By reading the title, you can now know what the article is about, the Philippines of Rizal’s time. During Rizal’s time, the Philippines was under the colonization of the Spaniards and their evil ways on ruling a country. The article technically states the kinds of evil things the Spaniards did which were (1) Instability of colonial administration, (2) corrupt officialdom, (3) no Philippine representation in the Spanish Cortes, (4) human rights denied to Filipinos, (5) no equality before the law, (6) maladministration of justice, (7) racial discrimination, (8) frailocracy, (9) forced labor, (10) haciendas owned by the friars, and (11) the Guardia Civil.
The article further discussed how these evils led us to what we are now, a free country.Since the article is a timeline, the highlights would also be in a timeline manner. The instability of colonial policies and a periodic rigodon of colonial officials had 50 governors-general which was likely to serve about one year and three month for 62 years. These officials were highly corrupt, incompetent and venal. Another highlight would be knowing Spain’s purpose in colonizing the Philippines, which was to win the support of it’s colonies during the Napoleonic invasion. Sadly, the Spanish authorities who cherished human rights or constitutional liberties in Spain denied them to the Filipinos.
Due to the fact that the Filipinos were denied of human rights, there was no equality before the law and the Filipinos greatly suffered since they couldn’t get the justice they deserved for there was maladministration of justice. The courts were notoriously corrupt and litigations were a calamity at the time. There was racial discrimation and major factors of winning would be the person’s wealth, social prestige and color of the skin.Reading the article, I can say that the Filipino race is a brave, strong, intelligent race.
I have faith in the Filipinos. The struggle of the Philippines of Rizal’s time was no icing on the cake since we were unknowledgeable, uneducated but still, they managed to rise up to the Spaniards and fought for the freedom they truly deserved. The Philippine history serves as a great inspiration to the children of the new generation and I hope that the inspiration may be of good use for us, children, in patriotism and in our everyday lives. Also, that this new generation will be treated equally in law and in life.
