THE VICTIM, PHILIPPINES

The Victim, Philippines

Badilla, Zephres, V.
Political Dynamics
Professor Jose L.
Precia Jr.
De La Salle University Dasmarias

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Abstract

This reaction paper was to prove and show agreement that the ideals of the leftist is the
root cause of the problem in the Philippines as historical evidences has shown, in the
invasion of the Spaniards which introduce Feudalism, to the treaty of Paris between
America and Spaniards, the start of colonialization of the Americans which deepened
the result of the Neo Colonialism in the Philippines and Capitalism in present day, till the
occupation of the Japanese during world war II, the exposure of communism,
imperialism and socialism, as three different kind of ruling of the colonizers the minds
and ideals of the Filipino gradually changed exposed to the ideals of the ruling invaders
and unknowingly passed it to generation to generation, this process of the so called
pass the baton gradually change the upcoming generation of the people of the
Philippines. The pass of idea gave birth to different kind of social issues and moral
integrity problems to our society. The method of our colonizer been deeply engrave to
the minds of the Filipino it created social issues like colonial mentality, dependent to
profit and capitalism, and family ruling or also called family dynasties. As some
researchers said most of the social issues of the Philippines society has been created
due to the mindset that been imprinted not on the ancestors of the pure Filipino but to its
colonizers. As the conclusion of the analysis is purely based on theory or factors of
historical evidences it has its own limitation to its facts depending to the perspective of
view of a person. The reaction and analysis are presented such that they can be used
as an aid to understand the side of the discourse of the author which is I.

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Philippines, the heartland of all Filipino, as Douglas MacArthur quote The Pearl of the
Orient describe as how beautiful the motherland is, how it became the treasure trove of
Asia, rich in natural resources, a strategic point in the heart of Asia however as many
compliments it could gain its growth is full of oppression. Invaded by different kind of
culture, tradition molded by foreign aspects and ideas that change our interest of life.
The first influences is when the Spaniards ruled the Filipinos for 333 years, its influence
on the Philippines and the Filipino inhabitants was immediately visible following the
imposition of colonial sovereignty. The Spaniards transplanted their social, economic,
and political institutions halfway across the world to the Philippine archipelago. The
colonial masters required the native Filipinos to swear allegiance to the Spanish
monarch, where before they only had village chieftains called "datus", to change their
own beliefs on religion, to abolish their babel tongue or in other words to speak a new
foreign language to replace their native tongue and alter their work habits, where before
they worked within the framework of a subsistence economy, a non-monetary economy
relies on natural resources to provide for basic needs. The Spanish landholding system
based on private ownership of land replaced the Filipino system of communal
landownership and thus the birth of the start of Feudalistic System in the Philippines
and sowing the seeds of colonialism on the mind of the Filipino. Thus, when the
Spanish rule ended, the Filipinos found many aspects of their way of life bearing the
strong imprint of Hispanization. That time to administer the Philippines, the Spaniards
extended their royal government to the Filipinos. This highly centralized governmental
system was Theocracy one of the extreme Leftist Ideology where there is a union of the
Church and the State. The Filipinos embraced Spanish Roman Catholic Religion almost

THE VICTIM, PHILIPPINES

unquestioningly this process enabled the Church to play a central role in the lives of the
Filipinos from birth to death. Nevertheless, it must be said that the Filipinos did not
receive the cultural influences from Spain doing nothing. They responded in a way that
demonstrated their capacity to master the new and to balance the new against the old,
thus they responded concisely to the influences the Spaniards brought with them to the
Philippines. Evidences of this is accepting Spanish customs like the "fiesta" that has
become one of the most endearing aspects of life in the Philippines, and made them to
adapt with their lifestyle to produce a cultural heritage. The next influence is the
American Colonialization, started after the Treaty of Paris after the Spanish-American
war, America signed the treaty buying the Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines as
whole as a package. After the treaty President McKinley ordered the War Department to
bring all of the islands of the Philippine under military control because the people of the
Philippines were too "uncivilized" to govern themselves and thus the start of
Americanization, American imperialism on the Philippines started as the installation of
an American-style democracy and the prevalent attitude that anything American is
"good". Partisan politics was one of those institutions which the Americans brought to
the Philippines leaning on the perspective of Authoritarian bureaucracy and one-party
state-building with the collaboration of Filipino elites at its core. The colonial state was
inaugurated with a Sedition Act that banned expressions in support of Philippine
independence,

Banditry Act

that

criminalized

ongoing

resistance,

and

Reconcentration Act that authorized the mass relocation of rural populations this serve
as the starting point of engraving American culture and ideology to us Filipinos they
introduce industries, invested more due the Philippines natural rich resources, the U.S.

