Bea Rochelle E.

Tanierla
BAJ 3-2N
Life and Works of Rizal
GEED 10013

Output 5

Read Rizal’s The Indolence of the Filipino. Examine how Rizal keenly observed the
effects of colonialism on Filipino creativity, industriousness, perseverance, and other
virtues. Write a 3-page paper on your examination.

Filipinos’ fight against indolence

Rizal wrote this essay as response to Spaniards who at that time were criticizing
Filipinos of being indolent. He argued that indolence is not the cause of the
backwardness and the troubled situation in the country but rather the result of these
factors and the fostered predispositions.

Rizal wanted to be objective in discussing the issue and finding the roots of the
problem. He cited several reputable sources who have previously observed the
Philippines. Rizal made time to read French and Spanish authored books, and he did
not cite quotations from other authors unless he had the book in his hands. He also
restrained himself from quoting Filipino journalists who certainly have a lot to say about
the issue. Instead, he persisted on translating the words of French travelers and other
Spanish authors so that this essay would appear trustworthy in the eyes of the
Europeans. He probably wanted to inform them and the world about the true situation in
the Philippines and help them comprehend the issue.

The Spaniards were accusing Filipinos of being indolent, they seem to forget that
before they colonized us, our ancestors have their own ways, have their commerce
activities, trades, methods of food gathering, food production, and more. It's ironic that
our ancestors were accused of indolence when they were forced to follow new customs
and unfamiliar ways of the colonists. Spaniards, on the other hand, despise manual
labor, “never going afoot but riding in a carriage, needing servants not only to take off
their shoes for them but even to fan them!” Now, who is the real indolent?

Prior to the arrival of the Spaniards, Filipinos were actively engaged in trading
with all the neighboring countries. Rizal cited several credible sources that support this,
one of it is a 13th century Chinese manuscript that also shows how strong the virtue of
honesty is among Filipinos. This manuscript speaks of China's commercial relations
with the Philippines, noting how Luzon traders takes Chinese products and distribute
them around the country, travel for months and then returning to pay religiously even if
the Chinamen did not remember them.

Meanwhile, we can observe the courtesy, kindness, industriousness and

creativity of Filipinos and even their commerce again through the words of Pigafetta,
who arrived in the Philippines with the very famous Magellan in 1521. He said that to
honor the Spaniards' captain, Filipinos brought the captain to their boats, a sign of
courtesy and act of kindness, where they kept their merchandise, which included
cloves, cinnamon, pepper, nutmegs, mace, gold and more. We can also see the
industriousness of Filipinos as Pigafetta described the solid gold vessels and utensils he
saw in Butuan, which were the result of Filipinos working in the mines, and the
abundance of food in Paragua, which was the result of Filipinos tilling the fields. Finally,
we can see the creativeness of our ancestors as Pigafetta described the silk garments
and the daggers with long gold hilts and carved wood scabbards made by our
ancestors.

Several accounts prove the existence of industries, arts, and agriculture in the
Philippines in the first years of colonization. There were mines, farms, trades, wood
carving, weaving of silk, etc. And I agree with Rizal that this shows that there was life,
there was activity, there was movement in the islands before the colonization. Despite
the conditions on the islands, the hot climate, the reason why most people in other
countries stop working during summer, Filipinos persevered.

In this essay, Rizal identified the hot climate in the Philippines as a contributing
factor to why there really is a tendency for Filipinos to become indolent. In a hot climate,
an individual should simply rest. But in a tropical country like the Philippines, where
climate is mostly hot, working under the burning sun is required in order to survive.
Meanwhile, in the countries that accused Filipinos of being indolent,
people abandon their labors during summer and flee to places surrounded by water.
Shouldn't people in a tropical region really have less activity considering the intense
heat there?

Another contributing factor to why Filipinos were perceived as indolent is the

wars that they were forced to partake in which many capable laborers died, as well as
expeditions in which the best sailors and skillful rowers were not able to return home.
These wars and fruitless expeditions that the Spaniards forced our ancestors to
participate have taken large portion of their population and have made it difficult for our
ancestors to cultivate their fields and continue their industry and commerce.

I concur with Rizal that there are always tendencies toward good and evil and the
duty of the society and government is to foster the good and repress the evil. The evil
here is the indolence, but instead of suppressing it, the government fostered it. The
natives were not allowed to cultivate their crops without permission of the governor, or
of his officers, and even the priests. The cost of going and returning from the capital to
obtain a permit is also not a joke. It is absurdity that the Spaniards were the one
profiting the most from the crops that were being cultivated by the Filipinos not
mentioning that the lands were the crops grow also belong to the Filipinos.

Rizal also mentioned that there was also no help from the government whenever
the crops were damaged by a typhoon or whenever the locusts sweep over the fields.
This issue is still relevant today. Government are still apathetic and rarely give subsidies
to our farmers. This is probably the reason that we lost many future farmers. The
children of farmers who were interviewed for one of the documentaries I watched said
they no longer wanted to be farmers. Most of them are working hard to become
company employees and educators where salary is more certain. Until today, our
agriculture gradually diminishes.

Filipinos who wants to engage in business in the Philippines, will have to deal
with a lot of paperwork, requirements, and stamped papers. They need to also have a
very long patience to secure from the government a permit for an enterprise. What they
used to be able to do freely, is exceedingly hard to do now.

Several accounts also talk about how farmers are being enslaved and forced to
work by the encomenderos. Many natives chose poverty rather than suffer from the
slavery and abuse of encomenderos.

The gambling, one of the vices that taken up the time and money of Filipinos
even today, was also introduced to Filipinos by Spaniards. The word sugal, borrowed
from the early Spanish word jugar meaning to gamble, indicate that gambling was
unknown to Filipinos before to the arrival of the Spaniards. The word balasa, from
baraja meaning playing-card, proves that the introduction of playing-cards was not due
to the Chinese, because they would have taken the Chinese name.

As a doctor, Rizal understands the importance of determining the root cause of

an illness before treating it. But our government appears to be unaware of this. Instead
of finding the roots of the problems, the government always tries to attack the symptoms
by blood-letting, tax collection; plaster, forced labor; sedative, trifling reform. The harsh
climate, the depopulation, the abuse, the suffering under an apathetic government, and
the misgovernment, made it impossible for Filipinos to win the fight against indolence.