Readings in Philippine History  HISTORY IS A SOCIAL SCIENCE - scientific

and systematic through the HISTORICAL

Course Description METHOD (OBJECTIVITY)
 Philippine history viewed from the lens of 1. Identify research questions/statement of
selected primary sources, in different the problem
periods, analyses and interpretations - 2. Gather data from either PRIMARY
thus, “readings” AND/OR SECONDARY SOURCES
 End goal - to enable students to 3. Observe (if witnessing)/ Examine
understand and appreciate our rich past (documentary)
by deriving insights from those who were 4. Evaluate, Validate Data and Extract
actually present at the time of the event Necessary Particulars
(eye witness accounts). 5. Conclusion —> HISTORICAL DATA.

How to examine and learn from the History is both a Social Science and an
readings Art
 Context Analysis (External Criticism)  Historical Method = factual historical data
o Authenticity - time, place and conditions = knowledge dissemination
when it was written  Historiography = Historia (Story)
o Authorship and authority - background +Graphein (To Write)
and intent  History is an art -> the skill of writing
o Aim - relevance and meaning today history that is meaningful and relevant
 Content Analysis (Internal Criticism) (subjective part)
o Form (written, oral or visual) and genre  Historical interpretation using
(travelogue, missionary/military report, perspectives —> SUBJECTIVITY
minutes etc)  STYLE
o Main thesis/argument of the source o Narrative
o Identify the point of view used o Interpretive
o Evaluate author’s claims o Argumentative
------------------------------------------------ o Expository
o Descriptive
History as A Discipline of  ASPECT
Knowledge o Political
o Cultural
His-Story o Economic
 Gk. Historia — inquiry/investigation; to o Religious
inquire, to know o Social
 It is both a social science and an art =  SCOPE
CASS o Local
o National
o International
EXAMPLE TOPIC: Historical Lessons from The 1986
 Diyandi: Cultural Performance of Iligan People Power
Isang kiskis lang ba ang rebolusyon at nagliyab na?

Trivial Pursuit?
 Ang kasaysayan ba ay tila isang menu sa
restaurant na naglalaman lamang ng mga
matatayog na pangalan, pook at petsa
bilang buod?
o EDSA as a Restaurant Menu

Towards A Definition
 Field of study — an art and a social
science
 Time-frame - past
 Topic - human events
 Nature - definite and socially significant
 This kind of history only gives us a
Historical Discipline In The Philippines: disjointed sense of the past that doesn’t
Issues And Challenges connect with our sense of destiny as a
 HISTORY —> Kasaysayan - Salaysay people (Azurin, 1993).
(Story/Narrate) - Sanaysay (Write-Up)-  Ito ay isang KASAYSAYANG WALANG
Saysay (Relevance) KAMALAYAN (History without
 His-story vs. Her-story Consciousness)
 Articulate vs. Inarticulate
o Mainstream vs. Subaltern His-Story: Stories Of How We Once
 Central vs. Periphery Were
o Luzon-centered  “History is like a mirror, capable of
 Textual vs. Non-textual showing what a man really is” - Qiu
o Written vs. Oral/Performative Xialong. (Looking at our History, we see our
past selves)
 History increases our self-knowledge Mga Aral at Muni-Muni
 Past happenings show us what we are as a ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE
people - what we are capable of, as a
Fearful for their lives yet hopeful for a Freer
people
Philippines
 Since we do not have hints as to the extent
of what we can do unless we try - then we  Assembly is Powerful
have our past actions that would give us  Expressing one’s grievance through speech
examples, guidance. (Gottschalk, 1950) is one thing but expressing one’s grievance
 The People Power Revolution of 1986 is by actually going out there - in the streets
part of our story as Filipinos. And looking - calling out political figures is another
back to this historical event provides us powerful thing
insights as to our strength and power as a  ang pagtitipon sa mga pampublikong
people – how we once were and thus espasyo - sa lansangan man ito o sa
better understand ourselves at the liwasan – ay isang anyo ng malayang
present. pagpapahayag ng nasa ng bayan
(national aspirations) na naghahangad ng
mas maayos at maginhawang uri ng
pamumuhay, sa mga aspektong sosyal,
ekonomikal at pulitikal
 ang mga pagtitipon o pampublikong
demonstrasyon ay mga pagpapahayag ng
pangamba o hindi naman kaya ay pag-
asa para sa mga bagay na walang
katiyakan (precarity) sa hinaharap
(Butler, 2015).
 nararapat lamang na itanong din ang mga
Lessons from the 1986 people power gahum na nakakabit at nagtulak sa mga
revolution? Historical Meaning? Historical tao na magtipon? Why did they join the
Significance? Application/Utilization? Lessons? Revolution?

