“The Voice of the Hunted” is the title of chapter 49 in Noli Me Tangere, others call
it “The Voice of the Persecuted” but in my opinion, it is just the same. The chapter is all
about the conversation of Elias and Ibarra. Elias shares the reforms that those who are
hunted and persecuted wants to have: respecting their human rights, free from
disturbance and removing the power of the civil guards and the friars. Unfortunately,
their insights are not the same. Ibarra sees that changes can lead to more chaos. Also,
he sees that the evilness of the civil guards is needed to control the people.

The chapter unveils that the two gentlemen are both know the problem
circulating in their place and care for their people but Elias has more colors and depth.
Elias cares more not only the place they live, but cares more to the people living there
too. He becomes the voice of those people who are hunted and persecuted.

I personally do not agree on Ibarra’s belief. I feel like if he is an enabler of
injustice and brutality. He thinks that having an iron hand is the solution which is
absolutely not true. Like, fighting violence with violence is not the best idea for me. It
just leads to more blood and lives to be sacrificed. In addition, just like what was stated,
already 15 year since the civil guards were implemented but still, the crimes are still
rampant. That just means that they do not do their job efficiently. Also, he’s too indulged
in having too much trust to the authorities that he believes nothing is wrong.

“No, I believe in it as in a violent remedy that we make use of when we wish to
cure a disease.  Now then, the country is an organism suffering from a chronic malady,
and in order to cure it, the government sees the necessity of employing such means,
harsh and violent if you wish, but useful and necessary.

He is a bad doctor, sir, who seeks only to destroy or stifle the symptoms without
an effort to examine into the origin of the malady, or, when knowing it, fears to attack it.
 The Civil Guard has only this purpose: the repression of crime by means of terror and
force, a purpose that it does not fulfill or accomplishes only incidentally.  You must take
into account the truth that society can be severe with individuals only when it has
provided them with the means necessary for their moral perfection.  In our country,
where there is no society, since there is no unity between the people and the
government, the latter should be indulgent, not only because indulgence is necessary
but also because the individual, abandoned and uncared for by it, has less
responsibility, for the very reason that he has received less guidance. 

Besides, following out your comparison, the treatment that is applied to the ills of
the country is so destructive that it is felt only in the sound parts of the organism, whose
vitality is thus weakened and made receptive of evil.  Would it not be more rational to
strengthen the diseased parts of the organism and lessen the violence of the remedy a
little?