philippine studies Ateneo de Manila University • Loyola Heights, Quezon City • 1108 Philippines Labor in the Colonial Philippines: The Discurso Parenetico of Gomez de Espinosa James S. Cummins and Nicholas P. Cushner Philippine Studies vol. 22, no. 1-2 (1974) 117–203 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 22(1974): 117-203 Labor in the Colonial Philippines: The Discurso Parenetico of Comez de Espinosa JAMES S. CUMMINS and NICHOLAS P. CUSHNER LABOR IN THE PHILIPPINES The stabilization of Spain's empire in America depended in great part upon the utilization of native labor. Mines, haciendas, cattle ranches and estates required laborers and when it was found that the Indian was unsuitable for sustained work and the population was actually diminishing, the African slave trade supplied the required hands. In Spain's outpost in the Pacific, the Philippines, native labor was not required to stabilize the colony. There were no mines and relatively few haciendas and cattle ranches. But labor was needed for the shipyards construct- ing the galleons which crossed the Pacific to Acapulco, for public works projects, for building and maintaining churches and for personal services rendered to crown and ecclesiastical officials.' Labor in the Philippines, then, while not essential to the existence of the Pacific colony, was nevertheless of para- mount importance to its relatively smooth functioning. The first permanent Spanish settlement in the Philippines was made in 1565 on the Island of Cebu. In 1571 Manila was founded and became the capital of the archipelago. To both Cebu and Manila the colonial labor practices which had developed in Mexico and Peru were transferred. The encomienda and repartimiento became standard institutions in the Philippines with little or no opposition from the native peoples. When opposition did manifest itself. it was not directed so much against these institutions of labor and tribute, but rather against 1. Cf. Nicholas P. Cushner, Spain in the Philippines. From Conquest to Revolution (Manila, Tokyo, Rutland, 1971). esp. Ch. 5, "Tributes and Labor. " 118 PHILIPPINE STUDIES particular abuses connected with their practice. One can almpst say that the concepts of forced labor and taxation were accepted quite readily by Filipinos, as being a corrolary of conquest possibly because of their prevalence in the pre-hispanic Philip- pines. Slavery to and labor service performed for the chiefly classes of pre-hispanic society had been accepted institutions. When the Spanish conqueror demanded like services, there was no objection. When the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines in 1565 they found a social organization more or less uniform throughout the archipelago. The shores of Manila Bay, around Laguna de Bay, and what is now the province of Bulacan, were inhabited by Tagalogs. The Pampangos were established west of the Tagalogs and north of Manila Bay, separated by the Pampanga River. The northern margin of the Central Plain of Luzon, along Lingayen, was occupied by Pangasinans. The group occupying the islands between Luzon to the north and the island of Mindanao to the south was called the Visayans. In general the Muslims occupied Mindanao. The basic political unit of all of these peoples was the bamngay, a kinship group consisting of thirty to fifty families. Barangays sometimes joined to form sizeable villages. The social organization of the Tagalogs and Visayans differed ~lightly.~The barangay of central Luzon was a community of free men (maharlika), bound together by blood relationship under a chief (datu). The maharlika had dependents who were either serfs (aliping namamahay) or slaves (aliping sagigilid). The aliping namamahay owned private property (but not his own land) which he could pass to his heirs. This belonged to the datu or maharlika. For the datu and maharlika he also provided labor services, e.g. constructing houses or planting fields. The full slave, aliping sagigilid, was a household dependent, acquired 2. What follows is bdmainly on Juan de Plasencia, O.F.M.. "Customs of the Tagalogs," in Emma Blair and James A. Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (hereinafter cited BR) (Cleveland, 1903-1909), VII, 174-175; and F. Landa Jocano, "The Philippines at Spanish Contact: An Essay in Ethno-history," in Brown Heritage, ed. A. Manuud (Quezon City, 1968), p. 51. Selected Symbols of Political and Economic Class Position in the Pre-Spanish Eastern ~isa~as~ Political Economic Sy rn bols Statuses Sy rn bols Classes Classes Trib. Sew. Hse. Rop. Earn Share I. Chiefly I. Fully Independent A. Hi@ Datu 1 chiefs No Datu 2 No Datu 3 Yes Yes Yes No B. Low chiefs Yes Tumao 11. Non-chiefly A. Freedmen Timawa B. Bondsmen Yes Yes Gintubo Yea Yes Yes 11. Partly Dependent Yes C. Part slaves Part Part Part D. Full slaves No No Bihag, etc. No No No All 111. Fully Dependent Abbreviations: Prop. - has right of private property; Hse. - can live in and own hi own house; Earn - the fruits of hi labor accrue to himself; share - must regularly give part or all of his earnings to another in recognition of attachment and indebtedness to him; Trib. - pays tribute to Datu; Sw. -does service (corvee) when called on by Datu 1 or 2. 120 PHILIPPINE STUDIES It is clear from the above outline that native Filipino society was accustomed to offer labor service and tribute to the barangay heads. It might well have been this pre-hispanic practice which disposed Filipinos to accept without protest the Spanish demand for tribute and labor. Spanish colonial policy dictated that where possible the social structures of the conquered peoples in America and the Philip- pines be retained. In the archipelago this. meant that the datus were incorporated as colonial officials, not holding absolute authority, but now responsible to the Spanish governor (alcalde mayor) of the province. The datus function was changed. He became a colonial tax collector who retained a measure of his prior distinction by receiving the title, cabeza de barangay. He became the hinge or buffer between Spaniards and Filipinos, between the conquerors and conquered.' The position was a sensitive one. It afforded almost unlimited opportunities for bribery and oppression of his fellow Filipinos, but he was rarely rebuked by his colonial masters. The Spaniards were content because the cabeza assumed i.to the colonial bureaucracy, insured control over the masses. The cabeza on his part was content because he still exercised authority over passive s~bjects.~ for seed for the next planting. There was no surplus. Hence, borrowed rice was in effect seed rice. It was thought just that the borrower should return not only the quantity borrowed but a quantity bearing some relation- ship to what the rice would have produced had it been planted. Inability to do so justified a lien on services. The practice was probably extended to other commodities. For other reasons for slavery, see Pedro Chirino, Relacibn de las Zslas Filipinas (Rome, 1604), Ch. 46. 4. Frank Lynch, S.J., "Tempo and Mode in Social Mobility," un- published paper given at the Second Biennial Conference of International Association of Historians of Asia, Taipei, 6--9 October 1962. 5. It is interesting to note how the Aztec aristocracy of Mexico was absorbed into the lower echelons of the Spanish Bureaucracy to act as a buffer between the conquerors and the conquered. See Charles Gibson, "The Aztec Aristocracy in Colonial Mexico," Compamtive Studies in Society and History, 11 (1960), 169--196; and the same author's The Aztecs under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of fhe Valley of Mexico, 1519-1 81 0 (Stanford, 1964). 6. In the nineteenth century the functions of the cabeza de barangay became more complicated. But by this time the barangay ceased being a DZSCURSO PARENETZCO OF GOMEZ DE ESPINOSA 121 The labor demanded of the colonial Filipino population was referred to in general as servicios personales, personal services, required for the king (seruicios personales reales) and for private individuals or religious corporations. As early as 1574 a cedula of Philip 11 prohibited the use of native rowers if it involved them moving from one island to another. They were to be paid a just wage for their work.' Apparently the abuse continued, because the Synod of Manila, convened in 1582, devoted an entire section to the Forced Labor of the Indians.' Here again the chief abuse seems to have been the government use of Filipinos as rowers. Cutting timber for the galleons was also a source of unjust treatment. Both of these types of work kept Filipino males from their farms and families for unreasonably long periods of time. The Synod went so far as to recommend that restitution be made to individuals so unjustly treated. Almost twenty years later Philip 111 voiced the same adrnoni- tion. Late in 1601 the king objected to the "poor treatment, oppression and forced services" of the Indians. Farm work, building construction, guarding cattle, and domestic service was to stop. Indian labor could only be used if the Indians gathered in a public place, were asked if they wanted to work on specific projects and if they were offered just wages.g Woodcutting and shipyard labor were especially onorous for forced laborers.