Our society: looking back
Even as China earthquake magnitude revised to 8.0, here at home, 4.6 magnitude quake hits Calapan City. And Typhoon Cosme claims eight lives.
Banko Sentral toying with the idea of pumping additional funds into UCPB. While San Miguel’s thinking of taking over the Bank of Commerce.
And Hermogenes Esperon is made a human Colt Revolver and named chief presidential peacemaker.
The Inquirer editorial looks at the appointment of Jesus Dureza, former head of the peace process, to the Press portfolio. The editorial says it can only result in Dureza’s reputation being diminished, and along the way takes a look at how Dureza’s predecessor shrank in public stature:
Bunye has appeared on television and been published in the papers countless times … But out of all that footage and film stock, one image will define him for all time: that time, three years ago next month, when he appeared before the cameras with two compact disks in hand, just as the “Hello, Garci†scandal was breaking. He told a rapt nation that he had evidence that the President’s alleged wiretapped conversation with election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano (the CD in one hand) were a fabrication, because the conversation was actually between the President and a certain political aide named “Gary†(the CD in the other hand).
This bold attempt to immediately contain a political crisis immediately backfired, because it turned out that the object of the wiretaps was not the President, after all, but Garcillano. In other words, and as the recordings and transcripts circulated or published online immediately made clear, President Arroyo’s supposed conversation with “Gary†could not have been part of the Garci tapes.
The flaw in the plan to cover up the crisis was that it was based on a faulty reading of the problem (Palace operatives thought it was the President’s phone which had been bugged). The faulty reading of the problem, however, proved that there was in fact a cover-up. A Palace officialâ€â€the President’s spokesman, no lessâ€â€had been caught with both hands inside the CD jar.
Much later, under questioning in Congress, Bunye alleged that the package of CDs had only come into his possession, sub rosa. He said he didn’t even know where the package came from. The brainless excuse, from an otherwise careful lawyer, led many to conclude that Bunye, at the very least, was part of a cover-up about a cover-up. If Bunye really did not know the provenance of the two CDs, why did he present them to the media? As his old and new friends from the banking industry might say, It doesn’t compute.
Fr. Joaquin Bernas offers up an interesting glimpse into the strict limits on the judiciary, and says the JELAC is basically unconstitutional:
Under our Constitution the judiciary as judiciary may not give advisory opinions whether to the President or to Congress. As judiciary, its language must have the force of law which must be obeyed. Advisory opinions do not command obedience. Giving advisory opinions can demean the judiciary.
It is true that individual justices sometimes give advisory opinions. But they do it on their own, and improperly. Neither they themselves nor the courts are bound by such opinion.
In the 1987 Constitution there is also a provision which says that the “Members of the Supreme Court and of other courts established by law shall not be designated to any agency performing quasi-judicial or administrative functions.â€Â
(photo above taken at Mendiola last Saturday; “Suportahan ang Presidente. Ibagsak presyo ng koryente.”)
Amando Doronila says the government and the Lopezes would both be better off if they manage to pull off a compromise when the President and Manuel Lopez, big boss at Meralco, meet today:
The Bohol summit is the first time that the Arroyo administration is confronting the economic power of the Lopez family, which has during the past 50 years survived attempts to crush it by several post-war governments, notably those of President Diosdado Macapagal, Ms Arroyo’s father, in the 1960s and President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s who confiscated Meralco and ABS-CBN with martial law powers. In those battles, the Lopezes fought with their media weapons, something they are now using to damage the present administration, with considerable success.
The current Arroyo-Lopez confrontation is no less fierce and no side is emerging unscathed. The summit in Bohol has far-reaching implications for the balance of power between the political sector’s interventionism in business and autonomy of private sector economic power centers. It is not a battle merely between Ms Arroyo and the Lopezes.
The meeting ought to be compared, then, to Napoleon and Czar Alexander of Russia’s Treaty of Tilsit, famously described as a meeting of two sovereigns on a raft. See Two hundred years after the ‘peace’ of Tilsit.
My column for today is An essential experience . Some reminiscing about a childhood visit to Santa Ana Church kicks the column off (some pictures over at Traveler on Foot). I’m uneasy with terms like “Kingdom of Sapa,” which is supposedly what the area we now know as Santa Ana was, because it may be a misleading description of the locality in pre-Spanish times.
Anyway, the column came about because last Saturday, I had the chance to visit Gold of Ancestors: Pre-colonial Treasures in the Philippines at the Ayala Museum. Any museum display involving gold artifacts is a sure crowd-pleaser (see Market Manila), and this display is no exception.
Until this exhibit was opened, the collection of the Central Bank of the Philippines was the focus of public awareness of prehispanic gold artifacts.
The sadly no-longer-updated blog, Pu-pu platter — a delectable selection of oriental appetizers, contains an extract from Ramon Villegas’ Ginto: History Wrought in Gold (see photos from the book, in Flickr):
Harrisson compared Borneo finds with gold artifacts in important Manila collections, particularly of Leandro and Cecilia Locsin’s (Harrisson 1968: 43). He concluded that the Limbang hoard shows close Philippine affinities, though the group is strongly “Javanese” as well. Second, small but significant “Hindu-Buddhist” influences are suggested, or more vaguely as Indonesian (“Indian”) influence rather than anything “Chinese.”
Also, “as in West Borneo, few gold pieces can be dated very early and the major goldsmithing appears to have occured after 1000 AD — and perhaps especially between 1200 and 1400 AD…as in Borneo so in Philippine pre-history, remarkably few fine things of gold seem to have been made later than about 1400 AD — perhaps because of a change in trade patterns and export requirements to the mainland after the start of the Ming dysnasty (or the equivalent), and/or the new attitudes evoked by Islam after 1400″ (Harrisson 1968: 77)
Finally, he reiterated that Philippine gold artifacts in general tend to be more elaborate and better crafted than most from West Borneo.
Harrisson looked at the Dr Arturo de Santos collection (part of which was acquired by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) as well, and observed that “…the range of Philippine gold jewelry…includes many pieces of a complexity and finesse that is beyond anything attempted in Borneo” in so far as what had been found at that time (Harrisson 1968: 56).
Throughout Indonesia there was a relationship between gold artifacts and the ruling aristocracy, in the class-power centers which developed on the coastal plains around the middle of the 1st millenium AD (Harrisson 1968:44). Precious metals were worked ‘exclusively in those areas where the influence of Hinduism was strongest’: he includes Java, Bali, southern Celebes and the coastal districts of Borneo. These areas developed as centers with established hierarchies, which necessitated the conspicuous display of wealth (Harrisson 1968: 47).
There was a demand for gold, which the Philippines could have supplied. It would be reasonable to suggest that one of the main sources of Javanese and Bornean gold was the Philippines. That trade would have been important enough to have been direct, by-passing minor pass-on players say, in Sarawak or Sulawesi. Moreover, the early interest in gold from the Philippines would have been in the raw material rather than wrought artifacts. In turn, local interest would have been on goods not made of gold, which they had plenty of.
To paraphrase Harrisson, “This, in turn, liberated the (Filipinos) from conventions in gold-craft not ideally suited to local materials and outlook, thus producing the much livelier (forms) seen in Manila” (Harrisson 1968: 80). Indianization in Philippine gold ornaments, therefore, was a matter of selective adaptation, rather than wholesale adoption.
Incidentally, a comment by pupuplatter on May 3 in Market Manila is well worth reading, with its account of the conquistadores avidly excavating graves to loot them for gold:
Your ancestors in Bohol, Cebu, and elsewhere in the Visayas were also wearing beautiful pieces of gold jewelry that they crafted with their own hands. In 1565 Miguel Lopez de Legazpi issued a proclamation in Cebu requiring Spanish soldiers and sailors who dug up Cebuano graves in search of treasure to properly declare their finds to the authorities in order for the King of Spain to take his “royal fifths and rights,†his majesty’s “cut†in the loot.
Such a great “quantity of gold and other jewels†was found in the “many graves and burial-places of the native Indians†in Cebu and so invested were Spanish officials to collect what they deemed was their rightful share in the stolen goods that more drastic measures had to be taken.
The commenter then quotes a Jesuit writing about a hundred years after Legaspi:
“I do remember that once when I was solemnizing a marriage of a Bisayan principala, she was so weighed down with jewelry that it caused her to stoop  to me it was close to an arroba or so (1 arroba = 25 lbs.), which was a lot of weight for a girl of twelve. Then again, I also heard it said that her grandfather had a jar full of gold which alone weighed five or six arrobas. Even this much is little in comparison to what they actually had in ancient times.â€Â
pupuplatter, in another comment on May 4, provides a reading list, too (and since all good things come in threes, pupuplatter also points to online resources for Philippine artifacts held in Spanish collections), and this caveat:
I doubt that the makers of what has been called the “Surigao Treasure†were Muslim. Islam came to the Philippine rather late, less than 200 years before the Spanish conquest. We should also avoid idealizing, even as we begin to appreciate, the pre-colonial past: some of the pre-colonial jewelry recovered in Mindanao and elsewhere may have been hastily buried to hide them from Cebuano, Tagalog, or Samal slave raiders and looters. And it is difficult to determine who the “original†inhabitants of Mindanao really are. For much of the Spanish colonial period, agents of the maritime state of Sulu conducted slave raids throughout much of the Philippines. (Bisayans in particular resented this since before Christian conversion they claimed that they were so mighty that they would have been the ones looting, pillaging, and slave raiding their way across the Philippine waters.) These slaves gathered pearls, bird’s nest, wax and other products that were then sold to the agents of the British East India Company who, in turn, sold those products to China. It’s a complicated, global history.
The danger of romanticizing things is something I pointed out in my column, too. All the bling was not freely given, I think it’s safe to assume. The exhibit actually goes to great lengths to use precise terms -e.g. “stratified society”- and to point out that these were items meant to convey wealth and status
Rizal’s “Nuestro perdido Eden” and Bonifacio’s nostalgia for the blissful, civilized, land of the Taga-ilogs may just have been places with societies not too different from the kind of society we criticize today. The rape and rapine of conquistadors took place with the help of native allies, leaders playing what may have been, to them, simply the latest round in the power games they were used to. Sociologists and anthropologists have been pointing out how local cultures have survived foreign influence; and we’ve all heard anecdotal evidence of this (a friend once told me, for example, that in the vicinity of Iloilo, babaylan could be found until the 1950s). I haven’t read anything on the subject but it seems circumcision could be a cultural holdover from the days of Islam.
There are two things I mention in my column all-too-briefly. The first is The Laguna Copper Plate Inscription (Ambeth Ocampo, in a column, recounted that he’d had dibs on buying it but rejected it; he also says there remain many unanswered questions concerning the artifact). Here’s the inscription, as reproduced by Hector Santos:
As Ocampo recounted in his column, the story behind the discovery of the copperplate, and the debate over its authenticity and what the inscription means, is quite interesting. See The Laguna Copperplate Inscription by Paul Morrow (which has a Filipino version) and Sulat sa Tansô: The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, a Philippine Document from 900 A.D. by Hector Santos.
As for the inscription itself, Morrow puts forward the inscription transcribed into our Latin writing system, while Santos provides the first translation by Antoon Postma and then his own translation. Morrow was also asked by Santos to do another translation. Here is Morrow’s English approximation of his translation:
Long Live! Year of Siyaka 822, month of Waisaka, according to astronomy. The fourth day of the waning moon, Monday. On this occasion, Lady Angkatan, and her brother whose name is Buka, the children of the Honourable Namwaran, were awarded a document of complete pardon from the Commander in Chief of Tundun, represented by the Lord Minister of Pailah, Jayadewa.
By this order, through the scribe, the Honourable Namwaran has been forgiven of all and is released from his debts and arrears of 1 katî and 8 suwarna before the Honourable Lord Minister of Puliran, Ka Sumuran by the authority of the Lord Minister of Pailah.
