MODULE 6: Annotation of Antonio Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

**MODULE 6** **Annotation of Antonio Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas The Propaganda and the Tripartite View of Phil History** **Learning Outcomes** At the end of this module, you should be able to: 1\. Trace. Analyze Rizal's ideas on how to rewrite Philippine history 2\. Compare and cont...

**MODULE 6** **Annotation of Antonio Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas The Propaganda and the Tripartite View of Phil History** **Learning Outcomes** At the end of this module, you should be able to: 1\. Trace. Analyze Rizal's ideas on how to rewrite Philippine history 2\. Compare and contrast Rizal and Morga's different views about Filipinos and Philippine culture **Introduction** *"To foretell the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open the books that tell of her past."* - Words has been around about the lazy Indio. It was due to this trait that the country never hit the road to progress. In fact, this was an oft repeated theme of Spanish slurs against the Indio to which Rizal replied in his essay on the Indolence of the Filipinos written in La Solidaridad in five installments. In his essay, he turned the table against the colonizers themselves for having caused this trait as evidenced by the Filipinos' thriving manifold industries before the coming of the Spanish colonialism. Issues like this influenced Rizal to take the task of rectifying errors, in the way history of the Philippines has been presented. We can only imagine how difficult it must have been to research about our past history in those days. Most of the available sources were written by friars of the religious orders, zealous missionaries determined to obliterate native beliefs which they considered idolatrous and cultural practices which to them were savage. There has to be a way to prove such peroration of the defenders of the empire wrong. If he intends to refute such claim of indolence and ingratitude, uncivilized and barbaric Indios, he must think of a solid scholarship in Philippine history already published, not the ones written by the friars whose works were mostly compilations ad tales of miracles that characterized their evangelization of the country rather than objective notes observed outside the prism of their theological lenses. He was informed earlier by his friend Blumentritt of the existence of a book of De Morga's *Sucesos* that can be a rich source of knowledge buried in the famous British Museum in London. Dr. Antonio Morga's book, *Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas*, was published in Mexico (Nueva España) in 1609. 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 present work is the sixth volume of the Series of Writings of Jose Rizal which the Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission has no published in commemoration of his birth. **Lesson 1: Antonio Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas** Considered as one of the important literary work which pertains about the colonization of Spain in the Philippines, published by Antonio De Morga in Mexico in the year of 1609. The work discussed the political, social and economic situation between that of the colonizer and the colonized country. The book is primarily based on the experience and observation of Antonio De Morga, which was annotated by Dr. Jose Rizal, with a prologue by his friend, Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt. Sucesos simply mean the work of an honest observer, a versatile bureaucrat, who is learned about the workings of the administration from the inside. Meanwhile, Las Islas Filipinas refers to "The Philippine Island" in English and was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. The Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas is an eight (8) chapter book. First seven chapters of the book mainly focused on the political events that transpired in the colony covering the terms of the first eleven Governor-Generals. However, chapter eight (8) is considered the most interesting part of the book because it gives a description of the pre-Hispanic Filipinos, or rather the Indios, at the Spanish contact. This particular chapter of the book was indispensable for Rizal, he maximized the use of this chapter to discuss the ethnographic value of the pre-hispanic Filipinos, so important that he was able to reconstruct the pre-Hispanic Philippines, which Rizal wanted to present to his countrymen. **Dr. Antonio de Morga** Dr. Antonio de Morga is a Spanish lawyer and government official during the 17th Century. He is also a Historical Anthropologist, he authored the book Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas and Wrote the first lay formal history of the Philippines conquest by Spain. He obtained his a doctorate in Canon and Civil Law. **Purpose of the Sucesos** According to Dr. Morga (1609) the purpose for writing Sucesos is to highlight \"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." The Sucesos is the work of an noble observer and historian, a versatile bureaucrat, who knew the EVENTS, HAPPENINGS, OCCURRENCE and the workings of the administration from the inside. Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas is treated as the first book to tackle the Philippine history. The book explored and exposed the political, social and economic aspects of a colonizer and the colonized country. The book describes the inside and outside events of the country from 1493 to 1603, including that of the history of the Philippines. Accordingly, in the pre-colonial Philippines, it has already an existing and working judicial and legislative system. Spanish missionaries put an end to the baybayin written system of the Philippines to translate their goals. Our ancestors long before the colonization has possessed a complex society and culture filled with arts and literature. **What lead Jose Rizal to Morga's work** Dr. 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. Rizal is guided by the theory that the country was economically self-sufficient and prosperous. He believed in the idea that Indios 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. Rizal devoted at least four months in research and writing, and almost a year to get his manuscript published in Paris in January 1890 and decided to publish the Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas himself. By the end of September 1889 he had brought the manuscript to Paris, where printing costs were lower than in London, and sent a letter to Blumentritt requesting him to write an introduction to the book ***Lesson II: RIZAL'S PURPOSE OF ANNOTATING MORGA'S WORK.*** 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. Citing De Morga, Rizal asserted that the culture of the Filipinos was much more refined in many ways than claimed by the Spaniards. **Importance of Rizal's Annotation of Morga** The annotation of Rizal has aimed well. It is meant to raise the people's consciousness of their past that lay buried from their memory. It is giving them the opportunity for the first time to see the grandeur and glory of their race snatched away at the point of colonial contact. Now that it is laid bare before them the existence of a thriving Filipino civilization, it is with high hope that upon reading his work, his own people and countrymen would feel a certain pride about themselves, their land, and country. It is a piece of historical work written for the Filipinos about their history. No one has ever written the history of the Philippines from the perspective of the Filipinos until Rizal undertook to write it. All that was written before were done by Spaniards either detailing teir religious accomplishments in the Philippines or simply reinforcing what they believed to be the superiority of their race at the expense of the backward Indios. Among the notable importance of the annotation is first, awaken in the Filipinos, the consciousness of our past. Second, is to encourage the next generation, to devote themselves to studying the future. Primarily, it lay bare the past, in order to better judge the present and to survey the road trodden during three centuries. Moreover, the annotation is to prove that Filipinos had a culture of their own prior to colonization, that the Filipinos were not inferior to the white man. To embrace the generic term "Indio", or in today's case, Filipino, with all its negative connotations, and turn it into one of dignity and nobility. For modern-day Filipinos, Rizal's Morga should be more relevant in impelling them to learn the history of their country. No true citizen can ever have true concern for his country without going back to its history to know its struggles, failures and triumps in order to contribute something to its welfare. The country and its history are inseparably connected. In a world that is more interconnected nowadays where nationalism is less emphasized and where globalization through technology and mass media is much more fashionable to the effect that nation's identity is at stake of dissipating, learning the country's history is a most effective tool to preserve it. After all, Ambeth Ocampo declares " learning history should not only be informative, it is meant to be transformative." ***Activities:*** 1. 2. **Assessment** True or False ***Direction:*** 1. a. b. c. d. e. **Reflection** Video clip Reflection ***Direction:*** A. **Assignment** 1. **References** Morga, Antonio de, 1559-1636.Sucesos de las islas Filipinas.Paris, Garnier hermanos, 1890 Augusto V. De Vlana, Helena Ma, F. Cabrera, et al., Jose Rizal: Social Reformer and Patriot. A Study of His Life and Times Revised edition, Rex Bookstore 2018. Dr. Ambet Ocampo Philippine Studies vol. 46, no. 2 (1998): https://filipiknow.net/life-in-pre-colonial-phil ippines/ 2. https://www.coursehero.com/file/p3ol5 23/o-RIZALS-ANNOTATION-OF-MOR GAS-SUCESOS-DE-LAS-ISLAS-FILI PINAS-Three-purposes-for/ Alfonso C. Balbin Jr, et al. Engaging Jose Rizal; 2018 3\. [[https://www.slideshare.net/abbieelaine kuhonta/sucesos-39902918 4]](https://www.slideshare.net/abbieelaine%20kuhonta/sucesos-39902918%204). https://prezi.com/qawe8nczviaq/rizalsannotation-of-sucesos-de-las-islas-filip inas/ [https://www.philippinestudies.net/files/journals/1/articles/2570/public/2570-2568-1-PB.pdf] [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/48438/48438-h/48438-h.htm] [http://www.joserizal.ph/ed01.html]