A History of the Philippines

by David P. Barrows

Brooke’s private correspondence shows that he was ambitious and hopeful of acquiring for England parts of the Dutch possessions in the south and the Spanish Philippines in the north; but his plans were never followed up by England, although in 1887 North Borneo was ceded to an English company, and all the northern and eastern portions of this great island are now under English protection.[6]

Liberal Ideas among the Filipinos.—The release from Moro piracy, the opening of foreign commerce, and the development of agricultural production were rapidly bringing about a great change in the aspirations of the Filipino people themselves. Nearly up to the middle of the nineteenth century the Filipinos had felt the full effect of isolation from the life and thought of the modern world. But the revolutionary changes in Europe and the struggles for constitutional government in Spain had their influence, even in these far-away Spanish possessions. Spaniards of liberal ideas, some of them in official positions, found their way to the Islands, and an agitation began, originating among Spaniards themselves, against the paternal powers of the friars.

Influence of the Press.—The growth of periodic literature accelerated this liberalizing movement. The press, though suffering a severe censorship, has played a large part in shaping recent thought in these islands and in communicating to the Filipino people those ideas and purposes which ever inspire and elevate men.[7] The first newspaper to make its appearance in the Philippines was in 1822—“El Philantropo”; but journalism assumed no real importance until the forties, when there were founded “Semanario Filipino” (1843), and almost immediately after several others—“El Amigo de Pais” (1845), “La Estrella” (1846), and “La Esperanza” (1847), the first daily. These were followed by “Diario de Manila” (1848); in 1858 “El Comercio” appeared, the oldest of the papers still in existence.[8]

Papers conducted by Filipinos and in the Filipino tongues are of more recent origin, but these early Spanish periodicals had a real effect upon the Filipinos themselves, training up a class familiar with the conduct of journalism and preparing a way for the very influential work of the Filipino press in recent years.

Establishment of an Educational System.—Return of the Jesuits.—But more important than all other influences was the opening of education to Filipinos. In 1852 a royal decree authorized the Jesuits to return to the Philippines. The conditions under which they came back were that they should devote themselves solely to missions in the unoccupied fields of Mindanao, and to the higher education of the Filipinos.

The Public Schools.—In 1860, O’Donnell, the Spanish minister of war and colonies (Ultramar), founded the system of public primary instruction. A primary school for boys and one for girls was to be established in each pueblo of the Islands. In these schools, instruction was to be given in the Spanish language. A superior commission of education was formed, which consisted of the governor, the archbishop, and seven other members added by the governor himself.

The system was not secular, for it primarily was devoted to the teaching of religious doctrine. The Spanish friar, the pueblo curate, was the local inspector of schools and practically directed their conduct. It was not wholly a free system, because tuition was required of all but the poorest children; nor was it an adequate system, because, even when most complete, it reached only a small proportion of the children of a parish, and these very largely were of the well-to-do families. And yet this system, for what it accomplished, is deserving of great credit.

Cathedral, Manila.

Besides the church, the convent, and the tribunal, nearly every town in the Philippines, toward the close of Spanish rule, had also, in the public plaza, its public school buildings for boys and for girls. In these towns a number of Filipinos were taught to converse in the Spanish language and at least the rudiments of Spanish education. But this system did not give opportunity for education to the little child of the humble fisherman and the husbandman.