ANGEL ROSE LAROCO

BSTM

1. Who are some notable Filipino historians? Cite at least 3.

2. What are their contributions to Philippine historiography?

Teodoro Agoncillo is a noted Filipino historian and

author. In 1985, he received the National Scientist
Award for his contribution to Philippine historiography.
He is known as a nationalist author whose books,
essays, and poetry often reflects the point of view of
the Filipino masses. His book History of the Filipino
People is widely used as textbook and some students
consider it as their bible in studying the history of the
Philippines.

Zeus A. Salazar
- His main
research
interests are world history and Southeast Asian studies, with
special emphasis on the Philippines. He has published Culture
and Customs of the Philippines (2002) and contributed various
studies in the history of the study of Southeast Asia.
Carmen Guerrero Nakpil was born a feminist and embraced this via her writings, particularly “Woman
Enough,” an essay on the Filipina that became a salvo for feminism.

Unwittingly, “Woman Enough” became a salvo for

feminism. The Philippine Quarterly, one of the first
glossies, asked Mrs Nakpil to contribute to its March
1952 issue, women’s month. She wrote “The Filipino
Woman,” a more serious piece which delved into the
historical roots of why Filipinas are women enough.
“She has a long, unburied past,” said Mrs Nakpil
intriguingly. “There have been three men in her
life—her Asiatic ancestor, the Spanish friar, and the
Americano. Like Chekhov’s ‘The Darling,’ she echoes
all the men she has known in her person...” That
made the Filipino woman heterogeneous and
unpredictable. In “Myth and Reality” (1962) Mrs
Nakpil argued that the Filipina is the creation of the
Filipino man. So, what is he like? “The Filipino male
does not believe in the equality of sexes. He holds
that woman is both inferior and superior...The
Filipina as myth must cling, but never badger. She
must be humble and modest to the point of self- effacement... But the Filipina is unwilling to be
imprisoned in this myth.” A boy soon learns that it is not enough just to be male, expounded Mrs Nakpil.
Such a man must create a woman who is pliant, and submissive, but also strong and noble. She must
have no desires except that which he alone can satisfy. There are two sets of laws, a double standard.
“The woman has no right to be anything but saint and angel, but he is entitled to be wicked and
depraved.”

Mrs Nakpil shows us the penumbral vaudeville between reality and the male- fabricated myth because
“... the Filipino woman, in general, is aggressive, vigorous, and madly ambitious. There is no limit to her
intelligence or her capabilities. She is determined, ruthless, and disposed to take infinite pains... There
seem to be more women smugglers, tax evaders, and influence peddlers; they commit more than their
share of illegal acts and are indirectly responsible for official corruption.”

Mrs Nakpil concluded that the built-in release for the blinkered clash between myth and reality is the
systematic infidelity of the Filipino male, the “querida [mistress]” system, concubinage. “It is a badge of
maleness... but the reality is that, as the epigram produced by Justice George A Malcolm, the Filipino
woman is the best man in the Philippines.” She is woman more than enough.