The Philippines a Century Hence
said that the Filipinos are indolent and peaceful--then what need the
government fear? Hasn't it any influence in the elections? Frankly,
it is a great compliment to the separatists to fear them in the midst
of the Cortes of the nation.
If they become political trimmers, as is to be expected and as they
probably will be, so much the better for the government and so much
the worse for their constituents. They would be a few more favorable
votes, and the government could laugh openly at the separatists,
if any there be.
If they become what they should be, worthy, honest and faithful to
their trust, they will undoubtedly annoy an ignorant or incapable
minister with their questions, but they will help him to govern and
will be some more honorable figures among the representatives of
the nation.
Now then, if the real objection to the Filipino delegates is that they
smell like Igorots, which so disturbed in open Senate the doughty
General Salamanca, then Don Sinibaldo de Mas, who saw the Igorots
in person and wanted to live with them, can affirm that they will
smell at worst like powder, and Senor Salamanca undoubtedly has no
fear of that odor. And if this were all, the Filipinos, who there in
their own country are accustomed to bathe every day, when they become
representatives may give up such a dirty custom, at least during the
legislative session, so as not to offend the delicate nostrils of
the Salamancas with the odor of the bath.
It is useless to answer certain objections of some fine writers
regarding the rather brown skins and faces with somewhat wide
nostrils. Questions of taste are peculiar to each race. China, for
example, which has four hundred million inhabitants and a very ancient
civilization, considers all Europeans ugly and calls them "fan-kwai,"
or red devils. Its taste has a hundred million more adherents than
the European. Moreover, if this is the question, we would have to
admit the inferiority of the Latins, especially the Spaniards, to
the Saxons, who are much whiter.
And so long as it is not asserted that the Spanish parliament
is an assemblage of Adonises, Antinouses, pretty boys, and other
like paragons; so long as the purpose of resorting thither is to
legislate and not to philosophize or to wander through imaginary
spheres, we maintain that the government ought not to pause at these
objections. Law has no skin, nor reason nostrils.
So we see no serious reason why the Philippines may not have
representatives. By their institution many malcontents would be
silenced, and instead of blaming its troubles upon the government,
as now happens, the country would bear them better, for it could at
least complain and with its sons among its legislators would in a
way become responsible for their actions.
We are not sure that we serve the true interests of our country by
asking for representatives. We know that the lack of enlightenment, the
indolence, the egotism of our fellow countrymen, and the boldness,
the cunning and the powerful methods of those who wish their
obscurantism, may convert reform into a harmful instrument. But
we wish to be loyal to the government and we are pointing out to
it the road that appears best to us so that its efforts may not
come to grief, so that discontent may disappear. If after so just,
as well as necessary, a measure has been introduced, the Filipino
people are so stupid and weak that they are treacherous to their
own interests, then let the responsibility fall upon them, let them
suffer all the consequences. Every country gets the fate it deserves,
and the government can say that it has done its duty.
These are the two fundamental reforms, which, properly interpreted
and applied, will dissipate all clouds, assure affection toward Spain,
and make all succeeding reforms fruitful. These are the reforms sine
quibus non.
It is puerile to fear that independence may come through them. The free
press will keep the government in touch with public opinion, and the
representatives, if they are, as they ought to be, the best from among
the sons of the Philippines, will be their hostages. With no cause
for discontent, how then attempt to stir up the masses of the people?
Likewise inadmissible is the objection offered by some regarding the
imperfect culture of the majority of the inhabitants. Aside from the
fact that it is not so imperfect as is averred, there is no plausible
reason why the ignorant and the defective (whether through their own
or another's fault) should be denied representation to look after
them and see that they are not abused. They are the very ones who
most need it. No one ceases to be a man, no one forfeits his rights
to civilization merely by being more or less uncultured, and since
the Filipino is regarded as a fit citizen when he is asked to pay
taxes or shed his blood to defend the fatherland, why must this
fitness be denied him when the question arises of granting him some
right? Moreover, how is he to be held responsible for his ignorance,
when it is acknowledged by all, friends and enemies, that his zeal for
learning is so great that even before the coming of the Spaniards every
one could read and write, and that we now see the humblest families
make enormous sacrifices in order that their children may become a
little enlightened, even to the extent of working as servants in order
to learn Spanish? How can the country be expected to become enlightened
under present conditions when we see all the decrees issued by the
government in favor of education meet with Pedro Rezios who prevent
execution thereof, because they have in their hands what they call
education? If the Filipino, then, is sufficiently intelligent to pay
taxes, he must also be able to choose and retain the one who looks
after him and his interests, with the product whereof he serves the
government of his nation. To reason otherwise is to reason stupidly.
