Critical Essay On Rizals Annotations To Antonio Morga Sucesos de Las Islas Filipinas

Bicol University
College of Business, Economics

And Management
Daraga, Albay
CRITICAL ESSAY
Submitted by: BARCENA, Mark Aaron BSBA Management 2B
BELLEN, Chenie
BONACUA, Arianne Mae
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The Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas is considered as one of the most important
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works on the early Spanish Colonization in the Philippines as it tell the history of the
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Spanish Philippines from the accounts of personal experiences and documentations of
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eye-witnesses. It is written on 1609 by Antonio de Morga who is a Spanish
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conquistador, government official and historical anthropologist. He wrote the first formal
history of the Philippines conquest by Spain, which is The Sucesos de las Islas
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Filipinas, and it narrates the history of wars, intrigues, diplomacy and the evangelization
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of the Philippines. However, it highlights and chronicles the achievements of Spaniards

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from their conquest, discovery and conversion of the Philippine Islands. It was biased
towards the Spanish Crown, the facts were distorted and manipulated to fit the defense
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of the Spanish conquest, and any information that will harm the reputation of the
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Spaniards were removed. For this very reason it leads Rizal, an earnest seeker of truth,
to desire to know the exact conditions of the Philippines before and when the Spaniards
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came. To quote him, knowing the past is precedence in understanding the present, he
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believes that it is important and necessary to know the past in order to fully understand
the present. Thus, he wrote his annotations to The Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas on
January 1890, a two-hundred and one year later from the publication of Morga’s book,
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for the purpose of rectifying what has been falsified in the Philippine History and the
numerous errors found in the Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. He devoted four months of
research and writing his annotations to every chapter of the book, giving persuasive
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points based from facts that prove effective in awakening the consciousness of the
reader of the true history of the Philippines.
Great kingdoms were indeed discovered and conquered in the Spanish

Expedition and the Philippines is one of them. However it was not as they portray it to
be that the Philippines was an empty husk and as if they brought the civilization into its
lands when they first ashore. After all, Filipinos have already formed a civilization of their
own even before the Spaniards came; they already have ancient governmental
structures complete with weapons and artillery of defense, culture, traditions, mythology,
genealogies, and religion which were mentioned by earlier historians. One of many
cultural heritages of the Filipinos that can be traced back to the ancient times is the
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wearing of upper garments that originated from the Malay Filipinos which are usually of
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color red, this can still be seen being used in some tribes of Mindanao. Only the Chiefs
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wear the red upper garments, showing the communal hierarchy among Filipino tribes
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which can be understood as their ancient government. This was lost when the
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Spaniards made the Filipino wore clothing that were more western centric. Filipinos
already have songs telling their genealogies and attributed to their deities like Bathala,
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Amanikable, Idiyanale and many more. These pieces are usually sung and chanted on
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voyages, festivals, funerals and gatherings. This proves that the Filipinos already have
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their own gods and goddesses, religious practices, and religion before the Spaniards
came with their evangelization and propagation of Catholicism. In Rizal’s sentiment, it
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was truly regrettable that these songs and chants were not preserved because it would
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have been a great source of legitimate history of the ancient Filipinos and their past.
However it was all lost due to the missionaries who eradicated and eliminated all
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national remembrances as idolatrous, many earlier manuscripts were even burned, and
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thus ancient traditions were slowly replaced by religion. Filipinos also have a collection
of artillery for ancient army and navy; they have their krises and kampilans, coats of
mail and helmets, brass lantakas and artillery of larger caliber and they even know how
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to cast cannons. However this were also all lost when the Filipino plant for
manufacturing artillery was burned during the attack of Goiti in Manila, where Islamized
areas of Luzon were targeted for control and land settlement. Almost all the weapons
within were burned and lost, whatever remained was taken by the Spaniards and the
rest had been thrown.
In countless subjects of Philippine History, it had been mentioned that one of the
main objectives of the Spaniards in their conquest and in colonizing the Philippines is to
propagate Christianity, more specifically Catholicism. However, the conversions of
Filipinos to Catholicism were not as general as the historians claims, rebutted Rizal in
his annotations. These means were ineffective to keep or maintain the supremacy and
the hold of the Spaniards to their Filipino subjects because they only succeeded in
converting a part of the people in the Philippines to Christianity. Most of them are the
civilized natives but they failed in their attempt in the provinces and towns, to name a
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few there were still the Mahometans, the Moros, Negritos and Igorots that occupy the
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majority of the archipelago. It was not true that they were not met with resistance in their
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pursuit of propagating Christianity, in fact Native Filipino women even chose death
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rather than sacrifice their chastity to the threats and violence of the Spanish soldiers
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and some especially the ones in tribes wanted to kill the Friars who came to preach to
them, and missionaries had to go to them accompanied by other Filipinos or with guards
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and soldiers. This was actually one of the reasons why the Spaniards had the ancient
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Filipino weapons removed, for fear of uprising and to prevent and reduce further revolts
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of the Filipino people against the Spaniards. Because of this the Filipinos were
disarmed and was left defenseless and exposed to the harassments targeted to them.
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The revolts and raids were actually caused by the Moro people, they are the thirteen
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Islamized groups of Mindanao and they were called the Southern pirates, the revolts are
their show of opposition to the Spaniard’s propagation of Christianity. The Spaniard’s
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pursuit of evangelization of the Philippines would have been effective given the fact that
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the majority of the archipelago doesn’t belong in any other religion, but in truth it
became ineffective because it wasn’t what they were actually doing in the country; they
have an ulterior motive in their conversion of the Filipino people to Christianity. It was
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observed that the Spanish expedition comes to countries that are rich in spices and
gold, and the Philippines is no exception to this. The reality of the Spaniards
colonization of the Philippines was not for Christianity but for the its rich land. Filipinos
would have been willing to accept the faith and religion brought by the Spanish Friars in
their preaching, if only the Spaniards did not abuse the hospitality of the Filipinos behind
the name of religion. The Spanish government in the Philippines divided up the land and
was given as encomiendas to the encomienderos, and only the most loyal to the
Spanish Crown was given a part of the land. The reports that arrived to the Spanish
Crown was different from what was actually happening in the country, they reported the
lands are entrusted to encomienderos as if all was in good condition when in reality
these encomienderos misbehaved and abuse the land and the people, they were
abandoned to the cruelty and covetousness of the encomiendero, as Rizal wrote in his
annotations. By law, encomienderos should give protection to natives and promote
education, instead they committed abuse and treat Filipinos with brutality; they take
animals and crops from Filipinos without compensation, they collected taxes and
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tributes more than what is authorized, they imposed forced labor among Filipino male
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ages 16-60 where they are overworked and went unfed, many Filipinos died because of
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this. They veiled all of these events under the pretense of Christianity.
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Rizal’s annotations to Morga’s Sucesos de la Islas Filipinas did give its readers a
different perception and point of view of the Philippine History in rectifying the falsified
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accounts of the biased Spaniard-written history of the Philippines. However we shall

