AMANDO COPE COLLEGE

A.A. Berces St., Baranghawon, Tabaco City

4511 Albay, Philippines
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel. No. (052) 732-7499
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY

READINGS
IN THE PHILIPPINE
HISTORY
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Name of Student

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Yr. & Blk.

Prepared by: Myra Mae B. Laguidao, RCrim.LPT.

 Readings in the Philippine History

The course analyzes Philippine history from multiple perspectives through the lens of
selected primary sources coming from various disciplines and of different genres. Students are
given opportunities to analyze the author's background and main arguments, compare different
points of view, identify biases and examine the evidences presented in the document. The
discussions will tackle traditional topics in history and other interdisciplinary themes that will deepen
and broaden their understanding of Philippine political, economic, cultural, social, scientific and
religious history. Priority is given to primary materials that could help students develop their
analytical and communication skills. The end goal is to develop the historical and critical
consciousness of the students so that they will become versatile, articulate. Broad minded, morally
upright and responsible citizens.

This course includes mandatory topics on the Philippine Constitution, agrarian reform, and
taxation.

Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILO)

At the end of the course, the STUDENTS SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

1. Evaluate primary sources for their credibility, authenticity, and provenance
2. Analyze the context, content, and perspective of different kinds of primary sources
3. Determine the contribution of different kinds of primary sources in understanding
Philippine history
4. Develop critical and analytical skills with exposure to primary sources
5. Demonstrate the ability to use primary sources to argue in favor or against a particular
issue
6. Effectively communicate, using various techniques and genres, their historical analysis
of a particular event or issue that could help others understand the chosen topic.
7. Propose recommendations/solutions to present-day problems based on their
understanding of root causes and their anticipation of future scenarios
8. Display the ability to work in a team and contribute to a group project
9. Manifest interest in local history and concern in promoting and preserving our country's
national patrimony and cultural heritage

P r e p a r e d b y : M y r a M a e B . L a g u i d a o , R C r INTRODUCTION
im.LPT. TO
HISTORY: DEFINITION,
ISSUES, SOURCES, AND
 Chapter 1

Learning Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. To understand the meaning of history as an academic discipline and to be familiar with the
underlying philosophy and methodology of the discipline.
2. To apply the knowledge in historical methodology and philosophy in assessing and analyzing
existing historical narratives.
3. To examine and assess critically the value of historical evidences and sources.
4. To appreciate the importance of history in the social and national life of the Philippines.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces history as a discipline and as a narrative. It presents the definition of the
histor, which transcends the common definition of hisoty that consequently opens up for the theoretical
aspects if tge discipline. The distonction between primary and secondary sources is also discussed in relation
to the historical subject matter being studied and the historical methodology employed by the historian.
Ultimately, this chapter also tackles the task of the historian as the arbiter of facts and evidences in making
his interpretation and forming historical narrative.

LESSON 1: DEFINITION AND SUBJECT MATTER

HISTORY

- The study of the past;

- History was derived from the Greek word Historia (knowledge acquired through inquiry or
investigation);
- This term was then adapted to Latin where it acquired a new definition; Historia became known as
the account of the past of a person or of a group of people through written documents and historical
evidences.
- The Latin meaning stuck until the early parts of the twentieth century, making History an
important academic discipline.
- It became the Historian’s duty to write about the lives of important individuals like monarchs, saints,
and nobilities/nobles.
- History was also focused on writing about wars, revolutions, and other important breakthroughs.

What Counts as History?

- Traditional historians lived with the mantra of “No document, no history”.

- This means that unless a written document can prove a historical event, then it cannot be
considered as a historical fact.
- But as any other academic disciplines, history progressed and opened up to the possibility of valid
historical sources, which are not limited to written documents, like government records, chronicle’s
accounts, or personal letters.
- Giving premium to written documents essentially invalidates the history of other civilizations that do
not keep written records.
- Example: Peasant families and Indigenous Groups who are not given much thought about
being registered to government records.
- Does the absence of written documents about them mean that they were people of no history or
past? Did they even exist?

Prepared by: Myra Mae B. Laguidao, RCrim.LPT.

 - This loophole was recognized by historians who started using other historical sources,
which may not be written but just as valid.

Oral Source
- Oral source or oral data are testimonies handed down to us by word of mouth from one generation
to another over time.
- According to Janvansina, “oral tradition are all testimonies concerned past which are transmitted
from generation to another”.
- A few examples of these are Oral Traditions in forms of epics and songs, artifacts,
architecture, and memory.
- History thus became more inclusive and started collaborating with other disciplines as its auxiliary
disciplines.
- Archaeology – Historians can use artifacts from a bygone era to study ancient civilizations
that were formerly ignored in history because of a lack of documents.
- Linguistics – can also be helpful in tracing historical evolutions, past connections among
different groups, and the flow of cultural influence by studying language and the changes it
has undergone.
- Biology and Biochemistry - can help by analyzing the genetic and DNA patterns of human
societies.

