NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC

Laoag City, Ilocos Norte

 HISTORICAL CRITICISM

Many documents have primary and secondary segments. For instance,

examining a newspaper as a historical source entails a discerning mind to identify its
primary and secondary components. A news item written by a witness of an event is
considered as a primary source, while a feature article is usually considered as a
secondary material. Similarly, a book published a long time ago does not necessarily
render it as a primary source. It requires reading of the document to know its origin.

a. External criticism – answers concerns and questions pertinent to the authenticity of a

historical source by identifying who composed the historical material, locating when and
where the historical material was produced, and establishing the material’s evidential
value

b. Internal criticism – deals with the credibility and reliability of the content of a given
historical source. It focuses on understanding the substances and message that the
historical material wants to convey by examining how the author framed the intent and
meaning of a composed material.

 LOCATING PRIMARY SOURCES

a. National Library
b. National Archives
c. Academic Institutions
d. Privately owned museums and archives
e. Religious congregations
f. Abroad

 COLONIAL HISTORIOGRAPHY

Philippine historiography has changed significantly since the 20 th century. For a

long time, Spanish colonizers presented our history in two parts: a period of darkness or
backwardness before they arrived and a consequent period of advancement or
enlightenment when they came.

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 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte

Spanish chroniclers wrote a lot about the Philippines but their historical accounts
emphasized the primacy of colonization to liberate Filipinos from their backward
“barbaric” lifeways. In the same manner, American colonial writers also shared the
same worldview of the predecessors by rationalizing their colonization of Filipinos as a
way to teach the natives the “civilized lifestyle” which they said the Spaniards forgot to
impart including personal hygiene and public administration. Colonial narratives have
portrayed Filipinos as a people bereft of an advanced culture and a respectable history.
This perception challenged Filipino intellectuals beginning in the 1800s to rectify such
cultural bias or prejudice. In 1890, Jose Rizal came out with an annotation of Antonio de
Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Events in the Philippine Islands), a book originally
published in 1609. He used de Morga’s book, a rare Spanish publication that positively
viewed precolonial Filipino culture, as a retort to the arrogant Spaniards. However,
cultural bias against Filipino culture continued even after Rizal’s death and the end of
Spanish colonialism.

Learning from the fate of its colonial predecessor, the United States did not only
use brute force but also effected ingenious ways of pacification such as the use of
education as a tool to control their subjects and increase political and economic power
of the elite few. These colonial instruments were so ingrained among Filipinos that they
perceived their colonial past in two ways: initially maltreated by “wicked Spain” but later
rescued by “benevolent America.” This kind of historical consciousness has effectively
erased from the memories of Filipino generations the bloody Filipino-American War as
exemplified by the Balangiga Massacre in Eastern Samar and the Battle of Bud Bagsak in
Sulu. Consequently, such perception breathes new life to the two part view of history: a
period of darkness before the advent of the United States and an era of enlightenment
during the American colonial administration. This view has resonated with Filipino
scholars even after the Americans granted our independence in 1946.

 PHILIPPINE HISTORIOGRAPHY AFTER WORLD WAR II

The stark reality of Filipino historians thinking like their colonial counterparts
during the postcolonial period troubled a small group of professors and cultural workers
who were mostly alumni of the University of the Philippines. This spurred the
emergence of Filipino scholars who challenged the narrow view of colonial narratives
and developed historical writing from the viewpoint of a nationalist agenda.

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 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte

In the 1950s, Teodoro Agoncillo pioneered

nationalist historiography in the country by
highlighting the role of the Filipino reformists
and revolutionaries from 1872, the year that
saw the execution of the GomBurZa priests, to
the end of the Philippine Revolution as a focal
point of the country’s nation-building
narrative. Two of his most celebrated books
focus on the impact of the Philippine
Revolution: The Revolt of the Masses: The
Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (1956)
and Malolos: The Crisis of the Republic
(1960). His writings veered away from
emphasizing colonial period and regarded
events before 1872 as part of the country’s
“lost history.”
Teodoro Agoncillo

