Lesson 2.

2: Indigenous Peoples under Colonial Rule

Lesson Summary

This lesson will focus on the situations of IPs during the colonial period.
Specifically, during the Spanish and American rule because these were the
times when the Philippines experienced massive changes.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
- Trace the lives of the IPs during the Spanish and American occupation
- Compare the IPs’ cultural system before and during the colonial period
- Explain how colonization impacted the lives of the remaining indigenous
cultural communities

Motivation Question
What do you think happened to the natives when the Spaniards came? What
do you think were the impacts of the 333 years of Spanish rule, followed by
other colonizers, to the lives of the natives?

DISCUSSION

2.2.1: The Indigenous People Under Spanish Occupation

This discussion will tackle the colonial period, focusing on Spanish and
American colonization. It will only involve the different forms of discrimination,
abuses of the colonizers, and some changes in the existing practices of the
natives.

One semester is not enough to tackle this topic, so we will focus on the
significant points in the lives of the contemporary Indigenous peoples. Those
that significantly affected their well-being from the past until the present. What
I am referring to are politics and economics. Yet, these things are quite broad,
we will try to narrow and simplify things because you need to connect this
chapter to the rest of the lessons that we will be tackling for the rest of the
semester.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Cebu was already a bustling

economic hub, trading mostly with Chinese merchants. Spaniards came and
were welcomed on Cebu's shore, which led to the subjugation of the island
and its neighboring islands. Then eventually, the colonizers moved to the
island of Luzon.
 Figure 6. Colon St. during the Spanish period

Bear in mind that pre-historic societies or communities exist

independently. That means, there was no sense of national solidarity until
they realized that they shared the same sentiments against the colonizers.
That was already after more than 200 years under Spanish rule. There was
no national government, pre-historic societies exist independently and with a
certain degree of interaction with other groups through trading and even war.
So, when the Spaniards came, they put up a centralized government.

During the early years, the Spanish regime, respected and uphold the
customary laws of the first Filipinos in terms of slavery, successions,
inheritances and wills, and business transactions. To better practice authority
and control, they divided the provinces into alcaldias governed by officials
called alcaldes mayores and corregimiento's governed by corregidors. These
are provincial executives, and they were responsible for administering justice
in their respective districts. The provinces were then divided into towns or
municipalities. The Spaniards adopted the existing communities, but they
organized a group of barangays, and the most potent and
influential dato, or rajah became the leader. The leader still enjoyed the same
privileges; they were even recognized and respected. This time, they already
had administrative duties and responsibilities in the town's government, like
collecting the tribute and assigning men for the polos y servicios (personal
services to the state). But higher in rank in each town is a
Spanish gobernadorcillo (petty governor). He will coordinate with the leader,
especially with regard to the tribute and the polos y servicios. All these
adaptations eventually changed in the latter part of the subjugation process.

Another essential thing to consider at this juncture is that pre-historic

societies did not recognize private property. Instead, lands and other
properties were commonly owned (communal), no social classes, productions
were geared to satisfy immediate needs, and these were self-sufficient
societies (they provide for their own needs) and many more. But colonization
converted all these into exploitative institutions that were geared towards
exchange and profit. The means of production became centralized, former
communal lands were transformed into private property, acceleration of social
classes, and other practices like debt peonage and sharecropping were also
institutionalized. These changes, among others, eventually caused struggles
among the natives.

The most prominent of all these struggle-causing changes is

the encomienda system. Technically speaking, the said system was a land
grant. But it was not the case in the Philippines, such an administrative unit
was to extract tribute from the natives on the ground that the Spaniards did
not have enough funds. As mentioned earlier, the leader of each town, which
is now called cabezas de barangay, was responsible for forwarding his
respective town's tribute to the encomiendero/gobernadorcillo. According to
Constantino, the encomienda system was generally characterized by greed
and cruelty. The following are the exploitations and abuses experienced by
the natives in the hands of, not just the encomienderos, but including other
tribute collectors like the governadorcillo, aldaldes mayors, and cabezas who
abused their offices:

1. Since the time of Legazpi in the earlier part of Spanish rule, tributes were
the most consistently complained of by the natives:

 Excessive collection. Local officials required the natives to pay more

than the law required. Aside from the encomienda system, natives paid 5
to 6 different taxes. This left them with almost nothing from their produce.
 Tortured and/or imprisonment. The natives did not find the tribute
justifiable; as a result, most of them refused to pay, which the officials
send soldiers to force natives to pay, and those who cannot pay were
tortured or imprisoned. According to Fray Domingo de Salazar in his
report, “If the chief does not give them as much gold as they demand, or
does not pay for as many Indians as they say they are, they crucify the
unfortunate chief…many chiefs died of torture.”
 Forced displacement. Others fled to the mountains because their
houses were looted and burned as punishment.
 Others remain unmarried, and others were forced to kill their children
because they will only add to the burden because of the tribute

