THEIR ESTATES.
Malinta and Piedad--Mandaloyan--San Francisco de
Malabon--Irrigation works--Imus--Calamba--Cabuyao--Santa
Rosa--Binan--San Pedro Tunasan--Naic--Santa Cruz--Estates a
bone of contention for centuries--Principal cause of revolt
of Tagals--But the Peace Commission guarantee the Orders in
possession--Pacification retarded--Summary--The Orders must
go!--And be replaced by natives.
The Augustinians own some fine estates near Manila. In 1877 I visited
Malinta and Piedad, which, according to an old plan exhibited to
me, drawn by some ancient navigator, measured over 14,000 acres in
extent, a good part of which was cultivated and under paddy; still a
large expanse was rocky, and grew only cogon (elephant grass). The
lay-brother in charge, Aureliano Garcia, confided to me that he
went about in fear, and expected to end his life under the bolos
of the tenants. I was then new to the country, and saw no signs of
discontent. I afterwards visited Mandaloyan, another estate nearer
Manila. This was nearly all arable land. The house was large and
commodious, and was used as a convalescent home for the friars. I have
not a note of the extent of this estate, but it occupies a great part
of the space between the rivers Maibonga and San Juan, to the north
of the Pasig. The lay-brother in charge, Julian Ibeas, did not seem at
all anxious about his safety. The land here was more fertile than that
of Malinta, and there was water carriage to a market for the crops.
In view of my report, which was not, however, unduly optimistic, my
clients deputed me to ask the Augustinians for a lease of the above
three estates for twenty-five years, the rent to be $40,000 [7]
per year for three years, and each year after that an addition of
a thousand dollars, so that the ultimate rent would be $62,000 per
annum. However, after taking some time to consider, the procurator
declined the offer.
On the above estates there was little or nothing done by the owners
to improve the land. They had limited themselves to building large
and convenient houses and granaries for their own accommodation,
and to entertain their friends.
In 1884 I constructed a pumping station on the River Tuliajan in this
estate, and laid a pipe line right through the property to supply fresh
water to the sugar refinery at Malabon, five miles distant. I had no
difficulty in obtaining permission, indeed, Fray Arsenio Campo (now
Bishop of Nueva Caceres) facilitated the work in every way. The only
protest was by Doroteo Cortes, a half-caste lawyer, who interposed
as the pipe had to pass between two fish-ponds belonging to him,
and he extorted a blackmail $800 to withdraw his opposition. Let the
reader contrast the behaviour of the Spaniard and the half-caste,
now posing as an "Americanista."
San Francisco de Malabon, another possession of theirs, is a
magnificent property, situated on the fertile, well-watered land
that slopes from the summits of the Tagaytay range, north of the vast
crater-lake of Bombon, to the shores of the ever-famous Bay of Bacoor,
the scene of Spain's naval collapse.
Through the volcanic soil three rivers, the Ilang-ilang, the
Camanchile, and the Jalan, have cut deep gashes down to the bed-rock,
on the surface of which the rapid waters rush downwards to the sea.
A nobly-proportioned house of stone, almost a fortress, was planted
where it commanded a grand, a stately view. From its windows the
spectator looked over fields of waving grain, over fruit trees, and
town and hamlets, down to the sea shore, and across the vast expanse
of placid bay to where in the far north solitary Arayat rears his
head. The thick walls and lofty roof excluded the solar heat, and the
green-painted Venetians saved the inmate from the glare. Very welcome
was that hostel, furnished in severe ecclesiastical almost mediaeval
style, to me, after the dusty up-hill drive of eight miles from Cavite.
I visited this estate in 1879, and found that extensive irrigation
works had been carried out. A new dam on one of the rivers, about
fifty feet high, was approaching completion. Unfortunately, the
work had been executed by a lay-brother, a stone mason, without
professional supervision. He was ignorant of the necessity of taking
special precautions when preparing the seat for the dam. Although
he had a bed of volcanic tuff to build upon he would not go to the
trouble to cut into and stop all faults and crevices in the rock
before laying his first course of masonry, and he hurried on the job
to save expense as he supposed. For the same reason he did not attempt
to follow the correct profile of the dam. When the pressure came on,
the water spouted up in little fountains, and gradually increased as
it cut away the soft stone. I advised them what to do, and after a
good deal of work, Portland cement and puddled clay got them out of
their difficulty.
About four miles to the eastward of San Francisco de Malabon, and
on the same volcanic soil, is the great estate of Imus belonging to
the Recollets, or unshod Augustinians. It is about five miles from
the landing-place at Bacoor. Here again three rivers run through the
property, and the view from the house is the same.
