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    History

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    Ronel
    This document discusses common misconceptions in Philippine history. It addresses five main misconceptions: 1) That Jose Rizal's character Ibarra in Noli Me Tangere is the same as Rizal, 2) That Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan were from the lower class, 3) That all politicians who surrendered to the Americans were traitors, 4) That the Philippines was rich when the exchange rate was 2 pesos to 1 dollar, and 5) That Ferdinand Marcos's military medals were legitimate. The document seeks to correct these misconceptions by providing historical context and analysis from experts in Philippine history.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    History

    Uploaded by

    Ronel
    57 views5 pages
    This document discusses common misconceptions in Philippine history. It addresses five main misconceptions: 1) That Jose Rizal's character Ibarra in Noli Me Tangere is the same as Rizal, 2) That Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan were from the lower class, 3) That all politicians who surrendered to the Americans were traitors, 4) That the Philippines was rich when the exchange rate was 2 pesos to 1 dollar, and 5) That Ferdinand Marcos's military medals were legitimate. The document seeks to correct these misconceptions by providing historical context and analysis from experts in Philippine history.

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    This document discusses common misconceptions in Philippine history. It addresses five main misconceptions: 1) That Jose Rizal's character Ibarra in Noli Me Tangere is the same as Rizal, 2) That Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan were from the lower class, 3) That all politicians who surrendered to the Americans were traitors, 4) That the Philippines was rich when the exchange rate was 2 pesos to 1 dollar, and 5) That Ferdinand Marcos's military medals were legitimate. The document seeks to correct these misconceptions by providing historical context and analysis from experts in Philippine history.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    57 views5 pages

    History

    Uploaded by

    Ronel
    This document discusses common misconceptions in Philippine history. It addresses five main misconceptions: 1) That Jose Rizal's character Ibarra in Noli Me Tangere is the same as Rizal, 2) That Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan were from the lower class, 3) That all politicians who surrendered to the Americans were traitors, 4) That the Philippines was rich when the exchange rate was 2 pesos to 1 dollar, and 5) That Ferdinand Marcos's military medals were legitimate. The document seeks to correct these misconceptions by providing historical context and analysis from experts in Philippine history.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 5

    History: Library of the Past, Present and Future

    We may wonder what is history all about. History according


    to Merriam Webster Dictionary is a branch of knowledge that
    records and explains past events and according to Cambridge
    Dictionary is the study of or a record of past events considered
    together, especially events of a particular place, country, or
    nation.

    Is history useful? It doesn’t help build schools, fight


    fires, perform operations, help sell merchandise, or launch a
    space shuttle. But why do we need to study history? Simply
    because history helps us to understand people about their past.
    We cannot understand our community if we do not know how it came
    to be. We cannot understand the most interesting part and stories
    in human events without history.

    How can we be sure that the history we have today is


    correct? There is a great historian named Leloy Claudio, a
    historian and a professor of history at De La Salle University,
    who critiques and presents us that there are five misconceptions
    about our Philippine history from the books that we read in order
    to correct those misconceptions.

    The first misconception is Rizal is Ibarra. This is very


    misconception in our high school days even in college. Certainly,
    even our professors during those days were mistakenly taught us
    that Ibarra and Rizal was the same. Before we start who is
    Ibarra? Crisostomo Ibarra, full name Juan Crisostomo Ibarra y
    Magsalin, was a young student in San Diego. Following his
    father's death, he returned to his hometown and sought to
    establish a proper school there, only to face numerous obstacles
    from the local figures. Implicated in a revolt, he later fled the
    town and forged a new identity as the jeweler Simoun.
    Even though Ibarra is a reformer and he rejected the
    revolution and Rizal also is anti-revolution of the Katipuneros
    this does not mean that they are really the same. Rizal did not
    entirely reject the revolution of the Katipuneros. For him
    revolution was very necessary, but, the problem at that time was
    the Katipuneros were not ready to revolt and they cannot govern
    themselves. According to Floro Quibuyen in his book titled “A
    Nation Aborted” it states there that Rizal actually endorsed the
    revolution of the Katipunan. A revolution would be necessary when
    all other means were exhausted-everything were prepared.

