SOCSCI 031

(2:30-4:00 PM)

A Contextual Analysis of Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas by Antonio de

Morga

Submitted by:

Del Pilar, Edrian Cliff D.

BSME-1 P3

Submitted to:

Mr. Rey R. dela Victoria

 The book written by Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas during their
stay in the Philippines was the first ever recorded account of the History of the Philippines
during the voyage of the Spanish. Everything written was based on the personal
experiences of Morga and other eye-witnesses during that time. Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas was written by Antonio Morga talks about the events that happened during the
Pre –colonial Period. When the Spaniards landed in the Philippines, Morga collected and
recorded happenings in that time talking about the political system of the community, how
society works, the culture and how they successfully claim the land as their own and
spread Christianity throughout. Several information about the country were discovered
because of the written accounts and it have been a useful source of information about the
culture of the natives back then. One of the notable writers that were fascinated by the
book was our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. He made an annotation of Morga’s book that
highlighted the rich history of the Filipinos from its political, cultural or social factors , that
Filipinos back then were civilized, and to correct the mistakes that were that have been
altered about the country by the Spaniards during their conquest.

During his stay in London, Jose Rizal wants to know what really happened in the
Philippines when the Spaniards came to the islands. He made an idea that the community
present in the island was prosperous with collective art and culture of the natives. He
believed that the Spaniards were on of the factors that contributed to the decline of our
own culture. To put credibility in his statement, his friend Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt, a
noted Filipinologist suggested Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas for many scholars
considered the history of the Philippines in the book was honest and stated the conditions
of the country pertaining to the Spanish regime. He found the book in the Filipiniana
Collection of the British Museum and copied the entire 351 pages. He then annotated
every chapter of it and even commented the typographical errors of Morga. But most
importantly, Rizal gave a view and standpoint about what happened to the Philippines
back then and knew what needs to be done.

According to the annotation of Jose Rizal, in the first part [ Like almost all of you, I
was born and brought up in ignorance of our country's past and so, without knowledge or
authority to speak of what I neither saw nor have studied,] talks about that everyone of
us didn’t really know about what happened before. Each of us has an opinion about it, it
is better to know the facts first before stating it because it gives you a scope of something
that you want to know.

Rizal gave highlights about the religion spread by the Spaniards when they arrived
in the country with these lines [By the Christian religion, Doctor Morga appears to mean
the Roman Catholic which by fire and sword he would preserve in its purity in the
Philippines.] [The conversions by the Spaniards were not as general as their historians
claim. The missionaries only succeeded in converting a part of the people of the
Philippines. Still there are Mahometans, the Moros, in the southern islands, and negritos,
igorots and other heathens yet occupy the greater part territorially of the archipelago.] He
disagreed to the Idea of Morga because he generalized almost everything what the
Spaniards have made to the country. Like religion, Rizal wants to note that some of the
places were not colonized by Spain or others made a strong force to retain their faith. In
another annotation of Rizal [Morga's statement that there was not a province or town of
the Filipinos that resisted conversion or did not want it may have been true of the civilized
natives. But the contrary was the fact among the mountain tribes. We have the testimony
of several Dominican and Augustinian missionaries that it was impossible to go anywhere
to make conversions without other Filipinos along and a guard of soldiers.] He made a
clear argument to Morga’s claim. Rizal explained how one sided the book was that it did
not clearly state about the other parts of the places not colonized by the Spaniards and
claimed those places are the true civilized natives. Well in fact, those islands colonized
were also civilized with artillery and a system of government established in the
communities.

