WEEK 6

THE PACTO DE SANGRE

- Drew from the account of FILOMENO AGUILAR

- Making an incision from the arm or chest (according to the tour guide in Bohol) and
mixing the blood in an alcoholic drink which will be drank by the two leaders or more of a
camp/party.

Why does the blood compact occupy such a position in Philippine History?

❖ WHAT IS THE BLOOD COMPACT?

- Based on the book “The Propaganda Movement”, 1880-1895, by Schumacer, as
quoted by Aguilar

- A practice that was based on a, according to Schumacer, custom among the

ancient Filipinos of sealing a treaty of alliance and friendship.

❖ 3 POINTS
1. The ritual was not brought by the Spaniards
2. The ritual was established to seal brotherhood or friendship
3. The ritual was done to conclude alliances

❖ 2 SETS OF DEBATE
● Validity of the Blood Compact (Assimilationist VS Separatist)
● Treaty between countries VS Localized event

1ST SET OF DEBATE: VALIDITY OF THE BLOOD COMPACT

❖ Marcelo H. Del Pilar

- In his opening passage of his La Soberania Monacal en Filipinas, interpreted the
blood compact between Sikatuna and Legaspi, not just a sign of eternal friendship,
but also a unification into a single ideal, the aspiration of Spain and the Philippines.

- Such aspirations include, not the lording over the Filipinos by the Friars Del Pilar
would later clarify, but instead they include the assimilation of the Philippines into
Spain.

- By drinking the wine with the blood of Sikatuna, Legaspi as the official representative
of the king, agreed to take the Philippines into Spain’s fold.

- Sikatuna agreed for the Philippines to be annexed by Spain when he drank the wine
with Legaspi’s blood.
 - Blood Compact: Valid and obligates Spain to assimilate the Philippines
- Del Pilar: argued that to not expel the friars, who violated that oath, and to not
assimilate the Philippines to Spain, would count as perjury on the part of the
colonizers.

- Expulsion of the Friars and the assimilation of the Philippines to Spain, were 2
of the main aims of the Propaganda movement back when Del Pilar was at its
helm.

- Basically Del Pilar: “THE BLOOD COMPACT IS LEGAL SO ASSIMILATE US OR

YOU COMMIT PERJURY BECAUSE OF THE FRIARS”

❖ Andres Bonifacio
- Like Del Pilar, he believed that the ritual served as a binding oath, but unlike
Plaridel (Del Pilar), he believed that the oath was invalid from the start.

- In his “Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog” Bonifacio detailed how the
katagalugan fared well, quote from Bonifacio: “Nabubuhay sa lubos na
kasaganaan at kaginhawaan” even before the Spaniards came.

- Basically, for Bonifacio, the Blood Compact was invalid from the start because
even though the Spaniards participated in the blood compact and made it seem
that they will adhere to their side of the oath, they (Spaniards) are only
pretending to do so.

- “The Tagalogs must realize the source of their misfortune and unite and realize
that reason dictates the justness of separating from Spain”

- Basically Bonifacio: “U FKIN PRETENDERS, THE OATH IS INVALID.

SEPARATION! SEPARATION! SEPAR--...”

❖ Apolinario Mabini
- Like Del Pilar, believed that the oath was valid

- “Our ancestors had recognized the ancient kings of Castille as protectors and
allies in a pact sealed with blood”

- But later on, the Spaniards showed their duplicity when instead of honoring the
oath, they shamelessly violated it after their assured domination among the
ancient Filipinos

- All of these justified his reason for revolution.

 - Basically Mabini: “TWO-FACED SPANIARDS, SHAMELESSLY VIOLATING THE
OATH BETWEEN US?! REVOLUTION! REVOLUTION! REVO--...”

❖ Juan Luna’s Painting

- Was pushed to the debate without, as sir suspects, Luna’s intention

- There were those who had seen in the painting the inherent superiority of the
Spaniards due to their sheer numbers since Sikatuna was the only native present
in the picture. Somehow forced into an agreement with a benevolent superior
who showed grace by accepting the former’s terms.

