892 sales applications (covering 26,971 ha)
were filed. But, only 7 sales patents (103 ha) were ultimately
issued. Only 21 out of 459 leases were executed. More than half
of the granted leases were located in the Moro Province.
Applications for both sales patents and leases were to be made
before the Bureau of Public Lands.
Free Patents
Ch.4 of the PLA provided for the issuance of free patents of up to
16 ha to native settlers who had occupied and cultivated
unreserved, unappropriated public lands since August 1898.
Gregorio Araneta (Philippine Attorney-General) claimed that
indigenous occupancy or ancestry was not a prerequisite to
acquiring a free patent, which contradicted the language of the
law. By 1913, only 722 out of 15,885 applications for free patents
were granted.
Failure of the PLA: 10 years after the enactment of the PLA,
only 36,549 out of over 1 million eligible farmers had applied to
the state for documentary recognition of land rights. Only 737
patents had been issued by the end of the Taft era, covering less
than 10,000 ha. The overwhelming majority of indigenes and
other peoples within the public domain continued to be labeled as
squatters.
Forest Act of 1904: Preludes: General Order No. 92 and the
Organic Act of 1902 preceded the enactment of the Foresty Act
Art.8 of the Paris Treaty supposedly recognized 40-50 million
acres of forest land as U.S. public domain. General Order No. 92
(1901) provided regulations for the issuance of forest licenses,

without which all disposal or harvesting of forest products were
considered punishable by law. The export of forest products was
prohibited unless accompanied by a receipt showing that all
forestry charges had been paid, or unless the goods were
sourced from duly registered private forest lands. The registration
of private lands was no easy feat, as one had to prove ownership
by way of Spanish grant in Land Registration Court or the Public
Lands Bureau, and effectively overcome the presumption that all
forested lands were public.
The Organic Act of 1902 (OA) prohibited the sale of timber or
mineral lands, as well as the destruction and appropriation of
forest products on leased or demised lands, except by special
permission of the insular regime. It also prohibited the sale and
lease of timber lands comprising part of the public domain. The
OA also empowered the regime to issue forestry licenses.
Jurisdiction and authority belonged to the Bureau of Forestry (by
way of Worcesters Department of Interior). The criteria for the
granting of licenses were generally conservative and elitist;
preference was given to previous license-holders.
Forest Act: Allocation & Revenues: Forestry Bureau revenues
were initially low
Principally drafted by Gifford Pinchot during a 6-week visit, the
Forest Act was enacted in May 1904. Pinchot was determined
that forests were to be harvested on a commercial scale and not
merely conserved. Howver, the Forest Act did not cause any
significant increase in the number of forest licenses issued. From
1901 to 1913, only a little over 1,000 commercial timber licenses
were in existence each year. The Forestry Bureau was also
tasked with certifying that land covered by applications for
homestead or sales patents or leases wsa more suited for
agricultural than forestry purposes. By 1913, 13,887 out of
15,401 such applications were certified as covering agricultural
land.
Forestry Chief George Ahern testified before the U.S. House
Committee on Insular Affairs in 1908 that 50% of the Forestry
Bureaus revenue went to operating expenses, while the other
50% went to the insular regime. The Forestry Bureau only earned
around Php 210,000/year; Ahern was of the opinion that the
figure would have been higher had it not been for the liberal laws
which extended the free-use privilege to the public works
department and various railway companies. Revenues steadily
increased over time, although export revenues remained
considerably less than import costs over non-processed forest
products.
Gratuitous Permits:
Sec.19 of the Forestry Act authorized the Bureau (with the
approval of Secretary Worcester) to grant gratuitous licenses for
the free use of reasonable quantities of forest products within set
territorial limits for domestic purposes. [Note: Guys, sorry, my
copy doesnt have p.544. I checked with others, and they dont
have the page either! ]
Swidden Prohibitions: Most people living within the public
domain were invisible. Of those recognized, the overwhelming
majority were not only indiscriminately labeled as squatters. They
were also stereotyped as being destroyers of forest resources.
General Order No. 92 prohibited the unauthorized clearing of
public lands, especially by fire. The Forest Act adopted the same
provision on kaingin or swidden clearing. Convicted violators
were liable for a maximum fine of $100 and a maximum
imprisonment of 30 days. First-time offenders found ignornant of

the law could get away with just a warning. The provision
constituted yet another encroachment on the livelihood of rural
peoples. The kaingin tradition is considered to be one of the
oldest forms of agriculture in the tropics. Western colonialists
regarded the kaingin system as a form of environmental
degradation. But, Spanish and U.S. officials failed to make the
distinction between integral and environmentally sustainable
kaingin systems and those done by migrants hired by Filipino
politicians. Philippine colonial laws indiscriminately prohibited the
kaingin tradition, but to little effect. Ahern was of the opinion that
the non-compliance was that the Forest Act authorized municipal
presidents and forest officers to issue swidden permits over
private forests and woodlands which adjoined public forests.
Forest Regulation No. 25 also authorized municipal presidents to
issue swidden permits on so-called public lands. This was soon
amended upon Aherns recommendation: applications for
swidden permits were required to apply for a homestead patent.
Worcester echoed Aherns sentiments. This underscored the
ignorance and simplicity which permeatd the perceptions and
policies of the U.S. colonial regime.
Chapter Fifteen:
Recasting the Private Domain
Owen Lynch
The Land Registration Act: Overview and Effects
The landowning class found it difficult in securing capital
because Spanish legal processes for conveying property rights
were cumbersome rendering transfers difficult and titles insecure.
The Taft Commission appeared eager to ensure documentation
of land rights because first, these documents could be used as
mortgage collateral and second, property owners would be liable
for real estate taxes therefore stimulating economic development.
This however was not implemented.
The Schurman Commission laid the groundwork for a
solution, the Torrens system. The Torrens system registers and
guarantees the legal rights of private land owners. It promotes
the use of land as a marketable commodity and guarantees the
indefeasibility and preeminence of titles to land. Commissioner
Ide was delegated to draft the law for the implementation of the
Torrens system. This was passed as the Land Registration Act on
Nov. 6, 1902.
The Torrens system had a slow start and the
beneficiaries were mostly the well educated and financially
prosperous.
The Valenton Decision
The Valenton case involved a dispute between a group
of actual long-term occupants and an individual who had
allegedly secured a Spanish grant. Both parties claimed
ownership of the same parcel of land. Andres Valenton claims
that the land in Tarlac although, the land originally belonged to
the Crown but that after 30 years of possession, ownership had
vested in them by way of prescription. On the other hand, Manuel
Murciano secured a documented contract of purchase over the
land from the secretary of the provincial treasury. Before the
purchase he never occupied the land and even after purchase,
he only occupied a small part of it.
Manila CFI ruled in favor of Murciano on the basis that
the actual occupants failed to pursue their objections after the
sale was consummated. On appeal, the Colonial Supreme Court
again ruled for Murciano citing Laws of the Indies saying that
ownership of a deed superceded actual occupancy.
The Carino Decision: Preliminaries

Don Mateo Carino was an indigenous occupant from
Benguet. He applied for documentary recognition of his ancestral
ownership based on the testimony that he and his ancestors
have been living and working on this land for generations. He
claimed to have twice applied to the corregidore of Benguet but
was denied because they did not issue titles to indigenous
peoples. Documentary recognition was finally obtained during a
possessory information proceeding but this was ignored by the
U.S. regime and a public road was constructed on the property.
Carino then petitioned the Court of Land Registration for
a Torrens title but while the petition was pending, a U.S. military
reservation was proclaimed over the area and a military
detachment was detailed who kept trespassers (including Carino)
away.
Decision was made in favor of Carino on grounds that
he had secured a prescriptive right against the Spanish
sovereign. Atty. General Gregorio Araneta then filed an appeal in
the Benguet CFI. Another trial was held and Carinos petition was
dismissed on the grounds that the courts had no jurisdiction to
entertain the registration request.
Carino then appealed to the Phil. Supreme Court having
the machinery and incentive to do so. Decision was rendered
against Carino saying that they were bound by the Valenton
precedent.
He then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The
Department of Justice prepared the brief and argued the case
without official input from the insular regime because they did not
answer his letters.
The Carino Decision: Outcome and Effects
In a unanimous decision written by Oliver Wendell
Holmes, the SC demolished the governments arguments against
Carinos claim. They said that the Maura Law should not be
construed as confiscation, but as withdrawal of a privilege to
obtain recognition of ownership rights and register title. The Court
held that when as far back as testimony or memory goes, the
land has been heldunder a claim of private ownership, it will be
presumed to have been held in the same way from before the
Spanish conquest, and never to have been public land.
Except for recognizing Carinos rights however, the
decision had no effect on the colonial government. Millions of
indigenes continued to be underestimated.
The Friar Lands
Art. 7 of the Articles of Capitulation of the City of Manila
placed under the special safeguard of the faith and honor of the
American army private property of all descriptions in the city. This
guarantee was expressly extended to churches.
Art. 8 of the Treaty of Paris provided the church with
more concrete guaranteed. It included an express limitation on
the extent to which the colonial regime could become involved in
religious affairs.
The Shurman Commission then recommended that the
colonial government purchase the friar lands after conducting an
inquiry into church affairs. Anti-friar sentiments allowed Taft to
address problems arising from friar estates as well as to
secularize the educational system. Taft however, from the outset,
wanted to avoid any open conflict with church authorities so he
assigned himself the responsibility over the friar estates.
The Commission recommended that the insular regime
buy the estates of the Dominicans, Recollects, and Augustinians
and sell them in small parcels to the actual tenants. Taft then
engaged in negotiations with the Vatican. No accord was reached
on the land issue but the Vatican agreed to prohibit Catholic
clergy from engaging in political activity. They also informally
agreed that the friars would voluntarily withdraw from the colony.
Agreement was reached whereby the insular regime
agreed to pay S7,239,784.66 for 23 estates covering 167
thousand hectares. Not all property was bought but by early

1904, the last Spanish bishop has left the Islands.
The Friar Lands Act was passed in 1904, prescribing the
means by which the friar lands could be sold or leased with
preference given to actual occupants.
To address the challenge of allocating the unoccupied
land, Philippine legislature enacted Act. No. 1847 exempting the
friar lands from the area limitations originally imposed in the 1902
Organic Act. Anomalies occurred but the U.S. government was
not alarmed since their real goal in the purchase of the friar lands
was to prevent insurrection by the 60,000 tenants of the friars.
Chapter Sixteen: A Hidden Agenda

Owen Lynch
Allocation Shortcomings and Responses
Throughout the Taft era, majority of the Filipinos were not
benefiting from the colonial land laws.
o Customary rights were being ignored despite the
ruling in Carino.
o Millions of people from rural areas disappeared
from the official statistics.
Worcester and others blamed this on the ignorance of the
people, their contentment of being able to till and squat on
other peoples lands and their unwillingness to bear the costs
(ie., moving to a different place) of having their own land.
The officials never considered that the problems might be
within the process itself, the free patent programs, etc.
They made it appear as if the laws were accommodating
enough but the truth was they wanted to maintain status quo
and didnt want to implement the Public Land Act properly.
A Hidden Agenda
Worcester and Taft wanted to have wealthy investors in the
sugar industry to come in, so they felt the need to have
control over the Philippine lands.
One of the manifestations of this was when Taft vigorously
lobbied the Spooner bill allowing the insular government to
lease upto 30K acres.
o For investors to come, corporations must be
allowed to hold as much as 25K acres of land,
and that wouldnt be possible if the rights of
millions of small land owners were recognized.
Solution:

scheme of keeping the estimates of
occupants of public land low

ensuring that the process for recognizing
and allocating legal rights to lands are
inefficient and cumbersome.
In pursuit of the hidden agenda, 2 laws were passed
o Act 618 allowed the civil reservations of public
domain. Under the law, the lands under
reservation cannot be sold or inhabited until the
reservation is dissolved, the problem was that
most of the lands being reserved already had
settlers.
o Act 718 stated that all grants made by Moro
sultans and datus or chiefs of non-Christian tribes
were void.
Also the commission excluded the Moro Provinces from the
Public Land Act so that millions of people could not have
their property rights documented.
Of course they tried to justify all of these efforts to
disenfranchise indigenous property rights.
Forbes Insight and Initiative
Forbes shared Tafts and Worcesters enthusiasm in bringing
in investors but he was not privy to the hidden agenda.

He was concerned about the disparity between what officials

were saying and the actual practice in land allocation.
He disapproved of the actual practice and even announced
that his regime would not object in issuing land titles where it
will benefit the public interest. But this never happened
because of the presence of Worcester.
US Congressional Investigation of 1911

During Tafts presidency, Worcester found a loophole in the
Organic Acts restriction on large corporate holdingsthe
large friar estates. These estates were not part of the public
domain when the Treaty of Paris was signed so corporations
can actually hold them. With owners eager to sell, Worcester
was finally able to negotiate a sale of a 58K acre land in
Mindoro with an American corporations. This was what
sparked the investigation.
The democrats regained control over the House of
Representatives so they were looking to uncover the
wrongdoings of the republicans.
But during the investigation, Worcester used his usual
defense:
o Filipinos are ignorant and disinterested in owning
titles to the lands they occupy.
o There is even no need for them to purchase the
lands because the insular government gives free
patents.
o Every effort is being made so that people will take
advantage of the opportunity to document their
rights.
o Even tried to go on offensive saying that the
restriction on corporate holding of large lands
hamper the development of agriculture in the
country.
Ultimately Worcester was absolved.
The officials were also asked whether they or their family
were buying lands in the country but they denied it. Of
course it was a lie because most of them were buying lands
in Baguio.
Worcester Reappraised
Rumors were flying around that Taft was going to replace
Worcester so he wrote a letter to Taft justifying his retention.
The reason he gave was that it was only him who proposed
a measure that benefited the non-Christian tribes.
o Scholars and writers actually praised him for that.
But the absence of policy on recognizing ancestral domain
rights underscored the contradiction between Worcesters
rhetoric and the double disenfranchisement of the nonChristian tribes that he secretly promoted.
o They werent even given the right to secure the
recognition of their land rights
o Procedure for securing such was dramatically
skewed in favor of the elites, and even when this
became apparent, he never did anything to change
the status quo
The Purchase of the Friar Lands
William Howard Taft

Went to the U.S. for a vacation and discussed with
Roosevelt, Root, and Archbishop John the friar lands.
They agreed that the purchase of such would be
beneficial to the friars, Filipinos, and Americans.
They decided that that it will be better if the negotiation
of the purchase of the friar lands will be held in Rome as
suggested by the Archbishop.
o Better to negotiate directly with the Pope.
After much deliberations Taft was appointed as head of
the delegation due to his prior knowledge of the friar
lands.
The Delegation:
1. Thomas OGorman
o Bishop of Sioux Falls
o Has knowledge of Vatican protocol
o Fluent in French and Italian
o Had interest on the friar lands issue
2. James Smith
o Associate justice of the SC of the Phil.
o Served as legal adviser
3. Major John Briddle Porter
o Judge advocate of the US Army
o Served as secretary-interpreter
-
Taft met the prelates of the Methodist, Presbytarian, and

Episcopalian and explained that his trip to Rome was
not a diplomatic mission.
o To assure the Protestant prelates that his
mission did not violate separation of Church
and State
Root instructed Taft to:

o Inform Vatican that Church no longer enjoyed
the patronage of the State
o Church has to adjust to the American system of
government
o That full and air compensation will be given to
the Church
o That the American panel expected the friars to
leave the Island after the sale.
Pope formed a panel headed by Cardinal Rampilla
o Handled by the Sacred Congregation for
Extraordinary Affairs of the Church
Americas propositions:
o Tribunal appointed by Church and Philippine
government plus a neutral member will
determine the value of the lands
o Value will be pegged in Mexican dollars
o Commitment by the Pope that friars would
leave after full payment
Benefits for the Church:
o Ecclesiastical properties formerly owned by the
Spanish king would be conveyed to the
Catholic Church
o American panel would ask Vatican to settle the
issues regarding the Obras Pias and other
Escalante Chapter 4
Tafts Mission to Rome
Cardinal Mariano Rampolla (Papal Secretary of State)
Wrote to Archbishop John of Ireland to express the
Popes desire to negotiate ecclesiastical issues in the
Phil. with the U.S. govt.
Expressed desire to form commission to oversee the
task
Wrote to Elihu Root (Sec. of State) to express Popes

misgivings regarding the Churchs state in the
Philippines
On October, Cardinal James Gibbons relayed to
Rampolla that he had talked to Pres. Roosevelt and
they discussed the possibility of the government buying
the friar lands at a reasonable price.
Because of the meeting, Roosevelt tasked Root to
determine the possibility of sending a delegation to
Rome to negotiate the friar lands.
educational and charitable institutions which

were under litigation
Payment for rent of churches, convents, and
other facilities of the Church that American
soldiers occupied.
Only the provision that friars would leave the Philippines

was rejected by the Catholic Church
o Contrary to rights in the Treaty of Paris
o They CANT force the friars out themselves, it
would put them at odds with the Spanish
government
o Ejection would confirm all allegations against
them
o Status of friars not included in the business
deal
Taft was satisfied with this and realized that the Church
would remove the friars by themselves without being
forced sooner or later anyway.
It turned out the Popes agreement to sell was only in
principle. Actual ownership of individual properties was
vested in religious orders as independent entities.
Thus, some say that the Taft commission was a failure.
3.
4.
-
2 issues that hampered negotiations:

1. Question of valuation
a. Taft changed determination of price form
arbitration to negotiation because he was
afraid the friars would get a good deal
b. Asking price was greatly inflated at 29.5 million
Mexican dollars
c. Taft then appointed Juan Villegas to appraise
the lands but the three religious orders rejected
his appraisal saying it was too low
d. Taft gave his last price at 8 million dollars
2. Determination of the estates to be included in the sale
a. Friars did not want to sell all their landholdings
while the govt. only wanted to purchase the
estates where agrarian unrest existed
b. Friars were afraid that if they did not sell the
lands it will get taxed and they were afraid of
Tafts successor
c. So when Taft raised his offer by 1.5 million,
they finally agreed
d. After signing the agreement, Taft left for
Washington to be Secretary of War
Provisions of the Agreement:
1. Vendors were required to furnish the Philippine
government all books, papers, and other documents
bearing upon ownership
2. Government had 6 months to examine legality of titles
Some requirements took long to be complied with

especially with the Dominicans
The Maneuverings of the Friars

Friars double crossed the government by selling
portions of their landholdings to third parties
Dominicans removed the sugar mills and the railroads in
their haciendas and sold them to a third party
Increased land area of churches and Church properties
not included in sale
SC had a hard time regulating this
Friars had a hard time parting with their landholdings. They really
did not want to sell their properties. When it seemed that they
really had to, they wanted to get as much out of it as they can.
Part Twelve
Sojourn to Political Independence
The Negotiations in Manila

Jean Baptiste Guidi
Designated by Pope Leo XIII as representative for
Manila negotiations
Accompanied by Fr. OConnor (English speaking
secretary)
Friars were at first reluctant to include him in
negotiations afraid that proceeds would just go to
Vatican and not to them.
He discovered that the friars had already conveyed the
land titles of their estates to their respective holding
firms
Since these firms were private, he could not assume
jurisdiction over the friar lands
If lands fell short of Villegas survey, the government was

authorized to make necessary deductions or increases
based on the appraisal.
Vendors should transfer to Philippine government all the
claims for rent coming from the tenants
First Philippine Assembly (1907-1916)

-
First National election through popular votes

The creation of Philippine Assembly was credited to
William Howard Taft who pointed out that America
should involve more Filipinos in the task of law if she
would like to win the support of the Filipinos. In order to
make this possible, he suggested that an assembly be
comprise of and elected by Filipinos.
Pursuant to the Cooper Act of 1902, the Philippine
Commission executed the provisions of the law. The
census was completed in 1903 and published on March
27, 1905 and general peace and complete peace was
observed in the country. However, Governor- General
Luke Wright issued a proclamation that it had to reign
for two more years before elections for the Philippine
Assembly would be called. The Philippine Commission
notified President Roosevelt that there had been two
years of general and complete peace in the territories
not inhabited by Muslims and other non-Christian tribes
from time that the census had been published.
President Roosevelt in turn, authorized Governor Wright
to make a proclamation calling for such an election.
The national election for the Philippine Assembly was
participated by two prominent political parties in the
country- the Partido Nacionalista (Quezon, Osmena)
and the Partido Nacional Progresista.
The much awaited first national election for the
Philippine Assembly was realized on July 30 1907, the
candidates were all clamoring for a total of 80 seats, as
set by the Philippine Commission. There were in all 104,
996 registered voters, but the number of those who
voted was only 98, 251. Qualified to vote were males, at
least 23 years old. The Nacionalista won 31 seats (plus
one, Manuel L. Quezon who chose to run as an
independent)
The elections of 1907 indicated that Filipino electorates
had profound confidence for delegates who have
background in lawmaking; there were 48 lawyers. The
rest were landowners; businessmen; businessmenlandowners; doctors; and a priest.

