Philippine History - January 12

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On January 12, 1889, Hispano-Filipino Association, an organization composed of Filipinos and Spaniards, was formed in Madrid, Spain calling for reforms in the Philippines during Spanish colonization.

Among other things, it campaigned for Philippine representation in the Spanish Cortes and the passage of the Maura Law to bring about educational reforms in the archipelago. 

The association was formed as reformists realized that putting up an organization would mean pooling of their resources and efforts in the campaign to have their voices heard by Spanish (pensular) government.

The organization was formed to included Spaniards sympathetic to the plight of the Filipinos in the Colonial Philippines. It was formed a month after the La Solidaridad, all Filipino organization Composed of Filipino liberals exiled in 1872 and students attending Europe's universities was organized on December 13, 1888. (The organization will later produce a newspaper of the same name published in Barcelona, Spain on February 15, 1889.)

Filipino members of the Hispano-Filipino Associacion includes Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Jose M. Panganiban, Eduardo de Lete, and a few others. 

The Spanish members of the society were Miguel Morayta, professor of history at the Universidad Central de Madrid, and Felipe de la Corte, author of several works on the Philippines. Miguel Morayta is said to be the one who started the assosacion. 

Society was divided into three sections to make the propaganda effective -- political section under Del Pilar; literary section under Ponce; and the sports section under Arejola.

However, intensive campaign for reforms did not yield any tangible results in the form of changes in the administration of the Philippines because Spain was too preoccupied with its own internal problems to give moment’s thought to colonial problem; friars were too powerful even in Spain to be sidetracked by the Spanish authorities.

The association lobbied successfully for the passage of some laws which included the law pertaining to the compulsory teaching of Spanish and the laws providing reforms in the judiciary. However, these laws were not fully implemented considering the return to power of the reactionary group in Spain. 

Since the membership of the asociation was composed mostly of Spaniards, it failed to secure the support many Filipinos including Dr. Jose Rizal and Antonio Luna. The young Filipinos felt that the Spaniards and the creoles were too moderate in dealing with their clamor for reforms.

Source: Philippine History by M. C. Halili