Perry Diaz
When Ferdinand Magellan
arrived in the island of Homonhon in Samar on the feast day of Saint Lazarus of
Bethany in 1521, he named the group of islands Las Islas de San
Lazaro in honor of Saint Lazarus. Twenty-two years later in
1543, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos reached the same islands and named them Las
Islas Felipinas in honor of the Prince of Asturias, the then Philip II of
Spain.
But Spanish colonization
didn’t start until 1565 when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi became the first Governor
General of the Spanish East Indies, which included Las Islas
Felipinas (The Philippine Islands) and other Pacific
islands. In 1571, Legazpi named Manila the capital of the Spanish
East Indies.
To populate the
Philippine Islands with Hispanic people, he attracted them from Nueva Espana
(New Spain), which is now Mexico, by giving them land
ownership. Most of them came without families. Needless
to say, these single men intermarried with native women.
In my article, “The
Landed and the Landless” (October 21, 2005), I wrote: “Land
ownership, the Filipinos’ ultimate dream, has been the exclusive domain of the
rich. Truly, ‘land ownership’ separates the rich from the poor — the landed
from landless.
“Land ownership for the
rich has its beginning when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, upon colonizing the
Philippines, instituted the Encomienda system. He divided the archipelago into
large parcels and assigned each parcel to a favored Spaniard for administration
and care. Encomienda, which means ‘to entrust,’ was adopted in Spain to reduce
the abuses of forced labor. It was implemented in Spanish America and the
Philippines to take care of the economic and spiritual welfare of the natives.
However, its benevolent purpose was circumvented and abused by the Spanish
grantees — the ‘encomenderos.’ They collected tribute from the
natives. Pretty soon the tribute became rents to powerful landlords and the
natives became share tenants. In the end, the natives became virtual slaves of
the encomenderos. In 1674, the Spanish Crown abolished the Encomienda system in
all of its colonies. However, for more than 100 years after its abolition, it
remained in effect in the Philippines.
“The Encomienda system
evolved into the Hacienda system. Land grants were given to the ‘hacenderos’ –
‘Filipinos’ (pure Spanish), ‘mestizos’ (mixed Spanish and native ‘indio’), and
the favored families (the ‘indio’ elite). The hacenderos expanded their
influence in all sectors of the economy. They became the political masters,
second only to the Spanish masters.
“When Spain ceded the
Philippines to the United States at the Treaty of Paris in 1898, the Americans
were precluded from touching the Friar lands because the treaty bound the US to
protect the land owned by religious orders. When Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo
established the first republic in 1899, he promised to confiscate large estates
particularly the Friar lands. But that did not materialize because he spent his
time fighting the Americans until he was captured and forced to pledge
allegiance to the new masters.
“During the commonwealth
period under American colonial rule, the Rural Program Administration, created
in March 1939, provided for the purchase and lease of haciendas and their sale
and lease to tenants. However, the tenants were so poor, they simply could not
buy the land they were farming.
“When the Philippines
gained its independence from the United States in 1946, the hacenderos had
complete control of the economy. They also became the political masters of the
new republic. They constituted the new aristocracy and the oligarchy, all
bundled into an exclusive class.
“The new Philippine
government grappled with the problems of land ownership. Numerous agrarian
reforms were instituted. During the presidency of Ramon Magsaysay, former HUK
dissidents and landless farmers were resettled and given land ownership. His
untimely death stopped the program.”
Communist insurgency
Today, Philippine
society is still divided between the landed and the landless. Large
segments of the rural population are still poor and landless. They
work for the landed – the hacenderos. But many of them look up to
the insurgents for deliverance.
It did not then come as
a surprise that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its military
wing, the New Peoples’ Army (NPA) thrive because of their toehold in the rural
areas where dissidence is common and unemployment high. They have
been successful in attracting young men and women into the ranks of insurgents
that have been at war with the government since the Philippines gained
independence in 1946. In fact, they’re the only communist insurgency
that exists in the world today.
Recently, President
Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order No. 70, which ordered the creation of a
national task force that would seek to “end local communist armed
conflict.” The EO reads, “There is a need to create a national task
force that will provide an efficient mechanism and structure for the
implementation of the whole-of-nation approach to aid in the realization of the
collective aspiration of the Filipino people to attain inclusive and
sustainable peace. Towards this end, the Government shall prioritize
and harmonize the delivery of basic services and social development packages in
conflict-affected areas and -vulnerable communities, facilitate societal
inclusivity, and ensure active participation of all sectors of society in the
pursuit of the country’s peace agenda.” The President shall chair the task
force, while the National Security Adviser shall serve as vice-chair.
While it’s commendable
that Duterte has finally focused on ending the communist insurgency that has
been taking a high toll on the social and economic agenda of the government,
this author believes that there is one element missing in this
“whole-of-nation” approach to achieve peace and prosperity.
Social Justice
It’s interesting to note
that what made the then Secretary of Defense Magsaysay successful in breaking
the back of the Huk communist movement was his “Land for the landless” program,
which by the way, was “borrowed” from the Huks’ own slogan, “Land for the
Landless.” For each insurgent who surrendered his weapon, the
government gave him a carabao, a plow, and several hectares of arable land in
Mindanao. Within two years, the communist insurgency was
defeated. The anti-Huk campaign propelled Magsaysay to national
fame. In 1953 he ran for president against his former boss,
President Elpidio Quirino, and won with the support of 68.9% of the voters.
The social problem that
Legazpi imposed on the “indios” in 1571 still exists today -- two classes of
people – the landed and the landless, the rich and the poor. The
Philippines is still a rural and agricultural society. And this
situation provides a climate for dissatisfaction and resentment against the
ruling elite. And that’s the reason why the country is still
fighting an insurgency that seeks social justice, which by the way, was
enshrined in the Constitution.
But the old colonialism
is no longer around. It’s the present-day colonialism from within
that hinders our progress. Indeed, the elite today are the
new encomenderos.
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