⭐THE PHILIPPINES IN RIZAL'S TIME: LESSON 5 The masters employed their slaves to different kinds of work.

Slaves
Rizal lived more than a hundred years ago. He lived in this portion of were made to work as bakers, blacksmith, jewelers, stonemasons, tailors,
the planet, the Philippine archipelago and in a certain period of time. He is and weavers. master could also rent his slave to another, or sent his slave for
now an important part Philippine history for great contribution to the making his (master's) personal debts, or made his slave serve a jail in his (master's)
of the Filipino nationhood. The study of Rizal therefore requires the study of place. Also, two masters might own one slave. Christian clergy and religious
the background of his life. orders were allowed to hold slaves and even to sell them.3
The previous module dealt with the European background of Rizal's Fray Pedro Mejia was one of the most prominent slave exporters.
life. The present module deals with the Philippine background of his life. Bishop Rodriguez de Fonseca put up slaves in Seville marts
Now the question is: What was the condition of the Philippines in
Rizal's time? "as naked as they were born."
This module tries to answer this question by considering the A child of a slave was automatically the master's possession, no
following points: matter who the father was. If the master himself was the father, he set the
a] overview of the Spanish slavery, child free. The child of a clergy was automatically the slave of the Church, no
b] the Spanish colonial system in the Philippines, and matter who the mother was.
c] the evils of the Spanish colonial system. The Laws of Indies included the following statement. "Tariff duties
are to be collected on slaves the same as on other merchandise."
The contents of this module may also give some of the historical This was of course an inhuman practice. But people in slave trade
facts that led Rizal to react with great determination. Rizal saw the grave considered it morally acceptable. This Spanish legal practice on slave trade
evils that were taking place in the archipelago during his time. was also carried over to the colonies, such as Filipinas. In fact, some
Spaniards who came to this country brought with them their own slaves.
OVERVIEW OF SPANISH SLAVERY Some other Spaniards also had indios as their slaves here in this land. And,
Was there slavery in Spain in the time of Bishop Domingo Salazar? the Spanish Christians seeing the indio slaves as doing unchristian practices,
Or did Spain practice slavery? The answer is yes. The 16th century Spain meaning, continuing in their primitive faith prohibited them to take
made it a custom to hold a non-Christian slave. People considered such a communion.
practice legitimate. The Spanish city Seville was considered second largest
slave marketplace at the time Legaspi settled in Sugbu.' THE SPANISH COLONIAL SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES
Slaves were usually blacks imported from Africa, brought and sold by The Political System
the Portuguese slave traders. But some slaves were Moros, taken captive in Spain governed her colonies through the so-called Ministro de
wars. And, just like some other imported goods from other countries, an Ultramar (Ministry of Colonies). This body helped the Spanish monarch in
import fee was imposed on the slaves in Seville. Slaves were considered governing the colonies. This body exercised legislative, executive, judicial,
goods. Scott showed how the selling of slaves was done: and religious powers."
They were taken to the main market in the Calle de las Gradas,
where official bills of sale were executed, giving the name, profession and The Governor-General was the representative of the Spanish king in
legal status of both parties, as well as their obligations, rights and duties, and the Philippines. Because of the distance of the Philippines from Spain, the
the sex, age, race, name, place of origin, and price of the slave. They were governor-general exercised the power of the monarch, for he could even
then sold at public auction or to dealers already contracted, or hawked declare war or peace with other Asian nations and appoint ambassadors. He
through the streets until an interested crowd gathered. Costumers of high had the following powers in his hand:
social standing naturally did not make their purchases but sent authorized 1] State power,
subordinates like the Bishop of Seville's chaplain, Fr. Francisco de Cepeda, 2] Power over religious matters, such as finances and appointment
who bought a 25-year old Brazilian slave. of priests in some ecclesiastical positions,
 3] Power to issue executive orders and proclamations, (mayor and vice mayor). The chief judge of a town was called
4] Power to act as the commander in chief of the armed forces of the gobernadorcillo or, as fondly called, capitan."
