Guinto, Josiah Vonn Gabrielle A.
Prof. Narciso Cabanilla
BPA 3-2
GEED 10013
Assessment
1. Who are the personages mentioned and what is their relationship with each other?
A mendicant order of the Catholic Church, founded in France by the Spanish priest Saint
Dominic, the Dominican Friar Orders is formally known as the Order of the Preachers.
They were entrusted by the Spaniards to care for and have control over the land. After
the Jesuits, who originally owned it, were expelled in 1768, control of the Calamba
hacienda passed to the Dominicans. Nearly all the land around Calamba was owned by
the Dominicans.
Rizal is another character that has been mentioned. Rizal requested the tenants of
Calamba to conduct an inquiry concerning the disputed fertile land owned by the
Dominican friars. Both the Rizal family and the other tenants of Calamba decided to know
the truth. Rizal was asked by the tenants to write a report for the city council.
Finally, the tenants. Owing to the unjustified taxes they had to pay, the tenants suffered
for several years. The following report was drawn up and signed by more than fifty
residents, including tenants and principals, following a rigorous investigation.
2. Why was this document written? Provide evidences from the document.
This document was written in order to put an end to the corruption of the Dominican friars.
Estate officials say that people who can drag chains because the business is wealthy and
proposes to pay ten thousand pesos to win the suit for having told the trust in this article.
According to Rizal, the inhabitants of Calamba and he sent a petition to the administrator
of the Laguna public islands to avert an increase in land rent. The renters suffered for
several years as a result of the unjustifiable levies they were forced to pay. And if there
was an economic slump or a poor harvest, rents and taxes would rise. The tenants
struggled beneath the friars. Furthermore, the fact that Rizal sought to promote
awareness was another reason for the document's creation. Despite the constant work,
the tenant's items have drastically diminished. Indebted and without belongings, as
evidenced by the enormous number of bankrupt farmers, not only in the past, but also in
the previous three years.
3. What can you tell about life in the Hacienda de Calamba during the time the document
was written?
Life must have been terrible for the farmers who were in a tremendous debt just to pay
the Dominican friars at the time. Despite the Dominican friars' authority and coercion, the
tenants who were interested in this must have fought hard. Farmers feel discouraged
when they see the land they have worked so hard to cultivate and clear being taken away
for no reason. Despite everything that was going on at the time, the renters refused to be
heard.
4. What are the complaints of the tenants? Enumerate at least three.
1). The wild forests which are given to the tenants for a low rent at the beginning according
as the tenants clear and clean them, investing large capital in them, according as the
fortune of the farmer becomes involved in them, the contract is arbitrarily altered by the
Estate, the rent rises enormously, there being a case when 45 pesos became 900 in a
few years through an annual forced imposition.
2). Ricefields that are planted with only 3 or 4 cavanes of seed, pay as if they have a
capacity for 9.5 and 14 cavanes, on pain of being declared vacant and given to others.
The products for the tenants have decreased considerably in spite of continuous labor,
not only before but also these last years as proven by the large number of ruined farmers,
indebted and dispossessed of their property.
3). The rent of the town lots where houses or warehouses are erected increases every
time an official or servant of the Estate measures them. The rent is also raised when the
tenant makes improvement in the lot, or when he replaces the bamboo fence with a stone
one, or builds a wooden house, for comfort and public embellishment; therefore, many do
not improve their dwellings even if they have the means to do so.
5. What was the reaction to the complaint?
In January 1888, the Dominican Friars responded with a petition authored by Rizal and
signed by the town's leaders, questioning the authenticity of alleged Dominican land
claims. The Calamba tenants had refused to pay rent by February 1888. After failing to
collect unpaid rent for a year, the Dominicans took their case to the Justice of the Peace
in Calamba, where they lost, apparently because the justice was in the pocket of Paciano
Rizal, who allegedly dictated a favorable judgment to the renters. The Dominicans were
successful in their appeal to the Provincial Court of Santa Cruz. The nonpaying renters
were then ordered to evacuate the hacienda's property. When they refused, court agents,
with 50 troops on standby to keep the calm, issued an eviction order, which resulted in
the burning of several homes and the injuring of some residents.
6. What were the final demands of the petition?
Don Paciano-Rizal expressed that the most just and equitable resolution to this situation
is to define the Estate's limits, so that all of the land not included in the initial sale or
cession can be proclaimed rent-free, and the unjustly received rent can be restored. This
is what should be done for the sake of justice, even if it leaves much to be desired in
terms of both sides' tranquility...The settlement should be based on something more
permanent, such as the separation of their land holdings through compensation...If the
proposed settlement will not harm your cause there, you may propose it in order to provide
relief to the people's unbearable situation. The following agreement was drawn:
1. The Dominican fathers as owners of the Calamba estate ceded the ownership of all
lands comprising the area of the poblacion of Calamba which involved about 100
quiñones valued at 1,000.00 pesos per quiñon;
2. Accounts for rentals in arrears were all remitted; and
3. In exchange, the accused acknowledged the ownership by the Dominicans of the rest
of the quiñones of the estate, and would pay only ten percent of the canon in succeeding
years.