Philippine Studies Ateneo De Manila University • Loyola Heights, Quezon City • 1108 Philippines

philippine studies Ateneo de Manila University • Loyola Heights, Quezon City • 1108 Philippines Prostitution in Colonial Manila Luis C. Dery Philippine Studies vol. 39, no. 4 (1991): 475–489 Copyright © Ateneo de Manila University Philippine Studies is published by the Ateneo de Manila University. Contents may not be copied or sent via email or other means to multiple sites and posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s written permission. Users may download and print articles for individual, noncom- mercial use only. However, unless prior permission has been obtained, you may not download an entire issue of a journal, or download multiple copies of articles. Please contact the publisher for any further use of this work at [email protected]. http://www.philippinestudies.net Fri June 27 13:30:20 2008 Philippine Studies 39 (1991): 47589 Prostitution in Colonial Manila LUIS C. DERY Spanish rule made Manila the center of its colonial affairs.' Colonial rule is generally "based upon the principle of rewarding political services to the Government in power by the pillage of a col~ny."~ The policies enforced tended to foster the exploitation and impov- erishment of the colonial subjects. Eventually, poverty became "the permanent characteristic" of the working classes who largely com- prised the Philippine population during the colonial eras.3 The spread of the cash-crop economic system during the nineteenth century eroded the patronclient ties in the country and removed the rernain- ing vestiges of "crisis-subsistence guarantees" upon which most of the rural inhabitants depended." Lastly, the absence of incentives and the deterioration of conditions in the rural areas, especially during the last decades of the nineteenth century forced many rural inhabitants to migrate to other places, notably Manila. Manila, by the nineteenth century, was already teeming with vagrants, vagabond, and displaced pers~ns.~In colonial times it was the only place attractive enough for the impovcrishcd and displaced persons to flock to. Its commercial districts, especially Binondo with its big business houses at Rosario and Escolta streets, caught the 1. For a detailed discussion of why Manila became the primate city in the Philip pines during the Spanish era, see Daniel Doeppers, 'The Development of Philippine Cities Before 1900," journal of Asian Studies 31 (August 1972): 769-92. 2. Frederic H. Sawyer, Tlu Inhnbitnnts of the Philippines (London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Company, 1899, p. 48. 3. Hamilton Wright, A Handbook on tk Philippines (Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1907), p. 302. 4. For a detailed discussion of this topic, see James C. Scott, "The Erosion of Pa- tron-Client Bonds and Social Change in Rural Southeast Asia," /ournal of Asian Stud- ies 32, (November 1972): 5-37. ' 5. Marcelino A. Foronda, Jr., "Manila in 1840: Landscape and Figurn," Philippine tlistorical Keoiew 4 (1971): 139. 476 PHILIPPINE DIES fancy of many migrants, who tend& to reside in the congested districts of Tondo, Binondo, Sampaloc, and Paco. From these places, they sought jobs in Manila's hemp presses, cigar factories, and other business establishments. The cigar factories alone employed more than twenty thousand workers, mostly women6 Those who failed to get employment in the factories became labradora, lavandera, costurera, domicilla, or tindera. Many of them became prostitutes as manifested in the court records (espedientes) of the period. Other factors accentuated the growth of prostitution during colonial times. Spanish legalization of gambling as a source of revenue added to the inhabitants' demoralization. In many cases, it was a mapr reason for men made destitute by gambling to induce their wives or women friends to engage in prostitution or to commit crimes? Jagor described gambling as a "curse" on the natives. "The passion for the game," he said, 'leads many to borrow at usury, to embezzlement, to theft, and even to highway robbery. The land and sea pirates . are principally composed of ruined gamester^."^ The provinces of Bataan, Laguna, Tayabas, Morong, Pampanga, Bulacan, and Batangas were reported to be infested with bandits and vaga- bonds? Later, the American authorities called Cavite "the mother of ladrones." Even Governor William H. Taft noted that the gambling habit among the inhabitants was "so great that men will gamble the chastity of their daughters and their wives" just to satisfy their vice.1° Even Rizal memorialized the sad lot of gamblers in the Noli Me Tangere. Aggravating these conditions were the many days of enforced idleness of the inhabitants by the Spanish religious authorities. Manila alone had 99 days of holidays or saintsdays and 151 days in all of idleness every year." The nineteenth century also witnessed 6. Frederic H. Sawyer, The Inhabitants, p. 158; Margherita Hamm, Manila and the Philippines (London: F. Tennyson Neely, 1898), p. 61; Charles Morris, Our Island Em- pire (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1899), p. 385. 