Calamba Hacienda Crisis.pdf

José Rizal and the Calamba Hacienda Crisis (1888-1891)

The turning point and the beginning of Rizal’s radicalization • Even before the Calamba Hacienda crisis broke out, Rizal’s separatist views were already revealed in his correspondences. • However, “the Calamba tragedy led Rizal to assume a more radical separatist position in the second phase of his political career.” (Quibuyen, 2008).

Other events that precipitated Rizal’s turn to a more radical politics • “Manifestation of 1888” • The gobernadorcillos of Manila called for the expulsion of the friars from the Philippines (Coates, 1968). The government responded by declaring the petition subversive and arresting the petitioners.

• The waves of arrests in 1888 and 1889 • Occurred after the alleged discovery that Jose Maria Basa’s brother, Matias, was an outlet for clandestine anti-friar propaganda (Schumacher, 1973, 227, in Quibuyen, 2008).

The Calamba Hacienda • Ownership of the Hacienda was transferred from the Jesuits to the Dominicans after the former’s expulsion in 1768. • The land rent (canon) was the source of tension between the friars and their inquilinos. • How did Rizal’s parents resettled in Calamba?

• Francisco Mercado’s sister, Petrona, was a dress goods merchant in Calamba. Eventually, Francisco, together with his other sister, Potenciana, moved to Calamba and became an inquilino. • Teodora Alonso, a native of Manila, was living with his mother in Calamba when she married Francisco Mercado.

The Calamba Hacienda

Dominican Order’s justification • The Dominican Order maintained that the proceeds of their haciendas will be used to transport its members from the Peninsula to the Philippines. • “The haciendas will be cultivated and improved in order to transport religious from Spain to the Philippines…He will not use any of the surplus for anything else, regardless of the benefits to the province, because we do not wish to have properties, but only to assist the Crown in transporting members of our order” (Roth, 1977).

Paciano’s reminder to his brother • P. Mercado to J. Rizal (1883): • “The object of the present letter is to speak to you a little about our family interests and a little about yours in particular. I’ll begin with the first. The land in Pansol is improving and much can be expected from it in the future, provided I enjoy good health. The land is good and extensive.” “This land, which did not cost us anything and was ceded by the Corporation to us in preference to anybody else, deserves to be appreciated a little. We ought to be a little grateful to the Corporation that, without owing us anything, desires the welfare of our family.”

Paciano’s report • P. Mercado to J. Rizal (26 May 1883): • “This is the time to pay land rent at the Hacienda and contrary to the general custom, they accept the money without issuing any receipt to anyone. Has this any relation to the important reforms of the general or is it nothing more than one of the arbitrary nets of the administrator? I’m more inclined to the latter one, though I would like it to be the former one.”

The Government Intervenes • The government wondered why the tax paid by the Dominican Order remained constant despite the constant increase in size of its hacienda. • The government asked the town council to determine if there was an increase in the products and size of the Dominican hacienda for the past three years. • Rizal was requested by the town council to draft a report and his town mates supplied him with relevant facts.

Gov. Gen. Emilio Terrero

Rizal’s Findings and the Dominican Greed • Tenants were being forced to pay enormous increase in rent and arbitrary fees. • Refusal to issue receipts and failure to prove ownership on the lands where they charge enormous amount of rent. • Rizal’s advised his family to stop paying rent which was seconded by the rest of the Calamba tenants. They petitioned for the government’s intervention.

Court cases for eviction • The Dominicans filed an action for eviction. However, the justice of the peace court of Calamba ruled in favor of the tenants. • The cases were elevated to the Court of First Instance in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, and the Real Audiencia in Manila. Both courts ruled in favor of the Dominicans. • The Rizal family and the Calamba tenants appealed their case to the Supremo Tribunal in Madrid but to no avail.

Rizal’s political motives • Felipe Buencamino, the Calamba tenants’ legal counsel, discerned Rizal’s primary agenda: • “Dr. Rizal thought that the thousands of tenants sued by the friars would call the attention of the government towards the friars’ abuse of usury and despoliation.”

Rizal’s political motives • Buencamino, who withdrew his service from the Calamba tenants after the Rizal family rejected a compromise with the Dominicans, recalled:

• “… he was pushing the Filipino people to the brink of a revolution through the simple act of the tenants’ refusing to pay the friars’ canon for their supposed estate…” (Buencamino, 1969, 15, in Quibuyen, 2008).

• On 6 September 1890, Gov. Gen. Valeriano Weyler sent “artilleries and military forces to Calamba that started to demolish the house of Rizal’s parents, whom they arrested with his brothers-in-law, brother, and sisters, exiling the men to different places of the Archipelago” (Ibid.).

Justifying Rizal’s worst fears • J. Rizal to F. Blumentritt (26 January 1887) • “A peaceful struggle shall always be a dream, for Spain will never learn the lesson of her South American colonies. Spain cannot learn what England and the United States have learned. But, under the present circumstances, we do not want separation from Spain.

• J. Rizal to F. Blumentritt (21 February 1887) • “The Filipinos had long wished for Hispanization and they were wrong in aspiring for it. It is Spain and not the Philippines who ought to wish for the assimilation of the country.”

The tale of Cabesang Tales

Question to Ponder on: What lessons can we draw from the Calamba Hacienda crisis in relation to our country’s enduring agrarian problems from the colonial to the post-colonial times?

References • Coates, A. (1968). Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr. Oxford University Press. • Quibuyen, F. (2008). A Nation Aborted. Ateneo De Manila University Press.