Because of his faithful service as a subject of the Chief, the Honourable and widely renowned Lord Minister of Binwangan recognized all the living relatives of Namwaran who were claimed by the Chief of Dewata, represented by the Chief of Medang.
Yes, therefore the living descendants of the Honourable Namwaran are forgiven, indeed, of any and all debts of the Honourable Namwaran to the Chief of Dewata.
This, in any case, shall declare to whomever henceforth that on some future day should there be a man who claims that no release from the debt of the Honourable…
The Ayala Museum exhibit displays the text of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, and it made me chuckle, because of the way it bristled with honorable so-and-so and honorable such-and-such. Our obsession with titles certainly goes back a long, long way.
And the second item I mention is The Boxer Codex. A brief introduction to this document and what it contains was written by the late Petronilo Bn. Daroy. The codex is used as the launching pad for connecting the little we know about prehispanic life, with the items on display, in the video presentation of the Ayala Museum.
Take the image above, which is from Wikipedia, and is one of the Boxer Codex’s illustrations of Tagalog notable types.
And take a look at the biggest crowd-pleaser in the exhibit, below:
This is from the Surigao Treasure, and you can immediately make the connection between the 10th-12th Century object and the 16th Century illustration. Weight? About 4 kilos. It’s something the curators suggest might be an Upativa, a symbol of belonging to the Brahmin caste. A general sense of what an Upavita is, and its ritual significance, can be gleaned from reading Upavita and Rules of Chanting. In the extract from Villegas’ book at the beginning of this entry, and in the articles of Morrow and Santos, one grey area in our prehispanic past is how we define the colonial period, in the first place.
I recall attending a lecture by Prof. Luis Camara Dery (see Milestones in Moro historiography for a glimpse into some of his writing) and if memory serves me right, he said that Lapulapu was a Tausug.
It’s interesting to see how Lapulapu himself could be the subject for more interesting discoveries to come. See a lecture delivered in Biliran Province by Prof. Rolando O. Borrinaga, From Bagasumbul to Naval: A Historical Review:
These were the questions that led me to theorize that the great victory suggested by the folk mind was probably the native victory over the Spaniards in the Battle of Mactan in April 1521, that the person referred to as Bagasumbul was Lapulapu of history, and that the people who walked behind his steps were the legions of Lapulapu followers who were among the earliest settlers of Barangay Caraycaray.
And so, after the writing of the annotated history of Naval in collaboration with several local intellectuals in 1989-1990, which was published in Kinaadman journal in 1992 (Borrinaga, et.al., 1992), I proceeded to write another paper with the tentative hypothesis that Lapulapu was the person attributed to as Bagasumbul in our folklore. The paper was published in the same journal in 1995 (Borrinaga 1995).
A dozen years after its publication, I still collect evidence to strengthen the Mactan-Naval connection and to bolster the “Lapulapu was Bagasumbul†theory. At the least, this theory has not yet been totally debunked or refuted in the literature.
Returning to Dery, if Lapulapu wasn’t a Cebuano, this is a problem if you subscribe to the cartoon version of our past. Or take this article on The Muslim Rulers of Manila, which basically points out they were Brunei royals. You would then have to start defining what you mean by native and non-native, by colonialism, too: is it colonialism if involving alliance and conquest by a European power, and not if it means one ethnic group being ruled by members of a family from another ethnic group? What does it say of Cebuano assumptions concerning their identity, if Lapulapu was, indeed, Tausug? Or for Tagalogs if Rajah Matanda a member of an interrelated set of ruling families in Manila, Sulu, and Brunei and the grandson of Sultan Bolkiah of Brunei?
This is simple if you view it from the point of view of a pan-Brunei sort of identity, with Brunei as the center; but you’d be dodging the question of how they came to be leading families of those areas.
And this brings us to the Upavita above. In general in quest of a prehispanic identity we go back to a Muslim one; but that identity, in turn, was it imposed or adopted? If imposed, then the colonial period might have to include a possible Islamic conquest of areas that were formerly Hindu in terms of belief and culture (the story of the spread of Islam in Indonesia would be useful to look at, from this point of view, as Bali became the Hindu holdout in the otherwise succesful Islamic conversion and conquest of the rest of present-day Indonesia). If by conversion, and without force, how was conversion achieved? Was it a case of rulers ethnically different from their subjects, adopting a new faith and their subjects going along with the conversion? Or something in between?
Anyway, this goes to show how very many interesting questions need to be discussed both among the experts and with the public. See Jessica Zafra’s Newsweek article on the exhibit, Going for the Gold: A new permanent exhibit offers tantalizing hints to the Philippines’ precolonial history.
Some photos:
A sword hilt from the Surigao Treasure.
A belt. The collection features many other belts, and clasps, as well.
At times, the terse captions were frustrating. What on earth is a penannular, for example? The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archeology says,
In the shape of a ring, but with a break at one point. Often used to describe brooches and torcs as well as arrangements of posts, slots, and ditches forming the walls of round houses and enclosures.
Ah.
These “chastity covers,” or “ancient pek-pek protection” as I overheard one young museum visitor excitedly put to to a companion, were conversation-starters but how they were used (were they to preserve the modesty of the pudenda of the dead, or meant to preserve the virginity of living daughters?)
A kind of costume for what may once have been a household image. The spread of Catholicism resulted in the destruction of household images, and while the image this gold costume was once meant to adorn no longer exists, it does indicate the general appearance of the image, and also, it’s not far removed from the lavish costumes for Catholic religious images.
There is also an extensive collection of porcelain and other kinds of wares on display, from China and places like Thailand, recovered from graves and shipwrecks, on display. I’m completely uncultured when it comes to appreciating pottery and when confronted with porcelain my eyes glaze over. All the porcelain brought in from overseas, though, points to what I described as the precolonial origins of today’s “Gucci Gang” types. The Datu’s wife may not have worn Prada, but she might have spat out betel-nut juice into a porcelain bowl from China.
Anyway, people who appreciate these things are quite delighted by the pottery objects on display.
My column closes with a mild criticism of the exhibit. This book:
“The Mummy Congress: Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead” (Heather Pringle)
among other things, discusses the problem of human remains when it comes to museums. Do you put them on display, and let people gawk at them, or having studied them, return them to the descendants of those remains? The question has led to a more respectful attitude towards human remains both during and after archeological excavations. I found little tangible signs that such an approach has had in impact here, at home. It’s something that needs to be pointed out in the case of exhibits such as the Ayala Museum’s, as one question that comes to mind is, what happened to the remains of those from whose graves these artifacts were taken? Not so much in terms of what can be done, decades after these excavations took place, but in case future finds come to light.
[Incidentally, once more, an appeal to the kindness of readers: if anyone can help be get a copy of Integrating History and Archaeology in the Study of Contact Period Philippine Chiefdoms, by Laura Lee Junker in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology, I'd be very grateful.] Thank you to pupuplatter for sending it to me!
See this 2005 entry on Pre-European Philippines and China over at ThirtySomething v 4.3.
In the blogosphere, Ellen Tordesillas points to a series of workshops citizens can attend, to understand how the national budget is formulated.
The journalist-versus-blogger debate, French style. See French Politics which is a great blog to follow for exposure to the richness of French political discourse.
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
“Under the program, the government will place P30 billion in long-term deposits with UCPB. Proceeds from the deposit will then be used by the bank to invest in government securities. After a prescribed period, the funds will be returned to the government which, in turn, will again place the money with the central bank.”
Please read this and understand how the BSP creates funds out of nothing simply based on a so called sovereign debt paper.
It says it gives the bank Php 30B in cash but this funds must be then given back to the government and the government will give the bank long term dated bonds.
This is what they mean by cash infusion.
re those pudenda covers: maybe they symbolized the entrance to a gold mine. We have seen how some women turned their pudendas into gold mines.
Thanks for posting all these great pics of the gold artifacts.
I just emailed you the Laura Lee Junker article. Enjoy!
M,
How timely this is for Heritage Month this May.
“You would then have to start defining what you mean by native and non-native” – mlq3
Malaysia’s laws favoring Bumiputras are often cited as a safety valve which has prevented violence and hostility between the native and non-native population. While it is true that Malaysia hasn’t experienced the genocidal type of brutality that neighboring Indonesia has inflicted on its ethnic Chinese population, the Bumiputra policies are considered to have tremendous flaws.
For one, Bumiputra policies were a principal reason why Singapore seceded from the Malaysian Federation. Fortunately, that turned out to have a happy ending for both Singapore and Malaysia. Obviously, it would have been a bad fit.
Another criticism is that Bumiputra policies only creates a priveleged class that acts as commission-seeking dummies for non-Bumiputras who want to get around these laws. That it has not energized the Bumiputras to become entrepreneurs, but only to become influence peddlers.
The most significant criticism is that, while Bumiputra laws have uplifted the upper and middle class urban Malays, the lower classes, especially those in the rural areas, have not benefited.
Even in Malaysia, where the native and non-native lines are more distinct than in the Philippines, there is still some confusion on who really are Bumiputras. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed, for example, is more Indian than native Malay, yet he is considered Bumiputra. And many prominent Bumiputra families have mixed Chinese or Indian lineage. On the other hand, the definition of Bumiputra is vague about Thai Malays who have lived around the border of Thailand and Malaysia for centuries, the Straits Chinese who also lived around Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia for centuries, and the Portuguese-Malays of Malacca.
In the Philippines, where assimilation has been more common, it would be very difficult to draw the lines.
“You would then have to start defining what you mean by native and non-native, by colonialism, too: is it colonialism if involving alliance and conquest by a European power, and not if it means one ethnic group being ruled by members of a family from another ethnic group?”
So this is the revisionist stance: there’s no such thing as being colonized, or that colonialism is subjective.
Maybe we should rewrite our history books, teach school kids that the Spanish weren’t really our conquerors or that we were already conquered in the beginning and exchanging a white lord for a brown one isn’t so bad.
And when the Spanish left, they didn’t really surrender or sold the islands. Nothing is official and no feeling is true other than that feelings can change depending on HOW YOU PHRASE them. Okay, I get it.
If the advocacy of some people here is to redefine what being a colony is, then why don’t you guys come out and say it. We were never a colony and never conquered… at least, not in the way that should make resenting the past and the rulers of the past a valid feeling.
read it again. the question is: could colonialism have started even earlier than we think, which might also explain how it was that european colonialism got entrenched relatively quickly. it is not to deny european colonialism or its evils but to point out that colonialism could have taken place in waves. the british for example have been delving into this for some time: the old model was the roman, then viking, then norman conquests but great efforts have been to point out the many other conquests and that the latest conquest was the glorious revolution of 1688.
Essentially, what the BSP action is saying is that UCPB is cash-strapped and the government will save it with a long term debt. Question is can this debt be paid? The trouble with our reporters is they didn’t go into detail with this report. The report doesn’t say why the infusion is being done and whether there is a viable plan for its repayment.
Should we start asking the church, “where’s the loot”?
I am no historian,nor am I a so called citizen of the world. Does having political control by another country be enough to be called being colonized,then this group of islands of ours haved been colonized a lot before any european has set foot.
the active world conquerors were the greeks,the romans, the scandinavians,the babylonians,mongols,the french,te dutch,the brits and the spaniards,the turks,the syrians. maybe you can add the philistines if you want to be biblical about it.
Any other cultural mix may not be a result of territorial/political conquest maybe the others are a result of commerce,piracy or just world travel.Like India,other than that who faced Alexander head on,were they known in history as warlords? And China, we see all the ancient kung fu films, and we knew they built the great wall for a reason other than having a structure that can be seen from the moon.
But there are a lot of Indian and chinese mix in our neighbors.
Just an opinion,corrections are most welcome.
