University of La Salette

Santiago City

LEARNING MODULE
GEC 005- The Life and Works of Rizal
Prepared by: MONINA P. BADUA, MAED

MODULE 5: ANNOTATION OF ANTONIO MORGA’S SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS

FILIPINAS

During the Spanish colonial period, Philippine history was primarily written by the
Spaniards. Early Spanish historians took note of the native’s appearance and way of life. However
many of these early histories depicted the Filipinos in negative terms and often contained biases
against the colonized people (Wani-Obias, 2018).

In this module, students will learn about Jose Rizal’s annotation of Antonio Morga’s work,
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, this is an attempt to redress this biased view of the Filipinos from
Morga’s perspective.

Although Rizal’s annotations have been “largely disregarded”, Rizal’s work has been
credited as the first Philippine history to be written from the viewpoint of a Filipino ( Ibid,p. 127).

Learning Outcomes:

1. Examine Rizal’s ideas on how he corrected Morga’s view about the Philippines
2. Compare and contrast Rizal and Morga’s different views about Filipinos and Philippine culture

MOTIVATION: Complete the table below by providing an answer to the question being asked.

What I want to know about Dr. Antonio Morga and Jose Rizal?

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 Process questions:
1. Why did Rizal annotate Morga’s Sucesos delas islas Filipinas?
2. How important is Rizal’s annotation to the Filipinos

CONTENT
Rizal’s Annotation of Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.
What is Annotation?
noun: annotatian·no·ta·tion
/ˌanəˈtāSH(ə)n/
noun
on; plural noun: annotations
a note of explanation or comment added to a text or diagram.
Example: We are about to learn Rizal’s annotation of Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.

MEANING OF SUCESOS De Las Islas Filipinas

 Las Islas Filipinas means “The

Philippine Island” in English and was
named in honor of King Philip II of
Spain
 Sucesos means the work of an honest
observer, a versatile bureaucrat, who
knew the workings of the
administration from the inside.

About Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas

• One of the important works of the Philippines about the colonization of Spain, published
by Antonio De Morga in Mexico 1609.
• Explains the political, social and economical aspects of a colonizer and the colonized
country.
• The book is based on the experience and observation of Antonio De Morga
• Annotated by Jose Rizal with a prologue by Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt

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 The work consists of 8 chapters
1. Of the first discoveries of the Eastern islands.
2. Of the government of Dr. Francisco de Sande.
3. Of the government of don Gonzalo Ronquillo de Peiialosa.
4. Of the government of Dr. Santiago de Vera.
5. Of the government of Gomes Perez Dasrnariiias.
6. Of the government of don Francisco Tello.
7. Of the government of don Pedro de Acuiia.
8. An account of the Philippine Islands.

ANTONIO de MORGA

 Spanish lawyer and a government

official during the 17th Century
 Historical Anthropologist
 Author of Sucesos De Las Islas
Filipinas
 Wrote the first lay formal history of
the Philippines conquest by Spain.
 He is a doctorate in Canon and Civil
Law

Purpose of Sucesos De las Islas Filipinas

Morga (1609) wrote that the purpose for writing

Sucesos was so he could chronicle "the deeds
achieved by our Spaniards, 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."

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 Source: (Tan.(n.d.),Rizal's annotation of Morga's Sucesos De Las Islas FIlipinas
(SUMMARY)https://www.academia.edu/42198655/Rizal_s_annotation_of_Morgas_Sucesos_De_Las_Islas_FIlipinas_SUMMA
RY_)

Now we are done knowing about Antonio De Morga, let us all get to know what, why, how
did Jose Rizal chose De Morga’s Work and annotates it.

What lead Jose Rizal to Morga’s work?

• Rizal was an earnest seeker of truth and this

marked him as historian
• He had a burning desire to know exactly the
condition 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 traditions and culture.
• He then decided to undertake the annotation of
Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos De Las Islas
Filipinas.
• His personal friendship with Ferdinand
Blumentritt provided the inspiration for doing
a new edition of Morga’s Sucesos.
• Devoting four months research and writing
and almost a year to get his manuscript
published in Paris in January 1890.

