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Lesson 4 Assessment

The document discusses life for tenants in Calamba, Philippines under the Dominican friars in the 19th century. It describes how the friars imposed unjustifiably high rents that increased further during economic downturns, forcing tenants into debt. Jose Rizal was asked to investigate and wrote a petition signed by over 50 residents documenting abuses including arbitrary rent hikes and threats against those who complained. The demands of the petition sought to curb friar oppression and unjustified tax increases, though the tenants' case was ultimately unsuccessful.

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54 views

Lesson 4 Assessment

The document discusses life for tenants in Calamba, Philippines under the Dominican friars in the 19th century. It describes how the friars imposed unjustifiably high rents that increased further during economic downturns, forcing tenants into debt. Jose Rizal was asked to investigate and wrote a petition signed by over 50 residents documenting abuses including arbitrary rent hikes and threats against those who complained. The demands of the petition sought to curb friar oppression and unjustified tax increases, though the tenants' case was ultimately unsuccessful.

Uploaded by

MCU ADDICT
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

1.

Who are the personages mentioned and what is their relationship with each
other?
The Dominican Friar Orders, formally known as the Order of Preachers, are a
Catholic mendicant order founded in France by the Spanish priest Saint Dominic. The
Spaniards entrusted them with the responsibility of maintaining and controlling the land.
The Dominicans took over administration of the Calamba hacienda after the Jesuits,
who had held it before, were expelled in 1768. The Dominicans held nearly all of the
land in and surrounding Calamba.
Another character who has been mentioned is Rizal. Laguna, Calamba was Rizal's
hometown. In response to a request by the tenants of Calamba, Rizal was asked to
undertake an investigation into the Dominican friars' rich land dispute. Both the Rizal
family and the other Calamba renters made the decision to find out the truth. The
renters urged Rizal to produce a report for the city council (Dunesa, 1970).
Renters have to be taken into consideration. The renters suffered for several years
as a result of the unjustifiable levies they had to pay. Rent and taxes were rising if there
had been a downturn in the economy or if the crop had been poor. The tenants suffered
beneath the friars. Following a thorough inquiry, the following report was written and
signed by over fifty residents, including renters and principals.

2. Why was this document written? Provide evidences from the document.
According to Rizal, the inhabitants of Calamba and him filed a petition to the
administrator of Laguna's public islands to stop the rise in land rent. The renters
suffered for several years as a result of the unjustifiable levies they had to pay. Rent
and taxes were rising if there had been a downturn in the economy or if the crop had
been poor. The tenants suffered beneath the friars.
In addition, the fact that Rizal sought to promote awareness was another reason for
the document's creation, as well. Despite the constant effort, the number of things
available to the tenants has substantially decreased. The enormous numbers of
wrecked farmers, not only earlier, but also over the last three years, are indebted and
dispossessed of their properties. This document was written to put an end to the Friar’s
unfair reasoning and treatment (Dunesa, 1970).
People can drag chains because the company is affluent, according to estate
authorities. Also, the company is willing to pay ten thousand pesos to win the case if the
truth is disclosed in this piece. A copy of the Treasury's letter that threatened the
tenants who testified in accordance with the evidence rather than according to the
estate's intentions was revealed. As a result, Rizal made the decision to relieve his
family and the tenants from their agony.

3. What can you tell about life in the Hacienda de Calamba during the time the
document was written?
Increase in rent drastically, non-stop laboring, which pushed the tenants and Rizal to
write a petition reporting different kinds of abuse and injustice. So yes, we can say that
life when the petition was filed was a living hell. Rizal’s life during the filing of petition
was also hard because it was constantly rejected. Even though the Dominican Friars
used intimidation and threats, people from Calamba and Rizal pushed through it and
fight the injustice.
Being indebted to the Dominican friars, some farmers in Calamba are pushed to the
edge. Taxation or taxes that keeps increasing, force them to work for more hours to
compensate for their said deficiency. Today in our time, working harder can actually can
make your life better. However, this is not the case in Calamba in the nineteenth
century, where they are forced out of their home, and can’t do much improvement in
their houses.
In these times, Filipinos actually can’t achieve any farther rather than being in middle
class. Spanish government and Dominican friars or land owners squeeze everything out
for their own benefit. As stated in the petition Rizal made “The people have suffered a
long time, without complaining, without raising their voice.” But this petition is like a
hope to them where they can take control of their own properties and life.

4. What are the complaints of the tenants? Enumerate at least three.


According to the tenants’ statements, if something that the land makes is to be
understood by products, the Estate's products have considerably dropped for the
renters for the Estate's sand. Not just in prior years, but also recently, in the last three,
as the accompanying record demonstrates. Neither an official who is not a professional
nor a surveyor measures the land and magically making it wider or shorter. Changing
from a wooden house to a stone house, to a more sophisticated one can also raise your
rent up to 16 silver dollars.
The Estate can amend the contract unilaterally, and the rent skyrockets, with one
situation where 45 pesos turned into 900 pesos in a few years due to an annual
imposition of powers. This land where is used to be wild forest was given to the tenant
at a very low rent. They make the tenant believe that they invest large capitals on them,
clears them; clean them to make the rent rise up. Not mentioning that the contract given
or presented at the tenants are altered by the Estate.
Where there are bamboo groves, some communities pay twice for two rice harvests.
Even though this bamboos are useful or useless to them. Huts besides their property
that are meant for the workers, they also need to pay for it. These problems do make
people of Calamba or the farmers to work more (Dunesa, 1970).

5. What was the reaction to the complaint?


The complaints then reached and made the Dominican Friars more furious the time
it reached them. Instead of changing their way of collecting tax, the friars even
threatened and took ill of the complained and threatened them to increase the tax more.
Seeing from the file complaint, they really did increase the tax of the land at that time.
The Dominican Friars made their positions very clear that they won’t change their way
of collecting tax even though it is making the farmers of Calamba financially broke.
What’s more sad is that these threats are not empty; they do really carry out their
threats. Even though they raised their voice and tried to fight injustice, they get ignored
by the Dominican Friars. This kind of oppression is an attempt to what they call “power
play” to always make the indios or Filipinos in general “know their position.” The people
of Calamba can’t take the injustice anymore, for years they have suffered silently and
with the help of Dr. Jose Rizal, they actually did filed a complaint.
During the complaint was ongoing, friars did accomplished their goal. It is to seize
power from the farmers and keep them silent. More hardships were given and threats
carried out so I would not say that the days of processing the complaint was not any
different from what they did suffer from their landlords every day. But then, this make
the involvement of friar’s in any agricultural matter void.
6. What were the final demands of the petition?
Completing Rizal’s complaint with the final demand, it is composed of not so
ambitious demands. It is enough to free Calamban farmers from the tyranny they are
suffering. List of the demands were properly stated and numbered. This made the
position of Rizal and the farmers very clear.
One of the demands states that some farmers want to improve and beautify the
lands they harvest on for them to increase the production and profit. Second, they want
no unjustified increase in tax collection. Also, this includes they don’t want any
tyrannical methods or conditions that can make them financially broke. These are some
of the list of demands they filed almost half the page of the complaint (Dunesa, 1970).
Even though the complaint has gone through the process, the petition did not have a
happy ending. They did not win the case. Apparently, at that time and even today,
powerful people still win through their power and not fighting fair. Justice system is so
bent that it only favors the one who oppresses.

Works Cited
Dunesa, R. J. (1970, January 1). Chapter IV. The Cases of Eviction. Retrieved March 7,
2022, from The Hacienda de Calamba:
http://haciendadecalamba.blogspot.com/2012/06/chapter-iv-cases-of-
eviction.html

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