GIRL POWER: THE WOMEN OF MALOLOS

By: Quennie Ann J. Palafox

When the Spaniards came into the Philippines, they brought with them their
patriarchal values about women which eventually diffused into Philippine culture. The
women during the Spanish period were tied to the house and their roles were confined
exclusively to housekeeping and child rearing. On the other hand, there was the
chivalrous idea that men should be the provider of the family and protector of the women.
Women were also taught to be compliant to elders and always submissive to males. They
were oriented to remain incorruptible until marriage and to focus on building skills that
would make them good daughters, housewives, mothers and servants of God. Women
were even barred from participating in political undertakings because it was considered
a man’s work. Filipinos were familiarized to a religious and patriarchal system of
education which emphasized the domestic value that women were the property of men.
This infiltration of Spanish culture into Philippine norms and behavior is an evidence of
feudal social relations.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a group of young women in Malolos,
Bulacan participated in a peaceful movement for educational reforms. This remarkable
event showed the aptitude of these women for political and social reforms. The authorities
came up with educational policies that were discriminatory against women who wanted
to pursue higher education. The women of Malolos struggled to disprove the principle
that women are destined to be homemakers and demonstrate that women are at par with
men in other fields of endeavors.

The effort of the Women of Malolos is recognized as one of the most important events
that contributed to the development of feminist movement in the country. This group of
young women personally handed their letter of petition addressed to Governor-General
Valeriano Weyler to allow them to put up a night school where they can study the Spanish
language under Teodoro Sandiko. Their action received diverse reactions from the pro-
friar sectors and the reformists because it was viewed as protest against the political
power of the friars. The twenty young women, majority of whom were related to each
other by blood or affinity, were members of the four major-Sangley clans of Malolos: the
Tiongsons, the Tantocos, the Reyeses, and the Santoses. Although these women were
raised by well-to-do families and enjoyed a life of luxury, they opted to be educated rather
than to be contented with what society expected from them.

Prior to the education reform of 1863, education was left entirely in the hands of
priests or curates of the parish. Since the responsibility of educating the natives belonged
to the friars, its thrust was more of religious education. Students were taught to read the
alphabet and syllables; and study sacred songs and music, and basic arithmetic.
Education for females was not the same with males. Education was more of a privilege
than a right, daughters of well-to-do families were taught reading, writing, arithmetic,
religion and needlecraft, a benefit not enjoyed by daughters of Indios. Formal training
beyond the primary grades was generally a male privilege. For the most part of the
Spanish period, the majority of secondary and vocational schools as well as colleges were
exclusively for males.
 The Royal Decree of 1863 made primary instruction compulsory to all native and
Chinese children between the ages of seven and twelve. It ordered that opening of a
primary school for boys and another for girls for each town. One important aim of the
decree was to teach Spanish to the populace. Although this move was to improve the poor
state of education in the country, it failed due to the meddling of the friars in the state
affairs. Lack of school buildings and teachers were also pointed as major hindrances for
this program to be successful. There were only few teachers who knew Spanish but they
received only modest salaries.

The Women of Malolos desired to learn the Spanish language because it was the
language of politics and society. They found an ally in the person of Teodoro Sandiko who
arrived in Malolos in 1888. Sandiko supported the aspirations of the women and offered
to teach them the language but it would be done secretly. For the friars prohibited the
teaching of Spanish to the natives and to the mestizos as it would lessen their influence.
The government communicated directly with the friars who knew both the Spanish and
the native language. To the friars, it would be better off the leave the natives and mestizos
ignorant of the Spanish language so that their minds will not be penetrated by the liberal
ideas since most books were written in Spanish. Gaining knowledge would make them
crave for freedom and demand to human rights which were deemed a threat to Spanish
rule and the power of the Church.

Sandiko by that time was secretly teaching Spanish language to adults but he wanted
to make it legal. He requested to the provincial governor of Bulacan sometime to grant
the opening of night schools without the expense of the government. However, it was
disapproved because Felipe Garcia, the friar curate of Malolos prepared a report that
Sandiko’s proposal would pose a threat to the government. Although their proposal was
rejected, Sandiko and the Women of Malolos remained positive that their desire to put up
a night school would be approved anytime soon.