- There were those who had seen the superiority or at least equal standing of
Sikatuna, seeing as his image was closer to the viewers which emphasized his
presence. It also helps to note that since all the Spaniards were looking at him
(Sikatuna). This solidified the thought of separation the moment Spain did not
handle their side of the bargain.

- It would be easy to assume that Luna intended for Sikatuna to occupy a position
at least comparative with Legaspi. But we must not also forget that the reason
why Luna painted the El Pacto de Sangre, was because of the scholarship he
received from the Ayuntamiento de Manila.

2ND SET OF DEBATE: LEGAL TREATY BETWEEN 2 NATIONS V.S LOCALIZED EVENT

Treaty Between 2 Nations (SPAIN AND PHILIPPINES) = Assimilationist and Separatists

Localized Event: Schumacher, Cesar Adib Majul and Filomeno Aguilar

ARGUMENT:
- The Pacto de Sangre was a localized event entered into by a ruler of one of the
many kingdoms in the Islands that will later be part of the Philippines, Bohol in
particular.

- A conquistador claiming lands on behalf of Philippe II.

- The agreement was between the people of Bohol and the Spain of Philippe.
 - The agreement was only binding to the people who actually took part through
representation to it.

- In this case, after the reign of Philippe II, Spain was no longer obliged to honor
the oath
- Which also means that the more famous blood compact entered into by
Humabon and Magellan was only binding at most to the people of Humabon.

WHERE WAS RIZAL IN ALL OF THESE?

- Posed as Sikatuna at Luna’s Pacto de Sangre

- Aguilar noted, his (Rizal) annotation on Morga’s book contained an allusion to the
ancient ritual in responding to Morga’s comment about the contracts and
negotiations entered into by the natives being consummately illicit (illegal,
unlawful, illegitimate), Rizal noted that the same was true on all contracts
between nations and peoples.

- The same was true on the contract made by the Filipino chiefs.

- Rizal seemed to harbor the same thoughts with Bonifacio as opposed to Del
Pilar’s, especially in the light of a popular belief that Rizal was an Assimilationist
until his death while Del Pilar turned Separatist later on.

[Neither of the two debates dispute the fact that the blood compact formally started the
Spanish Colonization]

Directly entered the various chiefdoms in the Philippines:

● Magellan and Humabon
● Digoyte and Sulayman

Indirectly
● The Conquest of Manila
- Made successful with the help of the natives with whom the Spaniards
established alliance through a blood compact
CONQUISTA ESPIRITUAL
- The method the friars used to preserve and even expand whatever foothold the
ritual of friendship and alliance had gained.
- Ideas about the encantos that draw mainly from the Jesuit, Father Demeterio
- In his prologue to his biographical work on Rizal, Leon Maria Guerrero
designated the Friars as the Last Spaniard as opposed to Rizal who was the
First Filipino
- To Guerrero, the Friars were present at the beginning and end of Spanish
presence in the Philippines.

➔ FRIARS AT THE BEGINNING

● Wherever there is a Conquistador, a Friar is present
● Every colony or community established had a school and a church
run by a friar

➔ FRIARS AT THE END

● The friars were at the end, if there ever was an end, for the
influences that the friars planted outlasted that of the most powerful
Governor General

➔ FRIARS AT THE MIDDLE OF THE BEGINNING AND THE END

● Friars were at the forefront of Spanish colonization

❖ FRIARS IN THE COLONIZATION OF THE PHILIPPINES

- The Philippines wouldn’t have been successfully colonized by the
Spaniards if not for the Friars

- The Conquistador might have the firepower, but he didn’t have enough
manpower to visit every island located in the archipelago and bring it to
Spain’s fold with his 385 or so men

- Even though the Conquistador gained a lot through the overture of

friendship and allegiance, such gains could not possibly be maintained
once either party would realize that such friendship or allegiance was
nothing more that a contingency measure
 - Guerrero noted that the number 1 challenge of the colonization effort was
not really the natives resisting, it was to find these natives in the first
place. And, after finding them, convince and persuade them to accept the
new faith and new system.

