Philippine Society before the coming of the Spaniards
Even before the coming of the Spaniards, the Filipinos already had
their social system characterized by semi communal, semi slave, feudal in some
parts like Mindanao and Sulu and primitive communal espoused by the Aetas in
the mountain areas.
The barangay was their concept of community each headed by a datu or chieftain. It was the basic
political and economic unit independent among others. The community’s social structure
is characterized by petty nobility. With the datu as the head of the barangay; the freeman called the Maharlikas who rendered special service
to the rulers or datu; the timawas who shared their crops to the
petty nobility and the slaves and semi slaves who worked without any definite
share of the harvest. On the other hand,
one becomes slaves or semi slaves through inheritance, failure to pay debts,
commission of crimes or captivity during wars.
In Mindanao and Sulu, they represented a higher stage of political and
economic development. The Islamic Sultanates of Sulu had a feudal form of
social organization. The sultan reigned supreme over many datus in a more encompassing people and territory.
Throughout the islands, the class struggle within the
barangay was already g extended into interbarangay wars. These inter-baranganic
wars often resulted into confederations of more larger communities.
In the areas of
food production, the primitive people hunt in the wilderness in the search for
food and offering. In order to do so, they developed early instruments of
hunting like spears and arrows. These early gadgets were creatively designs to
match the purpose.
As time passes,
early Filipinos soon able to discover the technique of farming. The land was
communal. It is shared by everyone. In order to produce food for the community,
they plant and till the land for subsistent good of the whole community. One
unique proof was the tilling of lands by early ifugaos in Banawe.
There was interisland commerce
ranging from Luzon to Mindanao and vice-versa. There were also extensive trade
relations among neighboring countries. The barter system was employed. Gold and
metal gongs were used as medium of exchange.
Philippine
Education during the pre-colonial times
The system of
education in the Philippines during the pre-colonial times was highly related
to and highly influenced the economic situation. The type of society before the
Spanish colonization was primitive-communal and shifting to feudalism. Because
of subsistent mode of production, education also spread plainly and simply.
Alibata, the native alphabet was used as the means of instructions together
with other mediums like pots and weaved mats.
During this era,
the early educators were the Babaylan
and Katalonan. They were looked upon
by the society because they possessed high wisdom, spirituality and rationality
in the system of governing the community affairs. Hence the type of education
taught to people were based on early beliefs and tradition.
In the Muslim
communities in Mindanao, education was proliferated through their religion—Islam. Education was based on the instructions of
Islam religion. Their early educators were the Imams or Ulema (Muslim priests). The children
were taught to read and write by using Koran as their textbooks.
Indeed, the
early education in the primitive society was not institutionalized. There was
no formal and separate institution for it. It was integrated in their early
societal affairs.
Philippine
Society under the Spanish Colonialism
The kind of
society that developed under three centuries of Spanish influence was colonial
and feudal. It was a society basically ruled by feudal landlords, Spanish
officials, Catholic religious orders/ friars and the local officials—puppets to
the ruling class.
The economic
system was based on the giving of land grants (encomiendas) to loyal official’s
and religious order’s service to the colonizers. These colonizers employed forced labor among
its natives for the construction of edifices, churches and parochial schools.
The once—communal lands of the natives were usurped by the Spanish colonizers.
Local officials
were appointed. These include the gobernador-heneral
which is based nationally in Manila. The provincial alcalde-mayor, the town leader known as the gobernadorcillo and in the locals—the cabeza de barangays. These positions in governance were highly
based on wealth and property, hereditary, literacy and of course loyalty to the
Spaniards.
In the archetypal notion of feudalism, the union
of church and state inundated the entire colonial structure of the society. Friar
control was total and encompassing. In the colonial center as well as in every
province, the friars exercised vast political powers. They controlled such
diverse affairs as taxation, primary schools and institutions, health, public
works and charities. The building of catechetical schools was used to usurp the
minds of the children against their own country. The friars propagated a dogmatic
culture that was infatuated with novenas, prayerbooks, scapularies, rosaries, the
passion play, the anti-Muslim moro-moro and arrogant feasts and
processions.
They were so nasty in
witch-hunting and suppressing native rebels whom they condemned as “heretics"
and "subversives." Thus, the once “babaylans” became witches and
devils of the time. Furthermore, the friars burned and destroyed the artifacts
of pre-colonial culture and tagged them as handiworks of the devil and integrated
only those things of the indigenous culture which they could use to facilitate
colonial indoctrination.
Philippine
Education under the Spanish Regime
The type of
education brought about by the Spaniards was based on the ideology of
Catholicism. The religious orders were
the one who built school and seminaries in the Philippines. The priests were
the educators at that time. Education became the powerful tool to propagate
Catholicism. The teachings adhered to the teaching of religious Catholicism. After all, “the most effective means of subjugating a
people is to capture their minds.”
Ownership to
vast areas of the land gave priest high authority and dominion to control the
educational system. Feudal mode of production was the economic basis of
education. Many feudal lords or
landlords controlled many schools and institutions. Education serving the interests of the
Spaniards led to the conversion of many Filipinos.
Although there
was already the systematic and institutionalized kind of education, there was
still no equal opportunity in attaining education. Filipinos were oriented in
the patriarchal and religious system of education. People made to believe that education is one
way to go higher in the social status of life.
But education only manifested social inequality and women subordination.
Mostly, men were given more opportunities than women. The mestizos and wealthy ones were the
privileged to enter into prestigious schools. On the other hand, women were
only taught in vocational schools for domestic purposes. Most women were denied
on their right to education in the society where the patriarchal belief that
women should only stay at home.
