The Philippines a Century Ahead

LAGOY, Reden James V.

BSCOE 2-3

Rizal Was Ahead a Century Later

When Rizal was still writing in La Solidaridad, he wrote an essay discussing about what
the country would be a century ahead. This was Rizal’s the Philippines a Century Ahead. This
essay was a reminder to Spain that a revolution might come to the country and maybe similar to
what happened during the French Revolution. Since this is an essay predicting what will happen
to the country within a hundred years, a lot of what Rizal wrote in the essay is a speculation from
analyzing the current state of the country. Because of its speculative nature, many didn’t believe
that there will be a revolution coming, but Spain came back to bite its head off.

In Rizal’s essay, he starts by analyzing the various sources of the hardships suffered by
the Filipino people. The first point is Spain’s implementation of its military policies. Because of
this, the population of the country drastically decreased. Many died because of its harsh laws,
poverty became more rampant than ever, and farmlands were left to wither. This made every
aspect of the life of the Filipino really miserable. Second, is the deterioration and disappearance
of Filipino Indigenous culture. Because of the spread of Catholicism to the country, many adopted
the culture of Spain and started losing confidence of their past and heritage and became doubtful
of their lifestyle. This was most evident when our now national sport, Arnis, was just a pastime for
a lot of our ancestors but the Spaniards were scared that this combative sport were to be used
as a tool against them, so they banned it throughout their ruling. Lastly is the apathy and
compliance to the Spanish Colonizers. Our ancestors were able to defend the Spanish Invasion
when Magellan arrived our country, but because of the influence that they brought over, this made
some Filipinos to submit themselves to the will of the foreigners when Legazpi finally arrived at
the country.

Because of such miseries suffered by the Filipino people, many raised the question
whether they are being treated correctly. This awakened the hearts and opened the minds of the
Filipino people and realized that such oppression in their society by foreign colonizers must no
longer be tolerated similarly how the American Revolution started. The essay continues to discuss
about whether or not Spain can prevent the progress of the Philippines.

The first point Rizal wrote is that keeping the people uneducated and ignorant had failed.
Imagine being colonized by a country but the people that was colonized still doesn’t know how to
speak the language of their colonizers. This was a sort of division made by the Spanish to know
which one is a Spaniard or not. The middle class were the only Filipinos that were able to learn
Spanish. A great example of this was the women of Malolos, when the women of Malolos wanted
to build a private school for them to learn Spanish, the Spanish parish priest told the governor-
general to disapprove it. Education was also limited and only allowed a small number of Filipinos
to go to Manila or Europe to study more. Because of this the national consciousness were
awakened and a lot of the great Filipino minds emerged from this like the ilustrados. Second, is
that keeping the people impoverished came to no avail. Because of the harsh laws of the Spanish
and the abuse of power, many Filipinos became poor and living life of eternal destitution. This
made the Filipinos to act on the desire for a change of their way of life. Lastly is exterminating the
people as an alternative to hindering progress also did not work. The Filipinos were able to survive
even during conflict and shortage of food. Spain has the power to kill all Filipinos during that time,
but this would require a sacrifice of thousands of Spanish soldiers, and this is something Spain
would not allow.

These analyses made Rizal sure that Spain had no means to stop the progress of the
country. Spain needs to do is to change their colonial policies so that they are in keeping with the
needs of the Philippine society and to the rising nationalism of the people. This is what the
ilustrados were doing in Spain during that time. Having an educated group of men to partake and
represent the Philippines into the Cortes. The Philippines and Cuba were the only colonies left
that Spain controls before the revolution, and even Cuba was able to represent their country into
the Cortes. Were these predictions made by Rizal came true?

After Rizal started his exile in Dapitan, the Katipunan was created. Shortly after a couple
of years later, the Philippine Revolution started. Two years after Rizal’s death, the Americans
fought Spain to win the Philippines. Our independence was established but the Americans
eventually took over the country thanks to the Treaty of Paris. But their control was rather
democratic. After World War 2, the country was finally able to gain full independence.

What happened during the martyrdom of the Gomburza started as one of the sparks that
initiated the Philippine Revolution. This was surely one of the key events that triggered the
Filipinos to fight against their colonizers. And after Rizal published Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, this just added fuel to the fire and made Rizal the enemy of Spain. Ironically, the
same books that Rizal made was the core ideas of the Katipunan and the revolution and this got
Rizal to be executed because of his alleged involvement of the revolution which he already stated
that his reforms was not a revolution through violence like what the French and American did but
rather a slow progression of improving the lives of the Filipinos that was described in his essay.