---
title: 'El Renacimiento, 30 October 1908, p. 4: the editorial ''Aves de rapiña'' (Birds of Prey)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/el-renacimiento-aves-de-rapina-1908/
description: Page 4 of the Manila daily El Renacimiento carries a front-of-page editorial headed 'Aves de rapiña' ('Birds of Prey') that never names its target but…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Editorial that likens an unnamed official to a vulture, owl and vampire and alleges corruption; the court found it libelled a named official. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![El Renacimiento, 30 October 1908, p. 4: the editorial 'Aves de rapiña' (Birds of Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/el-renacimiento-aves-de-rapina-1908.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/el-renacimiento-aves-de-rapina-1908.jpg)

# El Renacimiento, 30 October 1908, p. 4: the editorial 'Aves de rapiña' (Birds of Prey)

Page 4 of the Manila daily El Renacimiento carries a front-of-page editorial headed 'Aves de rapiña' ('Birds of Prey') that never names its target but lists one man's alleged acts in Benguet, Mindoro and Mindanao and then labels him, in one sentence, an eagle, a vulture, an owl and a vampire. The repeated animal epithets are the tell.

## Text on the object

Original (Spanish) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
EL RENACIMIENTO
[illegible: partly legible] DIARIO INDEPENDIENTE FILIPINO
El de mayor circulación en las Islas
Edición castellana. (Director, TEODORO M. KALAW. / Redactor Jefe, FIDEL A. REYES.)
Edición tagala. (Director, LOPE K. SANTOS. / Redactor Jefe, FAUSTINO AGUILAR.)
Administrador: MARTIN OCAMPO
Manila 30 de Octubre de 1908

