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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 52, 1841-1898: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century — John Shaqi

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 52, 1841-1898: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

[Mas's first extract is from a communication to the king from
Governor Aguilar, dated November 25, 1804. In this letter, Aguilar
characterizes the native secular priests as lazy and dissolute. He
cites a recent example of a village, evidently previously in charge
of the native seculars, where a Recollect priest has been placed in
charge, and where in consequence the church has been completed and
order preserved. Although there are some good native priests, they
do not infuse the respect that the regulars do, for the latter are
never intimate with their parishioners, while the native priests,
on the other hand, live on an intimate footing with them, and enter
into every detail of their lives. Consequently, the regulars can
manage the natives better than the native secular priests. Again the
religious have no ties, and hence their only care is their church
and their duty. The native seculars are burdened with relatives,
who even live in the curacies with them, and hence, they neglect
their churches which soon fall into ruin. It would be bad indeed
for the islands if the bishops were to transfer the curacies to the
native seculars. That might be done when there are Spanish secular
priests who possess the right qualities, but to transfer them to
the natives would be committing a great wrong. If all the villages
in charge of native secular priests had friar curas, they would be
in a much better condition. In Negros, which is in charge of the
native seculars, nothing is done, a ruinous condition prevails, and
the villages are greatly depopulated. If the matter were left to him,
he would not allow a single native secular priest to have charge of a
village. They might profitably be used as assistants to the regulars.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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