INTRODUCTION TO

PHILIPPINE HISTORY

Calangian, Janelle
Bertulfo, Ailysa
Sablayan, Jasmine
Villanobos, Guillane Alexis
Let’s go back in time…
Meaning and Relevance of the
History
 Definition of History
✣ Derived from the Greek word "Historia" which
means "inquiry or knowledge acquired by
investigation
✣ Is the study of past events
✣ Victor Hugo - "what is history? An echo of the
past in the future; a reflex from the future on
the past"
✣ Merriam Webster (2018)- "A chronological
record of significant events (such as those
affecting a nation or institution) often
including an explanation of their causes“
✣ Historiography refers to how, what, and why
history is written
 Prehistory and History
✣ Prehistory refers to the period where
information of the past were recorded in
materials other than written document which
may not be understood by a historian.
 -History covers information derived from
largely written records of past experiences.
✣ Prehistory of the Philippines cover the events
until 21 April 900 the date indicated on the
LCI
✣ Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI) the
earliest or the first legal written document
recorded in the Philippines
 Why study History?
✣ According to Peter N. Stearns in 1998 with the
American Historical Association here are the
reasons why we study the history
1. History Helps us understand people and societies
2. History Helps us understand change and how the
society we live in came to be
3. History contributes to moral understanding
4. History provides identity
5. Studying history is essential for good citizenship
✣ According to Stern this are the following
skills that the students will learn in
studying history
1. The ability to assess evidence
2. The ability to assess conflicting
interpretations
3. Experience in assessing past examples of
change
 HISTORICAL SOURCES
---- The Historian’s most important research
tools.
---- An object or testimony from the past that
contains important historical information.
CATEGORIES OF HISTORICAL
SOURCES
 Primary Sources
---- Those are original records or
contemporary accounts of certain
event by a people who have actually
participated, experienced or
witnessed it.
FERDINAND MARCOS’ SHORT CLIP
Another Examples:
✣ Testimonies
✣ Government Records
✣ Interviews
✣ Literature Pieces
✣ Photographs
 SECONDARY SOURCES
✣ It explains a certain event of the
past through evaluation and
interpretation of the records
created during a historical period.
✣ Historical resources which studied
a certain historical subject.
Philippine History and Government
 Another Examples:
✣ Journal Articles
✣ Political Commentary
✣ Textbooks
✣ Criticism of Art Works
Internal and External critism
 Historical method
refers to the process of probing
primary sources that will be
used in writing history.
 Gilbert J. Garraghan and Jean Delanglez
(1946)
source criticism asks the following questions:
✣ When was the source, written or
unwritten, produced?
✣ Where was it produced?
✣ By whom was it produced?
✣ From what pre-existing material was it
produced?
✣ In what original form was it produced?
✣ What is the evidential value of its
contents?
 ✣ External Criticism
The first five questions are
considered to be part of external
criticism. Historians determine the
authenticity of sources by
examining the date, locale, creator,
analysis and integrity of the
historical sources.
 ✣ Internal Criticism
The last question is treated as
internal criticism as it helps the
historians determine the credibility
of the source. It studies the content
of the source to know its
truthfulness
 ✣ Neuman (2013)
has explained the difference
between external and internal
criticism.
✣ One of the disputed documents
which may illustrate the
application of external and internal
criticism is the Code of
Kalantiaw.
✣ The Code was introduced as written by Datu
Kalantiaw of Negros in 1433. However, in a
study presented by William Henry Scott, it
was found out to be a hoax – a forgery written
by Jose E. Marco in 1913.

✣ Today, history books no longer include the

said Code. But Atty. Cecilio Duka, in 2018,
has interestingly provided the 18 articles of
the Code in his book, Struggle for Freedom, to
be critically examined by the students and
conclude its truthfulness. For similar reasons
and to feed our curiosity here are the said
laws:
✣ Article I - Ye shall not kill, neither shall ye steal nor
shall ye hurt the aged, lest ye incur the danger of
death. All those who this order shall infringe shall be
tied to a stone and drowned in a river or in boiling
water.

✣ Article II - Ye shall punctually meet your debt with

your headman. He who fulfills not, for the first time
shall be lashed a hundredfold, and If the obligation is
great, his hand shall be dipped threefold in boiling
water. On conviction, he shall be flogged to death.
✣ Article III - Obey ye: no one shall have wives that are too
young, nor shall they be more than what he can take care of,
nor spend much luxury. He who fulfils not, obeys not, shall
be condemned to swim three hours and, for the second time,
shall be scourged with spines to death.

✣ Article IV - Observe and obey ye: Let not the peace of the
graves be disturbed; due respect must be accorded them on
passing by caves and trees where they are. He who observes
not shall die by bites of ants or shall be flogged with spines
till death.
 ✣ Article V - Obey ye: Exchange in food must be
carried out faithfully. He who complies not shall be
lashed for an hour. He who repeats the act shall, for a
day be exposed to the ants.

