INSTITUTIONAL IMPACT OF SPANISH RULE

Cardines, Jay Arson C.

I. Economic Institutions: a. Taxation without Representation b. Polo y Servicio Personal or PrestacionPersonal c. Encomiendas: Royal and Private d. The Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade e. Royal Economic Society of friends of the Country f. Royal Philippine Company g. Infrastructure, Telecommunications and Public

Utilities

II. Educational Transformationa. “La letra Con Sangre Entra”

1. Boy’s Colleges & Secondary Schools2. Girl’s Schools

III. Social Transformation

IV. Cultural Transformation

V. Filipinos Not Totally Hispanized

Introduction: When Spaniards settled in the Philippines in 1565,

They found the Filipinos living in barangay scattered along river banks and mountain ranges.

One of the first tasks of the encomienderos and the missionaries was to collect all the scattered Filipinos together in a reducción or resettlement.

In early 1580,Franciscans, established pueblos ordering the missionaries to reside there where the church and convent would be constructed.

Fr. Juan de Plasencia is a franciscan who is responsible for the reducción.

Introduction: Through reducción, Spaniards attempted to tame the

Filipinos through Christian Indoctrination. The unbelievers who rejected Spanish domination

went to hills and became remontados, cimarrones, ladrones monteses, malhechores or tuslisanes in the eyes of the Spaniards.

Spanish friars utilized Christian rites and rituals during the Flores de Mayo or Santa Cruzan, the sinakulo and the Christian vs. Muslim conflict drama in order to entice the indios to convert into Christians.

With the reducción, the precolonial barangays metamorphosed externally and internally.

Taxation without Representation Income-generating mechanisms were introduced in

the Philippines consisting of direct and indirect taxes, monopolies of special crops and items.

The buwis may be paid in cash or kind, partly or wholly.

In mid-nineteenth century, Filipinos were required to pay taxes and other impositions.

Taxation without Representation Special privileges of tax exemptions were granted to

the descendants of the Filipino chiefly class who served in the pacification campaigns conducted by the conquistadores.

Another tax collected was the bandalâ. By 1884, the buwis was replaced by the cédula

personal equivalent to the present residence tax.

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Polo y Servicio Personal Polo is a corruption of the tagalog Pulong. Drafted laborers were either Filipinos or Chinese

male mestizos ranging from 16-60 years old are obligated to give personal service to community projects.

One could be exempted in doing personal service by paying faila.

The negative effects of Polo on the Filipino is the upsetting of the village economy.

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Encomiendas: Royal and Private

Encomienda comes from the word encomendar, means “to entrust”.

Encomienda was another revenue-getting Hispanic institution to the Philippines.

The encomendero was duty-bound to defend bus ecomienda from external incursions.

2 kinds of Encomiendas existed in Philippines . Legazpi authorized the encomendero to collect

tribute of eight reales or in kind yearly from the 19-60 years old Filipino males of Private encomiendas.

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Royal or Crown(Encomienda de la real Corona) These were the lands reserved for the crown and

included the principal towns and ports, like Bagum-bayan (now Luneta).

Private (Encomienda de particulares) Granted to individuals who were either the King’s

protegés or men who served with merit during the conquest and pacification campaigns.

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The Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade Acapulco Galleon is making the journey yearly for

250 years. Galleon trade was benefitted only for privileged

Spaniards. The only Filipino involvement in the Galleon trade

was in the construction of Galleons. Filipino Cottage Industries and Agricultures were

disregarded as money and gains were channeled to the galleon trade.

The Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade

Forced labor ignited the Sumodoy revolt and Pampanga revolt.

Intercultural exchanges between the Philippines and the Americans gains a positive results of the Galleon trade.

Route of Acapulco-Manila Galleon Trade

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Royal Economic Society of friends of the Country Jose de Basco y Vargas revamped the antiquated

economic system which stagnated the progress in the Philippines.

By following the Royal order, Basco formally organized in 1780, the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais.

Basco introduced the Plan General Economico to make the colony truly self-supporting in economy and self-sufficient from the annual Mexican subsidy.

