John Michael D. Valera Prof. Jayson S.

Payumo
BSCE 2-1 Buhay at Mga Sinulat ni Rizal

ASSESSMENT
Instruction: Discuss the following items thoroughly. Write the question before each answer. Each
answer should contain at least three (3) paragraphs of not less than four (4) sentences each. You
may write your answers in Filipino. Do not forget to write your full name in the upper left corner
of the paper and your course, year and section below it while the name of your professors should
be indicated in the upper right.

1. Who are the personages mentioned and what is their relationship with each other?
The Dominican Friar Orders, formally known as the Organization of Preachers, is a
Catholic mendicant order founded in France by the Spanish priest Saint Dominic. The Spaniards
entrusted them with the care and governance of the country, and they did just that. The Dominicans
took control of the Calamba Hacienda after the Jesuits, who held it before, were expelled in 1768.
The Dominicans owned nearly all of the land in and around Calamba at one point.
There has also been a mention of Rizal, another character. Laguna was Rizal’s native town,
Calamba. It was requested that Rizal investigate the disputed fertile land owned by Dominican
friars by the Calamba tenants. Rizal agreed. They’re both members of the Rizal clan! The truth,
and Calamba’s other renters resolved to find out. A report for the city council was requested by
the tenants, and Rizal agreed.
Tenants suffered for numerous years as a result of the unjustifiable levies they were forced
to pay. Rent and taxes were rising if the economy had suffered a slump or the harvest had been
poor. The tenants endured beneath the friars. More than fifty residents, including tenants and
principals, wrote and signed the following report after a through investigation.

2. Why was this document written? Provide evidences from the document.
According to Rizal, the residents of Calamba and him drafted a petition to the administrator
of Laguna’s public islands to avert an increase in land rent. The renters suffered for several years
as a result of the unjustifiable levies they had to pay. And if the economy had suffered a downturn
or the harvest had been weak, the and taxes would have increased. The tenants endured beneath
the friars.
The document was created for a variety of reasons, including Rizal’s desire to promote
awareness. Despite the continued effort, the number of things available to tenants has considerably
decreased. Indebted and dispossessed of their properties, as indicated by the high number of ruined
farmers, not just before, but also over the last three years. This document was written to put an end
to the Dominican friars’ corruption.
People are said to be able to drag chains, according to the estate officials. Since the
company is affluent and intends to pay ten thousand pesos to win the lawsuit for telling the truth
in this post. In other words, they have a copy of a treasury letter that threatened the tenants who
testified. It was demonstrated that the evidence was presented rather than the estate's wishes. As a
result, Rizal determined to extricate 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?
Life must have been difficult at the time, especially for farmers who were in such a
financial mess merely to pay the Dominican friars. Calamba has demonstrated that it was and is
one of the province’s most industrious and farming towns. The removed forests, as well as the land
on the steep slopes, are proof of this. Its huge rice-fields, as well as the machinery and mills driven
by animals.
The tenants who were interested in this must have fought hard in spite of the Dominican
friars’ authority and intimidation. Farmers feel discouraged when they realize the land they’ve
worked so hard to cultivate and clean being unjustly taken away for illegitimate or unjustified uses.
In recent years, the citizens of Calamba have been the ones who, through their efforts, money, and
toil, have made these fields tillable and fruitful, with the Estate having done nothing except hurting
this or that farmer in the process. Despite everything that was going on at the time, the renters
refused to be heard.
A long period has passed, and the people have endured incessantly, without objecting or
raising their voices. After hearing that foreign governments favor agriculture and commerce of
their respective countries at the cost of enormous sacrifices and heroic measures, the impoverished,
exhausted people of their respective countries now appeal to their own government, which is
enlightened and full of paternalistic intentions, to a government that they have dreamed of and
desired in their misery. They do, however, call to it, not for subsidies, privileges, or sacrifices, but
for the light, justice, and equity to which they are entitled as citizens of a country famed for its
sense of justice and noble values.

