Christian Anthony B.

Anog SED-1A April 01, 2019

BIOGRAPHY of ANTONIO DE MORGA

Writer, jurist, administrator and Spanish historian. In his work events of the Philippine
Islands, 1609, tried to show how the friars Spanish - first the Augustinian and later the
Franciscan - civilizaban the "savages". The work proved useful by descriptions of China and
Japan at the end of the 16th century. Philippine intellectual José Rizal and the Patriot in 1890
made a critical review of this work in order to claim the cultural richness of the archipelago
before colonization.
The value of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas has long been recognised. A first-
hand account of the early Spanish colonial venture into Asia, it was published in Mexico in 1609
and has since been re-edited on a number of occasions. It attracted the attention of the Hakluyt
Society in 1851, although the edition prepared for the Society by H. E. J. Stanley was not
published until 1868. Morga's work is based on personal experiences, or on documentation from
eye-witnesses of the events described. Moreover, as he tells us himself, survivors from Legazpi's
expedition were still alive while he was preparing his book in Manila, and these too he could
consult. As a lawyer, it is obvious that he would hardly fail to seek such evidence. The Sucesos is
the work of an honest observer, himself a major actor in the drama of his time, a versatile
bureaucrat, who knew the workings of the administration from the inside. It is also the first
history of the Spanish Philippines to be written by a layman, as opposed to the religious
chroniclers. Morga's book was praised, quoted, and plagiarized, by contemporaries or successors.
Filipinos have found it a useful account of the state of their native culture upon the coming of the
conquistadors; Spaniards have regarded it as a work to admire or condemn, according to their
views and the context of their times; some other Europeans, such as Stanley, found it full of
lessons and examples.
BIOGRAPHY of PEDRO CHIRINO
On September 16, 1635, Father Pedro Chirino, author of one of the first history books of
the Philippines, died in Manila. Chirino a Jesuit missionary, wrote the Relacion de las Islas
Filipinas in 1603. Having passed the censorship of vice-provincial Luis de la Puente in
Villadolid, it was published in Rome in 1604.
The Relacion de las Islas Filipinas was mainly intended as a history of the missions in the
islands conducted by the Jesuits, which begun in 1581. Chirino gave a full and detailed account
of the missions from that time until his departure in 1602. He narrates many things of interest
and importance regarding the people, their customs and character, their language and state of
civilization, their religious beliefs and worship, and the results of missionary labors and
influence upon them.
Much of this information is of special value as one of the earliest records regarding the
Filipino peoples in their primitive condition, before they had had much contact with the white
men; for the Jesuits went even beyond the outposts of Spanish civilization, among tribes who
sometimes had never seen white men before.
Chirino also recorded the transition of Filipino writing from the Baybayin script to the
Latin alphabet.
Chirino was born in 1557 in Osuna of Andalucia. He graduated in both civil and canon
law at Sevilla, and entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 23. Having been appointed to the
mission in the Filipinas in place of Father Alonso Sanchez, he arrived in Manila in 1590 together
with the new governor, Gomez Perez Dasmariñas.
He acted as missionary to the Tagalogs and the Pintados, and was superior of the Jesuit
colleges at Manila and Cebu. He cultivated the friendship of Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa,
whom he advised to found the college of San Ignacio and the seminary of San Jose in Manila.
On July 7, 1602, he left Cavite for Acapulco by the vessel "San Antonio" in order to take
immediate action in the affairs of the mission in the Filipinas at both the royal and pontifical
courts. He obtained a decree from Father General Claudius Aquaviva, by which the mission in
the Filipinas was elevated to a vice-province, independent of the province of Mexico.
On July 17, 1606, he returned to Manila.
The village of Taitai (Taytay) was moved to its present site by him.

BIOGRAPHY of EMILIO JACINTO

Many people interested in Philippine history are looking for information about Emilio
Jacinto. Jacinto played an important role in Philippine independence and he also had an
interesting political life.
This biography of Emilio Jacinto begins with his early life:
 Emilio Jacinto was born in 1875 on the 15th of December.
 He was the only son of a man named Mariano Jacinto and a woman named Josefa Dizon.
 Shortly after he was born, his father passed away. This untimely death forced his mother
to send Emilio to live with his uncle, Don Jose' Dizon. His mother believed that his uncle
could care for the young Emilio better then she could after the death of Mariano.
College and Education
Very little is known about Emilio's early childhood up until the point that he went to
college. However, it is known that by the time he went away to college, he could fluently speak
both Spanish and Tagalog, the language of the Philippine people. However, he preferred to speak
in Spanish a majority of the time.
Emilio attended the San Juan de Latran College when he first embarked on his college
career. However, he later attended the University of San Tomas in order to study law. Emilio left
college before completing his law degree.
Politics and Revolution
 Perhaps the most interesting part of a biography of Emilio Jacinto are the details about
his political life and contributions:
 After dropping out of college at the age of 20, Emilio joined the Katipunan, a secret
revolutionary society. This was a group whose objective was to
gain Philippine independence from Spain in 1892.
 Jacinto became the secretary, directly reporting to the leader of the Katipunan. He also
became the chief advisor on fiscal matters concerning this secret society. In addition to these
duties, Emilio also wrote the society's newspaper, the Kalayaan.
 Emilio was given a new name when he was part of this group. To the Katipunan, he was
often referred to as Utak ng Katipunan. However, he wrote under the pseudonym
Dimasailaw when writing for the newspaper and he was more commonly referred to in the
group as Pingkian. Jacinto was also placed in charge of writing the guidebook for new
members and current members of the Katipunan, which was called Kartilya ng Katipunan.
 When the leader of the Katipunan passed away, Emilio continued to carry out the wishes
of Bonifacio. The Katipunan at this time had many factions and not all of them operated in
the same way in their efforts to gain their independence from Spain. As with his predecessor
before him, Jacinto refused to join with these factions who had different views. This
included refusing to join the Magdalo faction of the Katipunan under the leadership of
Emilio Aguinaldo.
Emilio Jacinto died on April 16, 1899 at the age of 24. The cause of his death at such a
young age was malaria, which he had contracted while in Majayjay, Laguna. The remains of his
body were transferred from this location to Manila where he was laid to rest in Manila North
Cemetery. His name lives on in history for the Philippine people and he is known as the Brains
of the Katipunan.

BIOGRAPHY of JIM RICHARDSON

REFERENCES
https://thebiography.us/en/morga-antonio-de
Philippine News Agency archives
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803, volume 1, number 12, Emma Helen Blair, James
Alexander Robertson, Edward Gaylord Bourne, Cleveland, Ohio: The A. H. Clark company.
https://biography.yourdictionary.com/articles/emilio-jacinto-biography.html