-
The date October 16, 1907 was a historical event as the

Philippine Assembly was formally inaugurated at the
Grand Opera House, Manila. Secretary of War Taft
made a special trip to Manila for the sole purpose of
attending the inaugural ceremony.
After it was convened, the Philippine Assembly
proceeded to organize itself. The 29-year old governor
of Cebu, Sergio Osmea was chosen Speaker of the
Assembly. Manuel L. Quezon, became the majority floor
leader, and Vicente Singson, as minority floor leader.
The rules of legislature body were patterned after those
of the U.S House of Representatives. The assembly
came up with two changes from the U.S rules: first, it
combined the Ways and Means Committee with the
various appropriations committees in the U.S model,
creating a powerful single committee known as the
Committee on Ways and Means and Appropriations.
Another important change was that the Speaker does
not assume the post of chairman of the Committee on
Rules, unlike U.S practice.
The major contribution of the First Philippine Assembly
was its effort to revive the issue of independence with
the cooperation of the Philippine Commission.
Philippine Autonomy (Jones Law) Act of

1916
The Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916 or the Act of Congress of
August 29, 1916 is more popularly known as the Jones Law. It
provided for the creation of an autonomous government in
preparation for the grant of Philippine independence by the US.
In fact, it was mentioned in the whereas clauses that it has
always been the purpose of the people of the United States to
withdraw their sovereignty over the Philippine Islands and to
recognize their independence as soon as a stable government is
established Also, it provided for a framework of government, a bill
of rights, and the conferment of certain powers of government
and its limitations. Under the Jones Law, the Legislative power
was vested in the Senate and the House of Representatives; the
Executive power was vested in the Governor-General of the
Philippine Islands; and the Judicial power was vested in the
Supreme Court and the Courts of First Instance.
Pertinent Provisions
That no law shall be enacted which shall deprive any person
of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or deny
to any person therein the equal protection of the laws and
that private property shall not be taken for public use without
just compensation (Sec 3)
That all expenses that may be incurred by the Philippine
government for salaries of officials and the conduct of their
offices and departments, and all expenses and obligations
contracted for the development of the Islands, excluding
defenses, barracks, and other works undertaken by the
United States, shall be paid by the Philippine government,
unless otherwise provided by the Congress (Sec 4)
That all the property and rights which may have been
acquired in the Philippine Islands by the United States under
the treaty of peace with Spain, except such land or other
property as has been or shall be designated by the President
of the United States for military and other reservations of the
Government of the United States, and all lands which may
have been subsequently acquired by the Philippine
government by purchase are placed under the control of the
said government to be administered or disposed of for the
benefit of its inhabitants, and that the Philippine Legislature
shall have power to legislate with respect to all such matters
as it may deem advisable; but Acts of the Philippine
Legislature with reference to land of the public domain,

timber, and mining, thereafter enacted, shall not have the
force of law until approved by the President of the United
States (Sec 9)
That while this Act provides that the Philippine Government
shall have the authority to enact a tariff law the trade
relations between the Islands and the United States shall
continue to be governed exclusively by laws of the Congress
of the United States: Provided, That tariff acts or acts
amendatory to the tariff of the Philippine Islands shall not
become law until they shall receive the approval of the
President of the United States, nor shall any act of the
Philippine Legislature affecting immigration or the currency
or coinage laws of the Philippines become a law until it has
been approved by the President of the United States (Sec
10)
That no export duties shall be levied or collected on exports
from the Philippine Islands, but taxes and assessments on
property and license fees for franchises, and privileges, and
internal taxes, direct or indirect, may be imposed for the
purposes of the Philippine Government and the provincial
and municipal governments, respectively, as may be
provided and defined by acts of the Philippine Legislature,
and, where necessary to anticipate taxes and revenues,
bonds and other obligations may be issued by the Philippine
Government or any provincial or municipal government
therein, as may be provided by law and to protect the public
credit (Sec 11)
Hare-Hawes Cutting Act

The Hare-Hawes-Cutting Act (1933) was the first United States
(U.S.) law passed setting a definite date for the independence of
the Philippines. The U.S. Congress passed the Hare-HawesCutting Act as a result of pressure from two groups: American
farmers who were hit by the Great Depression and feared Filipino
imports of sugar and coconut oil that were not subject to US tariff
law; and Filipino politicians who were eager to run their own
government. The law was passed by the United States Congress
in December 1932, but was vetoed by President Hoover. To his
surprise, however, the Congress overrode the veto on January
17, 1933.
The law promised Philippine independence after a 10-year
transition period, but reserved several military and naval bases
for the United States, as well as imposing tariffs and quotas on
Philippine exports. It also required the Philippine Senate to ratify
the law.
Many Filipinos, however, did not like the conditions set in the law.
Leading the opposition was Quezon, who urged the Philippine
Senate to reject the bill, which it did.
The Philippine Independence Act

(Tydings-Mcduffie Act)
Approved on Mar/24/34, it is a US federal law which provided for
self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence
after a period of 10 yrs. It is the product of an independence
mission spearheaded by Quezon.
Pertinent effects
1. 10 yr transitional period = Commonwealth transitory
period of transfer of power, obligations and rights from US to
Philippine government
2. Reclassified all Filipinos that were living in the US as
aliens for the purposes of immigration to America. Filipinos were
no longer allowed to work legally in the US, and a quota of 50
immigrants/year was established a precursor of the

Repatriation Act of 1935.
Pertinent Portions
Sec 2.a - constitution should be republican and democratic in
form. shall contain a bill of rights
a.1. Filipinos shall owe allegiance to US (thus, Filipinos are not
US citizens but should still owe allegiance to US)
a.6. public debt limits fixed by US Congress. US Presidential
approval necessary for contracting debts from other nations.
a.7. debts, liabilities, and obligations made by the Present
Philippine government to be paid by the commonwealth
government. (same in b.3)
a.9. Acts affecting currency, coinage, imports, exports, and
immigration shall not become law needs approval of US
president.
a.12. Recognizes the right of the US to expropriate property (in
the Phil) for public uses
a.13. Phil courts still subject to US SC.
Sec. 3 - After the drafting of the consti by the phil constitutional
convention, the consti shall be submitted w/in 2 yrs to the US
President.
Sec. 4 - It would then be subjected to a ratification or rejection by
the Filipinos. (Process Sum: ConCom - US President - Fil
People)
Sec. 5 - Transfer of property and rights from US President to
Commonwealth, except such land or other property designated
by US Presidet for and other reservations of the US
Government, and except such land or other property or rights or
interests sold or otherwise disposed of in accordance with law.
Sec. 14. US immigration laws shall treat Filipinos (born in the
Philippine Islands) like foreigners - precursor to Repatriation Act
of 1935.
Filipino Repatriation Act

The Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935 called for the United States
government to pressure Filipinos to return to the Philippines by
offering them free passage back to their native country. Under the
Filipino Repatriation Act of 1935, Filipinos could leave the United
States with free transportation and were subject to the quota
system established by the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934 if they
intended to re-enter the U.S. Family reunification was halted,
keeping many Filipinos waiting for years to see family members.
Part Thirteen
Addressing Agrarian Reform and

Chronic Social Unrest
Escalante Ch. 5: The Travesty of the
Land-to-the-Tiller Program
Sale of the Friar Lands
The Organic Act of 1902 specified preference to
occupants and actual settlers of lands to acquire holdings. The
Friar Lands Act gave people 10 years to pay the full amount of
land with interest to be paid per annum. But several factors
delayed the sale. There were very few surveyors in the
government and it usually took more than 3 years from
completion of survey to sale. Policy worked against the tenants:
government did not subsidize the purchases and exorbitant
prices were being charged. People were instead content with

remaining lessees.
The Friar Lands Loan Fund Act was then instituted
during the Second Philippine Commission. This Act set aside a
reimbursable fund for those who wanted to invest in farm
operations by buying seedlings, machines, construction of
warehouses, etc. A 12% per annum interest on these lsoans was
imposed.
But many tenants could not afford this yearly
amortization, which led to the general failure of the land-to-thetiller program. People were still hard up from the crippling
Philippine-American war and recent calamities and plagues
(rinderpest killed thousands of carabaos). Also the income they
earned from the lands was insufficient.
Rise of New Hacienderos
Officials awarded lands to themselves, their relatives
and associates.
Filipinos like Aguinaldo and others in
government acquired large tracks of land too, with flat interest
rates even. The US did not want to offend the local elite.
San Jose Estate
Congressman John A. Martin of Colorado sought an
inquiry in the US Congress regarding the Friar Lands. He
claimed that the insular government violated certain Organic Act
provisions. For example, land bought by Mr. E. L. Poole
exceeded the restrictions placed on landholding. Neither was he
an occupant or a tenant of the land.
Martin also pried into the situation of the San Jose
Estate in Mindoro. The Congressman did not find reason why
the land was sold since it was peaceful and with very few
tenants. Also, in spite of the difficulty in surveying other lands for
purchase (normally 3 years) it only took 5 months in San Jose.
The investigation confirmed the role of the Sugar Trust, which
planned to construct a sugar central in the estate.
Worcester and others argued that the purchase was
legal. He said that friar lands are different from public lands
because the former were acquired by virtue of the Treaty of
Paris, whereas the latter fell under the Public Land Act. The Beet
Lobbyists and the Anti-Imperialists argued that both types should
be considered Philippine government property just that one
through treaty, the other through purchase. Quezon joined this
side and questioned the sale of large tracks of land since, as he
reminded the American officials, the main purpose of selling friar
lands was to redistribute in smaller sizes of benefit to more
tenants. Worcester further justified the sale of San Jose by
claiming that it would 1) relieve Filipinos from debt; 2) provide
employment; 3) and pave the way for modern machinery.
The US Congress acquitted the insular officials involved.
Later, Philippine legislature passed Act No. 2379 limiting sale of
friar lands to 16 hectares and 1,024 hectares for individuals and
corporations, respectively. The Jones Law stripped the US of
powers of administration of the friar lands. Philippine legislature
was now in control.
Escalante Chapter 6: Interest Groups

Behind The Friar Land Policy
Why the Republican administration pursued the friar lands policy:
o It was more economical to buy the friar lands than
to suppress agrarian uprisings
o Purchase of friar lands would free the friars from
any attachments to the country

o
The sale to the tenants of the friar lands would

bolster the propaganda that the US went to the
Philippines for the welfare of the Filipinos
Settlement of the friar lands is an expensive way to
pacify the country
program, mostly instituted by Ladejinsky, was used as a political

tool against communism in Asia, specifically in Japan, Taiwan
and South Korea, but was never successfully implemented in the
Philippines.
I.
Sugar Trust opposed the ceiling on land owenership and the protenant provision of the friar land policy.
Sugar Beet producers and the Anti-Imperialist League on the
other han opposes the stand of the Sugar Trust knowing fully well
that the success of the Sugar Trust would mean their demise.
Sugar beet producers failed to block the annexation of the
Philippines but they managed to lobby for a ceiling of 15 and
1024 hectares respectively on individuals and corporations.
Conclusion
Basically, the friar lands policy is a product of the restlessness of
the tenants and the local elite. It was a response of the US
government to agrarian unrest, Like many Filipinos, Emilio
Aguinaldo worked hard to expel the friars so that he could
sequester their properties.
The friar lands policy generally failed in alleviating the poverty of
the masses. Most of the land were claimed by elites while the
rest who did receive land were not financially and procedurally
capable of developing and managing their farms.
Taft and the Friar Lands
Ambeth Ocampo
Basically, Ocampo humanizes Taft and extols his virtues.
Ocampo calls for retaining old street names (such as Taft Ave.)
out of respect for history. He attributes the recent attempts to
change the name of Taft Ave. arose to a belief that the names of
former colonial officials have no place in our nationalist times. He
contends that Taft (and Harrison), compared to other colonial
careerists, was good to the Philippines and the Filipinos. The
street name should remain to remind us of his life and deeds.
II.
William Howard Taft, who headed the Philippine Commission in

th
th
the early 1900s, became the 27 POTUS and the 10 Chief
Justice of the SC of the U.S.
Filipinos also forget that Taft negotiated the disposition of the socalled friar lands in the Philippines with Pope Leo XIII in the
Vatican in 1902. To prepare for the negotiations, Taft consulted
with various religious congregations and Filipinos regarding the
expulsion of the Spanish friars and the friar lands. Taft wanted to
know about the relationship of the religious orders with the
Filipinos and the extent of their land holdings. Orders
interviewed, arranged according to length of interviews:
Dominicans,
Franciscans,
Augustinians,
Jesuits,
and
Benedictines. The latter were also included even though they
only arrived in the Philippines during the waning of the Spanish
regime and, thus, had little holdings to speak of. As an aside, Taft
wanted the Benedictines to make him some alcohol. These same
religious orders eventually founded schools like Ateneo and San
Beda.
Putzel Chapter 3: The US and Agrarian

Reform in Post-war Asia and the
Philippines
Overview: As much as US policy-makers favored the
implementation of a conservative land reform program, the
implementation of a liberal land reform program proved to be
more effective. This article shows how a liberal land reform
Introduction
After the war, the US had great influence in third world
countries in Asia, especially with agrarian reform programs.
Two failures in the analysis of US involvement in agrarian
reform in Asia:
o One is related to the claim that the US had been
supportive of agrarian reform in third world
countries.

John Montgomery said that though
agrarian reform was inconsistent in US
policy, the US supported it because of the
idea of America popular will to inject the
idealism of the small farmer to US policy.

Riad El-Ghonemy said that anti-reform
was supported by the majority only until
1980.
o Two is that authors fail to include in their analysis
that minorities were pro-reform. A comprehensive
analysis of agrarian reform can only be achieved if
both sides were analyzed.
The agrarian reformation of South Korea by the US has also
been greatly ignored by studies now because South Korea
has been so successfully industrialized. But the Philippines
agrarian reformation must be taken into context of South
Koreas experience because it was South Korea that served
as the basis for agrarian reform at that time. Analysis of land
reform in the Philippines should also be put in the context of
the relationship between state institutions and social actors,
and this relationship with the external and particularly US
interests.
US agrarian reformers in Japan and Taiwan
The US had always been against redistributing lands in the
Philippines. The most they did was to sell the friar lands. It
was only until the US post-war occupation of Japan that the
US favored the redistribution of the lands.
Wolf Ladejinsky was responsible for the US involvement in
finally redistributing the lands in Japan. Ladejinsky was an
Ukranian native who moved to the US and became an
expert on Asian agriculture, particularly Japanese
agriculture. He was assigned to assist General Douglas
MacArthur in figuring out the US agricultural policy in Asia.
US politicians were swayed to be pro-reform during the US
occupation of Japan because of the view that agrarian
reform was a means to achieve stability and provide relief for
impoverished peasants.
II.a.
The reform debate in Japan
Ladejinsky identified that tenancy in Japan caused political

instability. Since these tenants despised their masters, they
were easily swayed by militants to support them because the
militants proposed conservative traditional ideas of rural life
and unity of village communities, thus eliminating class
differences.
Robert A. Feary supported Ladejinsky because Fearys

theory was in line with Ladejinskys, which was that
eliminating tenancy in Japan would eliminate militarism.
Joseph Clark Grew, Fearys boss, also supported Ladejinsky.