About Political factors, Rizal stated [It is not the fact that the Filipinos were
unprotected before the coming of the Spaniards. Morga himself says, further on in telling
of the pirate raids from the south, that previous to the Spanish domination the islands had
arms and defended themselves. But after the natives were disarmed the pirates pillaged
them with impunity, coming at times when they were unprotected by the government,
which was the reason for many of the insurrections.]Rizal pointed out that ever since then,
the natives are nothing against the strong force brought by the Spaniards that there was
already a feud between them as mentioned in one of his annotations [When Morga says
that the lands were "entrusted" (given as encomiendas) to those who had "pacified" them,
he means "divided up among." The word "en trust," like "pacify," later came to have a sort
of ironical signification.] The Spanish already dominated the Islands of the Philippines.
The idea of Rizal about the state of the Philippines before was at peace but everything
changed when colonizers came and colonize the country bit by bit. He remarkably noted
information in the book about how Spaniards colonize other islands and made ties with
the other natives. Rizal attempted to find evidence of a uniformity of laws across various
islands in the Philippines and to demonstrate the degree of complexity in communities. In
particular, the custom law that Rizal refers to in the following footnote is significant as to
how civilized the people back then even before the Spaniards came.
Philippine precolonial trade linkages are well established in the book from both
historical and archaeological research. However, this has contributed little to the popular
concept of connection with Asia. It is in this sense that the motivations of Rizal in exploring
the Philippines’ multidimensional links with Asia remain fresh and relevant. From his
comments [Note that China, Japan, and Cambodia maintained relations with the
Philippines. Later, the natives of the last two did not return to this country for a century.
The determining causes of this we shall find in the interference of the religious orders in
the Philippines of those countries. With the exception of the trade with China, the relation
with the other nations had ceased during more than two centuries. Rizal notes how
Spanish colonization came to change the trade patterns before. Spanish colonization
reduced the Philippines’ potential role in the Trade in Asia, modifying the economic
structure of the Philippines both domestically and internationally. The archipelago ceased
its participation as an easy access to the rest of countries joining the trade. The coming
of the Spaniards to the Philippines, their rule, and with this the immigration of the Chinese,
killed the industry and the agriculture of the country. The terrible competition that the
Chinese wage against the members of any other race is well known and for that reason
the United States and Australia refuse to receive them. The “indolence,” then, of the
inhabitants of the Philippines has for its origin the little foresight of the government. Rizal
goes further and enumerates specific industries to demonstrate their decline. He argues
that the state of these industries during precolonial times was superior to that which the
Philippines was experiencing under Spain.
In regards to the culture of the country there was a notable annotation by Rizal
stating [Morga's remark that the Filipinos like fish better when it is commencing to turn
bad is another of those prejudices which Spaniards like all other nations, have. In matters
of food, each is nauseated with what he is unaccustomed to or doesn't know is eatable.
The English, for example, find their gorge rising when they see a Spaniard eating snails,
while in turn the Spanish find roastbeef English-style repugnant and can't understand the
relish of other Europeans for beefsteak a la Tartar which to them is simply raw meat. The
Chinaman, who likes shark's meat, cannot bear Roquefort cheese, and these examples
might be indefinitely extended. The Filipinos' favorite fish dish is the bagong and whoever
has tried to eat it knows that it is not considered improved when tainted. It neither is, nor
ought to be, decayed.] talks about the differences of every nation towards their culture.
That every culture is unique in different ways, other nation may not be fascinated by the
bizarre culture that we have, they might say its weird but for us it is an identity. Rizal
defended about eating bagoong-which was the Filipino’s favorite dish- is not bad.
Learning the culture of others gives the connection of people and understanding them.
Like the lines “The Cebuans drew a pattern on the skin before starting in to tattoo. The
Bisayan usage then was the same procedure that the Japanese today follow]. It can be
clearly identified that Rizal’s Idea about the community in the Philippines before has a
rich and sensitive culture and art was correct. There were his expressive means of
distinguishing and presenting the ideas he know about the country a long time ago.
Overall, the annotation of Rizal to Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas by Antonio de
Morga cleared him about the state of the country long before the Spaniards came to
colonize each one of them and it fully expressed the depth and the value of the topic
discussed. His arguments that he puts forward to are prominent most especially to the
political side of how Spaniards colonized the country that the story was one sided and
needs another viewpoint, merely because majority of what was written was about the first
hand experience of Antonio Morga himself during his stay in the Philippines. The
emotions of the text implies what did the natives feel about their culture , religion, and
system touched by foreign people trying to degrade the rich and sensitive art of the
Filipinos. Although it would have been if the annotations of Rizal were grouped according
to the main idea and topic. With his expressive means by referring to accountable
information about the errors of Morga’s accounts can be seen in the text and corrected
its mistake. Rizal’s style of emphasizing the information mentioned were precise and
notable to his annotations of Sucesos giving a clear point of view of the Filipinos and
Spaniards.
Rizal’s annotation is very fascinating because of what he provided to us. A clear
point of view of the first written of the history of the Philippines that offers final answers to
questions regarding the reconstruction of precolonial life with cultural comments that
includes referenced sources and useful information which he raised in some of the points
in the book. Each chapter where screened thoroughly by Jose Rizal regarding the
Philippines during the old times. With the Annotations of Jose Rizal, two points were
raised. First, he emphasized the culture of the native Filipinos and how important they are
even today and the knowledge about history that we gain has its flaws and loopholes.
Not only that there are discussions about the cultural value of the work, but it also gave
impact on the creativity and that every information was important and were states in a
succinct way.