When we have tried to demonstrate to the_The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 46, 1721-1739 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

a mystery, a catholic dogma, some philosophical thesis, with the

greatest simplicity, clearness, and precision, we have observed

that the attention of the Indian, excited and sustained at the

beginning, gradually diminished, his eyes wandered, his distraction

was manifest. Giving another turn and another form to the exposition,

we have succeeded in awakening those sleepy or tired minds, but

always for only a few moments. By one example we obtain more than

by the most exact dissertations, and by the most clear explanations;

for their childish minds, their excessively acute sensibility needs

something palpable to bring some light to the darkness of their

understandings. We have observed that phenomenon also in the rude as

well as the instructed Indians who had learned to reason by logic,

and have cultivated the mind by study as far as their mental strengths

can go. It must be inferred then that the Filipino Indian is a grown-up

child. As a child he cannot go beyond the elemental in the sciences,

for his most limited understanding cannot mount in its flight to the

heights of the metaphysical. Examples, similes, and metaphors are the

indirect means to make him understand the intangible, the spiritual,

and the abstract. There can be no luminous philosophical dissertations,

or brilliant theories, or abstruse problems, but examples, many

examples to make him perceive the truth and the essence of things,

causing him to touch, feel, and perceive, with eyes, ears, touch,

and the other bodily senses.

There have not been lacking those who have attributed the incapacity

and insufficiency of the Indians to intellectual laziness which

corresponds to the laziness peculiar to an equatorial country,

where the burning rays of fiery sun enervates the physical and

intellectual forces. We neither affirm nor deny this, since it might

well happen that the Indians possess, like children, in the beginning

in potentiality intellectual faculties in their germ equal and even

superior to those of the white race, but we incline to the belief

that the Indian of pure blood can never reach in scientific culture

to the level of the European. If he ever attains anything in the

field of science, it must be because another blood inoculates in

his own blood the divine breath of wisdom, and then he will be able

to advance somewhat when the cross whitens his olive-colored face,

has lowered his prominent cheek-bones, and elevated his flat nose a

trifle. Until that time comes, the Indian will always be a grown-up

child, as simple, as ignorant, and as credulous as a child, but with

all the passions, vices, and defects of the adult.

"In regard to the nature and understanding of the Indians," says

Retana, "speaking in general, they are more clever than the American

Indians. [111] They readily learn any art, and with the same readiness

they imitate any work which is placed before them. They make fine

clerks and are employed in the accounting offices and other offices

in that duty. For, besides the fact that they write well, they are

excellent accountants, have capacity for directing a lawsuit, and very

sharp in getting the parties to the lawsuit all tangled up. There

are good stonemasons, and musicians among them. But in all these

things, they only reach a certain degree which they never surpass,

either because of laziness, or for the lack of intellect, which we must

suppose to be sufficiently limited. For they never invent anything, and

all is reduced to their skill of imitation. Those who give themselves

to the sciences never surpass a mediocrity in their comprehension.

"He who has had to do with the Indians of Filipinas can do no less

than assent to this truth. We find them more clever than ourselves

in learning any mechanical work, but more stupid in whatever depends

upon the understanding or on the imagination. In so brief a time do

they learn the trade of artists, musicians, embroiderers, cobblers,

tailors, and whatever is reduced to the mechanical, that they exercise

it fairly well in little time. If they are not satisfied with it,

they readily give it up and learn another trade. There are Indians

who have gone through all those trades, and they have filled them all

well. But not one of them has ever surpassed mediocrity. There has

never been an artisan who has invented any improvement in the trade

which he learned. They are most ingenious in imitating what they

see, but they never invent anything. If those men had the talents of

Europeans, why is it possible that one cannot find in three hundred

years one who has added anything to what was taught him?

"I can affirm of the Filipinos with whom I have lived for more than

sixteen years, that they are handy in every kind of mechanism which

is shown to them. They are capable of imitating the most curious

works, but they can invent nothing, for they lack imagination and

fancy, and are very obtuse in the abstract sciences because they

lack understanding.

"Some try to attribute this to the subordination in which the Spaniards

hold them. I will ask such people why does not that subordination

and submission prevent them from making any mechanical work with

a sufficient perfection? The soldiers learn the military exercise

quicker than do the Spaniards; the children learn to read readily;

most of them write an excellent hand. The girls easily imitate the

laces and embroideries of Europa. Why do they not imitate equally well

our philosophers, our mathematicians, and our poets? Why do they not

make any advance in painting, in music, and in the other sciences

which require imagination and understanding? [112] More than half

of the seculars of the Manila archbishopric are Indians. There are

some who have become alcaldes-mayor, officers in the royal army,

and advocates in the royal Audiencia. Why have none of them gone

beyond a very moderate mediocrity in the sciences to which they have

dedicated themselves? Just as among Europeans individuals are found

for all kinds of abstract sciences, it must be confessed that in the

same manner nations are found who, because of the climate in which

they have lived for a long series of generations, have contracted a

certain tangency of understanding which disposes them very little to

receive metaphysical and spiritual ideas." [113]

This gives us the key to the fatal results obtained in education

in Filipinas. Of the hundreds of students who matriculated annually

in the colleges, fifteen per cent did not succeed in obtaining the

degree of bachelor, and if those who gained a professional title

in the university scarcely reached ten per cent, and of them the

greater number were advocates without clients, and physicians

without patients, they, united with those who abandoned their

books and mutilated their career, were in the villages the greatest

calamity that befell the country. They all pompously called themselves

pilósopos for filósofos [i.e., philosophers], and they were no more

than ignorant and presuming fellows, pettifoggers, intriguers, and

lazy, haughty, and vain fellows, who neither could nor would work,

or aid their parents in work or trade, but could dress as those in

Manila, prink themselves out like women, censuring everything, even

the religious acts, in order that they might be esteemed sages. They

were, through their vices, a grievous weight to the parish priests;

by their laziness and viciousness, an insupportable burden to their

families; by their lewdness and intrigues the mine which furnished

suits to the lawyers, and for the disaffected and filibuster, as

they were almost all of them affiliated with freemasonry, a danger

to the government and to the nation. [114] All those evil students

learned all the evil of the capitals and laden with vices, evil ideas,

and morals, they were in the villages a scandal for the majority,

a snare for some, and mischievous for all.

"Those deserters from the university," says Escosura, "half instructed

with incomplete notions of the sciences which, belonging to the

superior education, require to be studied by persons of consideration

and social prestige, and above all to be upright, in order that they

may not be dangerous to the public safety; those deserters from the

university form, I repeat, a class in Filipinas, and are, above all,

insatiable leeches who devour the substance of the Indians, so many

other founts of lawsuits and quarrels among their fellowcitizens."

Perhaps I shall be asked at this point: "Why since you [religious]

see and know all this, why did your religious devote themselves to,

and encourage, education?" Because it is very difficult to separate

oneself from the influence of the time; for it is impossible to oppose

the conquering current of opinion, as the monastic orders of Filipinas

did not arrange means to free themselves from the pressure of the

government, and to reply to the unjust charge of having retrograded,

which those who did not know the country even on the map fulminated

against them; and lastly to avoid greater evils. The regular province

of the Augustinian fathers was the last to devote itself to superior

education among the Indians. When did it do that, and why? When Señor

Becerra was minister of the colonies in the years 1887 and 1888,

and that minister of sad memory planned an official institute in the

capital of Iloilo, the Augustinian fathers saw in the plan of the

minister a most grave danger for the country, and they went ahead

to ward it off. All we parish-priest regulars of Filipinas saw with

pain the advances which freemasonry was making in the country by means

of the abandoned advocates and physicians, unfit students, ambitious

caciques, wealthy fellows, ruined by their vices or by play--we know

the works of the spade against the foundation of Spanish domination

which were based on religion, prestige, and superiority of race. We

all recognized and experienced the apathy and indifference of the

authorities who were not ignorant of the frauds and plans of the

lodges; and there were even governors of the provinces who protected

them. And if to all that which we knew, recognized, and could not

remedy, we had consented that Señor Becerra establish in Iloilo an

institute of secondary education with professors who might have been

freemasons or atheists, the catastrophe would have been certain and

imminent, for such institute would be a seeding place for filibusters

and insurgents. In order to avoid that, the Augustinian order planned

and constructed at its own expense an edifice which it resolved to

dedicate as an institute. That could not be carried out, for the last

revolution of '98 came upon them before it was inaugurated.

More beneficial for the country, more in accordance with the monastic

traditions, more in harmony with the recommendations of our glorious

founder, which were practiced by our virtuous ancestors, would have

been the opening of schools of arts and crafts. In reality, although

the Spanish government established a few of those schools in Manila,

Pampanga, and Iloilo, it was so unseasonable that it was unable to

gather the fruits which were promised in their founded hopes. Such

is the scarcity of Indian artists and artisans, that of the former

there are a few sculptors, engravers, and painters, etc., but of the

latter, we can assert that almost all the trades are in the hands

of the Chinese, and only carpentry, cabinet-making, architecture,

masonry, and some other trades, are exercised by Indians, to whom

the parish-priest religious taught them because they needed them for

their works and constructions.

It is known that the ancient monks divided their time among prayer,

contemplation, study, and manual work. St. Anthony [115] and his

five thousand monks, as well as all those who afterward imitated the

monastic life or that of the desert, employed part of their day in

labor with their hands, weaving mats, making shoes, oars, boats, or

small skiffs, and other similar labors. Our father, St. Augustine,

desired his monks to also devote some hours of the day to manual

labor. Accordingly, our predecessors did it. It is true, that the

spirit of the respective epochs changed the character of the bodily

work, but the monastic corporations of Filipinas, which recognized

the incapacity of the Indian for science and deplored the pernicious

effects of science poorly digested by the natives, if they could not

do away with the action of the governments, the influence of opinion,

the pressure of the times, would have had to turn aside, by means

of their parish-priest religious, the tendency of the Indians to the

literary branches, and to have directed that tendency to those branches

of pure imitation, for which it is necessary to recognize, and we do

that gladly, that the Filipino Indian has exceptional abilities. At the

same time that the university was founded, and the colleges provided,

schools and workshops ought to have been established for the natives,

which would have obtained the preference in those narrow, dull, and

lazy minds, with greater benefits to the country and less harm to

all. All the monasteries founded by St. Basil the Great [116] had in

charge an elementary superior school, and another of arts and crafts

joined to it. That ought to be the model of the religious orders

in Filipinas, in spite of the governments of the mother country,

of the demands of opinion manifestly gone astray on this point,

and of the spirit of the epoch which could not have any influence in

that country, most especially by their constitution, nature, customs,

and government. Had the religious corporations, thoroughly permeated

with their Christian and civilizing mission, proceeded in that manner,

the contingent of sons with the three pointed design of the square

and apron, [117] who left the halls of the colleges and became the

petty leaders and chief revolutionists who betrayed the mother country

and were also the greatest enemies of those who had taught them the

little good that they knew, would not have been so numerous.