Grew had a broader campaign for post-war Japan, which
was premised on the belief that Japan without militarism

would be a powerful and helpful ally to the United States.
Opposition to reform was fuelled by the belief that reform
would challenge private property of landlords, and thus this
would spark communism in Japans rural areas. This same
argument was used to oppose reform in the Philippines.
Parsons tackled the oppositions argument by explaining
how Japan, in the immediate post-war period, is most
susceptible to a revolutionary communist takeover by
already existing communists in the country, and that the US
has to step in and reform Japans peasant economic and
political life to ensure that communism would not happen.
Feary was assigned to George Atcheson Jr, a representative
of MacArthur. There he was able to convince Atcheson to
endorse agrarian reform. The Atcheson-Feary memorandum
became the basis for the occupations agrarian reform policy.
The Japanese government, though, had trouble with the
liberal approach to reform because they were quite
conservative with their views. Much o f the debate was with
the question of the amount of land retention that would be
allowed. After much negotiation between the US
government, Soviet Union and Japanese government, a final
agrarian policy was drafted.
Two objectives of land reform in Japan:
o Promotion of owner-cultivator and agrarian
capitalism would remove militarism.
o Land reform would undermine communist
mobilization of the peasants.
Two motives of US for land reform in mainland China:
o US wanted to prove that communists did not have
monopoly over agrarian reform.
o Agrarian reform represented an investment in
future action in China.
II.b.
The model of reform as it emerged in Japan and
Taiwan
Liberal reformers believed that agrarian reform

encompassed both land redistribution and tenancy reforms
such as rent reduction and securing leases. However, they
saw redistribution as the most effective. Ladejinskys theory
of reducing conflict in rural society through reform was
anchored on the premise that the conflict arose from the
dependency of two people on one piece of land and the
unequal returns they share.
Amount of land allowed to be retained by landlords in Japan

after the reform policies were to be implemented:
o Tenanted lands one hectare
o Land farmed by owner-cultivators three hectares
The reform was against confiscatory reforms and promoted

the payment of compensation below market level prices.
o In Japan, land value was computed by capitalizing
annual rent payments and paying the landlords 40
times the rental value.
o In Taiwan, land value was based on the production
value of the land, and landlords received 2.5 times
the annual value of all crops.
Only governments could purchase and re-sell lands. Tenantlandlord negotiations over land were not permitted.
Sale to government is compulsory.
The government could rarely compensate in cash so the

tenants were offered interest-bearing bonds.
Participation of tenants in Japan in the process of agrarian

reform was through the establishment of Land Commissions
where majority of the elected officials were tenants.
o Tenants were made to participate in order to
develop democracy in the rural areas.
Secure tenure for tenants who did not become ownercultivators:
Written lease with a fixed rent.

In Taiwan, six-year lease contracts that the landlord
could not terminate unless the tenant died,
migrated or failed to pay rent for two years were
instituted.
o Landlords were not allowed to repossess the land
even after the lease expired if they could not till it
themselves, if they already have sufficient income,
or if by taking the land they would deprive the
tenant family of their subsistence.
Agrarian reform in Taiwan and Japan was successful in
achieving political stability, and it was this success that the
liberals of the US were selling for reform in the Philippines.
o
o
II.c. Agrarian reform to counter communism
Ladejinsky was without opposition despite the support and

success for reform in Japan. US policy-makers were still
considered about the looming threat of communism in Asia
and thought that agrarian reform may open, rather than
close, the doors of communism.
Ladejinskys criticism of US policy-makers view:

o Failed to recognize that the support of the
peasantry for agrarian reform diverts their support
from the militants.
o Failed to recognize the strong sense of nationalism
in Asia; if they rely on purely US force without the
support of the locals to combat communism, the
locals would turn against the US force.
Land reform was seen to be communistic by US policy

makers, but Ladejinsky argued that it was more of Asian
democracy.
Fulfilling the basic needs of the peasants, needs that have

always been exploited by local militants to gain support,
through land reform will solve the problem of militarism and
suppress communism.
Aid for reform projects must be made in accordance with

what the people need, and not what the US wants. There
must be cooperation between the US and Asians, with the
Asians taking the lead.
III.
Conservative and liberal confrontation in South

Korea
US objectives in Korea:
o Implement a policy of trusteeship over Korea
o Ensure Soviet Unions authority would not extend
over South Asia
Japanese had been occupying Korea for 36 years and have
created a very oppressive land tenure system. Since the
Japanese were subsequently under the US, the US seeks to
reform Korea.
Yangban, or big Korean landowners, controlled 80% of the
land.
Communists were all over Korea in groups called Peoples
Committees and were supported by local governments, and
had virtually taken over the administration of the country.
These communists started imprisoning landlords to further
their own program of land reform.
III.a.
The reform debate in the American Military
Government (AMG)
Koreas government was outlawed by the AMG, which was a

Japanese-led colonial police.
The rightist Koreans were elected into the Korean Interim

Legislative Assembly. The leftist were regulated in their
suffrage.
Reforms of AMG in South Korea:

o Reduced farm rents to 1/3 of production

Required written lease agreements between tenant
and landowner
Military Governor-General Archer L. Lerch was a
conservative in terms of land reform.
Peoples Committee moved to North Korea because of the
suppression in South Korea.
Reforms of Peoples Committee in North Korea:
o Land retention of five hectares for own cultivation
by old landowners
o New landowners paid a yearly tax of 27% of their
crop to the government
North Koreas land reform was peaceful as opposed to the
unrest in South Korea.
Land reform by AMG was reversed to a more liberal
approach based on Ladejinskys theory after the apparent
failure of the conservative approach:
o Replace widespread tenancy with full ownership of
the land by the individual farmer.
Korean Interim Legislative Assembly opposed land reform.
They set up the National Land Administration (NLA) to
distribute lands under the AMG.
NLA distributed 240,000 hectares, or 10% of cultivated
lands, to tenants.
US liberal land reform policy increased tenants expectations
and forced South Korean politicians to enact better land
reform policies. It also has been said to have foiled a
communist revolution in South Korea.
o
III.b.
Reform under Syngman Rhee
Though Rhee promised land reform in his election platform,

when he was elected President, his thirst for power overrode
his promise.
He constructed the foundation of an authoritarian regime.
He excluded members of his rival party, the Korean

Democratic Party (KDP), from the Assembly.
His first Cabinet was mostly conservatives and basically

puppets of his.
His Minister of Agriculture, Cho Pong-am, was an exception.

He was a liberalist, a former Communist, and was in touch
with the farmers.
Rhee and his State Council opposed Pong-ams draft of

agrarian reform law. They raised the retention limit and
compensation payments to landowners, as well as the price
tenants have to pay for the land.
Pong-an, because of his persistent opposition of Rhees

conservatism, was arrested and executed with the charge of
being a North Korean spy.
The Cabinet, despite being closely connected to landowners,

demanded for a more radical land reform program because
they were trying to win over the support of the peasants and
they were trying to limit Rhees executive power.
Assembly passed a more radical program, Rhee vetoed it,

Assembly overrode his veto, so Rhee was forced to sign the
Land Reform Act. Rhee delayed its implementation and
forced the Assembly to amend some laws. Assembly passed
a revised program and was signed by Rhee. Rhee began
implementation one week before the Korean War broke out.
North Korean forces invaded South Korea and redistributed

573,000 hectares to 1, 267, 809 farming families. Because of
this, there was minimal local resistance to North Korean
forces.
Land reform policy of the Rhee administration was reimplemented when the US-UN forces reoccupied the South.
They redistributed the land, and within 2 years had
completed the program. By the end of it, only 7% of farm
families were tenants and only 18% of lands were cultivated
under tenancy.
IV.
Liberal reformists routed in the Philippines

MacArthur came back to the Philippines post-war wanting to
maintain landlord power.
Hukbalahap movement had established local governments
and redistributed the land.
Peasants had taken over large tracts of land abandoned by
landlords during the war.
MacArthur arrested the leaders of the Hukbalahap and
returned the lands to the landlords.
US revived the export agricultural sector, thus the
supremacy of the sugar barons continued.
Bell Trade Act was signed and implemented, resuming free
trade between the Philippines and the US.
Landlords saw these reforms as their return to power. They
started forming their own private armies. In response, the
Hukbalahaps expanded to the provinces. President Quirino
responded by launching a military campaign to rid the rural
ares of Hukbalahaps.
The Philippine economy was seriously suffering from the free
trade agreement. Only the big landowners involved in the
export of agriculture benefitted.
US were threatened by the insurgencies in the Philippines
and sought to implement a program that would stabilize the
country.
IV.a. The first attempt to apply the liberal model
US National Security Council set the guidelines for the US

response to the growing crisis in the Philippines.
US allowed imposition of import and foreign exchange

controls.
Bell and Hardie submitted economic reports on the

Philippines, suggesting a land reform program to curb the
insurgency. This land reform program was very similar to the
liberal land reform program in Japan. Hardie also insisted,
just like what Ladejinsky said that the cause of the
insurgency was the unequal distribution of land, and that this
was the biggest obstacle thwarting US efforts for a stable
democratic economy. He also said that resettlement
programs would be ineffective because the same problems
would arise from wherever tenants were resettled.
Two views on Hardies role in land reform in the Philippines:

o Starner: report was an unrealistic application of land
reform model used in Japan because it ignored the
degree of landlord resistance and the Constitutional
provisions recognizing private property in the
Philippines
o Koone and Gleeck: proposals were militant and an
emotional dedication for land reform, ignoring
economic realities
o Olson: no significant departure from US policy since
they sought to advance US economic interests
Hardie did not see it right to use technology to increase

productivity because the tenants would be hesitant to adapt
to these especially when they know that the gains of this
productivity would still go to the landlords.
o This hesitance of the tenants was a major hurdle to
the industrialization of the Philippines.
IV.b.
Counterinsurgency and reform
Motives of Col. Edward Lansdales operation against the

Hukbalahap:
o reform the military
o rural reform and psychological warfare
o groom Defense Minister Ramon Magsaysay to run
on a populist reform program to counter Quirinos
corrupt Liberal Party government
Objectives of Col. Lansdale:
o Undermine the Hukbalahaps

o Create a reformist alternative in the countryside
Lansdale urged Magsaysay to promote the army as
defenders of the peasants.
New departments in the army by Lansdale:
o Scout Rangers crack anti-guerilla force
o Civil Affairs Office of the Armed Forces
psychological warfare (mostly black propaganda)
o Economic Developmetn Corps (EDCOR) giving
land to Huks who surrendered
Magsaysays campaign for senator created the National
Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) which worked with
him and the Armed Forces to prevent election fraud by the
Liberal Party. Because of this, Magsaysay won a seat in the
Senate.
Upon Magsaysays campaign for presidency, he captured
the support of rural areas by initiating the formation of
peasant organizations that were less radical and nonCommunist like the Philippine Rural Reconstruction
Movement (PRRM) and the Federation of Free Farmers
(FFF).
IV.c.
Landlord opposition and US focus on productivity
Landlords, especially landed Congressmen, strongly

opposed the Hardie report.
John Cooper, a representative of Washington, debunked

Hardies findings, saying that with the defeat of the Huks,
only minor reforms were necessary. The peasant revolt can
be prevented by merely keeping the tenancy rate below
60%.
Magsaysay, even if he was a strong supporter of Hardies

report, could not act upon it and risk losing the US support.
So he worked with Cooper to create a land reform law that
would also accommodate landlord interests.
Three legislations passed by Magsaysay and Cooper:

o Agricultural Tenancy Act of 1954
o Act Creating a Court of Agrarian Relations
o Land Reform Act of 1955

created the Land Tenure Administration
Despite Coopers hand in these legislations, landed

politicians used their main line of defense once again to
prevent the usurpation of their lands; they claimed that the
legislations were communist in nature.
Congress amended the legislations: only contiguous lands

exceeding 300 hectares owned by individuals and lands
exceeding 600 hectares owned by corporations could be
expropriated by the Government. This amendment worked to
the benefit of landlords because only a few of them owned
contiguous lands exceeding 300 hectares. Because of this,
Magsaysays land reform did not even bring about minimal
changes.
US released a new policy assuring that the landlords would

not be affected, that they were focusing on issues of
productivity only.
o This was justified by the supposed Constitutional
right to private property and the unpreparedness of
Filipino tenants to be granted ownership of lands.
IV.d.
Magsaysay and the landowners: the acquisition of
Hacienda Luisita
Because of the war and the post-war insurgencies, vast

agricultural lands owned by foreigners were sold while they
exited the country. Most of the ones in Central Luzon were
purchased by the Lopez family.
Instead of considering the government purchasing Hacienda

Luisita , being sold by a Spanish Corporation, and
redistributing the land to tenants and farm workers,
Magsaysay asked Benigno Aquino to ask his father-in-law,
the wealthy Jose Cojuangco II, if he would like to buy the

hacienda. Magsaysay wanted to bar the Lopez family from
acquiring even more property in Central Luzon so he offered
the hacienda to the Cojuangcos.
In the Cojuangcos application for a loan in GSIS and the
Central Bank, they claimed that 4000 hectares would be
divided among peasants. Somewhere along the way, the
condition for land redistribution was edited saying that
redistribution was merely optional.
The hacienda developed livelihood programs to encourage
healthy relations with the tenants. It was also used for the
nations needs, such as servicing as training grounds for the
military.
IV.e.
Nationalist opposed to agrarian reform
The elite nationalist movement always opposed agrarian

reform. The US decision to impose controls on import and
foreign exchange brought about industrialization. This
threatened the elite nationalists because of the possibility
that a manufacturing class would rise distinct from the
landed elite. But rather than a distinct class surfacing, those
who were landed were still those who benefitted from
manufacturing businesses, and those who were new elites
due to the manufacturing business invested on agricultural
activities and land.
V.
VI.
VII.
The conservative reaction in the United States

With the outbreak of the Korean war, those advocating a
military response to communism (conservatives), as
opposed to land reform as a response to communism
(liberalists), gained stronger ground.
Conservatives started accusing the liberalists like Ladejinsky
and MacArthur for being communists. They even
successfully drove out Ladejinsky from the US on claims that
he was a security risk.
The liberalists started losing their jobs and were not welcome
in different government agencies.
Clearly, the charges against Ladejinsky were from an illconceived plan of over-zealous anti-communists politicians.
The US never explicitly said they were against agrarian
reform, but they always narrowed down the term to suit their
conservative approach.
Liberal reformers and counterinsurgency
Lansdale and Ladejinsky recognized that military force to
counter communism in Asia was not the right way. The
example is that this military force is what led to the Korean
war.
The US had to develop psychological warfare and black
propaganda to discredit communist leaders and win the
support of the peasantry through reforms.
Ladejinskys strategic objectives behind his work on liberal
reform:
o Consolidate states friendly to the US
o Resolve the plight of the rural poor
Ladejinskys minimum programme which he settled for
since his whole liberal approach had difficulty finding
acceptance involved only the regulation of tenancy and
improvement of agricultural services.
Conclusion: a comparative assessment
Though the liberal approach won support for Japan, Taiwan
and South Korea, it never successfully uprooted the
conservative approach.
The conservative approach developed its stronghold through

ideological beliefs about property rights and the nature of
peasant movements.
The liberal approach was merely seen as a departure from
the norm rather than being an idealism of the small farmer to
inject itself into US foreign policy.
Differences of the Philippines with other Asian countries
where the liberal approach was successfully implemented:
o The greatest challenge of the liberal approach to be
implemented in the Philippines, as opposed to its
successful implementation in Japan, Taiwan and
South Korea, is the heavy personal interest of
landed Filipino politicians.
o The US strengthened ties with landlords in the
Philippines, thus giving them more power. In Korea,
the US through the Japanese authorities weakened
the ruling dynasty in order to implement reform.
o The land reform approved by Rhee in South Korea
was beneficial to the landlords because they
received compensation for their assets when they
were devastated by war. In the Philippines,
Magsaysay could not adopt the same policy
because it was seen as disadvantageous by the
landlords who have a strong political influence over
Magsaysay.
Putzel Ch. 5: The Anti-Marcos

Movement and Agrarian Reform
These are the roots of Aquinos policy on Agrarian reform. People
just wanted Marcos out and so different groups came together,
and even the conservatives kind of conceded to having an
effective agrarian reform, but now we all know that all these
people had different agenda.
The different organizations
National Democrats Outside the Aquino Coalition
The most consistent anti- Marcos faction composed of several
organizations, the most famous of which were the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP), National Peoples Army (NPA),
and National Democratic Front (NDF). They derived most of their
support from the peasantry so they were also the most
determined advocates of redistributive agrarian reform. Initially
they contributed directly and indirectly in the shaping of the
coalition that would eventually put Aquino into power, especially
in issues regarding agrarian reform, but because they decided to
boycott the presidential election in 1986, they got excluded. So
ultimately they had no say on Aquinos political program.
Diokno and Tanada
Unlike most elite nationalists, these two were advocates of
redistributive land reform, and their nationalist position was to
sever ties with the US. They had very strong influence in the
coalition prior to Aquinos election, but after she came to power
the conservative reformists overrode their influence.
Liberal Democrats
Most of these people did not share Diokno and Tanadas views
and were only passively supportive of agrarian reform.
Social Democrats
They are the most vocal about the liberal approach to agrarian
reform within the Aquino coalition. Many of them joined the lower
echelons of the Aquino government in the hope of influencing its
policies on certain things like agrarian reform.
Conservative Reformist
They were either enthusiastic advocates or passive supporters of

agrarian reform. They included businessmen, TraPos, and people
from the religious sect ie Cardinal Sin. Their concerns were
mostly on restoring business confidence and attracting foreign
investment, and prosecuting communist movements. Most of
them and their families owned vast tracts of land, ie Aquino
herself had hacienda Luisita. After Ninoy was assassinated,
protests were sprouting from everywhere. So to attract
organizations to join them, they endorsed an effective land
reform. But because there was not explanation as to what
effective meant, it appealed to both advocates of the liberal
redistributive reform and the conservative approach. The liberals
want to break down the lands equitably between landowners and
farmers; conservatives can only consider equitable sharing in the
fruits of the land and nothing more.
AFP
The AFP also wanted Marcos out, and so some of its members
formed the Reform Armed forces Movement (RAM). This were
the people of Ramos and Enrile. Later on, they would play an
integral role in overthrowing the Marcos government. But know
that even before Cory Aquino, they were already planning to take
over by coup de etat. There is no indication that they even
considered redistributive agrarian reform, just that what they
wanted was military control in the country.
Aquinos campaign
Some of the prominent people behind Aquinos campaign were
the business tycoon and know conservative, Jaime Ongpin and
president of ADMU, Fr. Bernas. They formed a small group called
the Facilitators. They were selecting a single opposition
candidate to challenge Marcos and Ongpin, Aquino, and Tanada
were the ones who were to choose. They drafted a Declaration
of Unity which stated that an effective agrarian reform will be
pursued. It was really ambiguous whether they were pushing for
liberal or conservative agrarian reform because they said that
ownership would be diffused, which could be interpreted as
redistribution but also they left a door for the conservatives to
come in saying that ownership is stewardship. It did not say that
the lands would really be redistributed it just said that its
ownership must serve the welfare of all. The idea is, property has
a social function, and this was actually incorporated in Aquinos
agrarian reform law. So ultimately hacienderos can argue that
why would you expropriate my land that I am productively
utilizing.
The declaration was shown to all presidential hopefuls, who
signed it, except for Kalaw and Laurel because of its liberal
position on US bases but mostly because these people actually
wanted to lead the opposition. So anyway, Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan (BAYAN) emerged, led by Diokno and Tanadas
organization, and although they had a more radical and
nationalist orientation, the Facilitators supported them. But thanks
to the National democrats for undermining the formation of
BAYAN as a coalition, Ongpin and friends had an excuse to
abandon it and pursue a different agenda where agrarian reform
wasnt even a priority.
And then Aquino eventually emerged as the opposition
candidate. She had all the support from the business sector ie
Makati Business Club, church ie Cardinal Sin, US, etc. So in her
campaign she was even more ambiguous in her plans for
agrarian reform. When in front of the businessmen in Makati, she
would emphasize enhancing productivity, but in front of the
masses she talked about redistributing ownership. When asked
about her familys Hacienda Luisita, she says shed sit down with
her family and went so far as saying that even if theirs is a sugar
land, which is outside the scope of reform she would have her
family explore the possibility of dispersal of ownership. Of course

we know the truth about that, now Aquinos twin goal of
maximum productivity ad dispersal of ownership gave birth to a
corporate stock sharing scheme that enabled these families to
maintain control of their haciendas. So the point is Aquino talked
about liberal reforms with the masses but the truth is it was just
too vague and was in truth conservative.
Implementing Carp: Contending

