THE HISTORIAN’S TASK

IN THE PHILIPPINES
By: Nick Joaquin
● Rizal’s convictions: a real understanding of the problems of the present requires
the centrality of historical perspective
○ Rizal insisted on ​“the need for Filipinos to understand their own past if
they were to effectively shape their future”.
○ The urgent need to know his people’s past caused Rizal to interrupt his
work on​ ​El Filibusterismo​.
○ In the prologue to his edition of Antonio de Morga’s ​Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas​, Rizal insisted that ​“​one must unveil that history​ which had been
hidden from the eyes of Filipinos by neglect or distortion.”
○ Rizal’s hope for Filipinos:

Understand the past ----> Judge the present ----> Study the future

● Rizal spent months in ​London’s British Museum​, copying out by hand ​Morga’s
account​ as basis for his picture of the past.
○ He also dug out old ​missionary chronicles​ to expound on this.
○ Result? This would show from a Filipino POV that the ​“Spanish rule had
failed to fulfill its promises of progress for Filipinos...in some respects even
retrogressed.”
○ This provided moral legitimation for the next steps.

● “The knowledge of their past nurtured a consciousness of being a people with ​a

common origin ​and ​a common experience​ constituting ​a national identity ​around
which the future nation could arise.”

● Bonifacio, Jacinto, and other Filipinos of the Revolutionary generation

found their literary and national inspiration in Rizal’s historical writings.

● BASIC GOALS​ of historians ​according to Rizal​:

a. Understanding of our past
b. Cultivation of our national identity
c. Inspiration for the future
THE HISTORIAN’S TASK IN THE PHILIPPINES

1. RECOVER THE PAST

2. CONTRIBUTE TO WHAT HASN’T BEEN DONE

3. RID ONESELF OF BIASES AND PREJUDICES

● Every human has their own viewpoint, biases, and prejudices. The historian
should rid himself of the latter.
● “Facts”: ​ ​arriving at this demands that the historian should demonstrate in detail
how he bridges t​ he gap between the ​documentation a ​ nd the c
​ onclusions​ ​he
draws from it.
● “Documents”: should not be limited to memoirs, letters, or those from gov’t
offices; ​rather, should include those that tell us about ​people’s ways of thinking.
Examples include: Literary works, books of prayers, and folk art
○ Their successful use depends on ​the historian’s ability to put the ​proper
questions​ on them.
○ “It is in knowing HOW to put questions to a document and knowing WHAT
questions to put that the historian’s point of view makes a difference.”

4. BUILD THE FUTURE

● Distorting history causes obstruction​ even in the name of “nationalist history”
○ For example: ​Pedro Paterno
■ Tried to show that everything good he found in 19th century Filipino
society was the fruit of some mythical inborn qualities of the race
and had existed before the coming of the Spaniards.
■ Distorted genuine documents
○ The forgeries of​ Jose Marco ​on pre-Hispanic Philippines, the Povedano
and Pavon manuscripts, with the infamous ​Code of Kalantiyaw
■ Code of Kalantiyaw found its way into history textbooks for
generations until it was exposed in ​1968 ​by​ William Henry Scott ​in
his​ ​Prehispanic Sources for the History of the Philippines.
■ Still was republished in a popular college textbook in the 1970s and
was republished in 1970s
○ Marco also wrote a series of works of supposed works of ​Fr. Jose
Burgos​, among which were a pseudo novel, ​La Loba Negra, a ​ n account
on Burgos’s trial, and more than two dozen other pseudo historical and
pseudo ethnographic works
 ■ Were questioned before the war, but continued to be manufactured
and published before Marco’s death
■ Were exposed by ​Nick Joaquin ​in the 1970s but a struggle still
continues as if these forgeries were genuine
● Reconstructing a Filipino past on false pretenses can do nothing​ to build a sense
of national identity, much less off guidance for the present or future
○ History is meant to shed light on current issues
● A truly “people’s history” must see the ​Filipino people​ as the ​primary agents ​in
their history.
○ A truly nationalist history will try to understand all aspects of all the Filipino
people,​ as they themselves understood it.
○ This requires a ​preliminary hypothesis​ that ​has a sufficient breadth of
vision to encompass all facts.