The cholera, which made ravages in the Filipino Archipelago in 1882,

left in the saddest orphanage many children of both sexes and of all

the races. They, abandoned, and without resources, wandered through

the streets begging public charity. The Spanish women, moved by the

disconsolate spectacle, which so many ragged and hungry children

offered, formed a society, from which a committee was chosen, which

went to the governor-general to beg for food and shelter for those

abandoned children. The governor summoned the provincials of the

monastic order, as being the natural protectors of the destitute, and

creators of the centers of education and learning in the country. He

petitioned them for support and aid. The father provincial of the

Augustinians, representing his order, took under charge of the

province of Santísimo Nombre de Jesús, the support, education, and

teaching of the abandoned and orphaned children. The Augustinian

fathers assigned for that purpose local sites provisionally in the

avenue of San Marcelino, where they gathered the children who were

wandering through the city of Manila, and gave them shelter in the

temporary barracks. But since the latter had no hygienic conditions,

and were not large enough, they transferred the children to the

lower parts of the convent of Guadalupe, which were spacious and well

ventilated. There they opened workshops of sculpture and ceramics,

painting, and modeling, and there they remained until the year 1892,

when the schools, workshops, and children were transferred to the

building of the new plant constructed for that purpose in the village

of Malabon. That place united all the desirable conditions of solidity,

decoration, size, and even elegance, which could be desired. There the

Augustinian fathers taught the orphans, in addition to their primary

letters, painting, designing, sculpture, and modeling, printing, and

binding, and indeed the printing plant was bought by the voluntary

donation of some religious, through the economies practiced in

the missions by dint of privations and of a life of poverty and

mortification. We know one of those religious, respectable for his

exemplary virtue, who gave for that purpose all his savings, consisting

of two thousand pesos. We feel that his humility has prohibited us from

placing his name here, so that he may be blessed by all who should hear

of a charity and liberality peculiar to the sons of a St. Augustine,

who gave even his death-bed to the poor, and suitable also to those

of Santo Tomás de Villanueva, father of the poor. That asylum of the

orphans, and of the unfortunates abandoned by its founders who had to

flee from the ingratitude of the revolutionists, was burned by the

shells which the Americans threw to dislodge the Indian rebels who

had made forts of it, and being looted afterward by pillaging Chinese

who took away even the paving-stones of the lower floor, a cargo of

which was surprised by the North American police in the Pasig River,

and returned to the Augustinian fathers--the only indemnity which

they have received up to date.

The Augustinian fathers also extended their charity to orphan

girls. For that purpose they caused sisters of their tertiary branch to

go from the Peninsula, who took charge of the education and instruction

of the children in the orphanage that was built in Mandaloya at the

expense of the said Augustinian fathers. More than three hundred

Indian mestizo and Spanish girls received a fine education there, so

much so that their work in embroidery, sewing, and the manufacture

of artificial flowers, took the prize in the expositions at Madrid

and Manila.

So excellent and fine was the education that the orphan girls received

in Mandaloya, that it was necessary to accede to the repeated requests

of influential families who begged that the Augustinian tertiary

mothers receive as pensioners the daughters of many Peninsulars and

Spanish mestizos.

EDUCATION SINCE AMERICAN OCCUPATION

It is the chief glory of American connection with the Philippines,

that no sooner was their easy conquest an assured fact, than attention

was directed toward the education of the peoples who thus came under

the control of the western democracy. In spite of the more than three

centuries of Spanish rule, although many measures had been dictated

by the government and by the religious orders, although the college of

San José, the Dominican university of Santo Tomás, the college of San

Juan de Letran, and various other institutions had flourished for the

greater or less part of Spanish domination, and especially, although

the active government measures, beginning with the memorable decree of

December 20, 1863, had induced a wider result in primary instruction,

the educational methods in force in the islands were antiquated,

often without result, and narrowing, and to a certain degree tended

to shackle rather than to free the mind. The best work was done by

the Jesuits who had adopted the most progressive methods used in the

islands during Spanish occupancy. The religious orders are not without

praise for having established, as early as they did, educational

institutions where some Filipinos could, to a certain extent, take

on the advantages of the occidental polish and education which Spain

had to offer. But it must be remembered that Spain itself has never,

since the early days when the great Salamanca University flourished

as one of the most advanced outposts of education in the world, been

renowned as a center of learning. Hence, it may be said, whatever the

cause for its deficiency, that Spain gave to the Philippines the best

that it had in the way of education; with the reservation that the

remoteness of the colony from the mother country gave opportunity for

neglect and carelessness on the part of both official and ecclesiastic,

and for the furthering of private or corporation ends, at the expense

of and detriment to the colony. Quite apparently, a country cannot give

to a colony what it does not itself possess. Had Spain possessed a more

modern and effective system of education, doubtless the same would

have been true in the Philippines. To determine the reason for the

backwardness of education in the islands, therefore, one must examine

the causes for its poor condition in Spain, and the two will be found

in great measure to be the same. The root of the matter will be found

in the close connection between Church and State--this connection

dating back in greatest measure to 1493, when the ecclesiastical

patronage of the Spanish monarch became a settled fact, and Church

and State were irrevocably bound together--and a misconception as to

where the educational function primarily resides--which we take to

be a function of government.

We cannot, in the short compass allowed, enter into the discussion

of the factors involved, the most important of which is the question

of the friar orders and the transference of their power in greater

proportion even than in Spain, into the Philippines. Suffice it to say

here that those who would blame the friar orders exclusively for the

backward state of the Philippines in education as in other things,

go astray; and the same is equally true of those who would excuse

them altogether. The same remark holds true of the government. Both

the religious orders, or even more broadly, the entire ecclesiastical

government, and the civil government, are to be reproached for the

deplorable condition of Philippine education.

It is the results of the pre-American education that allows the

following to be said: "The party which follows the intellectual

leadership of Leon Guerrero (director of El Renacimiento) is quietly

resisting what they call the 'Anglo-Saxonization' of their people

through the schools. These men are really Spanish at heart (the older,

mostly so in blood), and they have a Spanish-Latin feeling of hostility

to the very name of 'Anglo-Saxon.' They prefer Latin education and

educational methods, and Latin molds of civilization. Where they

go astray is in their assumption, entirely gratuitous, that they

really represent the Filipino people and Filipino ways of thought,

desires and aspirations which are to be 'squelched' by this new

campaign of instruction in English. Now, superficially, there are

little evidences to corroborate this view, as would be inevitable,

as the results of three centuries of tutelage according to Spanish

models. But the man who looks beneath the surface sees at once that

the Filipinos are not 'Latins' and were not 'Latinized,' and that

these intellectual Latins, floating at the top of Filipino society

are as mistaken as can be in assuming that they are representative

of their people. The truth is, the Filipinos, in the mass, are, as

regards the purposes of any real education, virgin material to work

upon. Not only has their national and social life not been cast over

in Latin molds, but Spanish influence was just sufficient, added to

their undeveloped state at the time of the conquest, so that there

are no 'Filipino molds' of civilization. They are really just ready

to be worked upon, and whatever fundamental elements of 'Filipino

nationality' there are latent, whatever inherent or acquired social

traits properly constituting a 'Filipino soul,' will come to the

front with this new opportunity." [118]

It is impossible to give a comprehensive résumé of American efforts

toward the education of the Filipinos. The captious critic will

emphasize the mistakes which have been made and which will be made

in the future, and it is yet perhaps too early to make a pronounced

statement as to the results; but this much may be said, and in no

spirit of American self-congratulation, namely, that the Filipino

is at present enjoying the greatest opportunity that has ever been

offered to him to acquire an education. The chief problem of the

Philippines has well been said to be that of education. [119] Chief

among future developments must be industrial education, which will

not only train rightly the great dexterity of the Filipino, but also

teach him the dignity of work with the hands, whatever his rank or

station, and thus help to fit him for, and hasten the time when he

shall enjoy greater self-government than he enjoys at present.

Below we give the direct available sources for a study of American

education in the Philippines, from which the student may be able

to study the question in its many phases. It is to be noted that

a study of the present-day education in the islands must always be

made hand-in-hand with that of the past. As might be expected, the

majority of such sources are government documents.

Public Laws and Resolutions passed by the United States Philippine

Commission (published by authority of the U. S. Philippine Commission,

Manila). The various volumes of these laws contain the following acts

concerned with education (number of act and date alone being given).

1900--3, Sept. 12; 4, Sept. 12; 11, Oct. 3; 15, Oct. 10; 32,

Oct. 24. 1901--69, Jan. 5 (accompanied later in vol. by arguments

of Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera and others against the rector of the

university of Santo Tomás, and the Roman Catholic Church, in regard

to the college of San José; and appearing also in Senate doc.,

no. 190, 56th Congress, 2d session); 74, Jan. 21; 93, Mar. 4;

97, Mar. 9; 110, Mar. 30; 129, May 16; 156, July 1; 163, July

13; 180, July 24; 201, Aug. 13; 222, Sept. 6; 228, Sept. 7; 239,

Sept. 25; 248, Oct. 2; 264, Oct. 14; 285, Oct. 29; 291, Nov. 2;

311, Dec. 4. 1902--330, Jan. 9; 339, Jan. 28; 373, Mar. 7; 407,

May 24; 415, June 9; 446, Aug. 15; 453, Oct. 8; 490, Oct. 27; 512,

Nov. 10; 514, Nov. 11; 524, Nov. 18; 532, Nov. 24; 563, Dec. 22;

565, Dec. 22. 1903--600, Jan. 27; 661, Mar. 5; 672, Mar. 7; 682,

Mar. 14; 686, Mar. 17; 734, April 8; 744, April 8; 795, July

23; 807, July 27; 810, July 30; 832, Aug. 12; 837, Aug. 24; 846,

Aug. 24; 854, Aug. 26; 858, Aug. 27; 880, Sept. 10; 904, Sept. 25;

917, Oct. 1; 919, Oct. 2; 997, Nov. 17; 1018, Dec. 2. 1904--1048,

Feb. 6; 1049, Feb. 11; 1057, Feb. 20; 1085, Mar. 10; 1133, Apr. 28;

1175, June 2; 1188, June 29; 1199, July 19; 1216, Aug. 17; 1225,

Aug. 31; 1231, Oct. 14; 1251, Nov. 25; 1275, Dec. 6. 1905--Jan. 12.

Of these the most important is act no. 74 (and its various amendments),

establishing a Department of Public Instruction in the Philippines,

and appropriating $40,000 for the organization and maintenance of a

normal and trade school in Manila, and $15,000 for the organization

and maintenance of an agricultural school in the island of Negros,

for the year 1901. Many of the acts are appropriations for various

purposes. In addition to the above, acts touching archives and

laboratories, as well as various other matters, may be considered as

having educational value.

Reports of the Philippine Commission (Washington). Of chief value in

this publication are the annual reports of the Secretary of Public

Instruction, such reports beginning for the year 1902. It is to

be noted that these reports contain the following (we cite from

the Commission report for 1905, just issued): General report of

the secretary of Public Instruction; report of the superintendent

of Education; report of the chief of the Bureau of Architecture

and Construction of Public Buildings; report of the Public Printer;

report of the Bureau of Archives, Patents, Copyrights, etc.; report

of the acting librarian of the American circulating Library; report

of the editor of the Official Gazette. Special references in the

various reports are as follows:

1900--i, pp. 17-42; 1901--i, pp. 133-148, ii, pp. 511-575 (appendix

FF containing Fred W. Atkinson's report); 1902--first annual report

of the Secretary of Public Instruction, year ending Oct. 15, 1902,

ii, pp. 865-1049; 1903--second annual report of the Secretary

of Public Instruction, iii, pp. 667-985; 1900-1903--containing

various general reports for those years, and which occur in the

preceding volumes, pp. 121-129, 257-272, 399-434, and 685-721;

1904--third annual report, etc., iii, pp. 811-971; 1905--fourth

annual report, etc., ending June 30, 1905, iv, pp. 369-652.

