1.

The land problems and uneven distribution of wealth in the Philippines

• The country’s uneven development.

• The local elite who usually own the factors of production (particularly land),
have become instrumental in propagating their wealth through rent-seeking
and patronage.

• The government has also allowed itself to be manipulated by the particularist

demands of the elite, by implementing policies that are flawed and bereft of
concerns for the country's long-run development.

• Problems of land redistribution, corruption, and the continued domination of

oligarch elite in major industries.

1.1The Calamba Controversy

• The inhabitants of Calamba do not own a single foot of land

 According to Palma’s account in his book “Pride of the Malay Race,”

the inhabitants of Calamba do not own a single foot of land. All of
Calamba forms part of an estate, which at the time of its writing
belonged to the Dominican Order.

 During the Spanish regime, Philippines land ownership was ruled by

private sectors, generally by the encomenderos, large landlords and
friar feudal haciendas. Small farmers were struggling at that time for
agrarian rights, especially that titular system was not infamous and
ancestral domainship is their only legal basis for ownership.
• The hacienda belongs to the Jesuits, they called it "Hacienda de San Juan
Bautista"
 Records showed that in early 18th Century, a Don Pedro de Megrete
who lived in New Spain (in Mexico) left a last will and testament. The
will provided that in case the college, which he intend to establish in
Carranza shall not be founded, the funds that he left for the purpose
amounting to 125,000 Pesos should be turned-over to the Procurador
General of the Society of Jesus in the Province of the Philippines. The
will further provided that the Procurador should give the funds to the
Provincial to establish missions for conversions in the Philippines. The
Jesuits used part of the sum to purchase the Calamba property owned
by Don Manuel de Jaurie. Now that the hacienda belongs to the
Jesuits, they called it “Hacienda de San Juan Bautista.”
• The hacienda was sold to the Dominican friars for 40,000 pesos
 In 1833, after the historic expulsion of the Jesuits in the Philippines the
king of Spain sold the hacienda to the Dominican friars for 40,000
 Pesos. The Dominican Corporation derived the funds to support the
University of Santo Tomas and the Saint Joseph College from the
income of the hacienda.
• Misunderstandings between the administration and the tenants
 From 1887 to 1892, the hacienda becomes a subject of controversies.
Misunderstandings ensued between the administration and the
tenants regarding unreasonable land levies, this involved Rizal’s
father, Francisco Mercado, a tenant of the Dominican friars—landlords
of the hacienda.

Dr. Jose Rizal, a native of Calamba, then in Madrid, advocated the

cause of the Filipino farmers in his homeland and fought for their
rights in the courts of Spain. Rizal amplified the issues through his
propaganda activities and his two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo, which portrayed the social ills that perturbed the
Philippines under the Spanish rule.

 At the time of Rizal’s birth, his father was a rice planter, renting a
large parcel of land from the Dominican friars in their hometown of
Calamba, in the province of Laguna. The Dominicans charged
exorbitant rents from their Calamba tenants and did not give receipts
for the sums they collected so they would pay fewer taxes. (The
religious orders, which owned vast amounts of lands, were not exempt
from paying taxes).

When Rizal's father and the other Calamba tenants reported this tax
evasion scheme to the civil authorities, the Dominicans retaliated by
seeking their eviction and their replacement with non-Calamba
tenants.

Rizal's father filed a lawsuit against the Dominicans to stop their

eviction but his suit failed. One of the reasons Rizal was sent to Spain
by his family was to file suit in the Supreme Court in Spain to overturn
the Philippine court's decision on his family's eviction.

 Before Rizal had set up his practice in Hong Kong, the Supreme Court
of Madrid in 1891 rendered its final decision denying Rizal's petition to
stop the eviction of the Rizal family and other Calamba tenants by the
Dominicans. It was mandated that tenants of Calamba be expelled if
they fail to leave the hacienda before the date set by the law. Rizal’s
family dispossessed from the Dominican-owned hacienda in Calamba
in the absence of Rizal. Governor- General Weyler, who took the place
of Governor-General Terrero, was sympathetic to the friars and so he
deployed 50 soldiers from the peninsular regiment of artillery to drive
out the poor tenants and the soldiers showed no mercy when they
burned the houses as the tenants exceeded to the given 12 days to
evacuate their belongings.
• Rizal's Settlement Project in Sabah (North Borneo)
  While on a short Christmas vacation to Singapore in December
of 1891, Rizal met William and Ada Pryer on the S.S. Melbourne ship.
After learning that Pryer had just been appointed manager of British
North Borneo, Rizal proposed to set up a Filipino settlement in North
Borneo, composed of the Calamba tenants who had been evicted from
their lands by the Dominicans.

 The hardship of his family and townmates weighed heavily on Rizal's

mind which is what prompted him to make the proposal to Pryer. In
March of 1892, Rizal visited Sandakan, North Borneo and negotiated
an agreement with Pryer whereby Rizal would be given 5,000 acres
without payment for three years, with the British company
undertaking the construction of buildings and the planting of orchards.
After three years, Rizal was to pay three pesos per acre, which would
not be a problem as Rizal's medical practice was successful.

In April of 1892, Rizal decided to employ the direct approach and to

personally ask the Spanish Governor General in Manila, Eulogio
Despujol, for permission to allow the Calamba families to leave for
Borneo.

On June 26, 1892, Rizal arrived in Manila with his sister, Lucia. They
registered at the Hotel del Oriente, the most modern hotel at the time.
Later in the afternoon, Rizal went to Malacañang to meet Despujol. Ten
days of discussions followed during which Rizal presented his proposals
and answered Despujol's questions.

The consul whom Despujol coursed his reply, informed that the
Governor-General had received his letter but he considered the Sabah
project anti-patriotic as the Philippines was short of labor to cultivate
its lands, and that he did not favor the establishment of Filipino
community in Sabah.

In their last discussion on July 6, 1892, Despujol informed Rizal that he

was under arrest for sedition and he was then incarcerated in Fort
Santiago. On July 14, Despujol deported Rizal to Dapitan in far-off
Zamboanga in the southern island of Mindanao.

• Rizal said in his letter to Blumentritt on February 23, 1892:

"If it is impossible for me to give my country liberty. I should like to give it at

least to these noble countrymen of mine in other lands"