Why Jose Rizal chose Morga’s work?

• Rizal felt Morga to be more "objective" than the religious writers whose accounts included
many miracle stories.
• Morga, compared to religious chroniclers, was more sympathetic to the indios; and finally,
Morga was not only an eyewitness but a major actor in the events he narrates.
• Rizal's second consideration for the choice of Morga was that it was the only civil, as
opposed to religious or ecclesiastical, history of the Philippines written during the
colonial period.
• The third consideration for the choice of Morga was Rizal’s opinion that this secular
account was more objective, more trustworthy, than those written by the religious
missionaries which were liberally sprinkled with tales of miracles and apparitions.
• The fourth consideration in Rizal's choice of the Morga was that it appeared more
sympathetic, at least in parts, to the indios, in contrast to the friar accounts, many of which
were biased or downright racist in tone and interpretation

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 • The fifth and last consideration was that Morga was an eyewitness, and therefore a
primary source, on the Philippines and its people at the point of first contact with Spain.
Source: (Tan.(n.d.),Rizal's annotation of Morga's Sucesos De Las Islas FIlipinas
(SUMMARY)https://www.academia.edu/42198655/Rizal_s_annotation_of_Morgas_Sucesos_De_Las_Islas_FIlipinas_SU
MMARY_)

How did Jose Rizal know about Morga’s work?

• Rizal found the book while he was in London at the British Museum’s reading room.
• He had copied the whole 351 pages of the book.
• And annotated every chapter of it.
• It was the first historical work on the Philippines by a Filipino. It is the first history
written from the point of view of the colonized not the colonizer.

Rizal’s annotation

1. Straightforward historical annotations, where Rizal amplifies or corrects the original.

2. The annotations which, though historically based, reflect his strong anticlerical bias.

Source: (Tan.(n.d.),Rizal's annotation of Morga's Sucesos De Las Islas FIlipinas

(SUMMARY)https://www.academia.edu/42198655/Rizal_s_annotation_of_Morgas_Sucesos_De_Las_Islas_FIl
ipinas_SUMMARY_)

Rizal’s Purpose of annotating Morga’s work(Garcia, 2015):

• 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 the Filipinos are civilized/advanced even before the coming of the Spaniards

Prior to his annotation of the Sucesos Rizal thoroughly read historical accounts about the
Philippines as written by Pigafetta, Chirino and other Spanish Chroniclers and historians. He
even went to the expanse of searching for historical materials at the Bibliotheque National in
Paris. Nonetheless, it was Morga’s Sucesos that appealed to Rizal since according to him, it was
the best account of the conquest of the Philippines. Moreover, it was an unbiased account of the
16th century culture of the Filipinos.

Rizal spent four months for research and writing and one year to have to have his
manuscript printed. Ferdinand Blumentritt wrote the Preface of the annotation (Garcia, 2015).

The salient points emphasized by Blumentritt were the following:

 That the Spaniards have to correct their erroneous conception of the Filipinos as
children of limited intelligence;
 That Rizal’s comments on Spanish government were unique as they weregiven from
the point of view of the victims of colonialism:
 That there existed three kinds of Spanish delusions about the Philippines:
o that the Filipinos were an inferior race;

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 o that the Filipinos were not ready for parliamentary representation and other
reforms; and
o that denial of equal rights can be compensated by strict dispensation of
justice.
 That Spain had to learn Philippine realities from Rizal’s new edition of Morga’s
Sucesos, and;
 That if Spanish authorities will not listen to the Filipinos, the Philippine will be lost
through their own fault.

Rizal’s annotation consisted of 8 chapters (Garcia, 2015). The first 7 chapters delved on
the events during the time of the first 11 governor-generals in the Philippines, particularly
from Legazpi to Acuña. The last chapter was focused on customs and usages of the Filipinos.
His notes were of three categories, namely: anti-clerical, sociological, and historical.

