FILIPINO FARMERS
Jose Rizal
We
applaud the efforts of the minister of colonies to foster agriculture in the
Philippines. Proofs of these are the boards, commissions, and committees and
numerous projects. We suggest, however, that the farmer be consulted also, the
one in direct contact with the land, who makes the land productive with his
capital and labor and puts into practice the measures that science and
experience suggest.
And
not only must he not forgotten but neither must his hands are tied, disabling
them for work, as it happens, unfortunately. It is not enough to issue royal
decrees and timely measures; they must be enforced and enforced expediently.
The
Filipino farmer has to struggle not only with plagues and public calamities but
also with petty tyrants and robbers. Against the first, defense indeed is
permitted; against the latter, not always. We shall explain.
After
the floods, locusts, fires, bad harvests, and the like, the farmer capitalist
has to deal with the constable who takes away from him his laborers for
personal service, some public works, repair of roads, bridges, and others; with
the civil guard who arrests them for various reasons, sometimes for not
carrying with them their personal cedulas (certificates), for not
saluting properly, for being suspicious persons or for no reason
whatsoever, and they menacle them to clean the barracks and thus compel the
capitalist to live on better terms with the chief and, if not, they take away
his carabaos, oxen, in spite of many protests, returning them later however, as
these acts of violence are almost always unjustified and not within the
competence of the civil guard. The work is usually delayed three or four days
only but at times it is delayed weeks, the animal is lost or dies; and this
happens when the civil guard, going beyond its jurisdiction or province,
commits these plunders in another province and then returns to its own; hence
the question of competency; the coming and going, etc., etc., etc.
At
times, it is not the constable or the civil guard who opposes so indirectly the
minister of colonies. An official of the court or of the provincial government,
dissatisfied with the farmer, urgently summons this or that laborer, if not two
or three. The unfortunate man undertakes a trip of two or three days, uneasy
and distrustful, spends his savings, arrives, presents himself, waits, returns,
returns the next day and waits, finally to be asked with a frown and the look
of a judge, abstruse and unknown things. He is lucky if he comes out free from
this questioning, for not infrequently after it, he is sent to jail from which
he comes out later as stupid as before and all are as Christian as ever.
Sometimes,
rare fortunately, a compania volante (flying squad) sweeps the province.
Woe to those who have enemies! It is enough to be in the list of suspects for
the head of the squad to pick him up and take him to another place without
trial or filing of a complaint. Goodbye farm and goodbye everything! See if
after this he will be encouraged to plant in other islands.
But
if the capitalist knows how to grease and through offerings to appease the gods
and render them favorable, he has already accomplished much. But still there
remain other deities, the tulisanes or bandits.
The
tulisan is a terrible enemy of those whose farms are far from the towns.
One cannot win his favor by giving him gifts or bribing him, as some do
secretly, because he would fall into the opposite abyss and would be accused of
being an accomplice of malefactors, which is equivalent to being tortured and
later exiled. The best remedy against this plague that the government cannot
destroy is to arm oneself and expose oneself to a daily and dangerous combat.
Well
now; for the peaceful tax-payer to use firearms and to be able to defend
himself, he needs the good report of the people, the civil guard, and the
parish priest, to petition the government in Manila, to have patience, to wait
because the petition is not always acted upon except after the end of several
months if someone follows it up or if he has a friend of the employee in charge
of issuing licenses.
All
this is very good. What is not so good is that despite the good reports,
despite the peace in the province, the abundance of bandits, the good conduct
of the farmer tax-payer, and the danger to which he and his farms are exposed,
they deny him not only the use of the firearm, or the renewal of the license
but also they confiscate the firearm, which he bought at a fabulous price
sometimes, only to be left to rot, to become oxidized, in a corner of the
barracks or the townhall, useless to all, except to the bandits, who in this
way are the most favored.
This
is the case of a citizen of the province of La Laguna; owner of extensive lands
planted to sugar cane, coffee, and abaca located far from the town. That
province has been for almost three centuries not only to loyal Spain but
"superloyal", one Indio in that province, Captain Francisco de San
Juan, having declared war in the name of Spain against the English in 1762 when
even the government was submitting to the invader, succeeding with his energy
to save the money that the authorities wanted to deliver to the enemy within
bounds. This made me say to a Spanish writer that that Indio was half a century
ahead of the Mayor of Mostoles. However, La Laguna is one of the most
agricultural provinces, most liable to natural and human calamities, this
citizen is denied the renewal of his license, and in spite of all the good
reports, they confiscated his firearm. For this reason he had to abandon his
farms, losing his abaca crops, for he could not venture out unarmed and he was
sure that the authorities who left him thus could neither defend him nor ransom
him from the bandits.
We
are convinced that the minister of colonies and the good Spaniards who love the
prestige of Spain and have affection for those Islands do not know these
details. We, who can cite names, towns, dates, witnesses, and attest other
incidents through our own experience or as eye-witnesses, are content to cite
this case and we say: Je passe et des meilleurs.
It
would be desirable to correct this, Mr. Minister of Colonies, lest some
mischievous men say that the government there being impotent might come to an understanding
with the bandits and deliver to them the unarmed inhabitant, that it wants the
lands to be cultivated with speeches, projects, and boards and for this reason
it binds the hands of the farmer and puts a thousand obstacles on his path, so
that he may plant according to the new system. Agriculture is not improved only
in that way. It is necessary to aid those who practice it. Those who from their
comfortable chairs think otherwise and see the inefficacy of the royal decrees
throw the blame for this backwardness to the indolence of the Indio. They do
not know with what obstacles he has to contend and they ignore that for a
machine to run well, it is enough that it be built according to principles but
also that it be perfect in its details, that everything be leveled, and that no
part get out of its proper place.
These
abuses, that for being unutterably bad become ridiculous, ruin the country and
impair the prestige of the government. This system of prevention, of unfounded
fears, of unjust suspicions, not only irritates and awakens men but exposes the
weakness of the government: Much fear reveals much weakness. This, added to the
inability to stop banditry, makes an evil-minded person say that the government
is only hard on peaceful and respectable citizens while it fondles or lets
alone the rebellious and criminal. This is the usual reproach of independent
Indios on Christianized Indios.
This
behavior of the government there hurts the real interests of Spain and through
this way of making discontented men; the government appears as the foremost filibustero.
And as we believe that one cannot serve a country better than to tell her
the truth, we say this to the Mother Country so that she can apply timely
remedy. Hence, we ask for representation in the Cortes and freedom of the press
in Manila in order to expose abuses to public opinion. Injustices there do not
always find a writer who may relate them, nor every article a generous
newspaper that will accept it for its columns; and even if it were not so,
through the present road, the remedy always arrives late, if the abuse is
remedied at all.
We
shall conclude by proposing to the minister a reform concerning the granting of
licenses for the use of firearms.
Inasmuch
as they are not granted without the report of the people, of the chief of the
civil guard (European), and of the parish priest (almost always European),
instead of being issued in Manila, they should issued by the court of every
town, after previous consultation or secret voting of the judge, of the officer
of the civil guard (European), and of the parish priest (almost always
European). It should not be granted without unanimity. In this way, it is
simplified and the business is shortened, and the time is better employed.
There are no other inconveniences but these two: There would be some more
unemployed men and hidden enmities could not be satisfied with revenge and
secret reports, but on the other hand, the treasury and mankind would be the
gainer – the treasury with less employees and mankind with more loyal men and
less traitors.