People Power ended a 14-year Martial Law

Period
 General Will is Powerful
 “Even the weak becomes strong when they
are united - Schiller
 Mabini - “Who will hold the executive
authority? The strongest? No. because
they can be brutish and stupid. The
educated? They might use their
 intelligence to achieve evil ends. The for allies, friends or kin, and marked by a
richest? They might use the position to predatory orientation towards others.
further increase their wealth”. Whoever Although Filipinos are known hospitable,
that may be – Mabini insisted that he but their hospitality is a mechanism of
must be elected by the people - upheld by transforming a stranger into a consociate
the general will (Majul, 1957). (Pertierra, 1994).
 Conflicts are rarely ideological but rather
ABOUT THE FILIPINO PEOPLE
personal
Hanggang kaya pa!
Revolution or Restoration?
 Anu-ano ang mga kalooban ng Bayan? Oligarchs - to succeed in business, engage in
 Filipinos are long-suffering / mapailubon politics and vice versa
 Concept of “ilub” (humility and tolerance
 French Revolution 1789; American
for any forms of sociological pains)
Revolution 1776; Russian Revolution 1917;
 Tumutukoy sa lubos na pagpaparaya para
Chinese Revolution 1949; Philippine
sa kapakanan ng ibang tao na
Revolution 1896
isinasagawa sa pamamagitan ng pagtitiis
 EDSA People Power 1986 - A Revolution?
na nilalakipan ng kababaang-loob,
pagtitiyaga, at katapangan sa pagharap  If it was, then it was an only “Palace
sa matinding kahirapan (Villan,2013) Revolution”. We only changed the palace
people - Prof. Salgado
Filipino as human buffers  Elite families were RESTORED in politics and
 Filipinos are allegiant/maunongon economy
 Concept of “unong” (trustworthiness and  Philippine politics is an anarchy of political
loyalty to someone - related or not) families not political parties (McCoy, 1993)
 Katumbas sa wikang Tagalog ng Missed Opportunities
pakikisamang pisikal ngunit kung iuugnay  After dictatorship, the Revolutionary
sa konsepto ng kalooban, pakikipagkapwa, Government could have:
at kapatiran, tumutukoy ito sa hindi pag- 1. Repudiated all the fraudulent debts
iwan, laging pananatili, at katapatang incurred by the dictatorship,
humahantong magpahanggang sa 2. Permanently broke up the economic base
kamatayan. Pagpapahayag ito ng di- of the landed oligarchy by decreeing a
kumukupas at walang katapusang pag- radical agrarian reform program
ukolng nag- uumapaw na pag-ibig sa hindi 3. Seized all the ill-gotten assets without
ibang tao (asawa, magulang, kapatid, at hesitation and use these to improve the
kamag-anak) at ibang tao (kakilala, lives of the people
kasama, at kaibigan) (Villan, 2013) 4. Shamed the Swiss banks into returning
 Filipinos are personalistic the Marcos deposits to the Filipino
 Philippines is a society of personal and people.
collective prowess - ensuring protection
 THESE THINGS could have been done only PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
if there was a powerful constituency for
SOURCES AND THEIR REPOSITORIES
social change. Thus, the revolution led to
ELITE RESTORATION (David, 2001) “Definition and Differences”
Yesterday’s Past is Today’s Task Primary Source
From a society of prowess to a knowledge  Created or produced during the time
regime (Pertierra, 1994) period being studied
 Political Infants (David, 2001)- July 4,  Created or produced at a later date by a
1946 - February 28, 2022 = 76 years participant or a witness in the events
being studied (example: memoir,
 In the Philippine society, although
autobiography)
knowledge and information are important
ingredients of success, it was perceived  Primary source is highly recommended and
that guts, valor and personal skills are preferable because they can give you
more essential. historical information as close as possible
to how or what actually happened during
 “It is not what (knowledge)you know, but
an event, experience or time period
whom (person) you know”
 The key to determining if the source is
 Philippine society has been lagging behind
primary is to check its dating and
because of the personalism in Filipino
authorship - how soon the source was
culture and the tendency to attribute
produced from the event
everything to supernatural. Only when the
Filipinos realized that the solutions are not  Examples
always prowess or prayers but collective o Diaries
action based on a knowledge regime, could  Diary of Anne Frank
the country be able to compete and  Diary of Ferdinand E. Marcos
succeed in the global stage. o Personal Journal
 Travel Journal of Antonio Pigafetta –
 “Peoples and government are correlated
“First Around the World; a Journal of
and complementary - an aimless
Magellan’s Voyage”
government would be an anomaly among
o Government, Court and Property Records
a righteous people, just as corrupt people
 Official Gazette (newspaper type)
cannot exist under just rulers and wise
 Order Paper from National Court
laws. Whatever social and political
 Original Certificate of Title
environments we are in are products of
o Maps and City Plan
men’s deliberate choices”. Rizal, 1889-
 Fr. Paver’s Map of Iligan, 1754 - Pueblo
1890
de Yligan
 EDUCATION not for mere INFORMATION but
 Fr. Murillo Velarde’s Map, 1734 - 1734
for TRANSFORMATION
Murillo Map
------------------------------------------------ o Military and Missionary Reports
  Blair and Robertson’s the Philippine SOURCE ANALYSIS
Islands, 1493-1898
o Visual Evidences Like Photographs “The Emperor’s Mirror: Understanding Cultures
 Rizal through the years Through Primary Sources”
o Letters
Source Analysis
 Emilio Aguinaldo’s letter explaining why
 Examining the source in terms of how much
he ordered the execution of Andres
of their information should be believed is
Bonifacio, 1948
called source analysis.
o Paintings
 Juan Luna’s Spoliarium, 1884  Two types:
o Census Data o External Analysis/ Criticism (Contextual)
o Artefacts o Internal Analysis/Criticism (Content)