MQ3, you mentioned that “The Sys of Megamall and Banco de Oro are thinking of taking over the Bank of Commerce.”
I think you meant SMC (San Miguel Corporation) – actually, its SMPI, or San Miguel Properties Inc.
chabeli, many thanks, yes, corrected it now.
My late mother-in-law was a docent in a museum in San Francisco.
When there was a museum exhibit about Mindanao , she invited me on the first day and asked several questions about the island. Although she had been to the Philippines, it was only limited to the UST campus where her husband-doctor delivered a lecture.
Some of the displays were about a sultan family; the old photos of the sultan and his 17 wives, his weaponry and his royal raiment which was made of embossed materials using gold threads.
It was so small a size (probably xxs) that I overheard one
museum visitor asked if the inhabitants of the island are all pygmies.
My mother-in-law pointed to him the date of the materials on display.
The last question that my MIL asked me was why the people from Luzon did not have as many as artifacts like those from Mindanao.
The Philippine government should let go of UCPB. 22 years of sequestration and nothing to show for it. The bank is already bone dry. Give it up.
“then viking, then norman conquests but great efforts have been to point out the many other conquests and that the latest conquest was the glorious revolution of 1688.”
Semantics. When we say “pang-aapi nang mga kastila,” does the meaning of “pangaapi” translate to pre-Spanish colonizers? Weren’t old cultures subsumed rather than subjugated by the newer, stronger ones during the various Malay occupations? The aetas segregated themselves and the Malays pretty much left them alone. In trying to trace the root of Philippine corruption, most intellectuals point to native attitudes. My argument is that it isn’t anything native but the continuation of our colonial past within our democratic facade.
Manolo, how do you define racism? There are natural prejudices between people of different ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds, but I think the holocaust, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement pretty much explained what the Spanish did wrong, and WE ARE PERPETUATING much of this wrong today.
brian,
not semantics. you assume old cultures were subsumed; then you assume they were not after the spanish conquest. what if there was subjugation before spain just as spain embarked on subjugation -while it’s being slowly revealed much more of the prehispanic culture was subsumed and has, indeed, survived. you assume the aetas segregated themselves, which points to a gentler, kinder interpretation, what if they had to flee and only their remoteness and the lower population levels secured their survival?
as for racism, it’s the belief that belonging to a certain race or ethnic group confers superiority on those who belong to it and inferiority on those who don’t. and it takes many forms not just the kind that is frank about wanting ethnic cleansing.
http://www.quezon.ph/family/manuel-l-quezon-jr/philippine-racism/
points to a racism in reverse, the kind that i’d suggest classifies us as honorary whites, for how else could filipinos that whites hold inferior in turn hold themselves superior to, say, black people?
where we differ is not on the harmful effects of a racist attitude and a sense of inferiority but rather, your lumping the blame on one ethnic group that is genetically, anyway, partially filipino in the first place. and not distinguishing it from the polity of the past conqueror. that is racism too and unjustified whatever the sentiments behind it. and your obsession with the torrens title system is, well, impractical not least because of your assumption that all its beneficiaries were whites, which was not the case and even if you eliminated anyone with caucasian genes you just might end up with a signficant number with no “foreign” genes who still have lots of land -unless you then proceed with a process of elimination involving chinese genes, and non-brunei-related genes, etc etc.
speaking of “racism”, why would it be racism if 90% of white americans voted for hillary clinton, but not if 95% of blacks voted for obama? personally, i think those who complain the loudest against “racism” are themselves racists. hatred of another race goes both ways. not one race has a monopoly of it.
I think equally significant to the Spaniard’s arrival is the self-imposed isolation of China (courtesy of the Ming Dynasty) that started around that time. If China did not turn inward at the time the Europeans started their Age of Exploration, then the history of these islands (and even the American continent) may have been very different.
Manolo. This is where I can unequivocally tell you you are wrong and it also proves my “perpetuation” theory (and because it is perpetuated we can directly trace it to its roots). Aetas are very well-tolerated. In my province, they are about the only people you cannot put to rights. They do what they will, sleep anywhere, defecate in any place. I believe the early malays avoided conflict with the aetas just as their descendants continue to avoid it.
My argument: we leave the aetas alone at the present time, most likely the way we have always did ever since we got here. The Spanish inheritors (whether blood inheritors or financial, social and political inheritors) have been treating is badly since they first came here. There were just as they are now…. perpetuating what was.
Okay, the last few sentences are incoherent but I think the meaning permeates freely.
Pang aapi.
The Chinese pilipinos,allowed themselves to be maltreated and cursed,look at them now.
Do we pinoys have low EQs? I don’t think so, kung ilagay natin sa lugar,or else we won’t have those call enters.
This is trivial ,or in other words wala lang:
sa laundry list ko hula lang ang Turkey and Syria, I was thinking of saladin Kurd pala sya from Iraq. I also missed the Persians and The Portuguese.
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I have to agree with bencard that it cuts both ways , when it comes to racism.
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The negrito chieftain Marikudo, gave us a neat picture of what happened to the negritoes; bartering ones domain, then becoming a nomad. Speaking of domain, we have to form the Nationanal commission for indigenous people just to resolve ancestral domain issues for the negritoes,especially in central luzon.
“Aetas are very well-tolerated. In my province, they are about the only people you cannot put to rights. They do what they will, sleep anywhere, defecate in any place.” – BrianB
In present-day Australia they do the same thing with Aborigines. What’s more, they’re mostly on welfare and are plied with all the beer and whiskey they can drink.
But that is after their lands were mostly taken away and they were almost annihilated.
“I think equally significant to the Spaniard’s arrival is the self-imposed isolation of China (courtesy of the Ming Dynasty) that started around that time. If China did not turn inward at the time the Europeans started their Age of Exploration, then the history of these islands (and even the American continent) may have been very different.”
It was during this period where the Chinese built their strongest navy and army fleet,but they did not engage in war with the europeans, they went along with the global trend in trade;The Columbian exchange.
What if they used their more than a million strong army and navy instead of engaging in trade?the Chinese will be the super powers,maybe china needed to feed its population, and they had a lot of goods to offer as well.
Marco Polo came to china more or less than a hundred years before columbus was born,so trade have started even before the so called columbian exchange.
“Essentially, what the BSP action is saying is that UCPB is cash-strapped and the government will save it with a long term debt. Question is can this debt be paid? The trouble with our reporters is they didn’t go into detail with this report. The report doesn’t say why the infusion is being done and whether there is a viable plan for its repayment.”
”
The Philippine government should let go of UCPB. 22 years of sequestration and nothing to show for it. The bank is already bone dry. Give it up.”
Scrap the PCGG!
Brian,
For good or ill, there was no “we” before Spanish colonialism. If through some rupture in the space-time continuum, we were to meet with our pre-colonial ancestors, we would not be greeted with a flash of recognition. However much we want to reclaim them, they would never claim us as one of their own. The Philippines and the Filipinos are the gift and the curse of colonialism; Eden was found, not lost, in 1521.
If the inhabitants of what we imagine to be the Philippines were already subject to, at the very least, some form of cultural imperialism before the Spanish conquest (as evidenced by the patterns in the Surigao Treasure), then that knowledge should help us shrug off a common lament among Filipino historians: the Philippines didn’t have an Angkor Wat or a Borobudur, no glorious structure to remind us of our precolonial greatness.
Hardly indigenous, those structures are just as foreign to Indonesia or Cambodia as, say, our very own San Agustin or the Manila Cathedral. Accused by our neighbors as being nothing more than a patchwork of foreign influences, as being a nation of foreign mimics, perhaps we could, in turn, charge back that they were the ones who pioneered the manufacture of cultural “knockoffs,” who bowed down first to foreign faiths. Without having constantly to look grimly back into our past, then maybe we could set our sights, more confidently, to the future.
i recall in my high school literature the hypothesis that datu puti descended from alexander the great. do you know, or have you heard, if there is any historical basis to that claim, mlq3?
“The Philippine government should let go of UCPB. 22 years of sequestration and nothing to show for it. The bank is already bone dry. Give it up.” – supremo
Danding Cojuangco used UCPB as a vehicle to buy up San Miguel Corp. and various coconut mills. Somewhere along the way, Danding ended up with San Miguel and the coconut mills ended up being operated by PCGG. And UCPB was left holding the bag, with nothing to show for it. Parang vanishing act, with the assets disappearing and the liabilities still remaining.
In the end, while some sectors obviously got extemely wealthy looting UCPB, Juan de la Cruz will have to pay the bill. Obviously, the strategy to try to recoup UCPB’s vanishing billions will be to pump taxpayers’ money into the bank so that it can continue to operate. After some “dextrose” from the Bangko Sentral and a bit of window dressing, it will be pimped to one of the banking giants.
“In the end, while some sectors obviously got extemely wealthy looting UCPB, Juan de la Cruz will have to pay the bill. Obviously, the strategy to try to recoup UCPB’s vanishing billions will be to pump taxpayers’ money into the bank so that it can continue to operate. After some “dextrose†from the Bangko Sentral and a bit of window dressing, it will be pimped to one of the banking giants.”
Under the fiat currency system and the fractional reserve system if a bank fails it’s the debt that is passed on to Juan de la Cruz. That debt paper then will have to be funded by taxpayers to pay off creditors. We simply apps the debt to future generations.
A bank is a quasi public corporation. It has a charter to issue credit (money) based on a highly leveraged capital base.
In the case of the Philippines most of the credit is taken up by directors or owners of the bank themselves. That is what merchant banking is all about.
The same thing with Meralco. That is a cash cow so the ones in control outsource almost the entire business process to their sister companies. The entire process of suppliers are given to companies controlled by the family.
That is where most of the harvesting is done.
Why do you think PLDT was so keen on getting control of ABS-CBN. Cable TV which are strung on the distribution infra of Meralco. The entire maintenance of the distribution is also outsourced to another company which is owned and controlled by the family.
Private equity crgoups ar alwasy on the lookout for cash cows that they can leverage other business from.
That is the entire rationale behind the idea of unversal banks or diversified financial instituions.
The last stage of imperialism so to speak. Profits turning itself into a a system of money making money based on the consolidation of business.
The ultimate economies of scale.
All empires went through this process. It survived simply on issuing credit.
When you have the pulling back of credit you will have a slowdown. The planet’s resources cannot survive on this paradigm for very long.
pupulater,
You’re saying you officially disagree with the historians, Jose Rizal and the Katipuneros.
I think fear of the Mongols caused their rulers to turn inward. They even decided to dismantle their blue water navy. I read somewhere that even foreign travel was outlawed. China paid dearly for this policy since it’s only now that they are starting to catch up.
I agree 100%. Just like our counterparts in Latin America, we owe our identity as much to the Spaniards as the ones who came before. Sure we can reimagine an alternative mythology that traces back to some prior Golden Age (or at least age of innocence) but that that would involve a lot of fiction.
I’m very much interested in finding out much more about our pre-Hispanic ancestors and the way they lived in part because it may shed light to deeply ingrained habits but our being a ‘Filipino’ nation can be traced no further back than Rizal, the Propaganda Movement or Gomburza.
“A bank is a quasi public corporation. It has a charter to issue credit (money) based on a highly leveraged capital base.” – hvrds
UCPB was created out of the coconut levy in the late ’70′s. So it was really from tax money that this bank was born. Taxes that came off the backs of poor, downtrodden coconut farmers. Only to have the rich and well-connected plunder the bank and the levy.
The farmers got screwed twice. The first time. when income from their toil was taxed and the second time, when what was supposedly their bank was looted.
Now it’s the third time, and it’s Juan de la Cruz who gets it. “Plus ça change . . . “
“I think fear of the Mongols caused their rulers to turn inward. They even decided to dismantle their blue water navy. I read somewhere that even foreign travel was outlawed. China paid dearly for this policy since it’s only now that they are starting to catch up.”
