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Philippine History:
Spaces for Conflict and
Controversies, Making
Sense of the Past
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Historical
Interpretation
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Geoffrey Barraclough defined history as
the attempt to discover, on the basis of
fragmentary evidence, the significant things
about the past.
• He also notes the history we read, though
based on facts, is strictly speaking, not
factual at all, but a series of accepted
judgment.
• Such judgement of historians on how the
past should be seen, make the foundation
of historical interpretation. 3
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Sample Cases
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titleHistorical
style Interpretation
The Code of Kalantiaw
• is a mythical legal code in the epic history
Maragtas. It was a source of pride for the people
of Aklan. In fact, a historical marker was installed
in the town of Batan, Aklan in 1956, with the
following text:
“THE CODE OF KALANTIAW. Datu Bendehara Kalantiaw, third chief of Panay,
born in Aklan, established his government in the peninsula of Batang, Aklan
Sakup. Considered the first Filipino Lawgiver, the promulgated in about
1433 aboutpenal code now known as a Code of Kalantiaw containing 18
articles. Don Marcelino Orilla of Zaragoza, Spain, obtained the original
manuscript from an old chief of Panay which was later translated into
Spanish by Rafael Murviedo Yzamaney. This marker is erected upon this 4 4
request of the Municipal Council of Batan, Aklan on 1 June 1956.”
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The Code of Kalantiaw: Debunking the Code
• It was only in my 1968 that it was proven a hoax, when
William Henry Scott, a doctoral candidate at the
University of Santo Tomas, defended his research on
pre-Hispanic sources in Philippine history.
• He attributed the Code to a historical fiction written
in 1913 by Jose E. Marco titled Las Antiguas
Leyendas de lang Isla de Negros. Marco attributed
the Code itself to a priest named Jose Maria Pavon.
• Scott asserted in his thesis that there is no evidence
that any Filipino ruler by the name of Kalantiaw ever
existed or that the Kalantiaw penal code is any older
than 1914. 5
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The Code of Kalantiaw: Debunking the Code
William H. Scott's exposé did not have an immediate
effect on Filipino society.
• Some Filipinos, both scholars and non-
scholars, continue to believe that the Code of
Kalantiaw and the datu/chieftain who
supposedly promulgated these laws actually
existed.
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Sample Cases
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titleHistorical
style Interpretation
Sa Aking Mga Kabata
• Is a poem purportedly written by Jose Rizal
when he was 8 years old and is probably one
of Rizal’s most prominent works.
• There is no evidence to support the claim
that this poem, with that now immortalized
lines "Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang
sariling wika mahigit pa sa malansang isda"
was written by Rizal, and worse the evidence
against Rizal’s authorship of the poem seems
all unassailable.
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Sa Aking Mga Kabata
• There is no manuscripts of the poem
handwritten by Rizal that is existing.
• The poem was first published in a 1906, in a
book by Hermenegildo Cruz. Cruz said he
received the poem from Gabriel Beato
Francisco, who claimed to have received it in
1884 from Rizal’s close friend, Saturnino
Raselis.
• Rizal never mentioned writing this poem
anywhere in his writings and more
importantly, he never mentioned of having a
close friend by the person of Raselis. 8 8
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Sa Aking
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MasterKabata
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• Further criticism of the poem reveals more
about the wrongful attribution of the poem to
Rizal.
• The poem was written in Tagalog and
referred to the word "Kalayaan".
• But it was documented in Rizal’s letters that he first encountered
the word through a Marcelo H. del Pilar’s translation of Rizal’s
essay "El Almor Patrio", where it was spelled as "kalayahan ".
• While Rizal’s native tongue was Tagalog, he was educated in Spanish,
starting from his mother, Teodora Alonso. Later on, he would
express disappointment in his difficulty in expressing himself in his
native tongue.
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Sa Aking Mga Kabata
• Further criticism of the poem reveals more
about the wrongful attribution of the poem to
Rizal.
• The poem’s spelling is also suspected – the
use of letters "k" and "w" to replace "c"
and "u", respectively was suggested by Rizal
as an adult.
• If the poem was indeed written his time, it
should use the original Spanish orthography
that was prevalent in his time. 1010
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Moral of the Sample Cases:
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Historians utilize facts collected from primary
sources of history and then draw their own
reading so that their intended audience may
understand the historical event, and process that
in essence, make sense of the past.
• The premise is that not all primary sources are
accessible to a general audience, and without the
proper training and background, and non historian
interpreting and primary sources may do more harm
than good- a primary source may even cause
misunderstanding; sometimes, even resulting in
more problems. 1111
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Moral of the Sample Cases:
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Many of the things we accept as true about the
past might not be the case anymore; just because
these were taught to us as facts when we were
younger do not mean that it is not open for
interpretation.
• There might be conflicting and competing
account of the past that need ones attention,
therefore, the subject for evaluation not only
the primary sources, but also the historical
interpretation is reliable to support our
acceptance of events of the past. 1212
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Moral of the Sample Cases:
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Interpretations of the past, therefore, vary
according to who reads primary sources, when it
was read, and how it was read.
• As students of history we must be well equipped
to recognize different types of interpretation, why
these may differ from each other, and how to
critically sift the interpretations through historical
evaluation.
• Interpretations of history event change over time;
thus, it is an important skill for a student of history
to track these changes in an attempt to
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understand the past.
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Multiperspectivity
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Multiperspectivity
• This can be defined as a way of looking at
historical events, personalities, development,
culture and societies from different perspective.
• This means that there is multitude of ways
by which we can view the world, and each
could be equally partial as well.
• Historical writing is, by definition, biased,
partial, and contain preconception. This
historical writing decides on what sources to
use, what interpretation to make more
apparent, depending on what his end is. 1515
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Multiperspectivity
• Historians may misinterpret evidence,
attending to those that suggest that a certain
event happened, and then ignore the rest
that goes against the evidence.
• Historians may omit significant facts about
their subject, which makes the interpretation
unbalanced.
• Historians may impose a certain ideology to
their subject, which may not be appropriate
to the period the subject was from. 1616
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Multiperspectivity
• Historians may also provide a single cause for
an event without considering other possible
causal explanations of said event. These are
just many of the way a historian may fail in his
historical inference, description, and
interpretation.
• With multiperspectivity as an approach in
history, we must understand that historical
interpretations contain discrepancies,
contradiction, ambiguities and are often the
focus of dissent. 1717
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Multiperspectivity
• Exploring multiple perspectives in history
requires incorporating source material that
reflects different views of an event in history,
because singular historical narrative do not
provide for space to inquire and investigate.
• Different source that counter each other
may create space for more investigation and
research, while providing more evidence,
truths that there sources agree on.
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Multiperspectivity
• Different kinds of sources also provide different
historical truth - an official document may note
different aspect of the past than, say, a memoir
of an ordinary person on the same event.
• Different historical agents create different
historical truths, and while this may be a
burdensome work for the historian, it also
renders more validity to the historical
scholarship. Taking these in close regard in the
reading of historical interpretation, it provides for
the audience a more complete and richer
understanding of the past. 1919
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2020