2. Forced labor. Men between 16-60 except chieftains and their eldest sons
were required to serve for forty days each year in the labor pool or the so-
called polo y servicio. The conditions under the labor pool are the following:
payment of ¼ real a day plus rice to each polista or pool laborer, laborers
were not supposed to be brought to a distant place nor required to work
during the planting, and harvesting seasons because they need to work in
their farms, private enterprises and public works of a non-military nature were
not to use polo labor and do not use the laborers of voluntary Chinese labor
was available. Unfortunately, all these conditions were violated. This forced
labor resulted in:

 Ruined communities. The absence of men caused a manpower

shortage which meant that fields were abandoned; consequently, many
people died of hunger
 Seldom payment of laborers. Seldom payment of laborers forced
villages to provide them with allowances, especially rice, to help them
survive. But as mentioned, fields were already abandoned, so sending
rice to the polo laborers was quite tricky.

3. Bandala. This was an annual quota assigned to each province, which was
subdivided among the towns. But the bandala meant “virtual confiscation” –
another exploitative device of the colonizers. For the local government to raise
funds, people were compelled to sell their products to the government with a
certain quota. Unfortunately, the government will set the price, which was
usually lower than the value of the products, and worse, the government
seldom pays. On the part of the natives, no matter what the circumstances
that prohibit them from harvesting their products, like rats or droughts, they
still had to buy rice to give it to the government on credit. And this forced
many natives to become indebted to the government, at the same time, the
government kept on accumulating goods.

Also, failure to pay debts and the taxes imposed by the Spaniards will
result in the usurpation of the lands. Unfortunately, these lands were
owned and cultivated by the natives for many years. The Regalian Doctrine
declared all lands in the Philippine archipelago owned by the King of Spain.
This eventually led to the titling of land to settle land disputes in terms of
ownership. Land grabbing was exacerbated when the friars started to
accumulate land with the help of corrupt surveyors and other government
officials. The natives then were declared squatters because they did not have
any legal documents to prove their ownership. Since customarily, they do not
recognize private property, they do not have any proof to show that they own
the land. As you can see, massive land grabbing, which caused
displacements among many IPs nowadays, had its origin during the Spanish
period.

All forms of abuse and exploitation led many natives from different
parts of the country to revolt against the Spaniards. The 333 years under
Spanish rule wrought significant changes in the lives of the natives and their
cultural landscape. This means that the Spaniards change the customs,
religion, practices, and institutions of the natives. The colonizers put up
economic, social, and political institutions that were quite alien to the
native societies. Those who refused to adopt chose to flee to the mountains
and continue living the life they are accustomed to.

The Igorots under Colonial Rule

In the writings of Antonio de Morga (see Zafra 1956), the natives in

Cagayan were in “revolt and rebellion” since the beginning of the pacification.
The colonizers were not able to subdue and penetrate the province's interior,
where the natives, called Ygolotes (Igorots), live. This is not surprising,
considering that the Igorots are headhunters who were capable of resisting
the colonizers. Evidence of the Igorots’ fierce resistance to foreign invaders is
recorded by the late Governor Primo de Rivera who realized the futility of their
actions against the Igorot people:
 “It is certainly humiliating for Spain and her government at home and
abroad to realize that thousands of human beings, some at the very doorway
of the capital, and many others within sight of Christian towns with
government forces and authorities, not only live in pre-Conquest
backwardness but commit crimes even to the extent of collecting tribute from
the Christian towns themselves without receiving any punishment for their
boldness” (ECP).

Figure 7. Igorot photo as a souvenir during the Colonial period.

The famous “Igorot revolt” took place in 1601. In essence, it was a

religious uprising against attempts by Friars to Christianize the Igorot people
of Northern Luzon. During this revolt, Fray Esteban Marin was martyred when
he and some Spanish troops were ambushed by some 3000 Igorot warriors.
The Spaniards were forced to withdraw, unable to conquer the Igorots. There
was also recorded evidence of Igorots attacking Spanish settlements in Luzon.
For example, in 1773, the Igorots burned the church in San Nicolas,
Pangasinan, “in revenge for the loss of their gold which they entrusted to a
local businessman” (ECP, n.d.).

