05 Activity 1

According to Filomeno V. Aguilar, the Pacto de Sangre rendered in English (blood compact) that despite
its crucial significance in Filipino conceptions of history, is seldom interrogated in Philippine
historiography.

To the Filipino, the blood compact was an agreement between equals, a pledge of eternal fraternity
and alliance by which the Filipinos had sworn loyalty to the King of Spain and simultaneously had
become Spaniards in the full sense of the word. For their part the Spaniards had to do their part in
“assimilating” the Filipinos. However, “inasmuch as the Spaniards had violated their side of the
contract,” the Pacto de Sangre was used to “signify the right of the Filipinos to withdraw from the
pact their ancestor had entered into” (ibid. 1973, 207; 1997, 229).

Vicente L. Rafael examined the role of language and translation in the religious conversion
of Tagalogs to Catholicism its main argument is that translation was crucial to the emergence
of Filipino.
He rightly posits that translation and conversion are the consolidation of Spain's imperial order and
Tagalog conversion in the Philippine lowlands are best understood in terms of a series of translations between the
agents of a Castilian Catholic regime and various classes of Tagalog society. Such affinities, according to Rafael,
"reflect as much as they are reflected by their historical configurations" in the Spanish Imperio Rafael argues that
translation's "configurations" reveal the Spanish intent and desire to identify, relocate, and reorder words or ideas.
But for Spaniard and Tagalog alike, the history of colonialism entailed the translation or conversion-what we might
call the "restructuration"-of threatening linguistic or political conventions into safe spaces from which to speak as
Rafael prefers, "mistranslation," denotes a political interest in both "rendering the 'other' understandable" and
"reading into the other's language and behavior possibilities that the original speakers had not intended or foreseen"
(Rafael, V. 2010).

05 Activity 2

According to Rizal’s logic, the corrupt Spanish colonial bureaucracy relentlessly exploited the Filipinos, but blamed the
underdevelopment of the people on their presumed indolence. Rizal’s aim was to show that this view was erroneous
through recourse to both logic and historical fact. Rizal went into pre-colonial history to address the colonialist view of
Filipino indolence. The facts proved that pre-colonial Filipino society was relatively advanced, suggesting that the
presumed backwardness was due to colonialism.

Rizal insisted that the Filipinos were not inherently indolent. Furthermore, to the extent that there was indolence,
this was not to be seen as a cause of backwardness. Rather it was the exploitative conditions of colonial society that
resulted in indolence. In pre-colonial times, the Filipinos were hardworking and diligent, controlling trade routes, tilling
the land, mining ore and manufacturing. Their indolence developed when their destiny was taken away from them.

Strong Points:
 Rizal went into pre-colonial history to address the colonialist view of Filipino
indolence. The facts proved that pre-colonial Filipino society was relatively
advanced, suggesting that the presumed backwardness was due to colonialism.
Rizal was very aware that in Spanish colonial discourse, the backwardness of the Filipinos was blamed on their indolence.
The second kind of indolence Rizal noted was a consequence of the experience of the Filipinos under Spanish rule. The
fact that Filipinos were industrious in the past meant indolence must have social causes that could be found in colonial
rule (Rizal, 1963c).

Arguing that the underdevelopment of Filipino society was not due to any inherent shortcomings of the natives but
rather to the distortions of colonial rule, Rizal asserted that emancipation would come about from enlightenment.
Colonial rule was oppressive because of the backwardness of the Church. The Church was against enlightenment, the
supremacy of reason.

Antonio de Morga

It is not the fact that the Filipinos were unprotected before the coming of the
Spaniards. Morga himself says, further on in telling of the pirate raids from the
south, that previous to the Spanish domination the islands had arms and
defended themselves. But after the natives were disarmed the pirates pillaged
them with impunity, coming at times when they were unprotected by the
government, which was the reason for many of the insurrections.
According to him that the Spaniards "brought war to the gates of the Filipinos"
is in marked contrast. Perhaps "to make peace" then meant the same as "to
stir up war." And By the Christian religion, Dr. Morga appears to mean the
Roman Catholic which by fire and sword he would preserve in its purity in the
Philippines.