On January 12, 1889, Hispano-Filipino Association, an organization composed of Filipinos and Spaniards, was formed in Madrid, Spain calling for reforms in the Philippines during Spanish colonization. Among other things, it campaigned for Philippine representation in the Spanish Cortes and the passage of the Maura Law to bring about educational reforms in the archipelago. The association was formed as reformists realized that putting up an organization would mean pooling of their resources and efforts in the campaign to have their voices heard by Spanish (pensular) government. Accordingly, only few sons of the wealthy Filipino families who went to Spain in the second half of the 19th century were in the propaganda movement as some of them were there to study in the hope they would someday become successful professionals and businessmen. In the case of reformists, they were Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Jose Rizal, Antonio Luna, Mariano Ponce, Jose M. Panganiban, Eduardo de Lete, and a few others. They were serious-minded young men who think of the welfare of the Philippines first and their personal welfare last. The Spanish members of the society were Miguel Morayta, professor of history at the Universidad Central de Madrid, and Felipe de la Corte, author of several works on the Philippines. Society was divided into three sections to make the propaganda effective -- political section under Del Pilar; literary section under Ponce; and the sports section under Arejola. However, intensive campaign for reforms did not yield any tangible results in the form of changes in the administration of the Philippines because Spain was too preoccupied with its own internal problems to give moment’s thought to colonial problem; friars were too powerful even in Spain to be sidetracked by the Spanish authorities. Reference: Philippine News Agency archives
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 22:00:51 +0000
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