Propaganda

Movement
What is Propaganda?
Propaganda
is information that is not objective and is used primarily
to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by
presenting facts selectively to encourage a particular
synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to
produce an emotional rather than a rational response to
the information that is presented.
The word propaganda was first coined by the 7 th century Catholic Church
during the establishment of the College for the Propagation of the
Faith under the incumbency of Pope Pius VIII. The congregation,
composed of Cardinals who controlled the foreign mission , had for
its sole purpose , the propagation or spreading of Catholicism.
Webster’s definition of the term as propagation of a given opinion, idea or
ideal, any organized movement for spreading a doctrine or a given
ideal.
What is Propaganda Movement?
Propaganda
Movement
was the first Filipino nationalist movement, led
by a Filipino elite and inspired by the
protonationalist activism of figures such as Jose
Burgos and by his execution at the hands of
colonial authorities. (1872-1892)
 This movement was a concerted effort among educated Filipinos that
developed into a vigorous press campaign for reforms.
Bolstered by their foreign symphatizers, they exposed the intolerable
conditions in the Philippines, lampooned government officials
and friars, and satirized the deplorable situation in the country.
The center of the Propaganda Movement activities in Spain was in
Madrid while in Manila, it was Roman Ongpin’s general
hardware store on Rosario street, known as “El ’82. The store
served as a clandestine rendezvous for activities and distribution
center of propaganda materials.
 Rise of the Propaganda Movement

It began in 1872 , Father Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and

Jacinto Zamora were executed at the Luneta.

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 The Propaganda in the Philippines
✣ A greater part of the local strategy and organization of
propaganda work was accomplished by Marcelo H. del
Pilar, who reached out to the masses in their own
language as no one had done before him.
✣ His duplos and essays which satirized the local
conditions were widely circulated in the Tagalog
provinces, that provided the masses with instruction,
recreation and amusement, often replacing the novenas
and pasiones in their homes.
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Marcelo H. Del Pilar
- Lawyer and journalist from Bulacan
- He wrote anti-friar pamphlets in simple yet forceful Tagalog
- In 1882, he helped establish the Diariong Tagalog, the first bilingual
newspaper, he edited the tagalog section.
- His house was burned mysteriously.
- He left the Philippines in October 1888 to escape the prosecution of
friars
- Among his pamphlets were Long Live Spain, Long Live the King,
Long Live the Army, Down with Friars, Caiigat Cayo, Sagot ng
Espana sa Hibik Nang Filipinas and others.
- Dasalan at Toksohan- a series of irrelevant parodies of prayers and
was lauded by Rizal as a masterpiece of satire.

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✣ He preached to the people in the provinces about patriotism,
sacrifice, and industry and secretly formed the first political
group of Filipinos in the Phils, the Junta de Propaganda.
✣ He drafted protests and sought the implementation of the
reform decrees and became the object of several suits filed by
the friars.
✣ He opposed arrest on the flimsy charge of not carrying
identification cards (cedula).
✣ He was against the confinement of women, girls, and even
children until they had paid heavy fines.

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✣ Encouraged by the people’s reception of his literary works,
Del Pilar worked to win the attention of the peasants, the
caciques, the educated class, and the liberal-minded
political and clerical officials.
✣ He concluded alliances with alcaldes and alfereces and
sought the support of the liberal friars.

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 Propaganda in Spain

✣ When Del Pilar arrived in Europe, he found a group of

Filipino expatriates feverishly working for reforms.
✣ Among them were Graciano Lopez Jaena, Eduardo de
Lete, Mariano Ponce, Pedro Govantes, Dr. Dominador
Gomez, Tomas Arejola, Pedro Rianzares Bautista, and
Jose Rizal
✣ His first meeting with Rizal

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THE PROPAGANDISTS

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THE PROPAGANDISTS
- Were patriots who waged their movement by means of pen
and tongue to expose the defect of Spanish rule in the
Philippines and urgency of reforms to remedy them

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Dr. Jose P. Rizal
- Noli me Tangere & El Felibusterismo
- Met Del Pilar for the first time in London
- “You will remember that, walking on the Pascode Recoletos … I told
you: "Watch out, for some fine day we shall wake up quarrelling
without knowing why."  You laughed at my witticism and so did I …
that occurred to me without reason as a vague presentment.”– Del
Pilar’s letter to Jose Rizal 

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Graciano Lopez Jaena
- He was from Iloilo
- An orator
- Fray Botod “Friar Potbelly” (1874). It is about an fictitious cleric
named Fray Botod who arrived looking like a hungry mosquito and
soon became stout because of the stocks taken from the people.

