Note 87 — Government Matters

The attitude of the great Augustinian Philippine writer, San Agustín, and in general the friars of the last century of the Spanish regime, toward the native is well shown in the following note by the Spanish editor, Father Coco: “The Indians have not changed in this regard. Since they have not lost their disposition they preserve with it their vices. If the father does not interest himself in the regulation of bridges, roads, the maintenance of the children at school, etc., nothing useful is done. In this interest and zeal, the father must not relax one instant, for the very moment in which the vigilance of the father rests, little by little all the good that he has done in the village disappears. The greater number of the Ilocan plains are crossed by irrigation canals, brought to completion by the initiative of the fathers, and preserved until now by the watchfulness of the same persons. All this, as is natural, brings endless troubles and not small sorrow to the parish priest.”