- Aside from being a spiritual adviser and being a navigator as well like in
the case of Fray Urdaneta, the friars were essential to the colonization
effort since spreading the Christian faith was central to it.

- Even though there are times that the king made the lives of our ancestors
hard, intentionally or otherwise, the king was faithful to the great
commission of spreading the faith.

- There might be many friars that broke their vows of chastity and poverty
but they in the most part remained faithful and true to the mission
entrusted to them by the Church and the king.

- The Friars who were used to going to various places, were sent to the
mountains, rivers, valleys and forests.

- It was thus that the true colonization happened.

- Like Jesus in His parables using the natural to make people see the
heavenly, or like Paul using the statue of the unknown god to proclaim the
one true God of the Christians to the people of Athens, the friars worked
on the established beliefs of the natives
- The spiritual entities that the natives believed existed were the ones to
blame whenever something happens that could not be explained by
human logic and knowledge at that time
- Since the natives already believed at the supernatural and the spiritual
realm, it became much easier for the friars to Christianize the pagan
beliefs

● Tumaos (Not to be confused with the Timawas of the pre-colonial society or

Tiaos of Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental)
● Menos of Iligan
● Panulays of Siquijor
● Tagbanwa (Not to be confused with the ethnic group of the same name of
Talakag in Bukidnon or Tumatima of Quisolon which is still in Bukidnon)
 - Other such spiritual beings of the Spirit realm were incorporated in the
tales that the friars were weaving
- In response to the natives’ feeling of awe and bewilderment towards the
friars, they (friars) gave a generic name to all of these: Encantados or
Encantadas (Spanish for bewitched or Spellbound)

❖ THE NAMES OF THE SUPERNATURAL BEINGS GIVEN BY THE FRIARS

● Santelmo
- Saint Elmo’s fire
- For the fire that jumps or leaps distances
● Duende or Dueño de Casa (Possessor of the house)
- Often puts women’s skirt on one of the pillars of the house
- For the squat and often playful and mischievous dweller of the ant
hill or even of human habitation
- Swelling of the appendage
● Sirena
- Beautiful whose lower body is that of a fish
- Drowning in the sea
● Kapre
- Cigar chomping big guy who frequents trees and fancies young
maiden
- Swelling of the appendage
● Multo or Muryo
- The often vengeful spirit of the dead
● Maligno
- Generic name for the evil spirits

[The friars were thought to be one of these spirits especially knowing the fact that they
are:
● Light skinned
● Speak in an unknown tongue
● Created laws that only they understood and that they, themselves are exempted
The idea of them being a Mangtiaway was but reinforced]

- The Spirits were to blame whenever a maiden is lost in the forest only to
return a few days later seemingly out of their mind.
- This may be one of the reasons the idea of friars being an encanto is
reinforced. To be respected or, if not, to be feared.
- It was this set up that gave the Ensalmadores (Healers through spells or
“yam yams”) and Saludadores (Healers through saliva and breath or
“tutho”) the preeminent position they occupied in the pre-colonial society.

- These healers were the competitors of the Friars who were trying to
Christianize the natives. They replaced spells with prayers, the saliva or
breath replaced by the rosary or scapular and other sacramentals. The
Cross became an important weapon against these spirits. The procession
of the images of Saints, Mary, Jesus, etc. were done to avert calamities

- The 17th century Jesuit missionary Pedro Tierrino narrated a story about
how receiving the holy sacraments cured a lot of people with serious
illnesses.

- Pedro also told the story of how people from Bohol who were suffering
from pains in the heads and stomach were cured by drinking holy water.

- Perhaps this was because of Friar's advanced knowledge about pathology

and medicine.

- Seeing the friars heal something the Ensalmadores could not made the
natives transfer their faith if not love the friars and the system of faith they
proclaimed

- Slowly, the natives began to turn away from their beliefs on the anitos and
ensalmadores and just as slowly, accepted Christianity.

