Philippines a Century Hence

By Camilla Salvador

The Philippines a Century Hence is an essay written by Jose Rizal explaining his views of what the country would look like in a hundred years over. Rizal felt that it was time to remind Spain that the circumstances that ushered in the French Revolution could have a telling effect for her in the Philippines. This essay was published in a newspaper called La Solidaridad under Rizal's pen name, Laong Laan.

            It was highlighted in the essay that there are different causes of what the Filipinos are exactly experiencing under the hands of the Spaniards. These are Spain’s implementation of her military policies , deterioration and disappearance of Filipino indigenous culture, passivity and submissiveness to the Spanish colonizers.

            If I were to criticize this essay, definitely it would be a good criticism. I agree to Rizal's proposal of the idea of the Philippines being a province to Spain. What if that happens? Then maybe we wouldn't be in such a pit of misery at the moment, trying to figure out how to solve mysteries of stolen money and cut budgets and mismanaged local economy. Unfortunately, this is not what exactly happened in our history. People broke free. Although it was good to think that they had all the motivation and the power to be independent, they did not think and look down enough with the small details of fighting against a well-armed, technology-equipped people of the Western side. Another, the lack of communication was very evident. They were not as organized as it's supposed to be. It should have been a massive movement, but the different provinces and cities started their own rebellion at their own paces that did not come out very much strong as it was planned. And although parts of what was written and actually envisioned came true, it was not as pleasant as it was viewed. The only redemption we had was we were then “free,” but it was only under the hands of the Spanish colonizers. Till then after a few, then came the Americans to take-over. But what's actually good is that their awful laws and rules that let Filipinos dumb and ignorant were let go for good.