Government

The unit of the government in the ancient Philippines was

the barangay, so called after the sailboats on which the
early Malay immigrants sailed to the Philippines. The
barangay was a settlement of 30 to 100 families. Each
barangay was independent and was ruled by a chieftain
called datu or raja. The datu obtained his position by:
#1.
#2.
#3.
#4.

inheritance
his own wisdom
his physical strength
his wealth

He was an absolute ruler. He was the chief executive, the

chief legislator, the chief judge, and the commander in
chief of the military. He was respected and obeyed by his
subjects. In return, he protected them from their enemies,
looked after their welfare, and ruled them in accordance
with the customs and laws of the society. He was assisted
by the elders of the barangay in deciding on important
matters such as the promulgation of laws, the
investigation of disputes, the declaration of war, and the
negotiation of treaties with other barangays. The
subjects, on the other hand, served their datu in his wars
and helped to construct his house. To him they paid
tribute, called buwis, from their harvests.
Peace or war existed among barangays. When not at war,
the people were engaged in trade and commerce and
other peaceful endeavors. They concluded alliances and
friendships
by
means
of
the
blood
compact,
called sangduguan or sandugo. This ceremony consisted
of drawing blood from the arms of the contracting parties,
mixing this in a cup of wine, and drinking the mixture.
Having drunk from the same cup, the contracting parties
became blood brothers.

Quarrels and wars between barangays were from the

following causes:
when a man of one barangay was murdered without
obvious cause by a man from another barangay when a
man was kidnapped by a person from another barangay
when a trader from a barangay was maltreated or insulted
by a man from another barangay The government of the
ancient filipinos was clear enough that they were led by a
leader and that they obediently follow what their leader
said. This is also a clear evidence that they recognize the
wisdom of one person to rule their community just like
what is happening today.
The laws of the early Filipinos were either customary or
written. The customary laws consisted of the customs of
their ancestors. These were handed down by mouth from
one generation to the next and constituted most of the
laws of the barangay. The written laws were those that
the datu and the elders promulgated from time to time as
needed.
The early laws covered many of the matters included in
todays laws. Among these were family relations, property
rights, inheritance, contracts, partnerships, usury, loans,
crimes and their punishment, adoption, and divorce. Our
early ancestors distinguished serous crimes (felonies)
from minor offenses (misdemeanors). Regarded as serious
crimes were insult, murder, larceny, sorcery, rape, arson,
and trespassing. The penalties for these were death,
slavery, burning to death, or exorbitant fines.
The minor offenses included petty theft, perjury, adultery,
cheating in business dealings, and disturbance of the
peace at night by loud singing. These offenses were
punished by whipping, by exposure to ants, by cutting the
fingers of one hand, by swimming for a certain number of

hours, or by small fines. A habitual offender was punished

more severely than a first offender.
How a Law was made?
The laws of the barangay were made by the datu with the
help of his advisers, which may be called the council of
elders. When the datu wanted to make a law, he called his
elders to a meeting and told them what he had in mind.
The group then discussed the proposed law with him. If
the council approved the proposal, the datu summoned
the barangay crier, called umalohokan, and ordered him to
go around the community announcing the new law to the
peoplea practice still found today in many towns. With a
bell in one hand, the umalohokan wen around the
barangay and called the attention of the people. He then
announced or read the content of the new law. The law
thus went into effect, and any person who should violate
it incurred the prescribed penalties.

Judicial Process and trial by Ordeal

All trials in pre-Spanish Philippine society involving either
criminal or civil cases were help publicly, and decisions
were promptly given. The barangay court was composed
of the datu as the chief judge and the elders of the
barangays as its members.
During the trial, the accuser and the accused explained
their respective sides. Both parties could present
witnesses if they wished. These witnesses took an oath to
show their honesty and sicerity. The oath was variously
worded: May the crocodile eat me if I tell any falsehood,
May I die if I tell a lie, May the lighting strike me if I
dont tell the truth, or May the sun and the moon frown
upon me if I tell a lie.

The side who presented the more convincing proofs and

witnesses was adjudged the winner. If the losing party
contested the decision of the barangay court, the datu
openly sided with the winner and compelled the loser to
accept and respect the decision of the court.
In criminal cases, however, the procedure was different.
The so-called trial by ordeal was used. It was believed
that the gods would protect the innocent and punish the
guilty, and that through the ordeals the gods revealed the
divined truth to the people.
According to Miguel de Loarca, a Spaniard who wrote a
book entitled Relacion de Las Islas Filipinas, published in
1582, the ancient Filipinos had several ways of
determining guilt or innocence in a crime. These were the
following;
1. The River Ordeal the suspects were made to jump
into a river with their lances, and he who first rose
to the surface was pronounced guilty.
2. The Boiling-water Ordeal usually used in cases of
theft wherein the suspects were ordered to pick up
a stone placed in a pot of boiling water; the suspect
who refused to obey the command is pronounced
the culprit. However, if all the suspects did what
they were ordered to do, the man whose hand was
the most seriously burned was pronounced guilty.
3. The Candle Ordeal the suspects were given
lighted candles and the man whose candle first
went out was declared guilty.

Religious Beliefs
The ancient Tagalogs believed in one supreme god called
Bathala, and the ancient Visayans believed in a similar
god they called Laon. He was said to be the creator of
heaven, earth, people and the entire universe. Aside from

this Supreme Being, they also worshipped lesser gods and

goddesses whose functions were close to the daily lives of
the people. These were some of the various ancient
deities;
Idiyanale Tagalog goddess of agriculture
Sidapa Visayan god of death
Barangao Visayan god of the rainbow
Lalahon Visayan goddess of harvest
Apolaki Pangasinan god of war
Darago Bagobo god of war
Dal-lang Ilokano goddess of beauty
Kidul Ifugao god of thunder
Dian Masalanta Tagalog god of birth
The ancient Filipinos also believed in and worshipped
lower spirits called anitos or diwatas. Anitos were either
good or bad. They were good if they were the spirits of
relatives and ancestors; they were bad if they were the
spirits of enemies. To these anitos and minor deities,
prayers and sacrifices were offered. Religious sacrifices,
called maganilo,
were
performed
by
priests
and
priestesses called babayland, baylana, or katalona. The
usual minister for religious worship was a woman. If a
man
performed
the
religious
ritual,
he
was
called asog (effeminate). Food, drink, fruit, animals, and
sometimes human beings were offered or used in the
sacrificial rites. By such means a person hoped to gain the
blessings of the spirits and avoid their wrath.
The ancient Filipinosand a number of Filipinos today
intense feared certain gods and goddesses which they
believed to be mostly harmful. There are known by a
great many names because there are some eighty
different languages in the countrylanguages, not
dialects, since the speakers of a dialect cannot
communicate with the speakers of the other dialects.

In his extensive research on these creatures, Dr. Maximo

D. Ramos has shown them to fall under the twelve groups
according to what the creatures look like, what they do,
and where they are usually found:
1. Demons such as the kapre and the tikbalang.
2. Dragons
such
as
the
moonswallowing minokawa and bakunawa that
are
believed to cause the eclipse.
3. Dwarfs such as dwende, matanda sa punso,
and lamang lupa that live underground.
4. Elves such as the encantada and kibaan.
5. Giants such as Angngalo and Onglo.
6. Ghouls such as the corpse-eating aswang.
7. Mermaids
and
mermen
such
as sirena,
magindara, and siukoy.
8. Ogres such as the busaw and siring.
9. Vampires
such
as
the
bloodsucking mandurugo and aswang.
10.Viscera
suckers
such
as
the manananggal and buroka, which leave their
lower body from the waist down and soar out to
suck internal organs of the people especially
pregnant women and unborn infants.
11.Werebeasts
such
as
the malakat and segben (sigbin) which is a man
who could become fierce dog, hog, or any other
animal and attacks wayfarers at night.
12.Witches
such
as
the mangkukulam and manggagamod, which made
their victims ill by magically inserting various sharp
objects into their bodies.
Most of the early Filipinos believed that the souls are
immortal and there is life after death. Many of them
believed that after death, the souls traveled to the next
world to receive their punishment or reward according to
what they did while on earth. The souls of the brave and

good men were believed to go to heaven, known

as kaluwalhatian among the Tagalogs. On the other hand,
the souls of the unjust, the cruel, and the evil went to
hell, called kasamaan. The Bontoks of today still believe
that the soul of the dead will live in huts and villages in
the future world like those they left on earth.
Finally, in keeping the memory of their departed relatives,
the early Filipinos carved idols made of gold, stone, wood,
or ivory. Among the Tagalogs, these idols were
called larawan or likha.

Burial
Because Filipinos believed in life after death and in
lasting relationships between the living and the dead, the
ancient Filipinos took great care in burying their dead.
The corpse was embalmed with the use of certain herbs
and native perfumes and the placed in a burial jar or
wooden coffin. Amidst deep lamentation, the corpse was
buried right under the house, inside a cave, or on a cliff
overlooking the sea. Clothes, food, weapons, gold, and
sometimes even slaves were buried with the dead.
Skeletons recently discovered in ancient Philippine burial
sites such as those in Bolinao, Pangasinan, show that the
eyes of our ancient dead were covered with beaten gold
before burial. Their teeth were filled with gold too.
During the period of mourning, the family and immediate
relatives of the dead wore white clothes and rattan bands
around their necks, arms, and legs. They also refrained
from eating meat or from drinking wine at this time. To
show their deep sorrow over their loss, the relatives of
the dead hired professional mourners, as the Chinese still
do, to chant the good deeds and achievements of the
dead.
Mourning for an ordinary dead man was called maglahi,

and mourning for an ordinary woamn was called marotal.

Mourning for a dead chief, however, was called laraw.
Bright lights around the corpse burned all day and all
night. Fires were built under and around the bereaved
home. Then, as now, the mourners played parlor games
and sang all night till daybreak. Indeed, in some areas in
the country today, the house where a death has just
occurred is burned down and the family leaves and builds
their home elsewhere. When a chieftain died, any war
and petty quarrels were suspended or stopped altogether.
All warriors carried their spears pointed to the ground
and their daggers with hilts reversed. Singing in boats
was prohibited and the wearing of bright colored clothes
was forbidden. If the deceased died by violent means like
murder, the relatives appeased their sorrow by killing the
guilty party.

Divination and Magic Charms

The ancient Filipinos had many interesting folk beliefs.
Some
of
these
are
the
following;
1. When a dog howls near midnight, a neighbor will
die
2. When a comet flashes in the sky, there will be
pestilence, famine, or war
3. When a person dreams that one of his teeth falls
out or when a black butterfly flits around him, a
relative had died
4. When a young girl sings before a stove while she is
cooking supper, she will marry an old widower
although one study has shown that the widower is
said to be a matanda sa punso who comes near
homes after sunset to listen to nice voices of girls
who he then tries to seduce.
On the other hand, to acquire magical powers, the early
Filipinos used various charms and amulets. These were

believed to protect them from danger. The antinganting or agimat, made its possessor invulnerable iron
weapons; the gayuma, a love potion, made a man
romantically irresistible to ladies; the tagabulag made its
possessor
invisible
to
the
human
eye;
and
the uiga enabled any man to cross a river without getting
wet.