In addition to the above much other educational matter will be found

scattered through the other volumes for each year. These volumes are

also published separately in the Reports of the War Department.

Reports of the Commissioner of Education (Washington). Several of

these reports contain matter on the Philippines, as follows:

1899-1900--ii, chap. xxix (in part), pp. 1595-1640, "Intellectual

attainments and education of the Filipinos" (contains some Spanish

data, act. 74, of the Philippine Commission, a bibliography,

and the Tagálog alphabet); 1901--ii, chap. xxix, pp. 1317-1440,

"Present educational movement in the Philippines," by Fred

W. Atkinson; 1902--ii, chap. i, pp. 2219-2271, "Education in

the Philippines;" 1903--chap. xlvi (in part), pp. 2385-2388,

"Education in the Philippines" (taken from report of David

P. Barrows for the year ending Sept. 30, 1903).

Bulletins of the Bureau of Education (Manila, 1904 and 1905),

as follows:

No. 1, Philippine Normal School prospectus for the year 1903-4,

(in both English and Spanish); no. 2, Course of study in vocal

music (for vacation normal institutes); no. 3, Philippine School of

Arts and Trades (1904-1905, in both English and Spanish); no. 4,

Philippine Nautical School (prospectus for the year 1904-1905,

in both English and Spanish); no. 5, Notes on the treatment

of Smallpox (for use of teachers); no. 6, Report of Industrial

Exhibits of the Philippine Schools (Louisiana Purchase Exposition);

no. 7, Courses of Instruction for the Public Schools of the

Philippine Islands; no. 8 (?); no. 9, List of Philippine Baptismal

Names; no. 10, Government in the United States (prepared for use

in the Philippine public schools); no. 11, Courses in mechanical

drawing, woodworking, and ironworking for provincial secondary

schools; no. 12, Advanced and postgraduate studies offered by the

Philippine Normal School (preparation for entrance to American

colleges and universities or to the university of the Philippines;

in English and Spanish).

Municipal Code (Manila, 1905). Contains matter on schools, teachers,

etc.

Census of the Philippine Islands (Washington, 1905), iii, pp. 638-669,

"[Education] under the Americans," by Prescott F. Jernegan, of

the Philippine Normal School (a short account through 1903). Also,

another division entitled, "Schools: schedule; summary of statistics;

classification; buildings; teachers; pupils; sources of revenue;

expenditures," pp. 670-694.

Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor. No. 58, May, 1905 (Washington,

1905), pp. 721-905, "Labor Conditions in the Philippines," by Victor

S. Clark. Much of this will be found to have a bearing on education.

Books on the Philippines

Atkinson, Fred W.: The Philippine Islands (Ginn and Co., 1905);

especially chap. xiv, pp. 373-412, "Education."

Freer, William B.: Philippine experiences of an American teacher

(New York, 1906).

LeRoy, James A.: Philippine Life in town and country (New York and

London, 1905); especially chap. vii, pp. 202-245, "Education and public

opinion." Most of this book has a bearing on educational matters.

Stuntz, Homer C.: The Philippines and the Far East (Cincinnati and

New York); especially chap. xii, pp. 185-215, "Educating a nation."

Willis, Henry Parker: Our Philippine problem (New York, 1905),

especially chap. x, pp. 226-246, "American education in the

Philippines." See a criticism of this book by James A. LeRoy, in

Political Science Quarterly, for June, 1906.

We shall bring this brief statement regarding American education in the

Philippines to a close with a short abstract of the recent address by

Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, before the teachers assembled at Manila

in order to attend the Summer Institute, founded by the director

of Public Instruction, and inaugurated this year, and published in

the supplement of the issue of May 17, 1906, of El Renacimiento. His

point of view of true civilization and education is in the main that

they are the resultant of not one but of many factors, and that those

of one race may be debtors to another race and yet not lose their

identity. True progress does not consist in exclusiveness but in the

admittance of all that is good notwithstanding its source. By adopting

Anglo-Saxon civilization and education, Filipinos will not weaken,

but strengthen themselves. The viewpoint of a people may change,

and must change often in order that they may progress. To speak of

special mentalities is vague and misleading. On whatever side the

situation of the Philippines be considered, he says, whether political,

social, or economic, it is seen that "public instruction is the chief

factor, to which we should direct the most vigorous action of our

energies." Progress is the direct and necessary result of education,

and the Filipinos realizing this desire the extension of schools. It

has often been said that the Filipinos need an education in harmony

with their customs and traditions, in order that they may preserve

their peculiar manner of existence, or "that the conscience called

poetically 'the Filipino soul' might not be changed or disfigured." Let

those who criticize the American method of education, on the ground

that it is destroying the "Filipino soul" define that term, and name

the characteristic qualities belonging to it, which will disappear with

the new education; and let them propose a system of education. Some

wish to preserve the traditional education of Filipinos which is

conservative and exclusive. The teaching of Filipinos, since Spain is

a Catholic monarchy, where the divine origin of rulers is a tenet,

has always been dogmatic, and blind obedience is to be given to

the government. Such teaching produces a conservative and exclusive

society, which is opposed to change. The Filipinos desire a democratic

government, but their traditions and education form in them a mentality

quite opposed to democratic ideas. Consequently, they must first change

their mental viewpoint before they can become democratic. It must be

a work of peaceful evolution, through free instruction. Living as they

are now under a democratic form of government, Filipinos should adopt

a form of education in accordance with the ideals of democracy. The

two forces working in the formation of the character of individuals,

and hence peoples, are conservatism and the reforming force, the latter

of which means progress and constitutes education. Those peoples who

do not progress live under the laws of conservatism, inheritance, and

tradition. Those progress who have conquered inherited and traditional

traits by means of education. Some races are inferior to others, but

that inferiority is not necessarily permanent. Inferiority is purely

an historical cause, and inferior races are those that preserve their

national soul unchanged through the centuries. The Spanish race is not

inferior to the Anglo-Saxon, but its education is under a political

and religious dogmatism which has made of Spain a country with a

traditional and truly conservative soul. Italy has gone through and

is even now going through a period of regeneration. In Spain, men are

struggling for better education based on Anglo-Saxon principles. [120]

Before the Filipino revolution, many Filipinos were sent to Europe to

study without any fear of destroying the "Filipino soul;" but now that

the civilization that they went to seek has sought them, under the form

of Anglo-Saxon public instruction, there is a strange reaction. The

Franks and Gauls who submitted to Roman civilization have not lost

their peculiar identity. Had they not adopted the Roman civilization,

their condition would have been that of the Malays under British

domination, who are now inferior. Since they did adopt it they were

enabled to raise their coefficient of capacity. The Filipino mentality

has been already changed by Spanish education, the customs and life of

the two races having been quite distinct. Civilization is the result of

the contact of peoples by means of which the victories obtained in all

departments of intelligence and morality may be increased, perfected,

and transmitted from one to another. Anglo-Saxon education will not

cause the Filipinos to lose their desire for independence. The Filipino

revolution was started by men who received a Spanish education. The

entire Filipinist movement was guided by men educated in Europe and the

University, the latter of which was Spanish. They were broader men. The

Anglo-Saxon education cannot make submissive peoples. It is destined

to form individuals capable of thinking for themselves, and of working

according to their own impulses. Those civilizations that mark an epoch

in history were the result of other civilizations. The Anglo-Saxon

race today bear the torch of civilization formerly borne by the

Romans. The Anglo-Saxon civilization will extend, but not Anglo-Saxon

domination. The Japanese are an example of a race who have changed

their standpoint in regard to civilization. Filipino mentality is

composed of good and bad traits. Complete education must be arrived at

by conserving the good and eliminating the bad. Complete assimilation

cannot take place. The Filipino character cannot entirely change,

for the instruction in the schools is not sufficient to cause such

a radical change. Happiness does not consist in seeking easeful and

unresponsible repose, but in the struggle for existence that entails

work. Filipinos must learn that true progress comes through struggle

and a show of energy. The Filipinos are intelligent, easy to educate,

and prepared by their Spanish education of three centuries for the new

education now offered them. Education means advance. The greater means

of communication that are to be established will aid in the work by

destroying inequalities and composing differences. The various dialects

are a great barrier to Filipino homogeneity, and a common language

is needed. The Filipino people free and capable of self-government

will be formed by the American and Filipino teachers. "Filipino soul"

[121] is a poetical expression which reveals a poetical mentality in

those who use it. Such mentality is insufficient for the progress of

a people along the true path of modern civilization.

NOTES

[1] The following summary of events, sometimes in full translation

and sometimes abridged, is obtained from the histories of Concepción,

Zúñiga, and Montero y Vidal, the source of each paragraph being

indicated at the end.

[2] "As the latter [i.e., Bustamante] could not defend himself, and

it was for the interest of the religious orders and of the principal

citizens of Manila that the blame for what had occurred should recoil

upon Bustamante, they accumulated against him numberless charges--most

of them formulated by his assassins, by the officials who had defrauded

the exchequer, by those who were debtors to the treasury, and by all

who, instead of making amends for their offences in a military post,

had been replaced in their offices by Archbishop Cuesta" (Montero y

Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, i, pp. 430-431).

[3] Sebastian de Totanes was a noted member of the Franciscan order in

the islands. He was born in the village of Totanes in Spain, in 1687,

and entered that order in 1706. After finishing his studies he gave

instruction in the Toledo convent for several years, departing thence

(1715) for the Filipinas missions, which he joined two years later. He

held various high offices in the order there, among them being that

of minister provincial (1738-41); he also administered the churches

in Sampaloc (1721-29), Lilio (1732-35), and Pagsanhan (1735-38). In

1746 he went to Europe as procurator of his order to Roma and Madrid,

and died at the latter city, on February 13, 1748. He left a grammar

and manual of the Tagálog language, which is regarded as one of the

beat works of its kind; it was published at Sampaloc in 1745. (See

Huerta's Estado.)

[4] "Although the archbishop had not, in strictness, any direct

connection with the assassination of the head of government of the

islands, his connivance with the seditious element, the fact that the

authority was entrusted to him, and his tolerance and lenity in the

investigation and punishment of the criminals, aroused against him the

wrath of the [home] government; and, in spite of his advanced age,

he was transferred to the bishopric of Mechoacan, in Nueva Espana"

(Montero y Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 432).

[5] "In order to curb these so bold and inhuman actions, it was

necessary that the squadrons should sail from Manila; for if they

should be permanently stationed at Samboangan the expenses would be

insupportable in so barren a region. If this establishment had been

fixed in Yloylo, a fertile and abundant land, and sufficiently near

to the Moros, the consumption of provisions on the voyages would

have been more endurable; while at the same time there might remain

in Samboangan a regular garrison of thirty-five men, and it would be

a landing-place sufficient for our vessels when on a cruise, which

from that port could go more quickly for any emergency. Moreover,

in Samboangan there is not an adequate number of boats, nor is there

in Yloylo--enormous sums being spent on the walls [of those forts]

alone, without their being able to hinder the passage of the Moros,

or prevent their infesting the provinces." (Concepción, Hist. de

Philipinas, x, pp. 184, 185.)