The discourse of “lost history” was not

accepted by another known scholar, Renato
Constantino, whose published work entitled,
“The Miseducation of the Filipino” became a
staple reading for academics and activists
beginning in the late 1960s. Constantino
advanced the idea of a “people’s history” – a
study of the past that sought to analyze society
by searching out people’s voices from colonial
historical materials that typically rendered
Filipinos as decadent, inept and vile.
Following this mode of historical inquiry, he
authored The Philippines: A Past Revisited
(1975), a college textbook that offered a more
critical reading of Philippine history compared
to Agoncillo’s History of the Filipino People
(1973). Undoubtedly, these two nationalist
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scholars inspired or challenged other historians
to reevaluate the country’s national history.
 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte

Renato Constantino

Other Filipino historians set new directions in

redefining Philippine historiography in the last
30 years of the 20th century. The first of these
scholars is Zeus Salazar who conceptualized
“Pantayong Pananaw” as an approach to
understanding the past from our own cultural
frame and language. He emphasized the value
of our Austronesian roots in defining Filipino
culture and encouraged other scholars to
conduct outstanding historical researches in
Filipino such as the work of Jaime
Veneracion’s Kasaysayan ng Bulacan (1986).

Zeus Salazar

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 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte

Equally important is the contribution of

Reynaldo Ileto who wrote about his “history
from below”treatise in his ground-breaking
work, Pasyon and Revolution: Popular
Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910
(1979). In this work, Ileto endeavored to
recognize the way of thinking of ordinary folks
by using alternative historical sources such as
folk songs and prayers. His other works
spurred new interpretations such as common
topics such as Jose Rizal, Philippine-American
War, and American colonization.

Reynaldo Ileto

There is also Samuel Tan, another prolific historian who is best remembered for
mainstreaming the role and relevance of Filipino Muslims in the country’s national
history. His definitive work, The Filipino Muslim Armed Struggle, 1900-1972
(1978), sought to examine the struggle of Filipino Muslims in the context of 20 th
century nation-building dynamics during the American colonial regime and
subsequent postcolonial Filipino administrations. In his book, A History of the
Philippines (1987), Tan attempted to write a national history reflective of the
historical experiences not only of lowland Christianized Filipinos but also of the
other cultural communities in the archipelago.

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 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte

 CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE HISTORIOGRAPHY

a. Political Narratives

Most of our national histories today favour narratives that deal with the political
aspects of nation-building such as the legacies of political leaders and establishment of
different governments.

b. Colonial Histories in Historical Narratives

Another weakness of most national histories is the importance given to colonial

histories. This continues to breed Filipinos who are more familiar with stories about our
colonial history rather than stories of our precolonial past.

c. Elite-centric Perspectives in Historical Narratives

Some historical narratives focus on the contribution of the elite in nation-

building such as what the ilustrados (educated Filipinos) fought for in the 19th century or
how local politicians negotiated with their American counterparts to obtain an
independence law during the first half of the 20th century.

d. Patriarchal Orientation in Historical Narratives

Most of the country’s historical narratives highlight the heroism of men in

different ways: leading revolts and liberation wars against colonizers, championing the
cause of independence, and spearheading political and economic development.
Women, on the otherhand, are viewed by several historians as merely support to men.
Let us take for example the women leaders such as Gabriela Silang, Tandand Sora, and
Corazon Aquino. Silang assumed the leadership of the Ilocos revolt after her husband
was murdered. Tandang Sora’s decision to offer her barn and farm to revolutionaries
was linked to her son’s involvement in the Katipunan. Aquino rose to prominence as a
martyr’s widow who led a movement to depose a dictatorship.

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 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY,INC
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte

e. Emphasis on Lowland Christianized Filipinos

National histories tend to show partially toward lowland Christianized Filipinos at

the expense of other national cultural communities such as Muslim Filipinos and other
indigenous peoples. Celebrated figures of our past are all lowlander Christians and
predominantly Tagalogs including Jose Rizal, the leading propagandist; Andres Bonifacio,
the Katipunan founder; and Emilio Aguinaldo, the revolutionary leader who declared
independence. Non-Christians and highlanders remain unrecognized in historical
narratives. Muslim Filipinos, in particular, have been subjected to negative
characterization by lowland Christians in published works such as history books.

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