MODULE 3

Rizal’s Annotations on Antonio Morga's Sucesos de las Islas,

Rizal’s Changing View on Spanish Rule and his
El Filibusterismo
OVERVIEW:
This module presents Rizal’s view of Philippine history. It provides an analysis made by Jose Rizal about
the past, particularly the pre-colonial period.  Tthrough his annotations on the book by Antonio Morga,
he was the first Filipino to write history of the country from the Filipino point of view.  
Module 3 aims to investigate Rizal’s changing view on how the Spanish colonial government is
administering the Philippines. This module will be analyzing Jose Rizal’s essay “The Indolence of the
Filipinos” and his novel: “El Filibusterismo.”
The essay “The Indolence of the Filipinos” seek to defend the natives from aspersions that they are lazy
which is the main cause why the Philippines has not developed. Jose Rizal’s second novel “El
Filibusterismo” on the other hand will give us clues about his revolutionary ideas.

Learning Outcomes:
The following are the Topic Learning Outcomes for this particular Unit:

1. Analyze Rizal's idea on how to rewrite Philippine History.

2. Classify the ideas and themes expressed in Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo in terms of
their relevance to the contemporary society
4. Deconstruct salient themes on Rizal’s Indolence of the Filipino People and its relevance in
the formation of positive social values among modern-day Filipinos

For this part of the module, the following will be required to be answered for pre-assessment
purposes, your scores however will not be counted as part of your grade:

1. Why should you be concerned in the issue about the how history is written? 
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2. Give a reason why Filipinos need to know the pre-colonial culture of our nation.
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Background : Rizal's annotation of Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas

Rizal was not a professional historian but he was a dedicated student of history in general and of
Philippine history in particular. Rizal’s love for his country made him a historian. He made it a project to
write for Filipinos about their history in order to make them know about their country. He delved in
history after seeing how some foreign authors wrote about the Philippines. He saw how the Philippines
was belittled and he himself experienced how Filipinos were wrongly derided. Thus, he formed that
personal desire to make the Philippines known according to a proper perspective and historiography was
one solution.

Historiography is the writing of history, especially based on the critical examination of sources,
the selection of particulars from authentic material and the synthesis of particulars into a narrative. Rizal
tried to do just that. He read historical materials such as Antonio Pigafetta’s “First Voyage Around The
World”. He also used works of English historians like Marsden, Raffles, Lord Stanley and Wallace,
German historians like Blumentritt, Jagor and Virchow, and French historians like Jacquet, Mallat and
Marche. In a letter to Isabelo delos Reyes, a contemporary who also wrote extensively about the
Philippines, Rizal commented, “historians ought to be rigorously imparted… I never assert anything on
my own authority. I cite texts and when I do, I have them before me.”

Rizal’s was a historiography with a purpose— to encourage appreciation for the Philippines. His
aim was not really the study of history but the study of the Philippines through history—Filipinology or
Philippine studies, so to speak. The study of the Philippines was so important to Rizal that he even
thought of putting up an International Association of Filipinologists with the aim of studying the
Philippines from the scientific and historical point of view. He went as far as forming the association’s
initial set of officers that included Ferdinand Blumentritt (Austrian) as president, Edward Plauchut
(French) as vice-president, Reinhold Rost (Anglo-German) as counsellor, and Antonio Regidor (Spanish-
Filipino) as counsellor and himself as secretary. Its inaugural convention did not materialize, however,
because the French government, at that time, discouraged private conferences for the period of the Paris
Expo.
Rizal's Morga, says Ambeth Ocampo, is significant because with this edition, Rizal began the
task of writing the first Philippine history from the viewpoint of a Filipino. Rizal realized the importance
of the past as a tool to understand the present and eventually confront the future. In a letter to Ferdinand
Blumentritt, asking him to write a history of the Philippines, “the Philippines would be grateful to you if
you will write a complete history of our country, judged from impartial criteria. I believe that you are the
only one who can do it. I have the courage for this, but I do not know enough. I have not read as many
books about my country and the Spanish libraries are closed to me; furthermore my time is needed for
other things and everything I say will always be suspected of having been inspired by a partisan spirit,
but you would be read as an impartial judge; you have no selfish interests ...you do not have to amend
historical truth neither for the sake of Filipinos nor the Spaniards, and you could contemplate the past in
cold blood like an outside observer.”(Ocampo, 1998)

For this part of the module, you are required to read the following:

Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute

***Rizal’s introduction in his Annotation to Morga’s book Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas
          

Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Excerpt from the book of Historical Events of the Philippine Islands authored by Dr. Antonio de Morga
copyrighted 1990 National Historical Institute
Watch the Power Point Presentation/ Lecture Video on:

1. Rizal’s annotations to Morga’s Sucesos de las islas Filipinas.

2. Rizal’s Changing View on Spanish Rule and his Filibusterismo by Aguilar

Watch the lecture in you tube for supplemental information enriching module 3.

Annotating Colonial Histories: José Rizal and The Rethinking of Filipino Identity in 19th Century
England is a lecture that was given by Prof Jose Victor Z. Torres (De La Salle University-Manila) at the
Centre of South East Asian Studies, SOAS University of London on 24 May 2019.  
A copy of the video is provided in the google classroom or you can use the link provided below:

Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhpWC5l43GM