LESSON 2: QUESTIONS AND ISSUES IN HISTORY

Questions Regarding History:

 What is History?
 Why study History?

- These questions can be answered by historiography. In simple terms, historiography is the history of
history.
History vs. Historiography
 History – object of the study is the past, the events that happened in the past, and the causes of
such events.
 Historiography – object of the study is history itself.
o How was a certain historical text written?
o Who wrote it?
o What was the context of its publication?
o What particular historical method was employed?
o What were the sources used?

- In Historiography, we do not just get to study historical facts, but we are also provided with an
understanding of the facts and the historian’s contexts.
- Historiography is important to someone who studies history because it teaches the student to be
critical in the lessons of history presented to them.

History Has Played Various Roles in the Past:

- States use history to unite nations. It can be used as a tool to legitimize regimes and a forge of sense
of collective identity through collective memory.
- Lessons of the past can make sense of the future.
- Lessons from past mistakes can help people to not repeat them.
- Being reminded of the great past can inspire people to keep their good practices to move forward.

School of Thoughts Relating to History

Prepared by: Myra Mae B. Laguidao, RCrim.LPT.

 Positivism
 This is the school of thought that emerged between the eighteenth and nineteenth century. This
thought requires empirical and observable evidence before one can claim that a particular knowledge
is true.
 Positivism also entails an objective means of arriving at a conclusion. In the discipline of history, the
mantra “no document, no history” stems from this very same truth, where historians were required to
show written primary documents in order to write a particular historical narrative.
 Positivist historians are also expected to be objective and impartial not just in their arguments but also
on their conduct of historical research.

As a narrative, any history that has been taught and written is always intended for a certain group of
audience. When the Illustrados, like Jose Rizal, Isabelo de los Reyes, and Pedro Paterno wrote history, they
intended it for the Spaniards so that they would realize that Filipinos are people of their own intellect and
culture. When American historians depicted the Filipino people as uncivilized in their publications, they
intended that narrative for their fellow Americans to justify their colonization of the islands, the wanted the
colonization to appear not as a means of undermining the Philippines’ sovereignty, but as a civilizing mission
to fulfill what they called as the “white man’s burden.”

Post-colonialism
 This is the school of thought that emerged in the early twentieth century when formerly colonized
nations grappled with the idea of creating their identities and understanding their societies against the
shadows of their colonial past.
 Post-colonial history looks at two things in writing history: first is to tell the history of their nation that
will highlight their identity free from that colonial discourse and knowledge, and second is to criticize
the methods, effects, and ideas of colonialism.
 Post-colonial history is therefore a reaction and an alternative to the colonial history that colonial
powers created and taught to their subjects.

One of the problems confronted by history is the accusation that history is always written by victors.
For instance, the history of WW II in the Philippines always depicts the United States as the hero and the
Imperial Japanese Army as the oppressor. However, a more thorough historical investigation will reveal a
more nuanced account of the history of that period instead of a simplified narrative as a story of hero versus
villain.

LESSONS 3: HISTORY AND HISTORIANS

- If history is written with agenda, or is heavily influenced by the historian, is it possible to come up with
an absolute historical truth?
- Is history an objective discipline? If it is not, is it still worthwhile to study?
- Indeed, an exact and accurate account of the past is impossible for the very simple reason that we
cannot go back to the past. Historians can only get to access representation of the past through
historical sources and evidence.

What is the job of the Historians?

“Facts cannot speak for themselves.”
- The historian’s job is to seek and interpret facts.

Prepared by: Myra Mae B. Laguidao, RCrim.LPT.

 - It is the job of the historians to give meaning to these facts and organize them into timelines, establish
causes, and write history.
- Meanwhile, the historian is not a blank paper who mechanically interprets and analyzes present
historical fact. He/she is a person of his/her own who is influenced by his own context, environment,
ideology, education, and influences among many others.

LESSON 4: HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY

Historical Methodology
- It comprises certain techniques and rules that historians follow in order to properly utilize sources and
historical evidence in writing history.
- Certain rules apply in cases of conflicting accounts in different courses, and on how to properly treat
eyewitness accounts and oral sources as valid historical evidence.

Historical Sources
1. Primary Sources
- Are those sources produced at the same time of the event, period, or subject being studied.
- Examples:
a. Studying the Constitution of Convention in 1935, primary sources that you can use are
the minutes of the convention, newspaper clippings, Philippine commission reports of the
U.S. Commissioners, records of the convention, the draft of the Constitution, and even
photographs of events.
b. Eyewitness accounts of convention delegates and their memoirs, archival documents,
artifacts, memorabilia, letters, census, and government records, etc.
2. Secondary Sources
- Are those sources which were produced by an author who used primary sources to produce
the material. In other words, secondary sources are historical sources, which studied a
certain historical subject.
- Example: On the subject of Philippine Revolution of 1956, students can read Teodoro
Agoncillo’s Revolt of the Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan published
originally in 1956.
- However, a student should not be confused about what counts as a primary and secondary
source. As mentioned, the classification of sources between primary and secondary depends
not on the period when the source was produced or the type of the source but on the subject
of the historical research.