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

a.) According to the declarations of the tenants interviewed, the Estate’s products are to be
understood as all that the land generates. It has risen for the Estate while falling
dramatically for the renters, not only in previous years but also in recent years. As
evidenced by the enclosed account, a statement like this must be explained. Other than a
few cavanes of rice given to the workers during a locust invasion, a few thousand pesos
invested in badly planned dikes constructed under the direction of a lay-friar of the Estate,
 and some losses, such as the debts of some unfortunate tenants who are unable to pay, the
Estate has no other expenses except a few cavanes of rice given to the workers during a
locust invasion.
b.) Despite continued labor, the goods for tenants have declined significantly, not only before but
also during the last three years, as evidenced by the vast number of wrecked farmers who
are indebted and evicted from their land. Seeing that the lands they have so laboriously
cultivated and cleared are taken away arbitrarily for pointless reasons or without
justification, and that they cannot trust the Estate itself, has discouraged the farmers. At
times, the lay-friar manager’s commands, such as requiring the farmer to purchase
machinery, construct renovations, and make exorbitant expenditures, are later destroyed
by his successor, who requires the farmer to pay demolition costs.
c.) During the beginning, the wild forests are given to the renters for a minimal rent. According to
how the tenants remove and clean them, how much money they invest in them, and how
much money they spend. When the farmer’s fortune is involved, the contract is arbitrarily
revised by the Estate, and the rent skyrockets, with one situation where 45 pesos became
900 pesos in a few years as a result of annual demands imposed. Because some landowners
pay twice for two rice crops, such as bamboo groves. Despite the fact that the farmer pays
for the land and each bamboo grove. The question of whether it is ineffective or has been
felled.

5. What was the reaction to the complaint?

Since the report was written in the Tribunal and signed by three government officials, it
was deemed fair. In the estate itself, it reached the Reverend Dominican Fathers’ lay-friar
manager’s ears. Several tenants were threatened with raising their rents if the Administration of
Taxes collected ten percent real estate taxes from the Estate as a result of this report, based on the
number of tributes. He told the others that he wanted the governorcillo to be held liable for any
pillage or theft that the Estate might suffer in the future.
For telling the truth in this report, estate officials fear that individuals will drag chains
because the estate officials are lying to the public. In order to win the litigation, the corporation
proposes to spend a total of ten thousand pesos. Essentially, they showed a copy of a Treasury
letter that threatened renters who testified in accordance with the truth rather than the Estate’s
wishes. Inexplicable and dubious threats like this exist. Though they may appear, they have not
disrupted the quiet of this town, being confidence in the fairness of its cause and the rectitude of
the government that has triggered the war upon requesting them to tell the whole truth.
People are alarmed when they see these unreasonable pretenses and ask the government
for prompt and direct intervention to prevent incalculable evils. In the face of the impossibility of
living in peace with the Estate from now on, the people are forced to lie to the government or risk
being deprived of their land for the rest of their lives. They argue for the separation of its interests,
selling to them or transferring these lands to them who have made them tillable and put capital,
labor, and toil in them, in this highly unusual circumstance, in order to fulfill their obligation.

6. What were the final demands of the petition?

Non-exclusively due to the Government’s good name, the rulers’ respect and dignity, and
the excellent connections between them and their subjects, this action is required. The Laguna
Court of First Instance ruled that the Municipal Court of Calamba’s ruling was unconstitutional.
The tenants’ eviction was declared legitimate by the appellate court. A restatement of the court’s
decision is given below:
a. People placed in the midst of seemingly hostile interests, such as those of the Estate and
those of Tax Administration, will undoubtedly be morally corrupted if, in this struggle
initiated in the cause of truth demanded by the Government, they see hunger, vexations,
and misery as a result of their truthfulness. The people, as well as the government, would
be harmed by this, in the opinion of those who, in their plight, might make a thousand rude
and tragic assumptions.
b. The Estate’s leonine contracts, the Estate’s capricious procedure, and the Estate’s
insecurity Tenants do not allow the cultivation of other more profitable and future-oriented
plants, such as coffee, abaca, and others, because the Estate may take the land away and
give it to someone else before they flourish.
c. The oppressive conditions of the town lots suffocate people’s well-being in terms of the
town’s beautification and urbanization measure.
d. Only its irrigated lands are legally considered the Estate’s estate if it is claimed, and the
Government can find out the reality, that the Estate paid real estate tax. It does not belong
to the dry land for which the residents must pay exorbitant rent under the law. In reality,
Mr. Asanza, who, according to them, ceded this estate to the business in payment of his
obligation, could not be the owner of the entire town because he had neither acquired it nor
cleaned or cleared it from anyone.
e. Residents of Calamba have been the ones who, through their efforts, have made a
difference in the last few years. These fields have been tillable and productive thanks to
money and toil, and the Estate has benefited from it. Nothing, other than damaging this or
that farmer, contributed.
f. People would be motivated to enhance and beautify the lands they farm if they knew they
would be able to leave the results of their effort to their progeny. Because the Estate
discourages and impoverishes the capitalist and sets hundreds of barriers in his road, the
current condition of affairs smothers this ambition and kills farming in this town, one of
the most industrious of the province. There are many other factors to consider, in addition
to the clear intelligence of their rulers, who are accustomed to putting themselves in the
shoes of their citizens in order to better comprehend their requirements.