- With the mind and spirit convinced, the friars found themselves exercising
not only spiritual influence, they were now consulted on almost all things

- Aside from being a preacher, they now became a teacher, healer,

counselor and even farmer

- With such pervading presence in the society, it became easier for them to
maintain and expand what the Conquistador gained.

- The civil and military officials and the friars have one mission: to win the
natives for God and country. Although they differed in policy and policy
implementation.
CULTURAL ENTRAPMENT

❖ Pueblo
- The information was drawn from Conception which was richly provided
with her collaborative production of civilizing spaces in the
Spanish-Philippines, the Longgos-Paete Land dispute in Laguna
(17th-18th Century).

WORDS THAT PROF. CONCEPTION USED IN HER NARRATIVE:

● Visita
- Refers to a settlement, a village if you may, that was part of an existing
town but not within its capital and does not have any resident priest
● Doctrinero
- Resident priest of the doctrina
● Doctrina
- Refers to a settlement that has a resident priest who, in turn, was known
as doctrinero
● Cabisera
- Refers to a place where the missionary resided.
- Usually at the center of the Pueblo or the Doctrina
- Where the church and the parokyal school was found
● Parokya
- New term. Started its existence in the late 17th century
- Term used to refer to the cabisera and its surrounding visitas
● Empadronado
- Term used to the registered residence of the Pueblo, Visita or Doctrina
● Convento
- Place of residence of the doctrinero
● Reduksiyon
- The program of resettlement of the natives

EVENTS WHERE THESE TERMS ARE OF USE

- The fact that there is limited number of members from the Civil and Military
government and also the Christianizing of the natives formed an integral part of
colonization, the task of going to the peripheries, to the mouths of the rivers, to
the depths of the valleys, and into forest clearings, were given to the doctrinero.
 - After doctranizing them and proving themselves superior to the Ensalmadores
and Saludadores, it is time to bring the natives to one settlement and make the
empadronados through registration and this was how reduksiyon was affected
- Once it became large enough, the colonial government in Manila would elevate
the settlement into a Pueblo and appoint a Gobernadorcillo to run its local
governance
- There were those who didn't want to settle in the Pueblo, instead they wished to
settle in separate villages. The Spanish officials and the friars allowed it, as long
as it is within the boundaries of Bajo de la Campana or the “Sound of the Bell”
- These villages became visitas for the doctrinero that resided in the convento
located at the cabisera of the Pueblo would not have a residence but would only
visit these villages.
- Eventually, though, a doctrinero would reside in the visitas and these villages will
then be called doctrina
- It was in these settlements (Pueblos, Visitas, Doctrinas, Parokya) are where the
cultural entrapment happened
- The reason for the reduksiyon was exactly to affect a form of cultural entrapment.
The “Laws of the Indies” contained provisions to this effect

LAWS OF THE INDIES

● Law #1 of the Book 6, Title 3
- Let the Indians be congregated in villages and not live divided and
separated by the sierras and montes forgoing any profits spiritual
and temporal without relief of our ministers and at which human
needs require which men should give each other.
● Law #19 Book 6, title 1
- Let the Indians be placed in a well-ordered settlement without being
forced so that they may benefit from Christianity and Law and Order.
It should be mandated that they be congregated and live together
since in this way, their prelates will know them and their needs and
doctrine be attended to. And because this is convenient, we
command the viceroys and governors to achieve this by all possible
means without coercing them and explaining to them how useful and
beneficial this mandate is for their progress and good governance

