insurrection was poor, a fact that was attributed, among other
things, to the bad condition of the barracks. On the other hand,
a corps composed of native troops recruited from Manila and the
neighboring places remained loyal, and was used to good effect
in putting down the insurrection. In the opinion of many, native
troops officered by Spaniards (even to the sergeants and corporals)
would prevent disaffection in the future, and be much better than
Peninsular troops. In this treatise it is Matta's purpose to set forth
"the measures by which the tranquillity of these inhabitants and
the conservation of this precious portion of the Spanish monarchy,
will be conserved in the future." The moral condition of the islands
is most delicate and merits the close attention of the government,
"and most especially of your Excellency, to whom is chiefly confided
the tranquillity and conservation of these important possessions--which
now demand radical administrational and economic reforms that will
permit the development of the wealth of their fertile soil, and
the welfare of all their inhabitants; and peremptory measures of
foresight and security, which will render those advantages lasting,
keep the country loyal, and inalterably bind the union of the islands
with the mother-country." In consequence of the civil wars in Spain,
the Spanish government has been compelled to draw heavy sums against
the treasury of the Philippines, by which not only has the treasury
been exhausted but a debt of more than four million pesos incurred--a
debt that cannot be met for years, "both because the needs of the
colony are increasing annually, and because the remainder left
from the revenues, after covering the ordinary obligations of the
budgets, is almost all spent in tobacco leaf, which is sent for the
consumption of the mother-country, in accordance with the orders of
the government." In regard to the military defense of the country,
conditions are as bad. "There are but few arms and they are in poor
shape. The provinces are undefended. The army is composed almost
exclusively of natives, and they are so few in number that the army
is insufficient to defend the capital and fort of Cavite in case of
a foreign invasion." Indeed, in case of invasion it might be best to
raze the fortifications built at the expense of so great sacrifices.]
In general there is to be seen considerable indifference, and even
disaffection, to Peninsular interests. Ideas of emancipation are
sheltered in many bosoms. Discontent swarms in all places. It is
given utterance with effrontery, and is developed and fomented
in various manners. Since the beginning of the colony, boldness,
deceit, and acrimonious speech have had a foremost seat, but greed
is today the dominant passion in the white people. Their needs are
many and there are few means of satisfying them. The hot climate
especially contributes to captiousness, and the development of vehement
passions. A multitude of jealous, complaining, and evil-intentioned men
foment the discontent, to which also pusillanimous persons contribute
by their indiscreet and excessive fear. Although by means of different
passions, there is a manifest tendency to constantly discredit the
dispositions of the government, to attack maliciously the authorities
who represent it, and to foment rivalry and discord among them, to
which both the complexity of the legislation and the burning climate
lend themselves. Thus all concur in weakening the prestige that
gives force to the government. The malcontents have the necessary
time to gather new proselytes, to consolidate a faction against the
mother-country, to prepare the will of the masses; and they await the
time and opportunity for the realization of their desires. This plan
is not in writing, but is engraved in the hearts of those who direct
it, shows itself by its works, and is the result of the tendency of
the age, of the calamitous circumstances in which the mother-country
finds itself, and of the kind of abandonment in which these important
possessions are held.
[Notwithstanding the royal order of April 25, 1837, prohibiting
publications that might disturb public order and weaken the prestige
of the government, such publications have circulated freely in Manila,
thus increasing the discontent. In such publications the followers
of Apolinario are called innocent, and the execution of the rebels
in the camp of Alitao has been termed assassination. All things have
combined to destroy in Manila "the prestige and moral force that have
been hitherto the principal foundation of our domination."]
