PRELIMINARY TERM

WEEK 1 | AUGUST 10-14

SSCO1- READINGS IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY

INTRODUCTION

One of the best things about being a Filipino is getting acquainted to one’s
historical beginnings. How the Filipino people rise from their past and
develop into a nation that they are now. It is an accepted truth that not all
experiences of the past are glorious, some stories are sad and heartbreaking,
but how the Filipinos survive all these can be attributed to his resilient
attitude(Habagat Central 2018).
In order for the young Filipinos to understand these historical experiences, it
is best to travel back in the past and explore a new way and a new
perspective to integrate those past experiences in their new world, their new
life. It will enable the young Filipino to “develop the historical and critical
consciousness so that they will become versatile, articulate, broadminded,
morally upright and responsible citizens”.
Readings in Philippine History is a new way of understanding Philippine
History that does not merely follow what we have known in the past but
rather see how the past has molded the Filipinos to what they are now. The
study will introduce the students to this new discipline that will analyze and
allow them and give insights and point of views of the past by the means of
using primary sources.
Further, the students will be able to have 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”. (CMO No. 20, series of 2013)

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

1. Define history and its relevance.
2. Articulate the relevance of the study of history.
3. Explain how historians affect the writing of history.
4. Promotion of truth and knowledge through dedicated passion to research, criteria
reflection, appropriate use of modern technology, creative and innovative approaches
to one’s field of specialization, leading to the realization of outstanding academic
standards and effectual evangelization.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES
For an easy grasp of the concepts and skills offered to you in this module, take time to
follow these learning activities:

1. Read and understand the notes provided.

2. Answer the quiz found at the lower part of this module.
3. Answer the End of Module Assessment
4. Clearly answer the different terminologies in answering the performance task.

DISCUSSION SUMMARRY

A. Definition and relevance of the subject matter

The study of History is always known as the study of the past. Many
students of the past and the present always have a notion, that history is
simply a study that memorizes past events, people and places. But one
should understand that we cannot change the events, the people and places
where such past occurred. We cannot change history. In the study of history
we try to explore the relevance of the past to our present lives. We try to look
back and trace the past to find solutions and understanding our present
concerns that we are facing now. There are a lot of varied concerns and
different issues in our lives and looking back in the past might provide
answers not only to our queries but solutions to current problems.
Why study History? It is important for us leaners to have knowledge of who
we are as a country as a people as a culture and until we have not known
this, we will not know what shaped us of who we are today.
We have to understand the fun side of studying history because this involves
real people, great leaders, heroes of our country and how they struggled and
fought for our country. It recounts real love stories, betrayal, conquest and
loyalty to one’s own country. These are true stories that gives us an idea, an
insight and a perspective of our own present times. It inspires us to know
where we are headed in the future. Without studying history we will never
know what direction we will want to take and move forward. What changes
we would like to use in our present lives as a people.
As Filipinos we are faced with so many issues in the present times that were
reflective of our past like our Filipinos youth behavior, our attitudes, our
language and many other cultural aspects and perspectives. We can see that
the issues of today are issues of the past too. We are looking at social
experiences that are no longer new. Therefore, in studying history we
become aware of our society as a Filipino people. We become aware of
traditions that exist, we recognize our being a Filipino, a citizen who pledge
allegiance to our Philippine Flag, A flag that fought so many colonial battles
to raise it. We struggled in the past to become who we are today - a proud
Filipino.
By studying our history we encounter issues that we have to handle in our
society, our government and many our social institutions. We are presented
with choices on how to deal with these issues. We are presented with
choices on how to go about it, just like the choices that were given in the
past but our generation and the past generation have different ways on how
to deal with it. But then many of the insights can be lifted up from the past,
shaping us, honing us to find ways on how to face it now.
Our history can provide us with important awareness on how to deal with
current issues at hand. As the saying goes, history repeats itself, but we do
not repeat the mistakes of the past by learning from the past. People who
don’t get to learn from the past gets to repeat again the mistakes of the
past. In the same manner, hose people who do not get to study the past also
don’t get the chance to repeat it, we have to study our history so that we can
get to learn not only our mistakes but also the good and positive experiences
that will aid and guide us in our becoming as a nation.