The house itself was a grim fortress and served the rebels well in
1896, for they found arms and ammunition in it, and successfully
defended it against General Aiguirre who had to retire, being unable
to take it without artillery.
In 1897 the army of General Lachambre advanced against Imus, and on
the 24th March took the outer defences of the town, notwithstanding
the determined resistance of the Tagals, of whom three hundred were
killed in a hand-to-hand combat. Next day the estate house, which
adjoins the town and had been for six months the stronghold of the
Katipunan, was bombarded and burnt, only the ruins remain.
There are extensive works of irrigation at this place also, and
formerly a large sugar works was built here by the owners, but it
failed, as there was no one fit to take charge of it.
I have not visited this Hacienda, and cannot give its extent or value.
Of all the Orders the greatest land-owners are the Dominicans. They
have vast estates in Calamba, Cabuyao, Santa Rosa, Binan, and San Pedro
Tunasan, all on the Lake of Bay, also at Naic and Santa Cruz on the
Bay of Manila. I have several times visited their estates at the first
two places, and can affirm that they have expended considerable sums
in building dams for irrigating the lands, and I supplied them with
some very large cast-iron pipes for the purpose of making a syphon
across a ravine or narrow valley to convey water for irrigating the
opposite plain. They have consequently very largely increased the
value of these lands.
The house at Calamba, solidly built of stone, with a strong and high
encircling wall, served as a fortified camp and headquarters for the
Spanish army in operation against the rebels in 1897.
This estate of Calamba has earned a sad notoriety in the Philippines,
for the disputes which constantly arose between the administration
and their tenants.
It is hardly too much to say that the possession of estates has been
fatal to the Orders. They claim to have always been good and indulgent
landlords, but the fact remains that all these estates are in Tagal
territory, that only the Tagals revolted, and that the revolt was
directed against the Orders because of their tyranny and extortions,
and because they were landlords and rack renters.
It was, is now, and ever will be an Agrarian question that will
continue to give trouble and be the cause of crime and outrage until
settled in a broad-minded and statesman-like manner.
These estates have been a bone of contention for centuries, and
were a principal cause of the last revolt of the Tagals. Yet the
Peace Commission at Paris appears to have given the three Orders
a new title to their disputed possessions by guaranteeing to the
Church the enjoyment of its property, which, if the Spaniards had
continued to rule the islands, must ultimately have been taken from
it in the natural course of events, as has happened in every other
Catholic country.
I have no doubt that the pacification of the Philippines by the
American forces has been greatly retarded, and is now rendered
more difficult, by this clause, which must have been accepted by the
American commissioners under a misapprehension of its import, and from
imperfect information as to the status quo. This difficult matter can
still be arranged, but it will require the outlay of a considerable
sum of money, which, however, would eventually be recouped.
In present circumstances I venture to say that a garrison would be
needed at each estate to protect an administrator or collector, for the
Tagal tenants are as averse to paying rent for land as any bog-trotter
in Tipperary. I do not envy anybody who purchases these estates, nor
would I consider the life of such a one a good risk for an insurance
company, if he intended to press the tenants for rents or arrears.
To sum up the Religious Orders, they were hardy and adventurous
pioneers of Christianity, and in the evangelisation of the Philippines,
by persuasion and teaching, they did more for Christianity and
civilisation than any other missionaries of modern times.
Of undaunted courage they have ever been to the front when calamities
threatened their flocks; they have witnessed and recorded some of the
most dreadful convulsions of nature, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes,
and destructive typhoons. In epidemics of plague and cholera they
have not been dismayed, nor have they ever in such cases abandoned
their flocks.
When an enemy has attacked the islands they have been the first to
face the shot. Only fervent faith could enable these men to endure
the hardships, and overcome the dangers that encompassed them.
They have done much for education, having founded schools for both
sexes, training colleges for teachers, the university of St. Thomas
in Manila, and other institutions.
Hospitals and asylums attest their charity. They were formerly,
and even lately, the protectors of the poor against the rich, and of
the native against the Spaniard. They have consistently resisted the
enslavement of the natives.
They restrained the constant inclination of the natives to wander
away into the woods and return to primitive savagery by keeping them
in the towns, or, as they said, "Under the bells."
On the other hand, peace and plenty (those blessings for which we
pray), have corrupted and demoralised the Orders. No longer liable at
any moment to be called upon to fight for their lives, the sterner
virtues have decayed. Increased production and export enriched the
people, a gold coinage was introduced, and the friars allowed avarice
to possess their souls.
In those lands of perpetual summer no death duties have to be paid
to a Chancellor of the Exchequer, as in this island of fog and mist.
