GAPAN CITY COLLEGE

City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City,

Nueva Ecija, Philippines 3105
General Education Department

Week 3 Module in
READING IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY

Name: ______________________________________ Score: ___________/

Course, Year & Sec.: ___________________________ Date: ____________

Lesson 2:
Knowing the Philippine History and Philippine Geographical and Historical Foundation

I. OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. Discuss how the physical

environment of the Philippines
shaped the
socio-cultural, political and
economic facets of its society.
2. Explain the traditional Filipino
communities
3. Analyze the culture and structure
of the ancient Filipino society to
determine the level of civilization
attained during the pre-colonial era.
Gapan City College
Week 1-2: Reading in the Philippine History
 GAPAN CITY COLLEGE
City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City,
Nueva Ecija, Philippines 3105
General Education Department

4. Critique the strengths and

weaknesses of the early Filipino society.
a. Discuss how the physical environment of the Philippines shaped the socio-cultural, political and
economic facets of its society.
b. Explain the traditional Filipino communities
c. Analyze the culture and structure of the ancient Filipino society to determine the level of
civilization attained during the pre-colonial era.
d. Critique the strengths and weaknesses of the early Filipino society.
II. CONCEPT NOTES

Before the Conquest Philippine history writing started during Spanish time when Ferdinand Magellan landed in
the Philippine archipelago in the year 1521, followed by Filipinos like Dr. Jose Rizal who annotated
Antonio Morga’s book “Sucesos De Las Islas Filipinas” (Events of the Philippine Islands) and Americans. But
before the Spaniards, there were archaeological records of the early Chinese and some Muslim scholars
narrating the existence of civilization in the archipelago even before Magellan landed. And if you have
read the Rizal’s annotation on Morga’s book, we can tell that there was already an organized.

Let us take a look on the life of the native people of Philippine archipelago prior to the arrival of the Spaniards.

The Early Philippine Society

There were group of people that the historians believed they existed here in the Philippine Islands
before the colonization period. They are as follow:
1. Tabon Man. The Tabon Man skull cap was discovered by Dr. Robert Fox an American
Anthropologist within the Tabon subside Palawan in 1962. According to research this Man lived on the first
days called Stone Age and inside the cave. He also founded evidence that this early human already knew
how to make and use tools. Experts said skeletal remains found in Tabon was not a Negrito.
2. Negrito. Henry Otley Beyer, a known anthropologist introduced the “Theory of Migration” that the first
Human who came to the Philippine Archipelago through the Lan Bridges were Negritos, the ancestors of
the Aetas, but many anthropologist and experts opposed and disproved the belief.
3. Callao Man. Dr. Armand Mijares of University of the Philippines led the team of Archeologist in
2007. They found a foot bone inside the Callao cave in Cagayan. They said this man existed 20,000 years
older than the Tabon man. They needed to consume almost three years to determine the age of the bone.
They used the method called Uranium Series Dating conducted in France. However, their team is still
planning to conduct more excavations and study to re- enforce their findings and theories. The early
Filipinos started building their communities along the mouth of the river or coastal areas. They choose the
place because of economic opportunities wherein they access the land and the water for their everyday
routines of life. Their community was a Barangay setup with 50 or 2000 people as residents.

There are social classes in the barangay namely:

1. Maharlika (Noble People)
2. Timawa (Free men)
3. Alipin (Slaves) - Aliping Namamahay - Aliping Saguiguilid
Gapan City College
Week 1-2: Reading in the Philippine History
 GAPAN CITY COLLEGE
City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City,
Nueva Ecija, Philippines 3105
General Education Department
The early Filipinos used caves for their housing until they learned to build houses outside using wood or
bamboo and nipa leaves or cogon grass for their roofing suited for our tropical climate. Later on, they called
Bahay Kubo. There were places in the Philippines particularly in the mountainous areas where people
make their houses at the top of the tree (tree house). This is to protect them from wild animals that can hurt
them. For those people residing beside the sea like the Badjao or sea gypsies, their boats already serve as
their houses.

Early Filipinos did not have religion, but they believed that there is a powerful being from the sky and that
they called God. They were pagans, they believe in different gods and goddesses. Even prior to the coming
of the Spaniards, Filipinos were already believers of superstitious beliefs. Among them include aswang,
kapre, dwende, tiyanak, and tikbalang which until now still exist especially in the remote places of different
provinces.

The Baybayin or the Alibata was the pre- Hispanic writing system in the Philippines. Filipinos believed that
this system originated from Kawi (a Javanese old script with a large number of loanwords from Sanskrit.
(Java is a place in Indonesia and a Sanskrit is a classical language of India.) The discovery of archeological
artifacts in the Philippines manifested that during the Neolithic means the last age of Stone Age and the
beginning of Human development in technology.