External Criticism
- The process of verifying the authenticity of evidence by examining its physical characteristics;
consistency with the historical characteristics of the time it was produced; and the materials used for
the evidence.
- Example: The things that will be examined when conducting external criticism of a document
includes the paper, the type of ink, the language and words used in the material, among others.

Internal Criticism
- This is the examination of truthfulness of the evidence. It looks at the content of the source and
examines the circumstance of its production.

Prepared by: Myra Mae B. Laguidao, RCrim.LPT.

 - It looks at the truthfulness and factuality of the evidence by looking at the author of the source, its
context, agenda behind its creation, the knowledge which informed it, and its intended purpose
among others.
- Example: Japanese reports and declarations during the period of the war should not be taken as a
historical fact hastily. Validating historical sources is important because the use of unverified,
unfalsified, and untruthful historical sources can lead to equally false conclusions.
- Without thorough criticisms of historical evidence, historical deceptions and lies will be highly
probable.

Examples of Deceptions in the Philippine History

- The hoax Code of Kalantiao is one of the most scandalous case of deception in the Philippines.
- This code was a set of rules contained in an epic, Maragtas, which was allegedly written by Datu
Kalantiao. The document was sold to the National Library and was regarded as an important
precolonial document until 1968, when American-historian William Henry Scott debunked the
authenticity of the code due to anachronism and lack of evidence to prove that the code existed in the
precolonial Philippine society.
- Ferdinand Marcos also claimed that he was a decorated World War II soldier who led a guerilla unit
called “Ang Maharlika”. This was widely believed by students of History and Marcos had war medals
to show. This claim, however, was disproven when historians counterchecked Marcos’ claims with the
war records of the United States.

Philippine Historiography
- This underwent several changes since the precolonial period until the present.
- Ancient Filipinos narrated their history through communal songs and epics that they passed orally
from a generation to another.
- When the Spaniards came, their chroniclers started recording their observations through written
accounts. The perspective of historical writing or inquiry also shifted.
- The Spanish colonizers narrated the history of their colony in a bipartite view. They saw the age
before the colonization as a dark period in the history of the islands, until they bought light through
western thought and Christianity.
- Early nationalists refuted this perspective and argued the tripartite view. They saw the precolonial
society as luminous age that ended with darkness when the colonizers captured their freedom. They
believed that the light would come again once the colonizers were evicted from the Philippines.

Pantayong Pananaw
- Filipino historian, Zeus Salazar, introduced the new guiding philosophy for writing and teaching
history: Pantayong Pananaw (for us-from us perspective).
- This perspective highlights the importance of facilitating an internal conversation and discourse
among Filipinos about our own history, using the language that is understood by everyone.

Activity:
I. What source? Read the following scenarios and classify the sources discovered as primary,
secondary, or tertiary sources.
1. Jose was exploring the library in his new school in Manila. He wanted to study the history of
Calamba, Laguna during the nineteenth century. In one of the books, he saw an old photograph of a
woman standing in front of an old church, clipped among the pages. At the back of the photo was a
fine inscription that says: “Kalamba, 19 de Junio 1861."
Is the photograph a primary, secondary, or a tertiary source?
Prepared by: Myra Mae B. Laguidao, RCrim.LPT.
 ______________________________________________________________________________

2. It was Lean’s first day in his first year of college in a big university. His excitement made him come to
class unusually early and he found their classroom empty. He explored the classroom and sat at the
teacher’s table. He looked at the table drawer and saw a book entitled U.G. An Underground Tale:
The Journey of Edgar Jopson and the First Quarter Storm Generation. He started reading the book
and realized that it was a biography of a student leader turned political activist during the time of
Ferdinand Marcos. The author used interviews with friends and family of Jopson, and other primary
documents related to his works and life.
Is the book a primary, secondary, or a tertiary source?
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3. Lorena was a new teacher of Araling Panlipunan in a small elementary school in Mauban, Quezon.
Her colleagues gave her the new textbook that she ought to use in class. Before the class started,
Lorena studied the textbook carefully. She noted that the authors used works by other known
historians in writing the textbook. She saw that the bibliography included Teodoro Agoncillo’s The
Revolt of the Masses and The Fateful Years: Japan's Adventure in the Philippines, 1941-45. She also
saw that the authors used Ma. Luisa Camagay’s Working Women of Manila During the 19th Century
and many others.
Is the textbook a primary, secondary, or a tertiary source?
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II. My Primary Source. Write an autobiography or a personal narrative of your life. And using the
examples of a primary source in this lesson, choose something that you will use in representing your
life history. Do this on a short bond paper, handwritten or printed.

Prepared by: Myra Mae B. Laguidao, RCrim.LPT.