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Due to their bountiful resources and absence of the colonial greed, Filipinos were rich as evidenced by:

Trades with neighboring countries

Resources are sufficient for everyone

Speaks Castilian

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Indolence is natural among human beings, hence one cannot oppose the idea that it truly exists within them. Though regardless of the superficiality of this subject, it became cancerous in the historical context of the Spanish colonial ruling in the Philippines.

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Indolence rose as a prejudice that spoke of Filipinos as inherently lazy — yes, it is human nature, but it is indisputably nurtured. There were plenty of causes that instigated this colonial stereotype among Filipinos namely climate, colonial oppression, lack of education, inferiority complex, unfavorable social conditions, lack of nationalism, and other cultural factors.

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Herewith, indolence is merely a result of the backwardness of their government (Rizal, p. 2, 1890).

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According to a Chinese manuscript, Filipinos were good business partners because of this trait:

Honesty - Filipinos paid for commodities that Chinamen forgot to collect.

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Discovery of Philippine Archipelago (1521)

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Discovery of Philippine Archipelago (1521)

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According to Pigafetta, Magellan's companion, Filipinos were cordial because of the following traits:

Courteous - Filipinos communicated through gestures when their trading partners could not understand their language.

Hospitable - Filipinos politely directed their trading partners to their boats containing their products.

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As documented from Pigafetta, Philippines was flourishing as characterized by:

On land, there are:

Food prosperity

Thriving fields tilled by natives

On water, there are:

Vintas and vessels that transported their merchandises

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First Piracy in the Philippines (15th Century)

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First Piracy in the Philippines (15th Century)

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For three centuries long, the Spanish government enabled the pirates from Mindanao to attack Luzon and Visayan Islands to hold them as slaves aside from burning their houses.

The pirates believed that to preserve independence from the colonial government, it was necessary to weaken the Spaniards by reducing the number of his subjects (Rizal, p. 11, 1890).

However, Spain was not triggered by their piracy as it was for them to be able to perform divide and conquer, which is to weaken the concentration of power present among Philippine societies and be capable of colonizing them more (Balayo, 2015).

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Spain sent 50,000 Filipinos to war against Borneo, Moluccas, and Indo-China. As results:

Killings led to an extreme deduction in population amounting to 14,000 families only

Natives who came back alive do not have a shelter to go home to and lands to suffice their needs

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Natives have forgotten much about farming, raising poultry, stock and cotton, and weaving cloth, as they used to in their paganism (Morgan, p. 13, n.d.).

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In losing control over their fields and resources due to the wars brought by colonization, Filipinos had absent channels to let out their capability to produce goods.

Parallels

Positive:

Justice was given to local farmers by the New Agrarian Emancipation Act wherein they were given 32,441 land titles after several years of not being able to (Gozum, 2023).

Negative:

Farmers are still being allegedly victimized by the Villar family as they are still accused of land-grabbing to give rise to subdivisions and establishments (Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, 2021).

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Because their way of living were taken away by friars, they resorted to gambling as a way of easily obtaining money to pay taxes.

Parallels

Positive:

Gambling still aids the citizens financially. Through Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO), Filipinos were given employment opportunities, with the fact that there are more Filipino workers in POGO than Chinese employees (Rivas, 2022).

Negative:

Even though Philippines has restrictions on foreign ownership of lands, POGO operations still places the real estate of the country at risk which can easily result to inaccessible homes for the Filipinos in the near future (Cabrera, 2019).

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Very limited relations to other countries

Only private sectors benefited from the coastwise trade

Natives were forced to work without compensation

Poverty heightened most especially in towns outside Manila

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As Filipinos became defenseless, they were manipulated to believe in the religious teachings of the Church wherein their religion was also used as a platform for exploiting the poor.

Parallels

Negative:

Misinformation is evident contemporarily, whereas through a political lens, it was used by Marcos Jr. to win the presidential seat specifically by creating trolls that manipulated the Filipinos into believing that those fallacies or fake news about the former Marcos regime was the golden era (Punongbayan, 2023).