Economic Life
There were no schools as we know them in the preSpanish Philippines. The children studied in their own
homes with their parents as the teachers or tutors. The
parents taught their children a mix of academic and
vocational courses. Both the boys and the girls were
taught reading, writing, arithmetic, music, religion, and
tribal customs. In addition, the boys were trained to be
warriors, hunters, farmers, fishermen, boat-builders,
miners, and blacksmiths. The girls, on the other hand,
were taught cooking, sewing, weaving, and stock rising.
Agriculture was the main industry in the pre-Spanish
Philippines. Rice, hemp, coconut, cotton, sugarcane,
camotes, bananas, oranges, and many kinds of fruits and
vegetables were raised. There were two methods of
cultivation;
1. Kaingin System shrubs, bushes and trees were
burned to clear the land, after which holes were
bored in the ground with pointed sticks and seeds
were then planted there.
2. Tillage System wooden plows and harrows drawn
by carabaos (buffalo) were used to cultivate the
soil. In some regions, irrigation was extensively
used to increase farm production.
The system of landholding of the early Filipinos was both
public and private. The mountain slopes and other less

arable land were considered the property of the entire

barangay. Anybody could cultivate the land there. The
richer areas, however, were owned by the datu or by
private individuals. These private lands were acquired by
occupation, purchase, or inheritance.
Aside from agriculture, the ancient Filipinos also raised
chickens, carabaos and swine, and fish. They engaged in
mining, lumbering, weaving, wine manufacture, weapon
making, and boat building.
Fishing prospered because most of the settlements of the
early Filipinos lived along rivers and on the seashores.
Mining was also an important early Philippine industry.
Gold, which was obtained from rivers and mines, was the
principal mineral and was used in making rings, bracelets,
armlets and necklaces. The abundance of forest trees led
the early Filipinos to produce lumbers and build fine
outrigger
sailboats.
Weaving was a home industry. With wooden looms, the
women
wove
fine
textiles
such
as
sinamay,medriaque cotton, linen, and silk.
Some of the minor industries of the early Filipinos were
jewelry making, tanning of animal hide, and hunting of
edible birds nests, making mats and baskets, and making
ornaments from carabao horn.

Coming of the Spaniards

Contrary to public view, the Spaniards were not the first
Europeans to arrive in the Philippines but were just the
first well documented arrival of western Europeans. The
Spanish expedition led by Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan
first sighted the mountains of Samar at dawn on 16 March
1521, making landfall the following day at the small,
uninhabited island of Homonhon at the mouth of the
Leyte Gulf.

Note: Magellan had abandoned his Portuguese

citizenship and became a Spanish subject prior to his
contract with Spain.
On Easter Sunday, 31 March 1521 , at Masao, Butuan,
(now in Agusan Del Norte), he solemnly planted a cross on
the summit of a hill overlooking the sea and claimed
possession of the islands he had seen for Spain, naming
them Archipelago of Saint Lazarus.
Magellan sought friendship among the natives beginning
with Rajah Humabon, the chieftain of Sugbu (now Cebu),
and took special pride in converting them to Catholicism.
Magellan got involved with political rivalries among the
Cebuano natives and took part in a battle against LapuLapu, chieftain of Mactan island and a mortal enemy of
Humabon. At dawn on 27 April 1521, Magellan invaded
Mactan Island with 60 armed men and 1,000 Cebuano
warriors, but had great difficulty landing his men on the
rocky shore. Lapu-Lapu had an army of 1,500 on land.
Magellan waded ashore with his soldiers and attacked the
Mactan defenders, ordering Humabon and his warriors to
remain aboard the ships and watch. Magellan seriously
underestimated the Lapu-Lapu and his men, and grossly
outnumbered, Magellan and 14 of his soldiers were killed.
The rest managed to reboard the ships.
The battle left the Spanish too few to man three ships so
they abandoned the "Concepcin". The remaining ships "Trinidad" and "Victoria" - sailed to the Spice Islands in
present-day Indonesia. From there, the expedition split
into two groups.
The Trinidad, commanded by Gonzalo Gmez de Espinoza
tried to sail eastward across the Pacific Ocean to the
Isthmus of Panama. Disease and shipwreck disrupted
Espinoza's voyage and most of the crew died. Survivors of

the Trinidad returned to the Spice Islands, where the

Portuguese imprisoned them.
The Victoria continued sailing westward, commanded by
Juan Sebastin de El Cano, and managed to return to
Sanlcar de Barrameda, Spain in 1522.
In 1529, Charles I of Spain relinquished all claims to the
Spice Islands to Portugal in the treaty of Zaragoza.
However, the treaty did not stop the colonization of the
Philippine archipelago from New Spain.
After Magellan's voyage, subsequent expeditions were
dispatched to the islands. Four expeditions were sent:
1. Loaisa (1525)
2. Cabot (1526)
3. Saavedra (1527)
4. Villalobos (1542)
5. Legazpi (1564), was the most successful as it
resulted in the discovery of the tornaviaje or return
trip to Mexico across the Pacific by Andres de
Urdaneta. This discovery started the trade of the
famous Manila Galleons which lasted two and a half
centuries.
In 1543, Ruy Lpez de Villalobos named the islands of
Leyte and Samar Las Islas Filipinas after Philip II of Spain.
Philip II became King of Spain on January 16, 1556, when
his father, Charles I of Spain, abdicated the Spanish
throne. Philip was in Brussels at the time and his return to
Spain was delayed until 1559 because of European politics
and wars in northern Europe. Shortly after his return to
Spain, Philip ordered an expedition mounted to the Spice
Islands, stating that its purpose was "to discover the
islands to the west". In reality its task was to conquer the
Philippines for Spain.
On April 27, 1565, a Spanish expedition of a mere 500

men led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi landed in Bohol and

made a blood compact with Raja Katuna and Raja Gala. He
and his men then proceeded to the nearby island of
Cebu.Where they were attacked by the defiant Tupas, who
had succeeded Humabon as king of Cebu. Tupas was
defeated and requested to sign an agreement which
placed his people and the entire island of Cebu under
Spain. On that same day, the first permanent Spanish
settlement of San Miguel was founded in Cebu.
In 1570, Juan de Salcedo, in the service of Legazpi,
conquered the Kingdom of Maynila (now Manila). Legazpi
then made Maynila the capital of the Philippines and
simplified its spelling to Manila. His expedition also
renamed Luzon Nueva Castilla. Legazpi became the
country's first governor-general. With time, Cebu's
importance fell as power shifted north to Luzon. The
archipelago was Spain's outpost in the orient and Manila
became the capital of the entire Spanish East Indies. The
colony was administered through the Viceroyalty of New
Spain (now Mexico) until 1821 when Mexico achieved
independence from Spain. After 1821, the colony was
governed directly from Spain.
The European population in the archipelago steadily grew
although natives remained the majority. They depended
on the Galleon Trade for a living. In the later years of the
18th
century,
Governor-General
Basco
introduced
economic reforms that gave the colony its first significant
internal source income from the production of tobacco
and other agricultural exports. In this later period,
agriculture was finally opened to the European
population, which before was reserved only for the
natives.
During Spains 333 year rule in the Philippines, the
colonists had to fight off the Chinese pirates (who lay
siege to Manila, the most famous of which was Limahong

in 1574), Dutch forces, Portuguese forces, and indigenous

revolts. Moros from western Mindanao and the Sulu
Archipelago also raided the coastal Christian areas of
Luzon and the Visayas and occasionally captured men and
women to be sold as slaves.
Some Japanese ships visited the Philippines in the 1570s
in order to export Japanese silver and import Philippine
gold. Later, increasing imports of silver from New World
sources resulted in Japanese exports to the Philippines
shifting from silver to consumer goods. In the 1580s, the
Spanish traders were troubled to some extent by
Japanese pirates, but peaceful trading relations were
established between the Philippines and Japan by 1590.
Japan's kampaku (regent), Toyotomi Hideyoshi, demanded
unsuccessfully on several occasions that the Philippines
submit to Japan's suzerainty.
On February 8, 1597, King Philip II, near the end of his 42year reign, issued a Royal Cedula instructing Francisco de
Tello de Guzmn, then Governor-General of the Philippines
to fulfill the laws of tributes and to provide for restitution
of ill-gotten taxes taken from the natives. The decree was
published in Manila on August 5, 1598. King Philip died on
13 September, just forty days after the publication of the
decree, but his death was not known in the Philippines
until middle of 1599, by which time a referendum by
which the natives would acknowledge Spanish rule was
underway. With the completion of the Philippine
referendum of 1599, Spain could be said to have
established legitimate sovereignty over the Philippines.

Spanish Rule
Political System
The Spanish quickly organized their new colony according
to their model. The first task was the reduction, or

relocation of native inhabitants into settlements. The

earliest political system used during the conquista period
was the encomienda system, which resembled the feudal
system in medieval Europe. The conquistadores, friars
and native nobles were granted estates, in exchange for
their services to the King, and was given the privilege to
collect tribute from its inhabitants. In return, the person
granted the encomienda, known as an encomendero, was
tasked to provide military protection to the inhabitants,
justice and governance. In times of war, the encomendero
was duty bound to provide soldiers for the King, in
particular, for the complete defense of the colony from
invaders such as the Dutch, British and Chinese. The
encomienda system was abused by encomenderos and by
1700 was largely replaced by administrative provinces,
each headed by an alcalde mayor (provincial governor)
The most prominent feature of Spanish cities was the
plaza, a central area for town activities such as the fiesta,
and where government buildings, the church, a market
area and other infrastructures were located. Residential
areas lay around the plaza. During the conquista, the first
task of colonization was the reduction, or relocation of the
indigenous population into settlements surrounding the
plaza.
As in Europe, the church always had control over the state
affairs of the colony. The friars controlled the sentiments
of the native population and were more powerful than the
governor-general himself. Among the issues that resulted
to the Philippine revolution of 1898 that ended Spanish
rule was the abuse of power by the religious orders.
A. National Government
On the national level, the King of Spain, through his
Council of the Indies (Consejo de Indias), governed
through his sole representative in the Philippines: the
Governor-General (Gobernador y Capitn General).

With the seat of power in Intramuros, Manila, the

Governor-General was given several duties: he headed
the Supreme Court (Real Audiencia), was Commanderin-chief of the army and navy, and was the economic
planner of the country. All known executive power of
the local government stemmed from him and as viceregal patron, he had the right to supervise mission
work and oversee ecclesiastical appointments. His
yearly salary was P40,000. For obvious reasons, the
Governor-General was usually a Peninsular (Spaniard
born in Spain) to ensure loyalty of the colony to the
crown.
B. Provincial Government.
On the provincial level, heading the pacified provinces
(alcaldia), was the provincial governor (alcalde mayor).
The unpacified military zones (corregidor), such as
Mariveles and Mindoro, were headed by the
corregidores. City governments (ayuntamientos), were
also headed by an alcalde mayor. Alcalde mayors and
corregidores exercised multiple prerogatives as judge,
inspector of encomiendas, chief of police, tribute
collector, capitan-general of the province and even
vice-regal patron. His annual salary ranged from P300
to P2000 before 1847 and P1500 to P1600 after it. But
this can be augmented through the special privilege of
"indulto de commercio" where all people were forced
to do business with him. The alcalde mayor was usually
an Insulares (Spaniard born in the Philippines). In the
19th century, the Peninsulares began to displace the
Insulares which resulted in the political unrests of
1872, notably the execution of GOMBURZA, Novales
Revolt and mutiny of the Cavite fort under La Madrid.