When the laws and the acts of officials are kept under surveillance,
the word justice may cease to be a colonial jest. The thing that makes
the English most respected in their possessions is their strict and
speedy justice, so that the inhabitants repose entire confidence in
the judges. Justice is the foremost virtue of the civilizing races. It
subdues the barbarous nations, while injustice arouses the weakest.
Offices and trusts should be awarded by competition, publishing the
work and the judgment thereon, so that there may be stimulus and
that discontent may not be bred. Then, if the native does not shake
off his indolence he can not complain when he sees all the offices
filled by Castilas.
We presume that it will not be the Spaniard who fears to enter into
this contest, for thus will he be able to prove his superiority by
the superiority of intelligence. Although this is not the custom in
the sovereign country, it should be practiced in the colonies, for
the reason that genuine prestige should be sought by means of moral
qualities, because the colonizers ought to be, or at least to seem,
upright, honest and intelligent, just as a man simulates virtues
when he deals with strangers. The offices and trusts so earned will
do away with arbitrary dismissal and develop employees and officials
capable and cognizant of their duties. The offices held by natives,
instead of endangering the Spanish domination, will merely serve
to assure it, for what interest would they have in converting the
sure and stable into the uncertain and problematical? The native
is, moreover, very fond of peace and prefers an humble present to
a brilliant future. Let the various Filipinos still holding office
speak in this matter; they are the most unshaken conservatives.
We could add other minor reforms touching commerce, agriculture,
security of the individual and of property, education, and so on,
but these are points with which we shall deal in other articles. For
the present we are satisfied with the outlines, and no one can say
that we ask too much.
There will not be lacking critics to accuse us of Utopianism:
but what is Utopia? Utopia was a country imagined by Thomas Moore,
wherein existed universal suffrage, religious toleration, almost
complete abolition of the death penalty, and so on. When the book was
published these things were looked upon as dreams, impossibilities,
that is, Utopianism. Yet civilization has left the country of Utopia
far behind, the human will and conscience have worked greater miracles,
have abolished slavery and the death penalty for adultery--things
impossible for even Utopia itself!
The French colonies have their representatives. The question has also
been raised in the English parliament of giving representation to
the Crown colonies, for the others already enjoy some autonomy. The
press there also is free. Only Spain, which in the sixteenth century
was the model nation in civilization, lags far behind. Cuba and
Porto Rico, whose inhabitants do not number a third of those of
the Philippines, and who have not made such sacrifices for Spain,
have numerous representatives. The Philippines in the early days
had theirs, who conferred with the King and the Pope on the needs
of the country. They had them in Spain's critical moments, when she
groaned under the Napoleonic yoke, and they did not take advantage of
the sovereign country's misfortune like other colonies, but tightened
more firmly the bonds that united them to the nation, giving proofs of
their loyalty; and they continued until many years later. What crime
have the Islands committed that they are deprived of their rights?
To recapitulate: the Philippines will remain Spanish, if they
enter upon the life of law and civilization, if the rights of their
inhabitants are respected, if the other rights due them are granted,
if the liberal policy of the government is carried out without trickery
or meanness, without subterfuges or false interpretations.
Otherwise, if an attempt is made to see in the Islands a lode to
be exploited, a resource to satisfy ambitions, thus to relieve the
sovereign country of taxes, killing the goose that lays the golden
eggs and shutting its ears to all cries of reason, then, however
great may be the loyalty of the Filipinos, it will be impossible to
hinder the operations of the inexorable laws of history. Colonies
established to subserve the policy and the commerce of the sovereign
country, all eventually become independent, said Bachelet, and before
Bachelet all the Phoenecian, Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, English,
Portuguese and Spanish colonies had said it.
Close indeed are the bonds that unite us to Spain. Two peoples
do not live for three centuries in continual contact, sharing the
same lot, shedding their blood on the same fields, holding the same
beliefs, worshipping the same God, interchanging the same ideas,
but that ties are formed between them stronger than those fashioned
by arms or fear. Mutual sacrifices and benefits have engendered
affection. Machiavelli, the great reader of the human heart, said:
la natura degli huomini, e cosi obligarsi per li beneficii che essi
fanno, come per quelli che essi ricevono (it is human nature to be
bound as much by benefits conferred as by those received). All this,
and more, is true, but it is pure sentimentality, and in the arena
of politics stern necessity and interests prevail. Howsoever much
the Filipinos owe Spain, they can not be required to forego their
redemption, to have their liberal and enlightened sons wander about
in exile from their native land, the rudest aspirations stifled in
its atmosphere, the peaceful inhabitant living in constant alarm,
with the fortune of the two peoples dependent upon the whim of one
man. Spain can not claim, not even in the name of God himself, that