Positions Within The State
The coverage of CARP after its implementation was deceptive in

that it hid the real figures of land genuinely distributed to farmers
by including those that were distributed to private interests. Every
year after CARP was passed, the incumbent DAR secretary
would announce that annual targets could not be met. Major
stumbling blocks in CARP aside from the conservative approach
were the continuing inadequacy of land records and the lack of
knowledge about who actually owned agricultural land.
Putzel Chapter 10
CARP implementation was doomed from the start. The liberal
approach, genuine land distribution, was beaten by the
conservative approach because of the coalescing forces against
CARPs true implementation.
Regional Autonomy, Federalism and the

Bangsamoro Issue
Sukarno Tanggol
I. Introduction
The first DAR secretary was Juico, who didnt want to rock the
boat in the DAR bureaucracy, where a lot of employees survived
the Marcos years and continued to work, by balancing competing
interests. DAR undersecretary Medina was the architect of the
conservative approach, which emphasized land productivity and
corporate ownership of the lands representing a top-down
approach starting from the government, while DAR assistant
secretary Bulatao was the proponent of the liberal approach,
which emphasized land ownership and genuine accounting of
stock ownership representing a bottom-up approach starting from
the grassroots peasants organizations.
Juico focused on voluntary land transfers which didnt prove
effective since market value was distorted by corporate
accounting, the bureaucracy was in collusion due to corruption,
and the lands voluntarily transferred were of poor quality. Land
scams based on VLOs forced Juico to resign.
Miriam Santiago became the new DAR secretary. She was
against corruption but she had a hard time implementing the
CARP genuinely due to militarization of lands. When her political
interests were at stake, she signed a MOA with the Department
of Defense under Ramos which institutionalized military
involvement in CARP lands. Oligarchies also subsidized
CAFGUs and other paramilitaries which harassed and intimidated
peasant groups and trade unions.
Land owners in Congress also ensured that CARP would be stillborn by not confirming Santiagos appointment to DAR. Abad
became the next DAR secretary but the office was substantially
weakened due to political pressures on Cory during coup de tat
attempts to appease the business community. Abad was not able
to stop land conversions which allowed it to be exempted from
CARP coverage. Abads replacement and Tadeos arrestment
signalled the death of the liberal approach.
Landowners and agribusiness corporations delayed CARPs
implementation by using its provisions on corporate stocksharing, commercial crop exemptions, and lease-back
arrangements to their own advantage. The court gave rulings in
favour of landowners as well. Hacienda Luisita was a clear
example of corporate stock-sharing that effectively prevented
farmers from owning the land because of fraudulent corporate
accounting practices and legal maneuverings. Transnational
companies like Dole and Del Monte utilized lease-back
arrangements with cooperatives of the farmers to retain their hold
on expansive lands. The conservative approach was also
buttressed by the international support in the form of aid needed
to implement CARPs goal, marginalizing agrarian reform in
favour of macro-economic structural adjustment programmes.
The government bent over backwards to accommodate foreign
donors and thus foreign interests in our agricultural lands.
The Bangsamoro Issue (Muslim Problem or Mindanao

Conflict) has been a persistent problem confronting the
Filipino people and the Philippine Government. This
problem consumed much resources, both government
and non-government.
Literally, Bangsamoro means Moro nation. Bangsamoro
(Moro Nation: from Moors-North African Muslims who
ruled Spain for more than 700 years.) generally refers to
the 13 Muslim ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines:
the Maguindanaon, Maranao, Tausug, Iranun, Sama,
Yakan, Jama Mapun, Kolibugan, Molbog, Palawanon,
Kalagan, Sangil and Badjao. (other natives were called
animists or pagans).
Historically, the Muslim Filipinos (or Moros) had been
fighting for self-determination and social justice.
(Longest in Asia and probably, the world, from 1521present).
The Philippine Governments response to the Muslim
problem has been incremental and inconsistent at best
(war, resettlement, integration, and autonomy).
The concept of regional autonomy was first tried after
the bloody confrontation in the early seventies (70s) that
led to the Tripoli Agreement of 1976, signed between
the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
Recently, a Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral
Domain (MOA-AD) between the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) and the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP), a product of a peace process started
in 1997, proposed the creation of a Bangsamoro
Juridical Entity (BJE), apparently an improved version of
regional autonomy. But it was declared unconstitutional
by the Supreme Court.
Regional autonomy has been an issue in the country
since its independence from colonial rule.
An enabling law was then passed by Congress, the
Local Government Code of 1991. Thus local autonomy
for the provinces, cities, and municipalities was
institutionalized. Even the lowest tier barangay was
granted certain powers and functions, as well as a share
in the revenue allotment for local governments.
The government policy of integration gave way to
regional autonomy, hoping it will keep many Moros away
from secession. The latest autonomy law, RA 9054,
passed in 2000, which is part of the implementation of
the GRP-MNLF Agreement of 1996, hardly made any
difference.
II. Regional Autonomy in the Philippines

-
The war for Moro self-determination was most bloody in

the early 70s, partly because it was also fanned by the
late President Marcos plan to declare martial law, which
he did in 1972. This violent episode led to the signing of
the Tripoli Agreement in 1976 between the MNLF and
the Government of the Republic of the Philippines
(GRP), promising genuine autonomy to the Muslims and
covering thirteen provinces and nine cities in Mindanao.
Marcos created two Regional Autonomous Governments
(RAGs), instead of one, covering ten provinces instead
of thirteen.
After the People Power Revolution, the 1987 Philippine
Constitution was drafted and adopted, containing
provisions for regional autonomy for the Muslims and
the Cordillerans.
When Fidel V. Ramos became president in 1992, he
initiated talks with the MNLF and revived the GRPMNLF Peace Process. It birthed the Jakarta Agreement
which promised genuine autonomy to the Muslims,
again based on the 1976 Tripoli agreement, through a
two-phase implementation scheme. The first phase
called for the creation of the Southern Philippines
Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD) and the
Special Zone of Peace for Autonomy and Development
(SZOPAD), covering the original thirteen provinces and
nine cities mentioned in the Tripoli Agreement.
Meanwhile, back in 1997, right after the signing of the
GRP-MNLF Agreement, Ramos initiated talks with the
other Muslim insurgent group, the MILF.
Present Structure of Regional Autonomy for Muslims

RA 6734, as amended by RA 9054, provides the legal
basis for the organization of the ARMM and its Regional
Government in 1990. After the 1996 GRP-MNLF
Agreement was signed, another province and one city
were included. The seat of the Regional Government
continues to be in Cotabato City, which is ironically not a
part of ARMM.
The Regional Government is composed
of an executive branch and a legislative branch,
as well as a judiciary. The executive body is
composed of the Regional Governor (RG), a Vice
Regional Governor, and a Regional Cabinet. As
head of the regional government, the RG
appoints the members of the regional cabinet,
whose number should be ten, representing
different geographical areas within ARMM.
Under RA 9054, An Executive Council is
created composed of the Regional Governor,
Regional Vice Governor, and three Deputy
Regional Governors to be appointed by the
Regional Governor.
The legislative powers of the Regional Assembly are
subject to exceptions as enumerated in the Law.
The Regional Government has the power to tax and
raise revenues of its own. But not Income tax and
custom duties. If one looks closely, it can be seen that
practically nothing of fiscal consequence is left to the
Regional Government on which it can act its supposed
autonomy. No doubt, the Regional Government is totally
dependent on the releases from the National
Government for its survival, from its birth in 1990 up to
the present.
Failure of Regional Autonomy
20 years after its creation, the ARMM has failed to make
a difference.
Regional autonomy in ARMM is a failure because of
structural and behavioural factors. For one, the
autonomy law is seriously flawed. It does not grant

sufficient powers to the Regional Government. For
example, there is a provision that refers to the power to
create and alter boundaries of provinces within ARMM
explicitly granted by RA 9054. When the Regional
Government exercised this power and divided the
province of Maguindanao into two (Sharief Kabungsuan
and Maguindanao), the Supreme Court responded by
declaring the new province illegal.
The autonomy laws talk big on autonomy but a closer
look betrays the unwillingness on the part of the Central
Government to grant the necessary powers for selfgovernance. The National Governments interference in
the political affairs in ARMM is just obvious and so far,
only the regional candidates of whoever is president win
as regional governor and vice regional governor.
There are factors within the region contributing to the
negative performance of the Regional Government: graft
and corruption, inadequate technical knowledge,
oversized cabinet, obese regional bureaucracy, and
limited budget are just some of the problems facing the
Regional Government.
The Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) and the MOA-AD: An

Aborted Attempt to Improve Muslim Autonomy
The GRP-MILF Peace Process almost succeeded in
forging an agreement between the two parties, with OIC
(Organization of Islamic Countries) representatives as
witnesses. The MOA-AD promised to the Moros the
creation of the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE),
supposedly an improved version of the ARMM.
The MOA-AD promised a lot of things to the Moros
including but not limited to the following: expanded
territory; control of natural resources, including internal
and territorial waters; taxing and fiscal powers; sharing
in mineral wealth; control of regional governance; option
to establish trade missions abroad; and even an
associative relationship with the Central Government.
But the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional on
grounds that the stating the relationship of the BJE and
the RP as associative would mean granting
independence unconstitutional.
Concluding Notes: Regional Autonomy and Decentralization
in a Unitary State
Even if the MOA-AD was signed and wasnt declared
unconstitutional, we might encounter problems in its
implementation.
(1)we see here the inherent inability of liberal
democracy to fully comprehend and address the
demands of minority or communal groups within the
polity. It sees the people as citizens or individuals with
equal rights, not as members of social or communal
groups like families, tribes, etc., with peculiarities. The
Philippine Nation-State follows that of its benefactor, the
U.S.A., in its liberal democratic institutions without the
more important part of the US model, its federal
character. Like the US being blind to Indians and
Blacks, the Philippine Copy-cat would be blind to the
Moros and other minority groups within Philippine
society. But the US had a federal system that would
enhance the sights and insights of its democratic
institutions while the Philippines had a unitary system
that would only add injury to the tyranny of 51%
(majority).
(2)our unitary form of government has literally
centralized everything in Manila. Other factors have
reinforced the blindness of the Central Government to
Moro demands.

-
One source of conflict: History: Christianized Indios, like

the Spaniards, called the Moros pirates and outlaws; the
Moros called the Christinized Natives traitors.
Since the majority controls political power in Manila,
they have been reluctant to grant real autonomy to the
Moros, even if the Constitution already mandates it.
How about federalism?
VI. Federalism in the Philippines: Initiatives and Prospects

-
Initiatives for Federalism in the Philippines

Amidst a long history of centralism and a unitary system
in the Philippines are pockets of initiatives by certain
individuals and groups aimed at changing the system of
government to a federal one. There were even
proposals to include the federal form in the Constitution.
As early as 1898, Iloilo leaders had initiated the
formation of a Federal State of Visayas. After the
Philippine Archipelago was transferred to the Americans
by the Spaniards under the Treaty of Paris, A group of
Filipinos offered the Philippine Commission a
constitution for a Federal Republic of the Philippines.
This draft recommended 11 state subdivisions.
In lieu of a federal form, local autonomy through
decentralization was considered by the Central
Government.
During the 1971-1972 Constitutional
Convention, another proposal for a Federal Republic of
the Philippines was submitted by Salvador Araneta. This
proposed Bayanikasan Constitution suggested five
states, namely: Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon,
Visayas, Mindanao, and Christian Mindanao.
Among the political parties, only the Partido
Demokrasya ng Pilipinas (now PDB-Laban) consistently
campaigned for a federal form government as early as
the 70s. A local party based in Central Philippines
(Cebu), PROMDI, also advocated for federalism.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel, In his latest bill filed in the
Senate, he proposed 11 states to comprise the Federal
Republic of the Philippines. These are: Northern Luzon;
Central Luzon; Southern Tagalog; Bicol; Eastern
Visayas; Western Visayas; Central Visayas; Northern
Mindanao; Northeastern Mindanao; Bangsamoro State;
and Metromanila. He suggested that the powers of the
Federal Government may include foreign affairs,
national defense, customs, immigration, federal taxes,
basic justice, and basic education.
The Consultative Commission on Charter Change

The principal mandate of the ConCom was to conduct
consultations and studies and propose amendments for
shift from presidential-unitary to parliamentary-federal
Apart from the planned shift to a parliamentary-federal
form, the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution
are being eyed for possible changes to relax the
restrictions on foreign investments and ownership of
land.
It sought constitutional changes in such areas as the
prerogatives of public officials, electoral reforms, judicial
reforms,
economic reforms, clearer definition of
peoples rights, enhanced local autonomy and a more
powerful Ombudsman.
As soon as the ConCom submitted its majority report,
the President issued EO No. 459 creating the Charter
Change Advocacy Commission (CCAC), better known
as AdCom, whose members are mostly former
members of the ConCom.
The debates surrounding charter change created a lot of
controversies, fuelled further by the Peoples Initiative
gathering millions of signatures to effect constitutional
change. While peoples initiative is one of the three

modes of charter change as provided in the 1987
Constitution, there is no enabling law covering such a
constitutional provision.
Among the groups and voices calling for a federal
Philippines, the Citizens Movement for a Federal
Philippines (CMFP) is the more consistent and serious
in its advocacies.
The Federal Initiative in the Philippines is in temporary
retreat, especially after that confusing confluence of
forces and events around charter change (i.e. GMA).
Surveys show an increasing constituency for change,
including a shift to a federal arrangement, albeit not yet
a majority. The same survey depicted that 55% (are)
not in favour of a shift to a federal system.
Challenges Ahead: Establishing the Necessary Conditions

for Federalism
Necessary Conditions for Federalism according to
Watts: (1) Existence of the will to federate, (2) Shared
Values and Objectives, (3) Trust, (4) a political culture
which emphasizes sharing and cooperation and which
fosters respect for constitutional norms and structures
and the rule of law (5) supporting economic conditions.
(1) Up to the National Government since the federal
solution will have to legally come from the National
Government, subject to the ratification of the people.
(2) A. We all want peace and agree that conflict is
undesirable. So it is our shared goal to find a way to end
the conflict. B. We all want development. C. Good
Governance. D. Possible value: shared god. The
Christian god is the same with the Muslim God.
(3)Moros have difficulty trusting the National
Government and majority Christians as far as the grant
of self-rule is concerned. The root of this is historical.
(4)If we analyze our political system and behaviour as a
nation, we have yet to develop the right political culture
necessary for federalism to work. The important point is
how to improve this political culture so that federalism
can work.
(5)Economic development is tied to peace and rule of
law. Every region has potential resources, natural and
human, that can be harnessed for a self-governing
federal state. The federal government is of course
expected to support those weak ones.
To pursue the federal idea, national leaders, particularly
the president, must have the political will to decide and
implement what is right.
The federal option must be carried by legitimate leaders
with political will through the rule of law and other
constitutional channels. The leader initiating the shift to
a federal government must be above doubts of
illegitimacy. As with the case of the former president, the
issues surrounding her legitimacy proved to be fatal to
the federal endeavour. All actions towards changing the
current form of government was perceived as selfserving.
Prospects: Finding the Federal Solution
Communist and NPA insurgency in the countryside may
dissipate as people may enjoy self-governance in their
regions, slowly addressing their goal of political and
economic empowerment.
Federalism will disperse power to regional states, thus
removing the target of NPA guns that imperialist, selfserving central-power.
Good governance can be an attractive goal for
federalism in the Philippines. Self-rule will make
government closer to the people and make government
officials and institutions more accountable, transparent,

participatory and predictable (i.e. with rule of law).
Federalism can control if not totally remove pork barrel,
that most-infamous symbol of centralized power in the
Philippines.
Both shared-rule and self-rule will make planning and
policy-making responsive to the real problems of the
people.
The federal arrangement will move the Philippine polity
farther from authoritarianism. Federal self-rule will make
power closer to the people.
The long tradition of self-governance among Filipino
communities is consistent with federalism, not the
imposed unitary form.
A multi-sector awareness program must be implemented
involving the academe, civil society/NGOs, Church and
religious groups, private sector, politicians and political
parties (local and national), and the common people.
Part Fourteen
Colonial and International Trade /

Industrialization
Centrals: 1920- 1934
By Larkins (Sugar)
Overview: The years between 1920 and 1934 were hard for
sugar growers and those who worked the fields, while for the
sugar centrals the times were good. The misery of those who did
the sweat labor led to the rise of demands for radical solutions,
such as joining the Socialist or Communist parties and/or
organizations.
Introduction:
The years from 1921 to 1934 brought unprecedented

prosperity to the Philippine sugar industry. Below are the
contributing factors:
o U.S. Tariff system provided the islands crop privileged
access to American markets.
o Production accelerated as processing facilities multiplied
to accommodate overseas demands.
o More efficient milling, increased sugar hectarage, and
guaranteed markets infused massive amounts of capital
into the sugar industry and augmented the wealth and
power of its leaders.
Economic change brought tensions to sugarlandia, between

millers and planters and between sugar hands and those for
whom they labored.
o Negros and Pampanga experienced social, political and
labor unrest.
A New Era for Sugar:
Unusual circumstances in the international sugar trade

brightened the dawn of this new era for Philippine sugarmen.
o WWI destroyed the largest contributor to world sugar
supplies, Continental beet industry.
o Drop in global output
Increase in world prices
Increase in Philippine Exports (Sugar): U.S. Congress

moved to raise duties on foreign imports while continuing
duty-free status to Philippine products. As such, the US
absorbed on favorable terms all the centrifugal the
Philippines could produce, and this accessibility stimulated
the growth of export throughout the period.
Great Depression: To profit in the face of falling prices,

Philippine sugarmen raised their output of high-quality sugar
by augmenting advanced milling capacity and growing more

cane.
Hawaiian-Philippine Company was founded in 1918 by
corporate members of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters
Association in an effort to employ Philippine labor locally
rather than across the Pacific in Hawaii. After failing to reach
a satisfactory arrangement with planters in Pampanga,
organizers decided to place a central in Silay, Negros.
Planters who contracted with the new factory formed the
Silay-Saravia Planters Association in 1919, and grinding
began January 15, 1921. The central enjoyed rapid success
and later redeemed its capital indebtedness to its creditors.
o Sucrose Extraction or Extraction refers to efficiency of
milling generally expressed in terms of the percentage
of total sucrose in the cane that is extracted in the juice
(sucrose in juice per cent of sucrose in cane).
o Multiplier Effect That modern farming methods netted
correspondingly much higher crop yields and, hence,
better returns on investment and that good agricultural
practice offered the best hedge against falling prices
o Silay Central

