1. Racial Prejudice and Discrimination
Ironically, the Spaniard introduced in the Philippines Christian religion that
supports and upholds sound morals and promote solidarity; teaches
brotherhood of all men and equality of all men regardless of race and color,
but the Spaniards especially those who wielded power and who professed
Catholicism as their religion, regarded the Filipinos as an inferior people
and mockingly called them ′′Indios′′.This racial prejudice against the
Filipinos existed in every place and evidently felt in governmentoffices,
schools and social gatherings. To aggravate the social perceptionand
feeling discrimination, against Filipinos, the Spaniards regarded them to
have low mentality, incapable of acquiring education and only fitted for
menial jobs. But Jose Rizal proved them wrong by surpassing Spanish
writers in literary competitions,by distinguishing himself in the field of
medicine and the physical and natural sciences,aside from being a man of
letters, poet, painter and sculptor.The constant insinuation that the
Filipinos were ′′impossible to expose to curiosity, analytical thinking and
philosophicalstudies′′ and cultural inferiority compelled JoseRizal to
prepare the new edition of Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinos, with his annotations and incisive criticisms debunked the
allegations of the Spaniards that the Filipinos were savages,ignorant and
had no culture before the colonizers came to the Philippines. Racial
prejudice apparently had wrought irreparable damage upon the Filipino
mentality and began to see and regard Westernculture as superior to their
own. Perhaps this is the reason why many Filipinos have the Western
mentality syndrome.
2. Anda’s Administration during 1770-1776
During the administration of Anda as governor (1770-1776) many parishes were
secularized, but years later, the Filipinos were deprived in their parishes and the
Spanish government gave them to the Spanish friars; hence, the Filipinos priests
resented.
Among the Filipino religious leaders who arose and carried on this secularization
controversy were Fathers Jose Burgos, Mariano Gomez, and Jacinto Zamora.
These three principled Filipino priests who will not compromise justice constituted
the famous triumvirate - GOM-BUR-ZA. In the course of time, the secularization
issue became a national issue and assumed a racial character that directly
discriminate Filipino priests. Understandably, the Filipino people sympathized
with the cause of the Filipino clergy.
One controversial issue where it became blown-up news was where the Spanish
friars engaged the Filipino priests in a bitter fight over two of the riches benefices
- a position granted to an ecclesiastic that guarantees a fixed amount of property
or income. This was the shrine of Antipolo in Rizal and the curacy of San Rafael,
Bulacan, which were being administered by Filipino clergy. The curacy of
Antipolo as very rich parish were collections of the month of May ran into
thousands of pesos because of the influx of pilgrims who visited the shrine.
In the San Rafael curacy, it became vacant. As a matter of religious procedure,
an examination had to be conducted to determine the most qualified, but the
government for no justification, cancelled the examination for which seventeen
Filipino priests had qualified, because the Recollects invoked the 1861 decree,
for which the parish should be given to them.
These were similar cases of secularization involving various issues on
administration of church activities in rich parishes in Bataan, Pampanga,
Zambales, and Nueva Ecija where the native clergy protested in vain.
The struggle to secularize the parishes in the Philippines increased the degree of
racial consciousness, and eventually, helped bring about the emergence of
nationalism.