Philippines, 5] Power over all financial matters, The smallest unit of government was the barangay. The so- called
6] Power over all the affairs in the Philippines, and cabeza de barangay, usually a Filipino or a Chinese mestizo, headed the
7] Power to supervise and discipline, which gave him barangay. The function of the cabeza was to maintain peace and order and
opportunity to play favoritism." to collect taxes from the people. The guardia civil, headed by an alferez,
The governor general, however, did not possess absolute and helped the cabeza de barangay in maintaining peace and order.
independent power. He was still subject to much higher powers. The Royal
Audiencia, the Residencia, and the Visita were the agencies that checked the The Social System
governor-general. Feudalism was the social structure in the Philippines during the
Spanish colonial period. This resulted from the way Spain owned the lands in
The Royal Audiencia was the Supreme Court in Spain. It possessed the colony.
judicial, legislative, and executive powers. It could do the following: The structure of Philippine society was pyramidal. It consisted of three layers:
1] as governor-general in case the post was left vacant, 1] on the topmost layer: the Spanish officials, the peninsulares,
2] as promulgator of laws for the colonies, 2] on the middle layer. the few favored Filipinos, the mestizos, and
3] as auditor general to the colonies, and creollos (those Spaniards born in America), and
4] as judge of all criminal cases in the land. 3] on the lowest layer: the indios, considered as the lowest kind of
human beings."
The Residencia was a judicial body. It put under trial those outgoing This social structure showed racial discrimination. The peninsulares
governors and other Spanish officials, forcing them to give account of their held the highest positions in the government. The mestizos were second
leadership and checking their deeds during their term of office. The purpose class citizens. The indios belonged to the lowest class.
was to uncover the corruption of the Spanish officials. Some of them were
convicted on the charge of enriching themselves through such means as THE EVILS OF SPANISH COLONIAL SYSTEM
encomienda." The following were the evils of the Spanish colonial rule in the
country. The main source of the abuses was the appointment of officials who
The Visita was an investigating agency. The investigating officer was were immoral, corrupt, unqualified for the position, and lacking dedication to
called Visitador. In being sent to the colonies such as the Philippines, the duty. This usually resulted to abuses, since these officials were given great
visitador was to investigate the conditions of the country and the works of the powers." These were the kind of officials referred to by Elias when he said:
governor general and other Spanish officials. He investigated cases such as So much power in the hands of men, ignorant men filled with
conflict between governor general and the Royal Audiencia and he could passions, without moral training, of untried principles, is a weapon in the
pronounce judgment over the case. hands of a madman in a defenseless multitude.

Next to the central government in Manila, headed by the governor The Encomienda System
general, was the provincial government. The known provinces were called The Spanish monarch granted lands to certain individuals who had
alcaldias, headed by an alcalde mayor (civil governor), and the unknown rendered great services to Spain. This individual could take care a certain
provinces were called corregimientos, headed by a coregidor, usually an territory in the conquered lands. This was the so-called encomienda system.
army officer. Encomienda came from the word encomendar, meaning, to commend or
Aside from the provincial government, there was also the city or entrust to one's care. The person in charge was called encomendero.
municipal government, or Ayuntamiento, headed by two alcaldes en ordinario The Spanish Crown vested upon the encomendero the right to
collect tributes and to use the personal services of the inhabitants. The
Crown, however, also required the encomendero to protect the people and to A more sophisticated method of abuse took advantage of the proviso
give them some education. that the tribute could be paid in cash or in kind. By depriving them of their
But the encomendero only fulfilled the right to collect tributes and to right to choose the form of payment, the tribute collector could increase the
use the personal services of the inhabitants; he failed to protect the people profits from his office. During periods when money was scarce or produce
and to give them some education. Exercising his power to the full, he rather plentiful, the alcalde or the encomendero required payment in cash. When
treated the inhabitants as his slaves. there was scarcity of goods and prices high, he insisted on payment in
Thus greed and cruelty mainly filled up the encomienda system. The goods, which he then sold at the prevailing high prices. Goods offered as
encomendero enriched himself by this way. He imposed numerous services tribute payments were invariably underpriced.
on the inhabitants. One example given by Antonio de Morga reads as The Polo (Forced Labor)
follows: Aside from the tribute, the polo, instituted in 1580, was also imposed
"They employ the Indians in building houses and large vessels, on the Filipinos, except the chieftains and their sons. The Filipinos were
grinding rice, cutting wood, and carrying it all to their houses and to Manila required to serve 40 days in the forced labor pool or the polo. It was reduced
and then pay them little or nothing at all for their labor." to 15 days only in 1884.23
The polo system only gave each polista (the name of the person who
The Tribute rendered forced labor) 1/4 real with some rice per day. But the worst thing
The Filipinos paid tribute as a symbol of vassalage to Spain. It was that the polistas were seldom paid. Thus the communities to which the
consisted of eight reales (one peso), payable in kind or money. In 1851, the polistas belonged were the ones to provide them food in order to keep them
tribute was increased to twelve reales. But in 1884, the cedula replaced the alive. The fields that were supposed to be tilled by the polistas were then
reales. being abandoned due to shortage of manpower. This resulted to shortage of
The Filipinos hated the tribute for two reasons: crops produced which in turn caused hunger and death.
1] it reminded them of their bondage to Spain, and During harvesting and planting seasons, the polistas, however, were
2] it spawned Spanish abuses not supposed to render services such as public works of non- military nature.
The historian Renato Constantino gives a more specific and detailed But this provision was being violated. Instead, the authorities required the
account of the tribute. The vivid picture of his account is worth quoting at polistas to work in mines and to cut trees for building ships needed for war.
length here. He writes:
It was levied on all Filipinos from nineteen to sixty with the exception Quoting Fray Pedro de San Pablo, Renato Constantino writes:
of incumbent gobernadorcillos and cabezas and their families, government When personal services are commanded, the Indian, in order not to
employees, soldiers with distinguished service, descendants of Lakandula go to the forests to cut and haul the wood, subject to the cruel treatment of
and a few other native chieftains, choir members, sacristans, and porters of the Spaniard, incurred debt, and borrowed some money at usury, and for the
the Churches. Also exempted: government witnesses. month falling to him, he gave another Indian six or seven reales of eight at
his own cost, in order that the other should go in his stead. He who was
The tribute collectors alcaldes mayores, encomenderos, taxed as his share one-half of arroba of oil went, if he did not have it in his
gobernadorcillos, and cabezas often abused their offices by collecting more own harvest, to the rich man who gathered it, and, not having the money
than the law required and appropriating the difference. The act itself of therewith to buy it, he became the other's slave or borrowed the money at
collecting was the occasion for much cruelty. Since the people did not regard usurious rates. Some natives took to the woods; others were made slaves;
the exaction of tribute to be justified, they often defied the authorities and many others were killed; and the rest were exhausted and ruined
refused to pay it. Encomenderos often had to send soldiers to collect the
tribute by force. Many who did not pay, or could not pay, were tortured or The misery of the people was the result of the corruption of the
imprisoned. Others fled to the mountains only to have their houses looted or alcaldes. They recruited men more than what is needed in building ships.
burned down by the Spaniards in punishment for their defiance. Some men paid some amount of money, called falla," to be exempted from
work; but the money was just being pocketed by the alcaldes. (This is true Failure of the Colonial Administration
even up to this day. The spirit of those times is still bovering in this country The previous module showed the decline of Spain in the 19th
nowadays.) century. Spain's political instability resulted to the loss of many of her
colonies in the Americas. The chaotic condition of Spain also affected the
Bandala Philippines. Because of this, Spain changed its policies in the Philippines and
In the first half of the 17th century, governor general Hurtado de made periodic replacements of Spanish officials. These frequent changes of
Corcuera introduced Bandala, another exploitative economic device. Bandala the administration in the Philippines hampered down the economic and
was the annual quota assigned to each province. In every province, political conditions of the country." In other words, Philippine economy and
everyone had to make a compulsory sale of his products to the government. politics grew from bad to worse to worst at that time.
In this, the worse condition was that the government bought the
people's products at a much lower price than the prevailing prices in the Corrupt Spanish Officialdom
market. And the worst condition was that when a person failed to meet his Corrupt officialdom was another evil of the Spanish colonial system.
quota, he had to buy some products from another at a high price and then General Rafael de Izquierdo enraged the Filipino people by executing
sell them at a lower price to the government. Even if rats destroyed the GomBurZa in 1872.
crops, the people still had to buy something in order to give it to the Izquierdo's successor admiral Jose Malcampo was a weak officiaL.
government.2 "Bandala inflicted terrible sufferings on the people's lives! Then General Fernando Primo de Rivera came to power. He
enriched himself through bribes and gambling clubs in Manila.
Divide and Rule The Spanish general Valeriano Weyler came to Manila a poor man
The Spanish military force was just small in the country. So it had to and went back home a billionaire. The people called Weyler a "tyrant"
be backed up by the natives. The military used the services of the natives for because of his brutal persecution of some of the people in Calamba,
their purposes by employing the divide-and-rule strategy. The Spaniards especially the family of Rizal.
recruited the natives in one region to support them. But the military merely Governor Camilo de Polavieja was hated by the people for
used them to put down the revolts in another region. executing Dr. Jose Rizal.
In effect, the Spaniards only made the natives or Filipinos fight and And as early as 1810, some Spaniards, barbers, and lackeys, were
kill each other. The lack of national consciousness among the natives appointed provincial governors and soldiers and district magistrates."
facilitated the Spaniards' divide-and-rule technique.
