[59] That is men of the lower classes, laborers.
[60] It is difficult to determine whether such statements are due to ignorance or to malice. The real truth of the situation is that although the friar came to the Philippines to perform sacerdotal duties and preach the Gospel, his beneficial influence was not confined to the mere preaching of the Gospel. “What most honors the whole membership past and present of the Religious Orders is the intense zeal shown in the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of their parishioners. To merely defeat and drive out the bad that was in them was not sufficient, for Satan finds mischief for idle hands, and when one devil is driven out of a man he roams around seeking other devils with whom he returns and re-enters the soul and “the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” So to thoroughly carry out their christianizing and civilizing purpose they did their best to instruct their converts to occupy their time in the fields, in the building of houses, of churches, of structures of all kinds necessary. They taught them to be self-supporting and to build up happy homes around them. The few industries, if the little then done by the natives in the way of manual labor can be classed as industry, that existed among the people at that time were copied from the Chinese and Mohammedan traders who visited and traded with them. These industries however were but crude as a rule; and moreover the connection with these anti-christian influences had to be cut for the moral protection of the indian and therefore the friar missionary, ever on the alert for his children’s welfare, instructed them in industries which, whilst occupying their time formerly spent in abject laziness, also gave them the advantage of money making.
“As soon as the natives had become accustomed to living after the manner of civilized beings, the friars taught them the art of making lime, mortar and bricks and of utilizing these materials in buildings and fortifications for the common protection against their enemies. They instructed them in the method of tilling the virgin and fertile soil, of utilizing the many streams of water that nature had provided.”
And yet there are those who would make us believe that the friar missionary has done nothing to civilize the Filipinos. To whom then do they owe the civilization they enjoy?
[61] Faith in their anting-anting; courage to maltreat and murder the helpless and sometimes dying prisoners that fell into their hands; and as to constancy...? The majority of the leaders eventually became traitors to the most cherished ideas of independence. Three figures alone stand out as really constant throughout the whole rebellion, and these three are Aguinaldo, Mabini, and Pio del Pilar; and of these three the most constant was Aguinaldo, a misguided man who deserves far more honor than those who deserted him and who never thought of raising a finger to alleviate his hard lot, a lot for which they are morally responsible.
[62] A kind of altar on which bonfires are lighted for illumination.
[63] The name of this plant signifies that it possesses the power to bring to life again—to resuscitate.
[64] This granting of pardon to those who should present themselves is contained in Art. 7. of the proclamation of the Governor General Blanco, issued on the 30th of August 1896, and which reads as follows:
“Art. 7. The rebels who present themselves to the authorities within 48 hours after the publication of this proclamation, shall be exempt from punishment for rebellion, with the exception of the chiefs of the seditious groups and those who relapse into those crimes. The chiefs to whom reference is made shall be pardoned of the punishment due them if they surrender within the fixed time suffering a punishment immediately inferior according to grade.”