Identity

Another essential thing to remember is that, when the Spaniards came,

pre-historic inhabitants of the Philippines are not called Filipinos; there was
even no country called “The Philippines.” Because of the Spanish occupation,
this archipelago finally had a name, and the people already had an identity.
However, those who were first considered Filipinos are not the natives;
instead, they were the Espaňoles-Filipinos – those Spaniards born in the
Philippines. The term “Filipino” back then had a racial and elitist connotation.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Chinese mestizos and urbanized natives were
already considered as Filipinos. It was through the propaganda work of
the illustrados that the term Filipino finally became a national identification,
which included the entire people of the country.
2.2.2: The Indigenous Peoples under American Occupation
The Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898, ceded the
Philippines to the U.S. In lay man’s terms, sovereignty over the Philippines
had passed from Spain to the United States of America. On January 23, 1899,
the First Philippine Republic was inaugurated with Aguinaldo as the
Republic's first president. One of his first two decrees was to “give Spaniards
and all other foreigners the right to engage in business in the
Philippines.” I want you to note that, as we discuss the American Occupation
in the Philippines, we will focus on its primary objective: to “exploit” our
resources to satisfy the expansionist policy of the U.S.

The opportunists, collaborators, and illustrados, showed their

acceptance of American rule. In the words of T.H.Pardo de Tavera, one of
the illustrados, “After peace is established, all our efforts will be directed
to Americanizing ourselves; to cause knowledge of the English language to be
extended and generalized in the Philippines, so that through its agency the
American spirit may take possession of us, and that we may so adopt its
principles, its political customs, and its peculiar civilization that our redemption
may be complete and radical” (see Constantino, 1975 p.201). Imagine how
these opportunists were aiming to be like the Americans and trusting the
Filipinos' future to the hands of these foreigners because of the notion that
“Filipinos could not be abandoned because they were incapable of self-
government.”

Unfortunately, this “trusting the Americans” resulted in various

struggles among the natives, which eventually led to an uprising. In the first
week of July 1901, Americans established a civil government, two weeks after
they created the Philippine Constabulary. The creation of the latter was
to pacify any forms of resistance against the American occupation. The
policy was to use native force to suppress native opposition. The suppression
campaign resulted in the suffering of so many Filipinos:

1. Death or lengthy prison sentences. It was the Sedition Law, passed by

the Philippine Commission on November 4, 1901, imposed the death penalty
or long prison term on anyone who advocated independence or separation
from the U.S. even by peaceful means. Even those who “utter seditious”
words or speeches, write, publish, or circulate scurrilous libels against the
colonizers were punished with many years of imprisonment and fines.
Eventually, on November 12, 1902, the Brigandage Act was passed. This law
classified guerilla resistance as banditry, which is punishable by death or with
a prison term of not less than twenty years. Because of these laws against
resistance and banditry, prisoners overflowed in the Philippine jails. Many of
these prisoners died of undernourishment, outright starvation, or illnesses due
to these prisons' unfavorable conditions.
2. Different forms of torture: water cure (suspect’s head is raised partially,
gallons of water is poured into the mouth), suspects were “tied up by their
thumbs” or “pulled up to limbs of trees and fires kindled underneath them,”
others were tied and dragged bodily behind galloping horses, some were tied
to trees shot through the legs and left to suffer.
3. Towns and villages were burned; hostility involved the entire population:
men, women, and children were massacred, and their possessions were
looted. Gen. Smith, in Samar, even said, “I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill
and burn: the more you kill and burn, the better you will please me.”
4. Reconcentration camps were established after the passing of the
Reconcentration Act on June 1, 1903. People were kept in the
reconcentration area so they could be watched closely and to prevent them
from helping the guerrillas. The entire population of an accused barangay/s
must move into the zone with all the food supplies they could bring. Properties
found outside the reconcentration area were destroyed and confiscated, any
individual found outside would be arrested and imprisoned if he/she has no
pass or would be shot if he/she attempts to run away. As a result, fields
became unattended. In the reconcentration area, food became scarce, and
diseases were rampant due to overcrowding, inadequate nourishment, and
poor sanitary conditions.

So what is the implication of these? Despite what these American

officers were presented in the U.S., Filipinos welcome the Americans
wholeheartedly, except for the opportunists who got high-ranking positions in
the government, the rest of the Filipinos resisted the colonizers.

Why were these people fighting? Different regions of the country

experienced various struggles, exploitation, and hardship in Americans' hands.
Poverty escalated; many officials were corrupt, imposing new taxes and laws
that people could not understand. All forms of resistance, even those of the
quasi-religious groups who did not have clear political programs, sought
freedom from foreign rule.

The Economic Venture of the U.S.A.

In the first place, why do you think the Americans came? It actually all
boils down to “business.” In May 1898, a geologist from the U.S. Geological
Survey, together with the U.S. Military Expedition to the Philippines, secured
information regarding geological and mineral resources.

