Module 5.2: Hacienda de Calamba Dispute Timeline

Prelim-Midterm topic

1759

• Hacienda de Calamba owned by several Spanish laymen

• A destitute Spanish layman, Don Manuel Jauregui, donated lands to the Jesuits on the condition that he would be allowed to live in the Jesuit Monastery for the rest of his life.

1767

• King Charles III decreed for the expulsion of the Jesuits, As a result, Hacienda de Calamba, along with the other Jesuit properties, were confiscated by the government and put under the management of the Office of Jesuit Temporalties

1803

• The government sold the property to a Spanish layman, Don Clemente de Azansa, for 44,507 pesos

1883: Dominican Purchase of Hacienda

• When Don Clemente died in 1883, the hacienda measured 16,424 hectares, was purchased by the Dominicans for 52,000 pesos

• By this time many families from neighboring towns had migrated to the hacienda in search of economic opportunities

• Among the families that arrived at the hacienda were Rizal’s ancestors, who eventually became one of the principal inquilinos in the hacienda

• Rizal’s family rented one of the largest leased lands, which was 380 hectares

• Sugar was the main crop in the hacienda due to high demand in world market

1883: Odd Receipts

• Paciano Rizal wrote that the friars were collecting rents without issuing the usual receipts.

1885

• The tenants failed to pay their rents because the rent had supposedly increased while sugar prices had remained low

• To punish the tenants not paying rent, the Dominicans declared the lands vacant

• The charges against the friars continued with Rizal’s brother-in-law, Mariano Herboso, specifically complaining about the yearly increase in rentals, faulty irrigation systems, and failure to issue receipts.

1887

• The colonial government demanded from the tenants of the hacienda a report on the income and production of the estate because they suspected that the Dominicans were evading the payment of their taxes,

• The tenants compiled and submitted a report, but they also attached a petition authored by Rizal (Petition of Town Calamba)

• The petition presented a list of grievances against the hacienda owners including a complaint on the increasing amount of rent

1891

• As a form of retaliation, the friars began to evict tenants who refused to pay rent.

• Among those exiled were Rizal’s parents, brother and sisters

• This experience affected Rizal deeply and the increasing despair he felt from the vent would be reflected in his second novel: El Filibusterismo