C. Municipal Government

The pueblo or town is headed by the Gobernadorcillo

or little governor. Among his administrative duties
were the preparation of the tribute list (padron),
recruitment and distribution of men for draft labor,
communal public work and military conscription
(quinto), postal clerk and judge in minor civil suits. He
intervened in all administrative cases pertaining to his
town: lands, justice, finance and the municipal police.
His annual salary, however, was only P24 but he was
exempted from taxation. Any native or Chinese
mestizo, 25 years old, literate in oral or written
Spanish and has been a Cabeza de Barangay of 4 years
can be a Gobernadorcillo. Among those prominent are
Emilio Aguinaldo, a Chinese Mestizo and who was the
Gobernadorcillo of Cavite El Viejo (now Kawit). The
officials of the pueblo were taken from the Principala,
the noble class of pre-colonial origin. Their names are
survived by prominent families in contemporary
Philippine society such as Lindo, Tupas, Gatmaitan,
Liwanag, Pangilinan, Panganiban, Balderas, and
Agbayani to name a few.
D. Barrio Government
Barrio government (village or district) rested on the
barrio administrator (cabeza de barangay). He was
responsible for peace and order and recruited men for
communal public works. Cabezas should be literate in
Spanish and have good moral character and property.
Cabezas who served for 25 years were exempted from
forced labor. In addition, this is where the sentiment
heard as, "Mi Barrio", first came from.
E. The Residencia and The Visita
To check the abuse of power of royal officials, two
ancient castilian institutions were brought to the

Philippines. The Residencia, dating back to the 5th

century and the Visita differed from the residencia in
that it was conducted clandestinely by a visitadorgeneral sent from Spain and might occur anytime
within the officials term, without any previous notice.
Visitas may be specific or general.

F. Maura Law
The legal foundation for municipal governments in the
country was laid with the promulgation of the Maura
Law on May 19, 1893. Named after its author, Don
Antonio Maura, the Spanish Minister of Colonies at the
time, the law reorganized town governments in the
Philippines with the aim of making them more effective
and autonomous. This law created the municipal
organization that was later adopted, revised, and
further strengthened by the American and Filipino
governments that succeeded Spanish.

Economy
A. Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade
The Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade was the main
source of income for the colony during its early years.
Service was inaugurated in 1565 and continued into
the early 19th century. The Galleon trade brought
silver from New Spain, which was used to purchase
Asian goods such as silk from China, spices from the
Moluccas, lacquer ware from Japan and Philippine
cotton textiles.[13] These goods were then exported to
New Spain and ultimately Europe by way of Manila.
Thus, the Philippines earned its income through the
trade of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon. The trade was
very prosperous and attracted many merchants to
Manila, especially the Chinese. However, initially it

neglected the development of the colony's local

industries which affected the Indios since agriculture
was their main source of income. In addition, the
building and operation of galleons put too much
burden on the colonists' annual polo y servicio.
However, it resulted in cultural and commercial
exchanges between Asia and the Americas that led to
the introduction of new crops and animals to the
Philippines such as corn, potato, tomato, cotton and
tobacco among others, that gave the colony its first
real income. The trade lasted for over two hundred
years, and ceased in 1815 just before the secession of
American colonies from Spain.
B. Taxation
To support the colony, several forms of taxes and
monopolies were imposed. The buwis (tribute), which
could be paid in cash or kind (tobacco,chickens,
produce, gold, blankets, cotton, rice, etc., depending
on the region of the country), was initially was fixed at
8 reales (one real being 8 centavos) and later
increased to 15 reales, apportioned as follows: ten
reales buwis, one real diezmos prediales (tithes), one
real to the town community chest, one real sanctorum
tax,
and
three
reales
for
church
support.
Also collected was the bandal (from the Tagalog word
mandal, a round stack of rice stalks to be threshed),
an annual enforced sale and requisitioning of goods
such as rice. Custom duties and income tax were also
collected. By 1884, the tribute was replaced by the
Cedula personal, wherein colonists were required to
pay for personal identification. Everyone over the age
of 18 was obliged to pay. The local gobernadorcillos
had been responsible for collection of the tribute.
Under the cedula system, however, taxpayers were
individually responsible to Spanish authorities for

payment of the tax, and were subject to summary

arrest for failure to show a cedula receipt.
C. Forced Labor (Polo y servicios)
The system of forced or corve labor known as polo y
servicios evolved from the encomienda system,
introduced into the Latin American colonies by the
Conquistadores and Catholic priests who accompanied
them. Polo y servicios is the forced labor for 40 days of
men ranging from 16 to 60 years of age who were
obligated to give personal services to community
projects. One could be exempted from polo by paying
the falla (a corruption of the Spanish falta, meaning
"absence"), a daily fine of one and a half real. In 1884,
labor was reduced to 15 days. The polo system was
patterned after the Mexican repartimento, selection
for forced labor.

Culture
By the 19th century, the Philippines had become an
important possession. The early small number of
European settlers, soldiers and missionaries brought
with them aspects of European life, i.e. the Spanish
menu, religious festivals, stone houses, manner of
clothing and fashion. The colonists used the Gregorian
calendar, the Latin script and used theocentric art,
music, literature. Likewise, the European settlers and
their
descendants:
known
as
Insulares
(lit.
"Islanders"), also adapted to oriental culture learning
to eat rice as their staple and use soy sauce, coconut
vinegar, coconut oil and ginger. Today, Filipino culture
is a blend of many different cultures.
British Interlude
In August 1759, Charles III ascended the Spanish throne.

At the time, Britain and France were at war, in what was

later called the Seven Years War. France successfully
negotiated a treaty with Spain known as the Family
Compact which was signed on 15 August 1761. By an
ancillary secret convention, Spain was committed to
making preparations for war against Britain.

Philippines. In reality they only controlled Manila and

Cavite, and parts of Ilocos and Cagayan. But Manila was
the capital, and key, to the Spanish-Philippines, and the
British accepted the written surrender of the Spanish
government in the Philippines from Archbishop Rojo and
the Real Audiencia on 30 October 1762.

On 24 September 1762, a small but technically proficient

force of British Army regulars and British East India
Company soldiers, supported by the ships and men of the
East Indies Squadron of the British Royal Navy, sailed into
Manila Bay from Madras in India.

The terms of surrender proposed by the Real Audencia

and agreed to by the British leaders, secured private
property, guaranteed the Roman Catholic religion and its
episcopal government, and granted the citizens of the
former Spanish colony the rights of peaceful travel and of
trade 'as British subjects'. Under superior British control,
the Philippines would continue to be governed by the Real
Audencia, the expenses of which were to be paid by
Spain.
The Seven Years War was ended by the Peace of Paris
signed on 10 February 1763. At the time of signing the
treaty, the signatories were not aware that the
Philippines had been taken by the British and was being
administered as a British colony. Consequently no specific
provision was made for the Philippines. Instead they fell
under the general provision that all other lands not
otherwise provided for be returned to the Spanish Crown.

The expedition, led by Brigadier General William Draper

and Rear-Admiral Samuel Cornish, captured Manila, "the
greatest Spanish fortress in the western Pacific", and
attempted to establish free trade with China.
The Spanish defeat was not really surprising. The Royal
Governor, Don Pedro Manuel de Arandia had died in 1759
and his replacement Brigadier Don Francisco de la Torre
had not arrived because of the British attack on Havana,
Cuba. Spanish policy was for the Archbishop of Manila to
be Lieutenant Governor. Because the garrison was
commanded by the Archbishop Don Manuel Rojo del Rio y
Vieyra, instead of by a military expert, many mistakes
were made by the Spanish forces.
Under Spanish rule, the Philippines never paid its own
way, but survived on an annual subsidy paid by the
Spanish Crown. As a cost saving measure and because the
Spanish authorities never really contemplated a serious
expedition against Manila by a European power, the 200
year old fortifications at Manila had not been improved
much since first built by the Spanish.
Early success by the British in Manila did not enable them
to expand their control over all parts of the Spanish-

The British rule ended with them embarking from Manila

and Cavite in the first week of April 1764, and sailing out
of Manila Bay for Batavia, India and England. The conflict
over payment by Spain of the outstanding part of the
ransom promised by Rojo in the terms of surrender, and
compensation by Britain for excesses committed by
Governor Drake against residents of Manila, continued in
Europe for years afterwards.

Resistance against Spanish Rule

The road to Philippine nationhood was difficult with
continuous threats to Spanish domination brought about

by invasions from the Dutch, British, Chinese, Japanese,

and indigenous rebellions.
Throughout the period of Spanish rule, previously
dominant and independent groups resisted Spanish
overlordship, refusing to pay Spanish taxes, and rejecting
Spanish excesses.
The 19th century was a period of global change under the
banner of liberty, equality and brotherhood brought about
by the patriotisms of the French and American
Revolutions.
In 1898, Filipino patriots seceded from the Spanish
Empire and formally declared independence under the
First Philippine Republic.
A. Early resistance
Resistance against Spain did not immediately cease upon
the conquest of the Austronesian cities. After Tupas of
Cebu, random native nobles resisted Spanish rule. The
longest recorded native rebellion was that of Francisco
Dagohoy which lasted a century.
During the British rule in the 1760s, Diego Silang was
appointed governor of Ilocos and after his assassination
by fellow natives, his wife Gabriela continued to lead the
Ilocanos. Resistance against Spanish rule was regional in
character, based on ethnolinguistic groups.
Hispanization of sorts, did not spread to the mountainous
center of northern Luzon, nor to the inland communities
of Mindanao. The highlanders were more able to resist the
Spanish invaders than the lowlanders.
The Moros, most notably the sultanates, had a more
advanced political system than their counterparts in the

Visayas and Luzon. Spanish cities in Mindanao were

limited to the coastal areas of Zamboanga and Cagayan
de Oro.
B. The Opening of the Philippines to World Trade
The 19th century was a period of global change. The
world had entered its first phase of globalization under
the British Empire. In Europe, the Industrial Revolution
had spread from Great Britain which had entered its Pax
Britannica known as the Victorian Age. The rapid
industrialization of Europe were seeking new markets and
found them in the colonies. The colonies prospered with
the production of raw materials for the mother countries.
It was during this period that Governor-General Basco
opened the Philippines to world trade. The economy of
the Philippines rose rapidly and its local industries
developed to satisfy the rising industrialization of Europe.
European immigration increased with the opening of the
Suez Canal which cut the travel time between Europe and
the Philippines by half. New ideas, which the friars and
colonial authorities found dangerous, found their way into
the Philippines notably Freemasonry and ideals of the
French and American Revolutions and of Spanish
liberalism.
C. Rise of Filipino nationalism
The opening of the Philippines to world trade rapidly
developed the Philippine economy. Many Filipinos
prospered overnight. Everyday Filipinos also benefited
from the new economy with the rapid increase in demand
for labor and availability of business opportunities. Some
Europeans immigrated to the Philippines to join the
wealth wagon, among them Jacobo Zobel, patriarch of
today's Zobel de Ayala family and prominent figures in the
rise of Filipino nationalism. Their scions studied in the
best universities of Europe where they learned the ideals

of liberty from the French and American Revolutions. The

new economy gave rise to a new middle class in the
Philippines, usually not ethnic Filipinos.
In the early 19th century, the Suez Canal was opened
which made the Philippines easier to reach from Spain.
The small increase of Peninsulares from the Iberian
Peninsula threatened the secularization of the Philippine
churches. In state affairs, the Criollos, known locally as
Insulares
(lit.
"Islanders").
were
displaced
from
government positions by the Peninsulares, whom the
native Insulares regarded as foreigners. The Insulares had
become increasingly Filipino and called themselves Los
hijos del pas (lit. "sons of the country"). Among the early
proponents of Filipino nationalism were the Insulares
Padre Pedro Pelez, archbishop of Manila, who fought for
the secularization of Philippine churches and expulsion of
the friars; Padre Jos Burgos whose execution influenced
the national hero Jos Rizal; and Joaqun Pardo de Tavera
who fought for retention of government positions by
natives, regardless of race. In retaliation to the rise of
Filipino nationalism, the friars called the Indios (possibly
referring to Insulares and mestizos as well) indolent and
unfit for government and church positions. In response,
the Insulares came out with Indios agraviados, a
manifesto defending the Filipino against discriminatory
remarks. The tension between the Insulares and
Peninsulares erupted into the failed revolts of Novales
and the Cavite Mutiny of 1872 which resulted to the
deportation of prominent Filipino nationalists to the
Marianas and Europe who would continue the fight for
liberty through the Propaganda Movement. The Cavite
Mutiny implicated the priests Mariano Gmez, Jos
Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora (see Gomburza) whose
executions would influence the subversive activities of
the next generation of Filipino nationalists, in particular
Paciano Rizal, elder brother of Jos Rizal, who then
dedicated his novel, El filibusterismo to the these priests.