Royal Economic Society of friends of the Country By exploiting the Philippine natural resources, Basco

give incentives by awarding cash prizes and medals of recognition for excellence in farming.

The Royal also offered local and foreign scholarships and training grants, an endowment funds for a professional chair in agriculture and established an academy.

Royal economic society of friends of the country had experienced suspension and revival many times until it ceased to exist by the middle of 1980’s.

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Royal Philippine Company

Royal Philippine Company was created in 1785 by Charles III for the purpose of uniting American and Asian commerce.

Royal Guipuzcoana de Caracas Company in South America, was vehemently opposed by Dutch and English interests who saw it as a direct attack on their trade in Asian Goods.

The keen rivalry between the Manila-Acapulco trade and the Royal Guipuzcoana resulted in political unrest in the Philippines.

Royal Philippine Company The Manila-Acapulco trade deteriorated as the Royal

Philippine Company reaped profits. To the Filipinos, the effect of rivalry was more untold

misery as they were forced to plant much-prized cash exports crops from which they did not have any direct benefit at all.

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Infrastructure, Telecommunications and Public Utilities The Ferrocarril de Manila extended 120 miles long

up to Dagupan and was the only railway line in the archipelago.

By 1892, there were five street car service lines connecting the primate city with the suburbs.

Also in Manila were horse-drawn vehicles for hire: de luxe carriages of various size and shapes known as quiles.

Infrastructure, Telecommunications and Public Utilities

To avoid traffic jams in Arroceros and Quiapo, the Puente Colgante(now Quezon Bridge), was built.

Pedestrians were charged a toll fee each of one kusing while each horse cost three cuartos.

In 1889, the first bicycle appeared on Manila street. Ships sailed from Manila to Hongkong weekly, while

the Manila-Barcelona trip was monthly. Ships coming from Japan and other Eurasian countries and the US arrived irregularly.

Infrastructure, Telecommunications and Public Utilities

Interisland shipping to the Visayas and Mindanao was mainly through steamers and steamboats.

The telephone in Manila began functioning since 1890, servicing initially 170 clients.

In 1897, the first interisland submarine cable linking Manila to Iloilo, Bacolod and Cebu, was laid by the Eastern Extension Australia and China Telegraph Company.

Infrastructure, Telecommunications and Public Utilities

Public lighting system in Manila and suburbs using coconut oil was considered in early 1814.

By 1893, the city and suburbs were already powered by electricity, with the founding of La Electricista de Manila.

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II. Educational Transformation

A. “La letra Con Sangre Entra” The earliest schools in the Philippines were in

compliance with Charles V’s decree of July 17,1550. It is also a way of preparing the sons of the ruling

families to learn not only Christianizing but also as future gobernadorcillos and cabeze de barangay.

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Boy’s Colleges & Secondary Schools The earliest colleges exclusively for the son of

Spaniards were established by the society of Jesus. Colegio Maximo de San Ignacio(1589). College of San Ildefonso (now University of San

Carlos)- is the only sole secondary school outside Manila in 1599.

College of the Immaculate Conception (now Ateneo de Manila University) founded by the Jesuits for the poor boys in 1817.

Escuela Normal de Maestro de Manila(1865-1901) was the first normal school to train male teachers for primary schools.

Boy’s Colleges & Secondary Schools Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario(now University

of Santo Tomas)was converted into a Dominican University in 1645.

Seminario de Niños huerfanos de San Pedro y San Pablo(now College of San Juan de Letran) was opened in 1620 for orphaned Spanish children and is considered oldest secondary school in the Philippines.

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Girl’s Schools

Colegios of Santa Potenciana(1591-1864) was the first boarding schools for Spanish girls in the Philippines.

Colegios for the daughters of upper-class Spaniards were called beaterios.

Beaterio de la Compañia de Jesus(now Religious of the Virgin Mary) a beaterios school founded in 1684.

Santa Catalina de Sena(1696). San Sebastian de Calumpang(now Sta. Rita College)

founded in 1719.

Girl’s Schools Santa Rita de Pasig(1740) and Santa Ros(1750) are

beaterios school established to teach Spanish culture and values to young Filipinas founded by Filipino women.