[6] This account does not agree with the historical sketch given

by N. M. Saleeby in his Studies in Moro History, Law, and Religion

(Manila, 1905) pp. 57-59; but this is not surprising, as Concepción

probably had but inaccurate and second-hand information regarding

the rulers of Joló and Mindanao. According to Saleeby, Manamir,

a great-grandson of Dipatwan Qudrat (the Corralat of the Spanish

writers), was declared sultan after the death of his father Barahaman;

but the government was usurped by his uncle Kuda, and civil war

followed, which must have lasted more than thirty years. Kuda was

finally murdered by some Sulus whom he had invited to aid him against

Manamir, who therefore obtained the ascendency for a time. But

the Sulus fomented discord between Manamir and his brother Anwar,

which brought on even worse hostilities and murders, weakening both

sides. Manamir was assassinated by his nephew Malinug, and his sons

Pakir Mawlana and Pakaru-d-Din were obliged to leave Magindanao, and

retired to Tamontaka; and the larger part of the towns of Magindanao

and Slangan were destroyed by fire. Sultan Anwar died at Batawa and

Malinug assumed the sultanate after his father's death, and kept up the

fight. "After a tedious, desultory war, Malinug fled up the Pulangi

to Bwayan. Pakir Mawlana then got possession of all the lands about

Magindanao, and peace was made soon after. Malinug died a natural

death, and some time later his two sons visited Pakir Mawlana." This

account is cited from Capt. Thomas Forrest's Voyage to New Guinea

and the Moluccas (London, 1779), a voyage made in 1774-76; Forrest

obtained his information directly from Pakir Mawlana himself. That

ruler, however, could not have been the one mentioned in the text;

Mawlana is apparently an official or a hereditary title.

From Forrest's original account (pp. 201-206) we take the following

items in regard to the above events: "The following short account

of the history of Magindano, is drawn from original records, in the

possession of Fakymolano, elder brother to Paharadine the present

Sultan, and father to Kybad Zachariel, the present Rajah Moodo; they

are wrote in the Magindano tongue, and Arabic character. I took it

down from Fakymolano's own mouth, who dictated in Malay.

"Before the arrival of Serif Alli, the first Mahometan prince who

came from Mecca to Magindano, the latter had kings of her own. For the

towns of Magindano, Selangan, Catibtuan, and Semayanan had, or assumed,

the right of taking from the banks of the Dano, that portion of earth,

on which the sovereigns were to be consecrated. The towns of Malampyan

and Lusuden, are said to have been the first who joined Serif Alli:

the other four soon acceded. Serif married a daughter of the last

king of the royal line, and on this marriage founded his title to

the crown. About the time that Kabansuan son of Serif Alli reigned,

a person named Budiman, was Pangaran (a title much used in Sumatra,

and inferior to Sultan or Rajah) of Sooloo. Budiman had a grandson,

who became his successor; his name was Bonsoo, and he was related to

the family that governed at Borneo: which family came also from Mecca,

and the head of it was brother to Serif Alli. Bonsoo had two children;

a daughter, Potely, by a wife; and a son, Bakliol, by a sandle or

concubine. Bakliol, the bastard, robbed his sister Potely (a name

which signifies princess) of her right, threw off his dependence on

Magindano, and assumed the title of Sultan, his fathers having been

only Pangarans of Sooloo. [Potely's daughter, Panianamby, married

Kudarat (the Corralat of Spanish writers), who was succeeded by his

son Tidoly; the latter had two sons, Abdaraman and Kuddy. Abdaraman

was succeeded by his son Seid Moffat]; but, being an infant, Kuddy

his uncle usurped the government, and went to Semoy, carrying with him

the effects of the deceased Sultan. Thence he invited the Sooloos to

support him against the lawful heir. [They, however, treacherously

slew Kuddy, and plundered his camp, seizing therein many pieces of

heavy cannon. Seid Moffat's party then obtained control, but the

country was torn by dissensions and civil war. Finally, Seid Moffat

was assassinated by his nephew Molenu, but left two sons, Fakymolano

and Paharadine; they were obliged to leave Magindano, which town and

Selangan were nearly destroyed by fire, and the country was laid

waste. After several years of petty war, Molenu was driven up the

Palangy to Boyan.] Fakymolano then got possession of all the lands

about Magindano, and peace was made soon after, about thirty years

ago. Molenu died a natural death, leaving by concubines, two sons,

Topang and Uku, also a natural daughter Myong. Fakymolano had about

this time given up the Sultanship to his younger brother Paharadine,

on condition that Kybad Zachariel, his own son, should be elected

Rajah Moodo. Topang and Uku, for some time after the peace, visited

Fakymolano and his son; but afterwards, on Paharadine's marriage with

Myong, their sister, they grew shy, as the Sultan took them greatly

into his favour. Topang had from his father large possessions, which

made him formidable to Rajah Moodo; he was also closely connected

with the Sooloos, and had married Gulaludines, daughter of Bantillan,

once Sultan of Sooloo. By this time Rajah Moodo had got himself

well fortified at Coto-Intang, which is within musket shot of the

Sultan's palace, and within cannon shot of the strong wooden castle

of Topang; both of which lie on the south side of the Pelangy. The

Sultan Paharadine has no children by his consort Myong; but had by a

concubine, a son named Chartow, now arrived at maturity. Whether Myong,

who is said to have entirely governed the Sultan, favoured Chartow, or

her elder brother Topang, is uncertain; but she was believed the cause

of the coolness that prevailed between the Sultan and Rajah Moodo;

who, though duly elected, and acknowledged lawful successor, yet,

when I came to Magindano, in May, 1775, had not visited his uncle for

above a year. Fakymolano, Rajah Moodo's father, lived at that time,

just without the gate of his son's fort." Some of the allusions in

this account need explanation, which is partly obtained elsewhere

in Forrest's pages. "The town, that goes properly by the name of

Magindano, consists at present, of scarce more than twenty houses. They

stand close to, and just above where a little creek, about eighteen

foot broad, runs perpendicular into the Pelangy, from a small lake

about one mile distant, and about half a mile in circumference. This

small lake is called the Dano; the creek I have just mentioned, is the

Rawass (or river) Magindano; and from the banks of the lake or Dano,

a little earth is taken, upon which the Raiah Moodo (that is young

king) must stand when he is consecrated Sultan. The Rajah Moodo is

elected by the states, and succeeds the Sultan; similar to the king

of the Romans succeeding the emperors of Germany. A Watamama (that is,

male child) is also elected, who becomes Rajah Moodo, when Rajah Moodo

becomes Sultan." "The town of Selangan may be said to make one town

with Magindano, as communicating with it by several bridges over the

Rawass; it extends about one mile down the south side of the Pelangy,

forming a decent street for one-half of the distance. In the lower part

the town extends about half a mile, in several irregular streets;

where many Chinese reside. In the town of Selangan altogether,

may be about two hundred houses; below the Sultan's palace, about

twenty yards, is a brick and mortar foundation remaining of a Spanish

chapel." The spelling of proper names in Forrest's remarks is more

or less phonetic and Anglicized; the reader may compare them with

the accurate spelling furnished above by Dr. Saleeby. In VOL. XLI of

this series (pp. 280, 281) will be seen a map of the valley of the

Pulangui River, with the towns on its banks and its tributaries; the

original is in the British Museum, and is evidently the basis for two

maps which Forrest published in his Voyage (at p. 200). (Cf. these,

and the map of the Rio Grande in U. S. Gazetteer, p. 662.) The date

given in VOL. XLI was furnished at the Museum as approximately correct;

but Mawlana's map was given to Forrest in 1775, and the latter says

(p. 186) that it was deposited in the British Museum. The sultan of

Mindanao ceded to the English, at Forrest's request, the island of

Bunwoot, now called Bonga; it forms the shelter to Polloc harbor. The

town of Mindanao or Magindano was at or near the site of the present

Cotabato--"population, 3,000. The Chinese control the commerce of the

place." (U. S. Gazetteer, p. 475.) Forrest says (p. 185): "The Chinese

settled at Magindano are not permitted to trade higher [up the river]

than Boyan; the Mindanoers being jealous of their superior abilities

in trade."

[7] The pay of native auxiliaries from Bohol was (in 1733)

reckoned at a monthly wage for each man of "thirty gantas of rice,

four silver reals, a span [mano] of tobacco, and one chinanta of

salt." (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, x, p. 311.)

"The Indian's largest unit of weight is a chinanta, which they divide

into 10 cates of the province, which are 20 of standard weight [de

romana]; the cate contains 8 taels of the province, which are 16

of standard weight." (Encina and Bermejo's Arte Cebuano, Tambobong,

1894, p. 159.)

[8] The governor sent orders to the alcaldes-mayor that "all the

rancherías or visitas close to the coast should be compulsorily united,

either to the larger villages or to each other, so that even the

smallest village should exceed, if possible, five hundred tributes--in

consequence of which measure all should fortify themselves, as the

lay of the land should permit.... All these measures were at that time

admirable, and would have been thoroughly effective if the inclusion

of the smaller villages in the larger ones, or their consolidation,

had been carried out more energetically by those whose duty it

was. For this undertaking, and to stir up the negligent and careless,

the armadas were more necessary than for opposing and restraining the

Moros; they gave but little attention to the latter, and still less

to the former, and everything was left in the same necessity, and

the same condition, [as before]." (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas,

x, pp. 364, 368.)

[9] A royal order of November 19, 1815, provided for charity schools

in the convents of friars and nuns, for primary education, to give

instruction in the Christian doctrine, in good morals, and in the

first letters to the children of the poor, from the age of ten to

twelve. (Barrantes, Instrucción primaria, p. 77.)

[10] Vicente Barrantes, from whom these extracts are taken, was for

some years secretary to the governor-general at Manila. See Report

of Commissioner of Education, 1902, ii, p. 2219.

[11] Fred W. Atkinson, formerly general superintendent of public

instruction in the Philippines, says: "The early work of the Jesuits

in training the Filipinos was commendable, and along right lines in

furnishing a common school education. It would have been productive

of permanently good results if this order had not been supplanted by

the local padres, under whose direction the common branches suffered

through lack of attention." See Report of Commissioner of Education,

1900-1901, ii, p. 1317.

[12] July 27, 1863, several copies of the plan of public instruction

approved for the island of Cuba on the fifteenth of the same month

were sent by royal order to the governor of the Philippines, with the

object of having the proper measure drawn up, and the advisable plan

proposed to the ministry, in regard to the application of said plan

to those islands. By decree of October 6, Echagüe created a board of

reform of the plan of studies, in order to meet the requirements of

the preceding royal order. See Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 403.

[13] See a summary of Barrantes's book in Report of Commissioner of

Education, 1902, ii, pp. 2219-2224.

[14] "Before this date public schools were hardly known in the

Philippines, and instruction was confined solely to the children of

parents able to pay for it." See Census of Philippines, iii, p. 576.

