LIFE, WORKS & WRITINGS OF RIZAL
CHAPTER 6: Agrarian Disputes
VOCABULARY WORDS
CONQUISTADOR - a Spanish conqueror
CABALLERIA - a small tract of land included in a land grant
CANON - annual rent paid by the inquilino
CAVAN - a measure of 75 liters
HACIENDA - large estates that were used for raising livestock and agricultural production
INQUILINO - a tenant who rented land from the friars and subleased the land to sharecroppers
SHARECROPPERS - an individual who rented the land from the inquilino and worked the land
SITIO DE GANADO MAYOR - a large tract of land included in a land grant
BRIEF HISTORY OF FRIAR ESTATES IN THE PHLIPPINES
The origin of the friar estates can be traced back a land grants awarded to early Spanish
conquistadores who arrived in the Philippines during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries.
Approximately 120 Spaniards were given grants that were often composed of a larger tract of
hand known as sitio de ganado mayor (measuring 1,742 hectares) and smaller tracts of land as
caballerias (measuring 42.5 hectares)
In time, Spanish hacienderos failed to develop their lands for three reasons.
1. The Spanish population in the Philippines was transient.
2. The market for livestock products, which haciendas offered, remained relatively small
until the latter part of the Spanish colonial period.
3. The Galleon Trade that was based in Manila offered bigger economic rewards and
attracted more Spaniards.
In the 16th and 17thy centuries, the estates primarily served as cattle ranches as well as farms of
subsistence crops. Then later, rice and sugar are served as the main commodities produced by
hacienderos.
Agrarian relations in the haciendas developed in time.
In the mid-eighteenth century, an expanding economy based on exporting agricultural crops
ushered in changed and gradually put into place an Inquilino System –an individual rented land
for fixed annual award known as canon.
Aside from the rent, the inquilino or lessee was also expected on render personal services to his
landlord.
Usually, the inquilino in turn, would sub-leased the land to a kasama or sharecropper who
would then take on the task of cultivating the soil.
Thus, a three-tiered system emerged with the landlords at the top, the inquilinos at the middle,
and the sharecroppers at the bottom.
LIFE, WORKS & WRITINGS OF RIZAL
HACIENDA DE CAALAMBA CONFLICT
In 1757, a destitute Spanish layman, Don Manuel Jauregui, donated the lands to the Jesuits.
The Jesuits would claim ownership to the land for a mere eight years before they were expelled
from the Philippines through a decree issued by King Charles on February 27, 1767.
In 1803, the government sold the property to a Spanish layman, Don Clemente de Azansa, for
worth 44,507 pesos.
When he died in 1833, the Hacienda de Calamba, which measured 16,424 hectares, was
purchased by the Dominicans for 51,000 pesos.
In 1883, Paciano Rizal wrote that the friars were collecting rents without issuing the usual
receipts.
Two years later, 1885, the tenants failed to pay their rents because the rent had supposedly
increased while sugar prices had remained low.
Only few outsiders responded to the Dominican’s invitation, the friars weakened their positions.
Most tenants, except for four or five, were spared from eviction.
The charges against the friars continued with Rizal’s brother-in-law, Mariano Herbosa,
specifically complaining about the yearly increase in rentals, faulty irrigation system, and failure
to issue receipts.
Problems continued to escalate when in 1887, the colonial government demanded from the
tenants of the hacienda a report on the income and production of the estate because they
suspected that the Dominicans were evading payment of their taxes.
As a form of retaliation, the friars began to evict tenants who refused to pay rent in 1891.
The experience affected Rizal deeply and the increasing despair he felt from the event would be
reflected in his second novel, El Filibusterismo.