D. Rise of Spanish liberalism

The Liberals won the Spanish Revolution of 1869. Carlos
Mara de la Torre was sent to the Philippines to serve as
governor-general (18691871). He was one of the most
loved governors-general in the Philippines having
implemented reforms in the colony. At one time, his
supporters serenaded him in front of the Malacaang
Palace. Among those who serenaded were Padre Burgos
and Joaqun Pardo de Tavera. When the Reactionaries
regained power in Spain, de la Torre was recalled and
replaced by Governor-General Izquierdo who vowed to
rule with an iron fist.
E. Freemasonry
Freemasonry had gained a generous following in Europe
and the Americas during the 19th century and found its
way to the Philippines. The Western World was quickly
changing and sought less political control from the Roman
Catholic Church.
The first Filipino Masonic lodge was Revoluccion. It was
established by Graciano Lopez Jaena in Barcelona and was
recognized in April 1889. It did not last long after he
resigned from being its worshipful master on November
29,
1889.
In December 1889, Marcelo H. del Pilar established, with
the help of Julio Llorente, the Solidaridad in Madrid. Its
first worshipful master was Llorente. A short time later,
the Solidaridad grew. Some its members included Jos
Rizal, Pedro Serrano Laktaw, Baldomero Roxas, and
Galicano
Apacible.
In 1891, Del Pilar sent Laktaw to the Philippines to
establish a Masonic lodge. Laktaw established on January
6, 1892, the Nilad, the first Masonic lodge in the
Philippines. It is estimated that there were 35 masonic

lodges in the Philippines in 1893 of which nine were in

Manila. The first Filipina freemason was Rosario Villaruel.
Trinidad and Josefa Rizal, Marina Dizon, Romualda Lanuza,
Purificacion Leyva, and many others join the masonic
lodge.
eemasonry was important during the time of the
Philippine Revolution. It pushed the reform movement
and carried out the propaganda work. In the Philippines,
many of those who pushed for a revolution were member
of freemasonry like Andrs Bonifacio. In fact, the
organization used by Bonifacio in establishing the
Katipunan was derived from the Masonic society. It may
be said that joining masonry was one activity that both
the reformists and the Katipuneros shared.
F. Revolution
The mass deportation of nationalists to the Marianas and
Europe in 1872 led to a Filipino expatriate community of
reformers in Europe. The community grew with the next
generation of Ilustrados taking graduate studies in
European universities. They allied themselves with
Spanish liberals, notably a certain Spanish senator named
Morayta and formed the La Solidaridad. Among the
reformers was Jos Rizal, who wrote his two famous
novels while in Europe. Among the manuscripts of the
reformers, his novels were considered the most influential
causing further unrest in the islands particularly the
founding of the Katipunan. A rivalry developed between
himself and Marcelo del Pilar for the leadership of La
solidaridad and the reform movement in Europe. Majority
of the expatriates supported the leadership of Marcelo
Del Pilar.
Rizal then returned to the Philippines to organize La Liga
Filipina and bring the reform movement to Philippine soil.
He was arrested just a few days after founding the
league. In 1892, Radical members of the La Liga Filipina,

which included Bonifacio and Deodato Arellano, founded

the Kataastaasang Kagalanggalang na Katipunan ng mga
Anak ng Bayan (KKK), called simply the Katipunan, which
had the bold objective of having the Philippines seceding
from the Spanish Empire. From the Insular uprisings of
the early 19th century of Fathers Pelez and Burgos, the
Filipino discontent eventually escalated to a full-blown
armed revolution in August 1896.
G. The Philippine Revolution
By 1896 the Katipunan had a membership by the
thousands. That same year, the existence of the
Katipunan was discovered by the colonial authorities. In
late August Katipuneros gathered in Caloocan and
declared the start of the revolution. The event is now
known as the Cry of Balintawak or Cry of Pugad Lawin,
due to conflicting historical traditions and official
government positions.
Andrs Bonifacio called for a general offensive on Manila
and was defeated in battle at the town of San Juan del
Monte. He regrouped his forces and was able to briefly
capture the towns of Marikina, San Mateo and Montalban.
Spanish counterattacks drove him back and he retreated
to the mountains of Balara and Morong and from there
engaged in guerrilla warfare. By August 30, the revolt had
spread to eight provinces. On that date, Governor-General
Ramon Blanco declared a state of war in these provinces
and placed them under martial law. These were Manila,
Bulacan, Cavite, Pampanga, Tarlac, Laguna, Batangas, and
Nueva Ecija. They would later be represented in the eight
rays of the sun in the Filipino flag. Emilio Aguinaldo and
the Katipuneros of Cavite were the most successful of the
rebels and they controlled most of their province by
SeptemberOctober. They defended their territories with
trenches designed by Edilberto Evangelista.

Many of the educated ilustrado class such as Antonio

Luna and Apolinario Mabini did not initially favor an
armed revolution. Rizal himself, whom the rebels took
inspiration
from
and
had
consulted
beforehand,
disapproved of a premature revolution. He was arrested,
tried and executed for treason, sedition and conspiracy on
December 30, 1896. Before his arrest he had issued a
statement disavowing the revolution, but in his swan song
poem Mi ltimo adis he wrote that dying in battle for the
sake of one's country was just as patriotic as his own
impending death.
While the revolution spread throughout the provinces,
Aguinaldo's Katipuneros declared the existence of an
insurgent government in October regardless of Bonifacio's
Katipunan, which he had already converted into an
insurgent government with him as president in August.
Bonifacio was invited to Cavite to mediate between
Aguinaldo's rebels, the Magdalo, and their rivals the
Magdiwang, both chapters of the Katipunan. There he
became embroiled in discussions whether to replace the
Katipunan with an insurgent government of the Cavite
rebels' design. To this end, the Tejeros Convention was
convened, where Aguinaldo was elected president of the
new
insurgent
government.
Bonifacio
refused
to
recognize this and he was executed for treason in May
1897.
By December 1897, the revolution had resulted to a
stalemate between the colonial government and rebels.
Pedro Paterno mediated between the two sides for the
signing of the Pact of Biak-na-Bato. The conditions of the
armistice included the self-exile of Aguinaldo and his
officers in exchange for $800,000 to be paid by the
colonial government. Aguinaldo then sailed to Hong Kong
for self exile.

In 1898, the Spanish-American War broke out. Emilio

Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines with American aid;
that is the blockading of Manila Bay from Spanish
reinforcements. However, this aid was unnecessary as the
Spanish reinforcements wouldn't have made it anyway as
their Cazadores were tied down in Cuba both quelling a
similar revolt and fighting the Spanish-American War
there, and later the Americans turning against the Filipino
patriots in the end after all. By 1898, the patriots have
liberated much of the country from colonial rule. They
declared independence in 1898 and established the First
Philippine Republic, and then laid siege to Manila and
prepared to invade the city. Aguinaldo however failed to
conclude the revolution by invading Manila. The United
States
had
promised
to
recognize
Philippine
independence and the Americans requested Aguinaldo to
wait for American reinforcements so that they could enter
the city together. The Americans had asked Aguinaldo to
turn over vital entries to the capital city over to the
Americans, which he did in good faith to their alliance. In
a sudden twist of fate, the Americans secretly entered
into a pact with the Spanish governor-general in which
the latter agreed to fight a mock battle before
surrendering Manila to the Americans. In Paris, the
Spanish reluctantly agreed to sell the Philippines to the
United States for $20 million and turn over Guam and
Puerto Rico (see Treaty of Paris (1898)). With this action,
Spanish rule in the Philippines formally ended. With
Manila taken, the Americans waited for reinforcements
until hostilities opened up between them and the declared
Philippine Republic

Chapter 2

The Philippines under Spain

The Magellan Expedition (1518-1521)

Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese serving the Spanish
royalty, saw action for his country in the east, first in
India with Alfonso de Almeida in 1505, and with
distinction, in the fall of Malacca in 1511. In 1518 he
convinced Charles V that he could find a shorter way to
Maluku by sailing via the Americas. Magellan received
royal instruction to sail directly to the Maluku and bring
back a cargo of the priceless spices. Thus began the
greatest of all epics of human discovery when he sailed
from San Lucar, Spain in 1519, on board five every
antiquated ships with a crew of 235 men. Skirting
unknown and uncharted lands, he sailed around the
southern tip of South America, across the vast Pacific
Ocean after 98 days of sailing northwestward. Magellan
finally reached the Philippines on March 17, 1521. In
mactan, he was defeated and killed in battle in April 1521
as a consequence of his dispute between Lapulapu and
Zula, chieftains of Mactan. Only one ship, in fact the
smallest of them, the Victoria, completed the voyage back
to Spain in 1522, arriving in Seville, led by Juan Sebastian
del Cano. Magellan did not live to see the final completion
of the first known voyage in history to circumnavigate
the globe it was through this trip that the Europeans
first learned of the existence of the Philippines. It also
proved that the earth was round; it established the
vastness of the Pacific Ocean. it proved that the East
Indies could be reached by crossing the pacific, and finally
it showed that the Americas was really a land mass
entirely separate from Asia.
Maluku and the Philippines
Three Spanish expeditions followed Magellans, this time
sailing from Mexico , which had become a Spanish colonythe Saavedra(1527-1529), the Villalobos(1541-46), and
the most successful of all, Legazpi expedition(1564). As a

sequel to the Magellan voyage, a large fleet of seven

ships, with a crew of 450 under the joint command of
Garcia Jofre de Loaisa and Juan Sebastian del Cano, left La
Coruna, Spain, in July 1525, to claim Maluku for the
Spanish crown. By October 1526, the expedition reached
Mindanao where they bartered rice, fruits, chicken and
coconut
wine
with
the
Filipinos. however,
both
commanders met death in the Pacific, and the ill- fated
expedition led by Hernando de la Torre, waited for the
necessary
assistance
from
Spain.
Saavedra reached what is probably now known as Lanuza
Bay, overlooking Tandag (Surigao del Sur) by February
1528, following Magellan's sea route. The Spaniards
vividly reported that "Maluarbuco" in northeastern
Mindanao was rich in gold, chickens wild pigs and
coconuts; the women were described as beautiful and the
men fair-complexioned. All of them sported long hair,
used weapons such as iron cutlasses, cannons, long
arrows and blow guns tipped with poisoned herbs and
wore cotton corselets in war. They performed bloodbrotherhood ceremonies with their new friends and
allegedly sacrificed, sometimes, humans, and offered food
and drink to their anitos. They recognized Catunao as
their chief. Saavedra never returned to Mexico as he died
on the high seas.
Villalobos Expedition (1524-1546)
Under the table command of Roy Lopez de Villalobos, six
ships and some 370 men, departed from Juan Gallego
(Natividad) Mexico, in November, 1542. By early 1543,
they reached the eastern coast of Mindanao. At Sarangani
Island, Villalobos essayed to set up a colony and even
ordered his men to plow the land to plant corn- the first
time on Philippine soil. Extreme hunger due to absence of
enough food supply forced his men to eat all the available
dogs, cats and rats they could find, along with grubs,
some unknown plants, lizards and poisonous crabs.

