Social Science/Social Studies,

UNIT 1 Philippine History, and Government

Overview

Unit 1 describes the importance of Social Studies as an integral and

integrated subject in elementary grades. This module also provides a wider
scope for teachers about Social Science/Social Studies and how it relates
to Philippine history and government in understanding local identity, origin,
and politics and governance.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this module, the students will be able to:

a. Clarify and explain the meaning and importance of Social Studies
through visual and/or audio-visual presentation; and
b. Write a reflection paper on the importance of teaching and
studying Social Studies.

Pretest

Directions: Encircle the letter of the correct answer.

1. A particular area of study that relates to human and society

a. Social Science b. Social Studies c. Sociology d. Geography

2. A course of study on human relationships and the way society works

a. Social Science b. Social Studies c. Anthropology d. History

3. The written records of man for his achievements from the beginning to
the present
a. Social Studies b. Anthropology c. History d. Government

4. A science that deals with the description, distribution, and interaction

of the diverse physical, biological, and cultural features of the earth's
surface.
a. Geography b. Sociology c. Anthropology d. Geology

5. The political system by which a country or community is administered

and regulated.
a. society c. government
b. governance d. civics
 2

Social Science is a branch of science

that deals with human nature in its
particular and cultural forms, including
anthropology, geography, history, law,
linguistics, politics, psychology, sociology,
Points to Remember economics, etc. (www.britannica.com).
Branches of Social Science
1. Anthropology – deals with the study of ancient stories and extracts which
determine human existence, civilization, culture, and development.
2. Economics – deals with wealth formation, growth, distribution, and
monetization.
3. Political Science – deals with the study of all existing socio-political
factors such as government policy, governance, democracy, and
management.
4. Sociology – a detailed study of various human societies, customs, social
status, and values in specific social structures or organizations. It
touches on every aspect of human society.
5. Psychology – deals with different abstract forces that constitute human
beings' overall mind and thinking process, i.e. the way they perform,
think, believe, interpret or internalize things and reflect that on
society.
6. Archeology – deals with ancient human studies where the primary
emphasis is on artifacts or items that people have created, used, or
left behind in different past circumstances.
7. Law – deals with the review of all the sets of laws or regulations
collectively drawn up by the constitution or the government to
preserve order and legalize society.
8. History – keeps chronological records of various historical events that
speak to human society or organization growth, with a thorough
explanation for the same.
9. Linguistics – a study of the structure of languages, how they are used,
and how they evolve.

Social Studies is a study course which includes geography,

government, sociology, history, people, or society, particularly taught at
the primary and secondary level (www.yourdictionary.com).

Components of Social Studies

1. Geography – themes; Location, Human-Environment Interactions,
Place, Regions, Movement
2. History – themes; The Past, Famous (and well-known) people, Events
3. Culture and Society – themes; Traditions of a group of people,
Beliefs/values, Behaviors
4. Civics and Government – themes; Who leads a country, How the
country is run, Laws
5. Economics – themes; Money, How money is spent, Things that help a
country make money
 3

History was derived from the Greek word historia which means “knowledge
acquired through inquiry or investigation”. History, as a discipline, existed
for around 2, 400 years and is as old as mathematics and philosophy. This
term was then adapted to classical Latin where it acquired a new
definition. Historia became known as the account of the past of a person
or a group of people through written documents and historical evidences.

History is the study of change over time, and it covers all aspects of human
society. Political, social, economic, scientific, technological, medical,
cultural, intellectual, religious and military developments are all part of
history.

Other Definitions of History:

 History is defined as a documented record of man and his society
(Gray, 1956, pp.1-3).
 As a field of study, history is a study of man and his achievements
from the beginning of written records to the present.
 As a literary form of history is an effective presentation of the
unfolding events. But as a type of literature history falls under
nonfiction work.
 History comes from social history which defines it as a record of
events showing the evolution of man and his society from the earliest
and from the age of barbarism to what he is today.

