Why we should know what happened to friar lands in Philippines

Sometime ago I was with some Taiwanese on a tour outside Manila. They didn’t say much but at the end they said, they were shocked at so much empty land. The Taiwanese plant in every square foot of land possible and said the Philippines is a prosperous land. What could we do to plant on them? That was a good question I did not think of because I had presumed the lands are all privately owned and the owners did not wish to plant on them. The term is land-banking. They keep the land to wait until the prices go up.

In JStor’s collection of documents we learn that those who complained about the land problem came from “the friar estates”(of all people). These were not touched when the King ordered the investigation. No mention was made of the church.

“There exists nothing in the wording or contents of this order to indicate that the church or friars were or had been offenders although an administrator of the King was charged with the investigation of the titles to all lands, forests and estates, held by any person or corporation.

The lands of the church were not specifically mentioned in the royal commission, neither were they referred to in that of his subdelegate, Sierra. There can be no question but that the conditions of land-holding by the friars constituted a grave problem in the Philippines, and that it was the royal will that the abuses of the religious should be remedied.

The best ecclesiastical authority of the Philippines, always the champion of the church, said that the object of the government was to correct abuses which had arisen in the land tenure of the friars.

The lands referred to were the unassigned villages or lands belonging to the government, lands which had been usurped by the religious orders. He reports the orders established themselves without bothering with titles. The church lands were temporarily alienated in 1834 and 1846, because of an interruption in the friendly relations between the Spanish government and the papal court. In 1851 the breach was healed and the Spanish government guaranteed to the church full rights to all its lands and properties, “to acquire, hold and enjoy in propriety, and without limitations or reserve, all kinds” of possessions, values,” etc.

The Friar land scandal is important and shows how Filipinos were robbed of their soil. “The history of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and the agreed myth of its conquerors.” – Meridel Le Sueur, American writer.

We native Filipinos have been so brainwashed into believing that we are essentially corrupt, i.e. with a “culture of corruption” in our blood/veins, figuratively speaking. Maybe to a degree we have become so after witnessing for generations the corrupt practices of those in power (in government, military and business), top to petty bottom; foreign, then native. As may be said: “the values of those above cascade down to those below” or something to that effect.

We may not know exactly when our high corruption index began, but it appears that during the early American colonial period, our new foreign masters – the Americans – were no better than the defeated Spaniards (i.e. hated friars) as demonstrated in the following case of the so-called “Friar Land Scandal.” Friar lands remain a legal curse, a century of disputes. Published by reposted only on March 26, 2012 “After more than a century of legal disputes since the US government tried resolving the friar lands question in the Philippines, the vast estates owned by Spanish Catholic monastic orders remain a labyrinthian issue among local courts and the much-assailed irregularities in the bureaucracy and the justice system had further made life difficult for those staking their claims on these prime pieces of land. When the Americans took over the Philippines from 300 years of Spanish rule in 1898, among the first problems that confronted the new colonizer was the disposition of the so-called friar lands.” These huge tracts of land are owned mostly by three predominant Spanish religious orders, the Dominicans, Augustinians and Recollects, and comprise about one-tenth of all the improved lands in the islands. The Philippine Revolution prior to the American takeover was mainly fueled by discontent among local peasants with the feudal practices among these estates. In the Treaty of Paris signed in 1898 between the Spanish and American governments to settle the war between the two countries, the US government agreed to protect the friars’ rights over these. The US purchased some 170,000 hectares of these lands for $7 million for resale. Last March 6, the SC, in a close 8-7 decision denied with finality appeals made by three families claiming possession of a 34-hectare prime lot near Ayala Heights subdivision in Quezon City known to many as the Piedad Estate, one of the biggest pieces of friar land in the country.

I don’t think this history is unknown to the Catholic church authorities now playing savior of the Filipino people by taking away lands that belonged to them.

Sometime ago, my colleague Bobbit Avila wrote ”Settling the supposedly settled friar lands!“ https://www.philstar.com/nation/2005/09/28/298944/settling-supposedly-settled-friar-lands#0GRd5RKCMPzYvX8O.99

He also wrote on “The Banilad friar estate in Cebu: Why all the trouble?” | Philstar.com

There may be answers in the question confronting the government and Filipino public if the Catholic Church should be taxed? How wealthy is it and why it should still charge for its services. We should look at the history of friar lands and what happened to them.