Note 157 — San Agustin’s Letter on the Filipinos

72. The vice of drunkenness is regarded by them as rank in the fourth degree,157 and they have made it a point of nobility; for the chiefest men think that they are the best workmen at this occupation.158 It is a fact that those most given to this vice are the Ilocans, then the Visayans, and then our Tagálogs.159 The Pampangos can be exempted from this rule, for they are very temperate in this wretched habit, as well as in all the other things which we have mentioned. They are very different: for they are truthful, and love their honor; are very brave, and inclined to work; and are more civil, and of better customs. In regard to the vices here mentioned (for they are, in the last analysis, Indians like the rest), they keep them more out of sight and covered. In all things the Pampangos have a nobleness of mind that makes them the Castilians of these same Indians. Consequently, that people must be distinguished from the rest in its character, in all that we have said.