History as a study travelled back in time. It has originated form Greek words
historia “knowledge acquired through inquiry or investigation”. It has existed
for 2,400 years ago, it became known as an account of the past of a person or
of a group of people through written documents and historical evidences. The
early parts of the twentieth century has still the consciousness of the
definition and deriving from it emerge an t academic discipline of prominence.
It is noted that the focus of history before is writing about what happened in
the past, like “break-throughs, wars and revolutions”. This implies that written
documents can attest to a particular occurrence in history. Old historians
believed that if there are “No Documents there is no history. (Candelaria and
Alphora 2018).
It can be a boring experience for a student to read through history. It is an
important fact to consider how history always changes. But what happened in
the past may show interesting truths about it. Truths that occurred in the past
may find relevance to our present system of ideas, beliefs and way of life. As
history changes and as it take different forms throughout life it can be
interesting to know how these truths are recorded, written and interpreted.
The process on how history is written and created can be an interesting
subject matter. The way historians outline their ideas and interpret a
particular historical occurrence can be impressive and fascinating as it make
us think and analyze about a particular event.
This process can rouse our interest and question the validity of the story.
Historians will have to interpret the evidence that is left of us interpret such
evidence with skills and capability rendering a valid and effective historical
past. However, prejudices on certain historical context can take place and
other historians can debate on it. It makes people question and investigate.
These debates leads to a “Community of Arguments”. If there is lack of
evidence (Jenner 2015) stated that historians would say, that an “ absence of
evidence is not evidence of absence” which entirely mean that because
there is no evidence it doesn’t mean that the story did not occur.

As students of Readings in Philippine History, you must be fully aware that

past occurrence can only be understood by our historians if they have the
‘historical sources’ and the ‘evidences’. The historians are not simply limited
to the evidences they gathered but the interpretation of such past
experience is a must. These historical evidences are facts that must be
interpreted. As students of this course we must recognize the fact that to
make a concrete account of the past, a historian has to make a thorough
study of it.

As the historians gather and collate all these facts of history he interprets
them by giving meaning to it, organizes them according to dates of
occurrences, establish the causes then writes it. The scientific process is now
in motion. It is through the scientific process of research that the story of the
past takes it form.
However we cannot discount the fact that these historians may be subject to
biases or prejudices as what we have said before. The historian’s personal
circumstance and orientation, his perceptions, beliefs system, education,
environment: his family neighborhood and childhood can all influence his
own interpretation of the historical facts. These subjectivity of the historian
poses a big problem in his undertaking as historical researcher. The facts that
he selects and his methodology, his manner of writing and most especially
his interpretation might cloud his judgments.
It is at this point, historical research will need a scientific approach.
Employing a scientific method can lessen the subjectivity of the historian
instead.
This is called Historical Methodology which compromises certain techniques
and rules that historians follow in order to properly utilize sources and
historical evidences in writing history. Certain rules apply in cases of
conflicting accounts in different sources, and on how to properly treat
eyewitness accounts and oral sources as valid historical evidence.
Citing an example past endeavor in the study of history we will take a look at
this school of thought in that is called the Annales School of History. This is
a school of history born in France that challenged the canons of history. A
school of thought that did not use the common historical subjects that are
associated with the behavior of the state and the monarchs.
Here are some of the Annales scholars: Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch, Fernand
Braduel, Jacques Le Goff, studied other subjects in a historical manner. They
were concerned with social history and studied longer historical periods.
They advocated that the people and classes who were not reflected in the
history of the society in the grand manner be provided with space in the
records of mankind. Annales thinkers combined history with other disciplines
like geography.
We can now conclude that the study of history and of its historian requires a
thorough investigation of the events of the past. The historian’s way of
verifying the facts lies in his meticulous analysis, the authenticity of records
is substantiated by a continuous search for references and appropriate
methodologies. One fact may be validated from another historical account.
Oral or Written documents must be constantly studied verified and subjected
to comparison analysis and interpretation. It is through this process that we
can capture authentic accounts of history. It may not be perfected as we
cannot bring back the past but nonetheless it can lead us to a better if not

Historiography, Questions and Issues in History

the best narrative that is produced of a past experience.

