by: Christine Ginolos

The essay written by Jose Rizal is truly a piece of work that indicated why and how the Filipinos during the Spanish regime became so hopeless and lazy. In the essay, Rizal stated eight reasons as to why it had come to that point. 

Firstly, he wrote that the Galleon Trade cut off all the ties the Philippines had with other countries. Meaning that the country did not have access to trading and industrializing with other parts of the world. As a result of this, businesses were only between Spain and Mexico; small business in the Philippines such as handicraft industries that flourished during the pre-Spanish time, started to eventually deteriorate. 

Then came in the forced labor, where Filipinos were forced to work in shipyards, roads and was pushed into public work due to the war between Spain and other European countries, together with the Muslims in Mindanao. The Filipinos had no choice but to abandon their current work in order to work for the Spanish. As a consequence, the agriculture, industry and commerce components in the Philippines were neglected. 

Moreover, the Spanish failed to protect the Filipino people from foreign invaders and pirates. Leaving the Filipinos to be murdered and to become nomads- individuals who do not have to permanent homes and are constantly moving. This influenced the Filipinos to become incompetent in rebuilding their own nation and lives. 

Education was also useless during the Spanish regime and even if there were schools, all they did was recite prayers and learn about the church. There was a lack of courses and teachings about agriculture, industries and what the Filipino people lacked that needed to be improved. The education system was rigged with toxic and overly religious Spanish rulers that did not contribute to the growth and development of the young minds in the Philippines, all they did was brainwash them and taught them wrong and negative perspectives about the church. 

Consequently, almost all of the Spanish rulers or the Spanish people who were of power, did not do anything connected to their job yet they still get privileges and salaries. All they did was manhandle women and had intercourse with them during their work hours which was extremely unfair to the laborers. 

Gambling became a huge trend during the Spanish regime, with cockfights and various sorts of bets and gambles. Government officials and friars would take part in these said activities without acknowledging the struggles of the Filipinos. 

As stated by Rizal who was well known for criticizing the Spanish priests and friars for raping women and being corrupt based from his novels ‘Noli Me Tangere’ and ‘El Filibusterismo’. He indicated in the essay that the Spanish friars manipulated Filipinos into thinking that people who are poor would go to heaven. As a result, the naïve Filipinos would listen and work for the Spanish while remaining as poor as dirt. 

And lastly, the Spanish boosted the taxes that the Filipinos had to pay to the point where they gave almost all of their salaries to the Spanish government. And as an effect, they had so little left where they could not even afford to buy a piece of bread afterwards to feed themselves and their family. 

In the end, we would be able to realize that the Filipinos are not necessarily lazy and that they were not to blame as it wasn’t their fault as to why they became idle in the first place. To Rizal, the Filipinos being sloths was foreign to him, it was hard to believe. This was because before the Spanish regime, the Philippine nation was filled with hardworking and resilient people. It was a flourishing and developing country that had trades with China, Japan, Arabia, Malaysia and other countries in the middle east. And then, everything was tremendously altered when the Spaniards took over. But then he concluded that those actions were not what the Filipinos wanted, they just couldn’t act upon it since there would be dire consequences from the Spanish government. Being rejected and being rid of education and the overall chance for their country to flourish would really make one feel hopeless and lazy. Additionally, the Filipino nation did not have a leader other than the Spaniards. Most of them, still too frightened and intimidated by the regime, that is why it hindered Filipinos to act against and oppose the Spanish rule. This led to the lack of unity within the nation and the Filipinos did not work hard and just fell into submission to the church and the Spaniards. Again, Rizal evidently stated that back then, there was no voice to lead the Filipinos and so they just followed whoever was leading them (the Spanish) at the same time accepting the fact that they rejected and neglected their needs as a nation and continued to lead the Philippines into a spiral while taking advantage of the naïve Filipinos for their very own sake, dignity and reputation.