Note 16 — EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1764–1800

“The religious corporations, notwithstanding the support which they generally lent to Anda during the war with the English, regarded with displeasure his appointment as governor of Filipinas. That strict magistrate, obeying the dictates of his conscience (which some persons attribute, but without sufficient grounds, to feelings of personal revenge), had addressed to the king on April 12, 1768, an exposition which treated of ‘the disorders which exist in Filipinas, and which ought to be corrected.’ In this document he points out most serious abuses among the friars; in the university, which was in their charge; among the Jesuits; among the Chinese, protected by the friars, who preferred them before the Spaniards, driving away and expelling the latter from their villages; and he censures certain frauds and practices in the public administration in specified branches of the civil service. The seventy with which Anda laid bare those abuses drew upon him the hatred of the friars.16 In this document he demanded a remedy for the disorders which he denounced, pointing out the method by which this might be effected, and declared that ‘for the radical correction of these evils it is indispensable to draw up and introduce here a form of procedure which is clear, and capable of securing the just system which corresponds thereto, conferring upon the governor all the powers necessary for carrying it into execution, by those measures which prudence and the actual condition of affairs shall dictate to him.’ He added: ‘The choice of a zealous governor will materially contribute to laying the foundations of that great work; but it is necessary to reward him and give him authority, so that he can work to advantage, and without the hindrances which have often, by means of secret communications, cunning and disloyal maneuvers, and other malicious proceedings, frustrated the best and most carefully formed plans.’ This exposition17 by Anda was certainly taken into account, for in the ‘royal private instructions’ which were given to him when he was appointed governor of Filipinas we see that he was ordered to put an end to specified abuses and disorders, the king using the same terms which Anda had employed in describing those evils.”