In 1864, a primary school is set up by the ayuntamiento of Manila- the Municipal Girls’ School.

A free compulsory public system of primary schools came with the Education Decree of 1863.

Each town has at least two schools, one for boys and one for girls, aged from 6 to 14 years old.

Pupils were forbidden to speak their own dialects.

Girl’s Schools Parent who did not send their children to schools

were fined one-half to 2 reales. Propagandists, like Rizal, bewailed the defects of the

educational system implemented by the Spaniards in the Philippines.

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Social Transformation

One of the most indelible marks left by the Spanish conquest on the Filipino was the adoption of Hispanic names.

Giving family names to the Filipinos were not only meant for the basis of census but surname was also a way to guarantee an exact tax collection, control over population movement and performance of Polo.

The bahay-kubo for the clase pobre went to the extent of refining and developing into a bahay na bato.

Foreign cruisine also influenced Filipino table.

Social Transformation

The precolonial mode of dressing changed gradually with the permanent settlement of the Spanish conquistadores.

Nobody can deny the extend of the Spanish loan words that filtered into the major and minor languages of the Philippines.

With the conversion of the Filipinos, fiestas honoring the saints were introduced.

Filipino released their tension through the pomp and pageantry of the religious processions, exotic hispanic dances and music and the religious dramas of the sinakulo and the komedya.

Social Transformation

Compadrazgo(co-parenthood) came with baptism, and marriages.

Eurasian intermarriages resulted in mixed bloods or mestizos.

Neo-Christian Filipinos soon buried their loved ones in public cemeteries.

La Funeraria was the first funeral parlor in the Philippines and was established by Carlos March in Manila in 1883.

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Cultural Transformation

The precolonial baybayin(syllabic writing) was supplanted by the Latin alphabet as part of the Hispanization of the Filipinos.

By mid-eighteenth century, it was observed that it was already rear to find a Filipino who still knew how to read and write baybayin.

Spanish missionaries relentlessly destroyed everything they considered belonging to the devil.

The potent appendages of education were the printing press, books and libraries.

Cultural Transformation

The 3 earliest books published at the Parian of Manila in 1593 by wood-block printing were:1. Doctrina christiana, en lengua españiola, y tagala2. Wu-Chi T’ien-chu cheng-chiao chen-ch’uan shih-lu

(A dicussion of the real tradition Propagation of the t true religion ).3. Doctrina christiana en letra y lengua china.

The earliest known Filipino writers during the seventeenth century were an unknown Tagalog ladino(bilingual) poet who wrote:

1. “May bagyo ma’t may rilim”(Through Stormy and Dark) in 1605.

Cultural Transformation

2. Fernando Bagongbanta’s “Salamat nang ualang hanga”(Eternal Thanks).

3. Tomas Pinpin’s “auit” in 1610. 4. Pedro Suarez Ossorio of Ermita, Manila “Salamat

nang ualang hoyang”(Endless Thanks). 5. “Huseng Sisiw” by Gaspar Aquino de Belen,

Felipe de Jesus and Jose de la Cruz. Theocentric literature appeared as soon as the

Spaniard settled permanently in the Philippines in the form of awit, corrido and metrical romances written by early poets such as Ananias Zorilla, Jose de la Cruz and Francisco Baltazar.

Cultural Transformation

Christianity produced the variegated forms of Filipino arts and crafts surrounding the religious fiestas.

The visual arts, like the making of imagenes, santoses, and jewelry bloomed at this time.

Folk art observed during fiestas are seen up to these day.

Painting was already secularized, according to the Synod of Calasiao in 1773.

Filipinos also figured prominently in printmaking, engraving and typography.

Cultural Transformation

The early missionaries facilitated Filipino conversion by using Hispanic music along with the introduction of Western instruments such as organ, harp, guitar and piano.

By the nineteenth century, some Filipinos were already composing both religious and secular music.

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Filipinos Not Totally Hispanized

In spite of more than 300 years of Spanish domination, Spain was not successful in completely Hispanizing the indios.

By the end of the Spanish rule, the transformation of the Philippine colony had created a blending of the native and Spanish cultures which became the basis of Filipinism and nationalism.

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