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also admit the biases in Rizal’s annotations and that he committed the same mistake
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many modern historians had in recounting and retelling the events of the past in the
context of the present and contemporary ideas, which as the same time became
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revolutionary; especially in the subject of Catholicism. Rizal believes in God or an

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omnipotent and supreme being that created all things living which he stated in this letter
to Father Pablo Pastell. He also believes in religion which he stated in his letter to his
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mother. Rizal also supported Christianity, however he rejected Roman Catholicism,

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which he expressed fervently not only in one written material but the sentiment is
present in many of his writings including this annotations to Antonio de Morga, in Noli
Me Tangere; the plot exposed the corruption of the Catholic church and of the Spanish
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rule, he also stated in his “Letters to the Young Women of Malolos” that he shall turn his
back to the god that the friars believe in because of the hypocrisy in their preaching and
their actions. Rizal was a Mason: Masonry believed in the equality of people, just as
Rizal has and fought for. It was democratic which was not in accord with the way that
the Spaniards converted the Philippines into Catholicism. He fought and attacked the
Catholic Church with Christian morality that was the backbone if his social and political
reforms.
In this regards, Rizal’s personal opinions and attacks towards the methods of
Spanish evangelization do not demean the legitimacy and reliability of the other strong
points that Rizal presented and proven in his annotations. It was still true and proven
that the Philippines during Rizal’s time under the Spanish reign was not superior to its
past when the Philippines were under no other colonizer. Civilization already existed in
the Philippines and would have been able to progress in its own. If anything, the
Spanish brought wars and chaos in the islands of the Philippines, rather than peace.
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The Spanish conquest in the Philippines would have been an enormous benefit to the
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country but it had such heavy a cost as Rizal exposed in his annotations.
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References:
 Clark, J. (2019, June 27). Ancient Tagalog Deities in Philippine Mythology • THE
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ASWANG PROJECT. Retrieved from https://www.aswangproject.com/ancient-

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vi y re
tagalog-deities-in-philippine-mythology/
 Fernandez, G. C. (2010, December 12). The Religious Philosophy of Rizal.
Retrieved from http://ningaskugonbaga.blogspot.com/2010/12/religious-
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philosophy-of-rizal.html.
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 Martín de Goiti. (2019, September 25). Retrieved November 25, 2019, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martín_de_Goiti.
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 Moro people. (2019, November 26). Retrieved September 6, 2019, from

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moro_people.
 Polo y servicios. (2019, November 8). Retrieved December 1, 2019, from
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https://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polo_y_servicios.
 Rizal José. (1958). To the young women of Malolos. Quezon City, Philippines: R.
Martinez & Sons.
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Bicol University

College of Business, Economics

Submitted by: BARCENA, Mark Aaron BSBA Management 2B

BONACUA, Arianne Mae

of the Philippines. However, it highlights and chronicles the achievements of Spaniards

Great kingdoms were indeed discovered and conquered in the Spanish

accounts of the biased Spaniard-written history of the Philippines. However we shall

revolutionary; especially in the subject of Catholicism. Rizal believes in God or an

mother. Rizal also supported Christianity, however he rejected Roman Catholicism,

ASWANG PROJECT. Retrieved from https://www.aswangproject.com/ancient-

 Moro people. (2019, November 26). Retrieved September 6, 2019, from

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