New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-28

OF these large amounts Of money thus extorte
by the friars one part belongs to them and the
other goes &c Manila. where the treasures OF
the different religious orders are located The
accounts rendered cannot lay claim to exactness,
as only the fees paid for baptisns, marriages
and burials can be controlled. Of all other sources
OF income they send only what they choose 20
give up. Nevertheless, the share Of the treasury
is not inconsiderable- If d priest or friar does
not send all the money expected from him by
his order he is dismissed and replaced by an
other whose financial abilities are better deveI-
oped. The victim is always the iaymau, who Il
subjected TO q squeezing process that finally
gets virtually everything he possesses.
II is estimated that the revenues thus appro-
priated by the orders amount to no less than
100000 pesos annually. The accounts Of the
orders have never been made public. but by
means Of certain data this estimate has been
arrived at by various Spanish writer's, notably
by Don Pedro TOrredolones in his work La
Vida en- FiIipinas," published in Madrid in 1854
The same figures are also given by Padre Arri-
aga, who himself was for many years q frar
in the M6rong Province of the Philippines and
has furnished to the Spanish press many &C
counts Of the abuses practised there by the CO.
cIesiastical orders.
LANDS HELD BY THE FRIARs
Yet even more important revenues are drawn
by the friars from their lands. They the
principal property holders Of the Philippine
archipelago. They own coffee, tobacco, cocoa and
hemp plantations, manufacture sugar, have vast
cattle ranges and let their own houses. The
lands cost them absolutely nothing. Many were
presented to them by the Spanish Crown. others
were bequeathed to them by pious people and
a great part they appropriated from the natl. IS,
occupying and cultivating them without any
legal title. Their cultivation costs very little.
since in the interior districts, where the civil
authorities have little jurisdiction, they do not
pay wages to the natives whom they employ for
their labor. According to Don Luis de Casas,
such estates yield annually a total Of about
100000 pesos.
What becomes of these 100000 pesos wrung
annually by the monks from the poor FiIpngs?
Part of it is spent for the Improvement of the
lands. some but very little. for schools and
100000 pesos is sent every year to the Pope
The remainder is deposited in the banks Of Lon
don and Hong Kong, and is used for the sIbsi-
dizing Of lawmakers, politicians and newspa-
pers. Every one Of these orders has an agent in
Madrid called the Procurador, at whose disposal
large amounts are deposited in the Bank Of
Spain. AS the officials Of the bank are not very
reticent it is known that the account of each
Of these orders is never below 100000 pesos.
In Spain all Colonial Ministers have usually
been friendly to the friars. The only exception
to this rule is Senior Moret also called Prender-
CAST, after his Scotch mother This official is
man Of liberal ideas, educated in England and
proverbaly honest. He alone dared 20 combat
them in 1870 and consequently was so power
fully reproved as TO be debarred from any
chance to harm them in future. The deposits in
the banks Of Hong Kong and London amount
to 40, 100000 pesos, They would be much larger
were it not for the fact that the friars contrib
uted literally to the two civil wars carried on in
Spain by the Carlists during 1S33-'4O, and 1871
re. It is authoritatively stated that to the first
they contributed 4OOO0OO0 pesos and to the
second 25O0OO0O Their action has been the
more culpabIe from the fact that neither the
Government Of Queen Isabella, cOmbatted by
them in 1S33-4O, nor the liberal governments
Of 1871 to 1876 ever attacked their system es-
tabIished in the Philippines or harmed them in
any way.