LESSON 7

• During the precolonial period, lands belonged to the community where

the inhabitants of the barangay or village lived. Though the best
lands were reserved for the datu, any person can ask permission from
the datu where to settle.
• With the coming of the Spaniards, a REGALIAN DOCTRINE on the
ownership of land was adopted. This means all lands belonged to the
King. Lands were given to encomenderos as a reward for helping in
the pacification of the islands. These are called personal
encomiendas. Technically the encomenderos do not own the land but
was only its trustee.
The word encomienda comes from the word “encomendar” which means to commend or entrust.
• Later the practice of titling lands was observed. Some lands
were given to individuals for having done something meritorious to
the government such as being allies during a foreign invasion.
• The religious orders were given lands to support their evangelical
activities. Later they receive land from pious donors. As their
financial power grew, religious orders were able to buy lands from
their owners.
• In the case of Dominicans, lands were not only used for
agricultural purposes but also for businesses such as shops.
South of Manila the Dominicans manage the hacienda de Naic, in
Cavite extended their borders to San Pedro Laguna.
• The reason for the Dominicans in owning the haciendas is the
same as those of other religious orders: income from these lands
through the rent paid by the farmers support Dominican
institution such as the University of Santo Tomas, the Colegio se
San Juan de Letran and the Hospital de San Gabriel.
• All the religious orders had landholdings. The Dominicans,
Franciscan, Recollects and Agustinians had holdings up to the end
of Spanish Rule.
• Vast lands owned by individuals and institutions were leased to
primary tenants called inquilinos.
• These inquilinos were mostly mestizos and they were more
managers rather than actual farmers. Physically it was impossible for
them to farm the entire hacienda, which is the reason they had to hire
sharecroppers or kasamas, which was term for tenant farmers.
• Payment is depending on the arrangement they entered into. It can be
a 70/30 or a 50/50 arrangement.
• In many instances the kasama was forced to borrow from his
inquilino and the borrowing rates were usurious.
• The inquilino on the other hand is in charge of getting the
products of the kasamas and they look they look for the best
prices of the products possible.
• The inquilinos paid the landlord the dues for the use of the
land plus a portion of the harvest. As for the landlords, they
would only wait for the harvest and collect the rent when it is
due.
• After getting married to Teodora, Francisco Engracio Mercado decided to
move to the neighboring town of Calamba where the Dominicans had a
hacienda.
• In fact, the entire town was a Dominican hacienda. Calamba was originally
owned by the Jesuits but it became government property when they were
expelled in 1768.
• The Government managed the hacienda up to 1808 until it was placed on public
auction. Jose G. Azanza won in the public bidding and managed the Hacienda
de Calamba until 1831. That year Azanza suffered from financial difficulties and
he was forced to sell the hacienda to the Dominicans. The hacienda was over
two thousand hectares from the boundary of Biñan and Santa Rosa to the
foothills of Mount Makiling.
• The Dominicans leased the land to inquilinos or primary tenants
and Francisco Engracio Mercado was one of these inquilinos.
• Don Francisco developed friendly relations with the Dominicans and
was able to leased 500 hectares.
• To cultivate this vast estate Don Francisco hired sharecroppers to do
the actual cultivation. Don Francisco manage the farm, Doña Teodora
manage a store and a ham press which produced preserved meats.
• Later he was able to build a second bahay na bato in another part of
Calamba. The Rizal house had a library of more than a thousand
books, which was a rarity at that time. As one of the principalia Don
Francisco accommodated visitors to Calamba consisting of priest and
government officials.
• Don Francisco saw to it that the good relations with the Dominicans
remain friendly and cordial. Every time the Dominican administrator
dropped by to collect the rent he would be gifted with a fat turkey.
Paciano managed to get very good terms from the Dominicans. No
rent was to be charged for the first five years as the farmers were
clearing up the land for cultivation.
• To keep the goodwill of the Dominicans Paciano wrote to his brother
Jose in 1883 to refrain from upsetting the friars because they were very
kind to his family. At that time Rizal was already in Spain questioning
his faith, the feudal system in the Philippines and domination of the
Church in the lives of the Filipinos. He was already influenced by
Freemasons in his many encounters in Spain.
• When Rizal was still a young boy, he wandered about in the hacienda
followed by his dog. Rizal was known as Moy or Pepe. He had a talent for
writing and he wrote a play, which he sold to the Mayor of Paete for four
pesos.
