COMPARE AND

CONTRAST RIZAL
AND MORGA’S VIEWS
ON FILIPINO
CULTURE.
 INTRODUCTION

Jose rizal and antonio de morga were both influential figures

in phillippine history, but they held different views about
Fuilipinos and Philippine culture. Rizal was a Filipino
nationalist, writer, and reformist, while morga was a spanish
historian and colonuial official. Let’s compare and cotrast
their perspectives:
• Antonio de Morga Sánchez Garay (1559 – July 21,1636)
was a Spanish lawyer and a high-ranking colonial official
for 43 years, in the Philippines (1594 to 1604),
• Rizal’s Purpose of Annotating Morga’s Work
• 1. To awaken the consciousness of the Filipinos regarding
their glorious ways of the past
• 2. To correct what has been distorted about the
Philippines due to Spanish Conquest
• 3. To prove that the Filipinos are civilized/advanced even
before the coming of the Spaniards.
• The “SUCESOS” as annotated by Rizal, appeared for the
first time in the Philippines sixty-eight years later when a
publisher in Manila, published the new work in 1958, to
contribute his bit to the national effort to honor Rizal.
• The value of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de
las Islas has long been recognized.A first-hand
account of the early Spanish colonial venture
into Asia. Morga's work is based on personal
experiences, or on documentation from eye-
witnesses of the events described. The Sucesos
is the work of an honest observer. Morga's
book was praised, quoted, and plagiarized, by
contemporaries or successors. Filipinos have
found it a useful account of the state of their
native culture upon the coming of the
conquistadors, they found it full of lessons and
examples.
• As José Rizal heard from his uncle, José
Alberto, about an ancient history of the
Philippines written by a Spaniard named
Antonio de Morga. Rizal immediately
acquainted himself with the British
Museum where he found one of the few
remaining copies of that work. At his own
expense, he had the work republished
with annotations that showed the
Philippines was an advanced civilization
prior to the Spanish conquest.
• After reading a short information about Antoniode Morga's Sucesos de las
Islas and The Annotation of Rizal, I can now, Compare and Contrast Rizal and
Morga’s view on Filipino Culture:
GOVERNMENT
As expected, Morga was critical of the systems of the government, which
he said, barely existed because there were no powerful figure that ruled
over communities, most of them coastal, each with its own set of leaders.

Rizal argued that it is better that way, why should the communities be
beholden to one ruler who didn’t even live among them and was not
familiar with their needsand problems? How could he have solved
disputes, meet justice, implement policies, if he didn’t even live in the
community.
NATIVES
Morga was fascinated with the social organization of the
natives, he described origins, differences, privileges of social
classes, upward and downward mobility inheritance of
possession and titles.
While Rizal emphasize that native women, unlike their
European counterparts, never lost their noble titles. In
marriage it was the groom who gave the bride’s parents a
dowry because they were losing a precious daughter.
BELIEFS
Morga said, that takin a bath without to, whether might
be dangerous to their health.

Rizal believed that Indios are very careful not to take a

bath during siesta, after luncheon, first two days of
catarrh.
LANGUAGE
Morga said that, Inasawa is a wife married to a native
man.
Rizal corrected Morga that asawa is the term called
the wife of a native man.
While for Rizal, that in Tagalog, a house is called
“Pamamahay”. Rizal said that it is impossible that bahandin
has been printed for bahayin, because it is an obsolete
derivative.
LIFESTYLE
Morga said Lawlaw is a very small fish which is
netted. It is dried on the sun orair, and it is cook on
a various ways.
Rizal said Lawlaw is called a salted and dried
sardines. Morga seems to refer to Tiwalis or Dilos
of Batangas.
SOCIAL
Morga said that “namamahay” are those who helped
build their master house, and serve frequently a helpers
when there are guests, and serve their master when their
master requires them to, without compensation.

Rizal said, that “namamahay” slaves still exist but

they are now called “kasama”.
Rizal and Morga had contrasting views about Filipinos
and Philippine Culture. Rizal championed Filipino
Empowerment, Celebrated Philippine culture, and
critically examined history from a Filipino perspective,
On the other hand, Morga held a paternalistic view of
Filipoinos, Emphasized Spanish Superiority, and
apprached history from a more detached and
Eurocentric Standpoint.
Even Rizal and Morga have different views
about our Culture but let us always
remember that they have contributed a great
deal to our country which has given lessons
and experiences to each of us today.