The Americans developed import-export trade and invested

principally in extractive industries (mining and logging). For the operations
to be smooth, there was a need to put up roads, railroads, and other public
works. However, funds for these projects were taken from the people -
Filipinos were taxed. In other words, Filipinos shouldered the costs to
facilitate their own exploitation. The development of the Philippine economy is
not intended for the country’s economic growth but to attract American traders
and investors to fatten the U.S. economy. Our country bought imported
manufactured goods from the U.S., and we exported cheaper raw materials.
The colonial policy ensured that our country would remain a producer of raw
materials; hence, we were always at the mercy of the industrialized countries.
Let’s take a look at the reason why the U.S.A. is interested in the Philippines.

Like Spain, the U.S.A. was primarily targeting China for economic
reasons. For its capitalist forces to fully operate in different countries, it needs
to expand. The Philippines' strategic location makes it an excellent gateway
for America to extend its trade and commerce throughout the Far East,
particularly China. When America started occupying our country, American
investors started pressuring to open the Philippines for exploitation. But since
the military government did not have the authority to enact a law governing
property and contracts, on January 2, 1901, the Taft Commission urgently
recommended the passage of the Spooner bill that will authorize the
government to grant the public franchise, to sell public lands and to allow
mining claims. During this time, American miners were already waiting in the
Philippines.

William Howard Taft was the Civil Governor of the Philippines, in 1903
he articulated the slogan “The Philippines for the Filipinos.” This was widely
interpreted by the Filipinos as an endorsement of Philippine independence.
But the objective of Taft was to promote the standard of living of the people by
providing them with American education and developing a consumerism
behavior that is profitable in the market for American products. For the
Americans, it is all about investors and Filipino landowners. Hence, the
following opposed the country's independence: the American investors in the
Philippines, the beneficiaries of the free trade, the manufacturers who
exported to the Philippines, and others who benefited from all these
exploitations.

What do you think happened to the lands acquired by the Friars during
the Spanish period? President Roosevelt sent Taft to Rome to negotiate with
the pope. To make the story short, America finally bought 410 000 acres of
the Friars' estates for some seven million dollars. The act that prescribed the
conditions regarding the sale and lease of the friar estates stated that the
estates will be given to some sixty thousand tenants who worked on the
land. But how is it possible for the tillers to gain back what was taken from
them when the law requires them to present financial security and
the selling price set for the land was also beyond the reach of most tenants?
As a result, wealthy corporations and private individuals were the only ones
able to purchase the estate. And those peasants who fought and died
because they struggled against the exploitation of the friars were left, still
landless.

Also, the land titling perpetuates the struggles of the small farmers, this
has already started during the Spanish period. Under the Regalian
Doctrine, titling alienates the natives from their lands. Landlords were
capable of legalizing their ownership over the lands, which, in most cases,
were usurped through fraudulent surveys and other means. While those poor
and ignorant, the small farmers were prevented from protecting their property
and from acquiring a legal document, the tile. Americans strengthen the
Filipino landed elite:

1. Economically, it was the landholdings of this elite that provided the raw
materials which the Americans required
2. Politically, the landed elite were collaborators of the Americans, and many
of them took positions in the office
 Lastly, Americans established the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes
(BNT) last 1901 to conduct a “special investigation” of the different ethnic
groups living in far-flung places. As consolidated by Banga (n.d.), some of the
impacts of this agency on the natives or those we called Indigenous Peoples
(IPs) are as follows:

1. It intensified and institutionalized the division of the Filipino people,

2. It institutionalized the alleged superiority of the Christianized Filipinos,
3. The category “non-Christian” was associated with the terms savage and
wild. It also perpetuated a feeling of alienation among the Muslims from the
term “Filipino” which was always associated with Christian Filipinos, and
4. It subjugated and objectified national minorities

These impacts are significant in understanding the conditions of the IPs

in the post-colonial period, specifically in the political and economic contexts.

The peasants’ resistance was the result of exploitation. Remember

those pre-Spanish societies called barangays were politically independent of
each other, and they were self-sufficient in food and different needs. All
members of each community had the opportunity to till because lands were
communally owned. During the Spanish period, the natives started to lose
their properties and become tenants or leaseholders subject to the
exploitation and physical abuse of the landlords. And during the American
period, the country’s linkage to world capitalism resulted in the
concentration of production for export, not for immediate consumption, unlike
during the pre-Spanish period. This causes more struggles for the people who
no longer produced their staple food. The land is just one of the many things
that the native Filipinos lost every single occupation of the colonizers; cultural
changes were escalating every decade since foreigners colonized our
country. Unfortunately, such changes, as well as the natives' struggles,
continue until this very day. The post-colonial Indigenous Peoples will be
discussed in the rest of the subject.

I want you to remember this historical process to better understand the

Philippine IPs' conditions in contemporary times. Connect this lesson to each
topic that we are going to tackle for the rest of the semester.