Dr. Jose P. RIZAL's 110th Death Anniversary is a good time to recall our foremost hero's thoughts on the "indolence" and backwardness of Filipinos.
A great debate had been raging in the mid-1800s between Filipino intellectuals and Spanish authorities who claimed that the "indios" were indolent people. Rather than deny it, as many vigorously did, Rizal readily admitted it and said: "Of course Filipinos are indolent! How can they be otherwise? After all the abuse and misgovernment they have been subjected to, anyone would become indolent!."
In a brilliant essay he explained his assertion, starting out by clarifying that the word "indolence" means being sluggish or "lazy as a result of illness."
Before the Spaniards took over, he wrote, Filipinos were among the most creative, productive, commercially active, and adventurous of people. Their products and unique wares were in demand abroad.
No less than Magellan and Pigafetta witnessed this when they saw ships from India and Siam (Thailand) about to sail from Cebu laden with gold and other goods from the islands.
He cited Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, and other chroniclers who marveled at the masterful shipbuilders, miners and jewelers, weavers of silk and cotton and pina, farmers, craftsmen and warriors, even distillers, in the barangays. He quoted Morga and other witnesses who described the paraus and vintas and large vessels that plied the Philippine seas, some so large they had a hundred rowers on each side.
And he referred to the great alliances Filipinos had with Indonesia and outlying peoples, helping them quell revolt or liberate their islands from pirates. In a word, Rizal showed how industrious Filipinos were when they were an independent and proud people. Then he recounted how all the industry, creativity, resourcefulness, and vigor had been sapped from them and their culture. The Spanish Government was abusive, its functionaries spoiled. They extracted everything they needed from the toiling Filipinos, sharing little. They thought nothing of taking long siestas while keeping their workers busy, too lazy to even fan themselves -- giving that chore to the indio.
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