Met the world competition despite its slightly lower
rate vis--vis Australia, Hawaii, Louisiana and Cuba
(due to weather conditions)

Provided
planters
with
expanded
field
transportation, access to fertilizers and interest-free
fertilizer loans

Planters contributions: increased use of fertilizers,
dug drainage canals, employed irrigation pumps,
set up cane seed beds, used better seed selection,
undertook deep plowing with tractors

Maintained experimental facilities (ex. cane
varieties, high-yielding strains, technical advice)
o Leading Sugarmen: Hacendero Cesar Gamboa and
technologist Carlos Locsin; Yee On and Catalino
Valderrama
Centrals, by virtue of their size and wealth, could undertake
activities on a larger scale to support planters.
La Carlota Experiment Station Major research facility (re:
various farm activities) in Negros
Not all milling districts reached the same level of productivity,
and those in Pampanga did not succeed as well as ones on
Negros. Two reasons for disparity: (1) weather [Central
Luzon experienced more pronounced wet and dry season
than did Negros] and (2) outdated farming practices [Luzon
planters sowed with old, low-yield, native varieties of cane;
Pampangan farmers lacked financial resources to engage in
heavy application of fertilizers]
Bank centrals (ex. PNB-financed centrals), though founded
in an era of great optimism about sugars future could not
have been launched at a worse time.
o Rise in machine prices
o Initial loans were not able to cover all the construction
costs
o Lack of funds for construction of railway tracks
Philippine Sugar Centrals Agency a special branch of
PNB tasked to supervise six plants. Ownership of several of
these ventures changed hands; and for his gross
mismanagement of bank funds, especially with regard to
loans to sugar interests, PNB president Venancio
Concepcion went to prison.
Bank centrals did not have the same resources as privately
funded centrals to raise productivity and profit margins. The
bank, already overcommitted with to the centrals, proved
miserly with funds for improvements and did not sponsor the
kind of research that increased yields in the private milling
districts.
On 3 occasions between 1920-1926, the government and
PNB entertained offers to sell their interest in the bank
centrals to private American financiers. Native opposition to

these various offers did not imply a hostility toward all
American participation in the Philippine sugar industry.
Indeed, in no other endeavor did Americans become more
active or cooperate with native businessmen fully. Examples
of American businessmen who participated in the Philippine
sugar industry: John Switzer, Maurice Lowenstein, George
Fairchild.
Philippine Sugar Association (PSA) Established in 1922
as a technical forum for all participants in the industry, the
PSA within a decade became an organization representing
the collective voice of more than 80 percent of the central
millers in the Philippines. Through PSA, Filipino, American
and Spanish millers united as a single force to compete with
Cuban, Puerto Rican, Hawaiian and US beet interests for
privileged access to the American markets. Officers of the
PSA came from the upper ranks of mill owners and
managers and constituted a cosmopolitan mix.
On Philippine Independence: The struggles over Philippine
independence and economic arrangements have captured
considerable attention from scholars.
o Pro-independence American agribusiness sugar and
dairy people who wanted to exclude Philippine
sweetener and coconut oil from the duty-free US
market. incorrectly viewed that Philippines products
are a threat to their profits and survival; Nationalista
Party (immediate and absolute independence)
o Republican Party + Importers of American goods +
Exporters of Philippine products Philippines is not
ready for self-government
Various means to curb access of Philippine sugar: (1)
Fairfield Bill early independence for the Philippines [NOT
SUCCESSFUL]; (2) Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act of 1930 cut
imports of duty-free Philippine sugar [FREE PHIL. ENTRY
REMAINED]; (3) Chadbourne International Agreement of
1931 limit world production [PHIL. SUGAR INDUSTRY DID
NOT PARTICIPATE]
Hare-Hawes Cutting and Tydings-McDuffie Act contained
provisions both beneficial and detrimental to Philippine
sugar.
Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 (amendment) provided
for production limits re: production of sugar.
Jones-Costigan Act provided quotas for all domestic,
insular, and foreign suppliers to the US market.
o Several problems: (1) Matters of scheduling; (2)
Question of equitable quotas (large factories
averaging production; small factories single best
year)
Sugar Society and Centrals:
New mills brought change to sugar society. At the top of the

revised socioeconomic pyramid stood the centralistas,
Filipino, Spanish and American owners and executives
managing corporate or family interests.
o Intermarriage inextricably enmeshed native central
families as well. ownership of centrals were linked by
kinship
Wealth bred further wealth and several millionaire millers

diversified with outside investments, some close to the sugar
industry, some quite far afield (ex. air passengers, life
insurance, etcetera). More so, as part of the wealthiest
members of society, these people were the only ones who
could afford to run for public office at the provincial level or
higher.
Central owners gained numerous advantages from holding

so much political power, including their ability to affect the
legislative outcome of key bills (ex. delayed 8-hour-per-day
labor legislation).
Division between planters and centralistas contained a

nationality component, for up to 91% of hacenderos were
Filipinos while perhaps 50% of central owners were not.
o Planters pro-independence; Centralistas flexible
position (mixed loyalties)
With the creation of a supraclass of millers, planters lost
power and prestige as well as income, and the economic
condition of many became more precarious as a result of
change. For the biggest landholders, centrals initiated more
efficient operations on their estates and provided them with
opportunities to improve crop productivity.
Possessing land not only provided security, it conferred
status as well.
Under the influence of new milling system, distinction
between sugar acsas and arrendatarios (inquilino) became
pronounced again.
o Arrendatarios signed formal contracts with landholders
and might possess property in their own right. They
managed their lease-hold alone, dealing personally with
the central and receiving quedens (plant vouchers often
used in lieu of cash) in their own name. Furthermore,
they obtained direct loans from PNB and tended to rent
larger estates.
o Acsas emerged from the ranks of dumaan and
cultivated but 2 to 8 hectares that often contained both
rice and sugar. Their annual share, established by
virtual agreement, came from the hacendero who held
the central milling contract and who provided cash
advances and other necessities. Lacked flexibility
and status of arrendatarios.
Revised system of credit distribution emphasized the
changing hierarchy in the sugar industry as well (i.e. centrals
as sources of loans).
Closer-knit ties among the Capampangan made possible the
Arayat Cooperative Marketing Association, formed in 1934 in
the face of a credit squeeze caused by the pending
imposition of quotas.
It may have happened that as the central era progressed
more dumaan labored on the pakyaw system; that is, having
their pay set according to the number of hectares plowed or
fertilized, rows weeded and tons of cane cut, loaded or
transported to the mill.
In a sense, sacadas participated only peripherally in sugar
society, despite their crucial economic role.
Comparative Analysis (Negros and Pampanga):
o Negros paid labor system with plantation hierarchy;
Pampanga tenancy
o Negros higher yields; Pampanga lower yields (
resisted management reform)
o Negros flamboyant; Pampanga traditional lifestyle in
its stable communities
Tensions:
Prosperity during the central era did not necessarily

generate harmony within the sugar industry, and the
maldistribution of profits created tensions.
The first signs of hacendero pressure surfaced sometime in

mid-1929 as Negrense planters began approaching
politicians about improving their share of milled sugar
called participation from an ave. of 55% to 60%. The
legislative proposal regarding such was defeated on the
ground of violation of the laws of contract. Avanceas
proposal (i.e. bank centrals voluntarily offer higher
participation) was declined by the PNB.
Angered by defeats, hacendero opted a more militant

attitude: (1) vote for the opposition Democrata party; (2) halt
purchases of fertilizer for the coming year; and (3) reduce
cane production.
Despite the fact that planters in Pampanga received a

smaller participation than did those on Negros, hacendero
protests in the former area did not arise until 1934 when
quotas loomed.
o Minimal amount of leaseholding made a difference in the
planters attitude
o Fewer debts and lesser interests
o Diversified sources of livelihood (ex. rice crops)
o Better relations with centrals
Florenciano Intrencherado preached the coming of a reign
of justice throughout the Philippines, based on
independence, reapportionment of national wealth and
removal of Chinese.
Siete Sagrados (Sacred Seven) grouped formed by Lucio
Brender
Mutual-help societies: Kusug Sang Imol (The Strength of the
Poor) and Mainawa-on (Merciful) offered members or their
widows financial help in the event of a personal catastrophe
or death ( but founders have political aspirations)
Federacion Obrera de Filipinas (FOF) sought to obtain
recognition on the docks and in the centrals of Negros; has
the largest union membership in the Visayas
Pagkakaisa ng Magsasaka (Union of Peasants) first tenant
union; proliferated in Central Luzon; constituent of
Pambansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (National
Association of Peasants in the Philippines or KPMP).
Anak Pawas (Sons of Sweat) five-thousand member
organization of peasants
Katipunan Mipanampum (Mutual Protection Association or
KM) began in Pampanga, spread throughout Central
Luzon; super patriotic group (ex. flag-raising ceremonies,
beauty contests)
Only twice during the 1920s did sugar tenants briefly protest
their treatment at the hands of landlords, and both
complaints had to do with shifts in sugar prices
Two circumstances changed the relative passivity among
sugar tenants: (1) limitation; (2) rise of effective leadership of
peasant movements
Pedro Abad Santos had a taste for public office, yet he
chose to become a political outcast defending peasants in
suits against landlords; founded Aguman ding Talapagobra
ning Filipinas (Workers Union of the Philippines) in 1929;
moved from conventional politician to spokesman of
peasants (probably due to betrayal by his own class)
Philippine Acceptance of the Bell Trade

Act of 1946: A Study of Manipulatory
Democracy
Stephen R. Shalom
This study shows that the acceptance of the Philippine Trade Act
of 1946 (Bell Trade Act of 1946) was in accordance with the
pattern of neocolonialism. It was a result of economic leverage
from the United States government and parliamentary
machinations by Roxas and his supporters, and the Philippine
elite. Ironically, the United States moved into a stronger position
after the Philippines was declared independent on July 4, 1946.
The Bell Trade Act definitely was far from reflecting the will of the
Philippine People.
The study presents the complete account of congressional
maneuvers that made the trade agreement possible and shows
the certain steps it needed to go through in order to take effect.
US Government
April 18, 1946: The Bell Trade Act, sponsored by

Representative Jasper Bell, was approved by US
Congress
a. provide 8 years of free trade between US and
Philippines, and then 20-year period of tariffs to
gradually increase until they reach full rate
b. absolute quotas on Philippine goods but not on
US exports
c. prohibited Philippines from altering the
exchange rate of peso and from levying taxes
d. parity clause gave US citizens and
corporations equal rights with Filipinos in
utilizing and owning natural resources and in
operating public utilities
April 30, 1946: President Harry Truman signed the act,
and included the Philippine Rehabilitation Act
*Philippine Rehabilitation Act provide funds to repair
some of the extensive war damage suffered by the
Philippines
-was used as a tie-in with the Bell Trade Act (no funds
will be given if act is not accepted)
Ratification of the Trade Bill by Philippine Congress

April 1946: Manuel Roxas (Liberal Party) won over
Sergio Osmena (Nacionalista Party)
*Roxas supported the Trade Act:
a. wanted a market for Philippine exporters
b. general eagerness to cultivate close ties with the
US
On the issue of when the Act was to be signed:

a. US wanted it to be signed after the Philippines had
achieved independence to dispel doubts on its
validity
b. Roxas wanted it to be signed before July 4 (require
simple majority vote from Congress) because the
SC might construe it as a treaty (require 2/3 vote of
Senate) if it was signed after
July 2, 1946: Congress approved Bell Trade Act

*note: some of those who voted to accept the Bell Trade
Act only did so because of the Rehabilitation Act that
was attached to it (not the prefect measure, but would
assure funds, choose lesser evil)
Executive Agreement signed by US and Philippine

Presidents incorporating provisions of Act
Passage by the Philippine Congress of a constitutional
amendment incorporating parity
Roxas and his supporters used drastic measures; such

as removing their opponents from legislature to ensure
the acceptance of the Act
1. House of Representatives:
May 25, 1946: Representative Jose Nueno
(Liberal Party) introduced a resolution to bar
the seating of 9 representatives on the grounds
of fraud and terror in Central Luzon (6 from
Democratic Alliance, 2 Nacionalistas and 1
Liberal, Jose Roy)
*note: Nacionalista and Democratic Alliance
have gone on record opposing the Bell Trade
Act
An amendment to the resolution was passed
stating that no terrorism occurred in Roys
district
The other 8 are prohibited from taking their
seats; however, they allowed the seating of 3
other representatives under indictment

2 Nacionalistas were only given their seats
after the parity vote was taken
2. Senate:
Nacionalista minority temporarily walked out
during a procedural dispute, and a resolution
was passed during their absence suspending 3
of them
The 3 suspended were not allowed to vote in
the parity issue
On the Central Luzon issue:
1. What Roxas claimed happened:
Democratic Alliance won the election through
fraud an terrorism
Anti-Roxas elements, including Huks, were
responsible for terrorism
2. What really happened:
Small-scale civil war because private landlord
armies and military police launched a reign of
terror against the peasants. Peasant efforts
challenged the elites absolute domination of
the rural Philippines.
Guerrilla organization supporting Roxas carried
off 8 ballot boxes from areas who were voting
for Osmena
*violence was undeniable but did not substantiate the
charge that the Democratic Alliance stole the election
Manila Times accounts years later:
*Luis Taruc (leader of Huks) asserted that they initiated
no terror
*Emilio Abello (Roxas Executive Secretary) conceded
that Democratice Alliance had been denied seats for
political reasons
*Judge Antonio Quirino (brother and confidant of the VP
of Roxas) admitted that opposition members in
Congress were unseated to assure the 2/3 vote
Senate (16ayes-5nays); House (68ayes-18nays)
*Constitution: of ALL members of each House
-Roxas says 3/4 should be computed on the basis of 21
senators and 90 representatives (exclusive of the 3
senators and 8 representatives ousted)
-SC voted 8 3 to deny the challenge to the parity
amendment
Overdue Philippine Independence

Jonathan Reyes
United States on the 4 of July in 1946, the US still

maintained the Philippines as a neo-colony,
economically, at the least.
II.
Manifestations of US continued colonization of the

Philippines came in the form of different acts of
legislation:
a. Bell Trade Act
i. Reportedly, its purpose was to condition the
Filipino economy so that it would be able to
stand the pressures of independence.
ii. It allowed for a monopoly of the principal
Philippine products that favoured American
business interests.
iii. US goods can be imported into the
Philippines free of all restrictions, while
exports from the Philippines remained
subject to various restrictions.
III.
Essentially made the Philippines economically

dependent on the US
IV.
Key problems of the Bell Trade Act (according to

Philippine White Paper, written by Shirley
Jenkins):
a. Went so far as to grant all American citizens the
same rights of Filipinos in the Philippines while not
granting the opposite
i. Allowed the Philippines to be a colony
economically was used as a market for US
goods
b. Military Bases Agreement of 1947
i. Gave the US a 99-year lease (eventually
amended; predetermined 2046 expiration
changed to 1991) on two military bases:
Subic Bay Naval Station, Clark Air Force
Base
ii. On these bases, the US was not restricted in
what they could do.
iii. Obviously disregarded the wellbeing of the
Philippine nation, as the bases acted as
magnets for enemy attacks which lessened
the threat to the cities of the US
V.
Pre-Marcos Era
a. Enactment of 1964 law that allowed only Filipinoowned retail stores to operate in the Philippines
gave the Americans even more advantage,
because they were exempt from this law due to the
parity clause in the Bell Trade Act.
b. The American Chamber of Congress of the
Philippines recommended that the Bell Trade Act be
extended indefinitely. This created political tension,
but no action prospered on either side of the issue.
VI.
Marcos//Martial Law Era

a. The expiration of the Bell Trade Act in 1974 did not
signify the end of American imperialistic interest in
the Philippines.
b. The US was Marcos powerful ally in his
dictatorship.
c. By eliminating the risk of insurgence, the most
powerful risk to the US military bases and
Parity amendment was finally approved by Congress
Acceptance of Amendment by Filipinos voting in a national

plebiscite
Roxas made one of the most intensive campaign tours
of the entire island and the entire government machine
was fully mobilized
March 1947: schedule for plebiscite

a. ballots were printed only in Spanish and
English
b. school teachers were prohibited from serving
as poll watchers (biased against parity)
c. polling places were moved out of rural areas
(minimize Democratic Alliance vote)
less than 2/3 of registered voters cast ballots but a large

majority approved the parity clause
*New York Times: Filipinos had given evidence of
political maturity
*Washington: Philippines was fully independent and
that any special arrangements were based on the free
decision of the Filipino People through plebiscite of their
elected representatives
th
I.
d.
economic interests in the Philippines were

eliminated.
Foreign investments by TNCs skyrocketed. TNCs
used the martial law to their advantage, obviously to
the disadvantage of the Filipinos (i.e., Filipino
advertising firms died,
unemployment/underemployment prevailed).
VII.
Post-Marcos Era
a. In 1991, the US abandoned its remaining two
military base. This, however, did not entirely remove
the US presence and involvement in the Filipino
scene.
i. The Philippines is reliant upon the US for
aid.
ii. ...the Philippines and the US are enmeshed
in a post-colonial entanglement in which the
US still enjoys the economic and cultural
privileges of neo-colonial domination, and
the Philippines continues to be culturally and
economically subordinate to American
interests (Sharon Delmendo)
VIII.
Proposed Solution: Complete structural

reformations
a. Reorganize trade policies, install tariffs on foreign
trade.
b. Direct foreign investment into local industries that
will make the Philippines in a better position in the
international market.
c. Develop a stable economy by developing a stable
government.
i. Reformations must target the large lower
class, and the lower classes need to move to
clean up the government.
ii. Come up with meaningful change through
clean, peaceful elections.
d. Examine other post-colonial nations and
understand what led to their current state.
Others:
Gary Bonifacio rebuked the idea that Andres is uneducated,

and born a peasant. In fact, Bonifacios mother is a Spanish
meztiza from Zambales, his uncles were once cabezas de
barangay. Also, he mentions that Andres has a private tutor
who taught him how to read and write in Spanish. He is also
a theater artist. Their familys crisis started when Andres
parents died. He took over the responsibility of fending for
the family by crafting high class canes. He is also a multinational agent, where he experienced class consciousness
being able to correspond with the illustrados.
Gary also shows dismay over the portrayal of monuments to

