THE

PHILIPPINES IN
NINETEENTH
CENTURY

Jan Lester S.
Tipdas
 Spain and the Philippines in
Rizal’s time
Spanish rule was imposed in the Philippines by conquest.

 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi – he established the first Spanish settlement in

1565 in Cebu.

 Before the conquest, the Filipinos had their own indigenous culture and their
own government, the barangay, headed by native chieftain called “datu”

 The Philippines became a colony of Spain and she belonged to the King of
Spain.
 The Evils of Colonial Rule
 Social Structure  Maladministration of Justice

 Political Structure  Racial Discrimination

 Educational System  Frailocracy

 Corrupt Colonial Officials  Forced Labor

 Philippine Representation in Spanish  Hacienda Owned by Friars

Cortes  The Guardia Civil
 No equity before the law
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
 SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Peninsulares – the highest class, Spanish born in Spain and live in the Philippines.

Insulares – Spanish born in the Philippines

Creoles – the third class, they are the mix blood or combination of Spanish and
Filipino
Illustrado – the well educated Filipino
Principalia – the land owners

Indios – the last class, the unfortunate and discriminated class in the society.
 EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURE

1. Overemphasis on religious matters 6. Primary education was neglected

2. Obsolete teaching methods 7. Absence of academic freedom

3. Limited Curriculum 8. Prejudice against Filipino in the

4. Poor classroom facilities school of higher learning

5. Absence of teaching materials 9. Friars control over the system

 EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURE

The religion is still the center of the educational system imposed by the Spaniards.

Girls and boys have separate schools and they also have different curriculums.

The education system is also used to pacify the Filipinos and train them in
Catholicism and to follow laws the imposed by the Spaniards.
 POLITICAL STRUCTURE
The Spanish colonial government in the Residencia - lived in the Philippines to
Philippines ran indirectly through the observe the Governor General
Viceroy of the Spain in Mexico. Provincial Government - Alcalde Mayor

Municipal Government -
National Government - Governor Gobernadorcillo
General Barrio Government - Cabeza de
Visitador - visited the country to check Barangay
the administration of the governor general
 CORRUPT SPANISH OFFICIALS
Rafael de Izquierdo – a boastful and ruthless governor general, aroused the
anger of the Filipinos by executing the GOMBURZA, the “Martyrs of 1872’’.

Admiral Jose Malcampo (1874-77) - a good Moro fighter but weak

administrator.

General Primo de Vera (1880-83) – (1897-98) - permitted to operate gambling

in Manila.
 CORRUPT SPANISH OFFICIALS
General Valeriano Weyler (1888-1891) - a cruel and corrupt governor
general of Hispanic -German ancestry, arrived in Manila, a poor man
and returned to Spain a millionaire.

• The Filipinos scornfully called him “tyrant’’

• The Cubans cursed him as “the Butcher”

 CORRUPT SPANISH OFFICIALS

General Camilo de Polaviega (1896-97) - a militarist but

heartless governor general, was widely detested by the Filipino
people for executing Dr. Jose Rizal.
PHILIPPINE REPRESENTATION IN
SPANISH CORTES

The first period of the Philippines representation in the Spanish

Cortes (1810-1813) was fruitfully with the beneficent results for
the welfare of the colony. However, the second period of
representation (1820-1823) and the third period of representation
(1834-1837) were less fruitful in parliamentary work.
 PHILIPPINE REPRESENTATION IN
SPANISH CORTES
Ventura delos Reyes – took active part of the Constitution of 1872,
Spain’s first democratic constitution and was one of its 184 signers.

The representation of the overseas colonies including the Philippines in

the Spanish Cortes was abolished in 1983. Since then, Philippines
becomes worsen.
 HUMAN RIGHTS DENIED TO
FILIPINOS
Since the adoption of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, the people of

Spain enjoyed freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of

association and other human rights except freedom of religion. Strangely

enough, the Spanish authorities who cherished these human rights or

constitutional liberties in Spain denied them to the Filipino in Asia.

 NO EQUITY BEFORE THE LAW

During the last decades of Hispanic rule, they arrogantly regarded the
browned – skinned Filipinos as inferior beings not their Christians
brothers to be protected but rather as their majesty’s subjects to be
exploited. To their imperialist way of thinking, brown Filipinos and
white Spaniards maybe equal before God, but not before the law and
certainly not in practice.
 NO EQUITY BEFORE THE LAW

Leyes de Indias were promulgated by the Christians monarchs of Spain to protect the
rights of the natives in Spain’s overseas colonies to promote their welfare. Filipinos
were abused, brutalized, persecuted and slandered by their Spanish masters. They could
not appeal to the law of justice because the law was being dispensed by the Spaniards.

Penal Code which was enforced in the Philippines to impose heavier penalties on
native Filipinos or Mestizos and lighter penalties on white-complexioned Spaniards.
MALADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

The court of justice in the Philippines was corrupt, costly and

slow. Poor Filipinos had no access to the courts because they
could not afford heavy expenses of litigation. Wealth, sol prestige
and color of the skin were preponderant factors in winning a case
in court
 RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

Spaniards regarded the converted Filipinos as inferior being and

undeserving of the rights and privileges that the white Spaniards
enjoyed. They called the brown-skinned and flat-nosed Filipinos
“Indios” (Indians) in retaliation, the Filipinos jealousy dubbed their
pale-complexioned detractors with the disparaging term “bangus”
(milkfish). During Rizal’s time, a white skin, a high nose and a
Castilian lineage were a badge of superiority.
 FRAILOCRACY

Owing to the Spaniard political philosophy of union of church and state, they
have a unique form of government in Hispanic Philippines called “frailocracy”
(frailocracia), so named because it was “a government by friars”. The friars
(augustinians, dominicans and franciscans). Rizal, M.H. del Pilar, G. Lopez
Jaena and other Filipino reformists assailed frailocracy, blaming it for the
prevailing policy of obscurantism.
 FORCED LABOR

Known as the Polo, it was the compulsory labor imposed by the

Spanish colonial authorities on adult Filipino males in the
construction of churches, schools, hospitals, buildings and repair of
the roads and bridges; the building of the ships in the shipyards and
other public works.
 HACIENDAS OWNED BY THE
FRIARS
During Rizal’s times the Spanish friars belonging to different religious orders
were the richest landlords, for they owned the best haciendas in the Philippines.
One of the bloody agrarian revolts as the Dominican Estate of Calamba, tried to
initiate agrarian reforms in 1887, but in vain. His advocacy of agrarian reforms
ignited the wrath of the Dominican friars who retaliated by raising the rentals
of the lands leased by this family and other Calamba’s tenants.
 HACIENDAS OWNED BY THE
FRIARS

Males from 16 to 60 years old were obliged to render forced labor for 40
days a year. On February 3, 1885 the Council of the State increased the
minimum age of the Polistas (those performed the forced labor) from 16-
18 and reduced the days of the labor from 40 to 15 days, but this
particular provision was never implemented in the Philippines.
 THE GUARDIA CIVIL

The last hated symbol of Spanish tyranny was the Guardia Civil (Constability) which
was created by the Royal Decree of February 12, 1852 as amended by the Royal Decree
of March 12, 1888 for the purpose of maintaining internal peace and order in the
Philippines. The Guardia Civil in the Philippines has rendered meritorious services in
the provinces, but later they become infamous for their rampant abuses. Rizal actually
witnessed the atrocities committed by the Guardia Civil on the Calamba folks. He
himself and his mother had been victims of brutalities of the lieutenant of the Guardia
Civil.