Reading List 1 - Agrarian Reform

1. How different was the land reform during the Spanish

colonization to the ones promulgated when the Philippines has

become an independent republic?

- As we colonize by the Spaniards the farmers that have own land

become a tenant because the powerful persons steal their land and

they become tenant and paying a rent on every harvest that they

have and I think that is happening until now.

2. Do you think that our current Agrarian Reform Law is just and

reasonable?

-In the latest agrarian reform REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9700 wasn’t

reasonable at all because the RA said that The welfare of the landless

farmers and farmworkers will receive the highest consideration to

promote social justice and to move the nation toward sound rural

development and industrialization, and the establishment of owner

cultivatorship of economic-size farms as the basis of Philippine

agriculture. But I still saw the farmers suffers from the low price of the

harvested rice that they sell on the market and the price is P 13 and the

lowest was P 9 seriously?

3. What issues surround our Agrarian Reform policies?

- The issues surround the agrarian reform policies is the unfair distribution

of land. Instead of giving the proper land what provided by the law

other landlords disobey the law.

4. Why do many of our farmers remain at a disadvantage despite

positive laws to benefit them?

- I think this is because we buy an imported rice came from other

country instead of the rice that harvested by our local formers.

Reading list 2-The Philippine Constitutions

1. What is a constitution and what is its significance?

-The Constitution is the basic law of the land. It is sacred and has to be

defended by the people. The nation has the constitution as its

foundation, and as such it has to be strong and should stand the test of

time. The significance of constitution is to protect the rights of the

individuals in a country against the arbitrary action by the authorities.

2. What are the main differences of each of these constitutions?

- The differences of each of these constitution is from a statute in that

a statute is a law enacted by congress and must conform to the

constitution.
3. What were the political situations when each of these

constitutions were born?

- During the Malolos Constitution the First Philippine Republic was

established in 1899, Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo’s plan was not and never

implemented because of the Republic was short-lived.

Reading list 3- Taxation

1. What is taxation, and why do we pay taxes?

-Taxation refers to the practice of a government collecting money from

its citizens to pay for public services. We pay taxes in order our

government provide us some essentials that we might need like parks,

gardens, and libraries and also our taxes can protect our natural

resources.

2. How different were the taxation systems in the Philippines during the

various periods in our history?

- During the Spanish era the taxation system during that time the taxes

that were collected from the inhabitants varied from tribute or head

tax of one gold maiz annually; tax on value of jewelries and gold

trinkets; indirect taxes on tobacco, wine, cockpits, burlas and powder.

From 1521 to 1821, the Spanish treasury had to subsidize the Philippines

in the amount of P 250,000.00 per annum due to the poor financial

condition of the country, which can be primarily attributed to the poor

revenue collection system.

The taxation during American era was different from Spanish becaus

BIR was created during that era

During the Japanese Era At the outbreak of World War II, under the

Japanese regime (1942-1945), the Bureau was combined with the

Customs Office and was headed by a Director of Customs and Internal

Revenue.

3. What is the basis of our current tax system?

- The basic source of Philippine tax law is the National Internal Revenue

Law, which codifies all tax provisions, the latest of which is embodied in

Republic Act No. 8424 (“The Tax Reform Act of 1997”). It amended

previous national internal revenue codes, which was approved on

December 11, 1997.

4. What is the TRAIN LAW? What are its salient features?

-The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law or Republic

Act No. 10963, is the initial package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform

Program (CTRP) in the Philippines that was signed into law by President

Rodrigo Duterte on December 19, 2017. The salient features of train law

is the following:
● Tax Schedule

● Minimum Wage Earner

● 13th Month Pay and Other Benefits

● Personal and Additional Exemptions

● VAT Threshold

● Self-Employed Individuals

● Taxpayers Who Cannot Avail of the 8% Income Tax Rate

● Mixed Income Earners

● Tax Filing Deadlines

● Installment Payment – Income Tax for Individual Taxpayers

● Deductions from Gross Income

● Documentary Stamp Tax

● Estate Tax

● Donor’s Tax

● Excise Tax
● Keeping of Books of Accounts

● Issuance of Receipts or Sales or Commercial Invoices

● Keeping and Preservation of Receipts and Invoices

Reflect on the readings for Weeks 7-9 by answering the questions

below using your notebook .

● Which do you think of the three areas we explored this week-

constitution, land reform, and taxation brings the most problems to

our country?

- For me one of those three areas brings the most problem to our

country is taxation, because a lot of people paying their correct

amount of taxes yet they didn’t see the benefit of the taxes that they

are paying also there’s a latest issue that the P 15 Billion robbed in one

of the government office so it makes people think if they should still pay

their taxes to that department.

● How different or similar where the taxation systems in the Philippines

then and now?

- There is a lot difference on the taxation system then when we are in

Spanish Colonization than now in American Period the taxation in

Philippines become well because of the establishment of BIR.