7. See, for example, the cspedhtc of Ceferino Fernandez, hstitucion-Bundle I. 8. Friedrich Jagor, Tramls in the Philippines, 1859-1860 in Austin Gaig, ed., The Philippines nnd tkFilipinos of Yestcrhy (San Juan: Oriental Commercial Company, 1934, pp. 61, 63. 9. Edilberto C de Jesus, 'The Tobacco Monopoly in the Philippines" (Ph.D. dis serta tion, Yale University, 1973), pp. 105-13. 10. William H. Taft to U.S. Secretary of War Elihu Root, 1 October 1990, Tap Pa- pen, Reel 463, Series BA. 11. Adjutant E. Hannaford, His- rmd hmiptim of tk Picturesque Philipincs (Ohio: Gowell and Kirkpatrick, 1900), p. 77;Alden March, The Histo7 and Conquest of the Philippines and Our OhIsland Possessions (Philadelphia: World Bible 1-louse, 1899), p. 201. PROSITWTION IN COLONIAL MANILA 477 a radical population growth, especially in the rural areas, which was not accompanied by a-corresponding growth in opportunities for livelihood. One observer noted that the Philippine inhabitants were "a prolific stock" showing "a power scarcely exceeded by any race of pe~ple."'~ Finally, there was the curious practice by the Spaniards and Chi- nese of not bringing their women to the Philippines. For instance, of the 5,580 Chinese residents in Manila in 1855 only ten were fe males.13 The male foreigners' "passing passion" and the benefits they bestowed on the impoversihed native women led to the formation of "temporary or permanent alliances" between them." Even members of the clergy succumbed. "Some of the young women," said an observer, "impelled by the desire of obtaining (their) good graces" led some members of the clergy to forget their vow of cha~tity.'~ THE MUJERES PUBLICAS Philippine society still considers it "ma1 costumbre" (bad manners) for a woman to go out of her home without a companion especially at night since only cheap women do so. Society's worst opprobrium is reserved for the prostitutes. This can be seen in the various names given to them. Their appearance at night gave them the sobriquet Dama de noche (women of the night). They were also called mujeres libres or mujeres publicas (free or public women), mujerzuela (cheap women), or kalapating mababa ang lipad.16 At the extreme, they were called ramera (whore), puta or prostitufa (prostitute), vagamunda (vagabond), or inducumentada-the last name to indicate that they did not pay their cedula personal to avoid arrest and imprisonment. Those without cedulas were called inducumentado.17 Most of the prostitutes in Manila came from the local population. They belonged to the working classes, although some of them were 12. Charles H. Forbes-Lindsay, The Philippines Un& Spnish and Amrrican Rubs (Philadelphia: John Winston Co, 1906). p. 116. 13. Charles Moms, Our Island Empire, p. 385. 14. Frederich Sawyer, 7he Inhabitants, pp. 204-205; John Foreman, The Philippine Islands (London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Co., 1899), p. 213. IS. Frederic Sawyer, The Inhabitnnts, p. 66. IF* Rostitutes came to be called kplappting mbnba ang lipad from the name of an islet-Palomar-which is now a part of Tutuban, ~anildwhich the Spanish authorities used as a detention place fir prostitutes sentenced to be exiled -or deported to Phwa~or Balabac. P&mm means Mapti to the Filipno. Thus, the prostitutes came tb bc called kplppting mduba ang lipul. 17. See the epdients d the pnstitutcs, Pmtitucum-Bundles 1-111. 478 PHILIPP~NESTUDIES foreigners who came via Hongkong (such as the Japanese prostitutes who congregated in Sampaloc district).18 Their ages ranged from thirteen to thirty, they were mostly single, and migrants residing in one of the congested districts of Manila. Many of them started quite young. This bothered the parish priest of Binondo who, seeing the sailors and soldiers passing daily by his church on their way to the brothel houses at San Jose de Trozo street, complained to the colonial authorities and asked them to do something about it. The re quest went unhee~ied.'~ As recorded in the espedientes, the mujeres libres' previous oc- cupations showed their depressed economic lot. They were listed in the records as lavandera, costurera, domicilla, ciprrm, tindera, domestics, labradora, bordadora, vagamunda, or plain querida abandoned by some members of the colonial forces who were transferred elsewhere and left their mistresses without means of subsisten~e.~~Almost all of them were illiterates (no sabe leer y escribir) owing, no doubt, to their poverty and the highly restricted colonial education. Like their counterparts today, colonial mujeres libres were of dif- ferent varieties. There were those who either worked alone, or in two's, or three's.21 These usually hung around military garrisons, barracks, ports, et~,~~near Chinese business establishments? or used carromta drivers to solicit young men at night and invite them to . the houses of the prostitutes." From the record of their various espedientes, this group showed the highest incidence of venereal infes- tation since they catered, apparently, to any men who needed their 18.

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