Forced to leave Sarangani, Villalobos surrendered to the

Portuguese at Amboina in the Maluku, however , probably
the greatest contribution of the Villalobos expedition was
the naming of Tandaya or Kandaya (Leyte) in 1543 as Las
Phelipinas in honor of then crown - prince Philip II, by
Bernardo de la Torre (Capitan Calabaza), commander of
the ship San Juan de Letran.

Legazpi- Urdaneta Expedition (1564)

By February 1565, Legazpi reached Cebu and contracted
blood compacts with Katunaw and Gala at Bohol. In April
of the same year, Villa de San Miguel,later changed to
Ciudad del Santisimo Nombre de Jesus, after the
discovered Santo Nino of Cebu, became the first
Spanish town established in the Archipelago and the
pioneer permanent settlement in the Philippines.
Legazpi was specifically instructed to bring back to
Mexico samples of Philippines grown spices; to discover
the return route to Mexico.Fr. Andres de Urdaneta,
Legazpis chief pilot, whose expertise of the seasonal
winds he had acquired while with Loaisa expedition,
discovered the Urdaneta Passage on his return to
Navidad via the Pacific.
This was the most important mission of the LegazpiUrdaneta
expedition.
The Making of the Spanish "Indio"
It was very easy, indeed, for Miguel Lopez de Legazpi,
who was granted by King Philip II, the peerless and single
title of "Adelantado de Filipinas to accomplish an almost
"bloodless" conquest of the Philippines considering its
physical and human geography. Filipino society split into
numerous disunities barangay units, it was impossible to

put up an effective armed resistance against the wellequipped and prepared conquistadores. Not only did the
sword help in the pacification of the indios, but above all,
the Cross, represented by the different regular missions
that came from 1565 to 1606, also helped to mould the
natives in the Hispanic image. " En cada fraile tenia el rey
en Filipinas un capitan general y un ejercito enero" ("In
each friar in the Philippines, they had a captain and whole
army"), as one Mexican Viceroy put it. Thus, with the
permanent colonization by Legazpi, the indios lost the
freedom
they
earlier
enjoyed.
Political Institutions
From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines were a captaincygeneral administered by the Spanish king through the
viceroyalty of Nueva Espaa (Mexico). All Spanish
possessions were governed by the Real y Supremo
Consejo de las Indias established in 1524 by Charles V.
Bureaucracy in the colonial Philippines may be divided
into different levels of administration, from the central or
national, provincial, city, municipal and barrio levels. On
the national level with its seat of power in Manila,
(Intramuros), the King, through the Consejo de las Indias,
governed through his sole spokesman and representative
in the Philippines, the gobernador y capitan-general. On
the provincial level, heading the alcadia (previously the
encomienda), provincia or hukuman (used by Bonifacios
Katipunan, and later called lalawigan) was the alcalde
mayor (provincial governor) for the pacified provinces and
districts. Not only did the alcalde mayor exercise
executive and judicial powers, but he also had the special
privilege of engaging in trade through the indulto de
commercio (a privilege of alcaldes enjoyed between 1751
to 1844, when it was finally abolished) except in the
provinces of Tondo, Cavite and Zamboanga to name only a
few. In 1840, it was reported that some of the alcaldes

mayores positions were valued at P50, 000 per annum. All

the complaints of the Filipinos against the abuses of the
alcaldes mayores were somewhat relaxed by the Reform
Decree of 1886 when the civil governor became the
executive provincial official and the alcalde was reduced
to a municipal judge, thus transforming the provincial
governor from a merchant- governor to a judgegovernor.

A specific visita meant an investigation of the whole

viceroyalty like Mexico or captaincy- general like the
Philippines. First applied in the Indies in 1499, the visita
had the same objectives as the residencia, that is, to
ensure faithful anf efficient service on the past of
government authorities. Wrongdoers were either fined,
dismissed from office or expelled from the colony or
received a combination of all punishments.

By the end of the seventeenth century, there were only

six cities or villas established in Luzon and the Visayas;
Manila, Villa Fernandina (Vigan), Nueva Segovia (Lal-lo,
Cagayan), Nueva Caceres (Naga), Cebu and Arevalo ( also
called Villa, Iloilo).Cities were governed by ayumiento or
city government formed in 1889. In 1894, there were
eight ayumientos : Manila, Iloilo, Cebu, Jaro, Batangas,
Albay, Nueva Caceres, and Vigan.

The Filipino Bureaucrats

The Residencia (1501-1799) and the Visita (1499-ca. 18th

Century)
To check the abuse of power of royal officials, two ancient
Castillian institutions, the residencia and the visita, were
transplanted into Philippine soil. The residencia, dating
back to the fifteenth century in Spain, was first resorted
to in Indies (Spanish possessions in in Amerasia including
the Philippines) in 1501. It was the judicial review of a
residencio (one judged) conducted at the end of his term
of office, supervised publicly by a juez de residencia.
Imposed on a residenciado found guilty of public
misconduct were heavy fines, sequestration of properties,
or imprisonment or a combination of all three penalties.
The residencia continued until 1799 when it was officially
abolished in the colonies.
The visita differed from the residencia in that it was
conducted clandestinely by a visitador- general sent from
Spain and might notice. Visitas may be specific or general.

On the municipal level, the little governor or

gobernadorcillo ( later replaced by the capitan municipal
in 1894), headed the pueblo or municipio. Any Filipino or
Chinese mestizo, 25 years old, literate in oral or written
Spanish, and who had been a cabeza de barangay (barrio
administrator) for four years, could be a gobernadorcillo.
This was the highest government position a Filipino a
could attain during the Spanish regime, and together with
the parish priest, his role was considered highly
significant
in
a
town.
Among
his
multifarious
administrative duties was preparation of the padron
(tribute list), recruitment and distribution of men for the
draft labor, communal public work ( as in the construction
and repair of minor bridges) and the quinto (military
conscription), postal clerk, judge in civil suits involving
P44.00 or less. Indeed, he intervened in all administrative
cases pertaining to his town; lands, justice, finance and
the armed forces. For all these, his yearly salary was
P24.00. The gobernadorcillo was assisted by three
supernumeraries or inspectors (tenientes de justicia) who
supervised matters such as boundaries of cultivated
fields ( sementeras),branding of livestock (ganado) and
police (policia); constable (alguacilles); four tenientes
segundos; lieutenants of districts ( tenientes del barrio),
and
a
secretary
(directorcillo).
Barrio government rested on the cabeza de barangay
whose main role was as tax and contributions collector

for the gobernadorcillo. Like the latter, the cabezas were

exempted from taxation. It was Philip II who conferred
upon trhe barangay chiefs the title of cabezas de
barangay to show them good treatment and entrust
them, in our name, with the government of the Indians, of
whom they were formerly the lords. Like the
gobernadorcillo, he was responsible for peace and order
in his own barrio and recruited polistas for communal
public works. The Manuel Del Cabeza de barangay (1874)
required literacy in Spanish, good moral character, and
property- ownership as qualifications for Cabezas who
served for three year terms. By the mid- nineteenth
century, Cabezas who had served for twenty- five years
were
exempted
from
forced
labor.

The Amalgamation of Church and State

It was in the exercise of political and economic powers of
the Spanish clergy that we can perceive very clearly the
disunity between the Church and State. The disgusting
features such as church meddling in civil government and
press censorship were succinctly pointed out by Filipino
laborantes (reformers) as well as revolucionarios in the
nineteenth century. In fact, the separation of Church and
State became one of the outstanding innovations of the
Malolos Constitution in 1898. Ten years before, probably
the first and only open anti- friar demonstration against
the intolerable church abuses took place in Manila in
March 1, 1888, led by Doroteo Cortes, aided secretly by
Marcelo H. Del Pilar and Jose Ramos Ishiwaka. Encouraged
by Article 218 of the newly- passed Penal Code vouching
for the right of petition and assembly, a group of
influential gobernadorcillos, principales and residents of
Manila boldly marched through the streets of the city to
the ayuntamiento (city hall) demanding the expulsion of
friars in the Philippines, including Archbishop Pedro Payo

himself, demonstrators manifesto declared Long Live

the Queen! Long Live the Army! Down with the Friars!
The high influence of the church on the state was exposed
by the Filipinos, among them Marcelo H. Del Pilar who
derisively called the situation in the Philippines la
soberania monacal (monastic supremacy) or frailocracia
(friacrocy), because the Spanish friars or monastic orders
ruled supreme, even over governmental matters.
Nowhere was the greatest influence and complete control
of the clergy felt than in the lowest Filipino bureaucratic
level-. The municipio or pueblo, The parish priest more
often than not the only Caucasian and the most important
official dominating the town during the entire of the
colonial period. The friars were not only the parish priest
or spiritual guides as one Filipino put it, but in effect
were rulers of the municipalities; in fact, the whole
government of the islands rested on them. Consequently,
every abuse of the many which led to the revolution of
1896-1898 was charged to them by the people.
In the national level, the influence was exercised through
the vast networks of parishes. By the end of the Spanish
regime, there were 967 regulars (priests who belonged to
a religious order) administered parishes in 1896-1898.
Probably the most persistent complaint leveled by the
Filipinos against the church was its economic role as
landowners, in particular the Dominincans, Augustinians
and the Recollects. It was, therefore, not surprising that
the Philippine Revolution centered in the areas where the
vast haciendas (friar estates) thrived: Cavite, Laguna,
Morong and Manila province.
INSTITUTIONAL IMPACT OF SPANISH RULE
When the Spaniards settled permanently in the
Philippines in 1565, they found the Filipinos living in
either lineal or nucleated barangay settlements scattered

along water routes and river banks (in pattern of ilaya or

upstream and ibaba or downstream and mountain ridges.
One of the first tasks, and probably the most difficult,
imposed on the missionaries and the encomenderos was
to collect all the scattered Filipinos together in a
reduccion (resettlement) bajo el sonde la campana (under
the sound of the bell) or bajo el toque de la campana
(under
the
peal
of
the
bell).
As early as 1580, the Franciscans, who arrived two years
earlier, proceed
to establish pueblos, ordering the
missionary to reside there (instead of going around
chasing souls),where the church and convent would be
constructed. All the new Christian converts were required
to construct their houses around the church and the
unbaptized were invited to do the same. This was
approved without hesitation by no less than the then
Governor General of the Philippines himself. The
reduccion plan presented by Franciscan Fr. Juan de
Placencia to the synod of Manila (1582) was approved
unanimously by missionaries of all the religious order.
The reduccion, to the Spaniards, was, no doubt, a
civilizing device to make the Filipinos law abiding
citizens of the Spanish crown, and, in the long run, to
make them ultimate little brown Spaniards, adopting
Hispanic culture and civilization.
As part of the strategy of enticing the unwilling
unbaptized indios, the Spanish friars utilized the novel
sights, sounds, and even, smell of Christian rites and
ritualscolorful and pompous processions, songs, candlelights, saints dressed in elaborate gold and silver
costumes during the May festivals of Flores de Mayo or
the Santa Cruzan, the lighting of firecrackers even as the
Host was elevated, the sinakulo (passion play) and the
Christian vs. Muslim conflict drama (moro-moro). Other
attractions included medals, scapularies, cords and

rosaries. All these hypnotized the spirit of the indios.