• In 1872 tragedy struck the Rizal family, his mother was accused of being an
accomplice to an attempted murder. A close relative Don Jose Alberto was
accused of trying to poison his wife Doña Teodora Formoso de Alberto. Don
Jose was a rich landowner who went on a trip to Europe. Upon coming home
in Biñan he found his house in disarray and his wife was caught committing
adultery. She was found to be living with another man. Don Jose sought a
divorce from his wife and had her confined to her room.
• According to Rizal, his mother tried to reconcile the two. But Doña Teodora de
Alberto found a way to get back at Don Jose and Doña Teodora. She alleged that
when she was served food she gave it to the dog and the dog died. Doña Teodora
de Alberto then had the alferez or the town police Chief to have her husband and
Doña Teodora arrested.
• These persons, according to Rizal were the persons his family treated with kindness
when they were guest at his house. He called the gobernadorcillo a fanatical
puppet of the friars while the alferez was someone who bore a grudge on his family
just because Don Francisco refused his request for free chickens and turkeys. Also
he was refuse fodder for his horse. The gobernadorcillo made Doña Teodora walk
from Calamba to the provincial capitol in Santa Cruz- a distance of more than 30
kilometers.
• After two years of detention, Doña Teodora was released.
• Because of the great favors given by the Dominicans to Rizal and his family,
Rizal should have been thankful for what he and his family received from
Order. However, when he first retuned to Europe in 1887 he participated in
an angry protest against the Dominicans. As a religious order, the Church is
exempted from paying taxes for activities connected with the propagation
of the faith. However, it was not exempted from paying taxes, which are
economic in nature even if this are used to support activities that preach
Christian Doctrines, Emilio Terrero the Governador General then wanted to
investigate the Dominicans to see if they were paying the proper taxes.
• Rizal joined the fray and helped draft an information regarding the agrarian situations
in the Hacienda de Calamba.
• He alleged that the tenants were losing money because the Dominican administrators
were taking advantage of the tenants; that the Dominican landholdings did not just
compromise the farm areas but the entire town of Calamba itself including the house
of the people; that the Dominicans raised the rent every year; that the tenants were
dispossessed of their lands because of high interest rates even if the same
tenants were the ones who cleared the lands; that high penalties were charged if the
rents were not paid on time and that the management of the hacienda confiscated
the carabaos, tools and homes of the tenants if they cannot pay.
• He also reported that the Dominicans never paid a single centavo to the town fiesta.
Lastly he demanded that the colonial government investigate the Dominicans who
may have illegally grab lands. He also questioned the legitimacy of their
landholdings in Calamba or at least part of it.
• It was common knowledge that the Dominicans illegally extended their landholdings to
cover areas not in the legal documents such as the Dominican hacienda of Silang, which
extended to Santa Rosa, leaving the farmers tilling the lands between the two haciendas
landless and turned them to tenants when they could not show a document of
ownership.
• In reply to Rizal’s accusations, the Dominicans said that while it was true that they
controlled the town and Hacienda of Calamba as well as the neighboring towns of Biñan,
San Pedro and Santa Rosa, all these lands were properly titled in the name of the order.
Many lands were leased to settlers free of rent for some period and Rizal’s family was one
of those who benefited from the policy. As for the yearly increases in rent, the
Dominicans said that in many of the lands that were rent –free for many years, it was just
right for them to recover their investments. The same would apply to those who
benefited in the construction of irrigation canals, which benefited the farmers.
• Regarding their income derived from the haciendas, the
Dominicans said that income from these lands support churches
and institutions like the University of Santo Tomas and the College
of San Juan de Letran. They never received any subsidy from the
Spanish government and they had to support these institutions as
well as those abroad.
• As for the farmers losing money, the Dominicans said that the loss
of income of the farmers was not due to increase rents or poor
harvest but because of the laziness of the farmers themselves who
were addicted to gambling.
• In reconciliatory move, the Dominicans allowed the
tenants to have grace period in paying the increased
rents. The Dominicans tried to have an amicable
settlement with the farmers. However, after Rizal left
Calamba for Europe in February 1888, the tenants
openly refused to pay their rents. Their lawyer Felipe
Buencamino reportedly told the tenants not to pay a
single cent to the Dominicans unless they showed that
they really owned the hacienda.