Yup since they used that navy and army to throw out the Mongols and then after a few centuries the large ships(larger than any european ship) became junk, so to speak.It was expensive to maintain..
Again, I agree because during the Ming Dynasty they renovated thge great wall. If they maintained their navy, they might have smashed the brits during the opium wars during the Qing dynasty.
Thanks for the explanation Karl. If the Ming did not turn inward, it is conceivable that they could’ve eventually made Luzon and Visayas an outpost to be eventually annexed a-la Hainan (and Taiwan). Mindanao would then become part of a Sultanate with Borneo. In a sense, the Arroyo government is just picking up where we left off 500 years ago.
Lol, I hope Manolo Quezon doesn’t get the reputation of being an apologist for Spanish colonialism which should be critically assessed to this day, not for its past horrors but for its continuing insidious influence on Pinoy mentality of branding (still by reflex) whatever is home-grown and native (most of it unconsious, which is even more dangerous) as second rate or inferior or even more insulting, mere obect of a patronizing attitude (exhibit A: the ABS-CBN Channel 2 mantra of being maka-Pinoy kuno. Insidious patronizing attitude by a Spanish descended oligarchs at its worst. TV Patrol World! I cannot believe Maria Ressa allows such news coverage. Here is a family with such vast power to influence the minds of Filipinos and all they could muster at best is an execrable program like Wowawee.)
Bring it on BrianB. Let’s keep on destroying these insidious attitudes and mentality. Crap, nothing is more dangerous or soul destroying than being limited because one is being patronized. LOL, isn’t it nice, the Lopez and Erap camps are one and the same? Populism has always been the tactic of the rapacious elite in this country.
MAnolo, I like the Spanish business folks though (those who have strictly remained in business) such as the Zobel de Ayalas. I think they are the more decent ones among the Spanish descended elite.
Central to any Government Success is the Openness and Accountability and Transparency of its business, procurements and processes and here the Federal Tories were able to slip two exemption to its Ombud’s Statutory duties to revies contracts for fairness, transparency and openness>> I could understand the exemptions with regards to the Spy Agency, but the Parliament?? A Big issue that may crop in the next campaign, although it does exempt the whole Parliament, the House and the The Senate and the Oppositions may let it go as it will also benefit them in case the government changes…
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Opposition MPs taken by surprise on new rule curtailing ombud’s role
May 20, 2008 04:30 AM
Tim Naumetz
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cabinet have exempted contracts with Parliament and Canada’s spy agency from oversight by a new ombudsman’s post that was central to the 2006 Conservative election campaign.
The government slipped the exemptions through last week in regulations that empower the contract procurement ombudsman under the Accountability Act – flagship legislation the government introduced as its first bill soon after taking office.
Opposition MPs were taken by surprise at the exemptions, saying they were unaware the Senate, the House of Commons and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service would be excluded from the ombudsman’s statutory duty to review contracts for “fairness, openness and transparency.”
The exemptions also mean anyone who has a complaint about contracts to supply goods or services to Parliament – including contracts with offices of MPs, senators or CSIS, will be unable to have them reviewed by the ombudsman.
NDP MP Pat Martin, who was crucial to the Conservative government’s success at getting the accountability bill through the Commons, says he would not have allowed the exemptions to go through had he been aware of them.
“I can’t imagine any justification for exemptions or exclusions,” he said. “We enthusiastically supported this and at no time were we made aware that there would be exemptions or exclusions from it.”
The move to keep the ombudsman out of the affairs of Parliament and the national security agency is the latest in a series of government measures and controversies the opposition says contradict the spirit of the accountability law.
However, a spokesperson for Public Works Minister Michael Fortier said the exemptions only apply to a small percentage of government contracts. The proposed changes were made public before they were approved, said Jacques Gagnon, who dismissed opposition claims of being left in the dark.
Democracy Watch co-ordinator Duff Conacher, who has monitored Harper’s record on his campaign promise of more accountability, says all independent monitoring offices should have the power to scrutinize Parliament.
“The way to do things differently is to extend all of the accountability laws to politicians and they haven’t done that with the Access to Information Act, the auditor general, whistle-blower protection or this case of procurement,” he said.
“Amando Doronila says the government and the Lopezes would both be better off if they manage to pull off a compromise when the President and Manuel Lopez, big boss at Meralco, meet today” – mlq3
From what Mr. Quezon’s guest, veteran journalist Tony Lopez, at the Explainer said today, it may well end up that way. And Winston Garcia may again come out the big winner because it will ultimately drive Meralco shares up and GSIS will once more make a windfall in its investments.
It isn’t the first time Winston Garcia has tangled with the big boys. A country boy from Cebu (albeit from a politically powerful clan), Garcia tangled with the powerful taipan, Henry Sy of SM, when he led a stockholders’ revolt to Henry Sy’s takeover of Equitable PCI Bank. This was despite the fact that SSS chairwoman Corazon de la Paz, who headed the other government entity with significant holdings in the bank, had meekly acquiesced to Sy’s offer of P45 per share. Garcia held out and, finally, Henry Sy coughed up P90 per share. Double what he would have initially paid. GSIS salvaged Erap’s dubious infusion of government money into EPCIB due to Garcia’s intransigence. Garcia was also able to pressure San Miguel Corp. management to give better shareholder value and also managed to sell GSIS shares at a windfall of billions of pesos. Now, in another power play, Garcia will probably hammer concessions out of the Lopezes so that GSIS can again make a huge windfall. If Garcia isn’t exactly the Warren Buffet of the local stock market, he certainly is at least a good copy of Carl Icahn.
Madonna says : Populism has always been the tactic of the rapacious elite in this country.
An entry in wikipedia has :Populism is a discourse which supports “the people” versus “the elites”. Populism may involve either a political philosophy urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style, deployed by members of political or social movements competing for advantage within the existing party system.
The sentence “… one is a victim of one’s own way of thinking”, is, in my opinion, one of the universal truths. Benign0 and BrianB have expressed the thought in their own words as they state that the victim-Filipinos should shed some of their ways of thinking if they want to continue to compete. BrianB may not be meaning to do this, but sense that he has added a theme often used by populist politicians — the tinge of entitlement — that he and other victim-Filipinos are owed some reparations of sorts (or at minimum, for the victimizers (the “elite”, per Madonna) should do something, at least should beat their breasts, fall on their knees and do “mea culpas”, or as Madonna says, for “them” to stop limiting her by being patronizing).
I reprint the quote below in full recognition that its themes can be hard to put in practice.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, . . . but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.
James Allen (1864 – 1912)
Source: As A Man Thinketh
You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
James Allen (1864 – 1912)
Source: As A Man Thinketh
People interested in lectures in the genre of “positive thinking” may find some useful tidbits in “Acres of Diamonds” by Russell Conwell.
http://www.48days.com/newsletter/Acres%20of%20Diamonds%20–%20Dan%20Miller.pdf
The lecture also is against OFW-ism, by the way.
Exhibit B: patronizing attitude by a Spanish descended elite: Mar Roxas and the way he conducts his drive towards the presidency. LOL. Mr Palengke my ass.
Manolo is descended from The Kastila. BTW, is that historical mango tree where your abuelo met his war cabinet for the first time still standing in your Barangka estate?
I have to disagree with Madonna. Spanish colonialism should be critically assessed today for the GOOD THINGS it brought us but we have consigned to the rubbish bin. If you aim against Madre Espana, then drag Anglo-Sajonismo with it. Sajonismo has brought a lot of insidious influences in this country. Think of all the conyos who speak with what they believe is an American accent and have no stake in Filipinas! Que lata! These people can only be described as mestizos y mestizas de zaguan!
BTW, I am descended from el Pais Vasco. Somos de Vizcaya. My ancestors came to nuestro querida Filipinas as mariners on the galleons. We have loved this land to perdition like the Guerreros of Ermita fame. Some parrientes were killed by the invading Americans in 1898 and the invading Japanese in 1941-1945. But like the Guerreros we are not oligarchs. But of course we are not the like the Roxases or the Lopezes. Somos Filipinos. Somos differentes. We never take patronizing attitudes sitting down. Thus the Spanish stereotypes Madonna refers to should not speak Spanish in front of us!
Madonna, remember, the Zobels weren’t “Kastilla” but Basques.
I really think Manolo et al are stretching logic too far by arguing everyone, every race, every tribe is either a conqueror or a conquered. If they want to revise the “official” Philippine belief that Kastilas were our mang-aapis then I suggest they publish their thoughts. Let them be brave enough to admit it officially. The Kastilas were no worse than the first and second wave Malay occupants of this archipelago. And let them announce that we owe our nationhood and our religion to the Spaniards, and that more than make up for 350 years of quote-unquote oppression. They call me racist but they are merely jumping the gun or poisoning the well or whatever you want to call it.
Take the challenge, Manolo…
They are refusing to admit to the obvious. Who decides the laws of this country, who undermines the laws when they need to, and who has all the money and all the opportunities and all the access? And then when the country keeps sliding downward into the pit, do they blame themselves. No, they blame the natives.
The Lopezes are not Kastilas. Who says they are? Sure, they married mestizos but the family tree didn’t originate in Spain.
Blackshama. Translate, please.
And for God’s sakes I wasn’t referring to Spaniards as individuals or people but to the colonial culture that they have established. ike Rizal, i understand his surprise when in Spain he was treated with respect. My main problem with their inheritors is that THE INHERITORS INHERITED THE LAND THEY STOLE. Jesus Chrst all mighty, why do you refuse to see how plainly I am phrasing my arguments. The lands, even after the Spanish gave up its colony, continued to be passed to Spaniards or sold as if they owned it. L
Madonna, good observation on Mar Roxas. I do find his ‘Mr. Palengke’ persona contrived and condescending. Not a surprise, after all, he is still from the ‘elite’.
Incidentally, if the Presidential elections push through, i think a likely realignment would be for the ‘Wait for 2010′ [aka Let's Move On] and ‘Patalsikin na, Now Na’ camps to coalesce around his candidacy. Not sure how that would fare against a Lacson and GMA-supported Noli de Castro candidacy.
UP n. I have ever since only been victimized by these elites online and only by those who have not met me. Face to face, they are the victims.
I can still remember how incredulous i found it when they got Richard Gomez to play Geny Lopez in ‘Eskapo’. I mean, WTF? (Actually, turns out he was played by Christopher de Leon, though it does not change my reaction.)
the idea of elitism by ancestry is problematical when we consider that the tides of fortune are constantly changing. the elites of yesteryears can be the masa of today, and vice versa. i have spanish ancestry from both sides of parentage, a spanish maternal name and surname, and an infinitesimal trace of foreign element in my appearance. by no means an “elite”, i am as masa as you can get.
i bet my situation is no different from the average pinoy. the assimilation of races that is still a work in progress in the u.s. (still frowned upon in most cases) is almost generally complete and accepted except, perhaps, in some chinese communities. i don’t think there is racial/ethnic divide in the philippines, only separation according to wealth, education, religion or political position. i think these are the factors (other than religion) that determine who are the elites and who are the masa.
And UP n, I can never be a populist. I may use every rhetorical technique used by successful populists but I’ll never have the ear of the Filipino people. The most I can do is put a mirror on the elite’s face and ask them: is this really the best this country has to offer?
Bencard, of course four thousand years after the Egyptians have enslaved the Jews, the Jews kicked their asses during the 6-day war. Take note especially my subtle use of the words “four thousand years.”
blackshama, it was the mango tree under which the last cabinet meeting prior to going to corregidor was held. and it was uprooted by a typhoon before i was born, but i have a small table made from the wood of that tree. and the site is now concreted over where psba stands today.
brian, no. i don’t subscribe to your pet theories.
why go that far, brianb? perhaps more recent were the enslavement by the romans of the goths of germania, anglo-saxons of britanny, the franks and normans of france, among others, that have, in turn, became the conquerors and colonizers of many a nation down the line. elitism, to me, is a function of power which, in turn, is a function of wealth and technology rather than pedigree.