Importance and Uses of History

Given are the uses of history as summarized by Foray and Salevouris
(1988). Some of these are interestingly explained by B.H. Lidedell Hart
(1971).

 History provides a source of personal and social identity.

 History helps us understand the problems of the present.
 History – good history – corrects misleading analogies and “lessons”
of the past.
 History can help one develop tolerance and open-mindedness.
 History helps us better understand all human behaviors and all
aspects of the human condition.
 History provides the basic background for many disciplines.
 History can be a source of entertainment.
 History, when studied, can teach many critical skills.
 4

Self-
Assessment

As a student of history, reading a historical account is not simply like reading

novel or a comic book. A learner should also know how to distinguish which
of those sentences or paragraphs that make up the narrative are facts or
opinions. Although a historian attempts to present a history free from biases,
it cannot be avoided the personal opinions or interpretations of people,
places, or events are integrated in a particular historical account.

Below are excerpts from books and newspapers. Label each passage
either as FACT (F) or OPINION (O). If a passage combines fact and opinion,
write (FO) and underline that part of the passage that you think is an
opinion or judgement.

________ 1. “His” [Apolinario Mabini] writings, his behavior throughout his life,
short as it was, demonstrated extraordinary moral integrity, intense and
uncompromising patriotism.” – Roxas-Lim (200)

________2. “Swimmer Miguel Molina finished fourth in the 400 – meter

individual medley…, while the men’s trap shooters missed the bronze by
seven birds…” – Tempo Sports News, Bancod, December 4, 2006

________3. “President Marcos, an unscrupulous politician, craftily planned

KBL strategy before, during, and after the elections, if need be to steal the
results in his favor. No effort was spared in the use of “guns, goons, and
gold” to intimidate or entice voters to support the Marcos-Tolentino ticket.’
– Zaide (1999)

________ 4. “Anyone who has visited Jolo can immediately see that beyond
the town looms a dominating peak, Mt. Tumatangis, a place held sacred
by the Tausugs as the burial grounds of its sultans. The busy pier is called the
“Chinese Pier”,” obviously used in the early times by Chinese trading
vessels.” – Patanne (1996)

_______ 5. “Yay Panlilio [was] a pre-war newspaperwoman. As early as April

1942, she began serving as G-2 agent in Manila for the USAFFE
headquarters. [A military citation to her credit reads]: “Through her untiring
efforts and selflessness…in supplying…information concerning Japanese…
activities… many American lives were saved.” – Baclagon (1968)
 5

Historical Sources

With the past as history's subject matter, the historian's most

important research tools are historical sources. In general, historical sources
can be classified between primary and secondary sources. The
classification of sources between these two categories depends on the
historical subject being studied. Primary sources are those sources
produced at the same time as the event, period, or subject being studied.
For example, if a historian wishes to study the Commonwealth Constitution
Convention of 1935, his primary sources can include the minutes of the
convention, newspaper clippings Philippine Commission reports of the U.S.
Commissioners, records of the convention, the draft of the Constitution,
and even photographs of the event. Eyewitness accounts of convention
delegates and their memoirs can also be used as primary sources. The
same goes with other subjects of historical study. Archival documents,
artifacts, memorabilia, letters, census, and government records, among
others are the most common examples of primary sources.

On the other hand, secondary sources are those sources, which were
produced by an author who used primary sources to produce the material.
In other words, secondary sources are historical sources, which studied a
certain historical subject. For example, on the subject of the Philippine
Revolution of 1896, students can read Teodoro Agoncillo's Revolt of the
Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan published originally in
1956. The Philippine Revolution happened in the last years of the
nineteenth century while Agoncillo published his work in 1956, which makes
the Revolt of the Masses a secondary source. More than this, in writing the
book, Agoncillo used primary sources with his research like documents of
the Katipunan, interview with the veterans of the Revolution, and
correspondence between and among Katipuneros.