• The tenants won their case at the justice of the peace in
Calamba where according to historian Fr. Villaroel Paciano
practically dictated the decision of the court. But the
tenants lost when the cased was appealed to the provincial
court at Santa Cruz, Laguna and at the higher court in
Manila. The Dominicans was able to prove that they were
legitimate owners of the Calamba and the other
haciendas. The case went as far as the Supreme Court in
Madrid where the Dominicans ultimately won.
• The ruling of the Santa Cruz Court was to have the tenants to pay
the Dominicans or be expelled. Meanwhile without waiting for the
decision of the court in Manila, the agents of the provincial court
supported by a detachment of soldiers destroyed 50 houses. When
the tenants began to return to their former homes, the new
Governor General, Valeriano Weyler sent more troops to expel all
the defiant tenants. Among those expelled was Rizal’s own family.
Weyler deported Paciano, his brother-in-law Silvestre Ubaldo and
twenty-five other individuals to Mindoro. Another brother-in-law,
Manuel Hidalgo, was deported to Bohol.
 Was Rizal right in agitating his townspeople against
the Dominicans?

There were potential Calambas in other towns and

provinces as the farm and lands were controlled by the
religious orders and powerful individuals.
Activities
• Exercise 7.1
• Exercise 7.2
LESSON 7.2
I. Jose Rizal First Sojourn Going to Europe; (France and
Germany); (1882-1887); (To be discussed Lesson 10 Topic
2).
II. Jose Rizal First Homecoming in the Philippines); (Lesson 7;
Topic 2); (1887-1888);
III. Jose Rizal Second Sojourn Going to Europe; (Brazil and
Madrid); (1888-1892); (To be discussed Lesson 10 Topic 2).
IV. Jose Rizal Second Home-coming in the Philippines. (1892-
1896). (To be discussed Lesson 10 Topic 2).
• On August 6, 1887, Jose Rizal arrived in Manila at 9:00 in the evening.
• The first Filipino he encountered was a newspaperman who was astonished when
he read the name Jose Rizal in the list of passengers.
• Immediately upon arrival, Riza! was called by Governor General Emilio Terrero who
said, "You wrote a novel that aroused much comment, and wish to read it." Rizal
promised the Governor General that he would look for one. In the course of their
conversation the Governor General insisted, “Not only do I permit it, but I demand
it.”
• The two had congenial conversation on his plans while in the Philippines and in his
hometown of Calamba. After a few days, Rizal gave a copy to the Governor
General, afterwards he immediately proceeded to Calamba to meet his family,
friends and townmates
• Rizal was treated with favor Spanish government in the
Philippines. Governor General Emilio Terrero y Perinat was a
staunched liberal and questioned the Friar Estate in Philippines.
The Governor of Manila Don Jose Centeno, was a high- ranking
mason, and Rizal as a Mason, would definitely be protected, not
because of favors, but by brotherhood obligation.
• General Tererro gave instructions to the Civil Guard Lieutenant
Jose Taviel de Andrade to protect Rizal from anyone who might
harm him.
• While in-Calamba, and happily united with his family and friends,
Rizal became busy applying the modern technique that he learned
in Spain, France and Germany, specifically in the field of
Ophthalmology.
• When Rizal opened his clinic in Calamba, he was an instant famed
Filipino doctor, due to his medical trainings in Europe, curing many
patients and charging them according to their means of income,
Rizal earned considerable amount of money that he used in
traveling to Asian countries, America and back to Europe.
• One of the reasons why Rizal took up Ophthalmology was
to cure the failing eyesight of Dona Teodora, who for many
years was suffering from cataract.
• The operation was successful, thus, he gained the local title
as Ductor Ullman (German Doctor). He also found time to
have a trip with his Spanish Military escort by climbing Mt.
Makiling in Laguna, to see the grandeur of the panorama
and viewing nature from the mountaintop.
• Rizal was in Madrid, Spain when he knew of the problem concerning the
Hacienda case.
• It was well known at that time, that the Dominican friars, who were in-
charge of me curacy of Calamba, owned the large portion of agricultural and
residential lands in the area, thus, most of the people, were its tenants.
• On July 1885, Paciano informed Rizal of the economic crisis or lack of work
in the country.
• He sent Rizal a letter concerning the action of the Dominican Corporation:
Letter:
Comes the month of June and contrary to custom
all tenants had not paid their obligations,
which was enough to scandalize all the friars, especially the administrator
Who, Without stopping to investigate
what could be the cause of the insolvency,
whether it is lack of will, physical impossibility bad harvest, low price, or
the progressive increase in the land rent, he declares vacant all the lands
of the estate.
