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<a href="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/jose-rizal-marcelo-del-pilar-og.webp" rel="lightbox">
<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/jose-rizal-marcelo-del-pilar.webp" alt="Marcelo H. del Pilar, Jose Rizal, and other illustrados in Madrid" 

/>
</a>
<div>
(Marcelo H. del Pilar, Jose Rizal, and other illustrados in Madrid, Spain in 1890.)
</div>
</div>

<p>
This is neither the time nor the place to go more deeply into considerations that, after all, cannot escape your notice. But our consciences, and 

our patriotism, make us counsel the urgent necessity that there is for higher authorities making haste to solve the problem since liberal reforms 

from above, besides being more pacific, are fruitful of practical results. 
</p>
<p>
Yet how is it possible to solve such problems when the highest authorities do not know the needs of the colony, when there is set up there a system 

for smothering the cry of distress and for closing all the gates for pacific and legal representation? In what way can needs become known if in the 

topmost circles of the metropolis there are heard only the voices of those that want to convert the Philippines into convents and barracks?
</p>
<p>
Be not deceived, gentlemen. Without representation for Philippine interests, Philippine matters cannot really be discussed. If that part of Spain is 

not consulted, any solution that may be reached will fall short of what is necessary. 
</p>
<p>
This is the reason for our desire, our constant aspiration, that the Filipino people shall again enjoy the political rights that were taken away 

from them in the Cortes of 1837. We want that long-dreamed-of restoration to become an immediate reality. 
</p>
<p>
Believe me, gentlemen, thus, and only thus, in my humble judgment, ever will the union of Spain and the Philippines be consolidated. 
</p>
<p>
A colony's union with its metropolis ought not to be like the relation of the prisoner to his jailer; it ought to be like a daughter's relation to 

her mother. Good daughters have the greatest respect for their mothers; good mothers cherish tenderest affection for their children and sincerely 

sympathize with the children's sorrows. 
</p>
<p>
Furthermore, and most important of all, since Spain has come to believe it to be such an unquestionable right that she proclaims and legalizes 

respect for the individual, why has she overlooked respect for people? Why has she relegated the Philippines from a Spanish province into a mere 

field for ecclesiastical exploitation? 
</p>
<p>
The Philippines cannot continue in its present condition. Those who from selfish motives are devoting their energies to the fossilizing of the 

Philippines are doing dreadful damage to the nation and to its institutions. 
</p>
<h3>
Marcelo H. Del Pilar
</h3>

<p>
<b>Sources:</b>
<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
Gems of Philippine oratory; selections representing fourteen centuries of Philippine thought, carefully compiled from credible sources in 

substitution for the pre-Spanish writings destroyed by missionary zeal, to supplement the later literature stunted by intolerant religious and 

political censorship, and as specimens of the untrammeled present-day utterances, by Austin Craig, pages 37-38, University of Manila, 1924.
</li>
</ol>
</p>, 



Freer Neighbors Increased Filipino Discontent with Spanish Rule