Upon of the feast day of the saint when he was born or
baptized, this facilitated identification and recording of
population for tax collecting purposes.
ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS:
A. Taxation Without Representation, Income generating
mechanisms were introduced by the Spanish colonial
government in the Philippines consisting of direct
(personal tribute and income tax) and indirect
(customs duties and bandala) taxes, monopolies
(rentas encancadas) of special crops and items as
spirituous liquors (1712-1864), betel nut (1764),
tobacco (1782-1882), explosives (1805-1864), and
opium (1847).
The buwis (tribute) may be paid in cash or kind, partly
or wholly, as palay or tobacco, chickens, textiles, or
even wax and special regional produce, depending on
the area of the country.
Aside from the tribute, a special tax of real or rice
was collected called samboangan or donativo de
Zamboanga to crush the Moro raids (collected since
1635 until the mid-19th century) and vinta (gathered
since 1781 till 1851, with some interruptions) to equip
vintas to shield the coastal areas of Bulacan and
Pampanga. The vintas counterpart was the falua,
collected in Camarines Sur, Cebu, Misamis and other
littoral provinces.
Another tax collected was the bandala. Coming from
the Tagalog word mandala (a round stack of the rice
stalks to be threshed), bandala assumed the meaning
of the annual enforced sale or requisitioning of goods,
particularly of rice or coconut oil, in the case of
Tayabas. Pampanga and the Tagalog regions, then the

rice bowl of the Philippines, bore the greatest brunt of

what amounted to outright confiscation since payment
was only in promissory notes. The Spaniards debt to
the Kapampangans , for instance, reached some
P70,000 between 1610 and 1616,spiraling up to
P200,000 in 1610, thus sparking a revolt in 1660-61.
The bandala was abolished in the provinces of Tondo,
Bulacan, Pampanga, Laguna, Batangas, Tayabas, and
Cavite
in
November
1782.
By 1884, the tribute was replaced by the cedula
personal or personal identity paper, equivalent to the
present residence tax. Everyone, whether Filipino or
other nationalities over eighteen years of age was
required to pay cedula personal.
B. Polo y Servicio Personal or Prestacion Personal.Polo
actually is a corruption of the Tagalog, pulong,
originally meaning meeting of persons and things or
community labor. Drafted laborers (polistas) were
either Filipino or Chinese male mestizos ranging from
16 to 60 years old, who were obligated to give
personal
service
to
community
projects,
like
construction and repair of infrastructure, church
construction, or cutting logs in forests, for forty days
until 1884, when labor was reduced to fifteen days.
However, one could be exempted by paying the falla
(corruption of the Spanish falta, absence, corrupted
in to the contemporary playa, absencefrom work,)
which the polista paid daily at 1 real during the 40day period he was expected to work. The polo system
was patterned
after the Mexican repartmiento or
selection
for
forced
labor.
Some of the negative effects of the polo on the Filipino
included the upsetting of the village
economy
because labor drafts usually coincided with the
planting and harvesting seasons; forced separation

from the family and relocation to different places,

sometimes outside the Philippines; and dissemination
of the male population as they were compelled at
times, to escape to the mountains instead of working
in the labor pool.
C. Encomiendas: Royal and Private.the encomienda,
from the word encomendar, meaning to entrust, was
another
revenue-getting
Hispanic
institution
introduced to the Philippines via Mexico. Strictly
speaking, it was a grant from the Spanish crown to a
meritorious Spaniard to exercise control over a specific
place including its inhabitants. It was not a land grant
as most earlier scholars believed. The encomendero
was duty-bound to defend his escomienda from
external incursions, to keep peace and order, and to
assist the missionaries in teaching the Christian gospel
to the residents within his sphere of influence.
In return the encomendero was granted the right of
imposing tribute according to the limit and kind set by
higher authorities. For instance, Silang, in upland
Cavite, was an encomienda of Captain Diego Jorge de
Villalobos of Lisbon and his wife, Magdalena da
Illescas. He settled personal feuds within his
community. Villalobos contributed P100 in cash and
180 fanegas of rice for parish assistance when he
became encomendero.
Two kinds of encomiendas existed in the Philippines:
1. The royal or crown (realenga or encomienda de
la real corona)
2. the private (encomienda de particulars)
The former were lands reserved for the crown
included the principal
towns
and ports,
Bagumbayan (now Luneta), Lagyo (approximately
site of the present Plaza military, between Malate

and
like
the
and

Ermita), Santa Ana de Sapa, Tonodo, Navotas and

Malabon in Manila; and Lubao and Betis in Pampanga.
The private encomiendas were granted to individuals
who were either the kings protgs or men who
served with merit during the conquest and pacification
campaigns.
Examples of these were Pandakan,
Sampalok and Macabebe, privately owned by one
Pedro de Chaves; Bataan by Juan Esguerra; and
Batangas owned personally by Francisco Rodriguez.
There was much confusion as a result of the lack
systematic tribute collection. Each encomendero
collected according to his personal whim. When gold
was abundant and money was scarce, there was
scarcity of gold, they asked for gold, even when the
poor Filipinos were coerced to by them during bumper
harvest, they demanded products like rice, tobacco or
even all the Filipino possessions, and they were forced
to travel great distances to try to by them at high
rates. Sometimes, the Filipinos bought back at very
exorbitant prices the same items (rice, especially
during lean harvest) they sold for a very low price.
Encomenderos sometimes seized the entire quantity
of his rice from the Filipino without leaving him a
grain to eat.
Many Filipinos died of starvation, especially during
famines and drought due to the scarcity of rice and
they were force to eat coconut and banana shoots.
D. The Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade (1565-1815).
Running the only regular fleet service in the huge
stretch of the Pacific ocean for two hundred fifty years
was the Acapulco galleon (known as galleon de Manila
or nao de China). With two vessels making the journey
yearly one out going, the other incoming between
Manila and Acapulco de Juarez, reaching as far as
Callao
in Peru.

The galleon trade benefitted only a very small coterie

of privileged Spaniards- the Spanish governor,
members of the consulado (merchants with consular
duties and rights) usually insulares, and Spanish
residents in Manila. The few Spaniards who relied
heavily on the trade became affluent, but when the
trade declined in the eighteenth century, an economic
depression resulted which arrested the normal
population growth.
The moro-moro, Moriones and the image of the Black
Nazarene of Quiapo, were also of Mexican origins. A
considerable number of Nahunta (Aztec) elements
crept into the Philippines languages, such as tiyangge
(tianquiztli),kakaw
(cacahault),tsokolate
(xoco-alt),
tamales (tamali), kamatsili (quauhmochitl), sayote
(chayotli), singkamas (xicama) and tocayo (tocaitl).
The Mexicans, on the other hand, borrowed the Filipino
words tuba (coconut toddy), hilanhilan (ilang-ilang)
and Parian.
E. Royal Economic Society of Friends of the country
(1780-ca.1895)A mere frigate captain before he
assumed governorship, Jose de Basco y Vargas
represented the true examples of Spains despotismo
illustrado, who for nine years revamped the then
existing antiquated economic system which stagnated
progress in the Philippines. Following the royal order
to form a society of learned and competent persons
capable of producing useful ideas, he formally
organized, in 1780, the Real sociedad Economica de
Amigos del Pais composed of leading men in business,
industry and the profession, whom he himself prodded
to exploit the Islands natural bounties. The society
antedated the Royal Philippine Company. Both
economic agencies acted as effective media and

instruments

of

Spanish

colonization.

F. Royal Philippine Company (1785-1814)On March 10,

1785, Charles III created the Royal Philippine Company
with a 25-year charter for the main purpose of uniting
American and Asian commerce. It was granted
exclusive monopoly of bringing to Manila, not only
Philippine but also Chinese and Indian goods, and
shipping them directly to Spain via the Cape of Good
Hope.
Modeled after the Royal Guipuzcoana de Caracas
Company in South America, it was vehemently opposed
by Dutch and English interests who saw it as a direct
attract on their trade in Asian goods. It also met stiff
opposition from the Spanish-Manila traders of the
Consulado y Comercio de Manila who saw it as a strong
competitor of the Manila Acapulco trade. A royal
decree assigning 3,000 shares of stocks (out of the
32,000) for the Manila merchants and religious
corporations partially mollified the galleon traders
even as some refused the subscription.
For the Spaniards, the Company helped the early
growth of agriculture, especially of Philippines grown
products like indigo, sugar coffee, spic, dye wood
(sibucao) and textiles. To the Filipinos, the effect was
more untold misery, as they were forced to plant
much-prized cash exports crops from which they did
not have any direct benefit at all.
G. Infrastructure, Telecommunications and Public Utilities
Development.Modern ways of telecommunication
developed in the nineteenth century. The ferrocarril de
Manila extended 120 miles long up to Dagupan
(Pangasinan) and it was the only railway line in the
Archipelago, constructed using mainly Filipino labor
and operated regularly four years before the outbreak

of
the
Philippine
Revolution
in
1896.
The Compania de los Tranvias de Filipinas was
established in Manila in 1885 by Jacobo Zobel de
Zangroniz and Adolfo Bayo. By 1892 there were five
street car service lines connecting the primate city
with the suburbs: for horse-drawn in Intramuros,
Malate, Sampalok and Tondo,and one tranvia de vapor
(steam-powered) between Malabon and Binondo since
1888. An animal pulled tramcar service ran between
Talisay (Negros Occidental) and Dos Hermanas from
1895-1896 owned privately by Esteban de la Rama.
To avoid traffic jams in Arroceceros and Quiapo, the
Puente Colgante (now Quezon Bridge), the first
suspension bridge in the Far East, was built. Measuring
110 meters long and seven meters wide and designed
by Gustave Eiffel of the famous tower in Paris, it was
two-lined for carriages, with the raised middle portion
reserved for foot travelers. Pedestrians were charged
a toll fee each of one kusing (un cuarto or centavo),
while each horse cost three curators 9about 2
centavos). Tolls for carriages depended on the number
of wheels; the more wheels the higher the rates.

