[Philippine corruption] Ferdinand Marcos and the Philippines The Political Economy of Authoritarianism #6/163

Although early chronicles
allude to slavery, early servitude was more in the nature of service in exchange for
gratitude and protection than indentured slavery." Pre-Hispanic Philippine religion
was animistic, but by the fifteenth century, Filipinos in the south were already being
converted to Islam.

About a century later, with the sanction of the papacy, the most powerful
monarch of Europe engaged in voyages of discovery and colonization. The papal
bull of Pope Alexander VI divided the world into halves, one each for the Iberian
Catholic monarchies: Spain and Portugal." The Philippine Islands fell in the
Portuguese half, but because of inexact geographical knowledge, Spain laid claim
to the Philippines when Fernao Magalhaes, more popularly known as Ferdinand
Magellan, the first European to achieve the circumnavigation of the world, landed
there on March 17, 1521. Ironically, Fernao Magalhaes was a Portuguese in the
service of the Spanish king. Magalhaes was welcomed by the leader of the big island
of Cebu but repelled by the chief of the small island of Mactan. When Magalhaes
attacked Mactan to subjugate its chief, Lapulapu, however, the Portuguese captain
was killed in the battle.

Later voyages of the Spanish sought to establish a permanent colony. A Spanish
captain, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, named one of the islands "Filipinas," in honor of
King Felipe II. The name was later taken for the entire archipelago. In 1571, an
expedition led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi established a Spanish colony in what is
now Manila. With the help of some groups of Filipinos, he embarked on the
conquest of the islands, a process that took hundreds of years.

During three centuries of Spanish imperialism, the whole archipelago was never
placed under effective control by the Spaniards. Far fewer Spanish soldiers and
settlers went to Asia than went to the Americas. The conquest of Mexico and Peru
was destructive. It introduced diseases like small pox and syphilis, to which the
Indians were not immune. With more sophisticated armaments, in a generation or
so the Spaniards imposed their language and culture and brought about the mixture
of races in what is now called Latin America. They were less successful in the
Philippines.19 The friar was usually the only white man in a Filipino village. He was
the religious and secular head, the confessor, and the representative of the king in
the town. Because of his wide-ranging duties and scope of authority, he was prone
to commit abuses, and he did.

The head of the colony was the governor-general. His complete title was
"gobernador y capitan general y vice-real patron." As governor-general, he
governed for the king of Spain; he headed the colonial government and was the chief
legislator. As captain-general, he was the head of all armed forces; and as vice-royal
patron, he represented the king as patron of the Catholic Church.20 In his last role,
he often clashed with church leaders.

This elevated office, which is filled by a lieutenant general of the National Armies, is
vested with extraordinary and the most important attributes.... Annexed to this office
are those of Vice-Royal Patron of the Indias, Captain-General-in-Chief of the Army of
Filipinas, Inspector General of all troops and institutions, Supreme Chief of Naval Forces,
and President of all Corporations and Associations of an official character.21

His authoritarian rule was basically unchecked, except by the friars and the members
of the priestly orders.

The imposition of Spanish rule was made possible by a policy of "divide et
impera," "divide and rule." Dividing the Philippine peoples was easy because in the
first place, they had never been unified by a central authority and were divided into
many ethnolinguistic groups. There was no central government either. The
Spaniards capitalized on internal feuds among the groups and used one to conquer
another. In collaboration with the native leaders and with their armies, territories
were declared under the sovereign rule of the Spanish monarch. To make efficient
their quest for "god, gold, and glory," the Spaniards brought together the Filipinos
from their scattered dwellings into reducciones, within hearing of church bells
("bajo de la campana").22 Proximity facilitated control, tribute collection, conversion, and the practice of Christianity as well as the enforcement of other impositions
such as forced labor and government monopolies. The Spanish king granted
encomiendas, lists of names for the purpose and privilege of collecting tributes, to
Spanish military leaders and to other grantees, called encomenderos, in exchange for
their services in the conquest. Filipinos who collaborated with the Spaniards often
performed the task of tribute collection and were granted privileges and formal
authority over others.23

The Spaniards granted those Filipinos principalia status, and over generations,
they exercised their influence and power. They served as intermediaries to the
Spanish conquerors. From among the principalia, gobernadorcillos were selected
or chosen by lot.