Secondary Sources External Criticism/Contextual Analysis

 A work that interprets or analyzes  Was this document written at the date and
historical event by the author claimed?
o History and Culture, Language and  Intends to detect fakes, forgeries, and
Literature: Selected Essays of Teodoro A. other purposeful attempts to mislead
Agoncillo  Aims to recognize misidentification,
o History of the Philippines, Barrows misdating, false attributions of documents
o The Journal of History by scholars
 Checks AUTHENTICITY
Repositories of Primary Sources  Goal is to determine the date and
 National Archives authorship of the document
 National Library
 National Museum Measures To Check A Source’s
 School Libraries Authenticity
 Public Libraries  HISTORICAL CONTINUITY - whether the
 Private Libraries document can be traced in a more or less
 Government Offices unbroken chain from the time of writing to
the present
 Private Museums
 PHYSICAL EXAMINATION - scientific
 Digital Libraries
scrutiny of the document itself: ink and
------------------------------------------------ paper. It can tell whether a document was
produced by appropriate technology
 PENMANSHIP - it is usually difficult for a
forger to imitate a handwriting style or
the handwriting of a particular individual
because the mental and physical habits of
one’s own handwriting interfere.
 ANACHRONISM - are words, usages, items, 3. THE GENRE OF THE ACCOUNT
or concepts that appear in a document  GENRE - a category; a conventional
supposedly written at a time when they form of discourse
either did not exist or were out of fashion  Social experience leads an individual to
 CONSISTENCY WITH WELL-ESTABLISHED recognize various recurrent modes of
SOURCES - the document is in total presenting information. These modes -
agreement with all previously or at least the digested classification of
acknowledged sources them - are really categories that serve
to structure an audience’s
Examples:
expectations; recognizing an account
 CODE OF KALANTIAW as falling into a certain category ends
o Historical Continuity? an audience to expect characteristic
 RIZAL’S RETRACTION elements
o Physical Examination? Dating and 4. INHERENT PLAUSIBILITY
Penmanship?  he final factor in internal analysis is
 TASADAY probably the hardest to consider: the
o Last remnant of stone age? plausibility of an author’s account
 Checklist of factors to consider in
Internal Criticism/Content Analysis internal analysis:
Allows you to assess how much faith you should i. Was the author in physical position to
have in the accuracy and reliability of the report events or conditions?
document ii. How much time elapsed between the
1. AUTHOR IN SPACE AND TIME - was the events discussed and the writing of the
author physically in a position to know the account?
things reported in a document? iii. Did the author have the cultural
 The time elapsed between the background, including language
observation and the reporting of proficiency to understand what he or
events can affect the detail and she observed?
accuracy of an account iv. What were the author’s biases and how
2. AUTHOR’S KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL might they have affected reporting?
STATUS v. What elements of the account are
formulaic or expected within this genre
 How well an author’s cultural
and which are unique and potentially
background/biases/perspectives
meaningful?
permeate in understanding the events
vi. Is the report inherently plausible?
transpiring
vii. How well does the report fit in with
 The more an author knows about a
other evidence on the same issue?
subject, the more accurate the person’s
account is likely to be ------------------------------------------------
 PHILIPPINE “PREHISTORY”  What sources of historical data can we use
to know Philippine history before the
When Did History Start in colonization?
The Philippines: Thoughts To Ponder o Written/Textual- Baybayin Scripts
 In 1521? When Philippines was  Monreal or Ticao Stone
“discovered” by the West? o Non-written/non-textual – artifacts
 When the West started writing about the  Laguna Copperplate Inscription
Philippines? LAGUNA COPPERPLATE
 So would that mean to say before the
coming of the West, Philippines was in an
age of “prehistory”?
 We don’t think so -