II. EDUCATIONAL TRANSFORMATION

A. La Letra Con Sangre Entra (Spare the Rod, Spoil the
child).
The earliest schools in the Philippines were in
compliance with Charles Vs decree of July 17, 1550,
which provided that Indios in all the Spanish dominions
were to be taught the conquerors language.
As part of conversion, the Spanish missionaries in the
Philippines used children in the belief that they would
learn our alphabet, language, Christian doctrine and
customs, policies and transmit them in the towns

afterwards.
The Society of Jesus, as the teaching order, specifically
believed that their hope of a brilliant Christianity
came from children. The Christian doctrine was the
milk they sucked and from their tender youth in the
Jesuit residences, they were taught and instructed in
all virtues. In fact, associated with the policy of
attracting the Filipino chiefly class to conversion was
the founding of a secondary school for the sons of
native ruling families in preparation not only for
Christianizing but also as future gobernadorcillos and
cabezas de barangay.
Thus, the Colegio de Ninos was founded in 1596, an
annex of the Jesuit Colegio de Manila established a
year before. After 5 years the Colegio de Ninos folded
up, due to lack of funds. Here, sons of chiefs were
taught Christian doctrine, the rudiments of the three
Rs, vocal and instrumental music, and handicrafts.
1. Boys Colleges and Secondary Schools.The earliest
colleges exclusively for sons of Spaniards were
established in the Philippines by the Society of Jesus:
Colegio Maximo de San Ignacio (1589) which later
became a University (1612); the College of San
Ildefonso (now the University of San Carlos), the sole
secondary school outside of Manila,
In college of san Ignacio, there were two kinds of
training:
1. Priesthood
2. Education
The curriculum included Latin, philosophy, Cano and
civil law, and rhetoric. The college of the Immaculate
Conception (now Ateneo de Manila University) grew
out the Escuela Pia for poor boys in 1817 and was

founded by the
expulsion in1859.

Jesuits

upon

their

return

from

As order of Preachers, the Dominicans also offered

tertiary education for boys and girls. The present
university of Santo Tomas, originally called the
Colegio de Nuestra Senora del Santisimo Rosario, in
1611, was converted into a Dominican University in
1645.
2. Girls Schools.The first boarding school for Spanish
girls in the Philippines were the Colegios (secondary
schools) of Santa Potenciana (1591-1864) and Santa
Isabel (1632), now considered the oldest school for
girls in the archipelago. They were originally founded
for the benefit of orphan Spanish girls.
Besides these, exclusive Colegios for the daughters of
upper
class
Spaniards
were
called
beaterios,
established for young girls called beatas who led a
secluded life.

III. Social Transformation

Probably one of the indelible marks left by the Spanish
conquest on the Filipinos was the adoption of Hispanic
names, as decreed by Governor Narciso Claveria in
1849. Based on compiled names of saints, indigenous
and
Chinese
patronymics,
flora
and
fauna,
geographical names, and the arts, Filipinos were
obligated to adopt surnames like Rizal, Del Pilar or
Luna, although some indigenous surnames like Mabini,
Malantic, Dandan and Panganiban were retained.
However, the Catalogo alfabetico de Apellidos

contained some derogatory names Utut, Unggoy

and even Casillas. Not only were Filipinos given
family names as bases for census and statistics, but
the surnames also guaranteed exact tax collection,
regular performance of polos y servicios personales,
and control of population movement, thereby avoiding
unauthorized migration, tax evasion, and other abuses
in the eyes of the Spaniards. Although strictly imposed
in Bikolandia, some parts of Ilocandia and Panay, the
change of family names was almost completely ignored
in some areas of Laguna and Pampanga.
The bahay- kubo for the clase pobre of Filipinos
persisted even as the more affluent ones went to the
extent of refining, developing, expanding and
metamorphosing this autochthonous dwelling into
bahay na bato with a wide azoeta (from the original
batalan) and sometimes retaining the banguerhan and
providing an aljibe or a well for the much- needed
water supply. Foreign cuisine, both Spanish and
Chinese
influenced
the
Filipino
table,
smartly
indigenized or mixed with the Filipino sinigang or
pinangat. Filipino ingenuity is still reflected in the
Spanish introduced but already indigenized dishes as
the adobo, menudo, sarciado, puchero or mechado and
the Chinese derived noodle preparations which have
been Filipinized into pancit Malabon and pancit luglog.
The precolonial mode of dressing changed gradually
with the permanent settlement of the Spanish
conquistadores. Thus, the kanggan and bahag were
transformed into the barong tagalong or camisa chino
and trousers, respectively. Hats replaced the putong
and shoes and slippers became part of mens fashion.
The baro and saya for women continued to be worn
except that it eventually developed into the mestiza
dress. Precolonial fondness for jewelry and body
ornaments was continued using the Spanish style

tambourine, the gold and tortoise peineta, and the

earings of different sizes and shapes.
With the conversion of the Filipinos, fiestas honoring
the saints were introduced. From January to December,
there were fiestas from the town to the barrio level all
over the lowland Christianized Philippines. The births
or anniversaries of members of the Spanish royalty
were also occasions for festive merry- making. The
Filipinos released their tension through the pomp and
pageantry of the religious dramas of the sinakulo and
the komedya or moro moro. The confradias and
sodalities of Filipino laymen and honoring the Virgin
Mary awakened in them a Christian community
consciousness which helped in stamping out precolonial practices and even discouraging ritual
drinking. Compadrazgos (ritual co- parenthood) came
with baptism, and marriages and further strengthened
existing extended kinship relations.

IV. Cultural Transformation

The potent appendages of education were the printing
press, books and libraries. When the Spanish friars
introduced the art of printing in the Philippines, their
primary purpose was to facilitate their work of
converting of the Filipinos. Religion constituted the
bulk of filipianiana put out during the Spanish regime.
In May 1596, Governor Francisco Tello was instructed
by the crown that in order to make reduccion
successful, the Filipinos should learn the language of
the Indians whom they are to teach and instruct. For
instance, in 1972, Filipinos were strictly forbidden to
speak their own dialects in convents, monasteries and
courts, where only Spanish should be the medium of
communication.
The
Spanish
were,
however,
uncooperative
with
regards
to
Spanish.
They
considered an uneducated Filipino who knew Spanish a

future filibustero. Having an idioma general or

lingua franca meant national unity in a country like the
Philippines, with diversity of languages. Theo centric
literature appeared as soon as the Spaniards settled
permanently in the Philippines in the form of awit,
corridor and metrical romances, written by early poets
such as Ananias Zorilla, Jose Dela Cruz and Francisco
Baltazar the dramatic versions of these forms were the
anti Muslim melodramas based on the Moro Wars
moro- moro or komedya, a European form of
comedias de capa y espada, modeled after the
Spanish obras cabillerescas introduced via Mexico.
Zarzuela was the latest dramatic form introduced by
the Spaniards by the end of the 1870s, which were
used effectively as anti American protest plays during
the so called era of suppressed nationalism T.H.
Padro de Tavera blamed the corridos which consisted
their profane reading, the pasyanos and novenas
which consisted their religious reading. As the roots
of ignorantism left by the Spaniards to the upper
and lower classes of the Philippines society. Folk as
well
as
colonial
art,
persisted
with
Spanish
colonization. Christianity produced the variegated
forms of Filipino arts and crafts surrounding the
religious fiestas. The visual arts, like the making of
imagenes, santoses and jewelry, bloomed during this
time. Folk art observe d during fiestas are seen up to
this day in the whittled bamboo arch decorations
(kaluskos) , moriones, rosaries, combs, the palaspas,
the Christmas parols, pastillas wrappers, and colorful
art presentation in foods served, as pan de San
Nicolas, atsara or sapin- sapin. Painting was already
secularized, according to the Synod of Calasiao in
1773, even as the painters were allowed freely to
practice their art outside the church a decade later.
Filipinos also figured prominently in printmaking,
engraving and typography, among who were Nicolas de
la Cruz Bagay, who was considered the first Filipino

engraver, Cipriano Romualdo Bagay, Francisco Suarez,

Laureano Atlas, Felipe Sevilla and Candido Lopez. Juan
de los Santos from San Pablo de los Montes (San Pablo
city, Laguna), sculpted the baroque altar of the San
Agustin Church in the walled city during the early part
of the eighteenth century. Paete woodcarvers stood
out as among the most famous during the nineteenth
century, among who were Mariano Madrinan and
Aurelio Buhay. The early missionaries facilitated
Filipino conversion by using Hispanic music along with
the introduction of Western instruments such as the
organ, harp, guitar and piano. The Franciscan friars
were the most zealous in utilizing music in
Christianization, using children in teaching both
Gregorian and Figurado chants. A school of music in
Lumbang (Laguna) in 1606 taught not only the latest in
music but also dancers as the fandango, seguidilla and
the jota. By the nineteenth century, some Filipinos
were already composing both religious and secular
music; among them Marcelo Adonay, Simplicio Solis,
Julian Felipe, Julio Nakpil and Dolores Paterno who
composed Flor de Manila (sampaguita).

V. Filipinos Not Totally Hispanized

In spite of more than three hundred years of Spanish
domination using the Sword and the Cross, Spain was
not successful in completely Hispanizing the indios. It
may observed that
Phelan and Rizals keen
observations apply only to the Christianized Filipinos,
for the cultural patterns of the Muslims and other
minorities, according to Samuel K. Tan, had
remained generally unchanged, however persistent
were the Spanish efforts to convert them, simply
because they resisted or avoided conversation
By the end of the Spanish rule, the transformation of
the Philippine colony had created a blending of the

native and Spanish cultures which became the bases of

Filipinism or nationalism.
Thus, when the Filipinos passed to another colonial era
it was the synthesis of foreign and native which more
or less guided their behavior and response to the next
century.

Chapter 3

The Filipino-American War

When Intramuros was already completely surrounded
by the U.S. naval and land troops, diplomatic
negotiations were secretly conducted by Admiral
Dewey and the Spanish governor-general through the
Belgian consul. These negotiations led to the
agreement of stating a mock battle to justify the
turnover of Manila to the U.S. imperialists by the
Spanish colonialists and were parallel to negotiations
being held abroad towards the general settlement of
the Spanish-American War through the mediation of
the French government.
On August 13, 1898, the mock battle of Manila was
staged by the U.S. imperialists and the Spanish
colonialists. After a few token shots were fired, the
latter surrendered to the former. The U.S. imperialists
made it a point to prevent Filipino troops from
entering Intramuros. It was thus that the Filipino
revolutionary forces were conclusively deprived of the
victory that was rightfully theirs. From then on,
however, hatred of the U.S. imperialism became more
widespread among the Filipino masses and their
patriotic troops.
The Philippine revolutionary government shifted its
headquarters from Cavite to Malolos, Bulacan in
September in anticipation of further U.S. imperialist

aggression. Here the Malolos Congress was held to put

out a constitution that had for its models bourgeoisdemocratic constitutions. During the same period, the
U.S. imperialists kept on insisting in diplomatic terms
that Filipino troops withdraw further from where they
had been pushed. The U.S. aggressors maneuvered to
occupy
more
territory
around
Manila.
Attempts of the Aguinaldo government at diplomacy
abroad to assert the sovereign rights of the Filipino
people proved to be futile. On December 10, 1898, the
Treaty of Paris was signed by the United States and
Spain ceding the entire Philippines to the former at the
price of $20 million and guaranteeing the property and
business rights of Spanish citizens in the archipelago.
On December 21, U.S. President McKinley issued the
"Proclamation of Benevolent Assimilation" to declare in
sugar-coated terms a war of aggression against the
Filipino
people.
On February 4, 1899, the U.S. troops made a surprise
attack on the Filipino revolutionary forces in the
vicinity of Manila. In the ensuing battles in the city, at
least 3,000 Filipino were butchered while only 250 U.S.
troops fell. Thus, armed hostilities between U.S.
imperialism and the Filipino people began. The Filipino
people heroically stood up to wage a revolutionary war
of national liberation.
Before the Filipino-American War was decisively won
by U.S. imperialism in 1902, 126,468 U.S. troops had
been unleashed against the 7,000,000 Filipino people.
These foreign aggressors suffered a casualty of at
least 4,000 killed and almost 3,000 wounded. Close to
200,000 Filipino combatants and noncombatants were
slain. In short, for every U.S. trooper killed, 50
Filipinos were in turn killed. More than a quarter of a
million Filipinos died as a direct and indirect result of
hostilities. However, an estimate of a U.S. general

