Like many Filipinos I harbor negative stereotypes images of friar in general and Spanish

friars in particular. Padre Damaso, Fray Botod and Padre Salvi are quite real to me even if they
are fictional characters created by Jose Rizal and Graciano Lopez Jaena in the late 19 th century.
While these literary characters are based on real people, they seldom resemble the few Spanish
and Filipino friars I have known personally. Contrary to popular belief, Augustinians,
Dominicans and Franciscans today are not generally fat, corrupt, sexually depraved,
materialistic, and scheming or Spaniards. How come few of us even attempt to rethink our dated
ideas of friars?
Then as now there were friars who broke rules of poverty and obedience. There have
been lapses in chastity. All the abuses attributed to the friars in the late 19 th century were
probably true, but in isolated cases. Yet, there is tendency to generalize. If the Spanish friars were
so bad, why was there a need for them to be written about in the propaganda movement? If
Spanish friars were as bad as they are supposed to be, how could they walk freely in the
Philippines, sometimes in that places where friars was the only Spaniard in town? Even the
Spanish colonial government that did not always see eye to eye with the Church, treated the
friars as necessary evil. For example, one official was quoted as saying, It is more important for
the preservation of the colony to send 200 religious than 2, 000 bayonets.
This is not a pro-friar column, I just feel that the friars are just one of many things in our
history that need revision due to experience and research. Strictly speaking, a friar is a member
of certain religious orders of men. In the colonial Philippines we had Augustinians, Dominicans
and Franciscans. Jesuits are NOT friars. Textbooks make the distinction between rule of life,
the latter is not bound by a rule. Today this definition is further diluted because in common usage
secular means something that is neither religious, regular nor even ecclesiastical. These fine
distinction are not made in the anti-friar propaganda of the late 19 th century leading to a cloud
vision today.
Even in captivity friars were treated differently. Telesforo Canseco, reacting to the move
for the expulsion of the friars in San Francisco de Malabon (now General Trias), quotes someone
as saying Kung umalis and mga pareng Castila, sinong matitirang pari? Ang mga Tagalog?
Kung ganoon ay karamihan natin ay magiging judio. Naturally, Canseco is biased, but what do
we make of the letters exchange between Aguinaldo and Fray Tomas Espejo, a Dominican in
Pateros. Aguinaldo in a reply to Fray Tomas fated January 8, 1897, that is nine days after Jose
Rizals Execution, says among their things: Every time I remembere your great goodness of
heart, I have raised my eyes to God and I have always said that if all the Spaniards were like you,
there would never have been or ever would be an insurrection. It should be clear, Reverend
Father that this option has been caused in me by the repeated abuses, insults and machinations of
your compatriots who desire to do us harm. If this had not been the case there would have been
no rebellion.
I am rather surprised to read the above words of Aguinaldo, but it made me go over the
literature again and rethink my position. The problem with the friars is that they were Spanish
and thus integral to Spanish colonization. Racism has a lot to do with the way we see friars today
and its roots go way back to the 18 th century in a failed attempt to turn over the Philippine
parishes from the Spanish regulars to hastily trained Filipino seculars. Accepting that the friars

were Spaniards first and religious second, makes us understand why many of them resisted the
Filipinos legitimate call for reforms and eventually separation from Spain.
To know is to understand. Now that I have outgrown the anti-friar propaganda of Rizal,
del Pilar, Lopez-Jaena et al. and visited colonial churches around the country, I am beginning to
separate fact from fiction. To understand the Spanish friar is to see Philippine history and
ourselves in a different light.