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trade became larger and larger until the Philippines became almost entirely dependent
upon the American market and thus exposing us to the Capitalism. As some evidences
show that Free trade, established by an act of 1909, expanded in 1913, As the
Philippines improve on its useful fields like education and health system However, the
Philippines remained economically backward. U.S. trade policies encouraged the export
of cash crops or also known as raw materials and the importation of manufactured
goods in the latter part of that era, landlessness became a serious problem in rural
areas farmers were often reduced to the status of serfs and never got a chance to
improve their lifestyle. Rich became richer and the once farmers became poor, in the
colonization of the U.S the Filipinos mostly elites embraced and spread the culture and
ideology of the Americans like its social structure. Many Americans Believe on simple
three-class model. The Rich, Middle class and lastly Poor. Rich is a term applied to a
wide array of elite groups, in the colonialization era this could pin point to a particular
group which could be said benefited to the changes and Free trade of the capitalistic
system in the economy, Middle class a populace that could be theorized as those
particular group of people that does not have less or does not have more economical
power, and the Poor this measure recognizes poverty as a lack of those goods and
services commonly taken for granted by members of mainstream society. As our culture
been influenced by Americans by supporting their product loving their own ideology like
the American dream, even dressing as one of them and the most obvious and popular
influence is that Filipinos elites created a Filipino government formed on the basis of
principles apparently similar to the US Constitution. Thus making a strong reliance and
dependent to our colonizer and giving the seed of colonialism a strong foundation that

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will make us feel inferior even we declare our independence. As conclusion Filipinos
shifted to Hispanization to Americanization changing our ideology to something more
materialistic and practical making us dependent to the Capitalism which the U.S
introduce to us and this resulted to Neo Colonialism, a soft power, where the Philippines
even though declare its own independence will never be free to the shackles which the
U.S has imprinted on us.
And the last influence, WW II the occupation of the Japanese begun around 1941-1945
as the Americans tasted defeat to the Japanese losing their base on Clarke Air base,
Pampanga and the military base on Hawaii Japanese proceed occupying the colonial
state of the U.S for their propaganda of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. On the
occupation of the Japanese Imperialism the people on the Philippines experience and
been exposed to the outmost cruelty that they could feel as the Japanese change our
economic structure even the government and trying to change our culture itself as they
phrase it we became influenced to the corrupt westerners and forgot our ancestry, in
those short years of occupation we became exposed to the idea of Imperialism the a
leftist extreme ideology, the evidences of these are the total control of the Japanese
government to the ownership of the U.S properties its agriculture, industry, economy
and military bases even to its education and literature as the Japanese occupied
Philippines they created a government which the policies adhere and fitted to the
likeness and will of the Japanese rulers, next up they influences the ideology of the
people elites make them sway through beneficial status by cooperating with them, the
Japanese Imperialist given us a gist of the ideology of socialism and communism where
the government truly control everything its means of production, agriculture, industries

THE VICTIM, PHILIPPINES

all for the might of the government. In this era our culture became more diverse from
Hispanization to Americanization and to the forceful rule of the imperialist it affected our
morale behavior and question our integrity as most of the elites turn to turncoatism and
persuade the Filipinos to cooperate with the Japanese imperialist that time not out of
loyalty but out of fear. Japanese imperialist affected our mind by making us embrace
their culture, policies and lastly our ideology by making us have awareness on socialism
and imperialism, giving us idea on what the Americans did to us and how we forget our
ancestry in over view Japanese occupation like the earlier colonialization, it made us
deeply inferior and powerless in a moral and governing point of view as most of the
Filipinos that time betrayed our fellow men out of interest.
As my Conclusion I agree that the Leftist Ideologies is the root cause of the social
problems in the Philippines as we had molded by different kind of cultures and ideology
it became a contradictory to the information we learned as policies always changed,
government always changed and culture always changed we had forgotten which is
really ours. Thus the result the Philippines itself have this sense of inferiority complex to
the foreigners that colonialize us even to those are not, as the Spaniards gave us
Feudalism which could be felt on the present day by seeing powerful families control the
political machineries and influenced the Philippines policies itself and sowing the seed
of Neo Colonialism, where the Americans make us experience a nihilistic view of
philosophy where materialistic and objective interest is a must like Capitalism and giving
a stronger foundation for Neo Colonialism and lastly the Japanese Imperialist where
they teaches us how frail human nature are, made us feel the power of a Communist

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Government which exceeded the so called ideology is weak without will. In the present
time we could experience this leftist Ideology and could be feel in all aspect of life.

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