m 5.2

• Fray Juan de Plasencia: 'Real name – Joan de Portocarrero'
• Fray Juan de Plasencia was one of the seven children of Pedro Portocarrero
• Fray Juan de Plasencia was born in the early 16th century and grew up in the region of Extremadura during the Golden Age (Siglo de Oro) of Spain
• Siglo de Oro is a period when arts and literature flourished in many parts of Spain
• During the Golden Age, there was an upsurge of men entering religious life with the intention of suiting up for missionary works in the newly discovered territories
• Fray Juan de Plasencia belonged to the Franciscan order and arrived in the Philippines on July 2, 1578, with the first batch of Franciscan missionaries
• Fray Juan de Plasencia and Fray Diego de Oropresa were assigned to do mission works in the Southern Tagalog area, specifically in Laguna de Bay and Tayabas, in Quezon Province
• Towns founded by Fray Juan de Plasencia and Fray Diego de Oropresa

  • Tayabas, Caliraya, Lucban, Mahjayjay, Nagcarlan, Lilio(Liliw), Pila, Santa Cruz, Lumban, Pangil, Siniloan, Morong, Antipolo, Taytay, Meycauayan
• Fray Juan de Plasencia wrote books to promote the understanding of both the Spanish language among the natives and the local languages among the missionaries, as well as to facilitate the task of spreading Christianity
• Fray Juan de Plasencia authored the Doctrina Cristiana, believed to be the first book printed in the Philippines, in Spanish and Tagalog, in both Latin script and the Baybayin script
• Fray Juan de Plasencia authored "Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos" (1589), which helped understand and preserve traditional ways of the local population and provided the first form of Civil Code used by local governors for justice administration
• Fray Juan de Plasencia's biggest challenge was making the articles of faith comprehensible to people unfamiliar with Christ or the Catholic Church
• In 1593, Fray Juan de Plasencia published the book Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Espanola Y Tagala, the first printed book in the Philippines, used for deepening faith in the newly accepted religion
• After converting natives and teaching catechism, Fray Juan de Plasencia was honored with the title "Venerable" by the Franciscan Order
• Fray Juan de Plasencia died in Liliw, Laguna in 1590
• During the first century of Spanish rule, colonial officials had a hard time running local politics due to the limited number of Spaniards willing to live outside Intramuros
• Intramuros was the seat of government and political power during the Spanish rule in the Philippines, while Extramuros referred to areas outside the walls
• Locations in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period

  • Intramuros
  • Extramuros
• Intramuros


  Latin for "within the walls"; the seat of government and political power when the Philippines was a component realm of the Spanish Empire, the center of religion, education, and economy
• Extramuros


  Spanish for "outside the walls"; other towns and arrables (suburbs) located beyond the walls
• The limited number of Spaniards who wanted to live outside Intramuros made it difficult to run local politics
• This situation forced the Spaniards to allow Filipinos to hold the position of gobernadorcillo
• Gobernadorcillo


  Municipal judge or governor in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period, responsible for leadership, economic, and judicial administration in a town
• Frailocracy


  “Rule of the friars”; Spanish friars were so influential and powerful that they practically ruled the Philippines
• Some friars submitted short letters while others wrote long dispatches with detailed observations
• Plasencia’s Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalos (Customs of the Tagalog, 1589) is a primary source for historians to reconstruct the political and socio-cultural history of the Tagalog region
• Miguel de Loarca arrived in 1576, became an encomendero of Panay, and wrote Relación de las Islas Filipinas (1582) describing the way of life of Filipinos in Western Visayas
• Antonio de Morga came to the Philippines in 1595 and his Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas provides information about the state of the Philippines in the late 16th century
• Father Pedro Chirino, a Spanish priest and historian, wrote Relación de las Islas Filipinas (1604), one of the earliest works about the Philippines and its people
• Father Juan Delgado, a missionary in the Philippines, wrote La Historia General Sacro-Profana, Política y Natural de las Islas de Poniente llamadas Filipinas, finished in 1751
• Many of the what we know about Philippine history during the first century of the Spanish period were derived from the accounts of the Spanish friars
• Spanish friars

  • Fr. Francisco Colin S.J. (Labor Evangelica, 1663);
  • Francisco Ignacio Alcina S.J. (Historia natural del sitio, fertilidad y calidad de las Islas e Indios de Bisayas, 1668); and
  • Fr. Joaquin Martinez de Zuniga O.S.A. (Historia, 1803).
• One of the most common contemporaneous accounts during the early part of the Spanish period was the Customs of the Tagalog
• The original text of the Customs of the Tagalog is currently kept in Archivo General de Indias (A.G.I.) in Seville, Spain
• There is also a duplicate copy of it in the Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental (A.F.I.O.), in Madrid, Spain
• In the Philippines, an English version of the Customs of the Tagalog appeared in volume VII of the Blair and Robertson collections
• Another English translation of the Customs of the Tagalog was published as part of the volume for pre-Hispanic Philippines of the Filipiniana Book Guild series
• Beatified


  A title given to a deceased person who has attained a certain degree of sanctity but has not been fully canonized
• • As years went by, the friars ended up the most knowledgeable and influential figure in the pueblo.
• Three Castes

  • Maharlica (nobles)
  • Aliping Namamahay (commoners)
  • ALiping sa Guiguilir (slaves)