GROUP 5

Matin-ao, John Dale

Misa, Philbert
Montecillo, Clarissa
Muit, Lykah
Rizal’s Annotation of Antonio
Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas
Selected Writings
SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS

• Events in the Philippine Islands (English

Translation)
• An account of Spanish observations about
the Filipinos and the Philippines.
• It is one of the important works on the early
history of the Spanish colonization in the
Philippines
 Antonio de Morga Sánchez Garay

• (November 29, 1559 – July 21, 1636) was

a Spanish historian and a lawyer
• High-ranking colonial official for 43 years, in
the Philippines (1594 to 1604)
• As the Deputy Governor in the Philippines, he re-
established the audencia and took over the function
of Judge (Oidor)
• Reassigned to Mexico, he published the book
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1609)
 Purpose for Writing Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas

“The deeds achieved by our Spaniards in the discovery, conquest, and

conversion of the Filipinas Islands - as well as various fortunes that they
have from time to time in the great kingdoms and among the pagan
peoples surrounding the islands.”
Modern historians (including Rizal) have noted that Morga has a
definite bias and would often distort facts or even rely on
invention to fit his defense of the Spanish conquest.
 What is Sucesos?

• A Spanish word
• Sucesos (Events, happenings and occurence) It’s the work
of an honest observer, a versatile bureaucrat, who knew
the workings of the administration from the inside
 What is Las Islas Filipinas?

Las Islas Filipinas was named in honor of King

Philip II of Spain
 The Book: Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas
• An account of Spanish observation about the Filipinos and the Philippines
• This is one of the first books ever tackle Philippines history
• It covers the political, social and economical aspects of a colonizer and the
colonized country
• The contents of the book are based on documentary research, observations and
personal involvement and knowledge of the author.
• The book was published in 2 volumes both in 1609 at Casa de Geronymo Balli,
Mexico City.
• First English translation was published in 1868 in London
• Rizal made as secondary source of the book due to his Annotations
 The Book: Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas

• CHAPTER 1 : Magellan and Legazpi's seminal expeditions.

• CHAPTER 2 - 7 : Chronological report on government administration

under Governor-General.
 The Book: Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas
• CHAPTER 2 : Of the government of Dr. Francisco de Sande
• CHAPTER 3 : Of the government of Don Gonzalo Ronquillo
de Peñalosa
• CHAPTER 4 : Of the government of Dr. Santiago de Vera.
• CHAPTER 5 : Of the government of Gomes Perez Dasmariñas.
• CHAPTER 6 : Of the government of Don Francisco Tello
• CHAPTER 7 : Of the government of Don Pedro de Acuiia
• CHAPTER 8 : Philippine Islands, the natives there, their antiquity,
custom and government.
 What leads Jose Rizal to Sucesos De Las Islas
Filipinas?
•Rizal was an earnest seeker of truth and this marked him as a historian.
•He wants to know exactly the conditions of the Philippines when the
Spaniards came ashore to the islands
•His theory was that the country was economically self-sufficient and
prosperous. Entertained the idea that it had a lively and vigorous
community.
•He believed the conquest of the Spaniards contributed in part to the
decline of the Philippine's rich tradition and culture.
 What leads Jose Rizal to Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas?

• Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt (Knowledgable Filipinologist) recommended Dr.

Morga’s book to Rizal.
• In 1888-1889 Rizal largely spent his months of stay in London at the
British Museum looking for the book.
• Having no high tech copying technology at that time, he had to hand copy
the whole 351 pages of the book.
 Rizal’s Annotation of the Book

•Rizal also annotated Morga's typographical errors.