Frightened, some paid their obligations with the proceeds of the distress
sate of their sugar.
• In another letter dated August 29, 1886, Rizal's brother-in-law,
Mariano Herbosa, wrote him a letter complaining of the
unbearable tax imposed by the friars to the tenants, such as tax on
irrigated, dry and residential lands, Herbosa added:
Another feature of this system is that,
on the day you accept the conditions,
the contract will be written,
which cannot be changed for four years,
but the tax is increased every year.
• In the interest of Governor General Terrero to introduce
reforms in the agrarian taxation in the country, he gave an
official communication dated December 30, 1887, giving
instruction to the Department of Finance of the Central
Government

to ask information and figures from the tenants of the

Dominican Estate on their agricultural land and production
for the past three years.
• Upon the receipt of the communication, the tenants and
the principales of Calamba entrusted themselves to Rizal to
aid them in preparing the report for the government.
• This was also Rizal's chance to manifest his love for the
poor Filipinos and question the oppressive friars in a formal
report.
• After a series of interviews with the principales, farmers
and tenants, Rizal arrived with a report, which contained
the following summarized statements:
1. That the hacienda owned by the friar corporation, covered the entire town of
Calamba, and that the profits gained from the Hacienda increased due to
arbitrary increase in the land rentals every year, whether with contract or not.
2. Tenants who cleared productive lands are strictly obliged to pay rents, the
same policy was also applied on unproductive lands.
3. High interests were being levied for the tenants who, for valid reasons,
delayed in paying the rents. Failure to pay would mean confiscation of
working animals and residences by the Dominican Corporation,
4. The tenants who paid the high rents were subsequently the town folk
themselves who were never given support or incentive such as assistance to
agriculture and education of their children.
• The report resulted in placing the Dominican friars of Calamba in shame.
• The government records showed that the Catholic friars were guilty of
corruption, fraud and non-payment of tax in a massive scale, not only for the
past three years but from the first year the Dominican congregation took hold of
the land.
• From a small portion of- land owned by the Jesuits which was bought by the
Dominican corporation, now it owned the entire Calamba town. However the tax
paid by the Dominicans was the same when the land was acquired from the
Jesuits.
• The report also revealed that the Dominican Corporation was collecting taxes of
all sorts from the land they never owned.
 As a result, the tenants of Calamba together with
the family of Rizal ceased paying their rents and
taxes to the Dominican Corporation. This action of
the native tenants forced the Dominicans to file
eviction charges against the family of Rizal and
Calamba tenants.
• While Rizal was in Calamba, his parents and friends were worried of his
personal safety.
• His religious enemies requested Governor General Terrero to deport Rizal,
but due to lack of case, the Governor refused. However, he called Rizal in
Manila and asked him to leave the country. Rizal was accused by his enemies
from the church of being a German spy's agent of Bismarck, Protestant,
witch, mason and whose soul condemned to hell.
• His father Don Francisco refused to allow Rizal to go alone or eat in the house
of other families due to the anonymous letters who's content of which
endangered Rizal's life.
• To ease the growing pressure form the threats of the church,
taking it against his family and the government, Rizal decided to
leave the Philippines for his second sojourn to Europe. Thus, at
5:00 p.m. February 3, 1888, he departed and said, "On leaving
Manila, I felt that sweetness and melancholy of six years ago, upon
seeing the turrets of the cathedrals and the big convents." Before
leaving the country, Rizal left another artistic contribution.
• His friends from Lipa, Batangas, requested him to compose for
them a hymn to be sung on the feast day of Lipa, which was
entitled Himno al Trabajo (Hymn to Labor).
• The following lines are excerpts form the hymn:
Men:
Now the East is glowing with light,
Go! To the field to till the land,
For the labor of man sustains
Family, home and Motherland.
Hard the land may turn to be.
Scorching the rays of the sun above....
for the country, wife and children
All will be easy to our love.
Sources;
• De Viana, Agusto (2019). Laon- Laan, A guide for study and
understanding of the life and contributions of Jose Rizal to Philippine
nationhood and society. Books Atbp. Publishing Corp.
• Zaide & Zaide (2011). Rizal: Life, Works and Writings of a Genius,
Writer, Scientist and National Hero. 2nd Ed. All nations Publishing Co.,
Inc. Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines .
• J.A Lopez & A.E Paras.,(2010). Rizal Life Works and Writings of the
Greatest Malayan 3rd Edition. HisGoPhil Publishing House, Inc.