● Why do you think people have negative perception of the TRAIN

LAW?

- Because the train law has a negative effect on the people in the

middle class or lower class and also The TRAIN law adversely impacted

the poorest households that required the government to assist them

with the help of unconditional cash transfers of around P300 to P400

per month for the coming 3 to 4 years.

Reading list 1- Local and oral history

1. What is local history? How does it differ from oral history?

- Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context

and it often concentrates on the local community. It incorporates

cultural and social aspects of history. While the oral history is the the

collection and study of historical information about individuals, families,

important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or

transcriptions of planned interviews.

2. What is the significance of local and oral history in our national

history?

- The significance of local history teaches us on what happen on our

community or on our country before when we start living here and the

significance of oral history is Oral history provides a fuller, more

accurate picture of the past by augmenting the information provided

by public records, statistical data, photographs, maps, letters, diaries,

and other historical materials.

3. How can one start writing local and oral history?

- When writing local and oral history it mainly starts on what you know

the most, if you don’t have knowledge on a certain history that you

want to know its hard to write local and oral history.

Reading list 2-Museums

1. What is a museum?

- is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other

objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance.

2. What are the different local museums in the country?

- There are many museums in our country but I’ll list only ten of them

and this are the following:

● National Museum of Fine Arts

● National Museum of Anthropology

● National Museum

● CCP Museo ng Kalinangang Pilipino

● The Museum at De La Salle University

● Metropolitan Museum of Manila

● Aguinaldo Shrine

● Marcelo H. Del Pilar National Shrine

● Museum of Philippine Political History

● Rizal Shrine

3. What role do museums play in the promotion and preservation of

local and national history?

- The museums play in the promotion and preservation of local and

national history by presenting the artifacts or some equipment, clothes,

and even the cultural events are written on some museums.

Reading list 3- Historical shrines

1. What is a historical shrine?

- A shrine is a holy or sacred place, or a small area or monument

dedicated to someone, or a place known as the site of a religious

occurrence or a historical event.

2. What are the historical shrines in the Philippines that are of local and

national importance?

- Here are some important historical shrines in the Philippines:

Rizal Monument (Bantayog ni Jose Rizal)

Bonifacio Monument (Monumento)

Lapu-Lapu Shrine

Magellan Shrine

Leyte Landing Monument

Dambana ng Kagitingan (Shrine of Valor)

Balangiga Encounter Monument

Edsa Shrine

People Power Monument

2. What is the role of historical shrines in preserving and promoting

local and national history?

- Historical Shrines is keeping the history itself like when you look on

some monuments of a hero you might be think that the hero you saw
fought hard to fight for the freedom of our country. Like our National

hero Dr. Jose Rizal, Rizal has a monument on a different country as they

recognize Rizal is one of the bravest hero of the Philippines even the

only tools he’s using is a pen not a sword or gun.

Reading list 4- Cultural performances, indigenous practices and

religious rites

1. What is a cultural performance, and what are some examples of

it?

- Cultural performance include events that occur in everyday life in

which a culture's values are displayed for their perpetuation: rituals

such as parades, religious ceremonies, community festivals,

controversial storytelling, and performances of social and professional

roles, and individual performances of race, gender, sexuality and class.

2. What is an indigenous practice, and what are some examples of

it?
- Indigenous practice are activity that included to our culture and

some people are performing that indigenous activity, some example of

indigenous practice are:

● Traditional ceremonies

● spiritual practices.

● Burning traditional medicines like sweet grass, sage, tobacco and

cedar.

3. What is a religious rite, and what are some examples of it?

-The definition of a rite is a ceremony or formal act to observe a

religious, custom or other procedure. An example of a rite is the

Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. A ceremonial or formal, solemn act,

observance, or procedure in accordance with prescribed rule or

custom, as in religious use. Marriage rites.

4. Why are all these important?

- All of these are important because it promotes the culture of our

country and not only that it also promote the historical event that

happen during that day and it symbolizes our love for our culture and

history.
● What story does your locality have that is worth telling? How does it

help substantiate our National story?

- When you live here in Manila you’ll see a lot of historical site which

you can look back on the past and what of them is the Intramuros in

intramuros many events that happened and one of them is the

imprisonment of Rizal before his execution in Bagumbayan as of now is

Rizal Park.

● Having read some of Philippine cultural performances and

indigenous rituals, how similar are all those to the mainstream

practices of the Filipinos? Be able to point out 3 similarities.

-Cultural performances certainly include those things many of us in the

West often think of as performances (e.g. concerts, plays, dances);

however, it also includes things like prayer and ritual that we often

classify as being part of religious practice.

Controversies, Issues, or Problems

1. Why does Pres. Marcos declares Martial Law?

2. How did the Hacienda Luisita massacre happen?

3. Hello Garci Scandal