- In this settlements, the natives were taught the Spanish language, at least
enough for them to understand the basic catechesis and memorize the basic
prayers. They were initiated as well to the Spanish form of life.
- As time goes by, the future generations of the native Filipinos came to believe
that the Spanish culture is superior and if not the only culture in the world.
 - Bonifacio condemned the Spaniard’s lifestyle as an empty promise in his “Ang
Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog”
- Before Bonifacio and even Gomez and Burgos, there were those natives who
doubted the promises of the friars. They were the pre-colonial elites: the
shamans, ensalmadores, saludadores and the principales just to name a few.
Because they were the one who was supplanted by the friars and the colonial
government officials.
- Some killed while others took a passive approach: to move back into the
wilderness.
- Those who had doubts but still remained in the Pueblos found themselves torn
between the old and new traditions and system both seemingly demanding their
loyalty
- Over time, though, they managed to maneuver so that their duties to their
Hispanic masters would be met without utterly betraying their indigenous beliefs
and culture.
- Their attitude towards the Spanish way of life remained ambivalent; some
aspects they agree with, others they disagree with.

GAMBLING
- Such ambivalent feelings, as Guerrero noted, were expressed in Gambling.
- Gambling did not start with the colonization of Spain since it existed long before
the Spaniards came
- Gambling became its primary expression. Since their life was a gamble in and of
itself, spiritually or physically.
- Adhering to the Spaniards’ belief system was tantamount to endangering their
physical lives at the hands of the shamans, ensalmadores, and saludadores. And
their spiritual lives at the anitos.
- Doing the opposite will endanger their physical lives because of the friars and
military officials
- Of all the forms of gambling back then, the Juego de Gallos that represented the
native’s ambivalent attitude the most
- Sabong was already here when Magellan arrived in 1521 and was included in
Pigafetta’s account in their visit to Palawan. Hocano narrated Pigafetta’s account.
- Traditionally, two colors were used to symbolize the fighting fouls, Red and
White. Red denotes courage and life while White represents death and defeat.
But this is a game of chance.
- During the colonial times, cockfighting assumed a political undertone wherein red
means indigenous courage while white the colonizers
- Craig: “A Filipino’s loyalty cannot be easily destroyed”
 - Rizal himself was loyal at least to the side of Spain he idealized. Spain who had
generous those logous intentions to its colonies.
- Fear that entrapped the native

IDEOLOGY OF SUBMISSION
- How out of the policy and ideology which was different from the one crafted by
the crown and the royal and supreme council of the Indies was created.
- Different from the ideology behind the colonization
- History tells us about how modern colonization started with the 2 competing
countries of the Iberian Peninsula, both of which were predominantly Catholic.
- Spreading Christianity was important.
- That's why we always see missionaries beside the Conquistadors
- Despite sometimes resulting to despotism, the king and the friars believed in
everyone’s equality in the eyes of God, if not, in intelligence and culture
- Thus we witness how both the crown through the supreme council forbade
coercion. Cajole if needed but never coerce them to accept the new system.
- Both the Church and the crown condemned slavery.
- In the Philippines, far from the crown which controlled the actions of the
colonizers, many things happened.
- The friars who supplanted the role of the ensalmadores and saludadores which
in effect, showed the supremacy of the new belief system to the indigenous
people.
- The natives were also put into settlements and were exposed day in and day out
new practices and ideals

RIZAL: THE PHILIPPINES A CENTURY HENCE

● 3 Paragraphs in, Rizal describes how the changing of the former government, the
laws, usages, customs, religion and beliefs caught the Filipinos in their:
“Metamorphosis without confidence in their past; without faith in the present; and
no fond hope in the faith to come”
● This, perhaps, is the best summary for the meaning of the Ideology of
Submission
● The friars and colonial officials bombarded the natives with new cultural ideas
when they gathered them into their settlements. The natives, quoting Rizal:
“Gradually lost their ancient traditions, their recollections, they forgot their
writings, ther songs, their poetry, their laws in order to learn by heart other
doctrines which they did not understand. Other ethics, other tastes, different from
those inspired in their race by their climate and their way of thinking.”
 ● Eventually the natives began to be ashamed of what they used to be
● Through the various things that the friars have done, the Spaniards painted
intentionally or unintentionally a picture of a superior culture to the natives and
made the natives look down on their indigenous ones.
● The spanish writers, friars in most cases, who through their writings, portrayed
the Filipinos not just inferior but also nigh-deplorable.
● For every Padre Pedro Tierrino, there was a Gaspar de San Agustin and for
every Antonio Morga there was a Pedro Morillo Velarde
● This was to say that for every honest description, honest as far as the eye can
tell them, there was an unnecessary and unsavory commentary.
● Rizal noted, the works of Fray Agustin and Father Vellarde were not published
during their times, it must have affected how the people in their group or circle
view the natives
● Over time, the Spaniards began to plan to lower the education provided to the
natives to make them into a brute and develop a race without mind or heart.
● The Spaniards made the natives ignorant and fearful through the social systems
● As Rizal noted: “3 centuries of brutalization and obscurantism have necessarily
had some influence upon us. The most beautiful work of divinity in the hands of
certain artisans may finally get converted into a caricature.”
● The friars and the government were only part of the problem, regardless of it
being the majority of the reason. There was the Filipino’s Specimenism, Loyalty
and Disunity