✣ Article VI - Ye shall revere respectable places, trees of

known value, and other sites. He shall pay a month's
work, in gold or money, whoever fails to do this; and
if twice committed, he shall be declared a slave
 ✣ Article VII - They shall die who kill trees of
venerable aspect; who at night shoot with arrows the
aged men and the women; he who enters the house of
the headman without permission; he who kills a fish or
shark or striped crocodile.

✣ Article VIII - They shall be slaves for a given time

who steal away the women of the headmen; he who
possesses dogs that bite the headmen; he who burns
another man's sown field.
 ✣ Article IX - They shall be slaves for a given time,
who sing in their night errands, kill manual birds, tear
documents belonging to the headmen; who are evil-
minded liars; who play with the dead.

✣ Article X - It shall be the obligation of every mother

to show her daughter secretly the things that are
lascivious, and prepare them for womanhood; men
shall not be cruel to their wives, nor should they
punish them when they catch them in the act of
adultery. He who disobeys shall be torn to pieces and
thrown to the Caymans.
✣ Article XI - They shall be burned, who by force or
cunning have mocked at and eluded punishment, or
who have killed two young boys, or shall try to steal
the women of the old men (agurangs).

✣ Article XII - They shall be drowned, all slaves who

assault their superiors or their lords and masters; all
those who abuse their luxury; those who kill their
anitos by breaking them or throwing them away.
 ✣ Article XIII - They shall be exposed to the ants for
half a day, who kill a black cat during the new moon or
steal things belonging to the headmen.

✣ Article XIV - They shall be slaves for life, who having

beautiful daughters shall deny them to the sons of the
headman, or shall hide them in bad faith.

✣ Article XV - Concerning their beliefs and

superstitions: they shall be scourged, who eat bad meat
of respected insects or herbs that are supposed to be
good; who hurt or kill the young manual bird and the
white monkey.
✣ Article XVI - Their fingers shall be cut off, who break
wooden or clay idols in their olangangs and places of
oblation; he who breaks Tagalan's daggers for hog
killing, or breaks drinking vases.

✣ Article XVII - They shall be killed, who profane

places where sacred objects of their diwatas or
headmen are buried. He who gives way to the call of
nature at such places shall be burned.
✣ Article XVIII - Those who do not
cause these rules to be observed, if
they are headmen, shall be stoned
and crushed to death, and if they
are old men, shall be placed in
rivers to be eaten by sharks and
crocodiles.
 ✣ Garraghan and Delanglez,
historians also have presented the following
principles of source criticism for determining
reliability (Olden-Jørgensen, 1998 and Thurén,
1997):
- Human sources may be relics such as a
fingerprint; or narratives such as a statement or a
letter. Relics are more credible sources than
narratives.
- Any given source may be forged or corrupted.
Strong indications of the originality of the source
increase its reliability.
 - The closer a source is to the event which it
purports to describe, the more one can trust it to
give an accurate historical description of what
actually happened.
- A primary source is more reliable than a
secondary source, which is more reliable than a
tertiary source, and so on.
- If a number of independent sources contain the
same message, the credibility of the message is
strongly increased.
 - The tendency of a source is its
motivation for providing some kind
of bias. Tendencies should be
minimized or supplemented with
opposite motivations.
- If it can be demonstrated that the
witness or source has no direct
interest in creating bias then the
credibility of the message is
increased.
 ✣ Bernheim (1889) and Langlois &
Seignobos (1898)
have presented the following procedures to
examine contradictory sources:

1. If the sources all agree about an event,

historians can consider the event proved;
2. However, majority does not rule; even if most
sources relate events in one way, that version
will not prevail unless it passes the test of
critical textual analysis;
 3. The source whose account can be confirmed
by reference to outside authorities in some of its
parts can be trusted in its entirety if it is
impossible similarly to confirm the entire text;
4. When two sources disagree on a particular
point, the historian will prefer the source with
most "authority"—that is the source created by
the expert or by the eyewitness;
 5. Eyewitnesses are, in general, to be preferred
especially in circumstances where the ordinary
observer could have accurately reported what
transpired and, more specifically, when they deal
with facts known by most contemporaries;
 6. If two independently created
sources agree on a matter, the
reliability of each is measurably
enhanced;
7. When two sources disagree and
there is no other means of evaluation,
then historians take the source which
seems to accord best with common
sense.
 ✣ Primary sources
are mostly accounts of eyewitnesses. As
proposed above, they are generally preferred.
RJ Shafer had suggested that we ask the
following questions:

- Is the real meaning of the statement different

from its literal meaning? Are words used in
senses not employed today? Is the statement
meant to be ironic (i.e., mean other than it says)?
 - How well could the author observe the thing he
reports? Were his senses equal to the observation?
Was his physical location suitable to sight,
hearing, touch? Did he have the proper social
ability to observe: did he understand the language,
have other expertise required (e.g., law, military);
was he not being intimidated by his wife or the
secret police?
- How did the author report and what was his
ability to do so?
 - Do his statements seem inherently
improbable: e.g., contrary to human nature, or
in conflict with what we know?
- Remember that some types of information are
easier to observe and report on than others.
- Are there inner contradictions in the
document?
 ✣ In some cases when there is no primary source
available to confirm the happening of one event or
history, indirect eyewitnesses or secondary sources
may be inquired from. In these cases, Gottschalk has
suggested to ask the following:

1. From whose primary testimony does the secondary

witness base his statements?
2.Did the secondary witness accurately report the primary
testimony as a whole?
3. If not, in what details did he accurately report the
primary testimony?
 ✣ Having reasonable answers from these
questions will give the historian a source,
which may be considered original and
reliable.

✣ Historians may also look into oral traditions

as a source of history. These traditions,
however, may only be accepted if they satisfy
the following conditions:
 ✣ 1. Broad conditions:
a. The tradition should be supported by an
unbroken series of witnesses, reaching from the
immediate and first reporter of the fact to the
living mediate witness from whom we take it
from, or to the one who was the first to commit it
to writing.
b. There should be several parallel and
independent series of witnesses testifying to the
fact in question.
 ✣ 2. Particular conditions:
a. The tradition must report a public event of
importance, such as would necessarily be known
directly to a great number of persons.
b. The tradition must have been generally
believed, at least for definite period of time.
c. During that definite period it must have gone
without protest, even from persons interested in
denying it.
 d. The tradition must be one of relatively limited
duration (Elsewhere, Garraghan suggests a
maximum limit of 150 years, at least in cultures
that excel in oral remembrance)
e. The critical spirit must have been sufficiently
developed while the tradition lasted, and the
necessary means of critical investigation must have
been at hand.
f. Critical-minded persons who would surely have
challenged the tradition – had they considered it
false – must have made no such challenge.
Kinds and Repositories
Of Primary Sources
 ✣Primary Sources
Primary Sources may be published or
unpublished documents and may also
be unwritten.
 ✣Published Documents
Those that are intended for public
distribution or use such as newspapers,
magazines, books, reports etc.
 Unpublished Documents
These documents are confidential and are
restricted from public use such as
personal letters, diaries, journals, etc.
 ✣Unwritten sources
These may includes oral traditions, oral
histories, artworks and artifacts.
Where do primary sources of
Philippine history are placed?
National Archives of the Philippines
(NAP)
 National Archives of the Philippines
(NAP)
- National Archives of the Philippines (NAP) was
established to store, preserve, conserve, and make
available to the public the records that have been selected
for permanent reservation.
-NAP is holding about 60,000,000 archival documents
with Spanish Collection comprising an estimated
13,000,000 manuscripts with 400 titles on various aspects
of Philippine history under Spanish rule, American and
Japanese occupation records, and recent records.
National Library of the Philippines
(NLP)
 National Library of the
Philippines (NLP)
- The National Library of the Philippines
(NLP) is the repository of the printed and
recorded cultural heritage of the country.
- It was established by a royal decree on
12 August 1887 and named as the Museo-
Biblioteca de Filipinas.

-
National Museum of the
Philippines (NM)
 Quiz
Multiple Choices
1. It is an object or testimony from the past that
contains important historical information.
a. Historical Resources
b. Historical Method
c. Primary Sources

2. It is derived from the Greek word "Historia" which

means "inquiry or knowledge acquired by investigation.
a. Historiography
b. Biology
c. History
3. It is the earliest or the first legal written document
recorded in the Philippines.
a. Laguna Copperplate Inscription (LCI)
b. Code of Kalantiaw
c. Doctrina Christiana

4. These are original records or contemporary

accounts of certain event by a people who have
actually participated, experienced or witnessed it.
a. Primary Sources
b. Secondary Sources
c. Internal Criticism
5. It explains a certain event of the past through
evaluation and interpretation of the records created
during a historical period.
a. Primary Sources
b. Secondary Sources
c. Internal Criticism

6. These documents are confidential and are restricted

from public use such as personal letters, diaries,
journals, etc.
a. Unpublished Documents
b.Unwritten Sources
c. Published Documents
7. Those that are intended for public distribution or
use such as newspapers, magazines, books, reports etc.
a. Unpublished Documents
b. Unwritten Sources
c. Published Documents

8. These may includes oral traditions, oral histories,

artworks and artifacts.
a. Unpublished Documents
b. Unwritten Sources
c. Published Documents
9. It studies the content of the source to know its
truthfulness.
a. Internal Criticism
b. External Criticism
c. Historical Method

10. It refers to the process of probing primary sources

that will be used in writing history.
a. Internal Criticism
b. External Criticism
c. Historical Method