[Although the provinces are not yet so greatly disaffected as is
Manila], their moral condition is very different from that when they
generally pronounced against the English in 1762 and gave the victory
to Anda. Mejico belonged to España, and its treasury contributed
to the support of the islands, which had the exclusive benefit of a
traffic which the public especially valued, and whose conservation
was inseparable from union to the mother-country. North-American
independence and the French revolution had not yet come to fix the
future destiny of all the colonial possessions of the world. [39]
The regular clergy, the principal base of our domination, then
exercised an influence over the inhabitants, which time has almost
entirely vitiated. Little care is taken for the instruction of their
members, from which it results that some of them with their gross
manners, stupid pretensions, and exactions from the chiefs of the
provinces, and the gobernadorcillos and notables of the villages,
occasion anger, quarrels, and discord which disturb the quiet of the
inhabitants, distract and embarrass the authorities, and nourish those
indiscreet and tenacious struggles in which all lose, and which have
contributed so greatly to the rapid undermining of the base of our
power in the provinces. The mistrust of a sad future leads many of
them to engage in commercial business, and conduces to avarice and
to a worldly life, so that they have lost their religious prestige,
without gaining the respect and the consideration due to eminent and
beneficent citizens. Without doubt there are respectable men among the
individuals of the regular clergy, who, superior to circumstances,
devote themselves entirely to the fulfilment of the duties of
their sacred ministry; who as true fathers of their parishioners,
look carefully after their comfort and welfare; and who, for that
reason possessing their esteem, are, consequently, one of the chief
supports of the action of the government in the villages. It is with
reference to these that I have remarked in another place that both
religion and policy recommend them. Let all be placed in the same
category, and let strict watch be put on the instruction and conduct
of the parish priests, in which, truly, there is much to correct;
and the happiness of the provinces will be secure, if, in addition,
the improvements demanded by the state of civilization and of wealth
in some of the provinces, and by the genius and circumstances of the
various races inhabiting them, and the differences of the times in
which we are living, are made in their government and administration.
For that purpose it must be kept in mind that ambition is wont to
affect the Spanish people transplanted to these distant and hot climes;
that arrogant presumption is the distinctive characteristic of their
descendants; and we must consider duly the characteristic qualities
of the natives.
As I have remarked to your Excellency on a different occasion, I
consider the moral picture of the Indian as very difficult to draw,
for frequently one finds united in him abjectness and ferocity,
timidity and a wonderful fearlessness and courage in danger,
and indolent laziness and slovenliness combined with industry and
avaricious self-interest. It is impossible to represent exactly under
one single stroke all the phases of their contradictory character. But
in general the Indian is pacific, superstitious, indolent, respectful
to authority, heedless, distrustful, and deceitful. Dominated by his
first sensations, and most fertile in expedients to extricate himself
from difficulties, or to carry out his design at a moment's notice,
he must be considered as a minor who follows the dictates of his
own will; and, as such, he must be directed for his own good, his
difficulties must be forestalled, corrected and punished. The natives
are also spiteful and revengeful when they believe themselves offended;
and at such times, hiding their ill-will under the veil of a deceitful
humility, they await the opportunity for satisfying it, and generally
give rein suddenly to their ill-will with perfidy and ferocity.
[The contradictory character of the Filipino native explains the ease
with which a large province can be governed by one official with the
aid of the parish priests and two or three dozen soldiers; while, on
the other hand, the insurance companies of India refuse to stand the
risks of mutiny in a vessel employing half a dozen natives from Manila
in its crew. The natives know no middle path between abject respect
and insolent contempt, in their attitude toward the whites. In case
of a foreign or internal war the governors or alcaldes-mayor of the
provinces would be the least capable of directing affairs, because
of their ignorance of the native languages and customs, and because
they are in continual conflict with the natives over the collection of
the tribute, while at the same time they exercise a monopoly in trade.]
For a very long period the elements of discord among the authorities
have been numerous for lack of a special and analogous legislation,
enacted with regard to the genius and circumstances of the various
peoples inhabiting these islands and the enormous distance separating
them from the mother-country. During these latter years, there have
been heaped up on this unfavorable foundation the elements emanating
from the civil war which has covered the mother-country with mourning,
and those of our own political dissensions; the development and
tendencies of the revolutionary principles common to all the colonial
possessions of the world, and which only force, supported by the
interest of self-preservation, is capable of restraining; and lastly
the impressions which it has been impossible to keep from transmission
to the natives and other races, in proportion as the knowledge of our
language becomes general to them, and as they become civilized, and
contract our tastes and necessities through the increase of commerce
and industry, and observe from anear the confusion resulting from
our lack of harmony. This is, in my opinion, the chief cancer of this
body politic, and will finish it very speedily unless your Excellency,
acting with the discretion and the energy so strongly charged in the
laws, and especially in the royal order of April 25, 1837, apply the
remedy peremptorily demanded by our situation.
