Dehniece Aleck V.

Mangawang
BS Accountancy

VIDEO CONTENT ANALYSIS

I-Witness: 'Mga Pahina ng Kasaysayan,' dokumentaryo ni Sandra Aguinaldo

For the first narration of the documentary, it tells us how rich our country is. It is not just all
about a money or gold to prove that we are rich, but we might claim that we are wealthy
because of our ancestors' inheritance such as books or a document. It is actually glad to
know that there are lot of documents are being preserved and kept just like what University
of Santo Tomas did with the papers of Jose Rizal although it is already in 500 years ago, that
documents are still in a safe place because we all know that these papers have important
details come from the past. As I watched the whole video, one sentence caught my
attention which was said by Rev. Fr. Angel A. Aparicio, O.P that “Each book tells a story”.
Anything from the past or history tells a story. In this documentary, I have discovered that
Dr. Jose Rizal's grading records tell a narrative. The Chinese-Spanish Dictionary, written by
Dominicans in the Philippines in the 1600s, relates a narrative. Morillo Velarde's original
map tells a narrative. Dr. Jose Rizal's historical Mi Ultimo Adios, several editions of La
Solidaridad, papers written in Baybayin, and Antonio Luna's letter all tell a story. All the
documents that were said in the documentary tells a story. It means that our country,
Philippines, is rich in history. Starting with the Dr. Jose Rizal’s documents, the university
shows the collections of the papers that are still preserved and kept inside the library.
Everything that are included in those documents have important details from the past
especially that our country has been colonized. Other important details about him and his
family is in there as well. Jose Rizal’s books in different edition is also preserved by the
university. The part that has caught my attention as well is the “Baybayin” it is a writing
system in the Philippines before the Spanish colonization. I was amazed that these kinds of
documents are still being kept. Knowing the two documents written in baybayin was quite
exciting. All throughout the video I have noticed that these (two) documents that are
written in small paper, and the Philippine National Archives recognized them to be official
national culture treasures (2014) because they provide essential information about our past.
Thus, the professors in different universities always tell us that we must know and recognize
the important information in our history as it will show how our country overcome the
challenges of colonization and how we met the freedom through these documents that are
presented in this video. University of Santo Tomas has a lot of books not only about Dr. Jose
Rizal but another author as well. The reasons why they want this to be happened because it
assists us in preventing the recurrence of past errors not only in the present but also in the
future. Watching this documentary makes me feel proud in the Philippines that our country
is rich not because of the money but because of the documents or books that tell a lot of
stories. Thus, it makes me feel proud for the Filipino heroes who give their effort and
achievement to protect and show their knowledge through paper. In addition to that,
learning the Philippine history has a big impact in every one’s live.