Rizal was already aware about the worsening land conflict in the town of Calamba, Laguna between the hacienda management and the group of tenants before he returned home, after many years of his stay in Europe in 1887. These tenants, including his family and some relatives, leased tracts of agricultural lands from the Dominican Order, owner of the vast productive hacienda in the province of Laguna. The conflict rose from the continued unreasonable increased of rentals, land confiscation and other exploitative practices of the hacienda management. These caused financial hardships to the tenants, and worsened by other factors such as poor harvests, crops destroyed by unfavorable weather and pestilence. Upon his arrival from Europe, the beleaguered
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The suit filed by the landowning friars against the tenants was a response to the refusal of Don Francisco Mercado, father of Dr. Rizal, to pay the land rents because the hacienda management continually raised the cost of the rental. More tenants also refused to pay the rentals which they also viewed as unreasonable. Thereafter, some family members of Rizal and other tenants faced persecution from the authorities in relation to the agrarian conflict in Calamba. Paciano (Rizal’s older brother) and his brothers-in-law Antonio Lopez and Silvestre Ubaldo were deported to Mindoro, while Manuel T. Hidalgo, another brother-in-law, was banished, for the second time, to the island of Bohol. The agrarian problem in Calamba that worsened in 1887 until it caused the dispossession of the tenants of their land in 1890 had encouraged Rizal to establish a Filipino settlement in the island of Borneo, which was at the time under the British protectorate. Rizal wanted to move landless Filipinos including his families and friends to North Borneo (Sabah) to occupy assigned lands for them offered by the British North Borneo Company, engaged in lucrative agriculture and rebuild their lives. Rizal successfully obtained an agreement with the British authorities of Borneo that allowed the potential Filipino colonists to occupy around 100,000 acres, a beautiful harbor, and would provide them a good government for 999 years, free of all charges. This is known as the Borneo Colonization Project which was enthusiastically endorsed or supported by many friends of Rizal including prominent figures in our history like the Luna brothers (Juan and Antonio), Graciano Lopez-Jaena, and his Austrian friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt. Unfortunately, Governor-General Eulogio Despujol rejected the project because he argued that the
The suit filed by the landowning friars against the tenants was a response to the refusal of Don Francisco Mercado, father of Dr. Rizal, to pay the land rents because the hacienda management continually raised the cost of the rental. More tenants also refused to pay the rentals which they also viewed as unreasonable. Thereafter, some family members of Rizal and other tenants faced persecution from the authorities in relation to the agrarian conflict in Calamba. Paciano (Rizal’s older brother) and his brothers-in-law Antonio Lopez and Silvestre Ubaldo were deported to Mindoro, while Manuel T. Hidalgo, another brother-in-law, was banished, for the second time, to the island of Bohol. The agrarian problem in Calamba that worsened in 1887 until it caused the dispossession of the tenants of their land in 1890 had encouraged Rizal to establish a Filipino settlement in the island of Borneo, which was at the time under the British protectorate. Rizal wanted to move landless Filipinos including his families and friends to North Borneo (Sabah) to occupy assigned lands for them offered by the British North Borneo Company, engaged in lucrative agriculture and rebuild their lives. Rizal successfully obtained an agreement with the British authorities of Borneo that allowed the potential Filipino colonists to occupy around 100,000 acres, a beautiful harbor, and would provide them a good government for 999 years, free of all charges. This is known as the Borneo Colonization Project which was enthusiastically endorsed or supported by many friends of Rizal including prominent figures in our history like the Luna brothers (Juan and Antonio), Graciano Lopez-Jaena, and his Austrian friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt. Unfortunately, Governor-General Eulogio Despujol rejected the project because he argued that the