I think elitism (whether based on wealth, race or nationality) results from a combination of arrogance [of power] mixed with ignorance of the nature of the Social Systems that make up Modern Society.
Bencard, point is, should it take that long?
Elitism is the willful ignorance of those on top on nature’s propensity to change.
brianb, i think as long as man is man, there will always be “elites” and “masa” in every society. ultimately, it’s up to the individual to which grouping he would belong – lifting him up by his own bootstraps. i agree, though, that some have inborn advantages, e.g., inheritance, family connections. but then, a loser with those assets could dissipate them in time and almost never recover.
I do not understand what BrianB means when he wrote Elitism is the willful ignorance of those on top on nature’s propensity to change. I don’t think he intentionally wanted to be obfuscating, though (so that he can not be challenged). As for cvj, I have already reached the conclusion that cvj also does not conform to Merriam-Webster definition of “elite”. cvj (in my opinion)associates the word “elite” to the lowliest class (lowliest meaning “provides the least value to the greater good”). “The Technorati elite” or “the accounting elite” or the may not have meaning to cvj.
Now, both cvj and BrianB seems to say that only the elite can practice elitism. BrianB (and Madonna) has added the theme that non-Kastila Pinoys are victims of Kastila-elite. In my opinion, they are wrong. Elitism can be practiced by some among the “masa’ just as elitism can be practiced by some among the elite.
A definition of elitism in regards governance : Elitism is the belief or attitude that those individuals who are considered members of the elite  a select group of people with outstanding personal abilities, intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes  are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most weight; whose views and/or actions are most likely to be constructive to society as a whole; or whose extraordinary skills, abilities or wisdom render them especially fit to govern.
Now while JoMa may consider himself extraordinarily fit to govern the Philippines, he has consistently been thwarted from taking over Malacanang. Mar Roxas probably considers himself extraordinarily fit to govern the Philippines. If a large enough number of Filipinos agrees and Mar Roxas gets majority vote, BrianB may call this a continuation of elitism, but “it” becomes will of majority of the people.
Discussion here break down as soon as the word ‘elite’ is mentioned.
UPn, contrary to your assertion, i never claimed that only the elite can be elitist. As i mentioned previously, many in the middle class also have the ‘elitist mindset’.
I would also like to refer you to my previous discussions in this blog (mainly with Jakcast and Mindanaoan) where i said, among other things, that while various sectors [aka subsystems] of society can (and do) have their internal elites, there cannot be any society-wide elite. This is because (as per Niklas Luhman) Modern Society as a whole(unlike pre-modern society) is functionally (and not hierarchically) decomposed. That’s why i believe that the paradigm elite/masa needs to be discarded in favor of more appropriate and productive distinctions such as ‘specialist/generalists’ in the context of functions and roles.
Correction, my previous discussion was with Maginoo in this thread (The one with Mindanaoan was on a separate but related topic):
http://www.quezon.ph/1721/the-original-sin-and-the-continuing-crime/
Here also are earlier comments on the topic i made from last year’s threads:
http://www.quezon.ph/1506/a-trap-of-his-own-making/#comment-580949
http://www.quezon.ph/1589/v-for-vruha/#comment-631275
UP n,
that’s “of nature’s propensity to change.” Hm, elitism may not be the word I’m looking for but rather the false aristocracies that also qualifies as elite. Gucci anyone?
aristocracies that qualify.
cvj, how do you find those past comments. I tried the search bar but couldn’t find anything.
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.â€Â
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
For some reason, being part of the elite in this blog seems to be something that is already taken against you…like being guilty even before th trial starts.
I don’t know why people here makes the knee jerk reaction that just because somebody is part of the so called elite, he’s already a bad person.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) people DO aspire to be part of the elite, whether it be intellectual, wealth, etc., etc., because THAT is human nature. It’s not really being elite that’s the problem. It’s the BEHAVIOR that’s the problem. AND that abhorrent behavior is not a monopoly of the ELITE, mind you. Now, I am sure somebody like CVJ will then say, “But the elites should know better!”. CVJ, grow up, who told you that education is the sole factor for a change in one’s behavior?”
Unfortunately also, I see a lot of intellectual elitism being inflicted in this forum.
“the Zobels weren’t “Kastilla†but Basques.”
For clarification, the Zobel family name is German. Zobel married into the Ayala family, which had the landholdings in San Pedro de Makati, as it was then known. The original Ayala was southern Spanish, I believe, from Andalucia. I am not sure about any Basque infusion into the family.
The Elizaldes are sometimes said to be Basque, but they hail from Navarre, which is beside the Basque region. But the people from Navarre do not want to be considered Basques.
It is the Aboitiz family that is Basque.
Also, if the term “Kastila” were used to refer to only those from the region of Castille, then it is correct that “Basque” and “Kastila” are not the same. However, if “Kastila”, as generally and commonly used, refers to anyone who is Spanish, then Basques are also “Kastila”. While there are separatist elements in the Basque region, it has been, and still remains, a part of Spain.
“Exhibit B: patronizing attitude by a Spanish descended elite: Mar Roxas and the way he conducts his drive towards the presidency. LOL. Mr Palengke my ass.” – Madonna
I once read that Mar Roxas is descended from Spanish friars. The Aranetas were Spanish brothers who were friars. One founded the Manila side of the family, of which Gregorio, Salvador and the parents of Greggy Araneta and Eking Araneta are descended. The other founded the Ilonggo side of the family, from which Mar’s maternal grandfather, Amado Araneta, of Cubao fame, descended.
There were also two Roxas brothers, both Spaniards. One founded the Roxas family from Batangas, from which the Sorianos and the present-day Roxas of Central Don Pedro descend. Another founded the Capiz side of the family, from which Manuel Roxas, Mar’s grandfather, descended.
As for the “contrived and condescending” persona of Mar Roxas, it is most likely an affliction of politicians. In the U.S., you have feminist Hillary Clinton knocking back a few drinks in a bar, just to try to appear that she is like the ordinary Joe who knocks a few before going home. And you would have the patrician George Bush, Sr. downing beer and pork rinds, just to appear like a good ole’ Southern boy.
I guess people see through all this “plastikan”, but they accept it as part of the game.
to cvj: I do remember when you wrote about functionally (and not hierarchically) decomposed… and that the paradigm elite/masa needs to be discarded in favor of ’specialist/generalists’. They were interesting to read, but I thought the idea had marginal utility when it comes to choosing senators or presidents.
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I also get amused when I read the manner by which people bewail elitism especially during elections. Just consider this thought. Assuming that there are no changes to the Philippine constitution, then there will be 2 presidential elections between now and 2025. Now think of the PERSONAL incomes of the candidates for President. You’ll have to agree that the income will NOT be from the bottom three deciles (the bottom 30% based on family income).
What this means is that the bottomm 30% have to delegate the presidency to some one other than their economic peer. They will choose from candidates with higher incomes than them; from people most likely with more years of education than them; from people whose work-experiences are a whole lot different than theirs.
It does not take a lot of wordsmithing to paint every vote cast by someone from the bottom 3 decile (in family income) as an act of elitism, a vote for someone whose views and/or proposed programmes are most likely to be constructive to society as a whole; or whose extraordinary skills, abilities or wisdom render them especially fit to govern. [Unless, of course, one voted because one's vote was bought.]
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And each and every candidate is an elitist (though they will try hard not to paint themselves as such). It is pomposity, but every presidential candidate will claim claim that he/she has a full understanding of how the nation’s politics works; it is pomposity, but the candidate will claim that he/she has the programmes that will lift the country from its current morass; pomposity, yet the candidate will claim that he/she “understands the dreams of the poor, the goals of the middle class, the challenges faced by the rich”.
Every single candidate does say “… I am special! I am a whole lot better than a regular-schmoe, a whole lot better. Choose me!” It is the voter’s responsibility to vet each candidate as to how special they really are (and discover, then evaluate, any baggage that the candidate may carry, e.g. their spouse or their drinking buddies or their personal beliefs re divorce or right-to-choose); then pick the “most special”.
@ UP n Student
I agree with the views you just espoused. Ang dami kasing hirit dito pero honestly, sila rin mismo mga intellectual elites. May superiority complex when it comes to their brains.
I don’t think critics take it against the elite per se, as some say. It’s the way the system is skewed to favor the elite, and how there is little compassion (except for mouthing motherhood statements and generalities and paying lip-service, which is the criticism about politicians) for the less priveleged, that is being criticized.
It is also about how the elite prevent a wider, more level playing field, if only to maintain their dominance. Without having to explain at length, look at how legislators (bastion of the elite) have mangled land reform, tax reforms, social programs, etc.
Many of those who post here are probably part of the elite, but they are aware, and they lament, the fact that there is a large element of greed, callousness, and also narrow-mindedness, among our elite.
Because the elite have access to the best education, here and abroad (even U.P. has been crowded out by the elite), and also because they most likely have access to the best gene pool (they certainly get the best-looking girls and guys, if not necessarily the smartest), the elite should know better and should be more gracious and giving. What is lamented is that, inspite of so much inherent advantages, the elite still want more. Would “swapang” be appropriate? And many, if not most, of them are insensitive to the plight of the less priveleged.
This does not mean that there are more enlightened, more concerned members of the elite. But I would dare say that they are in the minority.
I believe the true few global elites now are Larry Page/Sergey Brin (Google), Jerry Yang/David Filo (Yahoo), Bill Gates (Microsoft), and to some extent Steve Jobs (Apple).
Through technology, these visionary men ‘flattened the world’ (Thomas Friedman), equalized the playing field, and empowered ordinary people to ‘connect, compete and collaborate.’
With these achievements, nobody could deny their ‘elitism.’
All I can say to those who don’t see themselves as an “elite” member of Pinoy society is this:
Tough luck.
And by the way, being “elite” is all in the attitude. If you see yourself as some kind of non-elite, that’s more of your mind at work than anything else. It is you who is limiting what you can be.
Having said that, not all of the “elite” are as enlightened as they think they are. Check out this article to understand why:
http://www.geocities.com/benign0/3-00_Makati/enlighten1.html
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Blackshama,
Peace. Nunca did I intend to fire a missile against “madre espana”. LOL, let’s not fight over semantics here. The point BrianB is trying to make I think is crystal clear, give and take some tugs at our bloodline heartsrings (Lol, me too I have Spanish blood, ehem, my grandfather on my father’s side is supposedly half Spanish. But naku, so what? hehe.) But hey, fyi, I certainly love Nick Joaquin (aka Quijano de MAnila) and his writings.
Elitism (no matter how many people are allergic to the tag) is the single most stumbling block of progress in the Philippines — and this is backed by scholarly studies. Elitism is particularly insidious and very sticky in our society due to the fact that we have such a horrible colonial past — Spanish and American. It is only a little more than sixty years that we have been supposedly “free” and look, we were virtual slaves for four hundred years prior to that. We want to establish a meritocratic society and how can we do this if we don’t take a critical attitude.
For semantics, the concept of colonialism to limit its scholarly meaning only started with Spain and England in the 15th and 16th century when they were scouring the world for commodities and resources.
And oh exhibit 3 of condescending, patronizing attitude of the Spanish descended elite: Jamby Madrigal, left out of the will, recently turned crybaby because her aunt’s wealth belongs to the Filipino people. Can you believe this drivel?
Of course it is a chicken and egg question: did the politician specie that we know of now hatch before the haciendero/conquistador. Historical fact: the haciendero/conquistador came first. Pre-Spanish rule, we were maybe disparate little baranggays, but ours was a communal society — not feudal, as introduced by the Spaniards. Values and mores in a feudal and communal society are way different.
