Chapter Two
3. Feudalism Rears its Ugly Head
For a time, the new settlers of Kaloogan had dreams of a more plentiful future. They had all the land they could till, and to the East still lay a vast stretch of level earth, cogon-covered, but promising an almost unlimited opportunity for expansion. To distinguish the area from the clearing immediately above Aromahan, they called it Kalaanan, an old Tagalog word for flat grassland. [Dr. Galauran says that "Kalaanan" was derived from the word "laan" meaning "reserved". In other words, the land was reserved for the people of Kalookan. But this is more romantic than factual. Kalaanan is now generally known as Grace Park.]
The fishermen turned farmers, however, had no means of knowing that the entire archipelago belonged to the King of Spain by right of conquest, and that the sovereign had parceled out this land to the Jesuits and other favorites, long before it was settled and cultivated.
When the stony soil began to yield fruits and grain, the Hacienda de Maysilo reared its ugly head. Confiscated from the Jesuits upon the latter's expulsion from the Philippines in 1768, the hacienda was sold to a mestizo who promptly imposed onerous conditions on the farmers as to share-cropping and other aspects of the feudal landlord-tenant system.
