Name: Elmerlisa A.

Llaneta Course: BSBA Operations Management

ACTIVITY # 1

Instruction :

Analyze the origin and the development of fake news in the Maragtas story and the Code of Kalantiaw .
How did the researchers discover that they are hoaxes?

The famous epic story of Maragtas contained this mythical legal code called “The Code of Kalantiaw”.
It was named after its supposed author, Datu Kalantiaw, who allegedly wrote it in 1433. Datu Kalantiaw
was a chief on the island of Negros. It was written about by Jose E. Marco in 1913 in his historical fiction
“Las Antiguas Leyendes de la Isla de Negros” (The Ancient Legends of the Island of Negros). The story on
this Code has been recognized through the ages by known authors. Due to wanting to eliminate the
western influence here in the Philippines. Filipinos used to believe that the Kalantiaw code was proof
that Filipinos have their own cultures and laws even before the Spaniards colonized the Philippines.
Although it lacks evidence and information and made some people be suspicious about it, the Kalantiaw
code still made it to the national library and also, was even published in some history books including
the famous “History of the Filipino People” by Mr. Teodoro Agoncillo.

William Henry Scott, an American historian discovered this hoax in 1965 as part of his doctoral thesis
that he defended in the University of Santo Tomas. Scott questioned the contribution of Marco in the
Philippine Historiography including the pre-hispanic. This research, through investigating and
questioning its sources, Scott proved that Marco’s contribution to history is a hoax including the
Kalantiaw code, and should not be considered as part of our history. Consequently, Filipino historians
agreed to expunge the Code of Kalantiaw in future materials on Philippine history. It is not considered as
one of the Philippine histories because the lack of historical evidence. There are simply no written or
pictorial documents from that time in Philippine history. There are no documents from other countries
that mention the great Kalantiaw either. There is also no evidence that Philippine culture ever spawned
such a barbaric set of laws. The early Spanish accounts tell us that Filipino custom at that time allowed
even the most serious lawbreakers to pay a fine or be placed into servitude for a time in cases of debt.