“The existing state of exhaustion of my royal treasury does not permit that so great a sum be set aside for the endowment of these schools as would be necessary for so important an object; but the convents of all the religious orders scattered throughout my kingdoms may in great measure supply this impossibility....” There was no need to put this royal decree in force in the Filipinas, since, in the majority of the convents or parish houses, schools for boys had already been established in their lower part, and those for girls in the houses of the women teachers, and other houses made for that purpose. It is but right to note how much the missionary always labored for the education of the woman whose better gifts he recognized always. He created numerous schools for her instruction, and paid for them from his living, quite contrary to the total inattention which the administration paid to the schools and teachers for girls, until the regulations of December 20, 1863 were formulated, the eighth article of which orders that “there shall be a boys’ school and another school for girls in every village, whatever its number of souls.”
Article 2 of these regulations,[5] quite distinct from the path of the ancient legislation, recognized, in accordance with the conduct and laws of the religious orders, the necessity of establishing compulsion in primary teaching; and firm in this principle, it ordered that “the primary instruction should be compulsory for all the natives, to the degree that the inattendance of the child might be penalized by virtue of art. 2, with the fine of from one-half to two reals.” Neither is the legislation exclusive with relation to the study of Castilian, as is seen by the context of its art. 3; it ordains education gratis to the poor by art. 4; and the well-to-do shall pay the teacher a moderate monthly fee, which shall be prescribed by the governor of each province, after conferring with the parish priest and gobernadorcillo. Paper, copybooks, ink, and pens shall be given free to all the children by the teacher, who, at the proper time, shall receive for this service one duro per month, for every child who writes, in accordance with the ruling made by a decree of the superior government, February 16, 1867. Very suitable measures were to be taken, all in accord with the action of the parish priest, in order not to give any occasion for fraud. That was a very well taken resolution, for it stimulated the zeal of the teacher, who received on this account a sum not to be despised, which, together with the quota of the well-to-do children and the monthly pay which he received, according to art. 22, consisting of 12, 15, and 20 pesos, according as the school of which he was in charge was entrada, ascenso, or término, he received a pay quite sufficient for his needs, enjoying in addition, by art. 23, a free dwelling-house for himself and family, and in due season the pension prescribed by art. 24.
Article 32 determines the powers of the parish priest as local supervisor, which, although they were conceded with a certain timidity, were perhaps believed to be excessive or unnecessary, and it seems its abolition was clearly agreed upon by art. 12 in declaring the municipal captain “supervisor of the schools.” This blow must be judged as a very strong one in the lofty governmental spheres of the islands, for the genuine representation of the parish priests in the villages is one of the functions most natural to their charge, both as teachers of the Catholic doctrine and ethics, and in the role of traditional supporters of the schools, although in art. 102 was established the following as an explanation to art. 12 of the decree: “Without prejudice to the supervision which belongs in the instruction to the parish priests according to the regulations of December 1863, whose powers are not at all altered, the tribunal shall watch carefully over primary instruction; shall demand the teaching of Castilian in the schools; shall oblige the inhabitants to send their children to them; and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards. Said tribunal shall place in operation the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, deciding upon those means in meetings with the parish priests and the delegates of the principalía.”
At first view one observes the good desire which the author of said article shelters when he says that the powers conceded to the parish priest as supervisor of schools by art. 20 of the regulations of the same shall not be changed in any point, without perceiving that directly afterward it created another authority in opposition to that of the parish priest, if not with all the powers of the latter, because those which he possesses as teacher in ethics and the doctrine do not admit of transmission, yet clearly of all the others, and in them with prior rank.