Bonifacio as one without slippers or footwear.
Unlike Rizals and Aguinaldos, Bonifacios abode was not

restored nor kept preserved, there are no markers on them.
Kilala lang si Bonifacio dahil sa mitolohiyang nakapaloob sa

kanya, pero yung mismong buhay niya, hindi alam ng mga
tao.
Bonifacio is misrepresented in historical edifices. The closest

that embodies his person is the one which depicted him in
rayadillo attire, aboard a horse, a gentleman.
Bonifacio used to be in the 5-peso bill, now is demoted to

share the space in the 10-peso bill/coin with Mabini, a
showing of influence by the Aguinaldos.
In his depiction in the movie Bayani, Bonifacio shows

charisma over the people, and his conflict with Aguinaldo.
Historians, Villegas and Guerrero believe that Bonifacio is

real first president as supported by legal documents and
events, by acclamation of the Katipuneros. In the Kartilya,
where he defined Filipinos as Tagalogs, and Philippines,
Katagalugan, he likewise named the first Philippines.
The Tejeros Convention is a vote-bought election, where

Bonifacio bolted.
Andres and Procopio were later convicted of treason and

sentenced to death by the military tribunal. They were
executed in Maragondon.
Ang tunay na pagpupugay ay hindi masusukat sa bakal o

semento
Conclusion
The house where Mabini died
Bonifacio for (first) president
Howie Severino
Summary: This is a documentary which features an interview of a

direct descendant of Andres Bonifacios brother Procopio, Atty.
Gary Bonifacio, who toured with the correspondent, Howie
Severino into Andres Bonifacios life. He makes a reference to
the 1897 Tejeros Convention where Emilio Aguinaldo was elected
President, which his great-great-grand uncle, Andres, also
questioned, in terms of validity and claims that the said election
was null and void. Severino also takes notice of how Bonifacio is
demoted in his rank as a hero. One showing is his utter
placement in smaller coins/bills as compared to his
contemporaries. Towards the end, the documentary serves to
claim, that Bonifacio is the countrys first president, that the
Tejeros Convention is marred with controversy, and that the
Aguinaldo, as the first recognized president doesnt get the
country off to an inspiring start after the Spanish decline. More
so, Bonifacio's success as a political organizer and his vision for
the country -- plus his generally stainless moral conduct -- would
make him a more ideal first president. The facts would support it
if we consider the fledgling government that Bonifacio
established -- with its own Cabinet, Sangguniang Bayans, and a
presidency.
Ambeth Ocampo
Summary: This is an essay about the hidden accounts about
Apolinario Mabini, his shyness and his thoughts. The author
recounts that Mabini is a homegrown intellectual, having not
given the chance to study abroad like many illustrados, and that
his fervor serves the government so well.
Key Ideas:
There are only two accounts of his writing cited in the

compilation, La Revolucion Filipina. A separate volume of
this includes edifying letters which, unlike Rizals letters,
contain little or no personal information about him
One of his brothers, in a prewar newspaper

interview, narrated how Mabini tried to learn how to
dance. Since he was too shy to physically hold a
woman (or a man), he practiced his dance steps
with a chair.
The subject of this essays title, Mabini Shrine,

which is a simple wooden house with a thatch roof
where he died, has been moved from the PSG
compound across the Pasig River from Malacaang
to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines
campus because the edifice is getting in the way of
its Pasig river project.
The house where Mabini died, now stands there as

an inspiration for all the young people who should
learn service and love of country. OCAMPO
Mabini was homegrown. He was not wealthy
enough to study abroad, but he was in a true sense
ilustrado, or enlightened. The house that has
since become the shrine was actually the house of
his brother.
Ocampo believes that Mabini was, next to Emilio
Aguinaldo, as the most powerful man in the First
Republic. There were many opportunities and
temptations to use that power for his own ends, but
he refused.
Ocampo relates a commentary by Mabini about the
revolution being a failure due to a bad
leadership, won by reprehensible rather than
meritorious acts; because instead of supporting the
men most useful to the people, he made them
useless out of jealousy. Identifying the
aggrandizement of the people with his own, he
judged the worth of men not by their ability,
character and patriotism but rather by their degree
of friendship and kinship with him; and anxious to
secure the readiness of his favorites to sacrifice
themselves for him, he was tolerant even of their
transgressions. Because he thus neglected the
people, they forsook him; and forsaken by the
people, he was bound to fall like a waxen idol
melting in the heat of adversity. God grant that we
do not forget such a terrible lesson, learnt at the
cost of untold suffering.
Mabini also said there was culture and virtue
demanded by public office and that nobody should
believe that one can serve his country with
honor and glory only from high office, and this is
an error which is very dangerous to the common
welfare; it is the principal cause of the civil wars
which impoverish and exhaust many states and
contributed greatly to the failure of the Revolution.
Only he is truly a patriot who, whatever his post,
high or low, tries to do the greatest possible good to
his countrymen. A little good done in a humble
position is a title to honor and glory, while it is a sign
of negligence or incompetence when done in high
office. True honor can be discerned in the simple
manifestations of an upright and honest soul, not in
brilliant pomp and ornament which scarcely serve
to mask the deformities of the body. True honor is
attained by teaching our minds to recognize truth,
and training our hearts to love it. The recognition of
truth shall lead us to the recognition of our duties
and of justice, and by performing our duties and
doing justice we shall be respected and honored,
whatever our station in life. Let us never forget that
we are on the first rung of our national life, and that
we are called upon to rise, and can go upward only
on the ladder of virtue and heroism. Above all let us
not forget that, if we do not grow, we shall have
died without ever having been great, unable to
reach maturity, which is proper of a degenerate
race.
Ocampo summed these with an opinion that it is not
history which repeats itself, but it is us, and that, we
havent change much over the century.
Election fraud at the Tejeros

Convention
Overview
A newspaper article regarding the Tejeros Convention,
particularly of how the first election, which led to Emilio Aguinaldo
becoming the first president of the Philippines, may have also
been seeped with corruption, and how we have hardly learned in
nearly 110 years since Bonifacios death.
Summary
th
110 death anniversary of Andres Bonifacio was
commemorated in 2007 with little fanfare; people prefer the idea
of how he began the Katipunan rather than how he died, branded
as a traitor by Aguinaldo, or executed in general.
At the time that the article was written, it was just about
time for the Senate elections, with a marked cynicism regarding
the whole election process, particularly because of the Hello
Garci tapes. Ambeth Ocampo argues that we havent learned
anything in the last 110 years as there were election irregularities
back in the very first election; the idea that cheating may have
occurred makes it difficult for teachers to teach that particular
section.
Whats regularly taught is that during the Tejeros
Convention, Emilio Aguianldo was voted president and Andres
Bonifacio had a tantrum, stormed out and later was executed.
Theres very little insight as to why he actually got pissed off, and
its not just because of being questioned about his qualifications
when he was elected to director of interior.
In the published memoirs of various participants, the
following events are clear:
The ballots that were passed out to be filled were

already filled out and not by the voters; this was pointed
out by Diego Mojica, but he was ignored
Aguinaldo won as President, Andres Bonifacio secured

the second larges number of votes
It was suggested that Bonifacio be elected VP, but this

too was ignored
Ambeth Ocampo wonders why there wasnt any motion
regarding the last suggestion, and why he wasnt voted as VP if
he garnered the second highest number of votes in Presidency.
Finally, why didnt anyone remark about the cheating in general?
First Case of dagdag-bawas

The tejeros convention could have possibly been the first election
with dagdag-bawas cheating scheme. The author of the opinion
just expressed that history is repeating itself and whats
happening in our country today might have already happened
long time ago during our heroes time.
Elections of 1897 - Emilio Aguinaldo was elected
president of a revolutionary government that replaced the
Katipunan. Our Founding Fathers also used ballots that were
manually filled out and counted. The men who met in the friar
estate house in Tejeros was a smaller group and the result of the
voting was presumably easier to canvass. What they did before
(but which we cannot do today) was to do things viva voce. After
electing some officials, including the president, they noticed that it
turned dark and since nobody wanted to stay up all night filling up
ballots and counting, they decided to dispense with the ballots.
Earlier some electors alleged that the ballots had already been
filled out prior to the election and not by the electors casting their
votes. Voting viva voce was not done literally, with electors
voicing out their votes. Neither did they raise their hands, which
can be difficult to count if you have an armed and rowdy group in
the hall.
Eyewitness accounts state that Bonifacio garnered the
second highest number of votes for president. A motion was
made to automatically declare Bonifacio vice president based on

the results, but nobody seconded the motion and nobody
objected, so ballots were cast again.
On March 23, 1897, the day after the Tejeros
Convention, 45 men met, discussed and signed an election
protest, or, at best, a move to declare a failure of elections.
If indeed there was cheating, it may be possible that
they had the original dagdag-bawas system. This however was
unverified and was hidden by history.
Andres Bonifacio: The Betrayal of a Hero

Alixander Escote
Andres Bonifacio y de Castro, the father of Philippine Revolution
and Philippine Democracy, was executed by firing squad by Gen
Lazaro Makapagal and four other soldiers at Mount Nagpatong,
Maragondon, Cavite on May 10, 1897.
According to Teodoro A Agoncillo and Milagros C Guerrero in the
History of the Filipino People, the katipuneros gathered around
a flickering table lamp, performed the ancient blood compact, and
signed their membership papers with their own blood. They
vowed to liberate the Philippines from the tyranny of Spanish
friars and civil guards through force of arms.
The Katipunan had three objectives: civic, moral, and political.
1.
2.
3.
Civic - revolved around the principle of self-help and

the defense of the poor and the oppressed.
Moral- for hygiene, good morals, good manners, and
attacking obscurantism and religious fanaticism.
Political - separation from Spain through force of arms.
August 23, 1896 SIGAW SA BALINTAWAK: Bonifacio asked

fellow katipuneros whether they were prepared to fight to the
bitter end. All katipuneros agreed to fight for freedom until their
last breath. As the men torn their cedulas, they shouted, Long
live the Philippines!
August 30, 1896- the first battle of the Philippine Revolution.
Leading 800 katipuneros, Bonifacio attacked a gunpowder
storehouse in San Juan del Monte. The storehouse was an
important military post of the Spanish army, but it was only
defended by a hundred men. Outnumbered, the Spaniards
retreated to El Deposito.
Bonifacio and his men advanced toward Manila where they met
an army of Spanish soldiers sent by Governor General Ramon
Blanco. Bonifacio and his men were driven to Mandaluyong
where more than 150 katipuneros died and another 200 others
were captured.
Months later, the Katipunan was divided into two revolutionary
groups:
1. Magdiwangs, which was headed by Bonifacio
2. Magdalos, which was headed by Gen Emilio Aguinaldo
To resolve the issue whether the Katipunan should be
superseded by another government, a revolutionary assembly
was conducted in Barrio Tejeros, Cavite March 22, 1897.
With Bonifacio as chairman, the assembly agreed that a central
revolutionary government should be established to replace the
Katipunan. He then reluctantly presided over the election and
secured the unanimous decision of the assembly to abide by the
decision of the majority.
General Aguinaldo was elected president although he was
absent because he was at the military front in Pasong Santol.
The Magdiwangs who were supposed to support Bonifacio did
not even vote for him for president or vice president. Instead,
Bonifacio was elected director of the interior.
Daniel Tirona challenged Bonifacios election, saying that
Bonifacios position must not be occupied by a non-lawyer. Tirona
nominated lawyer Jose del Rosario of Cavite to fill up the
position.
Bonifacio was furious and demanded apology from Tirona. He
then pulled out his revolver and took aim at Tirona. Instead of
replying, Tirona slid away and got lost in the crowd. Disorder
ensued as Artemio Ricarte, the convention secretary, tried to
disarm Bonifacio.
Deeply hurt and insulted, Bonifacio declared: I, as [the]
chairman of this assembly and as [the] President of the
Supreme Council of the Katipunan, as all of you do not deny,
declare this assembly dissolved, and I annul all that has
been approved and resolved.
The following day, Bonifacio and his men met again in Barrio
Tejeros and drafted the Acta de Tejeros where they expressed
their reasons for invalidating the results of the Tejeros
Convention.
They believed that the Magdalos manipulated the election though
all officers elected, except General Aguinaldo, were Magdiwang
members.
From Tejeros, Bonifacio and his men moved to Naic, Cavite as
far as possible from the Magdalos. President Aguinaldo sent him
a letter requesting him to cooperate with the new revolutionary
government. Bonifacio denied Aguinaldos request and refused to
collaborate with him. The purposes of Bonifacio reached
Aguinaldo, and on April 15, 1897, he ordered the arrest of
Bonifacio for alleged treason and sedition.
April 20, 1897- Bonifacio repudiated President Aguinaldos
revolutionary government through the Naic Military Agreement
that reasserted his leadership of the Katipunan and that drafted a
revolutionary army and government independent from President
Aguinaldo.
April 26, 1897- Bonifacio was arrested by Col Agapito Bonson
and Maj Jose Ignacio Paua, two loyal officers of President
Aguinaldo. They fought back. From Indang, a wounded and halfstarved Bonifacio was carried by hammock to Naic.
Tried by the Council of War, Bonifacio and his brother were found
guilty of the crimes of treason and sedition, of attempting a
counter-revolution, and of trying to overthrow President
Aguinaldo and his revolutionary government.
May 8, 1897- Bonifacio and his brother were sentenced to death
by execution though they were not given a fair trial to defend
themselves.
President Aguinaldo changed the sentence from execution to
banishment, but General Noriel pressured him to revoke his
order and to proceed with the execution.
May 10, 1897 - Gen Lazaro Makapagal with his soldiers moved
Bonifacio and his brother from a jail in Maragondon. When the
five soldiers and the Bonifacio brothers reached Mount
Nagpatong, General Makapagal, the two brothers were shot to
death. The soldiers dug a shallow grave to hide and bury the
corpses.
SOBRIETY FOR THE PHILIPPINES:

Sober, Wise, Objective Student of
Philippine and World History
Every November 30, we celebrate the father of the Revolution
Andres Bonifacio. Hes actually more celebrated than Jose Rizal
who is criticized to have been chosen by the Americans. Rizal
was chosen over the aggressive Bonifacio and the sublime
Mabini.
THE ANTI-COLONIAL NATIONAL HERO
According to Renato Constantino, Rizal was promoted
by the US government because he did not advocate
independence nor armed resistance. In sharp contrast to
Bonifacio, who started the KKK and sparked the armed
insurgence against the Spanish. For the part of the US, choosing
either Bonifacio or Mabini would run counter to their imperialist
motives.
SUPREMO OF THE FILIPINO REVOLUTIONARY
GOVERNMENT
Bonifacio in fact formed the first national government of
the natives when he formed the KKK with the intent that the
Spanish government be overthrown. The KKK was a militant
organization but was also a revolutionary government with a
bureaucratic framework and its own set of laws. This is recorded
as a fact by the US Library of Congress.
After the Katipunan launched the uprising, the Great
Plebian then set out to make the KKK a de facto revolutionary
government with the following positions and officers:
a. President founder of the Katipunan (Bonifacio)
b. Secretary of State Emilio Jacinto
c. Secretary of War Teodoro Plata
d. Interior Aguado del Rosario
e. Justice Briccio Pantas
f.
Secretary of Finance Enrique Pacheco
Although people try to downplay Bonifacios significance, present
evidence suggests, that Bonifacio was truly the first president of
the revolutionary government.
The various evidence include documents that survived with
letterheads showing that Bonifacio had the title Supreme
President, Government of the Revolution. However the strongest
evidence is non-partisan writing of historian Jose M. del Castillo
who wrote in his El Katipunan or El Filibusterismo en Filipinas,
that Bonifacio won the first national elections. This is
corroboration by an issue of La Ilustracion Espanola y
Americana where Bonifacios picture was printed captioned that
he was president.
PAG-IBIG SA TINUBUANG LUPA
th
The Bonifacio Day of 2008 is his 145 birth anniversary. He might
not have been too effective in the battlefield, but it was his
organizational genius that paved the way for our countrys
independence. His love for our country can be seen in his poem
Pag-big sa Tinubuang Lupa.
The poem was published in the first and only issue of the
Katipunan publication, Kalayaan and it was adapted into music
during martial law years. The poem has the following
characteristics:
It calls for nationalism from within.
He laments the suffering of his people and the loss of

pride of his race.
It deems love for country as the purest and noblest form

of love.
COMMENTS IN THE SITE
As stated in the syllabus, Sir Lynch deemed the

comments of the readers important. There are two general
sentiments residing in the comments, represented by two people,
one Jesusa Bernardo and one using a username withonepast.
First, it is necessary to note that neither side contests the fact
that Bonifacio was murdered by Emilio Aguinaldo. To proceed,
withonepasts contention is that according to the Glen May
thesis, Bonifacios image was reinvented. In truth, he was
allegedly a failure in battles, the wins belonging to Aguinaldo in
Cavite. He was also allegedly not poor and hung around with
elite people to.
Jesusa Bernardo countered saying that it was actually
Emilio who was reinvented if anybody. She countered also saying
that if Aguinaldo was indeed the hero, why did the people
repudiate him in the 1935 elections. Regarding Bonifacios status,
she contends that indeed he was not poor and belonged to the
middle class. However, unlike Aguinaldo, Bonifacio cared for the
poors interests while Aguinaldo cared for the elites. She cited
sources saying that the Tejeros convention was a ploy to lure
Bonifacio to Cavite in order to kill him because he wanted to
distribute lands to the poor which Aguinaldo couldnt allow. She
stated further that the murder of General Antonio Luna because
he didnt jive with the unpatriotic aims of Aguinaldo is similar to
the murder of Bonifacio.
In the end, withonepast stands by the truth of the Glen
May thesis further stating that it was simply a translation of the
work of Agoncillo. He reiterated that Bonifacio was killed because
of his battle losses.
Jesusas final words stated that Glen Mays thesis was
baseless and the peoples dislike of Aguinaldo was proven when
Quezon was able to demolish him in the presidential bid. Lastly,
assuming arguendo that indeed Bonifacio lost battles, it doesnt
justify a heros murder.
Philippine Studies: Have We Gone

Beyond St. Louis?
Priscelina Patajo-Legasto
Overview: The article serves as an introduction to the collection
of essays that is said do away with the traditional and
contemporary orientalist views which look at our history and
culture in the eyes and standards of the West. The article points
out the common definitions of Philippine Studies and puts forward
a novel definition which includes a new point of view different
from the Western. In the end, the new definition combined with
the new point of view answers questions we have been asking
from long before without perpetuating the colonialist attitudes that
have been so instilled in us.
SUMMARY
How can Philippine Studies be defined?
In terms of its object of inquiry?
In terms of its methodology?
The problem with defining Philippine Studies in terms of
methodology is that are too many approaches.
On the other hand, defining Philippine Studies according to its
object of inquiry makes it encompass:
All studies on the Philippines
All studies by Filipinos.

