LOOKING AT THE FILIPINO PAST

( Chapter 11 )

Introducton:

During the Spanish colonial period, Philippine history was primarily written by the Spaniards. Early
Spanish historians took note of the native’s appearance and way of life. However, many of these early
histories depicted the Filipinos in negative terms and contained biases against the colonized people.

Jose Rizal’s annotation of Antonio Morga’s work, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, was an attempt to
redress this biased view of the Filipinos. Although Rizal’s annotations have been “largely disregarded”,
his work has been credited as the first Philippine history to be written from the viewpoint of a Filipino.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

1. Argue the reasons why Jose Rizal decided to annotate Antonio Morga’s work, Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas

2. Relate how Rizal’s annotations conform with the overall aims of the Propaganda Movement

3. Create their own annotations of a sample text

Vocabulary:

Audiencia – the Royal Audiencia or the royal court of justice in Spain and its colonies

Ecclesiatics – the religious missionaries

Secular – having ideas and attitudes not determined by any religious bias

Antonio Morga was a Spanish administrator who served in the Philippines in the late sixteenth century.
He was born in Seville in 1559 and began working for the government in 1580. He served as the
Lieutenant-Governor – second most powerful position in the colony – of the Philippines in 1593 and
then as a judge of the Audiencia in 1598. By 1615, he moved to Mexico where he served as the
president of the Audiencia. He was later investigated for corruption and was found guilty. Before being
sent to the gallows, however, he died in 1636.

Morga’s work, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, was published in Mexico and consisted of eight chapters.
The first seven chapters dealt with the terms of the governor-generals who had served in the Philippines
from the time of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565 to Pedro de Acuna in 1606. The last chapter, titles
“An account of the Philippine Islands”, provided ample descriptions of early Filipinos upon the arrival of
the Spaniards in the sixteenth century.

While at the British Museum in late 1889, Rizal found a copy of the first edition of Antonio Morga’s
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas and began copying the text by hand. He annotated the work along the way
with the intention of creating a critical work on the history of the Philippines. Despite hopes getting the
work published through the help of Antonio Regidor, Rizal ended up with no publisher when his
annotations were done. By September 1889, Rizal decided to publish the annotations himself in Garnier
Hermanos, a printing press based in Paris.

Rizlal’s choice of annotating Morga’s work among other all early chronicles written by Spaniards is not
coincidental. Historian Ambeth Ocampo provides five reasons behind Rizal’s choice.

The first reason, according to Ocampo, was the fact that Morga’s work in its original Spanish edition was
rare. In fact, the original Spanish text had never been reprinted in full until Rizal published his
annotations in 1889. Second, unlike other early chronicles written by ecclesiastics, Morga was a civil
administrator and therefore provided a secular view of historical events during the early Spanish
colonial period. This second reason relates to Rizal’s belief that a secular account was more credible
than those written by religious missionaries, which is the third reason for his choice. Fourth, it was more
sympathetic towards the natives in contrast to the biased accounts written by the friars. Finally, Morga’s
work was a fitting choice because he was an eye witness to historical events that occurred in the
Philippines during the period of early Spanish colonization.

With the publication of his annotations to Sucesos, Rizal presented an outline of a linear conception of
history. While Noli Me Tangere dealt with the nineteenth century or Rizal’s present, and El
Filibusterismo and the essay titled “ The Philippines a Century Hence “ covered the future, the
annotations of Sucesos tackled the past.

More than an attempt to write the country’s history, however, Rizal’s annotation of Morga’s Sucesos
must also be seen within the context of the Propaganda Movement. At a time when Filipino
propagandists were clamoring for reforms in Spain, presenting a critical narrative of the country’s
history might be considered as an endeavor to create a sense of national consciousness or identity that
was anchored on a glorious past. Whereas early Spanish colonizers ridiculed the early Filipinos for being
barbarians, Rizal’s copious notes of Sucesos revealed early Filipino culture as rich and flourishing. Thus,
Rizal’s annotations maybe considered an effort to assert Filipino identity within an oppressive colonial
framework.

Activity 1
Critical Reading
Read the lfollowing excerpts from rizal's annotations of Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. Answer
the questions that follow.

Excerpt 1

Moraga:

Their regular daily food is rice...together with boiled fish of which there is an abundance, and pork and
venison, likewise meat of wild buffalo or carabao. They prefer meat and fish, saltfish which begin to
decompose and smell.

Rizal's annotation:

This is another preoccupation of the Spaniards who, like any other nation, in the matter of food, loathe
that to which they are not accustomed or is unknown to them. The English, for example, is horrified on
seeing a Spaniard eating snails; to the Spaniards beefsteak is repugnant and he can't understand how
raw beefsteak can be eaten; the Chinese who eat tahuri and shark cannot stand Roquefort cheese, etc.,
etc. The fish that Morga mentions does not taste better when it is beginning to rot; all on the contrary: it
is bagoong and all those who have eaten it and tasted it know that it is not or ought not to be rotten.

Excerpt 2

Morga:

In the rivers and streams there are very large and small scorpions and a great number of very fierce and
cruel crocodiles which frequently get the natives from their bancas on which they ride. .. However much
the people may trap, catch and kill them, these reptiles hardly seem to diminish in number. For this
reason, the natives build on the border of their rivers and streams in their settlements where they bathe,
traps and fences with thick enclosures and bars of bamboo and timber within which they do their
bathing and washing, secure from these monsters which they fear and respect to the degree of
veneration, as if they were somehow superior to them.

Rizal's annotation:

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, without counting any more its voraciousness, must have
influenced greatly the imagination of the Malayan Filipinos.

Chapter Questions:
1. In Excerpt 1, what impression of the Filipinos do you get from reading Morga's description of the type
of food the natives eat? which particular phrase gives you this impression?

2. What is Rizal's purpose in writing an annotation about the food preferences of the English, Spaniards,
and Chinese?

3. In Excerpt 2, how did Morga portray the Filipinos?

4. In Rizal's subsequent annotation, what does he mean when he says, " 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?

5. In general, what is Rizal's motive in writing his annotations of Morga's work? How does this fit into the
aims of other propagandists working for reforms during this time?

Activity 2
Choose one article from the headlines section of a recent issue of a local newspaper. Reflect on the
article by annotating the text. Use the following pointers to help you write your annotations.

1. Define words look up and write down definitions of unfamiliar words.

2. Relate cdrtain portions to other parts of the article.

3. Relate certain ideas to what you have read from other materials.

4. Re-write by paraphrasing or summarizing portions that you find difficult to understand.

5. Relate certain ideas to your own experiences.

6. Explain the context behind the article you ahve read.

7. Analyze or interpret what is being said in the text?

Summary:

Rizal's annotations of Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas maybe considered an attempt to write Philippine
history from the point of view of a Filipino. With the publication of this work, Rizal provided a linear view
of history with Noli Me Tangere showing a view of the present, El Filibusterismo and " The Philippines A
Century Hence " illustrating a view of the future, and the annnotations clarifying a view of the past.

In addition, Rizal's annotations should also be understood within the context of propaganda work that
Filipinos in Spain were engaged in. The annotations explored the possibilities of creating a Filipino
identity anchored clearly on a pre-Spanish past.

Source: Rhodalyn Wani-Obias, Aaron Abel Mallari, Janet Regindin-Estella. The Life and Works of Rizal: C
& E Publishing, Inc. 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diGwdsVP-NI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDqbq7FvLbA