would even put the Filipino death casualty to as high

as 600,000 or one-sixth of the population in Luzon
then.
The U.S. imperialist aggressors practiced genocide of
monstrous proportions. They committed various forms
of atrocities such as the massacres of captured troops
and innocent civilians; pillage on women, homes and
property; and ruthless employment of torture, such as
dismemberment, the water cure and the rope torture.
Zoning and concentration camps were resorted to in
order to put civilians and combatants at their mercy.
As U.S. imperialism forced the Aguinaldo government
to retreat, it played on the weaknesses in the ranks of
the ilustrado leadership of the revolution. The
imperialist
chieftain
McKinley
dispatched
the
Schurman Commission in 1899 and then the Taft
Commission in 1900 and issued to them instructions
for the "pacification" of the country and cajolement of
capitulationist traitors.
The liberal-bourgeois leadership of the old democratic
revolution once more proved to be inadequate, flabby
and compromising. Aguinaldo failed to lead the
revolution effectively. He turned against such antiimperialists as Mabini and Luna and increasingly relied
on such capitulationists as Paterno and Buencamino.
These two traitors who in previous years were
notorious for their puppetry to Spanish colonialism had
sneaked into the revolutionary government and
usurped authority therein. They headed a pack of
traitors who were deeply attracted to the siren song of
"peace," "autonomy" and "benevolent assimilation"
which the U.S. imperialists sang as they butchered the
people.
In every town occupied by the U.S. imperialist troops,
puppet municipal elections were held and dominated

by the old principalia. These puppet elections excluded

the masses who could not comply with the property
and literacy requirements. These sham elections were
used mainly to break off the principalia from the
revolution and to attract its members into becoming
running dogs in the same way that the Spanish
colonialists
had
done.
As soon as traitors led by Paterno and Buencamino
were in the hands of the U.S. imperialists, they were
used to serve imperialist propaganda, chiefly to call on
the people to lay down their arms. Under the
instigation of the aggressors, particularly the U.S.
army intelligence, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera organized
the Partido Federal in 1900 to advocate the annexation
of the Philippines by the United States. At the same
time, the imperialists promulgated laws to punish
those
who
would
advocate
independence.
The people and their revolutionary leaders who
refused to take the oath of allegiance to the U.S. flag
were persecuted, imprisoned or banished to Guam.
Mass organizations, especially among the workers and
peasants, were suppressed every time they surfaced.
In 1901, Aguinaldo himself was captured by the
imperialists with the help of Filipino mercenaries. From
then
on,
the
treacherous
counterrevolutionary
forefathers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
were systematically organized and employed to help
complete the imperialist conquest of the Filipino
people. The first puppet constabulary men were used
extensively in "mopping up" operations against
persistent revolutionary fighters in Luzon and Visayas
as well as in the subjugation of Mindanao.
Even when the main detachments of the Aguinaldo
government had been defeated, armed resistance
against U.S. imperialism still persisted in practically

every town of the entire archipelago. The people of

Bicol continued to wage armed struggle until 1903
when their leader Simeon Ola betrayed them by
surrendering. In the Visayas, particularly Cebu, Samar,
Leyte and Panay, the Pulahanes fought fierce battles
against the U.S. aggressor troops and the puppet
constabulary. So did the masses of Cavite, Batangas,
Laguna and Quezon even after a general amnesty was
issued. In Central Luzon, a religious organization, the
Santa Iglesia, also waged armed resistance. In the
Ilocos, associations that proclaimed themselves as the
New Katipunan conducted a guerrilla war for national
independence against U.S. imperialism. As late as
1907, puppet elections could not be held in Isabela
because of the people's resistance. The most
prominent of the final efforts to continue the
revolutionary struggle in Luzon was led by Macario
Sakay, from 1902 to 1906 in Bulacan, Pampanga,
Laguna, Nueva Ecija and Rizal. It was only in 1911 that
guerrilla war completely ceased in Luzon. However, the
fiercest armed resistance after 1902 was waged by the
people of Mindanao until as late as 1916.
For some time, U.S. imperialists succeeded in
deceiving the Sultan of Sulu that his feudal
sovereignty would be respected under the Bates
Treaty of 1899 which he signed. When the foreign
aggressors begun to put what they called the "Moro
Province" under their administrative control, they had
to contend with the Hassan uprising of 1903-1904;
Usap rebellion of 1905; Pala revolt of 1905; Bud Dajo
uprising of 1906; Bud Bagsak battle of 1913 and many
others. This heroic resistance of the people was
quelled with extreme atrocity.
The Sedition Law of 1901, the Brigandage Act of 1902
and the Reconcentration Act of 1903 were passed by
U.S. imperialism to sanction military operations
against the people as mere police operations against

"common criminals." Patriots were called bandits.

People in extensive areas were herded into military
camps in order to separate them from the patriotic
guerrillas.
The war expenditures of U.S. imperialism in the
conquest of the Philippines were paid for by the
Filipino people themselves. They were compelled to
pay taxes to the U.S. colonial regime to defray a major
part of the expenditures and the interest on bonds
floated in the name of the Philippine government
through the Wall Street banking houses. Of course, the
super profits derived from the protracted exploitation
of the Filipino people would constitute the basic gains
of
U.S.
imperialism.

TRANSITION
TO
COMMONWEALTH

INDEPENDENCE:

THE

May 1, 1932 - The Philippine legislature unanimously

accepted the Tydings-McDuffie Act.
THE FRAMING OF THE CONSTITUTION
July 10, 1934 In accordance with the provisions of
the independence act, the Filipinos elected 202
delegations to a constitutional convention tasked with
the drafting of a Philippine constitution.
July 30 - The following were elected as officials of the
constitutional convention:
President: Claro M. Recto
First Vice- President: Ruperto Montinola
Second Vice-President: Teodoro Sandiko
Secretary: Narciso Pimentel

Seven wise men (a committee of seven who prepared a

draft of the constitution.)
Chairman: Filemon Sotto
+ Norberto Romualdez
+ Manuel Roxas
+ Vicente Singson Encarnacion
+ Manuel C. Briones
+ Miguel Cuaderno
+ Conrado Benitez (replaced Jose P. Laurel)
The Philippine Constitution followed the American
model in structure and formal appearance, except for a
unicameral legislature and a unitary system of
government. The framers of the constitution were
beneficiaries of the American system of education and
were familiar with American political concepts of
democracy and government. The Constitution reflected
cultural values unique in the Philippine tradition, such
as the principle of state supremacy over the individual
and the exaltation of authority. The Constitution
vested extraordinary constitutional powers in the
president, including an item veto over appropriation,
revenue, and tariff bills and conditional powers over
trade and tariff.
February 8, 1935 The constitutional convention
approved the constitution.
March 23 President Roosevelt approved the
constitution.
May 14, 1935 A pebliscite ratified the constitution
ratified the constitution.
September
1935
Nacionalista
Party
won
overwhelmingly over its rivals.
November 15, 1935 The commonwealth of the
Philippines was inaugurated with Manuel L. Quezon as
President and Sergio Osmea as Vice-President, at a
time when the Italians were bombing Ethiopia, the

Japanese were invading China, and Hitler had risen to

power
with
the
Third
Reich.
Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmea, along with
98 members of the unicameral National Assembly, was
sworn into office amidst a crowd of about half a million
people
packed
at
the
Sunken
Garden.
In Quezons iaugural address he predicted that the
commonwealths life could be one of hardships and
sacrifices, but he hoped this would not be the case.

THE SAKDAL UPRISING

May 2-3, 1935 65,000 partially armed peasants
shattered
the
tranquility
of
the
countryside
surrounding Manila. Between sunset and sunrise,
peasant bands seized 3 communities and threatened
ten others in Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite.
- Hard-pressed constabulary units from the provinces
and Manila fought with Sakdalistas equipped with a
motley array of weapons. There were persistent
reports of an impending attack on Manila and
recurrent and disturbing rumors of Japanese aircraft
bringing in arms and ammunition for rebels.
Starting as anti-quezon, anti-nacionalista crusade,
the Skdalistas fiery leader, Benigno Ramos, became
the persecuted spokesman for the oppressed masses.
The Sakdalistas accused the Nacionalistas of hypocrisy
on the issue of independence and promised that
Ramos would acquire complete and absolute
independence for the Philippines by December 31,
1935. The Sakdalistas also promised that the Sakdal
party would abolish all taxes when it acquired control
of the government. The Sakdalistas called for equal or
common ownership of land and proclaimed that all
large holdings would be divided and distributed to the
poor. The Sakdalistas also attacked the religious

orders for operating vast estates and amassing wealth

through dishonest means. The Sakdal uprising
demonstrated the extent of discontent in the provinces
and the effectiveness of Sakdal appeal to address
grievances which had plagued the common tao for
generations. Movements led by self-styled messiahs,
secret societies in the revolutionary tradition, and old
organizations such as the pulanes and colorums
erupted not only in Luzon but also in the Visayas and
in Mindanao.
1923 - The colorums of Surigao.
1927 - Florencio Intrencherado in the Visayas.
1931 - The colorums in Tayug, Pangasinan.
November 7, 1930 The Communist Party of the
Philippines
was
formally
established.
1930 The Communist Party of the Philippines had
been declared an illegal organization, thus ending the
legal
life
of
the
CPP.
Quezons primary concern as the first president of his
country experimenting with a transition period of selfrule prior to complete independence in 1946, was to
lay a secure foundation for a new Philippines. He
sought the formulation of policies to ensure the
security and well-being of all Filipinos, as well as the
adjustment of the national economy to face the
challenge of independence.

NATIONAL SECURITY AND NATIONAL DEFENSE

The National Assembly enacted Commonwealth Act No.
1 The National Defense Act to underscore the
urgency of providing an adequate defense system for
an independent Philippines. To set up the Philippine
defense system President Quezon secured the services
of General Douglas McArthur, retired Chief of Staff of
the US Army, on whom he conferred the title of Field
Marshal of the Philippine Army. The defense plan

envisioned organization of a citizen army to consist of

2 components:
1. A regular force of about 10,000 men, including the
Philippine Constabulary.
2. A reserve force to number 400,000 by the end of
the 10-year period through a continuous program of
training 21-year old able-bodied men for a period of
5 months.
The preparatory military training (PMT) would be given
in the elementary, high school and college levels to
supplement the regular training program. The defense
plan also included the establishment of a modest
Philippine navy to consist of 50-100 torpedo boats to
be used primarily for off-shore patrol. An Army Air
Corps would be composed of a fleet of fast bomber
planes. Budgetary Constraints and the urgency of
other important concerns, such as education, health
and public works, necessarily limited the capacity of
General Mac Arthur to see his program through.