However, a student should not be confused about what counts as a

primary or a secondary source. As mentioned above, the classification of
sources between primary and secondary depends not on the period when
the source was produced or the type of the source but on the subject of
the historical research. For example, a textbook is usually classified as a
secondary source, a tertiary source even. However, this classification is
usual but not automatic. If a historian chooses to write the history of
education in the 1980s, he can utilize textbooks used in that period as a
primary source. If a historian wishes to study the historiography of the
Filipino-American War for example, he can use works of different authors
on the topic as his primary source as well.

Both primary and secondary sources are useful in writing and learning
history. However, historians and students of history need to thoroughly
scrutinize these historical sources to avoid deception and to come up with
the historical truth. The historian should be able to conduct an external and
internal criticism of the source, especially primary sources which can age
 6

in centuries. External criticism is the practice of verifying the authenticity of

evidence by examining its physical characteristics; consistency with the
historical characteristic of the time when it was produced; and the
materials used for the evidence. Examples of the things that will be
examined when conducting external criticism of a document include the
quality of the paper, the type of the ink, and the language and words used
in the material, among others.

Internal criticism, on the other hand, is the examination of the truthfulness

of the evidence. It looks at the content of the source and examines the
circumstance of its production. Internal criticism looks at the truthfulness
and factuality of the evidence by looking at the author of the source, its
context, the agenda behind its creation, the knowledge which informed it,
and its intended purpose, among others. For example, Japanese reports
and declarations during the period of the war should not be taken as a
historical fact hastily. Internal criticism entails that the historian
acknowledge and analyze how such reports can be manipulated to be
used war propaganda. Validating historical sources is important because
the use of unverified, falsified, and untruthful historical sources can lead to
equally false conclusions. Without thorough criticisms of historical
evidences; historical deceptions and lies will be highly probable.

One of the most scandalous cases of deception in Phiippine history is the

hoax Code of Kalantiaw. The code was a set of rules contained in an epic,
Maragtas, which was allegedly written by a certain Datu Kalantiaw. The
document was sold to the National Library and was regarded as an
important precolonial document until 1968, when American historian
William Henry Scott debunked the authenticity of the code due to
anachronism and lack of evidence to prove that the code existed in the
precolonial Philippine society Ferdinand Marcos also claimed that he was
a decorated World War II soldier who led a guerilla unit called Ang
Maharlika. This was widely believed by students of history and Marcos had
war medals to show. This claim, however, was disproven when historians
counterchecked Marcos's claims with the war records of the United States.
These cases prove how deceptions can propagate without rigorous
historical research.

The task of the historian is to look at the available historical sources and
select the most relevant and meaningful for history and for the subject
matter that he is studying. History, like other academic discipline, has come
a long way but still has a lot of remaining tasks to do. It does not claim to
render absolute and exact judgment because as long as questions are
continuously asked, and as long as time unfolds, the study of history can
never be complete. The task of the historian is to organize the past that is
being created so that it can offer lessons for nations, societies, and
civilization. It is the historian's job to seek for the meaning of recovering the
past to let the people see the continuing relevance of provenance,
 7

memory, remembering, and historical understanding for both the present

and the future.

Philippine historiography underwent several changes since the precolonial

period until the present. Ancient Filipinos narrated their history through
communal songs and epics that they passed orally from a generation to
another. When the Spaniards came, their chroniclers started recording
their observations through written accounts. The perspective of historical
writing and inquiry also shifted. The Spanish colonizers narrated the history
of their colony in a bipartite view. They saw the age before colonization as
a dark period in the history of the islands, until they brought light through
Western thought and Christianity. Early nationalists refuted this perspective
and argued the tripartite view. They saw the precolonial society as a
luminous age that ended with darkness when the colonizers captured their
freedom. They believed that the light would come again once the
colonizers were evicted from the Philippines. Filipino historian Zeus Salazar
introduced the new guiding philosophy for writing and teaching history:
pantayong pananaw (for us-from us perspective). This perspective
highlights the importance of facilitating an internal conversation and
discourse among Filipinos about our own history, using the language that is
understood by everyone.
 8

Self-
Assessment

Write true if the statement is true. Otherwise, write false in the space
provided.

