Welcome
Travelogues
Begin trip
Previous: Indonesia
|
Capital: Manila
|
The archipelago we call the Philippines suffered from European colonialism like most of the world did during four centuries but it had the misfortune of falling in the hands of the Spanish who ruthlessly set about to eradicate the "pagan" beliefs of the various indigenous cultures that had developed there before their arrival. I think that speculation is generally pointless but that
sometimes it can introduce contrast and throw light on factors that have
shaped the reality we wish to understand. In this case:
|
|
| Atlapedia CIA Country Reports Lonely Planet Traveldocs | ||
When the fact-finding mission in Jakarta was done, the team of experts rejoined at the Bank's Manila headquarters to draft reports and recommendations for the loan approval authorities. That took about a week and then I reconverted to a backpacking globetrotter.
I had been in Manila before and found it even more depressing than the last time for I had had the occasion to see at a closer range the great luxury enjoyed by the local elite while the great majority of Filipinos struggle hard to survive.
Here is one of the bastions of the walled city, Intramuros, built by the Spaniards, starting in 1590 with a stone fort at the mouth of the Pasig river. The walls, (13 metres thick, 6 metres high and 3 kms long), enclosed 15 churches, 6 monasteries and a powerful garrison. The original Malay inhabitants mounted more than 100 revolts against the Spanish occupation but they were put down by superior armament and by missionaries who taught them that power was God-given and that it flowed through Rome and the Spanish crown.
I have travelled widely and have seen severe misery in many places. I have learned to take that in my stride but extreme social inequality and flagrant injustice still upset me, especially when the privileged have good conscience and feel no compassion for the downtrodden because they have the blessing of religious authorities. Too often have I observed that faith in the message of hope proclaimed by Christ has produced subservience and dependence on charity instead of advancing the recognition of human rights.
The walls of Intramuros were formidable but more devastating were the brainwashing by the Catholic Church and the assimilation of Spanish absolutist truths and values that destroyed the original "pagan" culture of the first inhabitants so completely that very little is known about it today. A deliberate cultural genocide similar to those that destroyed the Aztec, Maya at Inca civilisations leaving the same pattern of a powerful elite served by submissive "indigenos" pacified by the dream of a better existence in heaven.
Here is the gate of Fort Santiago, where the eradication of the islanders' original cultures was orchestrated. Friars went to war with the soldiers and converted almost everyone to the Catholic religion (by the cross and the sword), with the exception of a Muslim minority entrenched in the South on the island of Mindanao and in the Sulu Archipelago.
The independence movement that liberated Spain's American colonies did not reach the Philippines but the development of commercial agriculture (sugar, coffee and hemp), created a new class of landowners alongside the Church and the original indigenous nobility. There were no public schools until the 1860's, very few could read and education was completely in the hands of the Church. The new merchant class sent their children to be educated in Europe where they discovered liberal ideas that led José Rizal to form the Liga Filipina seeking reforms. The Spanish first jailed, then executed him in 1896. That gave the signal for the revolt of the Katipunan Association who wanted independence. They were defeated but the Spanish-American war broke out in 1998 and the Spanish were replaced by the Americans like in Cuba and Puerto Rico.
The new American masters took over, mouthing principles of democracy and human rights but changing very little in practice. The concept of "the rule of the people for the people" was foreign to the local elite for whom the privileges they enjoyed were part of a natural order of things sanctioned by the Church. It was also foreign to most of the people who had been taught that acceptance of their subservience would open the gates of heaven. Some rebelled but their guerillas were condemned by the Church and failed.
The Americans ruled through a Governor General until 1935 when a large measure of autonomy was granted, leaving only defence and foreign affairs in the hands of the US. Spanish was replaced by English as the language of the Aleuts and the Filipinos learned it diligently from the several hundred teachers sent to bring them the benefits of American civilisation. In fact, cultural alienation, already advanced, increased as English words joined the bevy of Spanish ones that had become part of the local languages. Today's national language, Pilipino, is a quarter English, a quarter Spanish and only half Tagalog, a Luzon idiom derived from the original Malay. I cannot avoid feeling sad about the loss of identity caused by this cultural degradation when I listen to Pilipino on TV or the radio.
The Philippines finally became independent in 1947 after four centuries of occupation by the Spaniards, the Americans and the Japanese who had badly ravaged the archipelago. It was finally the turn of local masters to exercise the privileges they had seen foreigners enjoy. And they did it with a vengeance culminating in the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda who bled the country dry to feed their innumerable bank accounts abroad. The levels of corruption reached during the Marcos regime are said to have subsided... a little. The Philippines' score on the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International was still only 3.6 in 1999 having moved up from 2.8 in 1995.
Workers have little hope of bettering their lot in the Philippines. Only 3.5% of them are unionised and most of the remainder have no direct relationship with their real employers for they contract with hiring agencies that rent them out to satisfy their client's fluctuating demand for labor. With that system, when workers are on the verge of organising a union, the contracting agency can close shop without loosing much for it holds no real capital investments. Then, the real employers who still need labour can rent it from another agency, or from the same people under another name. It's all quite legal and the ruling elite does not seem inclined to change the system.
I don't know how you feel about all this but I find it profoundly depressing. It makes me sick!