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Mariano Ponce
- A medical student and biographical writer
- He was also the head of the Literary Section of the Asociacion
Hispano-Filipina, created to aid the Propaganda Movement where he
served as secretary.
- In 1898, Emilio Aguinaldo chose him to represent the First
Philippine Republic. 

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La Solidaridad
✣ Served as the mouthpiece of the Filipinos in Spain through which
they voiced their desire for reforms and counteracted allegations
and malicious attacks against the Phils.
✣ It was the third attempt to publish an official organ.
✣ Funded by Pablo Rianzares Bautista, some members of Junta de
Propaganda in Manila and later members of the Cuerpo de
Compromisarios.
✣ Graciano Lopez Jeana was its first editor
✣ Aim was to spread and defend the ideas of democracy and work
for and promoter progress in politics, science, arts, letters.
commerce, agriculture, and industry.
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La Solidaridad

✣ After 10 months of its publication, Del Pilar took over the

editorship and transferred the editorial office to Madrid
where they hoped for more supporters among the Spanish
liberals.
✣ Other active contributors were Mariano Ponce, Jose Ma.
Panganiban, and Antonio Luna
✣ Ponce was the managing editor as well as biographer,
bibliographer, and researcher for the Propaganda
Movement.
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✣ In Jose Ma. Panganiban essays and speeches, he mentioned the
desire for freedom of the press.
✣ Antonio Luna’s contributions were his paper “Noche Buena”, a
biographical sketch that depicted actual life in the Phils.
✣ “La Maestra de Mi Pueblo”, described the defects of
educational system for women
✣ “Todo por el Estomago”, satirized the Spanish method of
colonization and its taxation policy.
✣ They used pen names to protect their families in the Phils.
✣ Rizal, Del Pilar, Lopez Jeana, Panganiban, Antonio Luna,
Ponce
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Spanish Masons
✣ The liberal ideas of the Spanish Masons, their fearless
attacks on the government and the church, and the
freedom they generally enjoyed, attracted the
propagandists to join the Masons and organized the
Asociacion Hispano-Filipino.
✣ The collective efforts of the association and the Masonic
lodges, the publication of La Solidaridad and other
literary activities of the Propaganda yielded some results,
such as Provincial Reform of 1886.

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Counter Propaganda
✣ The exposes, satires, and criticisms written against the
Spaniards provoked contrary action
✣ The counter-propagandists also published and wrote for
newspapers, adopted pseudonyms, and banned all the
writings of propagandists from the Phils.
✣ La Politica de España en Filipinas by Wenceslao Retana to
counteract La Solidaridad
✣ Using Desengaños, he waged personal attacks on the
propagandists and exposed them as incapable, ignorant,
indolent, always craving for more rights, and never satisfied
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✣ Other counter-propagandists never developed sympathy
for the Philippines
✣ Recuerdos de Filipinas, remembered the Filipinos only as
childish and culturally backward.
✣ La Voz de España, Fr. Miguel Lucio Bustamante ridiculed
the people aspiring to know Spanish language when they
could hardly perform their manual tasks satisfactorily.
✣

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Conflicts and Constraints
✣ Inadequate financial resource, differences of opinion, and
personal problems lowered their morale.
✣ The propagandists’ financial difficulties pushed Rizal to
comment that the majority talked a great deal but were
reluctant to help in the financing of the movement.
✣ Dominador Gomez and Pablo Rianzares Bautista financed La
Solidaridad
✣ Antonio Ma.Regidor sent a monthly contribution
✣ The subscription of Masons helped but not adequately.
✣ None of the reforms they were working for was granted
✣ Some of them changed conviction from assimilation to
separation and turned revolutionists-Lopez Jaena and del Pilar
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✣ Rizal had tried to reconcile these groups that expressed
their nationalistic views but very little he could do to help
solve their personal troubles because he himself bothered
by similar problems.
✣ Love of the country kept them working together for two
decades
✣ Rizal, del Pilar, and Jaena eventually went separate ways
✣ La Solidaridad folded up in 1895 for lack of funds
✣ Jaena died for tuberculosis and two months later, Del Pilar
died on the same disease
✣ Rizal had been exiled to Dapitan
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 “We are persuaded that there are no
sacrifices that are too little to win the
rights and the liberty of a nation that
is oppressed by slavery”
(M.H. del Pilar’s farewell editorial)

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THANK YOU!   

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