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A Reflection Paper on The Philippines A Century Hence

Article · January 2022

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Jasper Abraham Gondong

Polytechnic University of the Philippines
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 REFLECTION PAPER - The Life and Works of Rizal
Jacinto R. Valila Jr., Associate Professor IV
GEED 10013
Jasper Abraham S. Gondong
2020-05897-MN-0
BS Mechanical Engineering 2-2

THE PHILIPPINES A CENTURY HENCE

A Reflection Paper

“In order to read the destiny of the people, it is

necessary to open the book of the past.”
- Jose Rizal

As some people believe, Rizal’s essay isn’t a prediction like some people think it is. It’s
more like an analysis of past events to predict the future of the Philippines. Dr. Jose Rizal wrote
an essay titled The Philippines a Century Hence in which he attempted to predict the country’s
future. Rizal outlined several scenarios for how the Philippines might evolve over the next century,
the first of which was that our country would remain a Spanish colony. The second point was that
if the Filipinos continued to be exploited and abused, they would inevitably rise up in revolt against
the Spanish Empire. Last but not least, the Philippines may be taken over by other countries after
Spain’s presence in the country is extinguished in the Philippines. Also, in his essay, Rizal spoke
out against human rights abuses, the lack of press freedom, and the lack of representation in
Spain’s government in addition to those predictions.

Answering the question ‘What will happen to the Philippines in a century?’ is the central
idea of the essay. (1) Spain will retain colonial rights over the Philippines. (2) With or without
autonomy, the Philippines will become a province of Spain. (3) As an independent country, the
Philippines will secede from Spain. (4) The Philippines will secede from Spain and form an alliance
with regional powers. (5) Other nations will seize control of the Philippines—England, Japan,
Germany, Holland, or the United States of America.

Rizal’s purpose in writing this four-part sociopolitical essay was to remind Spain of the dire
consequences of continuing its mistreatment of the indigenous peoples. To show how desperate
the country was, he depicted how the Spanish government kept the Filipinos in the dark because
they were only supposed to serve their mother country. Sadly for Spain, individuals such as Rizal,
Jaena, and del Pilar, among others, refused to settle for less and recognized that there was more
 A Reflection Paper on ‘The Philippines A Century Hence’

to life than colonization. The Spaniards’ attempt to keep the Filipinos uneducated and ignorant
failed miserably when it came to dominate the country. People in the Philippines started to think
about their country, which made them think about their hearts and minds and made them want to
get out of the Spanish rubble. Attempts to keep the Filipino people poor failed as well. They did
some things to change their lives, from living in poverty to making money. The effort to eradicate
the Filipino people was a failure, and the people of the Philippines persevered in the face of war
and famine. To protect and advance the Philippines, Rizal knew that no matter their age, no
Filipino would be exempt from the effects of natural disasters like those Spain experienced. He
had a deep faith in the Philippines’ ability to remain united and make meaningful strides toward
democracy and education. He was well aware that, as the country’s beating heart, the government
would eventually be forced to rely on the people’s will. This was something he had envisioned for
a long time.

Rizal begins by examining the various factors contributing to the Filipino people’s
difficulties. (1) According to Rizal, Spain’s military policies exacerbated poverty and resulted in a
significant population decline. (2) There was a decline and eventual disappearance of Filipino
indigenous culture over time. This caused people to lose faith in their history, be skeptical of their
current way of life, and lose hope for the country’s future as a whole. (3) Due to the Filipinos’
reliance on the Spanish friars, who posed as ‘peacekeepers,’ they were more susceptible to the
culture of silence imposed by force. Rizal also casts doubt on Spain’s ability to obstruct the
Philippines’ advancement. He talks about the different ways the Spaniards tried to control the
natives. (1) Attempts to keep Filipinos ignorant and uneducated have failed. Illustrators and
scholars continued to emerge, igniting the nation’s spirit. (2) Maintaining the majority of Filipinos
in poverty resulted in a greater desire to improve their standard of living and, consequently, an
awakening to the true impediments to Filipino progress. (3) An already resilient country, the
Philippines was not deterred by its own people’s executions and expulsion.

Rizal then asserted that Spain could not obstruct the Filipino people’s advancement. Along
with advocating for protecting Filipinos’ human rights, Rizal (indirectly) pressed Spain to alter its
colonial policies if it wished to retain the Philippines. Rizal’s main requests were: (1) A Philippine
delegate to the Spanish Cortes. (2) Press freedom and independence.

Essentially, Rizal wrote this essay because he thought it was high time to remind the
Spaniards of what had happened in the French Revolution and warn them that it could happen in
the Philippines. Due to the Philippines’ prior experience with Spanish oppression, they understood
that such treatment could not be tolerated again. In those days, it was already clear that the

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 A Reflection Paper on ‘The Philippines A Century Hence’

Filipinos were making strides forward, as evidenced by the Ilustrados’ willingness to fight for the
rights of their fellow countrymen. The primary goal of Rizal’s life was to free the Philippines from
the oppressive rule of the cruel Spaniards who occupied the land. Additionally, his primary
motivation for writing this essay was to conduct an analysis of the Philippines’ current situation.
He simply studied our country’s current and historical conditions and from there “predicted” our
future, stating that the Filipinos will one day be able to exercise their right to self-determination.

Rizal may have been trying to give Spain a hint as to what it should do to keep the
Philippines under its wing, but some Spaniards thought that Rizal was inciting insurgency among
the indigenous population. In other words, Spain kept behaving badly until the Filipinos couldn’t
take it anymore. This happened almost two years after Rizal’s death.

It’s amusing how Filipinos continue to believe they were able to liberate themselves from
the Spaniards when, in reality, Spain sold the Philippines to America for USD20 million. And,
indeed, this was one of Rizal’s hypotheses in his essay. Rizal devised those hypotheses in light
of the world’s situation at the time. Because the Philippines is a country with people living in it, I
believe that Rizal wrote the essay to express his desire for an orderly and non-violent revolution
in the Philippines (or perhaps his desire for the Philippines not to be treated as a commodity that
can be sold for any amount of money). You will understand his motivations if you carefully read
the essay. He simply desired that the country regain its fundamental human rights. As a result,
some Filipinos believed that Rizal was more loyal to Spain than he was to his own country.
However, Rizal only desired that the Philippines be equipped with the knowledge and skills she
would require before achieving independence from the Spanish Empire.

The reader of this essay must not view it as a collection of meaningless words but as a
message to future generations. In light of the changing world, this message is now meant to serve
as a warning. The Spaniards’ four-hundred-year-old colonization is now paralleled by the
immigration of foreign ideas by our own citizens. As a result of our dependence on materials from
other countries, many Filipinos have lost sight of their country’s natural resources. Because some
Filipinos are aware of what is going on, I still held out hope that we could make things right. It’s
just a matter of deciding whether to go the route taken by Rizal and so many of our heroes (or
even going further than our heroes) or to let things be as they are.

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 A Reflection Paper on ‘The Philippines A Century Hence’

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rizal, J. (1912). The Philippines a century hence. Manila: Philippine Education Co.

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