It is evident that, by the context of this article, the power of “watching carefully over primary instruction” is conceded to the captain, which is identical with the first part of art. 32 of the school regulations conceded to the parish priest which reads as follows: “To visit the schools as often as possible.” This is the first part of that article, and the second part “and to see that the regulations are observed,” whose art. 3 orders that “the teachers shall have special care that the pupils have practical exercise in speaking the Castilian language,” is of identical meaning and effect with the power conceded to the captain, which declares, “he shall demand that Castilian be taught in the schools.” This power is followed by those of “he shall compel the inhabitants to send their children to the schools, and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards;” both powers similar to those which are conceded to the parish priests by the third part of said art. 32, which declares, “To promote the attendance of children at the schools.” To supplement this with the compulsory virtue, he is authorized by art. 2, explained and ratified in No. 3 of the decree of the superior government of August 30, 1867, to be able to admonish and compel parents, who are slow in sending their children to the schools, by means of fines from one-half to two reals, and that which is conceded to him, in accordance with annual examinations, by art. 13, and art. 7 of the decree of the superior government, of May 7, 1871, which declares: “The reverend and learned parish priests, accompanied by the gobernadorcillos and by the principalías of the villages, shall visit the schools monthly, shall hold examinations every three months, etc.” By this one can see that the parish priest conserves the first place, even in this, over the gobernadorcillo and principalía, by whom he is accompanied, in order to give more luster to the ceremony. That happens in no act or meeting of the present municipality, in which the parish priest has no other functions than those of intervention and counsel, included in that which is signified in the last paragraph of the above-mentioned art. 102, which says when referring to the municipal captain: “He shall put in force the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, agreeing upon those means in meetings with the parish priests and delegates of the principalía;” and although it is established that the creation of the Sunday schools of which art. 29 of the regulations speaks, which are also of the intervention of the parish priest, as are the boys’ schools, falls completely to his share, as the means, if not sole, yet the one most efficacious and of practical application, it would result as in all the other powers which have been enumerated as conceded to the parish priest by the school regulations and to the captain by decree and municipal regulations—it would result, we say—at each step in an encounter and rivalry in which the parish priests would come out second best, for the simple reason, repeated to satiety in innumerable articles of the decree and municipal regulations, that the action of the parish priest is nothing more than supervision and counsel,[6] with the added abasement that “his presence shall not be included in the number of those who shall concur in the validity of the deliberations,” as is prescribed by art. 49 of the decree and 64 of the regulations. Sad then, is, and at once, graceless, the function of the parish priest compared to the action of the captain and of the board which is executive.
It seems unnecessary to say that the action and powers of the parish priest in his duties as local supervisor of schools result in the theoretical legal sphere of action, completely null and void, and that action carried to the practical field of action exposes it to continual rivalries, numerous frictions, and even deep quarrels between two authorities, who in that, as in everything which belongs to the multiple affairs of the village, ought to be in perfect accord, as is demanded jointly by the lofty interests of religion and of the fatherland, of the spiritual welfare and of the material order and peace of the villages.
And as that duality, besides being shameful and lowering for the parish priests, is inviolable, and since by another part art. 12 of the decree and 102 of the regulations, both above cited, in the form in which they have been compiled, do not fill any need or space, as all that which is ordained therein is a repetition of what has been already decreed, there is no reason for their existence, to the evident common harm, and to the small shame of the parish priest, who deserves eternal gratitude for his labors, for his solicitude, and for the zeal which he has ever displayed, and in the midst of the greatest sacrifices, for the instruction.
