Macapagong Irene M.

BSBAMM ABM-1

M2L2: The Philippines in the 19th century | While

task 3

What is the broader history of the friar lands?

The government purchases the friar lands for sale to actual

occupants under Act 1120 or the Friar Lands Act. Lands are
not public but privately owned by the government. Lands that
had been usurped by religious orders when the United States
conquered the Philippines from Spaniards, the Americans
envisioned an agricultural reform. The three orders of the
Friars, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Recolectos controlled
most of the land in our country during those times. These
landowners owned these lands and acted as political
authorities in the areas that had caused a threat to the Filipino
nations that cause the Philippine Revolution. The friars had
held these lands for centuries; the system is termed
"Friarocracy" by scholars. The ownership of the friar lands
showed how Filipino was robbed of their soil. The friars set
restrictive rents for the land for the farmers. In this system,
when one who rented land for a fixed amount, an inquilino
was expected to give personal services to the landlords, and if
he or she failed to so, he or she would be expelled from the
land. The inquilinato system functioned as a three-layered
system. The landlords being on the top, inquilinos- middle,
and the Kasama or the sharecropper at the bottom who would
cultivate the land. Hacienda de Calamba comprises 16 424
hectares; some hacienda is cultivated with sugar cane and
rice. It was initially owned by a Spaniard who donated the land
to Jesuit Friars.
How did the Hacienda de Calamba become a site of agitation
in the late nineteenth century?Hacienda de Calamba
comprises 16 424 hectares; some hacienda is cultivated with
sugar cane and rice. It was initially owned by a Spaniard who
donated the land to Jesuit Friars. Since the ownerwas
expelled in the Philippines, the hacienda went to the Spanish
colonial government's possession. In 1803 the Hacienda de
Calamba was sold to Don Clemente de Azansa. After his
death, it was eventually sold to the Dominicans, who claimed
ownership of thehacienda until the late 19th Century. The
Dominicans owned practically all the lands around Calamba. It
became agitation because it was hostile between 1881 and
1891 when an Agrarian dispute occurred. Rizal Family became
one of the principal inquilinos of the hacienda; they rented
around 380 hectares of the land, which they cultivate sugar
cane, one of the most in-demand in the market back then.
However, land ownership arose in 1883. The family suffered as
they lose income and right in the hacienda—Rizal later finds
out that friars' land ownership is unlawful. But then the
Spanish Supreme Court ordered favor of the Dominicans,
which result in the Rizal family and other tenants are forced to
leave the land. Rizal seeking justice for the land was seen by
hisnovels and writings. Rizal was invited by the Spanish
Governor and was later arrested and executed that started the
Philippine Revolution in the Late Nineteenth Century.
Hacienda de Calamba is an example of the inequalities in the
Philippine Society underthe Spanish colonization.