[15] In the decree of the superior government, of May 7, 1871, occurs

the following interesting description of conditions of the schools in

the Philippines: "There are at present an infinite number of villages

without schools; there are entire provinces without edifices where

schools can be located; there are also many schools, or rather all

the schools of the archipelago, with the exception of a few in the

capital, which do not possess the material equipment for education

and teaching; the children have to sit on the ground, and remain

there for hours and hours, packed together as if they were not what

they are; books are not given to them; they have no writing desks;

they are not given pens, ink, or books. Those schools do not merit

the name of such; they are not schools, sad it is to say so: they

are pernicious collections of children, where since they do not gain

anything morally or intellectually, they lose much, and most of all in

their good physical development; in fine those schools are an expense,

and show no result." The same decree states the need of economic and

administrative reforms in the Philippines, and the need of "roads,

canals, ports, postal communications, both inside and outside the

archipelago, telegraphs, professional institutions of superior

instruction, an active life without fetters for industry, trade,

and agriculture;" but all this must be for the greatest use of the

greatest number, and all monopoly must be avoided. "To obtain it human

means offer no other mean more energetic, more prompt, and powerful,

than the creation and organization of the village school, and its

supervision, and its location and erection in the most healthful

and convenient place, clean, neat, and modestly furnished, so that

it may attract the glances of all," and may thus be of the greatest

good. See Grifol y Aliaga, pp. 218, 219.

[16] The parish priests of the Philippines were called "reverend"

or "devout" according as they were regulars or native seculars. See

Barrantes's Instrucción primaria, p. 10.

[17] See the titles of these orders from 1863 to 1894, post.

[18] The Spanish government evinced a great interest "in giving the

Filipinos a primary education commensurate with the standing of a

civilized nation; but the intentions of the government were frustrated

by ... the religious orders." The "great error of the Spanish nation"

consisted "in placing in the hands of a few institutions [the religious

orders] the future of her colonies in the extreme east, institutions

which did not exist in their native country, and which sought only

the private interests of the corporation or order to which they

belonged. This entire plan of public instruction lived in the minds

of the Spanish legislators, but was never put into practice." Tomás

G. del Rosario, in Census of Philippines, iii, p. 582.

[19] By 1894 there were 2,143 public schools in the Philippines, and

173 sets of provisions regulating them, or tending to the intellectual

development of the people. These laws were only superficial. See

Tomás G. del Rosario, Census of Philippines, iii, p. 593.

[20] The central treasury of ways and means (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 3,

note 2) having been suppressed, the expenses of this institution

are at present [1894] defrayed as a charge on chapter 1, art. 1. of

the budget of the local funds of the central treasury. In the budget

of 1893-94, the appropriation of 10,450 pesos was set aside in the

following manner:

pesos

1 director, 800

6 professors, each 600 pesos, 4,800

1 drawing teacher, 600

1 vocal music teacher, 480

1 gymnastic teacher, 400

3 assistants, each 400 pesos, 1,200

15 resident pupils, each 120 pesos, for only three months, 450

Wages of the attendants and servants of the school, 600

For office expenses, conservation, and innovation of

furniture, and other effects, 1,120

------

Total, 10,450

[21] The last classification made of the schools of this archipelago

was that approved by superior decree, February 27, 1893, which was

published in the Manila Gaceta, May 10 following. (Grifol y Aliaga,

p. 4, note 5.)

[22] "What contributed greatly, also, to the general backwardness

of primary instruction was the small salary paid teachers, as it was

impossible for them to live on what was paid them.... The small salary

paralyzed any good will and ambition to work." T. G. del Rosario in

Census of Philippines, iii, p. 595. See also, ante, p. 80, note 20.

[23] Commonly called directorcillos (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 5, note 2).

[24] The principalia was formed of those natives who have occupied

petty government posts in the islands. See VOL. XVII, p. 331.

[25] It is to be understood that the office of superior civil governor

is equivalent to the present office of governor general (Grifol y

Aliaga, p. 6, note 3).

[26] This superior commission, appointed by superior decree of March

15, 1864, was suppressed by another decree of the superior civil

government, February 23, 1871, in accordance with order no. 1183,

of the ministry of the colonies, of December 5, 1870, by which was

created the ad interim Superior Board of Public Instruction (Grifol

y Aliaga, p. 6, note 4).

[27] Now judge of first instance (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 6, note 5).

[28] Now manager or subdelegate of the public treasury.

[29] See Wm. B. Freer's Philippine Experiences of an American Teacher,

chapter viii, pp. 97-109, for an account of methods used in normal

instruction after American occupation.

[30] Those pupils styled throughout this translation "regular" or in

Spanish de numero, are those appointed directly by the government,

the "de numero" (of the number) indicating that a certain number were

thus appointed. The supernumerary (literally, "above the number")

resident pupils are all others.

[31] The clothing recommended by a sub-commission of the superior

commission of primary instruction, November 24, 1864, (Grifol y Aliaga,

p. 20), for regular and supernumerary resident pupils of the Manila

normal school, was as follows:

Estimated price

pesos fuertes centavos

2 pairs of white pantaloons, 3 0

2 pairs of colored pantaloons, 3 0

2 white jackets, 2 0

1 coat of black alpaca, 2 50

2 black ribbons for the neck, 0 25

1 black cap, with the initials E. N. in silver,

according to model, 2 0

2 pairs of shoes, 2 0

1 pair of chinelas [i.e., heelless slipper], 0 50

10 white shirts, 10 0

2 colored shirts, 1 50

12 pocket handkerchiefs, 1 0

12 pairs of socks, 1 0

4 pairs of underdrawers, 1 25

1 mat, 0 50

1 pillow, 0 75

4 pillow-cases, 0 75

4 sheets, 6 0

2 bed covers, 2 0

Clothesbrush, comb, scissors, etc., 1 0

---------

Total 40 0

[32] i.e., All-Souls' day.

[33] The three days preceding Lent.

[34] The United States government continued this school, and gave

it the support ($8,880, Mexican) formerly furnished by the Spanish

government. See Report of Philippine Commission, 1900, i, p. 36.

[35] May 21, 1840, Governor Lardizábal communicated to the Audiencia a

royal order of October 4, 1839, in regard to the necessary conditions

to be observed for the introduction and circulation of books in

the islands, the previous designation of those deserving censure,

given by his Majesty's fiscal, a censor being later appointed by the

government, and another by the archbishop, the fiscal again reviewing

the qualification and the censure; and if "it should result that

there was sufficient grounds to prohibit the circulation of any work,

because it contains principles, maxims, and doctrines contrary to the

rights of the legitimate throne, or to the religion of the State, the

book is not only to be taken back, but shipped back immediately." In

case of dispute between the two censors, the fiscal was to decide

(royal order, November 19, 1840). See Montero y Vidal, iii, pp. 29, 30.

[36] The important circular of the superior civil government of

August 30, 1867 (concerning school attendance), treats of the manner

of exercise of the supervision of the schools by the parish priests

and provincial chiefs. Various other acts of legislation refer to

the same matter. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 118, note 1.)

[37] The first two books mentioned are: the Catecismo de la doctrina

cristiana, by Gaspar Astete, which has passed through many Spanish

editions; and the Catéchisme historique, by Claude Fleury, which

has passed through many different editions in many languages. José

Francisco de Iturzaeta has published several works on educational

subjects.

[38] James A. LeRoy (Philippine Life, p. 203) says of the textbooks

used in the Philippines: "After 1863, and up to the American conquest,

the catechism remained the chief feature of daily work in the primary

schools, often relegating all else to an insignificant place--much

depending upon the preparation, at best a scanty one, of the teacher. A

badly printed little 150 page textbook, prescribed by the government

for the schools, was reader, writer, speller, arithmetic, geography,

history of Spain and the world (Spain overshadowing), Spanish grammar

(quite commonly not taught, because the teacher knew little or

nothing of it), and handbook of religious and moral precepts (many

pages). This book, moreover, shows how pitifully inadequate was the

Filipino child's schooling at the very best; for often not even this

textbook was employed, perhaps because the teacher was not prepared

to use it."

[39] The Philippine school report for 1892, entitled "Report of the

children's schools for both sexes, at present in these islands,

classified in accordance with the orders of his Excellency,

the governor-general, in his decree of July 29, 1892," gives the

following data. The schools are classified by grades, i.e., into

schools of entrada, ascenso, and finishing schools of the second and

first rank; and the order in charge of each village or province is

also given. We condense from this report (a manuscript belonging to

Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.), the number of schools in the various

provinces, and the order or orders in charge of the same.

Augustinians

Province No. of Schools

Abra, 28

Antique, 57

Bontoc, 8

Ilocos Norte, 30

Lepanto, 20

Quiangan, 2

Tiagan, 9

Union, 35

Augustinians and Franciscans

Bulacan, 68

Augustinians and seculars

Cebú, 120

Capiz, 65

Ilocos Sur, 61

Iloilo, 95

Pampanga, 54

Augustinians, Franciscans, and seculars

Batangas, 46

Nueva Ecija, 49

Augustinians and Dominicans

Tarlac, 34

Augustinians and all other orders

Manila, 84

Franciscans

Albay, 88

Burias, 4

Camarines Norte, 20

Camarines Sur, 68

Isla del Corregidor, 3

Infanta, 4

Franciscans and Dominicans

Bataan, 36

Nueva Vizcaya, 16

Franciscans and Recollects

Misamis, 74

Leite, 89

Principe, 5

Samar, 76

Surigao, 59

Tayabas, 45

Recollects

Bohol, 94

Cavite, 50

Cottabato, 6

Calamianes, 10

Isla de Negros, occidental, 56

Isla de Negros, oriental, 34

Isabela de Basilan (?) 2

Masbate and Ticao, 23

Mindoro, 44

Paragua, 6

Romblon, 33

Zambales, 48

Recollects and Capuchins

Carolinas, orientales, 4

Carolinas, occidentales, 3

Recollects and Dominicans

Morong, 30

Recollects and seculars

Zamboanga, 15

Dominicans

Cagayan, 39

Islas Batanes, 14

Isabela de Luzón, 33

Laguna, 56

Pangasinan, 62

Jesuits

Davao, 11

Dapitan, 12

Capuchins

Marianas, 4

[40] LeRoy, ut supra, pp. 203-204, says: "The advance in primary

instruction from 1863 to 1896 was altogether notable, though the

figures revealing it are largely superficial, after all, in their

significance. The number of school buildings increased in the villages

from seven hundred to twenty-one hundred, but the number of pupils

did not reach two hundred thousand, in all probability, as against

one hundred and thirty-five thousand in 1866."

[41] Notwithstanding this admirable prescription, Tomás G. del Rosario,

writing in Census of Philippines, iii, p. 595, says concerning

the sanitary qualities of the Philippine schools: "The necessary

sanitation was not observed in the schools, either to preserve the

health of the children or for personal cleanliness, an important

purpose of every educational system. Many of the schools were in

the filthiest condition. They had no water-closets nor play-grounds,

and no instruction was given in physical culture or in social matters."

[42] According to article 25 of the penal code in force in these

islands, corporal punishments, in addition to that of death, are

perpetual chains, perpetual imprisonment, perpetual exile, perpetual

banishment, temporal chains, temporal exile, temporal banishment,

imprisonment at hard labor, lesser imprisonment, confinement, absolute

perpetual and temporal disqualification, and absolute and special

perpetual and temporal disqualification for any public charge, right

of active or passive suffrage, profession, or trade. (Grifol y Aliaga,

p. 123, note 2.)

