The Indolence of the Filipino

IV

We recognize the causes that, awoke the predisposition and provoked the
evil: now let us see what foster and sustain it. In this connection,
government and governed have to bow our heads and say: we deserve
our fate.

We have already truly said that when a house becomes disturbed and
disordered, we should not accuse the youngest, child or the servants,
but the head of it, especially if his authority is unlimited, he
who does not act freely is not responsible for his actions; and the
Filipino people, not being master of its liberty, is not responsible
for either its misfortunes or its woes. We says this, it is true,
but, as will be seen later on, we also have a large part, in the
continuation of such a disorder.

The following, among other causes, contributed to foster the evil
and aggravate it: the constantly lessening encouragement that labor
has met with in the Philippines. Fearing to have the Filipinos deal
frequently with other individuals of their own race, who were free
and independent, as the Borneans, the Siamese, the Cambodians, and
the Japanese, people who in their customs and feeling’s differ greatly
from the Chinese, the Government acted toward these others with great
mistrust and great severity, as Morga testifies in the last pages of
his work, until they finally ceased to come to the country. In fact,
it seems that once an uprising’ planned by the Borneans was suspected:
we say suspected, for there was not even an attempt, although there
were many executions. (19) And, as these nations were the very ones
that, consumed Philippine products, when all communication with them
had been cut off, consumption of these products also ceased. The only
two countries with which the Philippines continued to have relations
were China and Mexico, or New Spain, and from this trade only China
and a few private individuals in Manila got any benefit. It, fact,
the Celestial Empire sent, her junks laden with merchandise, that
merchandise which shut down the factories of Seville and ruined the
Spanish industry, and returned laden in exchange with the silver that
was every year sent from Mexico. Nothing from the Philippines at that
time went to China, not even gold, for in those years the Chinese
traders would accept no payment but silver coin. (20) To Mexico went
little more: some cloth and dry goods which the encomendoros took
by force or bought from the natives at, a paltry price, wax, amber,
gold, civet, etc, but nothing more, and not even in great quantity,
as is stated by Admiral Don Jeronimo de Banuelos y Carrillo, when
he begged the King that “the inhabitants of the Manilas be permitted
(!) to load as many ships as they could with native products, such
as wax, gold, perfumes, ivory, cotton cloths, which they would have
to buy from the natives of the country …………… Thus the
friendship of those peoples would be gained, they would furnish New
Spain with their merchandise and the money that is brought to Manila,
would not leave this place,” (21)

The coastwise trade, so active in other times, had to die out, thanks
to the piratical attacks of the Malays of the south; and trade in
the interior of the islands almost entirely disappeared, owing to
restrictions, passports and other administrative requirements.

Of no little importance were the hindrances and obstacles that from
the beginning were thrown in the farmers’s way by the rulers, who were
influenced by childish fear and saw everywhere signs of conspiracies
and uprisings. The natives were not allowed to go to their labors,
that is, their farms, without permission of the governor, or of his
agents and officers, and even of the priests as Morga says. Those who
know the administrative slackness and confusion in a country where the
officials work scarcely two hours a day; those who know the cost of
going to and returning from the capital to obtain a permit; those who
are aware of the petty retaliations of the little tyrants will well
understand how with this crude arrangement it is possible to have the
most absurd agriculture. True it is that for some time this absurdity,
which would be ludicrous had it not been so serious, has disappeared;
but even if the words have gone out of use other facts and other
provisions have replaced them. The Moro pirate has disappeared but
there remains the outlaw who infests the fields and waylays the farmer
to hold him for ransom. Now then, the government, which has a constant
fear of the people, denies to the farmers even the use of a shotgun,
or if it does allow it does so very grudgingly and withdraws it at
pleasure; whence it results with the laborer, who, thanks to his means
of defense, plants his crops and invests his meager fortune in the
furrows that he has so laboriously opened, that when his crop matures,
it occurs to the government, which is impotent to suppress brigandage,
to deprive him of his weapon; and then, without defense and without
security he is reduced to inaction and abandons his field, his work,
and takes to gambling as the best means of securing a livelihood. The
green cloth is under the protection of the government, it is safer! A
mournful counselor is fear, for it not only causes weakness but also
in casting aside the weapons strengthens the very persecutor!