Nearly three centuries, since 1565, when the first Augustinians, the companions of Legazpi and Salcedo reached the Filipinas shores, until 1863, the year in which regulations were first made for primary instruction, outlined only hitherto in numerous laws and royal decrees which it was impossible to fulfil, as is proved, for almost three centuries, we say, of bold zeal bordering on the inconceivable, of constant anxiety and watching, of unusual effort, which borders on the heroic, and with remarkable expenses never paid back, ignored by most people, and recognized and praised by very few: are these not sufficient, not only so that the liberty to exercise the noblest charge which Church and fatherland have confided to them for centuries in the teaching of the schools, which is intimately associated with the teaching in the pulpit, be conceded to the parish priests, but that also by justice illumined by gratitude, the necessary law, moral force, aid, and support, for the exercise, with perfect repose and without any impediment, and more, without any asperity and struggle, of that sacred duty so full of trouble and bitterness for him, so full of results most beneficial for religion and fatherland, be conceded to him? If, then, one desire to concede to the parish priest the position which is in justice due him in education, if there is to be granted to the missionary that which the most rudimentary gratitude urges, it is of imperious necessity that that mortifying and abasing duality be radically destroyed, for it renders useless all the energies of the parish priest supervisor, and stifles his noble and disinterested aid offered without tax for the service of the holy ideals of God and fatherland. Perhaps the parish priest is deprived of this salutary intervention because such intervention is believed unnecessary, superfluous or prejudicial to the lofty interests of the fatherland or of the well-being of the native? Today necessarily more than ever, through the deep-colored dripping of the blood of the insurrection,[7] one can see with the clearness of noonday that the intervention of the parish priest ought to be established in all the orders, in order that it might again take the lofty position which was overthrown thirty years ago. Is it, perhaps, because the intervention of the parish priests will be a barrier, or obstacle, even to the sustained mark of true progress in education in general, or of Castilian in particular? But this is perfectly utopian, and even an argument now of bad taste. The religious orders enemies of true progress! Perhaps they are not the ones who in their teaching have created everything today existing in Filipinas? Are not the religious corporations those who have always formed their ranks in the vanguard of science, and today especially both in the Peninsula, and in the Magellian Archipelago, do not numerous colleges nourish with special predilection on the part of the public? As an incontestible proof of this truth, let one concede without difficulty what shall afterwards be proposed as a supplement of that existing today.
The argument of Castilian is a mythical argument of more than long standing, since it has been proved quite clearly during the preceding centuries that there has been an absolute lack of material for teaching it. The patronizing enthusiasts of the Castilian, who think it to be a panacea, so that the Indian may learn everything and obtain the social height of the peoples of another race and of other capacities, and who are persuaded, or appear to be so, that “what is of importance above all else is that the Indian learn Castilian in order to understand and to identify himself with the Castila,” are laboring under a false belief. We sincerely believe that the native, if he once come to understand the Castila in the genuine meaning of the word, will never come to identify himself with them. Thus it was explained by a distinguished man of talent, both illustrious and liberal, Don Patricio de la Escosura,[8] the least monastic man in España and the one most favorable to the friars in Filipinas of his epoch, as he himself declared in most ample phrase; a man of government and administration, who throwing aside as was proper the vulgar opinion that the friars were opposed to the teaching of Castilian, assigned in his famous Memoria on Filipinas “of the parish priests, I say, little must be expected in this matter;” in order to affirm as follows: “And by this I do not pretend, and much less, deny to them their apostolic zeal, their desire for the common good, and the importance of the services which they have lent to religion and the mother country, and are lending and may lend in the future;” and adding some years later in his prologue to the small work Recuerdos [i.e., Remembrances] which could better be entitled Infundios [i.e., Fables] of Señor Cañamaque: “Let the friars in the archipelago be suppressed, and that country will soon be an entirely savage region of the globe, where there will scarcely remain a vestige or perhaps a remembrance of Spanish domination. That is a truth, for all those who know and judge impartially concerning the archipelago, of axiomatic authority.” And that truth established, he immediately asked: “Why then is not that force utilized, in whose existence and supreme efficacy all agree? Why are not the friars charged as much as possible with the responsibility of the immense authority which they in fact exercise by associating them officially and in reasonable terms with the governmental and administrative action in Filipinas?” Why? For a very simple reason. Because governments, like ministers of the crown and royal commissaries in Filipinas, like Señor Escosura, suffer prejudices and embrace opinions so original and vulgar as that of the opposition of the religious corporations to the teaching of Castilian, a universal panacea as abovesaid, to knowing everything, and which will enable the native to conquer every sort of obstacle; for this most clear talent, and we say it truly, caused to be based on the ignorance of Castilian “so much ignorance and so absurd superstitions at the end of three centuries, and in spite of the efforts of the Spanish legislator to civilize the Indians. So long as the Indian,” he adds, “speaks his primitive language, it is approximately impossible to withdraw him completely from his prejudices, from his superstition, erroneous ideas, and the puerilities belonging to the savage condition. So long as he understands the Castilian with difficulty, ... how can he have clear notions of his duties, and of his rights—he who cannot understand the laws more than by the medium of some interpreter?...”
What candor and how little understanding of the native, or what excess of political or party idea!