Known as pacto de retroventa, the Parian Mestizos lent money to Indio farmers when they needed it or if they didn't, convinced them into borrowing. But since Spanish law limited the Indio's debt to twenty-five pesos, in order to give a bigger amount, the Mestizo would buy the land granting the Indio an option to repurchase later. Practically, the Mestizo became landowner and the Indio mere tenant of his own land. When the Indio had the money to repurchase the land, the Mestizo would often say, "Unya na lang na Noy. Diha lang usa na imong kwarta."Growing up in Minglanilla, I heard the story of Noy Liloy who died in the middle of the field he was tilling one noontime under the sweltering heat of the sun, his hand holding on to his plow. He had a heart attack thinking about what the Mestizo-Sangley money lender had told him earlier that day. He told him the land he was tilling was no longer his.
Forced to borrow money for the care of a man he had injured, Noy Liloy entered into a pacto de retroventa deal. But when he had the money to pay off his debt, the money lender won't take it and kept saying, "Unya na lang na Noy. Diha lang usa na imong kwarta."
Noy Liloy's descedants stayed on some of the land claimed by the moneylender, entering into a long court battle that saw all their money spent and properties sold to pay for a legal battle they were ignorant of. As expected, the moneylender won the case in court.
Noy Liloy's son cried when his house was demolished to enforce the court's decision. Never expecting it would happen, he had to be carried away from the site. That night, he and his family slept on a makeshift, roofless house, near the ricefields which a sympathetic friend offered to them. His son sobbed himself to sleep.
Shortly after, Noy Liloy's son died. Few weeks after, his wife too, died; their children orphaned.
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