[Discord and confusion and the spirit of resistance are rife throughout
the provinces. The events of 1820 and 1823, the sedition of Apolinario
in October, 1841, and the mutiny of the troops, although different
in their origin, all exhibit the "perfidy and ferocity that always
accompany movements of color in Ultramar." The prestige of the
government is weakened, which formerly was, with religion, the chief
foundation of Spanish domination. The political factions that have
arisen in the last six years, and which are now perfectly organized,
are greatly to blame. The Peninsulars and Spanish Filipinos will
end by destroying each other if the fitting remedy is not speedily
applied. In a report made to the government after the sedition of
Apolinario had been put down, Matta said that the origin of the
confraternity consisted "only in the character of the superstition
which distinguishes these natives, who most readily believe whatever
is presented to them under the veil of religion and of the marvellous;
asserted that it became fanaticism as soon as measures were taken
against Apolinario and his confreres, and that it became a declared
sedition when the unfortunate Ortega attacked them in Ygsaban with more
valor than prudence; and that from that time presenting the appearance
of a near insurrection in the neighboring provinces, it is to be
feared that it would have been converted into a revolution capable
of compromising the conservation of these important possessions had
not the seditious ones been promptly defeated and severely punished
in Alitao." Matta's report also said that probably Apolinario's
expulsion from the hospital of San Juan de Dios in Manila, and the
measures taken against his associates, together with the suggestions
of the adherents of independence, contributed to the holding of the
novena in Tayabas in spite of the precautions taken by the military
and ecclesiastical authorities. These occurrences were principally
the effect of superstition and fanaticism; and although the ideas of
emancipation have been present in the Philippines, as in all colonies
since the Spanish-American revolution, yet ideas of emancipation
are limited in the islands to a few Spaniards who do not even form a
political party, but only a crowd of complainers who are either not
government employees, or are employees who take it ill that Spaniards
are sent from the Peninsula to fill offices that they believe belong
properly to themselves. [40] The ideas of emancipation have not yet
contaminated, nor will they in a long time contaminate the Chinese, the
Chinese mestizos, Spanish mestizos, or the natives, with the exception
of a few of the "secular clergy, as insignificant because of their
ignorance and few resources as by their lack of influence among their
countrymen." Whatever be the opinions of the influential Spaniards
born in the islands, they recognise that political upheavals would be
as fatal to themselves as to the Peninsulars. In the insurrection of
last January, among the six white officers assassinated or wounded,
three of those killed and one wounded belonged to the revolting
regiment, while the two remaining who were wounded were Europeans. The
safety of all lies in the stability of the government; but it must
be noted that events are daily more serious and that the discontent
is spreading. Important reforms are necessary, but matters must be
viewed only in the light of the public cause. "Without virtues there
can be no prestige; and, without prestige, it will also be impossible
for the lesser part to dominate the great whole." The conservation
of the islands depends on "radical reforms in their legislation,
and peremptory measures of precaution and security." Such reforms are:]
1st. The formation of a special law for these islands, analogous
and framed with reference to the genius and circumstances of the
various peoples inhabiting them, and to their great distance from
the mother-country. [Matta believes in a law that will outline
the duties of the governor and captain-general, and place under
his general supervision real heads of the various departments of
government, who shall be responsible. A Colonial Council or Cabinet
for consultation on affairs of general public interest should also be
formed. This separation of duties into specific classes, the heads
of each department to be subordinate to the governor, in accordance
with law ii, título ii, book iii, will ensure the right use of the
governing functions. To continue so many unconnected duties under
the governor will only add to the confusion.]
