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(Andres Bonifacio)
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<b>Of old, previous to the arrival of the Spaniards</b>, these Islands were governed by our own compatriots who were then living in the greatest abundance and prosperity. They maintained good relations with their neighbors, especially with the Japanese, and traded with them in commodities of all sorts. The result was that wealth and good customs were a common patrimony; young and old, the women included, knew how to read and write, using their own alphabet. 
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But the Spaniards came, with the pretense of peace. The persons then governing us, flattered by their honeyed tempting words, allowed themselves to be deceived by their offers to guide us on the paths of wisdom and increased prosperity. They were, however, obliged to comply with the ritualistic custom of the islanders, to give binding force to their compacts by means of an oath of peace, which consisted in taking a small quantity of blood from the veins of the contracting parties and then drinking the blood so mixed, as evidence that they were to be absolutely true and loyal to their allies. This was called the <a href="https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/1013/today-in-philippine-history-march-15-1565-blood-compact-was-made-between-sikatuna-and-miguel-lopez-de-legazpi-in-bohol" class="news_link">Pact of Blood</a> (which was concluded) between King Sicatuna and the representative of the King of Spain, Legazpi. 
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Since then, for over three hundred years, we have been supplying (the wants) of the race of Legaspi with largesse and have enriched them with abundance, despite the hunger and privations that we ourselves have suffered. We have wasted our wealth and blood and even given our lives in their defense; we have even fought our compatriots who would not willingly submit to their yoke; we have combated the Chinese and the Dutch who attempted to wrest these Islands from them. 
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Now, after all this, what comfort or liberal concession have they bestowed upon us in exchange for all our sacrifices? How have they kept the contract, the cause, precisely, of our sacrifices? Our munificence they have rewarded with treachery, and far from guiding us on the path of knowledge, they have blinded us and contaminated us with their infamous procedure. They have endeavored to make us abandon our own good customs; they have initiated us in a false belief and have dragged the honor of the people into the mire. And if we dare beg for a scrap of love, they give us banishment instead and tear us away from our beloved children, our wives, and our old parents. Every sigh that we utter they brand as a sin and immediately punish it with implacable ferocity. 
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What Filipinos should know - Andres Bonifacio