Spanish Colonization Era and its Instability

• The situations during the Spanish Colonization Era serve as background for understanding the difficulties experienced by the country and Filipino people.
• Filipinos suffered difficult conditions and practices imposed by the Spanish government, authorities, and Catholic religion without considering human emotions, during Rizal's time.
• Social prowess was based on color and wealth.
• A person who was not Spanish or white was considered inferior, regardless of wealth.
• The 333 years of colonization created negative images and injustices that continue to be associated with Filipinos.
• Situations during the Spanish Colonial Era are based on Gregorio Zaide's stories.

Instability of Spanish Politics

• The Napoleonic invasion of Spain brought changes to the government system, impacting the Philippines.
• Developments in the Philippines depended on the officials assigned by the Spanish government as a colony.
• New plans were set based on the likings of the new officers, disrupting good plans set previously when officials were replaced.

Corrupt Officials

• Spanish officials assigned to the Philippines were often unknowledgeable or lacked the skills for their posts.
• Some officials were good at fighting but lacked leadership skills.
• Some officials used their positions for personal gain through corrupt practices like accepting bribes from gambling operations.
• Rafael de Izquierdo (1871-1873) was a ruthless governor-general who ordered the execution of Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora without trial.
• Admiral Jose Mal Campo was a good moro fighter, but he was a weak administrator.
• Valeriano Weyler was a corrupt and cruel officer who became rich through bribes from wealthy Chinese evading the law.
• Filipinos called Valeriano Weyler "Tyrant" due to his brutal acts, including persecuting tenants in Calamba, including Rizal's family.
• Camilo Polovieja approved Rizal's execution without strong evidence.
• Some officials from former Spanish colonies like Cuba, Mexico, and Guatemala came to the Philippines as executives, judges, army officers, and government employees, due to being misplaced and penniless.
• These officials were often relatives or friends of civil officials and friars.

Removal of Philippine Representatives from Cortes

• A representative to the Cortes was assigned to report happenings and developments of every colony, in order to have a contact to the different colonies of Spain.
• Ventura de los Reyes, the first representative, actively participated in framing the Constitution in 1812.
• Representation of overseas colonies, including the Philippines, was abolished.
• Abolishing representation meant irregularities could not be reported to Spanish authorities.
• Graciano Lopez Jaena and other Filipinos requested reconsideration for representation but were ignored.
• The Spanish government ignoring led to bitter emotions felt.
• Unlike the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico had their representatives, but the Philippines was dropped from the list of colonies.

Human Rights Denial and Inequalities Law

• Spaniards enjoyed rights such as freedom of expression, press, and association, while carefully ensuring no monarch abolished these laws.
• Spanish missionaries preached equality in God's eyes but later contradicted this by treating Filipinos as inferior.
• Filipinos were baptized and accepted Christianity, and the concept of brotherhood was used to introduce the Catholic religion.
• During Spanish rule, Filipinos with brown or dark skin were considered inferior and treated as slaves instead of brothers.
• Filipinos were abused, brutalized, persecuted, and slandered by Spanish masters.
• Filipinos could not appeal for justice because the system favored those of Spanish descent.
• The Spanish Penal Code imposed harsher penalties on native Filipinos and mestizos compared to white Spanish.
• Certain code provisions stated that those not born white were considered criminals, favoring Spanish over Filipinos.

Injustices and Racial Discrimination

• Judges were corrupt, and justice was based on monetary value.
• Some judges lacked legal knowledge.
• The justice system was slow and unsystematic.
• Filipinos often lost cases due to the high cost of litigation.
• Education was limited to the rich and Spanish, and Filipinos who attended faced insults.
• Justice was only for the white and rich, and human rights and equality were denied.
• The Spanish Penal Code imposed heavier penalties on Filipinos and mestizos but lighter penalties on Spaniards.
• The Spaniards enjoyed freedom of speech, press, association, and other human rights, but Filipinos were treated as inferior.

Frailocracy

• After the Spanish took control, priests controlled all aspects of life, known as the Frailocracia government.
• Education and life were under the control of the Spanish friars.
• The governor-general almost always granted the recommendations made by the Friars, regardless of their justification.
• Friars supervised elections.
• Agustinian and Dominican priests used their influence to seize Filipino lands, such as in Calamba, turning owners into tenants.

Force Labor

• Filipinos were forced to work, known as polo, on construction projects such as churches, hospitals, and roads while men were required to work without choice
• Exemption from forced labor was possible by paying a fee called falla.
• Male Filipinos aged 16-60 were required to serve 40 days a year.
• Regulations changed the labor age to 16-18, reducing service to 15 days a year, but this was not applied to Spaniards in the Philippines.
• Only Filipinos were required to work, while some Spaniards paid the falla to avoid it.
• Government promised to pay laborers two pesetas (50 centavos), but often did not pay or only gave half.
• Many Filipinos suffered and left their families to perform forced labor.

Guardia Civil

• The Guardia Civil (Civil Guards) was a symbol of Spanish occupation.
• While created to promote peace and stability, it was abused by authorities. The Guardia Sibil from the decree were known to be good and upheld upright principles, as they were from earlier batches.
• Later compositions, Civil Guards were also known as law breakers who were known for rape, extortion, and other malpractices.

Realization of the Past and Moving for Change

• The past influences the present and future, so lessons from the past should reflect better changes.
• Current issues in government and society reflect historical experiences.
• It is important to realize these situations with courage to broaden thinking and develop national pride and patriotism.
• Filipinos struggle to unlearn changes that were inculcated in terms of attitude, culture, and traditions.
• Psychological and sociological impacts on Filipinos result from irregularities and harassment by the Spaniards.
• While the effects of the Spanish tyranny can be devastating effects, one cultivates the ability to be courageous in order to implement beneficial change.
• People should reject Hispanic style ideals and embrace equality.
• Citizens can become better by loving and removing discrimination to develop the ability to acclaim and affirm, regardless of ethnic origin, color, physical outlook and other influences.
• Encouraging patriotism, nationalism, and Philippine pride also encourages global solidarity.

Other Information

• Literacy dictates the advancement and social condition of a society and a nation.
• Spaniards did not just find a loose collection of backward and belligerent tribes in the Philippines.
• They found a civilization that was very different from their own and that existed for at least a century when the Tagalogs had been adept already in writing using the Baybayin.
• The art of reading and writing was found by the culture that Spaniards found in the Philippines was found in the hands of everybody.
• Filipinos has early writings and has a sense of accountability and most of learned and not ignorant.
• The Philippines document about a Namwaran's release from his debts also including his family.

Spanish Accounts

• Legazpi observed in 1571 that the inhabitants Legazpi came to Manila in 1571. Legazpi observed that who came to Manila knew how to read and write.
• Spanish Jesuit historian ,Pedro Chirino wrote in his 1604 Relacion de las Islas Filipinas “All these islanders are much given to reading and writing, and there is hardly a man, much less a woman, who does not read and write.”.
• According to Antonio Morga, judge Advocate of the High Court and commander of the ill-fated galleon-turned-warship San Diego, “Almost all the natives, both men and women, write in this language. The are very few who do not write it excellently and correctly.”
• The book written by Fr. Juan de Placencia included the Doctrina Christiana, en Lengua Española y Tagala printed in 1593.

Sinister Shadows of Spain

• Colonial administration was unstable
• Officials were corrupted throughout their power.
• There was no Philippine representation throughout Spanish Cortes
• Filipinos were commonly denied their rights and equalities throughout the era Justice throughout racial discrimination was poorly executed and maladministrated Frailocracy and friars acquired haciendas for exploitation Forced unpaid labor was very common