THE SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS

The Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas was a book written by Dr. Antonio Morga. It
contained a keen description of the series of events from years 1493 to 1603; it also
included the proper history ofthe Philippine islands from 1565. The book was
practically written and well organized threads of history that were intertwined together
to come up with a masterpiece containing practical day-to-day affairs of the islands.
As the first published book about the Philippines, it included the country's political,
social, and economic systems. The book also visualized the image of the country in
the hands of the colonizers. It tackled the policies of the Spaniards regarding trade. In
addition, it talked about communication with Japan, Chinese, and missionary
movements. Also, the book included the envious motives of the Portuguese, the
dangers of sea-sailing, and the neighboring countries of the Philippines. It opened the
imagination of the reader about the things that the Philippine islands encountered.
The attractiveness of Morga's work and his wide-ranging handling of the
Philippines' institutions, policy, and products resulted in the abundant annotations of
this book and the succeeding volume. These annotations were contributed in part by
those of Lord Stanley's translation of Morga, and those of Rizal's reprint, while the
Recopilaciån de leyes de Indias furnished a considerable number of laws. Morga's
position in the state made it easier for him to get access to numerous accounts and
document that further made his book more desirable to read and rich with facts.
Astonished and impressed by the book, Jose Rizal decided to annotate it and
publish new editions. Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt wrote the foreword of the annotation
of the book. Rizal's encounter with the said writing was on May 24, 1888, and at once
he secured a card permitting to work in the British Museum Library. Dr. Antonio de
Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Events in [sic] the Philippine Islands) was
grounded partially on documentary research, intense surveillance, and Morga's
personal knowledge and involvement. At that time,Rizal had always considered it the
best account ofSpanish colonization in the Philippines. In his introduction, Blumentritt
noted that the book was "so rare that the few libraries that have a copy guard it with
the same care as they would an Inca treasure" (Rizal 1890, introduction). Morga's
Sucesos was originally printed in Mexico in 1609, and was, therefore, rare (Ocampo,
1998).
Rizal chose to reprint Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas or Events in [sic] the
Philippine Islands by Dr. Morga rather than some other contemporary historical
accounts of the Philippines because of the following reasons: the original book was
rare; Morga was a layman not a religious chronicler; Rizal was impressed with Morga's
objective not religious, way of writing; Morga, compared with religious chroniclers, was
more sympathetic to the indios; and finally, Morga was not only an eyewitness but also
a major actor in the events he narrated.
Books, like Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas were rare because of their
nonspiritual and factual contents. At that time, religious historians got complaints as
they dwelt more of the friar's ill practices than the history of the Philippines and its
people. Rizal's annotations were very straightforward historical annotations, which
corrected the original book and though historically based, the annotations reflects his
strong anticlerical bias. Rizal found Morga's book to be civil, as opposed to the
religious history of the Philippines written during the colonial period. Also, chronicles
by Spanish colonial officials or the nonreligious were rare, making Morga, for over two
centuries, the only nonspiritual general history of the Philippines in print (Retana
1906).

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANNOTATIONS

Rizal's annotations of Morga's book created a sense of national consciousness
or identity among Filipinos.The first attempt of Rizal to write a Philippine history book
was a failure as it faced massive opposition from the Spaniards. Thus, Rizal was aware
of the rise of opposition to his annotation of Morga's book. Morga was banned from
the Philippines, which did not surprise Rizal because of the vivid account that Morga
had written. Rizal was irritated by the racist viewpoints of Spanish historians, who often
highlighted the "primitive" or "uncivilized" name of the indios. Having been affected by
the degrading views of Spanish historians toward Indios, Rizal inflicted an Indio's
viewpoint on the history of the Philippines. More important, Rizal's annotation of
Morga's late awakened the passive natives about their rights and real setup in their
homeland. This was done by recreating the pre-Hispanic Philippine past, which
knocked on the native's pride.
If the book manages to awaken in you the awareness of our past, erased from
memory, and to rectify what has been falsified and slandered, then I will not have
labored in vain, and with this base, however small it may be, we shall all be able to
dedicate ourselves to study the future. (Rizal 1890)

CONTENTS OF MORGA'S BOOKS

Dr. Antonio de Morga was claimed to have began his work, Sucesos de las
islas Filipinas, as a way of saving face after the disaster with the Dutch invaders in
Manila in 1600. Hence, it was Morga's version ofthe battle of Manila Bay left to history
(Ocampo' 1998). The work consisted of eight chapters:

1. Of the first discoveries of the Eastern islands

2. Of the government of Dr. Francisco de Sande
3. Of the government of Don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peiia10Sa
4. Of the government of Dr. Santiago de Vera
5. Of the government of Gomes Perez Dasrnariiias
6. Of the government of Don Francisco Tello
7. Of the government of Don Pedro de Acuiia
8. An account of the Philippine Islands
During the Spanish colonization in the Philippines, political measures
undertaken by the first eleven governor-generals of the Philippines were discussed in
the first seven chapters of the book. It began with Miguel Lopez de Legaspi in 1565 to
Pedro de Acuiia who died in June 1606. Meanwhile, chapter eight dealt with the
description of the pre-Hispanic Filipinos called indios, at the Spanish contact. Such
chapter was also beneficial to Rizal's motive to reconstruct the pre-Hispanic
Philippines, which he wanted to present to his countrymen. An Rizal's preface to the
Morga, he stated that nothing was changed in the original text. Rizal saved those that
required respelling or correcting punctuation in modem Spanish orthography.

In 1889, the annotation of Morga's book was published. Having read the book,
Ponce considered it as a slap on our enemies' face. Filipinos have shown the world
that our race has produced men who may be ranked with the wisest. Dr. Rizal set
about to provide Ponce with the material. "Our whole aspiration," he declared, "is to
educate our nation; education and more education!"