2d. The improvement of the government and administration of the
provinces by organizing them with reference to their present state
of civilization and wealth. For they cannot now, without serious
inconveniences, without transcendental harm, have the government,
judicial, military and revenue functions, together with commercial
occupations and cares, united under one person alone. [The system of
placing one person in command of all these departments is opposed to
civilization and to the mercantile spirit that has penetrated into
the provinces. Civil governors should be appointed who should have
charge of the government, administration of justice, and the promotion
of the welfare of the inhabitants. Such governors should have learned
the native tongue and should know something of the native manners and
customs. The collection of tributes should not be entrusted to them,
and their posts should be permanent, except for transfers, promotions,
and suspension by the governor and captain-general, or sentence by
the suitable tribunal. This will give such provincial chiefs the
necessary prestige, in accordance with the royal order of December
10, 1839. In the provinces, passion often takes the place of reason,
and anything at all can be justified because of the facility with
which the natives contradict and perjure themselves. The position of
the provincial chief demands that his authority be very vigorous and
held in respect. The native must be kept respectful by tact, justice,
punishment, and energy. Jueces pesquisidores [41] and judges to take
the residencia should not be sent to the provinces, as that tends to
weaken the authority of the provincial chief. Easy recourse can be
had in the provinces to the tribunals and superior authorities of the
islands, while the natives and Chinese can appeal to their protectors,
who are generally very zealous in their behalf.]
3rd. The suppression of the colleges of Santo Tomas, San Jose, [42]
and San Juan de Letran of this capital, and the conciliar seminaries
of the bishoprics, as perpetual nurseries of corruption, laziness, or
subversive ideas, as contrary to the quiet and welfare of the villages
as to peninsular interests. [The suppression of the last three can be
made at once, and they should be replaced with schools of agriculture,
[43] arts, [44] and commerce, which will conduce to the prosperity of
the colony. As regards Santo Tomas, inasmuch as immediate suppression
would anger the Spaniards and Chinese mestizos who have control of
almost all the capital of the islands, a new plan should be adopted by
which desire to attend it would be gradually decreased until it can be
suppressed without any trouble. Sensible Spaniards generally believe
that the suppression of these institutions would conduce to the good
of the islands and of Spain. From them come the swarms of ignorant
and vicious secular priests, and the pettifogging lawyers, who stir
up so much trouble among the natives, and cause the provincial chiefs
so great inconvenience. Although not much attention is paid to this
class, they are the most vicious and worthless in the islands. Public
convenience demands the teaching of agriculture, the arts, and
commerce, instead of the theology and law to which the institutions
above mentioned are devoted. It should not be forgotten that the
Spanish-American revolutions were fostered by curas and lawyers,
who since they know both the native language and Spanish, have great
influence with the masses. The influence of the friar parish priests
is now very much weakened, for they have almost entirely abandoned the
spiritual administration to their native assistants. These assistants,
by working on the superstitious character of the natives, can rouse
them to any act that will satisfy their own desires for vengeance.]
4th. The eternal abolition of the sentences of residencia, to which,
as governors, the captains-general of the provinces of Ultramar are
still subject. [These sentences have been of no use to the inhabitants
of the islands, but on the contrary of great harm. Appeal lies to
the Audiencia from the judicial acts of the governor, and to the
Spanish court from his purely administrational acts. The free press,
in which all things are bruited, is also of great use. Communication
with Spain is now frequent. The governor and the chief of the treasury
have been divested of almost all governmental authority through the
residencia. The judicial and contentious have invaded everything
and obscured the action of the provincial chiefs as well as the
superintendent and intendant and the governor. The chief authorities
of the islands need more energy and freer action.]
5th. [The adoption of various other legislative and economic measures
which Matta has before proposed to the government.]