In our current society, there is a strong correlation betwen elitism and political machinations. Look where they got us? And oh, GMA and her husband of course think, act like they are haciendera/haciendero of the bygone era. Brian Gorrel’s blog has only confirmed what we have suspected all along. It is real. This sense of entitlement and gross attitude certainly permeates the thin stratosphere of who are supposedly the best people we have here in this country — and it is certainly dangerous because they are all over the public sphere
and has power to influence.
UP n,
We are not in the same page. You misunderstand that I was pointing out at victimhood of the masa by the elite. We are talking here about attitude, whether conscious or unconcious. Certainly, even the middle class yuppie or the kanto boy or even the farmer are riddled with elitist attitude and fantasies.
The Kastila/Spanish connotation of elitism is a product of clear historical fact in our country.
I did not say that elitism automatically denotes Spanish elitism. Because that would be fallacious.
Denotation versus connotation. Please.
Brian (6:40 am), i linked to those comments above (at 5:57 am and 6:15am).
UPn, Silent Waters, i’m not arguing against personal wealth, that would be hypocritical. What i’m against is the mindset of someone holding a sense of superiority and entitlement because of advantages over other people in terms of wealth and education. This completely overlooks the level of specialization (and coordination) that is required for society to function and is therefore a manifestation of ignorance.
Now if you have an entire class of people living and propagating such an elitist attitude, then that goes a long way towards perpetuating a highly unequal society like ours. I believe the prevalence of such an attitude among the Middle Forces would spell the difference between Manolo’s soft landing (a-la England) and Devilsadvc8′s Bastille scenarios.
…and acquiring that ‘elite attitude’ is a key part of Jesuit education, and looks like they have so far been successful in that regard.
madonna, the only part of what you wrote above i’d dispute is the communal society part. the societies were highly stratified, and the proof of it was the existence of slavery. feudalism has a specific meaning of course and it was introduced, adding a new layer and eventually, the dominant one as it got entrenched.
brian’s point is essentially the old saying that property is a crime, because the system of property was introduced by the spaniards, and essentially untouched -and would have been left untouched, it seems, even if the republic of 1898 had endured, since its prime movers were the descendants of the leading families whose alliances with spain had helped establish spanish rule in the first place.
that system of property might not have endured if the katipunan had become the government and stayed under the leadership of bonifacio, but part of the difficulty of understanding what that might have been like is figuring out the precise meaning of the terms he used (for example, when he presented himself as hari ng katagalugan after the tejeros convention, was he styling himself a monarch, or should the title be understood another way?)
and is there an essential difference from precolonial slavery, the slavery that continued to be practiced by the sultanates of sulu, jolo etc., and the polo y servicios of the spanish? and the manner in which the spanish secured the recognition of spanish sovereignty by local chiefs by exempting them from tribute and required labor? i don’t know, all i’m saying is these are the questions that interest me.
the means by which the spanish extended their empire to include today’s philippines wasn’t purely by military means; the way that sovereignty was maintained for centuries went beyond constant repression; and the motivations for the former allies of the spanish ultimately challenging that rule is very interesting and it seems to be quite complicated. for example, in indonesia and in malaya and even india, the princely, etc. families who’d originally allied with the dutch, the british (or got used to being subordinate to foreign rule) remained loyal for the most part; in india, when independence was decided, the maharajahs, etc. were shocked and appalled to discover what they viewed as their individual treaty relationships with britain had been abandoned by the british in favor of the new indian and pakistani states. very few of them managed to maintain their wealth and influence post-independence except in malaysia, while here, after the schism in the katipunan, until the 1950s the dominant story was how the descendants of the original allies of spain had in turn divided on the question of violent revolution or a more gradual transition to independence, but on the whole, with independence as the ultimate goal.
“being “elite†is all in the attitude. If you see yourself as some kind of non-elite, that’s more of your mind at work than anything else. It is you who is limiting what you can be.â€Â
It sounds like a motivational piece. Is having compassion for the non-elite a limiting factor? Is “being elite†something that everyone should aspire for? I don’t think everyone thinks like a Robert Kiyosaki or a Donald Trump.
Manolo,
I subscribe wholeheartedly to John Locke’s dictum about private property (as postulated in the Second Treatise of Government). I am firm believer in individual property — equal to our rights to life, liberty, etc.
Locke also substantially explained slavery, the Western definition of it. Our pre-Spanish slavery has more like religious, cultural tones (imbedded in the society’s stucture) to it whereas in the West, one becomes a slave as a result of war or conquest. Certainly, Spain treated us because of the latter view.
I am not too sure really how to settle property disputes because this is quite complicated I see in our case, because when I precisely mentioned “communal” I was referring to how property was viewed by our pre-Spanish society. Correct me if I am wrong, but as I understood it — at least for those for those who were not slaves — property was owned communally, in name by the reigning rulers on behalf of all the free men and women in the society was it not?
And then the Spaniards came along and with legal framework, changed all of this. This is interesting because there may be ways to prove ownership of property by those who were wrongfully deprived of their land. One of these at least for the cultural minorities is the law on ancestral lands and of course, land reform law.
Except that in our courts, titulos even if spuriously produced and criminally acquired are given much too credence to prove ownership. That is how accordingly many landowning families who are the reigning political clans could trace their wealth nowadays. Just bribe officials at the government offices churning out property titles and bingo, one’s family becomes wealthy.
Hopefully, there will be reparations in the future concerning these property violations and to heal our colonial past.
Precisely, if we believe in property, not spurious entitlement — then we must fight for a system that stands firmly grounded in property rights. I think meritocracy and property rights go hand in hand.
madonna, this is something i’ve only begun to explore. an interesting point your comment brings up is whether what was called slavery falls more precisely under what the west called indentured servants. debt slavery, but very different from a system in which one is born a slave.
then this raises the question of what was taking place when raiders from the south raided the north, were christian filipinos taken by muslim filipinos to be sold in brunei or to become gatherers of bird’s nests, etc., slaves according to a new formulation that arose over the fight between christians and muslims?
the displays of gold artifacts got me thinking along the lines of what you’ve pointed out, now: that the definition of wealth is posession of land. what was it before? it seems wealth was portable: posession of prestige items and products such as china, gold vessels and jewelry, etc. a throwback to a more nomadic lifestyle, perhaps? a relatively unpopulated area and the kinds of things that created wealth -bird’s nests, beeswax, gems, whatever- may have made titular ownership of land irrelevant economically. but the fruits of the land, so to speak, were obviously concentrated in a few hands. and did those hands maintain their stranglehold by coercion or a social contract? a hereditary leadership is by nature one that operates on the principle of entitlement; from the little i know the only obstacle to inheriting power was direct challenge -but who could do the challenging? another faction of notables, perhaps, but not, say, an indentured servant?
and you point out the means by which vast estates were acquired, the spanish system by which someone could lay claim to tracts of wilderness, though the question is whether it was really wilderness (weren’t there people living there? if not, could it be the area became depopulated due to war, famine and disease in the early days of conquest, resettlement in towns, etc?) and as you pointed out, the way, once claims are made, that the legal system can perpetuate those claims. to the systems you identified i’d add another, which is, leveraging one’s advantages (say, as a lawyer) to transfer property from say, a penurious client but who owned land, by transfering titles from the grateful client to the lawyer; or through outright fraud.
whether the market can actually sort this out -forcing large landowners to sell either through land reform or simply by bankrputing them as they can’t compete in a modern economy- or extreme means such as proclaiming a year zero and decreeing all land titles originating in spanish times as null and void is the other debate, i guess.
Manolo has turned from a fairly rational person to a classic sophist, i.e. abogado.
He is saying that since the Spanish introduced land titles, their claim to land that they have underwrote should be valid to this day in the P.I. Property is not a crime, I never said it was. Heck if we raided Singapore and Singapore surrendered to us and we imposed some sort of land reform and gave Singaporean land titles to Pinoys, I’d say that’s as legitimate as it could get. Real estate throughout the ages has always been primarily conquered territory. My argument is that Spain don’t rule the Philippines anymore, so why should we respect ownership established during the Spanish era?
MLQ,
In short, John Locke’s view of property is not part of human rights but of a lesser set of rights, those which we respect and government protects for the benefit of peace.
CVJ,
I mean how did you go about looking for them? Google? Search bar here don’t work.
brian,
the basis for land ownership is the torrens system, and the titling system started with those with an advantage nailing down their claims by means of titles. from those titles, in turn, have derived the property ownership of anyone who owns land, including people who never owned land in the 1890s or even the 1990s etc. if you simply decree the non-recognition of land ownership based on claims dating back to spanish times, you also wipe out the claims of those who subsequently bought land. that is what has people in caloocan in hysterics, for example, because one claim on another mother title would in turn put all those who subsequently bought land in jeopardy, as far as their titles are concerned.
what is taking place is a more enlightened approach to land that goes beyond what one has grabbed, one can enjoy in perpetuity, because the circumstances surrounding the acquisition are now being taken into consideration as well as realizing how largescale ownership (i mean, many people owning land instead of a few owning vast tracts) is beneficial to society as a whole. this has the large landowners in hysterics in turn, remember hortencia starke threatening a revolt in the visayas over land reform? at the time i remember arguing with college friends from bacolod, etc, who sneered at land reform because according to one, “the land was nothing until we brought people there to farm our land,” which was precisely why those who’d been doing the actual farming ought to have their land after the hacenderos had already extracted generations of wealth from it, and ought to at least move on to commerce and industry, etc. etc.
and there’s ancenstral domain as a concept for tribal minorities who have entirely different concepts of land ownership and use.
what i’m disputing is not the injustice you’re pointing out, but how your wholesale solution would imperil many other people, too. and also, then we ought to scrap the entire legal system build on the napoleonic code as brought here via spain, etc. etc.
For reference, here are some Property and Social Reform Milestones in other countries:
USA
1861 to 1865: (Civil War) break up of Southern plantations,
1862: Homestead Act.
Japan
1862-1869: Meiji Restoration elimination of the Samurai class.
~1870 onwards: Oligarch led land-reform.
1946-1950: Land Reform under US Occupation.
South Korea
1945 to 1950: “The Korean government carried out a reform whereby Koreans with large landholdings were obliged to divest most of their land. A new class of independent, family proprietors was created.” (Source: Wikipedia)
China
1949: Warlords and oligarchs were kicked out of the Mainland. Start of collective land ownership.
1978: The use of the land was contracted out to individuals or families or small groups.
Taiwan
1949 to 1953: The same warlords who were kicked out from Mainland implement land reform to prevent the same thing from happening to them in Taiwan.
As can be seen above, the pattern of ‘property reform -> social equality -> industrialization‘ is a time tested one and needs to be considered in that ‘other debate’ (which has been dragging for some time now). In the meantime, for other countries, the debate itself has moved on to issues of intellectual property and control of the ‘commons’ where the similar pattern of enclosure & inequality is being carried out by those who can.
Manolo,
You don’t see the relationship between illegitimate land ownership, even that which goes under my definition, to the failed and failing Agrarian Reform?
The Conjuangcos, one can argue, don’t believe in property rights. What they believe is that if they think they own the property and have the power to protect that ownership, they own it legitimately
Just to add. ” “the land was nothing until we brought people there to farm our land,—
They all say that. They’ve all been brainwashed by their parents.
Correction and clarification on my comment above (at 5:12 pm) regarding the phrase ‘break-up of plantations’. This does not mean that the Confederacy’s [cotton] plantations were divided. Rather, a more accurate description would be the loss of power of the slave-owning/planter class and the greater dominance of the industrialists as described, among other places, here:
Source: http://www.wapedia.mobi/en/Slavery_in_the_United_States
Brian (at 5:04 pm), i just use Google.
