Philippine Century Hence

The Philippines a Century Hence is an essay written by our national hero Jose Rizal and it tells the future of the country within a hundred years. In this essay, published in La Solidaridad, it starts analyzing the various causes of the problems suffered by the Filipino people. One of those problems is the Spain’s implementation of her military policies, because of such laws the poverty here in our country became rampant than ever.

And the family as a unit of society was neglected, and overall, in every aspect of life of the Filipino was retarded. Next is the destruction of the Filipino culture, the native Filipino culture, because of this, the Filipinos started losing confidence in their past and their heritage, became doubtful of their present lifestyle, and eventually lost hope in the future and the preservation of their race.

The Spanish colonizers are the one with the most powerful forces and they influenced the culture of silence among the natives. Because of the use of force, the Filipinos learned to submit themselves to the will of the foreigners. Eventually, the natives realized that such oppression in their society by foreign colonizers must no longer be tolerated. One question Rizal raises in this essay is whether or not Spain can indeed prevent the progress of the Philippines, keeping the people uneducated and ignorant had failed, Keeping he people impoverished also came to no avail.

Spain, therefore, had no means to stop the progress of the country. What needs to do is to change colonial policies so that they are in keeping with the needs of the Philippine society and to the rising nationalism of the people. What Rizal had envisioned in his essay came true. In 1898, the Americans wrestled with Spain to win the Philippines, and eventually took over the country.

Theirs was a reign of democracy and liberty. Five decades after Rizal’s death, the Philippines gained her long-awaited independence. This was in fulfillment of what he had written in his essay: “History does not record in its annals any lasting domination by one people over another, of different races, of diverse usages and customs, of opposite and divergent ideas. One of the two had to yield and succumb.”