[Capitalists and workers are needed in the islands, but, in order
to attract them, there must be governmental and administrational
reforms. The natives must be considered and various reforms made
concerning them, and the heavy tribute on the Chinese must be
reduced to not more than the twelve reals per annum for those
engaging in agriculture. The public wealth of the islands must be
increased. Whites, Chinese, and mestizos must be encouraged to go
to the islands in greater numbers, in order to correct the laziness
of the natives, and, by their wealth and prestige, to offset the
numerical majority of the natives. The increase of consumers in
the islands will give a greater outlet to Spanish products from the
Peninsula. The revenues must be increased in proportion to the public
wealth, in order to sustain the increase of necessary forces.]
[The reforms looking toward security and conservation which are
urgently demanded by the moral condition of the country are as
follows:]
1st. The reëstablishment of the well-organized military commission of
police, vigilance, and public safety. [This would be able to check
all sorts of disorder and conspiracy. Its members should be paid by
the state, such pay to come from the licenses issued to travelers
going to the interior, from licenses to carry arms, from fines,
and from the fourth part of all contraband goods confiscated.]
2d. The institution of night-watches in the city and villages outside
its walls, which require them, as almost all the traders and a
considerable portion of the white population live therein. [These
night-watches would relieve the troops of patrol duty in many
instances. They would be under the alcaldes-in-ordinary, and paid
from the municipal funds.]
3rd. The constant maintenance of a guard of at least one thousand
European troops. [These are necessary for the garrisoning of
the fort at Santiago, the palace, the Parián gate, and the other
necessary points. Matta's plan also calls for the reëstablishment
of the Spanish guard of halberdiers of one hundred men, to act as
interior palace guard, and serve as a source of supply for sergeants
for the native regiments. He recommends the establishment of Tagálog
academies in order that the Spanish officers and sergeants may learn
the native language. [45] Certain privileges are proposed for the
European soldiers, whereby their pay may be greater than that of
the native soldiers, for their necessities are greater. The term
of service in the Philippines ought to be eight years, as provided
by royal order of July 26, 1836; but those who are fit ought to be
allowed to reënlist and be transferred to the revenue guard [cuerpo
del resguardo], in order to save cost on transportation. Matta is
against having fewer Europeans in the service as has been urged by
many persons of experience in the Philippines. The system outlined by
him is not one merely of military occupation, but looks to a close
bond with the mother-country and to the industrial development of
the islands. Agriculture is the best occupation for the whites, and
is in fact the only one that will give a good comfortable living. A
greater number of Europeans will mean a greater proportion of mestizos;
[46] and if these, together with the Chinese and some of the whites,
engage in agriculture they will throw their influence on the side
of the government, because of self-interest. Exaggerated ideas are
voiced regarding the Peninsulars. They are never more dangerous
than during the first few years in the islands; but, as they become
accustomed to the climate and learn to know the inhabitants, their
ideas moderate. Consequently, for this reason, and because of the
expense, Matta is against frequent reliefs of soldiers. Vacancies in
the ranks should always be filled with recruits from Spain, and never
with natives. Discipline must not be relaxed on the voyage from Spain;
and the soldiers must be kept in good form physically. A special
boat is recommended for the transport of soldiers to and from Spain;
and cost of transport can be reduced.]
4th. The completion of the organization of the valuable corps of
the revenue guards [cuerpo del resguardo]. [This can be done by
carrying out the royal order of October 18, 1837, and the three
parts of the regulations drawn up by Matta's predecessor June 4,
1841, the first two parts of which have already been approved. Matta
has endeavored without avail, and supported by various officials,
to gain the governor's approval to the third part. The corps of the
revenue guards is always loyal to the governor. With the increase
provided in the plan for organization, this corps will be the most
suitable to defend the country either against foreign or internal
foes. Since the immediate object of the revenue guards is the custody,
defense, and guard of the revenues, they ought to depend immediately
on the treasury department, although they may be available when the
public safety demands it for any other duty. By a decree of Matta's
predecessor, of April 25, 1839, the revenue guards of the various
departments--those of the Bay, and of the tobacco and wine and liquor
monopoly revenues--were united into one corps. This extensive corps,
which absorbs annually the sum of 191,589 pesos, has no adequate
organization, a matter to which immediate attention should be given.]