ABSTRACT
The Filipino elite has been and still is a sub-elite within the framework of colonial relationships. Filipino was used to designate the Creoles or the Spaniards born in the Philippines, in contrast to the peninsulares or those who were born in the Iberian peninsula. Consequently, the Filipino Spaniards, like their Creole counterparts in South America, had an ambivalent attitude towards both Spain and the Philippines. The Filipino Spaniard was economically and emotionally based in the Philippines. Filipino was thus acquiring a larger area of application, although the leadership was still Hispanic in language, custom and culture. The object of Hispanizing the indio was to make him a Filipino for the term originally applied to Spaniards. Where the Filipino elite started as a non-Filipino group because the basis was racial, the Filipino elite of today is becoming anti-Filipino because of material interests.