•On page 248 Morga describes the culinary art of the ancient Filipinos by
recording: "... they prefer to eat salt fish which begin to decompose and
smell." Rizal's footnotes : "This is another preoccupation of the Spaniards
who, like any other nation in that matter of food, loathe that to which they
are not accustomed or is unknown to them... 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 it is not or ought
not to be rotten"
 Rizal’s
Objectives

• To awaken the consciousness of the Filipinos regarding their glorious

ways of the past.
• To correct what has been distorted about the Philippines due to Spanish
conquest.
• To prove that Filipinos are civilized even before the coming of the
Spaniards.
 The First Objective On Rizal’s Annotation

The Early Filipino Pride - Rizal strove to establish that the Filipinos could
be proud of their pre-conquest past. 
 The Second Objective On Rizal’s Annotation

• HISTORY AS A PROPAGANDA WEAPON - Rizal aimed to use history as a

propaganda weapon.
• EARLY GOVERNMENT - Our forefathers in the pre-colonial Philippines
already possessed a working judicial and legislative system
• HIGH LITERACY RATE - The Spanish missionaries exploited the baybayin
for their own ends, learning and using it to translate their goals
• EARLY ARTILLERY - Our ancestors were very proficient in the art of war.
Aside from wielding swords and spears, they also knew how to make and fire
guns and cannons.
 The Second Objective On Rizal’s Annotation

• SMOOTH FOREIGN RELATIONS - The pre-colonial Filipinos had

already established trading and diplomatic relations with countries as far
away as the Middle East
• SELF- SUFFICIENT - In terms of food, our forefathers did not suffer
from any lack thereof. Blessed with such a resource-rich country, they
had enough for themselves and their families
• ADVANCED CIVILIZATION - Our ancestors possessed a complex
working society and a culture replete with works of arts and literature
 The Third Objective On Rizal’s Annotation

1. The people of the Philippines have a culture on their own, before

the coming of the Spaniards.
2. Filipinos were decimated, demoralized, exploited, and ruined by
the Spanish colonization.
3. The present state of the Philippines was not necessarily superior
to its past.
 Rizal’s Annotations vs. De Morga’s
Sucesos
1. Philippines was NOT 1. Philippines was DESERTED
DESERTED and was actually and INHABITABLE.
HABITABLE. 2. Beef and fish they know it best
2. Spaniards, like any other nation, when it has started to rot and
treat food to which they are not stink.
accustomed or is unknown to
them with disgust. This fish that
Morga mentions is bagoong
(salted & fermented fish).
 Ferdinand Blumentritt's Prologue

•Writing in Spanish, instead of his native German

language.
•Praised Rizal's work as "scholarly and well-thought
out"
•He noted that Morga's Sucesos was so rare that "the
very few libraries that have it guard it with the same
solicitude as if it were the treasure of the Incas"
 Ferdinand Blumentritt's Prologue

•He criticized Rizal's annotations on two counts:

o He first observed that Rizal had committed the
mistake of many modern historians who judged
events in the past in the context of contemporary
ideas and mores.
o He perceived as the overreach of Rizal's
denunciations of Catholicism that Rizal should
confine his critique to the religious orders in the
Philippines who spared no effort to suppress calls for
reform
 Ferdianand Blumentritt also wrote a preface
emphasizing some salient points:

•The Spaniards have to correct their erroneous conception

of the Filipinos as children of limited intelligence
•That there existed three kinds of Spanish delusions about
the Philippines:
o Filipinos were an inferior race
o Filipinos were not ready for parliamentary
representation and other reforms
o Denial of equal rights can be compensated by strict
dispensation of justice
 Importance of Rizal’s Annotations to the Present Generation

• To awaken in the Filipinos the consciousness of our past.

• To devote ourselves to studying the future.
• To first lay bare the past, in order to better judge the present and to
survey the road trodden during three centuries.
• To prove Filipinos had a culture of their own, prior to colonization, that
the Filipinos were NOT inferior to the white man.
 Importance of Rizal’s Annotations to the Present Generation

• To shatter the myth of the so-called “Indolence of the Filipinos”

• To reduce those Filipinos who denied their native tongue into rotten fish.
• To seriously study Tagalog and produce a comprehensive Tagalog
dictionary.
• To embrace the generic term “Indio”, or in today’s case, Filipino, with all
its negative connotations, and turn it into one of dignity and nobility
“To foretell the destiny of a nation,
it is necessary to open the books
that tell of her past.”
-Jose Rizal
Thank You for Listening