History has develop into an academic discipline that explored different

point of views. Investigating the truth behind every historical fact,
searches deeper for its validity, inquiries that will enlighten the
circumstance of such historical occurrence. History as a discipline
becomes persistent to discover reliable truths. Its dynamism has
manifested diversified point of views, raising questions as to its
nature: what is history? its purpose: why study history? and its
audience: For whom do we study it for?

We now then acknowledge a branch of study called

historiography. Historiography is the history of history. We have to be
aware that history and historiography are disciplines that are
independent of each other but are totally connected. To better
distinguish the two terminologies, we shall take a look at this
definition:
 History is the substance of what historians create. A history is a
narrative analyzing and explaining events that happened in the past,
based on records from the pertinent era or later, or based upon the
recollections of people still living at the time they were interviewed to
preserve those recollections (“oral history”). It is the “what” of history,
the work product put out by historians.

Historiography is the method used by historians to do what they do.

It is a step-by-step, rational and evidence-based empirical process,
closely akin to “the scientific method,” teaching the appropriate ways
to collect, sort, analyze, compare, understand, and write about historical
materials. It is the ”how” of writing history.

(Jacobs 2019)

These point of view of history allows us to understand how a certain historical material is
produced through historiography. It makes us asks questions like: Who wrote the material?
Who is its author? How is it written? What historical method was used? Where did the
author base it? And what was the context of its publication? Through historiography.

Through this method we are allowed to understand different historical contexts. It helps us
see the historical material in the eyes of the author, what were his point of views, what
made him used a particular theory which was his lens through the creation of a particular
material. All of these questions will be included in the analysis of historical event.

In the same manner, students in history who employ historiography will learn how to be
critical of historical accounts being studied. They will be made aware of the particular
audience from which the historical event is intended for. They can learn how to be reflective
of the past, and identify the mistakes of the past as well as its good points and help them
move forward.

On the other hand, it is likewise important to be made aware of schools of thoughts that came
out in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. This guides us in understanding the veracity of
truths explored historical narratives. An example of these schools of thought is Positivism
and Post Colonialism. Positivism requires empirical observation which also implies a
firsthand observation. There are observable evidences presented thus claims that a particular
knowledge is true. It uses objective means of arriving at a conclusion. Positivist historians
must conduct their arguments in historical researches without biases and with straightforward
facts which means that there is no subjective input from them. This impartiality takes of
biases or prejudice
Positivism requires empirical
observation which also implies a
first-hand observation. There are
observable evidences presented
thus claims that a particular
knowledge is true. It uses objective
means of arriving at a conclusion.
Positivist historians must conduct
their arguments in historical Post Colonialism. This school of
researches without biases and with thought materialize in the early part
straightforward facts which means of the twentieth century. When
that there is no subjective input colonized nations has their struggle of
from them. This impartiality takes building their own identities and
of biases or prejudices. understanding their own society as
they do away with the past
colonization. Post Colonialism views in
writing history underlines the
existence of one’s own identity which
should not reflect their own colonial
past. This school of thought
foregrounds criticisms of the idea of
colonialism, its methods and its
effects to the people and its societies.

Another school of thought that surfaced is called Post Colonialism. This school of thought
materialize in the early part of the twentieth century. When colonized nations has their
struggle of building their own identities and understanding their own society as they do away
with the past colonization. Post Colonialism views in writing history underlines the existence
of one’s own identity which should not reflect their own colonial past.
Likewise, this school of thought foregrounds criticisms of the idea of
colonialism, its methods and its effects to the people and its societies.
Thus, we can say that Post-Colonial history is another view in analyzing
colonial history as taught in in history subjects. It is an alternative
reaction to the study of colonial history that reflects colonial powers and

their system of rule among colonized nations Remember: