Chapter 8

The Campaign for Reforms

The three Filipino priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto
Zamora have the unjust execution and it was a turning point of Philippine
history, the reform movement. Realizing the danger of fighting for their cause
on the home front, the sons of the wealthy and the well-to-do Filipino families
migrated to Europe to breathe atmosphere of the old world, that initiated a
sustained campaign for reforms in the administration of the Philippines. The
Filipino intellectuals secretly collaborated with those in Spain and founded
nationalistic societies and more than a decade the Filipino propagandists
waged their war of propaganda against the Spanish authorities and friars but
they failed to awaken the Government of the Peninsula to the demoralizing
realities of colonial administration. But the reform movement was failure and it
did not achieve its goals, led to the founding of the revolutionary Katipunan
with separatist aims.

19th century, the economic development of the Philippines led to the rise
of the Filipino middle class. In the previous centuries, the middle class was
composed by the Spanish and Chinese mestizos, rose to a position of power in
the Filipino community and eventually became leaders in finance and
education. The Spanish authorities looked down upon them, for they did not
belong to the inner circle of peninsulares – Spaniards born in Spain – whose
prerogative it was to rule and govern. Spanish society in the Philippines was a
sort of caste consisting of two well-defined classes: the peninsulares or
Spaniards born in Spain and the insulares or Spaniards born in the
Philippines. To show their contempt for the insulares, the peninsulares called
the former Filipinos. The “natives”, on the other hand, were invariably called
indios.

In their attempts to win a “place in the sun”, the members of the middle
class started the movement for reforms. The Filipino middle class and the
”natives” came to work hand in hand, with the former naturally leading the
latter by the hand.

1869. the chance of the middle class to show their political color came
when General Carlos Maria de la Torre became governor.

July 12, 1869. They marched to the governor’s residence and there
serenaded him. The list of the serenaders was a roster of the well- known
mestizos and insularesof the period: Jose Burgos, Maximo Paterno, Angel
Garchitorena, Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, Andres Nieto, Manuel Genato and
others.

From 1872 to 1882. The middle class led the reform movement which
was temporarily silenced during the decade. When he Filipino intelligentsia, a
segment of the middle class, took over the leadership from the wealthy
segment.

The dissatisfaction of the Filipino men of wealth and intellect was

centered around the abuses of the Spanish authorities, civil as well as clerical.
Spanish citizens, the Filipinos would be represented in the Spanish Cortes and
thereby their representatives in the body could propose and participatein the
approval of laws beneficial to the country.