From Fray José M. Ruiz in his Memoria presented to the Philippine Exposition in Madrid in 1887, we take the following:
The curate is a local inspector of public instruction, adviser of the gobernadorcillos, and president of the various local boards. The Indios see in them a father, a pastor, and a protector, and as such they have always been recognized by the Government of these Islands (p. 239).
A great part of the Philippine inhabitants, that is to say, that which lives in the barrios and places more or less isolated and inaccessible, is about to be civilized (está casi por civilizar) (p. 247).
Referring to the mass of the people the same father says:
The masters devoted as they are, save in a few honorable exceptions, to their proper interests, have ignored completely the instruction of these unhappy ones in their religious duties * * * and their children, given over to the pasture of work animals, are reared in the midst of the most stupid ignorance (p. 254).
Later the author adds:
To give the Indio means of instruction and to place him in condition to benefit from it, and while this is not done, and until now this has not been done as we shall later show, is to concede rights to him who does not know how to appreciate what he deserves to the disgrace of the Spanish name and to the shame of the Spaniards in these Islands (p. 288).
Says the same Friar Ruiz:
And altho they are inimical to going to schools (the Indios) and to sending their children, it is because it is nothing but for wasting time since they learn nothing * * *. Furthermore, the towns are so crowded with ignorant teachers that without consulting anybody they establish private schools paid for by the parents of the children. Thus they learn what little good and a great deal of bad which they possess, to whom they teach Cartilla, and something of reading and writing, utilizing as texts for both the books called Corridos, which are full of anachronisms, errors, and absurdities of all kinds * * *. They also learn something of the Catechism (p. 337).