But the friars have a system of charges for performing the funeral
ceremonies, which comes to much the same in the end. I call it a
system; it is a very simple system, and consists in extorting as
much as they can get, taking into consideration the wealth of the
family. To give an instance, I have been assured by a son of Capitan
Natalio Lopez, of Balayan, a native gentleman well known to me,
that the parish priest charged the family six hundred dollars for
performing their father's funeral ceremony. The same rule applies to
baptisms and marriages, and this abuse calls for redress, and for the
establishment of fixed fees according to the position of the parties.
Each friar, as a parish priest, was an outpost of the central
government, watching for symptoms of revolt. Only thus could the
Spaniards hold the archipelago with fifteen hundred Peninsular troops,
and a small squadron of warships.
The greatest, and the best-founded, complaint of the natives against
the priests, was that whoever displeased them, either in personal
or money matters, was liable to be denounced to the authorities as
a filibuster, and to be torn from home and family and deported to
some distant and probably unhealthy spot, there to reside, at his own
cost, for an indefinite time, by arbitrary authority, without process
of law. Such a punishment, euphoniously termed "forced residence,"
sometimes involved the death of the exile, and always caused heavy
expense, as a pardon could not be obtained without bribing some one.
Ysabelo de los Reyes, and other natives, accuse the friars of extorting
evidence from suspected persons by torture. I fear there can be no
doubt that many victims, including a number of the native clerics,
suffered flagellation and other tortures at the hands of the friars
for the above purpose. The convents of Nueva-Caceres and of Vigan,
amongst other places, were the scenes of these abominable practices,
and Augustinians, Dominicans and Franciscans, have taken part in
them. This is referred to at greater length in another part of this
work under the heading, "The Insurrection of 1896."
Individual friars were sometimes, nay, often, very worthy parish
priests. I have known many such. But a community is often worse
than the individuals of which it is composed. One might say with
the Italian musician who had served for many years in a cathedral,
and had obtained the promise of every individual canon to support
his application for a pension, when he was told that the chapter had
unanimously refused his request:
"The canons are good, but the chapter is bad."
A board will jointly do a meaner action than the shadiest director
amongst them, and should it comprise one or two members of obtrusive
piety, that circumstance enables it to disregard the ordinary standard
of right and wrong with more assurance.
There is a law in metallurgy which has a curious analogy to this law
of human nature. It is this: An alloy composed of several metals of
different melting-points, will fuse at a lower temperature than that
of its lowest fusing constituent.
The Orders, then, have been of the greatest service in the past; they
have brought the Philippines and their inhabitants to a certain pitch
of civilisation, and credit is due to them for this much, even if
they could go no farther. For years their influence over the natives
has been decreasing, and year by year the natives have become more
and more antagonistic to priestly rule.
A considerable intellectual development has taken place of late years
in the Philippines. The natives are no longer content to continue
upon the old lines; they aspire to a freer life. Many even harbour
a sentiment of nationality such as was never thought of before.
But if the Orders had lost ground with the natives and with many
Spaniards, their influence still preponderated. Owners of vast estates,
possessors of fabulous riches, armed with spiritual authority, knowing
the secrets of every family, holding the venal courts of justice as in
the hollow of their hand, dominating the local government, standing
above the law, and purchasing the downfall of their enemies from the
corrupt ministries in Madrid, these giant trusts, jealous of each
other, yet standing firmly shoulder to shoulder in the common cause,
constitute a barrier to progress that can have no place nor use under
an American Protectorate. They are an anachronism in the twentieth
century, and they must disappear as corporations from the Philippines.
They should not, however, be buried under an avalanche of contumely
and slander; their long and glorious past should be remembered, and in
winding up their estates due regard should be paid to the interests
of every member. I cannot here intimate how this is to be done, for
it is an intricate subject, rendered more complex by the reluctance
of the American Government to interfere in religious matters, even
though they are so bound up with the politics of the Philippines that
no pacification can be effected without following popular sentiment
upon this point.
So far as the landed estates are concerned, the settlement could
be arrived at by a commission with ample powers. In the meantime,
no sale of these estates should be recognised.
The benefices held by the friars should be gradually bestowed upon
the secular clergy, as suitable men can be found. The native clergy
have always been badly used by the friars; they have had to suffer
abuse and ignominious treatment. They have not been in a position to
develop their dignity and self-respect.
I have spoken of them in general as leaving something to be desired
as to decorous conduct, but they will doubtless improve when placed
in positions of consideration and responsibility.
Amongst them are men of considerable learning; some have passed
brilliant examinations in theology and canon law.
As regards piety, Malays, whether heathen, Mahometan or Christian,
take their religion lightly, and we must not expect too much. I
daresay they are pious enough for the country and the climate.