Annotation of Antonio

Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas

Filipinas

BSIT - II
Antonio de Morga
Antonio de Morga Sánchez
Garay was a Spanish
soldier, lawyer and a
high-ranking colonial
official for 43 years, in the
Philippines, New Spain and
Peru, where he was
president of the Real
Audiencia for 20 years. He
was also a historian.
 Dr. Jose Rizal
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y
Alonso Realonda was a Filipino
nationalist and polymath during
the tail end of the Spanish
colonial period of the
Philippines. He is tagged as the
national hero of the Filipino
people.
The story begins
when Rizal
annotated about the
book written by
Mora. The Sucesos
de las Islas Filipinas
which discuss the
state of the
Philippines of the
advent of the
Spaniards
Both of them had a different perspective concerning

Geography
Society
Faith
Economy
Geography
These are some of the things that’s discussed in the book:

1. Location
2. Climate
3. Plant Species
Location
Morga: Philippines was deserted
and unhabitable.
Rizal: Nope, Ptolemy in his
geography indicated 3 islands
which are Sinadae, Gilolo, and
Amboina and their inhabitants.
Thus, Philippines was not
deserted and was actually
habitable.
Climate
Morga: Winters and summers are
opposite of those in Europe as
the rain pours from the month of
June up to September, and
summer from the October to the
end of May.
Rizal: Nope, In Manila, by
December to February, the
temperature goes down more
than it does during August to
September. Thus, with regards to
the season, it resembles Spain as
all the rest of the North
Hemisphere
Plant Species
Morga: The ginger is eaten raw,i
n vinegar or pickled, likewise
much cachumba, a plant both
taste and color, used in cooking
in the place of saffron and
species, and the buyo or betel
which is made out of a leaf, are
all abundant.
Rizal: In Tagalog, it is called
kasubha. It comes from the
Sanskrit Kasubha. Malay,
Kasumba. Everybody knows the
fruit is not of the betel or buyo
but of the bonga. Not quicklime
but very hydrated lime.
Society
In term of lifestyle and social interaction of pre-colonial Philippines

1. Body Tattoo
2. Indigenous People
3. Women
4. Government
Body Tattoo
Morga: The inhabitants - the
native - also known as Visayans,
a pattern drawn and by putting
certain black powder where the
blood oozes out, and this can
never be removed.
Rizal: That is true! Drawing first
on the skin what has to be
tattooed. As it will be seen
further, it is the same method the
japanese used in putting tattoos.
Indigenous People
Morga: The natives living in Luzon are
tribes whom one cannot be safe. To
pacify them, although it has often
been tried to do this by good or violent
means.
Rizal: Pacify??? More often by bad
means rather by good ones until
appoint was reached when the
Government had to order to refuse
them everything in order to compel to
submit to see if cruel and inhuman
treatment would fill up the inefficacy
of the missionaries
Women
Morga: Men and women are
money-loving, and covetous, so
that when there is a price, they
easily yield and when the
husband catches his wife
committing infidelity, he is
appeased and satisfied without
difficulty.
Rizal: We find it everywhere even
in Europe itself. This weakness
for the “pay”, I believe is not a
defect monopolized by Filipino
men and women.
Government
Morga: There were neither King nor
Lords to rule them located in different
islands. Instead, they considered
principals among the natives.
Rizal: I agree that there were no such
Kings or Lords, in the view of the lack
of communications, governance
would be hard in case.
Faith
These are some of the things that’s discussed in the book:

1. Belief of crocodiles
2. Healers
3. Dead
Belief of crocodiles
Morga: The natives build on the border of their
rivers and streams in their settlements where
they bathe - traps and fences with thick
enclosures to secure from crocodiles which they
fear and venerate, as if they were somehow
superior to them.
Rizal: Perhaps for the same reason, other nations
have great esteem for the Lion and Bear, putting
them on their shields and giving them honorable
epithets. The mysterious life of the crocodile, the
enormous size that it sometimes reaches, its
fatidical aspect, and it’s voraciousness, must
have influenced greatly the imagination of the
Malayan Filipinos
Healers
Morga: Great sorcerers and wizards who
deceived the people and communicated to them
whatever they wished. They believed in omens
and superstitions so that they could tell whether
their sick people would live or die.
Rizal: Speaking of the sick and Anitos to prove
their falsehood, Fr. Chirino told the case of
Armandao who, while sick, offered half his body
to the Anito to see if he would be cured, Bit of he
was cured? What could be said now to those who
die, despite all the Masses offered to the different
Virgins, despite the sophisticated offering.
Dead
Morga: They buried their dead in their
own houses, keeping their bodies and
bones for a long time in boxes, and
venerating their skulls. In their funeral
rites, neither pomp nor processions
played any part, except only those
performed by members of the household
of the dead. After grieving, they indulged
in eating and drinking to the degree of
intoxication among themselves.
Rizal: We find it much more natural and
pious from them to venerate the remains
of the parents to whom they own
everything, than to venerate the memory,
bones, hair, etc. of certain saints. Idolatry
for idolatry, we prefer that of our parents
to that of some dirty friar or fanatical
martyr whom we don’t know and with
whom we have no dealings and who
probably will never remember us.
Economy
The economy of the Philippines depended on trading. The exportation of cotton,
artifacts and gold to the foreign merchants

1. Cotton
2. Artifacts
3. Gold
Cotton
Morga: Cotton is raised throughout the islands,
and they spin it into thread and sell it. They also
weave blankets in various ways which they also
sell or trade.
Rizal: Not only did they have large harvest of rice
but also of cotton which they wove into textile for
their garments and which is very much esteemed
in New Spain. Out of cotton textile alone, there
was an encomendero who left a fortune of more
than 50, 000 accumulated in a few years
Artifacts
Morga: The natives of the islands sell
articles to the Japanese and as matter
of fact, these vases have become very
scarce owing to great demand there is
for them
Rizal: As I have read from Dr. Jagor,
these jars have very interesting
history, shape and value with some
scorned with the price of 100, 000
pesos offered for one of them. Dr.
Jagor himself was able to get one in
Ligmanan (Camarines Sur). It is a pity
that those objects had not been
studied better.
Gold
Morga: Throughout the islands are certain places where Morga: Igorrots felt that their gold was
there is an abundance of rich gold deposits, and other kept more securely in the ground than
mineral products which are connected by the natives in their own homes or settlements.
though washing or placer mining. But after the Spaniards
had settled in the land, the natives became more lax in the Rizal: I agree! The Igorrots were right
mining of gold, contenting themselves with what they
already had, in the form of jewelry and ancient ingots of
gold, inherited from their forebears, which were abundant
in themselves.

Rizal: The Indios on seeing that wealth aroused the

capacity of the encomenderos and soldiers, abandoned
the work in the mines, and priest historians relate that, in
order to save them from vexations, they recommended to
them such procedure
Outro
So in summary, Rizal’s annotations on Morga’s
Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas, clarifies the image of
the native FIlipinos in the advent of the colonization
era. For Morga, the Philippines was less of what it is
before the colonization, but for Rizal, the natives
have their own perfect geography, organized society,
strong faith and stable economy, then Filipinas,
therefore can be successful even without the
intervention of the Spaniards