EDITORIAL
Aves de rapiña

En la extensión del globo, unos han nacido para comer y devorar, otros para ser comidos y devorados.
Una y otra vez, estos últimos se han agitado, tratando de rebelarse contra un orden de cosas en que son presa y pasto para la voracidad insaciable de los primeros. Alguna vez han tenido suerte ahuyentando lejos á los comedores y devoradores, pero en la mayor parte de las veces no se ha conseguido más que un cambio de nombre ó de plumaje.
En todas las esferas de la creación, la situación es la misma, la relación entre unos y otros es la que dictan el apetito y la fuerza para saciarlo á costa del prójimo.
[...]
El águila, simbolizando libertad y fuerza, es el ave que ha encontrado más adeptos Y los hombres, colectiva é individualmente, han querido copiar é imitar al ave más rapaz, para triunfar en el saqueo de sus semejantes.
Hay hombres que, además de ser águilas, reunen en sí las características del buitre, del buho y del vámpiro
Subiendo á las montañas de Benguet para clasificar y medir cráneos de igorrotes y estudiarlos y civilizarlos y sorprender al vuelo, con ojo de ave de rapiña, donde se encuentran los grandes yacimientos del oro, la presa oculta entre los montes solitarios, para apropiárselos después gracias á facilidades legales hechas y deshechas al antojo, pero siempre en beneficio propio.
Autorizado á despecho de leyes y ordenanzas una matanza ilegal de ganado enfermo, para sacar beneficio de la carne infecta y podrida que el mismo estaba obligado á condenar en virtud de su posición oficial.
Presentándose en todas las ocasiones con el ceño fruncido del sabio que consume su vida en los misterios del laboratorio de ciencia, cuando toda su labor científica se reduce á desecar insectos é importar huevas de peces como si los peces de este país fueran menos nutritivos y menos ricos, de tal modo que valiera la pena de sustituirlos con especies venidas de otros climas
Dando un impulso admirable al descubrimiento de veneros de riqueza en Mindoro, en Mindanaw y demás puntos vírgenes del Archipiélago con el dinero del pueblo y con el pretexto de bien público, cuando en rigor se trata de poseer todos los datos y la clave de la riqueza nacional en provecho personalísimo como se demuestra por la adquisición de inmensas propiedades registradas con nombres ajenos.
[...]
Tales son las características del hombre que es á la vez águila que sorprende y devora, buitre que se solaza en las carnes muertas y putrefactas, buho que aparenta una omnisciencia petulante y vámpiro que chupa en silencio la sangre de la victima hasta dejarle exangüe.
Estas aves de rapiña son las que triunfan. Su vuelo y su dirección jamás se ven detenidos.
¿Quién los detendrá?
Unos participan del botín y del saqueo. Otros son tan débiles para levantar la voz de protesta. Y otros mueren en la desconsoladora destrucción de sus propias energías é intereses.
Y entonces surge, terrífica, la leyenda inmortal:
MANE, THECEL, PHARES.
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
In the extent of the globe, some have been born to eat and devour, others to be eaten and devoured.
Time and again the latter have stirred themselves, trying to rebel against an order of things in which they are prey and pasture for the insatiable voracity of the former. Sometimes they have had luck driving the eaters and devourers far away, but in most cases nothing more has been achieved than a change of name or of plumage.
In all spheres of creation the situation is the same; the relation between the one and the other is what appetite and the force to sate it at the neighbour's expense dictate.
[...]
The eagle, symbolizing liberty and strength, is the bird that has found the most followers. And men, collectively and individually, have wished to copy and imitate the most rapacious bird, in order to triumph in the plunder of their fellows.
There are men who, besides being eagles, unite in themselves the characteristics of the vulture, the owl and the vampire.
Going up into the mountains of Benguet to classify and measure the skulls of Igorots and study them and civilize them, and to spy out in flight, with the eye of a bird of prey, where the great gold deposits are, the prey hidden among the solitary mountains, in order to appropriate them afterwards thanks to legal facilities made and unmade at will, but always for his own benefit.
Having authorized, in spite of laws and ordinances, an illegal slaughter of diseased cattle, in order to profit from the infected and rotten meat which he himself was obliged to condemn by virtue of his official position.
Presenting himself on every occasion with the frowning brow of the sage who consumes his life in the mysteries of the science laboratory, when all his scientific labour comes down to drying insects and importing fish roe, as if the fish of this country were less nutritious and less rich, such that it would be worthwhile to replace them with species brought from other climes.
Giving an admirable impulse to the discovery of veins of wealth in Mindoro, in Mindanao and other virgin places of the Archipelago with the people's money and under the pretext of the public good, when in truth the aim is to possess all the data and the key to the national wealth for his very personal profit, as is shown by the acquisition of immense properties registered under other people's names.
[...]
Such are the characteristics of the man who is at once an eagle that surprises and devours, a vulture that delights in dead and putrefying flesh, an owl that feigns a petulant omniscience and a vampire that silently sucks the blood of the victim until it is left bloodless.
These birds of prey are the ones that triumph. Their flight and their direction are never seen to be halted.
Who will stop them?
Some share in the booty and the plunder. Others are too weak to raise a voice of protest. And others die in the disconsolate destruction of their own energies and interests.
And then there arises, terrible, the immortal legend:
MENE, TEKEL, PHARES. (printed as 'Mane, Thecel, Pharés')
```

Transcribed from a 960 px scan of a worn newspaper page; the masthead's display type is partly unreadable and is marked. The page's other columns (Comité Conjunto, Acta de Villa, advertisements) are not transcribed. The editorial's paragraphs on land purchases and hotels and one on the 'phenomenon among men' are omitted ([...]) and appear in the image. Small letter-level uncertainties ('añinidad', 'vámpiro') follow the scan as read.

[← 戊申詔書 (Boshin Rescript), Kanpō no. 7592, 14 October 1908, p. 1](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kanpo-boshin-rescript-1908/) [The fleet protects the nation - Prudential Life Insurance protects the home (Puck centerfold, 1909) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/prudential-fleet-protects-nation-1909/)

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