The Philippine government continually gets stuck in its negotiations with the MILF precisely because of the issue of ancestral domain.
For the Bangsamoro, Ancestral Domain means:
“all lands and areas, including the environment and natural
resources therein of the Bangsamoro people, established
through occupation, possession and dominion since time
immemorial, by cultural bond, customary law, historic rights
and legal titles.â€Â
The historical and legal bases for this claim the Bangsamoro people identify as
follows:
• “Bangsamoro treaties with Spain and other foreign powers;
• International law and conventions;
• Customary adat law and Islamic law and jurisprudence, and
other historical documents during the Philippine and American
colonial periods.â€Â
• The Bangsamoro people maintain that historically, neither Spain nor the United States of America ever really took physical possession of the Bangsamoro territories under the Sulu and Maguindanao sultanates. It is understood to mean that the Bangsamoro were never conquered, and therefore were a free and sovereign people.
The Bangsamoro people likewise maintain that the Sultanate territories of Mindanao and Sulu were never subjugated by Spain. For this reason, their inclusion in the sale of the Philippines by Spain to the United States in the 1898 Treaty of Paris was immoral and illegal.
Those claims are mighty fierce and I don’t know how many non-Muslim Filipinos would go along with that. Anyway, that only illustrates how difficult and complicated land claims can be.
Furthermore, the Bangsamoro people claim as ancestral domain the Bangsamoro homeland,by their reckoning consisting of the entire Mindanao mainland, Basilan, Sulu archipelago, and parts of Palawan. This is the TERRITORY that the Bangsamoro people assert they gradually lost and are continuing to lose to force, subtlety, institutionalized fraud, stealth, and deception and which they now seek to reclaim.
The MILF also will NOT accept a plebiscite. The MILF will not listen to the votes/sentiment of the peoples residing in Mindanao (nor Palawan).
My perception is that the MILF is setting the stage for resumption of war. The MILF presents their demands as non-negotiable andn the MILF’s disregard of the sentiments and rights of the peoples currently residing in Mindanao is unacceptable intransigence.
“In short, John Locke’s view of property is not part of human rights but of a lesser set of rights, those which we respect and government protects for the benefit of peace.” — BrianB
Nope. John Locke’s definition of property is not just “property” as we know it. It covers an individual’s right to his own life, to liberty or freedom and his possessions or estate. Life, liberty, property — or just property in short, one and the same.
You’re right Madonna. Labor means property and labor precedes government, according to Locke. The fruits of man’s labor is only his and he can dispose of it in any manner. I got it the other way around, having gone to Wikipedia and saw this: “Locke is considered the first of the British Empiricists, but is equally important to social contract theory.”
Property as the Divine right of man to own the fruit of his labor, though, is not similar to life and liberty. Though what I find fascinating and remember about Locke (I’ve only truly read Human Understanding and not one more book of Locke’s) is how his theory of property justified the accumulation of wealth as long as one avoids wastage, i.e. the accumulation of gold, money and other imperishable property.
Though can you explain why you think John Locke’s theory of property is relevant. I’ve been reading up on him for about an hour and seems that the Divine right of man to own the fruit of his labor inasmuch as nothing goes to waste is very far from what you believe: property right is a human right.
If Locke were alive today and this is what he wrote:
“t is plain, that men have agreed to a disproportionate and unequal possession of the earth, they having, by a tacit and voluntary consent, found out, a way how a man may fairly possess more land than he himself can use the product of, by receiving in exchange for the overplus gold and silver, which may be hoarded up without injury to any one; these metals not spoiling or decaying in the hands of the possessor. This partage of things in an inequality of private possessions, men have made practicable out of the bounds of society, and without compact, only by putting a value on gold and silver, and tacitly agreeing in the use of money: for in governments, the laws regulate the right of property, and the possession of land is determined by positive constitutions.”
He would be aghast on how people used his theory t justify greed. Gold and silver (money) were the perfect properties in that they are imperishable, and accumulation of money avoids waste. So, people with billions in the bank are only practicing their divine right to own the “fruits o f their labor” and because we al are “tacitly agreeing in the use of money: for in governments, the laws regulate the right of property, and the possession of land is determined by positive constitutions.”
I mean using the same meaning of property that John Locke used when applied to, say, a hacienda, doesn’t make any sense. Wouldn’t you say the Sakadas are “owned”? They have to work in order to eat. They cannot leave because leaving takes money. When Locke formulated that no man can own another because only a man can truly own himself he didn’t think of the fact that some men can “trick” other men into owning them.
So why do you subscribe to Locke’s theory on property?
BrianB,
“When Locke formulated that no man can own another because only a man can truly own himself he didn’t think of the fact that some men can “trick†other men into owning them.”
Of course he says, like Hobbes that men are predisposed to being selfish. But unlike Hobbes, he says man are rational beings and would more or less be guided by reason — one will be sated by consumption, although one can own as much as his labor permits him. Yes, money being the measure of the fruits of one’s labor and the accumulation of it — money theory — sorry I have to read more on this (the only work by Lock I’ve really read and absorbed in full is the Two Treatises of Government).Perhaps our resident economist, HVRDS can fill in here. Locke was also an economist and actually his ideas had been the foundation of modern day market capitalism — and Marx actually refuted him on his theory of property.
But anyhoo, I subscribe to his property concept because he props it up substantially and rationally. His theory on the state on nature, state of war, and on to formation of government. All logically sound. He also says that one not only has a right to revolt if one is living under an oppressive government but has an obligation to reinstate property rights under natural law — namely that oppression one individual by another is unnatural.
How can I not subscribe to his theory of property? LOL. He says property under natural law precedes government and everyone is born free and equal. One cannot even enslave even oneself — so how can one enslave another? Just my beliefs and of course it pays that a political philosopher has expressed and put forth clearly a conceptual structure that we all refer to now.
“for in governments, the laws regulate the right of property, and the possession of land is determined by positive constitutions.â€Â
Ok. I guess this will have to refer to his theory that people form civil societies and governments so that their “property” will be protected which are always in danger under what he calls a state of nature — because since men are all equal and free, all become judges of what rightly belongs to him or her, hence from a state of nature, it slides into a state of war. Under a government, a set of rules or constitution adjudicate promulgated by the people under a legislature — this is what is meant by “laws” regulate property — to settle disputes.
thanks. The way he uses the word “property” is almost similar in concept to a monad. Hence, all human justice begins with “property” and hence every man is his own property and so on. Doesn’t really apply.
right to property doesn’t mean automatic ownership of a thing. it simply means one’s entitlement to acquire “title” to it through the recognized modes of acquisition, namely, discovery and occupation (capture), succession (including gifts, bequests and inheritance), sale or exchange, or in the case of chattels, production or fabrication. no one becomes an owner of a piece of land simply by being born. once acquired, title can be lost either by abandonment (and someone else acquiring the title through adverse possession for a certain continuous period of time), voluntary alienation, or government forfeiture.
i believe “ancestral domain” is not a viable claim of ownership for purposes of defeating rights lawfully established and maintained for generations. under philippine law, a torrens title is indefeasible by adverse possession or claim.
Land in precolonial Philippines may not have been communally “owned” as we have been led to believe. Consider for example, an essay by Fernando Nakpil Zialcita in “Reflections on Philippine Culture and Society: Festschrift in Honor of William Henry Scott.” Since my copy of the book is in storage, here instead is a summary of the essay by Bernardita Reyes Churchill:
“Picking up from conversations with Scott on notions of property among non-Hispanized Filipinos, Fernando N. Zialcita reexamines Spanish chronicles and concludes that sixteenth century non-Hispanized Filipinos actually owned land privately and that landlordism did exist among those practicing sedentary agriculture. Zialcita proposes to rethink widely held views about precolonial communalism, as well as the impact of Western colonialism.”
While slavery — either through indenture or, classically, through conquest in “just wars” — did exist in precolonial Philippines and during the early years of the Spanish colonial period, it was eventually abolished through the efforts of no other than Spanish missionaries. And who resisted their efforts? Why no other than the indigenous, precolonial “elite.” Slavery in the “Sulu Zone” was hardly of the “cultural” or “religious” variety (which are hardly any better for the enslaved), it was thoroughly modern (well, not quite) and tied up with what at that time amounted to a global economy.
I suppose the “Black Legend” regarding Spain and her colonies persists to this day. How could it not when even the Spanish-mestizo Andres Bonifacio was one its avowed believers? But how Spanish was landholding in, say, 19th century Philippines? The landowners were rarely Spanish — there were so few of them around in the first place — even though their descendants may have “whitened up” through strategic marriages. And the means by which land was acquired and by which the products of the land were sold had more to do British, American, and French traders and lenders than with Spanish oppressors.
What Spanish colonialism did, in part, however, informs many efforts to seek justice for the Filipino dispossessed. For Spanish colonialism brought the inhabitants of Filipinas into the orbit of certain cherished, Western, universals — “rights”, “property”, “justice,” even the very concept of “humanity” — and it is that legacy, a legacy that drowns out “our own” sense of things, that we should also acknowledge.
and for a second, i thought i was led to read an authoritative study, haha. self-promo lang pala, haha.
For those who believe in natural rights, the fruits of labor is property. Land is the means to acquire it in organized agricultural societies. Who owns the rivers and the seas?
Why will land be titled to a select few. The idea that the lucky sperm club members should own and control lands beqeuathed to them is a sacrilege.
All men who so desire should have a share of the fruits of the earth through their own labors.
Why did countries revert back to distribution of lands and assets to jump start their agro-industrial development.
Because most of these countries first developed their trading outposts first and later reverted back to agricultural/industrial development by command to change an event in history.
Their natural evolutionary process of climbing up the ladder of development was inverted. Trading entrepots imposed by outside forces.
That process of trading entrepots like Manila, Cebu etc. neglected the agricultural sector. So you have two social formats. Manila which is more integrated with its premeir colonial master while the rest of the agricultural sector lies moribund and stuck in primitve means of accumulation of the surplus. We sell crude resources in exchange for finished goods. If we were a country of 10 million people we could very easily ravage most of the islands for survival like we have already done.
While the accumulation of exporting resources (forrests)have seriously depleted the natural reservior of the country and now reverting back and trying to “modernize” a carabao rain fed agricultural system is more problematical.
Case in point; In the U.S., it is the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers that has the responsibility over all the rivers and waterways of the U.S. The natural erosion that occurs when rains bring with it top soil and rivers have to be continuosly silted. That silt is then redeopisted over acres of farms as it carries with nutirents of the soil.
Here in the Philippines the loss of arable land is continuing and the process of water depletion is contuing. It is allowed to wash into the oceans.
More progressive countries have very strict land use laws and follow this very strictly as land has a social function anbd economic function.
There is one philosophical reality that Adam Smith came out with before Marx. The value of eveything (price) is dependent on the labor value used in its creation. That is the foundation of property.
In all economies you have labor divided into the productive sectors and the unproductive sectors. The agricultural and industrial sector are the productive sectors while the service side is the unproductive sector. Again this is based on Adam Smith which Marx carried forward.
When Smith and later Marx referred to the productive forces they were referring to the productive sectors of the economy.
It is the labor valued expended that creates the natural price of things. Then these creations are then sold in the market for the market price. The fight ensues over that surplus generated. Who owns most of it and who shall preside over the sharing. That creates the eternal conflict between the workers and the one who owns the means of production.
The artisan class were to become the members of the proletariat. They are the builders. Your modern day engineers and scientists. It is they who will later move to reintegrate the agriculture sector into raising the productivity of growing food.
They will literally move mountains and create new rivers and systems of irrigation.
The wonders of China during the early pre-industrial years is they constructed like the Romans before them engineering works to create irrigation systems for their farmers.