Eurocentric Perspective
 History is defined by the West
 Their World is the Old World and ours is the
New World
 Discovered in 1989, at the mouth of
 Their civilization is the ancient civilization
Lumbang river at Laguna de Bay
and ours is not even considered as such
 Sold to the National Museum for P2000
 Their history is based on written evidences
 Resembling the ancient Javanese script,
and our cultural accomplishments such as
Kawi
songs, traditions, performances etc are
 It was dated year 822 in Hindy, year 900
deemed useless
AD (April 21)
 When in fact, outside the West, the World
had been more advanced than theirs Long Live! Year of Siyaka 822, month of
 Eurocentric Event in Periodization of Waisaka, according to astronomy. The fourth
Philippine History day of the waning moon, Monday. On this
o Pre-colonial period occasion, Lady Angkatan, and her brother
o Colonial period whose name is Buka, the children of the
o Post-colonial period Honourable Namwaran, were awarded a
o Pre-Spanish Philippines document of complete pardon from the
o Spanish Philippines Commander in Chief of Tundun, represented by
the Lord Minister of Pailah, Jayadewa.
THIS IS FILIPINO STORY
THIS IS PHILIPPINE HISTORY By this order, through the scribe, the
Honourable Namwaran has been forgiven of all
Filipino-centric periodization of Philippine
and is released from his debts and arrears of 1
history?
katî and 8 suwarna before the Honourable
Lord Minister of Puliran, Ka Sumuran by the
authority of the Lord Minister of Pailah.
Because of his faithful service as a subject of  Hindu Influences
the Chief, the Honourable and widely o Widespread culture with Hindu
renowned Lord Minister of Binwangan Influences
recognized all the living relatives of Namwaran
who were claimed by the Chief of Dewata,
represented by the Chief of Medang.

Yes, therefore the living descendants of the

Honourable Namwaran are forgiven, indeed, of
any and all debts of the Honourable
Namwaran to the Chief of Dewata.
This, in any case, shall declare to whomever
henceforth that on some future day should
there be a man who claims that no release
from the debt of the Honourable...

 Historical Implication
o Places mentioned in the LCI

Golden Tara

 Described as one of the most spectacular

discoveries in Philippine archeological
history is the golden statue known as the
“Agusan Gold Image”.
 It more popularly called the Golden Tara The buddhist image may belong to the send
 Aesthetics half of the Sailendra period, Sri-Vijaya history
o It appears as figure of a female deity, (900-950 AD).
although this is still unverified The Sailendras ruled Sri Vijaya between 850-
o A figure of a female deity (?) 950 AD and were Buddhists. The whole
o seated cross-legged sculptural techniques may be influenced by
o Made of 21- carat gold this period
o Weighs nearly 4 pounds
o With richly ornamented head-dress The image may be related to the Buddhist
o With many ornaments in the arms and tradition during this period which was
other parts of the body responsible of the building of the famous
 Discovery barabudur, the textbook in stone of Buddhism
o It was found on the left bank of the and other buddhist monuments at Kalasan and
Wawa river after a storm and a flood in Mendut in Java
1917
Boxer Codex
 Present Location
 An ancient manuscript text in book form
o It is presently displayed in the Gold Room
 c. 1590
of the Chicago Museum of National
 Named after Far Eastern History expert
History
Charles Ralph Boxer who bought the
 The flame-like projection is a
manuscript in 1947
representation of a flame which
 Presently held by the Lilly Library of
characterizes a great number of Buddha
Indiana University
images in the South East Asian Locus, then
it may undoubtedly belong to the Buddhist  Contains illustrations of ethnic groups in
pantheon. early Philippines
o Cagayanes
 The image belongs to the Buddhist
o Pangasinense
pantheon as to the manner of sitting,
o Zambales
calmness of facial expression, long ears
o Negritos
and halo around the head. They opined
o Tagalog Naturales (Tagalog Natives)
that the image represents a female deity
o Naturales Moros (Moro Natives)
of the Mahayana Buddhism.
o Billayas/Bisayas
 Golden Tara: Interpretation by Juan R.
 Binukot
Francisco
 Kadatuan
o the image may be influenced by the
 Pintados
indo-javanese art of the 10th century
 Uripon
According to R. C. Majumdar, the headdress o Foreigners
and other ornaments show the influence of
Indo-Javanese art of the 10th century.