PROBLEM WITH INCLUDING ALL STUDIES ON THE
PHILIPPINES
Including all studies done on the Philippines as part of
the definition of Philippine Studies is problematic because it will
include studies, discourses, and etc. that wittingly or unwittingly
re-inscribe American colonial critical frameworks for studying the
Philippines. Ileto points out that in certain texts, the American
colonial discourse puts forward the analysis that the Spanish

colonial period was a dark age replaced by the enlightened
American age and that Filipinos were juvenile and that Filipinos
needed to be governed by the Americans and the ilustrados.
This kind of American colonial discourses continues to in effect
legitimize the imperial project of Americans in the Philippines.
Including this kind of work in the definition of Philippine Studies is
inherently problematic because of the positions they took in
interpreting Philippine political history.
The St. Louis Worlds Fair was a crowning display of
American imperial which was based, framed, and justified by
such orientalist discourses. However, even the meaning of
orientalism has changed. Before, orientalism saw the difference
of Western man and his non-Western other as intrinsic, basic,
and generic. Contemporary orientalist discourses point that the
difference is the non-Western mans lack of access to the right
cultural influences (i.e. Christianity and Western Democracy)
The question then remains, have we gone beyond St. Louis?
PROBLEM ON INCLUDING ALL STUDIES DONE BY
FILIPINOS
Considering without question all studies produced by
Filipinos as part of Philippine Studies is basically problematic
because not all Filipinos promote the liberalization of Filipinos
from the traditional colonialist, classic orientalist, or contemporary
orientalist views.
Orientalism can be seen in the works of Filipinos like
Jessica Hagedorns Dogeaters. The term dogeaters refer to
Filipinos who eat Western mans best friend. In the novel of Eric
Gamalinda entitled My Sad Republic, the masses are
represented as gullible, simple minded and superstitious while
the Americans and the landlords are the voices of reason. Even
some studies on Philippine theater evaluated Philippine theater
using Western standards stating that the Philippine practice of
theater in English is in a very sorry state. It is still being done now
through textbooks on Philippine literature, art, theater and
popular culture by Filipino scholars, academics, book writers who
use the Western standard to judge OUR own texts.
Philippine studies is therefore not just about the subject, whether
it is simply about the Philippines and Filipinos. Neither is
Philippine Studies just about the person who conducts the study,
whether he or she is a Filipino or not.
Philippine Studies should be about a critical perspective,
a perspective called a postcolonial position. It can be produced
by Filipinos or non-Filipinos alike just as long as they have the
Philippines or the Filipinos best interest at heart. It must be
underpinned by a postcolonial perspective which criticizes how
we have been and continue to be constructed as Europe or
Americas ontological other. Through this, we attempt through
our studies on the Philippine social formation, Philippine cultural
practices, ideological apparatus and on the Filipinos, to make
whole our fractured and deformed identities in order to create
new identities.
Philippine Studies can be both critical and affirmative. It
can critique how we are always treated as Americas other. It
can critique how Western discourses defined and continue to
define what can be called, civilization, culture, nation, history,
literature, art and science. It can also critique how the West is
treated as the standard in terms of identity construction, and
nation-formation.
Philippine Studies can therefore focus on:
g. The works of minorities
h. The texts being produced that address the effects
of the cultural simultaneity of our complex realities
or the uneven development of interlocking modes of
production.
The first part includes essays mainly about the practices of
Filipinos who lived or are living in the islands. The second part
are essays that address the problems of Filipinos regarding the

blatant prejudices articulated in the American media and court
official documents.
Despite the diversity of topics, the common threat
between all the essays is that they attempt to answer the
following questions:
What is Philippine about our sociocultural practices?
Who is the Filipino?
What are the specificities of nationalism for different
groups of Filipinos?
How are we going to make the lives of Filipinos better,
more humane in the Philippines and in the different
Filipino communities in the diaspora?
The essays try to follow the perspectives that we need.
Perspectives that look at what we have and what we are, not
through colonial myopic lenses but through critical postcolonial
frames that are sensitive to the genealogies of even our current
practices, texts and identities.
CONLCUSION
Philippine Studies, as a mode of interdisciplinary inquiry about
the Philippines and Filipinos, should include all those discourses
which, through a critique of Western hegemony and an
affirmation of our own hitherto marginalized cultural practices, are
able to help us problematize and redefine the following:
VII. Who Filipinos are
VIII. What is Philippine about Philippine cultural practices
IX. What direction should we, as a people, including those
in the Filipino diaspora take to liberate ourselves
from the legacies of Spanish and American
colonialist discourses and the continuing power of
Western Hegemony.
Splintering Identity: Modes of Filipino

Resistance
Bienvenido Lumbera
T he republic of the Philippines was a fragile identity.

-
1898, it was internally racked by conflict among the leaders

of the revolution (ilustrados vs nationalist).
in the Treaty of Paris the Philippines took no part in the
negotiations.
the American campaign erases the identity of the republic.
the resistance lost its power when Aguinaldo was captured
by the Americans in Palanan, Isabela. From then on, we only
had scattered groups, losing battles and intrepid individuals.
insurrection was actually a war between a fledging republic
and a higher industrialized nation.
Splintering the Republic
Aguinaldo allowed himself to be taken in by American

protestation of friendship.
Defections to the American side were induced by surrender

and collaboration by elite leaders from Aguinaldos cabinet.
Execution of Macario Sakay (supremo of republika ng

Katagalugan) put an end to organized armed resistance.
The Philippine Assembly was US colonialisms alleged

concession t the peoples agitation for immediate
independence; represented by dominant and leading
families, elected by only 3% of the population. Another part
of American design to splinter our identity
Education was also used to splinter the identity. The English

language policy degraded other languages of our country
into mere dialects or vernaculars.
The colonial govt enacted laws that punished any assertion

by its supporters of the identity of the republic.
1. Sedition Law against those who take the side of
the republic against colonial govt.
2. Bandolerismo Statute prohibited membership in
any armed band.
3. Reconcentration Act of 1903 authorized the
relocation of cover for rebels in the countrytire rural
communities into towns to deny cover for rebels in
the countryside.
4. Flag Law of 1907 prohibited display of flags,
banners and emblems that might incite insurrection
or rebellion against the US.
St Louis Exposition of 1904 grand material display of the

wealth and power of USA. In the international exhibit, the
Philippine ethnic tribes were brought there to show the world
thatUSA has not taken over an integral state, but rather a state of
savages.
MODES of FILIPINO RESISTANCE
1.
2.
3.
4.
Theater
Teodoro agoncillo Kahapon Ngayon at Bukas
Aurelio Tolentino Ynangbayan
Juan Matapang Cruz Hindi ako Patay
Juan Abad Tanikalang Guinto
Music
Nicanor Abelardo - Mutya ng Pasig
Lakangbini zarzuela about Bonifacios wife
Poetry
De Jesus - Sa Dakong Silangan
Amado Hernandez - Kung Tuyo na Ang Luha mo aking
Bayan
Balagtasan: Mga Lagot na Bagting ng Kudyapi
Fiction
Lope K Santos - Banaag at Sikat
Faustino Aguilar Pinaglahuan
Lazaro Fransisco Bayang Nagpatiwakal
Of Strongmen and the State

Caroline Hau
Overview
A discussion of the role of strongmen and the influence
they have over the formation of the concept of the State.
Intro:
John Sidel reintroduced the word local boss in his
book Capital, Coercion and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines, to
give a term to a criminal that also engages in Philippine politics;
his principal argument is that it is a boss that ultimately serves as
the inspiration for the creation of a states identity. To contrast his
theory of Bossism, Patricio Abinales Making Mindano: Cotabato
and Davao in the Formation of the Philippine Nation-State
theorizes that the history of a region is that which makes the
State.
Sidel concentrates on the idea that Philippine bosses of
th
th
th
the early 20 are similar to that of 19 to early 20 century
American politics. Abinales highlights the distinctive character of
American policies on the administration of Mindano and the
specific role of the American military in the creation and
metamorphosis of the state in that region; he further emphasizes
the impact that the state had in delineating communal and social
difference between the Muslims and non-Muslims.
Both books are deeply informed by issues and debates
within the discipline of American political science especially
theoretical approaches to the discussion of non-Western political

formations. Furthermore, they both emphasize the role of the
state in determining the nature of local and national politics.
Debate about the idea of a state:
The concept of the state in the 1980s was challenged
by globalization and post-Fordism. There also occurred an
intellectual shift within the social sciences that led to a
questioning of political power and its bases. In particular, French
thinker Michel Foucault criticized theories of the state for their
failure to account for the diffusion of power and its decentralized
manifestations. Niklas Luhmann argued that political systems
could not be considered apart from their function systems in a
given society. Generally, the state was considered to be too
simplistic to examine the complex relations occurring inside a
country.
In response, Peter Evans, Dietrich Rueschmeyere and
Theda Skocpol made a case for a state-centered approach,
which would treat states as actors and analyze how states
affected political and social processes through their policies and
their patterned relationships with social groups.
Debates on political power were beset with their own
problems when they were posed specifically to non-Western
states. The Philippines, for example, was subject to colonial rule,
and its postcolonial national goal was dominated by
modernization and development. The condition was to basically
obtain recognition in the international arena to the point that the
idea of a state was taken for granted.
Max Weber
His basic explanation for state formation was through
determining the role of cultural systems. For example, because of
Confucianism, capitalism was frustrated from growing in the
country. However, he tended to downplay the involvement of
culture in the rise of the modern state in Europe.
Weber felt that the most basic characteristic of the
modern state is that it is non-cultural or able to separate itself
from the influence of the previous cultural systems. This is
problematic since rationality can be considered a cultural
practice, and culture itself can be seen as a crucial component to
the definition and mode of operations of the state.
He does raise the idea of charisma in his analysis of
modern states though. Charisma represents an alternative way of
legitimizing the fact of domination, but is also radically opposed
to economic or instrumentalist rationality. It can therefore be the
basis for founding of a new state form; this is, however, much
more common in earlier state forms. This has led to analyzing
Western states as rational states where as non-Western states
are explained through their immersion in cultural systems.
Differences in the approaches of Sidel and Abinales
Their choice of strongmen shows the idea of political
strongmen forging a necessary link between state and society.
For both, the strongman is part of society and does not exist
apart from the state; formation does not develop separately from
the rise of strongmen, but lays the groundwork for the emergence
of strongmen and the conslidation of strongman power.
Sidel singles out the criticism on Philippine politics that
reduce it to utang na loob or reciprocal relations. He
concentrates on patterns of political domination and capital
accumulation. The term boss does not attest to the American
colonial pedigree of the political strongmen but also the coercive
pressure that bosses exert on people as they monopolize
economic and political power. In order to access state resources,
a boss uses coercive powers at the local level and a network of
sub-bosses.
Abinales engages the question of culture as being
critical in studying Mindanao. He dismisses that the conflict in
Mindanao is the result of religious and cultural differences,

because it hardly constitutes a tie among the Muslim groups.
Moro identity was nurtured during the colonial period when they
allowed the datus to retain and transform their power standing in
that education allowed them to grow to be self-conscious of an
ethno-religio-political identity.
Because of the imposition of American rule, datus saw
their power narrowed and redefined by American set boundaries
such that the strongmen were made to conform to basic
conventions of governance. The datu was thus made into a
middleman, turning into a states representative to coerce
communities to comply with state directives.
Re: Violence
Sidel seeks a relatively strong, predatory state, with
bosses enjoying discretionary powers over pork barrel funds and
can influence the awarding of contracts. This idea is largely
pessimistic over political reality; his view is such that the
charismatic leaders described by Weber did really exist in the
earlier parts of Philippine history, and where post-Spanish rule,
power was gained through violence and competitive elections.
Sidel thus sees violence as a feature of the strongmans power.
Abinales downplays the rule of violence, stating that
electoral violence is rather low compare to the general, everyday
violence in Muslim provinces. He explain that the huge increase
in the population of Davao made competition for land extremely
keen and created tension between indigenous groups. The limits
to strongman rule became apparent as a generational divide
began to separate the Muslim politicos and the younger Muslim
intellectuals.
Sidel sees Cavietes long historical standing as a hotbed
of criminal activity as the epitome of the concept of bossism.
However, this is problematic considering that the Osmena family
used media and propaganda to build their reputations and
advance their political agenda, and never gained wealth through
political office. They are actually best studied through cultural
analysis. He sees them, however, as an extreme on the spectrum
of bossism.
Conclusion
Sidels idea of bossism, where he both subordinates the
state and makes it a predatory instrument for his own ambitions
is pessimistic, but are highly evinced in that the political killings
were all conceived by boss figures.
Abinales, in contrast, shows that despite the activities of
the strongmen, social forces can dispute their agenda, making
people feel and find themselves on the cusp of historical
transformation.
A Nation Searching for a Language

Finds a Language
Searching for a Name
Isagani Cruz
Overview
The article traces the origins of the Filipino language,
and its distinctions from pure Tagalog, Manila Tagalog and
Pilipino.
Summary
Pure Tagalog originated in Bulacan and Tayabas (now
Quezon), where it is still being widely used and with a distinct
accent that those who come from Manila (or other regions) dont
actually notice. Structurally, Manila Tagalog can be described as
a dialect of Tagalog but this does not find real world application it
has too many words, sentence and paragraph structure, verb
declensions etc that are derived from the English language, while
still retaining a lot from pure Tagalog.
Taglish is derived from Manila Tagalog, and is described

by linguists as the Tagalog of the future primarily because it is
perceived by the linguistics-illiterate as conforming to no known
or knowable rules. Nonetheless, many find Taglish to be of
dubious value.
Pilipino, on the other hand, could probably be best
described as School Tagalog. This existed for exactly 27 years by
executive fiat of the Department of Education in 1959 and was
terminated by the Aquino government in 1987 because Filipino
was then declared as the national language. Pilipino served a
function in that there was a Bilingual Education policy where
some subjects were to be taught in English while the rest were to
be taught in Pilipino; hardly any of the schools didnt follow this
because most schools preferred to use their dialect or it was
easier to continue teaching the subjects in English. In any case,
hardly anyone actually really spoke Pilipino
Filipino was created in 1971. In contrast to Pilipino,
Filipino has a large number of supporters, particularly from
teachers and scholars in various universities extending their
support via translation and original work.
Because of the rise of Filipino, Tagalog itself has
become irrelevant to most Taglish-speaking children today, what
with the linguistic difference not being that large, but large
th
enough such that it can be compared to 18 century English, and
todays English. Tagalog has not completely disappeared, but it
has stopped playing a vital role in the hegemonic or politically
central parts of the nation.
Pilipino, on the other hand, is probably going to stay in
the archives of linguistic history, being argued about whether or
not it was really Tagalog misspelled; compare that when the 1986
Con Comm was called, the adoption of Filipino as the national
language was hardly argued about whereas it was heavily
debated in the 1971-72 Constitutional Convention.
Although the Cebuano government passed a resolution
banning the use of Filipino in government offices and schools,
this seems to have become irrelevant in the long run since
Filipino movies are shown daily in Cebu, with hardly anyone
demanding Cebuano subtitles.
Consequently, Filipino will probably stay as the national
language for a long time, most especially since the structure for
both Tagalog and Pilipino have been built up on for the basis of
Filipino. Its usage has also become very widespread, especially
since most universities have their campuses in Metro Manila,
leading the spread of Filipino to continue.
It is unreasonable to argue that with the growth of
Filipino communities in other countries, the language will spread
significantly. It is also become a respectable language for polite
conversation at the highest levels of society, with the President
usually discussing important issues with the use of Taglish. More
important, however, is that imaginative writing has had great
advances through the use of writing. Consequently, it is not
unimaginable that the language has become a modern language
in every sense of the world, capable of dealing with anything that
the twenty-first century can hurl at us.
Another World is Possible: Cultural

Studies and Critical Filipino Resistance
by: Jeffrey Arellano Cabusao
Comment: The article is a compilation of very hyfaluting words
and sentences. The entirety of the article doesnt seem to have
any significant point. It simply cites an article titled Racism and
Cultural Studies extensively while making the simple point at the
end that we are still being discriminated and oppressed at the
present time and this kind of discrimination can be attributed to
the capitalism and nationalism that is inherent in the United
States. The title gives away what the author wants to impart, that

through resistance of the oppression and discrimination, we can
hope for a better world.
Instead of trying to paraphrase, it would be better to simply just
outline the article since all the author did was to simply put
numerous examples and laid out very few points.
SUMMARY
I.MAPPING REALITIES, MAPPING NEW POSSIBILITIES
Amy Kaplans speech entitled Violent Beginnings and
the Question of Empire Today is still relevant today in the field of
Philippine Studies in light of the recent events of the US
occupying Iraq. These events call to mind those that happened in
Vietnam, and even earlier, the US occupation of the Philippines.
Over a million Filipinos were killed then. The kidnapping of
Angelo de la Cruz and the Subic rape case shows the severity of
the consequences of neocolonial dependence on the US.
Filipinos in the US are constantly subjected to racial
indeterminacy. They are asked what they are and where they
really come from. The racial slur in Desperate Housewives
occurred at a moment of intensified racism just as 30,000
Filipinos were about to be deported.
In 2002, Colin Powell used the Abu Sayaaf bandit group
to justify the deployment of thousands of US troops to the
Philippines. The democracy that the US claims to protect in
return annihilates the Philippine movement for genuine national
sovereignty.
II. ON THE ACADEMIC FRONT: PHILIPPINE STUDIES
CONFRONTING US EMPIRE AND RACISM
Philippine scholars have responded to the US Empire
not only by talking back but by critically examining the
consequences of the Empire on the lives of Filipinos. Filipino
Americans in the US have yearned to learn classic works on
Filipino experiences thus the demand for courses and programs
related to it increased. Demand for certain works also were great
such as the two-volume set of Amerasia Journal titled Essays
into American Empire in the Philippines.
Early 1998, an explosive protest was staged in
response to granting the fiction book prize award to a Japanese
American Lois Ann Yamanaka for her novel Blus Hanging. The
novel allegedly reinforces dehumanizing racial and sexual
stereotypes of Filipinos in Hawaii. The controversy regarding the
novel is a symptom of a deeper issue regarding marginalization
of Filipinos in the field of Asian American Studies manifested in
the following ways:
a. Second class status of Filipino American Studies
within Asian American Studies
b. Lack of opportunities for Filipino Academics and
writers to publish their work
c. Lack of hiring and easy firing of Filipino American
scholars
d. Lack of engagement in the issues of Filipino
language, culture, community, identity, and politics.
However despite the marginalization, the Filipino
American scholars continue to produce groundbreaking works
that put forward fresh interdisciplinary approaches and creative
forms of resistance.
In 2004, a group of progressive Filipino American
scholars and students at San Francisco State were banned from
attending a banquet dinner for GMA at the California public
university. The repression of academic freedom reminds us of the
blacklisting of progressive Filipinos who spoke truth to power
during the McCarthy era. Massive human rights abuses have
taken place under the Bush-supported Arroyo administration.
There is a connection between the racialization of Filipinos in the
US and the political repression in the Philippines. The Critical
Filipino Studies Collective stated that there is kinship between the
torture, domestic welfare and human rights violations in the
Philippines and in the US.
III. CRITICAL BALIKBAYAN INTERVENTIONS: RETHINKING