RIZAL ON FILIPINO SPECIMENISM

“But for him who, disillusioned by sad experience, saw everywhere discord and
disorder. Apathy and brutalization in the lower classes, discouragement and
disunion on the upper, only one answer presented itself. And it was extend his
hands to the chains, bow his neck beneath the yoke and accept the future with
the resignation of an invalid who watches the leaves fall and foresees a long
winter amidst whose nose he discerns as an outline of his grave”

RIZAL ON FILIPINO LOYALTY

“So the Philippine peoples have remained faithful during 3 centuries. Giving up
their liberties and independence sometimes dazzled by the hope of the paradise
promised, sometimes cajoled by the friendship offered to them by a noble and
generous people like the Spanish, sometimes also compelled by the superiority
of arms of which they are ignorant and which spirit invested on the mysterious
character.”
FILIPINO DISUNITY
- It took the martyrdoms of 3 secular priests in Bagumbayan, 2 of which are the
champions for nationalism, to awaken nationalist sentiments in the Filipinos’
hearts.
- Exiled Illustrados, wounded pride of the Principalia?
- It took another martyrdom in Bagumbayan 24 years later to finally rouse the
Filipinos to a bloody revolution.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. From the discussion about the Pacto de Sangre, we learned that this ancient
ritual of establishing friendship and alliances formally started the colonization of
this country
2. The natives and Spaniards reached an agreement which allowed the Spaniards
to put settlements within their lands. It also gave them the right to use the natives
for military purposes if one group does not intend to accept their peace overtures
3. From the discussion of Conquista Espiritual, we learned that in order to preserve
and expand the gains of peace overtures and military conquest, another
conquest must be done; the conquest of the mind. The friars managed to
accomplish this by supplanting the ensalmadores and saludadores. With the
natives being introduced to a new source of healing and knowledge, they started
to trust and follow the new system and new beliefs.
4. From the discussion of the Cultural Entrapment and the Colonial Cockpit, the
attempt to solidify the gains from the Conquista Espiritual was made and to some
degree, has succeeded. By relocating the natives to Pueblos or other smaller
settlements within the Bajo de La Campana
5. We also learned that the settlements functioned as some sort of entrapment
where the Filipinos who accepted the new but could not really shake off the old
found themselves torn between two opposing influence either because of loyalty
or fear or both
6. From the discussion of the Ideology of Submission, we learned how living in
those settlements introduced the natives to new culture and new practices that in
time made them look in disgust and shame at their indigenous culture
7. We also learned of efforts to disparage the Filipino race that, to Rizal, was
purposed to make the Filipinos know more than beasts of burden with neither
capacity for virtue nor tendency for vice
8. We also learned that it was not entirely the Spaniards’ fault. Our ancestors were
also to blame, if only to a lesser degree. There was the Filipino’s loyalty and
attachment to the colonizers, there was the Filipino’s specimism and there was
the characteristic disunity. And, although the Mala race to which Filipinos were
said to belong, was known for sensitivity, it took as big an insult as 2 martyrdoms
finally roused them up to a bloody revolution