UNIT III

”ONE PAST BUT MANY HISTORIES”

:CONTROVERSIES AND CONFLICTING VIEWS IN PHILIPPINE
HISTORY
 LESSON PROPER

 Lesson 1 The site of the First Mass

o Antonio Pigafetta was an Italian scholar and explorer

who joined Ferdinand Magellan to explore the
westward route to the Spice Islands and Chronicled
the World's first circumnavigation. Despite its
tendency for extra details, his written account of the
European encounters with parts of Latin America and
the East Indies has since become an essential primary
source on their new communities and cultures and the
indigenous flora and fauna.
Controversies between Limasawa and Masao /Butuan Masao

o 1872: A monument to remind the site of the first Mass

on the Philippines was erected in Butuan.
o 1953: The people in Butuan questioned the Philippine
Historical Committee to rehabilitate the monument or
place a marker on it.
o On the ground of this objection, the monument re-
erected, but the marble slab stating it was the site of
the first Mass removed.
o Zaide identified Masao in Butuan as the locations of
the first Mass. The basis Zaide's requisition is the
diary of Antonio Pigafetta, chronicler of Magellan's
journey.
 LIMASAWA

o Jaime de Veyra that the first Mass was

celebrated in Limasawa, not in Butuan.
o Historians Pablo Pastells are stating by the
footnote to Francisco Colin's Labor Evangelica
that Magellan did not go to Butuan but from
Limasawa to Cebu.
o Francisco Albo (pilot of Magellan's flagship
doesn't tell the first Mass, but he writes that
they erected a cross on a mountain that forget
three islands, the west, and the southwest.
 LIMASAWA

o James Robertson concedes with Pastells in a

footnote that "Mazua" was actually Limasawa.
o In the real account of Pigafetta, the port was
not in Butuan but an island named Mazua
(MASAWA)
o Fr. Bernard studied all the Pigafetta's maps,
which place in Mazau off the southern tip of
the larger island of Leyte, a check with the
modern maps will show that this jibes with
Limasawa and not in Masao or Butuan.
 Evidence for Limasawa

o 1. The evidence of Albo’s Log-Book

o 2. The Evidence of Pigafetta
o A) Pigafetta’s testimony regarding the route;
o B) The evidence of Pigafetta’s map
o C) The two native kings
o D) The seven days at "Mazaua."
o E) An argument from the omission
o 3. Summarizing the evidence of Albo and
Pigafetta.
o 4. Confirmatory evidence from Legazpi
expedition
 Evidence for Masao

o 1. The name of the place

o 2. The route from Homonhon
o 3. The latitude position
o 4. The geographical features
o A) the bonfire
o B) the balanghai
o C) house
o D) abundance of gold
o E) a developed settlement
 Lesson 2 Cavite Mutiny

o In Philippine History, two major events

happened in 1872:
o 1. The 1872 Cavite mutiny and
o 2. The martyrdom of the three martyr priests
 Spanish Perspective

o 1. Jose Montero y Vidal, a prolific historian,

documented the event and highlighted it as an
attempt of the Indios to overthrow the Spanish
government in the Philippines.
o 2. Gov. Rafael de Izquierdo's official report magnified
the event and used it to implicate the native clergy,
which was then active in the call for secularization.
 Filipino Perspective

o Dr. Trinidad Hermenigildo Pardo de Tavera, a

Filipino Scholar and researcher, wrote the
Filipino version of the bloody incident in
Cavite from his point of view. The incident
was a mere mutiny by the Cavite arsenal, who
turned out to be dissatisfied with the removal
of their privileges.
 What is the Retraction of Rizal?

o In 1935, a controversial document called "The

Retraction "was found
o It was signed by none other than the National
Hero, who declared in that he was a Catholic and
he wanted to take back everything he said against
the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church (Iglesia
Katolika Apostolika Romana)
 Collected Testimonies

o Father Vicente Balaguer was said to be the "only

eyewitness "that night, Rizal wrote the retraction.
o Cuerpo de Vigilancia consists of the accounts of
(1) a Spanish jail guard who overheard Rizal
writing a paper called the retraction, (2) the two
officials who allegedly signed the retraction as
witnesses, and (3) all the people who entered
Rizal’s cell before his execution.
 Collected Testimonies

o On the day he was to be killed. Rizal gave Josephine

his copy of Thomas a Kempi’s De La imitacion de
Cristo, on which he wrote, “To my dear and unhappy
wife, Josephine, December 30, 1896, Jose Rizal. ”Not
only would his handwriting in the dedication be used
to validate the document, but it also suggests Rizal’s
profession of faith on the day he died.
o In his last writings, the recurrence of the word krus
was interpreted as Rizal's desire to die as a Catholic.
 Lesson 3 The Cry of Balintawak
o The exact location of the first Cry of the Philippine
Revolution is a subject of contention. Famously
known as the Cry of Balintawak, it is also
speculated to have happened in Pugad Lawin.
o The historian Ambeth R. Ocampo rounds up the
contradictions and debates:
o 1. Aside from Balintawak and Pugad Lawin, people must
add the following contenders on the whereabouts of the
first Cry, or Unang Sigaw; Kangkong, Bahay Toro, Pasong
Tamo, Banat, and more, depending on which primary
source is cited.
o 2. The National Historical Commission’s proposed date for
the start of the Philippine Revolution is 23th of August
1896. Other proposed dates are 20, 24, 25, and 26 August.
 Lesson 3 The Cry of Balintawak

o 3. Teodoro Agoncillo said that a general assembly was called by

Andres Bonifacio on August 24, 1896, in Malabon. The Katipuneros
were in Balintawak on August 19, left for Kangkong on August 21,
proceeded to Pugad Lawin on August 22, and on August 23, 1896,
tore their cedulas and vowed to fight in the yard of Tandang Sora’s
son
o Guillermo Masangkay, one of the Supremo’s
closest adviser and a general of the revolutionary
army, recounted in an interview with the Sunday
Tribune in 1932 that it was in Balintawak, on
August 26, 1896, where the first cry happened