A History of the Philippines

by David P. Barrows

Effects of the Spanish Government.—The Spanish occupation had brought ruin and misery to some parts of the country. Salazar describes with bitterness the evil condition of the Filipinos. In the rich fields of Bulacan and Pampanga, great gangs of laborers had been impressed, felling the forests for the construction of the Spanish fleets and manning these fleets at the oars, on voyages which took them for four and six months from their homes. The governor, Don Gonzalez de Ronquillo, had forced many Indians of Pampanga into the mines of Ilocos, taking them from the sowing of their rice. Many had died in the mines and the rest returned so enfeebled that they could not plant. Hunger and famine had descended upon Pampanga, and on the encomienda of Guido de Lavazares over a thousand had died from starvation.[6]

The Taxes.—The taxes were another source of abuse. Theoretically, the tax upon Indians was limited to the “tributo,” the sum of eight reales (about one dollar) yearly from the heads of all families, payable either in gold or in produce of the district. But in fixing the prices of these commodities there was much extortion, the encomenderos delaying the collection of the tribute until the season of scarcity, when prices were high, but insisting then on the same amount as at harvest-time.

The principal, who occupied the place of the former dato, or “maharlica,” like the gobernadorcillo of recent times, was responsible for the collecting of the tribute, and his lot seems to have been a hard one. “If they do not give as much as they ask, or do not pay for as many Indians as they say there are, they abuse the poor principal, or throw him into the pillory (cepo de cabeza), because all the encomenderos, when they go to make collections, take their pillories with them, and there they keep him and torment him, until forced to give all they ask. They are even said to take the wife and daughter of the principal, when he can not be found. “Many are the principales who have died under these torments, according to reports.”

Salazar further states that he has known natives to be sold into slavery, in default of tribute. Neither did they impose upon adults alone, but “they collect tribute from infants, the aged and the slaves, and many do not marry because of the tribute, and others slay their children.”[7]

Scarcity of Food.—Salazar further charges that the alcaldes mayores (the alcaldes of provinces), sixteen in number, were all corrupt, and, though their salaries were small, they accumulated fortunes. For further enumeration of economic ills, Salazar details how prices had evilly increased. In the first years of Spanish occupation, food was abundant. There was no lack of rice, beans, chickens, pigs, venison, buffalo, fish, cocoanuts, bananas, and other fruits, wine and honey; and a little money bought much. A hundred gantas (about three hundred pints) of rice could then be bought for a toston (a Portuguese coin, worth about a half-peso), eight to sixteen fowls for a like amount, a fat pig for from four to six reales. In the year of his writing (about 1583), products were scarce and prices exorbitant. Rice had doubled, chickens were worth a real, a good pig six to eight pesos. Population had decreased, and whole towns were deserted, their inhabitants having fled into the hills.

General Improvement under Spanish Rule.—This is one side of the picture. It probably is overdrawn by the bishop, who was jealous of the civil authority and who began the first of those continuous clashes between the church and political power in the Philippines. Doubtless if we could see the whole character of Spanish rule in these decades, we should see that the actual condition of the Filipino had improved and his grade of culture had arisen. No one can estimate the actual good that comes to a people in being brought under the power of a government able to maintain peace and dispense justice. Taxation is sometimes grievous, corruption without excuse; but almost anything is better than anarchy.

Before the coming of the Spaniards, it seems unquestionable that the Filipinos suffered greatly under two terrible grievances that inflict barbarous society,—in the first place, warfare, with its murder, pillage, and destruction, not merely between tribe and tribe, but between town and town, such as even now prevails in the wild mountains of northern Luzon, among the primitive Malayan tribes; and in the second place, the weak and poor man was at the mercy of the strong and rich.

The establishment of Spanish sovereignty had certainly mitigated, if it did not wholly remedy, these conditions. “All of these provinces,” Morga could write, “are pacified and are governed from Manila, having alcaldes mayores, corregidors, and lieutenants, each one of whom governs in his district or province and dispenses justice. The chieftains (principales), who formerly held the other natives in subjection, no longer have power over them in the manner which they tyrannically employed, which is not the least benefit these natives have received in escaping from such slavery.”[8]

Old Social Order of the Filipinos but Little Disturbed.—Some governors seem to have done their utmost to improve the condition of the people and to govern them well. Santiago de Vera, as we have seen, even went so far as to commission the worthy priest, Padre Juan de Plasencia, to investigate the customs and social organization of the Filipinos, and to prepare an account of their laws, that they might be more suitably governed. This brief code—for so it is—was distributed to alcaldes, judges, and encomenderos, with orders to pattern their decisions in accordance with Filipino custom.[9]

In ordering local affairs, the Spaniards to some extent left the old social order of the Filipinos undisturbed. The several social classes were gradually suppressed, and at the head of each barrio, or small settlement, was appointed a head, or cabeza de barangay. As these barangays were grouped into pueblos, or towns, the former datos were appointed captains and gobernadorcillos.