OUR NEW TIMES-NEW POLITICS
Amy Kaplan deems the creation of alternative
methodological approaches one of the most pressing issues for
American Studies in this age of US Empire. This is done through
analyzing the interplay of templates between US racial codes and
colonial Orientalism. E. San Juan Jr.s Racism and Cultural
Studies can be used.
San Juan encourages us to reclaim the dynamic Marxist
traditions of theorizing the connection between cultural
production and the struggle for radical social transformation. This
alternative methodology shifts us from the reified notions of
difference to a dialectical regrounding in which difference is
conceived as difference within a material system of exploitation.
This enables San Juan to bring to the fore the importance of
analyzing the dynamics by which difference is historically
produced and reproduced within class society. We must struggle
for a radically transformed society in which difference will no
longer be produced by racialized and gendered divisions of labor
but instead genuine differences would emerge.
One of the main goals of San Juans work is to confront
how racism is naturalized through US nationalism. San Juan puts
forward that the US state is a racial-socioeconomic formation and
that racism is used by them as an international political force. The
underlying assumption is that race and class are intertwined and
that racially categorized groups are exploited as workers and
oppressed as colonized peoples.
The premise of RCS is that the US nation-state is a
racial polity. Within the polity, racism and white supremacy
functions as the principles of the division of labor and unequal
distribution of resources and wealth. This racial divide is built into
the structure of US society. By understanding the development of
racism and white supremacy in US capitalism, we can know how
to transform it.
San Juan reminds us that contemporary global
capitalism produces and utilizes difference to reproduce itself as
a system of exploitation. Capitalism has always reinforced class
divisions with divisions based on race, ethnicity, and other forms
of ascription. Transnational Corporations are cunningly avoiding
any sort of accountability to any nation while our OCWs are
exploited all around the globe.
San Juan tells that we must understand the process by
which the US nation-state develops in the context of the historical
development of global capitalism. Also, we must then
comprehend how US nationalism functions as the ideology that
produces and reproduces racialized class exploitation.
Ultimately, RCS argues that for a radical structural transformation
of our racist class society, what is needed is an overhaul of the
social division of labor and legally sanctioned property relations.
IV. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CULTURAL STUDIES
Cultural studies must engage current movements for
social justice both here and abroad. By aligning and committing
itself with building mass movements for radical social
transformation, cultural studies (CS) will be able to challenge how
it has been institutionalized by the corporatized academy and
eventually claim its historic responsibility. Marx reminds us that it
is within site of culture that the oppressed begin to challenge their
dehumanizing conditions.
Third world peoples must play a central role in
developing social movements for justice. Cultural studies The
dialectical interaction between organized forms of resistance
within the Filipino Diaspora and the progressive mass movement
for genuine Philippine national sovereignty will ensure the
development of collective Filipino agency.
RCS offers timely critiques and suggestions for
advancing a unique methodology of the oppressed. In order to
grasp the complexity of our marginalization on the academic

front, we must sustain a global mapping of the US Empire while
simultaneously continuing to nurture a global mapping of our
collective strategies of resistance. We should all critique the roles
of white supremacy, racism and US nationalism in the process by
which global capitalism and oppression wreaks havoc in our daily
lives.
Dogeating/Dogeaters: Abjection in
Philippine Colonial and Neocolonial
Discourse
Rolando B. Tolentino
Summary: This is an essay which aims to discuss the dichotomy

between the colonized and the colonizer in terms of their
positions. It is said that upon the interlocution of the colonizer, the
affect tendency of the colonized is abjection. He further
elaborates on the position of this abjection in demarcating the
colonizer from the colonized. He relates that the tendency of the
colonized is to retain the position of internal usefulness
(nationalism) and to make do with those that are enforced from
the outside, which is the power utilized by the colonizer to
collapse the inside-outside boundary. One illustration is dogeating, which is used as an activation field in establishing
abjection. In his view, the abject position did not always
function to keep the people in their proper colonial place.
Important Points:
- HOMI BHABHA: There is a terrain of colonialist discourse
where the colonizer and colonized meet for incorporation,
resistance, and subversion of each others otherness and
differences. For him, the divide allows for fluidity between the
two, the colonized aims for reversal of positions, while the
colonizer aims for a process of equivalence. For instance, dogeating can both be a site to complicity when necessary, or
otherwise to critique, when vital.
- Dogeating. This practice emasculates the practices of the
colonized. While this initially pertains to a single dogeater, it
triples to a mass of people belonging to a dog-eating class,
sooner racialized and exceptionalized, until the act becomes a
national disenfranchisement from the Western standards, as
the author used, from the Westerns production of knowledge.
Thus the binary divide is created the same way a woman
differs from a man, an impure from someone pure.
Conquista not only a forcible occupation of a territory

but also the act of winning someones voluntary submission and
consequently attaining his or her love and affection.
Conversion the act of changing a thing into
something else, can be a process of crossing into the domain of
someone else and claiming it as own
Traduccion translation. One who translates is said
to express in one language what has been written or previously
expressed in another.
Eating Dogmeat as a Practice
Part of the rituals of the indigenous peoples like the

Igorots in Northern Luzon
Part of inuman as pulutan - inuman being a social act,

which is ritual of belonging or affirming belongingness to
a group of community
Inuman blurs social and political boundaries between

the datu and the members of his community as they
drink from the same cup and latecomers are allowed to
catch up with the amount of liquor, everyone drinks in
fairly equal amounts, facilitated by the taga-tagay, who
also acts as the Bangka of stories.
Why do Filipinos drink? Edilberto Alegre answers

thus:
a) We are expected to. The drinking session is a social act
and it carries expectations and initiation. In some places
women should not drink, in others it is unisex
b) It is a deviation from the usual flow of life. Bakhtin says
that this inuman provides a carnival respite in its ability to
disrupt the homogenizing forces of daily economic
production but, more significantly, is an opportunity for a
renewal of the self in society.
On civilization:
- JULIA KRISTEVA: ABJECTION is an extremely strong feeling

which is at once somatic and symbolic, and which is above all
a revolt of the person against an external menace from which
one wants to keep oneself at a distance, but of which one has
the impression that it is not only an external menace but that it
may menace from the inside. This is likewise a desire for
separation, for becoming autonomous and also the feeling
of an impossibility of doing so.
- Hegemony. To enforce civilization is to strive for a hegemonic
moment, where the colonizer bases on play and antagonism of
coercion and consent. Civilization demands that the savage is
to be contained through the production of the hegemonic
moment. But, the colonizer is as well fearing a sharing of its
system to the colonized which could break down the colonial
logos and create a subversive tool for the colonized. The main
thrust is the lifting of the colonized from savagery to civilization,
and to effect this, the colonizer also has to absorb the
language and culture of the savage into its own domains.
- VICENTE RAFAEL: notes that the words, conquista,
conversion, and traduccion are semantically related.
The pulutan acts as one of the agents of the carnival

within the inuman, because boredom is kept away by
the pulutan..xxx.. Pleasure comes from a multiplicity of
causes: the drink, the pulutan, the company, the talk
Humane-ness signifies the attitude shown toward

dogs and other pets as reworkings of the originary
notion of humanity that never fully transpired in the
enlightenment project and which shifts tolerance away
from human issues of race, ethnic, gender, sexuality,
and generational differences.
Humanity becomes the homogenizing frame that
guides the civilized to stake a claim in the colonization of
the uncivilized.
The colonized are still being continuously processed for
integration into the First World developmentalism
through transnationalization and the global division of
labor. (e.g. third world women perceived as mail-order
brides, domestic helpers, workers in factories)
The colonizer projects difference as wide and
irreconcilable in order to indefinitely conquer the native.
The native is dehistoricized and desocialized from
having to achieve a sense of identity.
Internal Dichotomy and the position of Food:
taga-bayan vs. taga-bukid/taga-bundok
local elites assimilated the culture of colonial power by a

penchant for the food of the civilized and the reproach
against Andres Bonifacio
Benevolent Assimilation
White Mans Burden this is when McKinley allegedly

knelt for his lack of plans about the Philippines
On 1929, there were 80,000 Filipinos given entrance to
work in the US, for jobs related to food production, i.e.
asparagus picking, salmon fishing, etc.
However, after 1935, they are encouraged to go back to
the Philippines for three reasons:
a. Economic they provide cheaper labor which the

natives cannot compete with
b. Health they brought meningitis and other dangerous
diseases
c. Intermarriage there will be 40,000 half-bred
Californians before ten years
These three appeal to the subhuman characterization

of Filipinos, that the anti-imperialist movement has
mentioned for fear that if their race intermarries with an
inferior one, there will be a produce of sub-quality
laborers
There were signs posted POSITIVELY NO FILIPINOS
ALLOWED and NO DOGS AND FILIPINOS
ALLOWED where the subhuman is even reduced to
the category of an animal
Going back to food.
The idea of Philippine cuisine has been erased in the

politics of dogeaters/dogeating and other foods. The
exotic is the gap the colonizer needs to function into
which the colony is thrown.
For Third World countries, Western validation of
food, culture and politics is a necessary passport to
prosperity.
Jessica Hagedorns novel, Dogeaters.
reworks dogeating as emancipatory
Introduction to Sir Lynchs Dissertation

Overview
A discussion on how the laws left by the Spanish and the
American regimes have ultimately led to our problems regarding
land reform, in that its not happening at all.
Social Contract of the Philippine Republic:
When the Americans left the Philippines, they declared
that sovereignty resided in the citizens rather than those who
ruled, which was completely different from colonialism.
This idea was mostly clearly espoused by John Locke,
who believed that prior to the formation of nation-states, humans
were rational beings who lived in naturally formed communities.
As communities grew, they became more diverse, leading to
political turmoil; it was thus in the self-interest to enter into a
social contract. It is this that is the basis of a democratic republic.
The 1935 Constitution largely mirrors the American
constitution, which also meant that political and economic elites
who profited under American rule could continue doing so. This
thus leads to the question of when there was any substantive
democratic reconstitution of the Philippine state which actually
reflected the needs of the entire citizenry: really, its just the 1987
Constitution. However, it doesnt really promote a substantive or
democratic restructuring of the Philippine state more so since its
legitimacy has continued to be challenged by insurgency, the
majority of which is supported by the poverty stricken.
LE DOUEFF: Positive attributions of humanism may

prove emancipatory for the experiences of layered
abjection.
Aspects of humanism: generality and dispersal
Generality - humankind
Dispersal humankind is scattered in
persons
Based on mutual respect and reciprocity, communities
are far more enabled to construct notions of themselves
both individually and collectively
As neocolonialism grapples with the language of the
uncivilized and woman, internalizing that which it seeks
to create as an exoticization of otherness, the
uncivilized and the feminine resist this internalization,
becoming sites of contention for meanings, sites for
adventurous wanderings.
Nationalism and the Philippine Peoples

State-sanction usurpation is often legitimated in the
name of nationalism, often that Filipino exploitation is preferable
to exploitation by foreigners. This particular shortcoming was
highlighted by James Fallows, who held that public life in the
Philippines had become the war of every man for himself
Closing remarks
In Clitoridectomy, women are abjected within the

abjectionable form of neocolonialism, neocolonial pain
and suffering are reproduced within the reproductive
bodies of women in perceiving women as neocolonial
sex machines.
The abject and the abjection such as in

dogeating/dogeaters intersect these sites, where a
burst of beauty may overwhelm us, surging forth new
economies of meaning to arise and enabling other
voices to speak.
The Regalian Doctrine

The doctrine states that the Crowns of Castille and
Aragon usurped the sovereign rights of the people over the land,
such that everyone became squatters. The only way to reacquire
sovereignty was to get it back from the colonial usurpers, a
process that still remains exceptionally difficult if not impossible.
This doctrine still theoretically undergirds the Philippine state, but
seems to only permeate the thinking of the legal profession
This seems to undermine the indigenous cultures and
heritages of the country and ultimately leads to political instability
and a chronic identity crisis. Because of this, there exists a
disdain for indigenous Philippine cultures that is exacerbated by
the ethnocentrism of the Spanish and American colonists.
Consequently, a recurring theme in Philippine land law is the
failure of the state to recognize and protect customary property
rights.
The doctrine is a perfect marginalization tool, as it
provides an exceptionally convenient pretext for the state to
ignore property rights based on long-term occupancy and
possession.
The public domain is home to approximately one third of
the national population, leading to them being called squatters,
destroyers of natural resources; they arent even classified as
human beings by the DENR. Those who live in the public domain
are basically invisible peoples, who have been arbitrarily
displaced.
a) Philippine Dream Feast. Dogeating becomes the object of

the feast and as such, the dogeaters become the object of
the Wests spectacle.
b) Sweet and Sour. Dulls the emancipatory potential of the
novel, as both tastes work to dichotomize the attempts
(sweet) from the actual (sour)

because of a poor sense of nationalism. Although he was both
criticized and praised for his ideas, none of the criticism pointed
out that he had merely described a symptom rather than the
underlying problem.
Amadno Dornila identified the problem as that the
economic character of Philippine nationalism was that it was
used by urban middle class interest to promote elite interests,
where the rural masses have been bypassed, therefore having
little relevance outside of Metro Manila. Suppressing or ignoring
many small but authentic communities formed the states identity.
These studies just highlighted the growing
marginalization of the rural majority. A strong sense of land
ownership, utilization and availability of land, and yield determine
native social and political behavior more than does any influence
from Manila or abroad. Colonists and their local collaborators
labeled those who resisted colonial imposition as bandits,
ignoramuses, heretics, lunatics and failures.
Ignorance and the Legal Elites
The legal profession has a very strong sense of disdain
and indifference towards indigenous cultures Although they
continue to have profound powers over policy making, hardly
anyone has yet to produce any critique of state laws and policies
which pertain to land rights and any other important legal issues.
Nor have they engaged in public efforts to conceptualize
alternatives to the current state or to even study the legal history.
Nothing has been done in the filed of Philippine law and
economics or law and politics.
Consequently, the undemocratic origins and underlying
principles of laws are not known or understood by many policy
makers. This ignorance leads to a total absence of any debate as
to regarding laws from the colonial era. Its such that law students
are trained to view legal norms and processes uncritically and to
never question its origins or what is wrong with them.
There seems to be the idea that the laws passes by the
Spaniards were essentially value-neutral and were just updates
of whatever universal rules that came from the Greeks and
Romans. The same thing goes with American laws; they all
escape scrutiny.
The absence of a compelling idea among Filipino elites
was that the only important political issue until 1934 was to
acquire political independence, leading to political stagnation.
When the idea of nationalism took over, the idea was to continue
focusing attention on external influences that ultimately led
deflection from internal problems. As such, the Rgalain Doctrine
and other laws enacted ultimately continue to have effect.
Taft Era Land Laws and the Philippine State
Legal inertia is especially evident regarding land
ownership. There seems to be the idea that there was nothing
wrong with the laws, but the implementation, even though
statistics show that the laws werent working well at all when they
were implemented. In any case, the US government consistently
ignored land tenure problems.
The Past as Present
Only 16.6 percent of the total Philippine land mass was
patented under the Taft Land Laws, and only 10.36 percent were
registered under the Torrens title system. The number of
applicants represents only a fraction of the total number of rural
family households and does not indicate the number of people
who may have applied more than once.
The further refinements to the land laws only made them
more inequitable than they were during the early colonial period,
and the Supreme Court has continued to fail in exercising its
responsibility to review government decisions. As such, current
land laws are actually more hostile to the rural poor than they
were previously. The qualifications in the constitution have led to
heaver burdens for ancestral domain recognition, making them

subject to national development policies and programs.
Most of the politicians have little desire to redistribute
legal rights to land and other natural resources since half of the
House is landlords or have landlord patrons. Despite this, there is
continued pressure for agrarian reform that led to the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), but this two has
its own failings. It has a 5-hectare limit, and a ten-year timetable
that ultimately ensures that most private land rights will not be
covered; overall its been useless.
The basis for any pessimism is rotted in Philippine land
law.

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C2014 | PROF.

OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER | 1

Definitions and Theoretical Approaches

This is the introductory chapter of the article by Rawls. It

Guiding idea: the principles of justice for the basic

Some Related Contrasts

In a just society the basic liberties are taken for granted

2 | C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER

Three kinds of judgments a citizen has to make:

THE FOUR-STAGE SEQUENCE (A device for

H. The Priority Problem

Some Remarks about Moral Theory

A conception of justice characterizes our moral

Rawls, John Chaper IV: Equal Liberty

Adopt principles of justice then move to a constitutional

POLITICAL JUSTICE AND THE CONSTITUTION

C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER | 3

Ought implies can. It must no impose a duty to do

7. PRIORITY OF EQUAL LIBERTY

Jurisprudence: Understanding and

groups and entities involved in making those critical choices in

Reisman, A Theory Of Law From The

Summarizing this sort of inquiry, we get the following:

4 | C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER

The basic handbook for making choices involves:

Practice of law is the practice of problem-solving, for

10. As Robert Storey put it succinctly, Builders of the law

C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER | 5

Even with these popular responses, practitioners of the

A cognate species of lex imperfecta is a lex simulata.

Reisman, A Theory Of Law From The

6 | C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER

Owen Lynch, Methodological Overview

Pre-History and Indigenous Culture in

C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER | 7

auspices, would have guaranteed us a culture with an Asian

The plow did not corrupt, it begot the Filipino

The attitudes of our neighbors to us are ignorant and

The technics, our training in common in new media was what

Test on Philippine Prehistoric Culture

The West brought us to Asia

There must be a self to have a soul

Joaquin thinks that we should begin to realize that during the

8 | C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER

Rejected or not, Joaquin believes that the 16 and 17

Normativeness general character prescribing a

Regional Diversity of Custom Law

Custom law- OBLIGATORY or BINDING in character; it is a

The lack of a centralized administration of custom law

The emergence of barangays as a political entity, aggravated

Custom law should NOT be taken to suggest that one system of

Regional Political Communities

Barangays extensive political communities of early Filipinos. It

Law is the creation and wears the image, of great social

FOUNDATIONS FOR AN EXCHANGE ECONOMY were being

C2014 | PROF. OWEN LYNCH | LEGAL HISTORY REVIEWER | 9

Orientation of custom law was SECULAR.

Functions of Custom Law

Principalia ruling households; wealthiest