But here in the Philippines the trading mindset which was imposed by the colonizers created a nation of traders/bankers. No builders. Hence the Philippines except for the rice terraces have no engineering landmarks built by man. Till today this mindset for trading still remains. We export our productive labor since there is no labor market for them.
That is not an accident. That was deliberate policy. That is precisely the policy imposed by the British in the colonies that was America and India. The U.S. fought a civil war becuase of that clashing policy. Gandhi and Nehru led that fight for economic autnonomy that led to political autonomy from the British.
The entire basis for measuring GDP is based on labor value added. The key is labor prodcutivity through the use of capital equipment. But it is precisely productive labor that also built the machines. Once again the artisans, engineers. If a country does not utilize its own labor to create that kind of productive value then the country will not go anywhere.
More on the new global elites, which includes criminals and terrorists:
“This void is often being filled by a small group of players  “the superclass† a new global elite, who are much better suited to operating on the global stage and influencing global outcomes than the vast majority of national political leaders.
Some of this new elite “are from business and finance,†says Rothkopf. “Some are members of a kind of shadow elite  criminals and terrorists. Some are masters of new or traditional media; some are religious leaders, and a few are top officials of those governments that do have the ability to project their influence globally.â€Â
Read further:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/opinion/21friedman.html?ref=opinion
Opps, BrianB, I keep on learning on this site. Frankly, I don’t know what “monad” is haha.
jakcast, thanks for the link. IMHO, that Thomas Friedman is such a dumbass.
“The landowners were rarely Spanish  there were so few of them around in the first place  even though their descendants may have “whitened up†through strategic marriages.” – pupuplatter
We are not really arguing if Spaniards were the landowners per se. We are after the discussion if the system of land ownership that Spaniards established ironically deprived some people of their property rights during that time. Descendants of these people if it can be proven could still rightfully fight for what truly belongs to them. So much time has passed and titles — a trick to produce spurious titulos is commonly used by those are in power to deprive others of their property — are only the ones being used to prove ownership.
Eventually if under our laws, Spanish property laws are being followed, then we can change/amend the laws or add laws if our view is to give people what are theirs by right. Aside from titles, legislating new laws can be backed by scholarly studies to trace what has transpired in the past. Agrarian reform law actually has been a good start but the oligarchs have just gotten scot free and has held on to their land (mine, mine, all mine). Why are the so many squatters in our countyr? Cheap question, with very expensive answers.
“thanks. The way he uses the word “property†is almost similar in concept to a monad. Hence, all human justice begins with “property†and hence every man is his own property and so on. Doesn’t really apply.” — BrianB
Actually Locke uses “property” in two ways. First, generally referring collectively to personal property, as extension of everything that one consciously knows as his under natural law, meaning his life, liberty, his estate, his aspirations and so forth. Much of these he explains clearly and strongly defended under the Second Treatise.
And second, he used property as a concept of economics. The details are contained in his other works. This concept has been built upon by other economists such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Refer to comments by HVRDS.
just a note on madonna’s comment. the problem in establishing some sort of righting of past wrongs in the manner proposed, is that to do so would entail the kind of historical or even legal sleuthing that would grant the landowners an enormous advantage. in the first place the ones keeping track would the landowners, they would have access to research, to documents, and that includes the destruction of embarrassing or incriminating documents in the archives, something apparently taking place all the time. also, there is the question of permanence and identity -the wealthy and landowning would have a more durable presence, while descendants of the dispossessed would not -no baptismal much less land records, you might glean in general terms what sort of people lived where but as for specific individuals they wouldn’t have been chronicled, not even in tax documents -not to mention they would have moved, or been moved, etc.
in the face of these handicaps the solution lies in identifying sectors and using the powers of the state to force some sort of equalization process, as i’ve pointed out the british did this by basically destroying the political influence of the aristocracy through death duties, which broke up most of the large estates and the hold aristocrats had over people living in them or dependent on the economy created by the great estates. at the same time the middle class was enlarged and the great mass of extremely poor people that were the majority as late as the eve of world war i were given the benefits of the welfare state, with nationalization of industry, etc.
since we never industrialized, the primary economic activity the large landowners are interested in is rent-seeking, living off rents from tenants or interest income, etc., never quite making companies efficient because it’s easier to derive concessions from pals in congress, etc. economies of scale but not in terms of modern-day economic activities although for example there have been great dividends to the landed who built office buildings to rent out to outsourcing companies, etc too.
one assumption has been that if we create a middle class larger than what we have at present, it will push for modernity and participate in the break up of the power of the large landed families. i’m not so sure anymore, at least for the middle class that was already such prior to martial law. i am a little more hopeful about the really new middle class that’s emerged since the diaspora began, but only marginally so.
my favorite example is what i saw in san carlos city where a portion of a large estate was turned into a gated community: the new homeowners being nurses, seamen, nannies, etc. these are people whose parents were literally serfs; in one generation they made the leap from serfdom to the trappings of middle class life without the acculturation that formerly kept the middle class aping the ways of the upper class. the aspirations of this new middle class are patently consumerist, but the whole psychological stranglehold of those used to being obeyed has vanished, and they’re at a loss about what to do about it.
here enters, though, a problem related to the problem of land which is the vulnerability of the either less relatively well educated or not well connected, which is they have yet to form a constituency that can extract concessions from those still ruling the roost. open warfare hasn’t worked, because for every peasant going to the hills there are two others willing to be hired as security guards and soldiers, cops, etc. and enforce the will of the landlords, etc. in the past the middle class trained in the image of the upper class would, in moments of crisis, find its interests merging with those of the upper class. again, my favorite example is when the diliman commune was proclaimed, middle class residents in the area banded together to hunt down the students. this is a unity of fears and interests the present administration has understood quite well and which continues to disappoint and amaze reformist types in the opposition.
about the only place where there is more of a chance for autonomy is in the urban areas -to my understanding, a majority of filipinos, now- which also happens to be why acts of protest tend to happen more in urban areas where there is both safety in numbers and a kind of anonymity from association in political movements, than in the provinces where even the informal check on the power of the authorities is susceptible to a veto imposed by means of the gun. because the old habits of obedience are disappearing, those in power have to maintain it both by increasingly sophisticated means (muddling the issues, bring it to court, etc.) that appear to “strengthen institutions” and by old-fashioned thuggery: CPR, and the entrenching of warlordism in the provinces. even a dynamic, “new” population like what you see in davao, for example, is in the thrall of duterte and what is the essential difference between him, ali dimaporo in the past and even mayor binay in makati or hagedorn in palawan? yet all would have a certain mass appeal and some an appeal to the newly-middle class and even the frightened upper class.
Manolo, i’m glad that you acknowledge the need to use “the powers of the state to force some sort of equalization process” and not just rely on trickle-down [aka 'ramdam na ramdam'] effects.
Given that, i think the best we can do is to ensure the succeeding Presidential elections are clean enough to reflect the aspirations of the masses. At some point, a Hugo Chavez/Evo Morales-type will hopefully emerge and the powers of State will then be used to the benefit of the majority. Should that President need to resort to Duterte-type tactics (which i personally wouldn’t encourage), at least it will be the Oligarchs, and not just petty criminals, who will be on the receiving end for a change.
The masa tried to elect their champion with FPJ but at that time, the Middle Forces were on the wrong side of the fence. I hope the Middle does not repeat the same mistake.
Manolo,
It’s not all about money. What do you think will have been the effect if your grandfather have institutionalized the culture of democracy, i.e. teaching kids to value their karapatan and their power as citizens in a democracy instead of the usual disciplining?
cvj: Evo Morales represents “rural-versus-city” warfare. As one would expect, there is the classic separation-of-church-and-state battle, e.g. abortion, population control, sex-education.
But one of Morales most notable actions was in 2006 — seizing of church-owned land. [The seized lands adjacent to a Marian Shrine in Copacabana were originally given to the shrine decades ago by the Bolivian government where income derived by use of the land would help support the shrine. Morales declared that the lands were "unproductive", seized the land, subdivided, then handed over to seven of Morales party loyalists. [I don't think "seizing church land" was one of Morales' campaign slogans, though, political animal that he is.]
brian,
i happen to think the code of citizenship and ethics though not couched in the terms you’d prefer, is as good a place to start as any -and no corresponding effort was ever made by subsequent administrations. and definitely, there was more of an effort to actually go head to head with the students, for example, than in subsequent administrations except perhaps for magsaysay and marcos: his proposal for partyless democracy, for example, was fought out through two addresses and actual debates with students, and when he saw their opposition he dropped the idea.
brianb, i think you forgot that for every “karapatan” in a democrcy, there is “responsibilidad”. you can’t teach one and not the other. the problem with most of today’s kids is that while they are so focused on their rights, they are largely oblivious to their obligations. thus what we have is a society of whiners, bellyachers, out for instant gratification without paying their dues. at the first sign of trouble, blame the parents, the government, the society, or the world. in fairness to the kids though, most of their elders are not raising them right.
Yeah i don’t think Diosdado Macapagal raised her daughter right.
sorry, ‘her daughter’ should be his daughter.
cvj, don’t use my use my thought to sneak in your rant. make your own, will you, smart boy?
and cvj, i was referring to today’s kids, not forty years ago. the way you talk, you seem to belong to that kind i was talking about.
bencard, i don’t think kids are even taught their rights, or obligations. my experience during the debate on charter change was that college students only had hazy notions at best as to how their government worked, not a clear idea of what the constitution contained or the logic behind the constitution’s provisions, the purpose of the bill of rights and what those rights required was tabula rasa to the vast majority.
I confess that during my student days, and I suspect it remains the case for today’s Pinas high-school and college kids……. my understanding of Bill of Rights is more from American Constitution thinking(“we hold these truths to be self-evident”) than from the 1987 Constitution or its prior versions.
I also draw a zero with regards what my Catholic religious instructors have said (or what the Bible may contain) about “bill of rights” for citizens.
Dear Mr. Quezon,
I would like to thank you for giving feedback to the article I posted on Traveler on Foot last May 12, 2008 which I inadvertently referred to as The Kingdom of Sapa and the Maytime Fiesta in Old Sta.
After further research, I found out that Santa Ana de Sapa was the name given to present day Sta. Ana when the Spanish friars establish the mission in the area. That area is part of the upper river kingdom called Namayan (or Lamayan). Thus, I’m changing the title of the said article to Kingdom of Namayan and the Maytime Fiesta in Old Santa Ana.
I would like to thank you for the feedback that prompted me to make the necessary updates regarding the said article.
My apologies.
It is very obvious that our educational system needs revision in terms of educating publics regarding bill of rights. Additional classroom hours must be implemented. Education is the key and the Youth is our foundation to progress..
Hello!
Sorry for joining this thread late, but alas and alack, there’s not enough time in a day for all we want to do!
Just a quick comment. Lapulapu, whoever and whatever he was, has come down to us…and rightly so…as a hero, but his ancient pre-Hispanic Filipino opponent, Humabon, has been portrayed as a heel.
I suppose this reflects some deep-seated Pinoy sense of fairplay, etc.
But let’s reconsider.
Humabon had to “welcome” a pesky foreign interloper, babbling about some strange religion and faraway sovereign, knowing next to nothing of the stranger’s background.
When the stranger offered to help Humabon militarily gainst some uppity vassal, Humabon agreed.
Humabon agreed, again, when the stranger brashly offered to make the first attack without any assistance from his newfound native allies.
We know what happened next.
Humabon then tidied things up by slaughtering all foreign survivors he could get his hands on (at a feast he hosted for them, if I am not mistaken).
For this, we Pinoys look askance at Humabon.
But, somewhere up there, Odysseus, Sun-tzu, Caesar Augustus, Kautilya, Ibn Khaldun, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Ricehlieu, Talleyrand, Metternich, Canning, Cavour and Bismarck are smiling.
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