[43] The provisions (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 123, note 3) in force in

regard to the salaries of teachers and assistants is that of the

superior decree of July 29, 1892, which prescribes the following

monthly salaries:

Boys' schools Pesos

Término schoolteachers of the first grade, 40

Término schoolteachers of the second grade, 30

Ascenso schoolteachers, 22

Entrada schoolteachers, 17

Assistants of the first class, 13

Assistants of the second class, 8

Girls' schools

Término schoolteachers, 26

Ascenso schoolteachers, 20

Entrada schoolteachers, 15

Assistants of the first class, 12

Assistants of the second class, 8

[44] The superior decree of August 11, 1892, conceded annual allowances

to men and women teachers who had taught for fifteen years, and had a

good record. By the decree of July 20, 1894, traveling expenses were

advanced to them. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 124, note 3.)

[45] The post of assistants of the first class belongs only to boys'

término schools of the first and second class, and in those of girls

to término and ascenso schools. Schools of other grades belong to

assistants of the second class. Substitute assistants, namely, those

who have no certificate, are entitled only to the monthly pay of four

pesos. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 124, note 4.)

[46] Article 4 of the superior decree of May 7, 1871, rules that

the teaching in the schools for adults shall last eight months per

year, and be given at night, employing two hours every Monday,

Thursday, and Saturday of each week. For the increased work,

an amount of pay equal to what they received during the day was

assigned to the teachers. This decree, as is evident, took away the

dominical character given to the adult schools by these regulations

of December 20, 1863. Notwithstanding the benefit of the increase of

a fourth part of the pay to which teachers are entitled for the adult

schools, very few such schools exist. In the budgets in force now,

the figures for the payment of salaries for the teaching of adults

only reach the sum of 573 pesos distributed among the provinces of

Abra, Cebú, and Pampanga, in the proportion of 318, 210, and 45 pesos,

respectively. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 126, note 1.)

[47] This Superior Council of Primary Instruction was suppressed by

decree of the superior government, February 23, 1871, in accordance

with order no. 1183, of the ministry of the colonies, December 5,

1870, by which was created the ad interim Superior Board of Public

Instruction, in the manner prescribed by this article and article

15 of the royal decree of August 16, 1876, approved by royal order,

June 5 of the following year. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 126, note 2.)

[48] Article 12, of the royal decree of May 19, 1893, relative to the

municipal regulation of the villages of Luzón and Visayas, prescribes

among the duties of the municipal captain that of "supervisor of the

offices, schools, and municipal services." On account of this some have

doubted whether the supervision of the schools was taken away from

the parish priests to give it to the municipal captains. That doubt

has been resolved by paragraph 4 of the provisional regulations of the

said royal decree approved by decree of the general government December

9, 1893, for in said paragraph it is stated clearly and distinctly:

"Without prejudice to the supervision in instruction which belongs

to the parish priest, according to the regulations of 1863, whose

powers are not altered in any way, the municipal tribunal shall

constantly exercise a watch over primary instruction, etc." In our

opinion, the above-mentioned doubt has no call for existence, since

the above-mentioned article 12 of the royal decree of May 19, 1893,

refers, as one can see by its own words, to the municipal schools,

and those which are established in the villages of the archipelago

cannot have that character attributed to them, since their expenses

are not met by the municipal tribunals, nor does the appointment

of the staff belong to them, but both are in charge of the central

management. We believe, consequently, that the municipal captains have

not even the secondary or supplementary supervision over the present

schools of the archipelago, which is given them by paragraph 4 of

the provisional regulations of December 9, 1893. (Grifol y Aliaga,

pp. 126, 127, note 5.)

[49] José de Calasanz, or as he is sometimes called, Joseph de

Calasanzio, was born at Peralta, Cataluña, in 1556, and became

a well-known ecclesiastic. On the occasion of a visit to Rome in

1592, touched with compassion at the neglected condition of the

poor children, he renounced his ecclesiastical honors in Spain and

devoted himself to the work of teaching in Rome. There he founded the

Congregation of the Piaristes, consisting of regular clerics, about

1,600, whose object was the charitable education of poor children. The

congregation was approved in 1617 by Paul V, who permitted members to

take the simple vows and adopt their own rules. In 1621 Gregory XV gave

them the title of "Regular clerics of the poor, under the protection

of the Mother of God, for charitable schools." The work soon spread to

the rest of Italy, and to Germany and Poland. The mother house is at

Rome. Its founder, who died in 1648, and was canonized in 1767, refused

to accept the honors of bishop or cardinal. See Grande Encyclopédie.

[50] Article 9 of the decree of the General Division of Civil

Administration, of February 4, 1889, prescribes that on Sunday after

mass the boys shall assemble at the school for an hour, so that the

religious or parish priest may give them the religious teaching that

he deems advisable (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 131, note 1).

[51] In 1868, the studies for the normal school for female teachers

were given in this school. The report on the education of girls

presented by the friars at the exposition at Madrid in 1887 speaks

as follows of it: "While strictly speaking there is no other normal

school for female teachers than that of Nueva Cáceres, we believe,

nevertheless, that this name can be given to the municipal school

for girls of this capital, which is the only institution for young

women supported from public funds--that is, from the funds of the

municipality of Manila. It is true that schoolmistresses can, and

actually do, graduate from any girls' school of this capital, and even

from any private school, as, according to the law in force to secure

this title, the passing of the regular examination is sufficient;

but we believe that the only institution of this character in Manila

which deserves the title of teachers' school is the municipal school,

and we therefore include in the same chapter this school and that

of Santa Isabel of Nueva Cáceres." See Census of Philippines, iii,

pp. 615, 616.

[52] In the Madrid periodical Nuestro Tiempo of November 25, 1905

(pp. 317-331), is an article by Eduardo Sanz y Escartin, of the Royal

Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, entitled "La instrucción

pública en España" ("Public instruction in Spain"), which gives a good

résumé of the condition and needs of education in Spain at present.

[53] The Gaceta de Manila is the continuation of the Boletín oficial

de Filipinas, [Official Bulletin of Filipinas] which changed its name

in accordance with a royal order of May 18, 1860. The first issue of

the paper under the new name appeared Tuesday, February 26, 1861, and

by a royal order of September 26 following, it was prescribed that all

the villages of the archipelago should subscribe for the paper. By a

decree issued in February 1861, it was declared that "all the official

orders published in the Gaceta de Manila, whatever their origin,

are to be regarded as official and authentic text." The Boletín was

first issued in 1852, being the continuation of the Diario de Manila,

first published at the end of 1848. See Montero y Vidal, iii, pp. 306,

307; and Politica de España en Filipinas, iii, pp. 94, 95.

[54] General Gándara paid special attention to primary education,

and very important measures are due to him in the years 1867 and

1868. He was ably seconded by the secretary of the superior government,

Vicente Barrantes. See Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 491.

[55] Of the girls' school of Nueva-Cáceres, Tomás G. del Rosario says

(Census of Philippines, iii, p. 616): "This school was founded by the

bishop of that diocese, Fray Francisco Gainza, who inaugurated the

studies on April 13, 1868, as a primary school for girls. On June 18,

1871, the studies of the normal school for women were taught there,

as they were in that of Manila, by a decree of the government of King

Amadeo, of Savoy. On May 26, 1873, the government of the Spanish

republic decreed that each of the towns of that ecclesiastical

province should hereafter make allowance for a similar number of

young girls desirous of obtaining the title of teacher. Up to 1887,

177 girls had obtained certificates as teachers from this educational

institution. The sisters of charity are in charge of the institution

and of the education of the girls. This educational institution

combined the characteristics of a school of primary instruction,

a college for the education of boarding pupils, and a school for

teachers, or normal school."

[56] By decision of his Excellency the governor general, November 18,

1889, this article was revised to the effect that girls could enter

the normal school for women teachers in Nueva Cáceres from the age

of fourteen, although those with the teachers' certificate could

not teach until they reached the age of twenty, according to the

regulations. However, those older than sixteen and less than twenty

who hold teachers' certificates may have the charge of schools, with

the character of ad interim, so long as there are not other teachers

with all the legal conditions required; and they are confirmed in

these posts when they reach the age of twenty, according to the royal

decree of November 24, 1893. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 45, note 1.)

[57] This article (see. Grifol y Aliaga, p. 244) is as follows:

"The issuing of teachers' certificates of primary instruction, both

normal and substitutes, their appointments to discharge the duties of

the public schools, prescribe promotions, licenses, and other things

connected with these functionaries, are in charge of the director

[general of Civil Administration]."

[58] Now the civil governor of Ambos Camarines (Grifol y Aliaga,

p. 50, note 2).

[59] This article (Grifol y Aliaga, pp. 401, 402) is as follows: "On

the receipt of this circular, you shall have a meeting called of the

persons who shall compose that provincial commission, in accordance

with the above-cited art. 15 [of the royal decree of December 20,

1863]. Therein shall be read the annexed regulations which shall be

cited, and those of this circular; and that provincial supervisory

commission shall be declared as installed."

[60] Of the position of woman in the Philippines and its cause, LeRoy

says (Philippine Life, pp. 49, 50), although perhaps a trifle too

strongly, as woman in the Philippines seems always to have enjoyed

a certain amount of freedom, as compared to her sisters in other

oriental countries: "The position of woman in the Philippines is not

that typical of the Orient. If we may not say that the Philippines

are not at all oriental in this respect, at any rate it is perfectly

safe to say that in no other part of the Orient have women relatively

so much freedom or do they play so large a part in the control of the

family or in social and even industrial affairs. It is a common remark

that Filipino women, both of the privileged and of the lower classes,

are possessed of more character, and often too of more enterprise,

than the men. There seems every reason for ascribing this relative

improvement in the position of woman in the Philippines as compared

with surrounding countries in the Orient to the influence of the

Christian religion and the position which they have assumed under

the teaching of the Church and the directorship of the friars."

[61] Prueba de curso: the examination which is held at the end of

each scholastic year or term, in the months of May and June, or (if

it could not be held at that time, or if the student fails to pass)

in the month of September of the new term. It must be taken by every

pupil in order that he may matriculate the following term.--Francisco

Giner de los Rios, of Madrid, of the Free Institution of Teaching.

[62] Grado de revalida is the aggregate of exercises and examinations

which must be taken by students (in spite of having been examined

every year) on the completion of any course (for example that of

elementary or superior schoolmaster or mistress), in order to obtain

the certificate or diploma of their degree. There are many degrees:

doctor, licentiate, bachelor, primary schoolmaster, etc.--Francisco

Giner de los Rios.

[63] Inscripción: the entering of a student in the school

person, or thing, in a list or register.--Francisco Giner de los Rios.

[64] Encerado: a square of oilskin, used as a slate or blackboard. See

New Velázquez Dictionary.

[65] Cedulas de inscripción are the documents which are given to

the students, certifying that they have been registered in the

matriculation books.--Francisco Giner de los Rios.

[66] Literally, "Paper of payment to the State." This is a kind of

stamped paper with its stamp authorized by the State, whose price

varies according as the stamp represents the value of an impost which

is collected in judicial and many other affairs. In the centers of

State teaching, the fees which are to be paid by the students for

their matriculation are not paid in money, but by presenting a special

paper which is bought in certain shops.--Francisco Ginder de los Rios.

[67] Hoja de estudios: the document on which are entered the studies

which a student has had, and in which he has been examined, with

their official value.--Francisco Giner de los Rios.