After learning that the highest official of the land would visit Malolos on December
12, 1888, Sandico prepared a letter in Spanish, and requested the women to sign and
present the letter to Weyler. Twenty of these women affixed their signatures to the letter.
The women went to the church and presented the letter to the governor-general.

The request of the women did not get the approval of the governor-general because
the parish priest Fray Garcia went up against it. Although disheartened, the women did
not give up. With the support of the reformist Doroteo Cortes and the Maestra Guadalupe
Reyes, the women continued to lobby for the school, traveling between Malolos and
Manila to convince the governor-general to allow their request. Luckily, these young
women triumphed in the end in February 1889 on the conditions that the women would
finance their schooling, the teacher would be Guadalupe Reyes, and, the classes held in
the daytime, not at night.

Although they did not get everything they asked for, the women proceeded to open
their school at the house of one of their group, Rufina T. Reyes, first cousin of Elisea and
Juana. The schooling however, was cut short when Sandico, was accused in late April
1889 by the Church authorities of spreading teachings against morality and of eating meat
on days of abstinence during the Holy Week of 1889. On May 13, 1889, the
Gobernadorcillo Castro and the Alferez Carlos Peñuelos closed down Sandico’s school of
primary and secondary instruction. When Sandico left for Spain, the school where the
Women of Malolos were attending had to close because of the pressure from the
authorities. The school operated for only three months.

The establishment of a school out of the enduring efforts of the women to be educated
in Spanish was commended by several newspapers. Graciano Lopez Jaena in the column
Ecos de Ultramar, praised the women because of their courage to present themselves to
the governor-general, an action considered bold that time.

Right after the article of Lopez Jaena was published in La Solidaridad, Marcelo H. del
Pilar wrote from Barcelona to Jose Rizal in Madrid, on February 17, 1889, requesting Rizal
to write them a letter in Tagalog commending the bravery of the women and with hopes
that this valiant struggle against friar hegemony in the affairs of the Filipinos will enthuse
all compatriots. Hence, Rizal sent del Pilar on February 22, 1889 the letter written in
Tagalog for transmittal to the 20 young women of Malolos.

The message conveyed to the young women of Malolos centered on salient points
such as the denunciation of the abuse of the friars in exercising their spiritual authority
bestowed upon them by the church, traits Filipino mothers must have; duties and
obligations of Filipino mothers to their children, functions and errands of a wife to her
husband, and guidance to young women on their choice of a lifetime partner. Rizal also
expressed his philosophy of freedom and independence that he believed was the key to
the emancipation of humankind from slavery, and the necessity for education as the
fundamental source of liberation. In the letter, Rizal enunciated his great desire for
Filipino women to enjoy the privileges in education along with men. Moreover, he
appealed to women to be heedful of their rights and not to be docile towards many
injustices forced upon them. Men and women are born equal. God did not create men and
women to be slaves, nor did he embellish them with reason only to be blinded by others.

Perhaps having experienced firsthand the warmth of his mother’s love, he defined in
his letter the obligations and roles of the Filipino mothers to their children. For Rizal, the
youth is a flower-bed that is to bear fruit and must accumulate wealth for its descendants.
The mother must raise her children according to the image of God and orient the mind
towards pleasant ideas. A mother must teach her children to prefer death with honor to
life with dishonor. Mothers should inculcate the following values to their children: love of
honor; sincere and firm character; clear mind; clear conduct; noble action; love for one’s
fellowmen; and respect for God. Ever patriotic in his views, he warned that the country
will never be free and flourishing as long as the children and the women remain ignorant.
With this, the education of the children should not be limited to religious activities. He
stressed obedience and reason as the highest virtues that one must possess.

The school of the Women of Malolos was closed down in May 1889 but their
aspirations did not end. These women served their countrymen by supporting the cause
of the Revolution against Spain. Some of them became members of the National Red
Cross, while others became founding members of the Malolos Committee of the
Asociacion Feminista de Filipinas in 1906, a national women’s organization aimed
improving the welfare of women in all classes. It can be said that the women of Malolos
were the forerunners of the feminist movement in the country for championing the cause
of women’s right to education and equal rights regardless of gender.
References:
Tiongson, Nicanor. The Women of Malolos. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Unibersity
Press, 2004
Women’s Role in Philippine History: Selected Essays Second Edition. Quezon City:
University Center for Women’s Studies University of the Philippines, 2001