Politics in the 17th Century

by

Roel Cantada

In the 16^th century the datus generally exercised the legislative, judicial and executive power. In the 17^th century these powers would be exercised by the Spanish governor general. He had executive power in the Philippines as representative of the King of Spain. He was also the president of the Royal Audiencia which stood as the Supreme court of the colonial government in the country. And as we have stated in a previous lecture he had the “power to suspend the implementation of any royal order if, in his opinion, the conditions in the colony did not warrant its implementation.” This power is called cumplase and is stated as Obedezco pero no cumplo (I obey but I do not execute). (Agoncillo and Guerrero 1977)

Political Stucture of the Spanish colonial government

The former datus were given the title cabeza de barangay (head of the barangay) whose prime duty was to collect tributo (taxes) for the encomendero. Later the Spaniards formed larger local units composed of many barangays into the pueblo centered around a Catholic church. Sometimes the Spaniards used force to relocate entire barangays in order to form the larger unit in a process called reduccion (reduce the number of pueblos). In these pueblos they created the position of gobernadorcillo (little governor) who were elected by a board composed of outgoing gobernadorcillos and twelve members of the principalia. the principlia was a body of prominent land-owining and propertied citizens of the village who could read, write and speak Spanish. (Agoncillo and Guerrero) This is the highest political office an indio could aspire to.

What did they got out of this? They remained higher than the ordinary timawa at least ceremonially. They acted as a padrinos (middle man) between the Spaniards and Timawas. Their families were exempted from tributo (taxes) and forced labor. They were also given a small salary, but they could use his position to enrich themselves by taking some of the collected taxes and other means.

Not all datus accepted this situation but the pattern of their struggle can be illustrated with the revolt of Lakandula in 1574 during the siege of Manila by the Chinese Limahong. He led a revolt for personal grievances but was easily dissuaded and even fought with the Spaniards. Later in 1587 datus from Tagalog barangays around Manila plotted to overthrow the Spaniards but was betrayed by another datu. The plotters were executed, exiled to other islands and their properties confiscated. The datus from the conquered barangays would not be able to lead revolts again.

Reference:

Agoncillo, T.A., & Guerrero, M.C. (1977). History of the Filipino people. (5^th Ed.). Quezon city: R.P. Garcia.