Since the beginning in the Philippines, rice was already the principal crop aside from hunting,
trapping animals, and fishing. A traditional music and dance is the reflection of life and culture of people of
one place. In music, we have instruments like kudyapi, kalaleng, a tingguian Nose flute, slit drum. Some pre-
Hispanic songs were called Kundiman, Kumintang o Tagumpay, Ang Dalit o Imno at Oyayi o Hele. Primitive
dances of the early Filipinos were linked with rituals and to their daily lives. Preservation of the Pre-Hispanic
Culture and Traditions It is not new to us that even prior the arrival of the Westerners, the early people of the
Philippine archipelago had already built and established their unique customs and traditions. As we
observe in the present time, there are still some group of Indigenous tribes who are preserving their culture
that we can call ours and not brought by the colonizers.

III. ACTIVITIES
Read carefully the directions of the following activities and write your answer in your Notebook.

Activity 1.

Essay (5 points each)

Gapan City College

Week 1-2: Reading in the Philippine History
 GAPAN CITY COLLEGE
City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City,
Nueva Ecija, Philippines 3105
General Education Department
1.Describe the Philippines during the Neolithic Period.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

2. In your own opinion, which among the three are early people in the Archipelago? (Tabon Man, Negrito, or
Callao Man). Justify your answer.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

3. If the Spanish did not conquer our archipelago, what do you think is our culture now?
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Do you believe in super natural creatures like aswang, kapre, tikbalang and tiyanak? Why or why not?
Justify your answer.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

5. What is the importance of the discovery of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription to the Filipino?
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

Activity 2. Write true if the statement is correct, otherwise, write false.

_____________1. Baybayin or the Alibata was the pre- Hispanic writing system in the Philippines.
_____________2. Filipios sing according to what they feel and that they are doing. Some pre- Hispanic songs
were called Kundiman, Kumintang o Tagumpay, Ang Dalit o Imno at Oyayi o Hele.
_____________3. Aside from instruments, early Filipinos also expressed their culture through acting and
dancing.
Gapan City College
Week 1-2: Reading in the Philippine History
 GAPAN CITY COLLEGE
City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City,
Nueva Ecija, Philippines 3105
General Education Department
_____________4. Aliping Saguiguilid was typically an alipin who had received a piece of land from his master
_____________5. The discovery of archeological artifacts in the Philippines manifested that during the
Neolithic means the last age of Stone Age and the beginning of Human development in technology.
_____________6. Aswang a tall big black muscular creature with a hairy feature with a strong and smell that
can get human attention and smoking a large tobacco while resting at the tree.
_____________7. According to archaeologist, the Chinese people were the first to trade with us. Pieces of
Chinese porcelains found in many places in the Philippines during the Tang Dynasty of China are a
proof to it.
_____________8. Since the beginning in the Philippines, corn was already the principal crop aside from
hunting, trapping animals, and fishing.
_____________9. Arab traders came to the Philippines through Jolo and Sulu, on their way to Guangzhou
China for trading their goods in the 1380s.
_____________10. Islam was introduced in the Philippines 1380 by Karim ul’ Makhdum the Arabian trader
who came to the Philippine archipelago while Christianism was only introduced 1521 upon the arrival of
Ferdinand Magellan

IV. REFLECTION

This chapter discusses the life of the early Filipinos before the conquest of the Westerners. It aims to
prove that our ancestors had a high level of culture even before the coming of the Spaniards. How the
Filipinos started building their communities along the mouth of the river and coastal areas. It also
presents here the different archaeological records of the early Chinese and some Muslim scholars narrating
the existence of civilization in the archipelago even before Magellan landed.

What I have learned from this week’s lesson is…

REFERENCES

Gapan City College

Week 1-2: Reading in the Philippine History
 GAPAN CITY COLLEGE
City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City,
Nueva Ecija, Philippines 3105
General Education Department

alado, D., De Silva, A., Reyes, C., et.

al., (2018) Readings in Philippine
History, Muntinlupa
City. Panday-Lahi Publishing House,
Inc. (pages 2-4; 16-22)
Palado, D., De Silva, A., Reyes, C., et. al., (2018) Readings in Philippine History, Muntinlupa City. Panday-Lahi
Publishing House, Inc. (pages 2-4; 16-22)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/bohol-island-state-university/education/module-ge-2-readings-in-
philippine-history/12464167?shared=1&sid=01655280930

Prepared by:

Kathline S. Ventura, LPT

Instructor

Gapan City College

Week 1-2: Reading in the Philippine History
 GAPAN CITY COLLEGE
City Hall Compound, Bayanihan, Gapan City,
Nueva Ecija, Philippines 3105
General Education Department

Gapan City College

Week 1-2: Reading in the Philippine History