[68] Cedula personal: an official document declaring the name,

occupation, domicile, etc., of the bearer, and serving for

identification. See New Velázquez Dictionary.

[69] Matrícula de honor: a reward obtained by the best students of

each class, by virtue of the term examinations. By this reward they are

registered free in the matriculation of the following year.--Francisco

Giner de los Rios.

[70] St. Stanislas Kostka (or Kotska) was born of a noble Polish

family in 1550. While pursuing his studies at Vienna (1563-66),

in the Jesuit college, his predilection to the religious life was

clearly manifest, but since the provincial would not receive him

there without the consent of his parents, he ran away, and tried to

gain admission to the Jesuit order in Dilingen, Germany. To avoid

the pursuit of his parents he was sent to Rome, where he was received

into the order by St. Francis Borja in 1567. Naturally of a delicate

constitution, the extreme bodily mortifications which he practiced in

his youthful enthusiasm undermined his health, and he died August 14,

1568, at the age of eighteen. See Baring Gould's Lives of the Saints

(London, 1898), xiii, pp. 322-325.

[71] i.e., the decree of the government, ordering "let it be done."

[72] Governor Izquierdo [1871-73] paid considerable attention to

primary education, in which he was aided by José Patricio Clemente,

secretary of the superior government. See Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 621.

[73] The Ensayo de gramática Hispano-Tagala (Manila, 1878) by the

Recollect, Fray Toribio Minguella de la Merced. Retana says of this

book (Biblioteca filipina, p. 149): "In my opinion the method of this

book is the most suitable for study by Spaniards, who do not haze

any knowledge of Latin, studied after the ancient method." Minguella

published in 1886, Methodo práctico para que los niños y niñas de las

provincias Tagalas aprendan á hablar castellano (Practical method for

boys and girls to learn to talk Castilian). This latter book received

a reward in public contest.

[74] The author of this book is Castor Aguilera y Porta.

[75] Its author is Ramón Irureta Goyena.

[76] By Benito Francia.

[77] This law is dated Nov. 27, 1623, q.v., VOL. XX, pp. 260, 261.

[78] In 1867 the college of San Juan de Letran was declared a college

of secondary education. See Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 485.

[79] This college was considered as the Institute of the university

(note on MS.).

[80] The pupils of the schools directed by nuns are girls.

[81] Throughout the first portion of this document, by "pupils"

must be understood "girls."

[82] See this decree in VOL. XLV, pp. 184-186, where it is dated June

20, 1686.

[83] Tomás G. del Rosario, cited often in these notes, says (Census

of Philippines, iii, pp. 594, 595): "A decree of the general

government, issued October 6, 1885, provided for a competition to

be followed by prizes for the best grammars written in Visayan,

Cebuano, Ilocano, Bícol, Pangasinán, and Pampango, there being one

already in Tagálog. Naturally these grammars, which were written in

different dialects and taught in the public schools, made it more

difficult (and that was the object) for the Spanish language to become

general. Matters reached such a stage that teachers were punished

and threatened with deportation, and some were actually deported,

for teaching Spanish."

Speaking on the same subject, LeRoy ("Friars in Philippines," in

Political Science Quarterly, for December, 1903, p. 673) says: "In

proclaiming the law of 1893 [the Maura law], Governor-general Blanco

instructed the municipal councils to employ 'the most practical means

for the diffusion of the Spanish language.' The common assertion

that the friars did teach the natives Spanish is contradicted by

these provisions and by the numerous decrees from 1585 on; those who

frankly admit that they did not spread Spanish, and who hold that it

is impracticable to make the natives accept either Spanish or English,

have a fair argument to present."

[84] See this decree in VOL. XLV, pp. 184-186.

[85] This is given by Barrantes, Instrucción primaria, pp. 69-71.

[86] For this and following citations of the regulations, see ante.

[87] Speaking of the legislation of 1863, LeRoy (Philippine Life,

pp. 202, 203) says: "Most significant of all, local school boards of

a civil and lay character were ordered established, a feature of the

decree which had not by any means been realized when the municipal

reform of 1893 was decreed, and which that reform itself did not

accomplish. Theoretically, the friars were left in supervision only

of religious instruction in the public schools; practically, in four

towns out of five, they managed everything about the schools to suit

their own will, down almost to the last hours of Spanish rule."

[88] The Tagálog insurrection broke out prematurely through betrayal

of the plot in August, 1896.

[89] Patricio de la Escosura, formerly minister and ambassador in

Berlin, member of the Royal Spanish Academy, went to the Philippines

about 1863, as royal commissary. His Memoria is important and worth

consultation for the history of the islands. It has a prologue by

Cañamaque. The first chapter on the teaching of Spanish argues that

Spanish be taught the Filipinos. Chapter viii is on the creation of

a school of physicians and surgeons. The various chapters of this

book, although written as letters to the President of the Council

of Ministers, in 1863, were not published until 1882. See Pardo de

Tavera's Biblioteca filipina.

[90] See VOL. XVII, p. 333. The Cuadrilleros occupied in a certain

sense, the position occupied now by the constabulary.

[91] The author of this book was Manuel del Rio, who went to the

Philippines in 1713, where he labored many years in various villages

of Pangasinán. He was procurator-general of his order, definitor,

and provincial; and was bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia at his death. A

fuller title of his book is as follows: "Instrucciones morales y

religiosas para el govierno, direccion, y acierto en la practica

de nuestros ministerios. Que deben observar todos los religiosos de

esta nuestra Provincia de el Santo Rossario de Philipinas del Orden

de Predicadores." See Peréz and Güemes's Adiciones y continuacion

(Manila, 1905), p. 114.

[92] The opening of the Suez Canal, as much probably as any other

factor promulgated modern ideas in the Philippines, because of the

vastly shorter route thus brought about between them and the mother

country.

[93] The above citation is from Daniel Grifol y Aliaga's prologue to

his book La instrucción primaria en Filipinas (note by Zamora, p. 235).

[94] Fray Hilarion Diez, O.S.A., who was consecrated archbishop

of Manila, October 21, 1827. His death occurred May 7, 1829. See

Ferrando's Historia, vi, pp. cliii, cliv.

[95] Zamora, speaking in his chapter ix of the intervention of the

friar, and discussing in general the accusations against the religious

orders, says (pp. 408-452): "The Spaniards in admiration of the sanity

of life, of the austerity and purity of the morals of the religious;

thankful for their good offices as intermediaries among themselves in

their disputes, and among the Indians during rebellions; convinced of

the efficacy of their word, and of their intervention in all things;

of the necessity of their active and diligent coöperation for the

conservation and consolidation of the colony: began to respect,

venerate, and recognize in them spontaneously, a certain right to

intervene in their affairs, to settle their differences, submit to

their judgment their quarrels, and respect their decisions with more

submission and conformity than would proceed from the legitimately

constituted authority. The governors themselves could not leave the

religious out of account in all that they undertook." The Indian

learned to distinguish, says Zamora, between the peaceful and helpful

friar, who sought only his welfare, and the often brutal and harsh

encomendero. "Not otherwise was the origin of the prestige of the

religious among Indians and Spaniards;" and the lapse of time furthered

it. The governors made use of the friars as ambassadors, counsellors,

and in other capacities connected with the government. "The religious

were the ones who formed the villages and made a record of their

parishioners on the tribute and citizen list." As the friars were the

only ones who understood the native dialects and the natives were

ignorant of Spanish, the authorities were forced to work through

the former, and consequently, the friars had the right of "visé" of

the tribute and citizen lists. They became the presiding officers

of all local boards, and so had all the power. In the provinces

the dwelling of the parish priest was open to strangers who lodged

there as in a hotel. The envy and maliciousness of certain people,

however, conspired to take away the power of the parish priest, a

reform that was rather agreeable than otherwise to him, as it left

him more time for his ministry; but he deplored it as it seemed to

threaten the country at no distant future. "The vigilant, noble, and

disinterested intervention of the parish priests in all matters was the

chief and necessary wheel of the gubernatorial, administrative, and

judicial mechanism, in their multiple and complicated attributes and

duties. That was exercised with regularity, until, in the last years of

Spanish dominion in that country, the impelling force restrained the

impulse." The fruit of the "reform" was the contempt of the natives

for the Spaniards. "If the religious orders were the cause for the

loss of these islands, they were so unconsciously and ignorantly,

or consciously and maliciously." Zamora argues that they were not

in any way the cause for the loss of the country. "The religious

communities knew that the ruin of the country was their own ruin,

the end of the Spanish domination, the end even of their existence in

Filipinas." "On three bases rested the Spanish domination in Filipinas

with its institutions and organisations: religion; the prestige of the

parish-priest regulars; and the superiority of race in so great accord

with Spanish nobility." To freemasonry was due the destruction of the

high ideal of religion, and also the idea of the superiority of race;

and to freemasonry is due, then, the loss of the colony. The friars

have not committed the abuses with which they have been credited, and

were not the cause of the revolution. They were always the upholders

of Spanish sovereignty, and protected the natives.

[96] The municipal reform of 1893, the "Maura law," in conferring

a considerable degree of local autonomy on Philippine towns, made

the newly created municipal councils also school boards. It was a

further step in taking from the padre the power to "visé" and supervise

everything done, small and great, in a town. In promulgating the law,

Governor-general Blanco (popular with the Filipinos for his liberal

measures) took pains to explain that the priest's school-inspecting

powers, so far as religious teaching went, were to be the same

as ever. As a matter of fact, this reform of Minister Maura, sent

forth amid much accompaniment of proclamas in Spain and the islands,

was virtually made a dead-letter under succeeding governors. Its

non-enforcement, except in a few towns, was one of the complaints

of the insurgents in 1896. See LeRoy "Friars in the Philippines,"

in Political Science Quarterly for December, 1903, pp. 672, 673.

[97] Victor S. Clark (Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, no. 58, May,

1905; Labor Conditions in the Philippines), says (p. 854): "Practically

all the Christian population of Mindanao spoke Spanish in 1883, which

indicates that the statistics probably did not cover the remoter Jesuit

mission stations among the Moros. In that year about 21 per cent of

the total population reported for the islands could read, but less

than 5-1/2 per cent could speak Spanish. In other words, 75 per cent

of the persons able to read could do so only in the Malay dialects."

[98] Estadismo, chapter xiv (Retana's ed.; note by Zamora).

[99] Zúñiga (Estadismo, Retana's ed., i, pp. 299, 300), says of

the natives of Tondo province: "The language of these Indians is

somewhat corrupted, because a great number of Spanish words have been

introduced. That is the only benefit which they have derived from

living near Manila, since there are very few who know Spanish. In the

suburbs themselves, as well as in Binondo and Santa Cruz, the Tagálog

language is spoken. The Spaniards cast the blame on the religious for

the Indians not knowing the Spanish language. But let them examine

the villages of the seculars, and they will find whether they know

more than those of the regular curacies. We cannot succeed in getting

them to learn the doctrine, and it is wished that we teach them the

Spanish language. There are some Spaniards who believe that we are

opposed to them learning it, but this calumny was clearly destroyed in

the time of Señor Anda, when it was ordered that no one could become a

gobernadorcillo unless he knew Spanish; and it was necessary in almost

all the villages to take the servants of the fathers. Now even, if

there is any Indian who knows Spanish in the villages, it is because

he has served some religious or some Spaniard in Manila. I know very

well the method of introducing the Spanish language into Filipinas;

but since I know that my plan will not be observed, I shall say only

that hitherto, certain absurd means which would not have been used

among barbarians, have been taken."

[100] Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora). This citation is from

vol. ii, pp. 59*, *60.

[101] The issue of June 5, 1891 (note by Zamora).

[102] An expression used in ridicule, like the English folderols. It

might be translated "utter nonsense."

[103] The Spanish for this invitation is as follows: "El día diecinueve

de su mañana y del presente plenilunio tendrá lugar la misa de mi vara

en esta Iglesia de mi cargo que Dios gratuitamente me ha concedido

esta carga honorosa. Invito á Vd. tanto como á mi casa que desde

luego se llenará el vacio acendrado de mi corazón en su asistencia

hasta resonar mi última hora en el relox del Eterno." Some of the

words are taken in the wrong acceptation.

[104] This letter is given by Retana in his edition of Zúñiga's

Estadismo, ii, pp. *60-63*.

[105] Literally, "I ordain and command"--the form of opening often

used in decrees, edicts, etc.

[106] This last paragraph is not a part of Retana's letter to Becerra,

but it is taken from Retana's words following the letter in his

edition of the Estadismo, ii, pp. 63*, *64.

[107] The friars virtually controlled secondary and higher instruction

in the islands until they were lost to Spain in 1898. The reaction that

followed the liberal measures (some of them practical, some foolish) of

1863 to 1870 really strengthened the hold of the friars upon superior

education (though one must take into account the competition from the

Jesuits in Manila with which the disturbed Dominicans had to deal in

increased degree each year). See LeRoy's Philippine Life, p. 205.

[108] "The friars maintained control of secondary and higher

instruction till the islands were lost to Spain in 1898. A

reaction from the liberal policy of 1863 to 1868 was stimulated

by the appearance of a radical party in the Philippines, and by

an insurrectionary movement at Cavite, in 1872. The friar party

declared these to be the natural consequences of 'reform' and when

the government changed, as it soon did, the projects of educational

reorganization were speedily nullified." James A. LeRoy in Political

Science Quarterly, December, 1903, pp. 673, 674.

[109] i.e., "Take and read."

[110] The comments of Victor S. Clark, in his Labor Conditions in

the Philippines (Bulletin no. 58, of Bureau of Labor), in regard to

Filipino workmen, are interesting, and show a somewhat different side

than that presented by Zamora.

Zamora has left out of account the Filipino patriot, Dr. José Rizal,

who was executed by order of the Spanish government, December 30,

1896. Rizal was a pure-blooded Tagálog, and attained highest rank

in the Orient as an eye specialist. In addition he was a poet, a

sculptor, and a novelist of more than average ability, a wonderful

linguist, a widely-read man, and a clear thinker. He studied in the

Ateneo Municipal and in Santo Tomás. The two following selections,

the first from his novel Noli me tangere, often called the "Filipino

bible," and the second from El Filibusterismo (both taken from LeRoy's

Philippine Life in town and country, pp. 210-213, and 207, 208) are

interesting criticisms of the education of the friars. The first is

the reflections of the village philosopher, the second apropos of

the teaching of physics in the University of Santo Tomás.

"The country is not the same today as it was twenty years ago.... If

you do not see it, it is because you have not seen the former state,

have not studied the effect of the immigration of Europeans,

of the entrance of new books, and of the going of the young

men to study in Europe. It is true that the Royal and Pontifical

University of St. Thomas still exists, with its most wise cloister,

and certain intelligences still busy themselves in formulating the

distinctions and threshing out to the final issue the subtleties of

scholasticism. But where will you now find that metaphysical youth of

our times, with an archaic education, who tortured his brain and died

in full pursuit of sophistries in some remote part of the provinces,

without ever having succeeded in understanding the attributes of

being, or settling the question of essence and existence, concepts

so lofty that they made us forget what was essential in life, our

own existence and individuality? Look at the youth of today. Full

of enthusiasm at the view of wider horizons, it studies History,

Mathematics, Geography, Literature, Physical Science, Languages,

all subjects that in our time we heard of with horror as though they

were heresies; the greatest freethinker of my time declared all these

things inferior to the classifications of Aristotle and the laws of

the syllogism. Man has finally comprehended that he is man; he refuses

to give himself over to the analysis of his God, to the penetration

of the imperceptible, into what he has not seen, and to give laws to

the phantasms of his brain; man comprehends that his inheritance is

the vast world, dominion over which is within his reach; weary of a

task that is useless and presumptuous, he lowers his gaze to earth,

and examines his own surroundings.... The experimental sciences

have already given their firstfruits; it needs Only time to perfect

them. The lawyers of today are being trained in the new teachings of

legal philosophy; some begin to shine in the midst of the shadows which

surround our courts of justice, and point to a change in the course

of affairs.... Look you: the press itself, however backward it might

wish to be, is taking a step forward against its will. The Dominicans

themselves do not escape this law, but are imitating the Jesuits,

their implacable enemies; they give fiestas in their cloisters, erect

little theatres, write poesies, because, as they are not devoid of

intelligence in spite of believing in the fifteenth century, they

comprehend that the Jesuits are right and will continue yet to play

a part in the future of the young peoples that they have educated.

"But are the Jesuits the companions of Progress? Why, then, are they

opposed in Europe?"

"I will answer you like an old scholastic.... One may accompany the

course of Progress in three ways, ahead of her, side by side with her,

and behind her. The first are those who guide the course of Progress;

the second are those who are borne along by her; the last are dragged

along, and among them are the Jesuits. Well would they like to direct

her course, but, as they see her in the possession of full strength

and having other tendencies, they capitulate, preferring to follow

rather than be smothered or be left in the middle of the road without

light. Well now, we in the Philippines are traveling along at least

three centuries behind the car of Progress; we are barely commencing

to emerge from the Middle Ages. Hence, the Jesuits, reactionary in

Europe, when seen from our point of view represent Progress; the

Philippines owe to them their dawning system of instruction, and to

them the Natural Sciences, the soul of the nineteenth century, as it

has been indebted to the Dominicans for Scholasticism, already dead

in spite of Leo XIII--no Pope can revive what common sense has judged

and condemned.... The strife is on between the past, which cleaves

and clings with curses to the waning feudal castle, and the future,

whose song of triumph may be faintly heard off in the distant but

splendorous glories of a dawn that is coming, bringing the message

of Good-News from other countries."

"The walls were entirely bare; not a drawing, nor an engraving, nor

even any kind of a representation of an instrument of physics. On

occasions there would be lowered from heaven an instrumentlet to

be shown from afar to the class, like the Holy of Holies to the

prostrate faithful: 'Look at me, but don't touch me.' From time

to time, some complacent professor came, a day of the year was

assigned for visiting the mysterious 'cabinet,' and admiring from

afar the enigmatic apparatus arranged inside the cases. Then no one

could complain; that day there were seen much brass, much glass,

many tubes, disks, wheels, bells, etc. And the show stopped there,

and the Philippines were not turned upside down. For the rest, the

students are convinced that these instruments were not bought for them;

merry fools would the friars be! The 'cabinet' was made to be shown

to foreigners and to high officials from Spain, that, on seeing it,

they may nod in approbation, while their guide smiles as if saying:

'You have been thinking you were going to find a lot of backward monks,

eh? Well, we are at the height of the century; we have a cabinet!'

"And the foreigners and high officials, obsequiously entertained,

afterward wrote in their voyages or reports: 'The Royal and Pontifical

University of St. Thomas, of Manila, in charge of the illustrious

Dominicans, possesses a magnificent cabinet of physics for the

instruction of youth.... There annually take this course some two

hundred and fifty students; but, be it on account of the apathy,

indolence, scanty capacity of the natives, or through any other cause

whatsoever, ethnological or unperceivable, up to date there has not

developed a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a Tyndall, even in miniature,

from the Philippine-Malay race!'"

[111] See p. 801 of Victor S. Clark's article in Bulletin no. 58,

ut supra, for a comparison between the Filipino and the Central and

South American Indians.

[112] Retana's praises of Rizal, a full-blooded Tagálog, in all these

lines, as seen in his Vida y escritos del Dr. José Rizal, a series

just concluded (October, 1906), in the Madrid review, Nuestro Tiempo,

are the best answer to his own question.

[113] See Retana's Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora).

[114] According to Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., the first freemason

lodge established in the Philippines was the one called Luz Filipina,

about 1860, which was established in Cavite under the Gran Oriente

Lusitano. It was in immediate correspondence with the Portuguese

lodges of Macao and Hongkong. Shortly after another lodge was created

in Zamboanga of Peninsulars and creoles resident in Mindanao. Some

time after 1868, must have occurred the creation of another lodge

composed of foreigners and dependents of the lodge of Hongkong, of

the Scottish rite. Into this lodge were admitted some Peninsulars

and Filipinos. Shortly after this many other lodges were created

under the Grañ Oriente de España. See Navarro's Asuntos filipinos

(Madrid, 1897), pp. 221-277. Manuel Sastron (Insurrección en Filipinas,

Madrid, 1901, p. 41), who represents the friar standpoint, says: "We

believe and affirm in good faith, that, in our opinion, the origin,

the primitive cellule of the insurrection of 1896 in Filipinas, is to

be found in masonry." The masonic movement was by 1890 widespread in

the islands. See also Sawyer's Inhabitants of Philippines, pp. 79-83.

[115] St. Anthony the Great, who was an Egyptian, born A.D. 356. His

day is January 17. See Baring Gould's Lives of the Saints, i,

pp. 249-272.

[116] St. Basil the Great was a native of Cappadocian Cæsarea. His

death occurred A.D. 379. His day is celebrated on June 14, except

by the Greeks who keep January 1 in his memory. See Baring Gould's

Lives of the Saints, vi, pp. 192-202.

[117] Referring to the Katipunan, or Kataas-taasan Kagalang-gálang

Katipunan Nang Mañga Anac Nang Bayan, "Sovereign Worshipful Association

of the Sons of the Country." This society, of which it is yet too

early to have definite and detailed information, was due in the main to

Andrés Bonifacio, a warehouse keeper in the employ of Fressel and Co.,

of Manila, who became its third president, although primarily founded

by Marcelo Hilario del Pilar. This society enrolled in its ranks the

common people among the Tagálogs. It is more than likely that the plan

of the organization was copied from the masonic lodges, but the analogy

stops here. The Katipunan was not masonry. See Sastron's Insurrección,

pp. 51-59; Sawyer's Inhabitants, pp. 82, 83; and The Katipunan

(Manila, 1902), purporting to be by one Francis St. Clair, although

it is claimed by some to have been written by or for the friars.

[118] In a letter from James A. LeRoy, of June 27, 1906.

[119] J. A. LeRoy: Philippine Life.

[120] Chief among these men may be cited Francisco Giner de los Rios,

of the Madrid University, who has established the Free Institution of

Teaching in Madrid for the training of teachers. He follows principally

American methods. Both Church and State have opposed him, but he has

persevered and his institution has had good results.

[121] Apropos of the "Filipino soul," James A. LeRoy says, in the

letter cited, ante, note 118, "No Filipino on earth, if pinned down,

could tell what the 'Filipino soul' is today, as Tavera hints."

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 46, 1721-1739 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century · 第 16 / 16 章

When we have tried to demonstrate to them some abstract truth,