Philippine Representation in the Spanish Cortes
The Guardia Civil The Spanish government granted representation of the Philippines in
The Guardia Civil (constabulary) was instituted in 1852. The Guardia the Spanish Cortes. In 1810-1813, the first Philippine delegate to the said
Civil was supposed to maintain peace and order in the Philippine islands, Cortes was Ventura de los Reyes. He was active in the framing of the 1812
especially in the provinces. At first it performed its job well. Spanish Constitution. He was able to make the galleon trade abolished.
But most of the members of the Guardia Civil were untrained and Two other delegates to the Spanish Cortes followed in the eriods
ignorant. Thus they turned out to be agents of abuses. "They maltreated 1820-1823 and 1834-37. But, unfortunately, the Philippine representation
innocent people, looting their carabaos, chickens, and valuable belongings, was abolished in 1837. And the lack of Philippine representative in the
and raping helpless women." Rizal witnessed all these abuses by the Spanish Cortes prevented the exposure of the anomalies or corruptions of
Guardia Civil. Again, through the mouth of Elias, Rizal said: the Spanish officials in the Philippines.
So much power in the hands of men, ignorant men filled with Again, the condition of the Philippines grew from bad to worse. Some
passions, without moral training, of untried principles, is a weapon in the patriots, like Garciano Lopez Jaena, pleaded the restoration of the Philippine
hands of a madman in a defenseless multitude. representation in the Spanish Cortes, but the plea only ended in deaf ears.
Denial of Human Rights and Inequality Before the Law Racial Discrimination
The Spanish constitution of 1812 made several changes in Spain, such as Filipinos were regarded as inferior beings. Racial prejudice was
1] freedom of the press, rampant in the Philippines, especially in the offices, in the military, in social
2] freedom of speech, gatherings, and even in school (such as Rizal's experiences in the University
3] freedom to association. of Sto. Tomas).
All these the Spaniards enjoyed. And the Spaniards in the Man's merit was based on the color of the skin and hair, the shape of
Philippines cherished these human rights themselves. But they denied these the nose and of the head. Fr. Jose Burgos lamented the racial discrimination
rights to the Filipinos. done by the Spaniards to the Filipinos."
The Spanish missionaries taught the Filipinos one of the most
important tenets of Christianity: the equality of all men before God. But Frailocracy
Spaniards in the Philippines discarded this concept. They rather regarded the The powerful friars practically governed the Philippines. The
browned-skinned Filipinos as inferior, lesser kind of beings before the eyes of archbishop even commanded the governor general.
God. Manila at that time was dependent on the interior part of the land,
The Laws of the Indies provided good laws for the Philippines, but that is, on the peasants. Yet the Manila administration was not interested in
these were not implemented. Instead, the Filipinos were being abused, the development of the land. The initiative to reach the peasants in remote
brutalized, and persecuted, some of them being exiled to distant lands. For areas was lacking on the part of the government.
example, while the Penal Code of the Philippines imposed heavier penalties Now the Church acted as the only link between the small foreign
on the Indios and mestizos, it imposed light penalties on the white Spaniards. community in Manila and the mass of the peasants in the countryside. Thus
Concerning this, Rizal wrote to Blumentritt thus: the governor general depended on the friars in reaching the peasants.
The provision of the Penal Code that a heavier penalty will be Rome made the governor general the vice-patron of the Church and
imposed on the Indio or mestizo irritates me exceedingly, because it signifies granted him ecclesiastical authority. But the governor general had no
that every person not born white is in fact a latent criminal. This is very great command over the friars and could not automatically obtain the 36 latter's
injustice that seems enormous and unjust for being embodied in law. allegiance. Thus the governor general had to submit to the will of the friars if
he wanted to win their allegiance. This provided the friars the venue to put
Maladministration of Justice their hands on the reign of governance. This was frailocracy.
Corruption characterized the courts in the Philippines during the time
of Rizal. In fact, from the viewpoint of the Filipino victims of injustices, these
courts were rather tightly called "courts of injustice." Justice was costly,
partial and slow.
The poor almost had no access to the court for justice; but the rich
had. Wealth, prestige, and color of skin were the factors in winning a case in
court. Justice was oftentimes delayed, if not denied at all. The saying "Justice
delayed is justice denied" was true. There were many victims of such
injustices, such as GomBurZa, Rizal and his family, and many others.34
(This kind of justice system in the Philippines remains up to this day.
Full- blooded Spaniards were gone, but Filipinos in turn have taken the place
of those oppressors. The Filipinos have inherited such a trait and remain
unable to unlearn it, or perhaps remain unwilling to shed it off for a better
Philippines.)