    In some of his letters, Rizal said,” I am neither rich nor


    mestizo nor do the qualities of Ibarra coincide with mine”. In
    another letter he called Ibarra an egoist and Elias characters
    should be emulated than of Ibarra. According to Ambeth Ocampo,
    the greatest Rizal expert, we must read Rizal himself. If we will
    read the entire book of Noli Me Tangere we can found there that
    Rizal often makes a fool of Ibarra and Elias is the one with
    virtuous character whom Rizal praised too much and to be
    emulated.

    The second misconception is the Katipunan and its leader


    Andres Bonifacio were from the lower class of the society. When
    we see Andres Bonifacio wearing his camisa de chino with red
    pants we conclude that he is poor and proletariat but we mistook
    about that. There were many pictures of Bonifacio that he wore an
    Americana suit. Yes, it is true that Andres Bonifacio is came
    from Tondo but the Tondo today is not the Tondo of his time. The
    Tondo of 1890’s, when you are living there you are in the middle
    class. Then, many of the Katipuneros were secretaries and office
    workers in urban areas and some of them belong to the municipal
    elites.
    We might be wrong for that because most of them were
    Ilustrados and members of the middle class. In the study of
    Michael Cullinane we can found out beautifully and very
    systematically the life of the Katipuneros. It states there that
    they were belong to the middle class and elite members of the
    society.

    The third misconception is the Politicians who surrendered


    to the Americans were all traitors. Where it does come from? The
    movie Heneral Luna shows that misconception. If we analyze the
    movie itself, we can found out that Luna wanted to fight until
    death and those who surrendered to America, he called them
    traitor one of them was Buencamino. The theme of the movie is all
    about patriotism-the struggle between country and the self. If
    you did not surrender you love the country but if you did, you
    are a traitor.

    To surrender does not show treachery it is a prevention for


    losing many lives of the Filipinos. To fight for liberty until
    death does not show badly because it shows patriotism. In the
    book, Brains of the Nation by Resil B. Mojares it stated there
    that Mojares did not say those who surrendered are bad and those
    who fought until death are bad also. The problem here is in
    reading history we must ponder on people’s motivation and their
    complexity in doing things. We cannot judge them easily because
    there were many means how to show patriotism. We are not the same
    either. To surrender is not foolishness and to fight as well but
    as humans as we are we have to be complex and to understand the
    means of their motivations.

    Luna might be wrong for saying all those who surrendered


    were traitors because not all of the Katipuneros were traitors.
    Rizal was not a traitor even he surrendered to the Spaniards. He
    accepted this thing to be happened because if he did not do this
    the life of his family will put into risky. That was the same
    idea of Buencamino itself, to prevent of losing many lives
    surrendering is the best key.

    The fourth misconception is that the Philippines was rich


    when the peso-dollar exchange rate was 2:1. This is very
    terrible. During the year 1950’s and 1960’s people relied to
    import goods from abroad rather than in exporting goods. People
    were loss in business transaction if they will do that. For
    example, they export goods in abroad. They will receive one
    dollar that is equivalent to two pesos only so that people relied
    on importing goods from abroad than to exporting one because they
    noticed that if they will do that they were going out their
    business. So, people taught that it is very easy to import goods
    than to export one.

    In this situation people were reliant on importing goods


    rather than exporting one so that our export industry does not
    develop. According to Salvador Araneta, a great economist, who
    saw that the 2:1 system was leading the Philippine economy to
    perdition.

    The fifth and last misconception is about Marcos who was


    known as a war hero because his medals were considered legit. But
    as early as the 1980s, there was a historian named Alfred McCoy
    who revealed that the medals of Former President Marcos are fake
    after he discovered documents from the U.S military exposing such
    fraud.

    Marcos, the “Most Decorated War Hero”, was said to have


    received a total of 32 medals. But in another study of NHCP,
    historians say that the US officials “knew that Mr. Marcos had
    never received the 2 medals the DSC (Distinguished Service Cross)
    and the Silver Star. The NHCP likewise reiterated the result of a
    US military investigation, where it did not recognize Marcos’
    supposed guerrilla unit, Ang Mga Maharlika. Also, Professor
    Ricardo Jose said that he was not able to find any reference to a
    claim in any of the Marcos’ biographies that General Douglas
    MacArthur himself bestowed the Distinguished Service Cross on the
    young Major Marcos.

    All of Marcos Medals were fake. He fooled us.

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