Chinese mestizos are good Filipinos

Back in history more than four centuries ago, we remember the invasion of a notorious Chinese pirate and warlord known as Limahong (Lim Ah Hong, also called Lin Feng). In Manila Bay, his fleet of 70 large junks and 3,000 pirates besieged Intramuros, then known as Fuerza de Santiago and the city of Manila, in 1574. In this attack, a Spanish-Basque conquistador, Martin de Goiti known also as the founder of Manila, was killed together with most of the Spaniards in their newly conquered city. Limahong’s victory was short-lived when his force was repelled by Castilians under the leadership of Juan de Salcedo, who then got the support of two Muslim chieftains, Rajja Dula and Rajja Soliman. The Chinese pirates were driven out of Manila and survivors retreated to Pangasinan, where they were later besieged and killed by Salcedo and his army. Despite the terror the Chinese had briefly sowed on the local folks in that region, their brief stay of about seven months inculcated good Chinese looks and traits of thrift, tenacity, industry and farsightedness upon the native Pangasinenses.

For centuries before the Spaniards arrived, the Chinese had already traded with the Filipinos. Chinese trade and labor contributed to the early development of the Spanish colony. After the conquests, many Chinese traders settled in Manila where the various trades they had engaged in flourished. Thus, as early as the 16th century, the Chinese were already hated because of their increasing numbers. In 1603, there were only about 1,000 Spaniards in the city including the friars, and yet the Sangleys (from the Xiamen word seng li, meaning Chinese merchants or travelers), as they were then called, already numbered 30,000. The majority were non-baptized and many were laborers, fishermen, masons and workers who resided along the banks of the Pasig River. Because the Chinese were inherently industrious and enterprising, many of them also acquired riches and lands, and they run most of the retail business. They then formed the middle class, whose prosperity and education were better than others. By 1846, visiting Frenchman Jean Mallat described Binondo as “a place full of Chinese, indigenous people and industrious half-breeds; they are confectioners, merchants of oil and soap, jewelers, painters, goldsmiths, glazers; they maintain gambling houses and panciterias”. Threatened with their growing population and prosperity, and afraid that the Chinese may take control of the archipelago, the Spanish prohibited them from residing inside Intramuros and were instead made to live in the Parian ( formerly a market, where the Manila City Hall now stands). This area up to the Pasig River was the first squatters area, or Chinatown in the Philippines. The abusive treatment of the Spaniards drove the Chinese to revolt against the Spaniards and killed many of them, but with Spanish army personnel from Manila, Visayas and Mindanao joining together, the Sangleys were defeated, with 20,000 of them killed.

After several attempts by the Spaniards to exterminate the Chinese, they still proliferated. In the 1800s, during the colonial period, the Chinese formed the first Filipino elite. Through the years, they formed an important merchant class in the Filipino society. Today, they continue to form an economically and politically important segment of our society, although some of their Chinese counterparts here and back in their homeland engage in trade malpractices to earn more profit (e.g. melamine scandal). Corruption is still prevalent and the country is increasingly identified with poor product quality.

The Chinese-Filipinos are a different breed and we hope they continue to contribute to the advancement of the Philippine economy with full integrity and a high standard of morals and ethics. As for my family’s relation to the Chinese community, suffice it to say that one of my cousins was known as Chino.