There were three main propositions in Rizal’s new edition of Morga’s Sucesos namely
(Garcia, 2015):

1. That the people of the Philippines had a culture of their own before the coming of the
Spaniards
2. That the Filipinos were decimated, demoralized, exploited and ruined by Spanish
colonizations;
3. The present state of the Philippines was not necessarily superior to its past.

In his annotation, he included the colonial history of the Philippines, being in

prolonged periods of suffering that many people have been subjected to.
“The Philippines was depopulated, impoverished and retorted, astounded by
metaphor, with no confidence in their past, still without faith in her present and
without faltering hope in the future”.

TASKS

Critical Reading:
Read the following excerpts from Rizal’s annotation of Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas. Answer the questions that follow;

Excerpt 1

Morga:

Their regular daily food is rice...together with boiled fish of which there is an
abundance, and pork or venison, likewise meat or buffalo or carabao. They prefer meat and fish,
saltfish which begin to decompose and smell.

Rizal’s annotation:

This is another preoccupation of the Spaniards who, like ay other nation, in the
matter of food, loathe that to which they are not accustomed or is unknown to them. The English, for
example, is horrified on seeing a Spaniards eating snails; to the Spaniard eating beefsteak is

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 repugnant and he can’t understand how raw beefsteak can be eaten; the Chinese who eat tahuri and
shark cannot stand Roquefort cheese, etc., etc. 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 that it is not or ought not to be rotten.

Excerpt 2

Morga:

In the rivers and streams there are ver large and small scorpions and a great number of very
fierce and cruel crocodiles which frequently get the natives from their bancas on which they ride...
However much the people may trap, catch and kill them, these reptiles hardly seem to diminishin
number. For this reason, the natives build on the border of their rivers and streams in their
settlements where they bathe, traps and fences with thick enclosures and bars of bamboo and timber
within which they do their bathing and washing, secure from these monsters which they were
somehow superior to them.

Rizal’s annotation:

Perhaps for the same reason, other nations have great esteem for the lion and bear, putting
them on their shields and giving them honourable epithets. The mysterious life of the crocodile, the
enormous size that it sometimes reaches, its fatidical aspect, without counting anymore its
voraciousness, must have influenced greatly the imagination of the Malayan Filipinos.

Questions:
1. In Excerpt 1, what impression of the Filipinos do you get from reading Morga’s
description of the type of food the natives eat? Which phrase gives you this
impression?

2. What is Rizal’s purpose in writing an annotation about the food preferences of the
English, Spaniards and Chinese?

3. In Excerpt 2, how did Morga portray the Filipinos?

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 4. In Rizal’s subsequent annotation, what does he mean when he says, “ Perhaps for the
same reason, other nations have great esteem for the lion and bear, putting them on
their shields and giving them honourable epithets”?

5. In general, what is Rizal’s motive in writing his annotations of Morga’s work/ how
does this fit into the aims of other propagandists working for reforms during this
time?

REFLECTION

Compare and contrast Rizal and Morga’s different views about the Filipinos and Philippine
culture.

Rizal’s View Morga’s View

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 SYNTHESIS
In this Module, you have studied the Annotation of Morga’s Sucesos delas Islas Filipinas.
Make a synopsis of what you have learned in this topic.

REFERENCES:
 Garcia,C.D., De Viana,A.V., Cruz, C.B. (2015). Rizal and the Development of Filipino
Nationalism.Books Atbp.Publishing Corp.
 Wani-Obias, R.,Mallari A.A.,Regindin-Estela,J. (2018). The Life and Works of Jose Rizal. C & E
Publishing, Inc.
 Tan.(n.d.),Rizal's annotation of Morga's Sucesos De Las Islas FIlipinas
(SUMMARY)https://www.academia.edu/42198655/Rizal_s_annotation_of_Morgas_Sucesos_De_Las_Isla
s_FIlipinas_SUMMARY_

Congratulations! This is the end of Module 5.I hope you enjoy and learned
a lot in undergoing the different activities provided above.

I am so proud of you.

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UPLOADING, OR POSTING ONLINE IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY IS
STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
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