_______1. History is the study of the past.

_______2. Historical sources that were not written should not be used in
writing history.
_______3. The subject of historiography is history itself.
_______4. History has no use for the present, thus, the saying “past is past” is
true.
_______5. History is limited to the story of a hero versus a villain.
_______6. Only primary sources may be used in writing history.
_______7. There are three types of sources: primary, secondary, and tertiary
sources.
_______8. External criticisms is done by examining the physical
characteristics of a source.
_______9. Internal criticisms is done by looking at a source’s quality of paper
and type of ink, among others.
_______10. The historians are the only source of history.
 9

Government

Government comprises the set of legal and political institutions that

regulate the relationships among members of a society and between the
society and outsiders. These institutions have the authority to make
decisions for the society on policies affecting the maintenance of order
and the achievement of certain societal goals.

The power of a government over its own citizens varies, depending on the
degree to which it is free of limitations and restraints. The power of a
government abroad also varies, depending on the human and material
resources with which it can support its foreign policy. Governments range
in size and scope from clans, tribes, and the shires of early times to the
superpowers and international governments of today. Until recent times
some governments were strong enough to establish empires that ruled not
only their own people but other peoples and states across national, ethnic,
and language boundaries. The present-day counterpart of the empire is
the superpower that is able to lead or dominate other countries through its
superior military and economic strength. Within the modern nation-state,
government operates at many different levels, ranging from villages to
cities, counties, provinces, and states.

Who leads the government?

Monarchy. The most common form of government from ancient times to

the early part of the 20th century was monarchy, or rule by a hereditary
king or queen. Monarchy passed through three basic stages, varying
according to the nation and the political and economic climate. The first
stage was that of the absolute monarch. In the Christian part of the world
during the Middle Ages, a conflict developed between the pope and the
kings who recognized his spiritual authority. The pope wanted to expand
the power of the church beyond spiritual matters to include the temporal
realm. But some kings proclaimed that God had given them the right to
rule, and by proclaiming this divine right they were able to give legitimacy
to their reigns and limit the pope's power.

Limited monarchy was the second stage. Kings depended on the support
of the most powerful members of the nobility to retain their thrones. In
England and some other Western European countries, the nobility placed
limits on the power of the ruler to govern. This was done in England, for
example, through the Magna Carta. Threatened with the loss of political
and financial support, even the strongest kings and emperors had to
accept a system of laws that protected the rights and privileges of
powerful social and economic classes.

The third stage in the evolution of monarchy was the constitutional

monarchy. Present-day monarchs are nearly all symbolic rather than
 10

actual rulers of their countries. (A few exceptions can be found in Africa

and Asia.) In such monarchies as Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden,
and Spain, governing power is now in the hands of the national
parliaments.

Constitutional Government. Today most governments derive their

legitimacy from national constitutions that provide a legal framework for
their rule and specify how power is to be exercised and controlled. Even
one-party states, such as the traditional Communist countries and other
nations in Africa, Asia, and South America, have found it necessary to
establish formal constitutions. In democratic countries the constitution can
be amended or replaced by popular vote, either directly or through a
system of elected representatives. In authoritarian one-party systems,
however, all political power, including that of revising the constitution,
resides with the leaders of the party. The constitution may thus be only a
paper facade, and in order to understand how the country is governed
one must examine the actual political process.

Democracy. Representative government in the modern world is based not

only on a constitution that provides for it but on the actual rule of law - the
assurance that provisions of the constitution will be enforced. It requires
that citizens be free to organize competing political parties, engage in
political campaigns, and hold elections according to agreed-upon rules.
Democratic governments vary in structure. Two common forms are the
parliamentary and the presidential. In the parliamentary form of
government, as in Australia, Britain, Canada, or India, all political power is
concentrated in the parliament or legislature. The prime minister or premier
and the officers of the cabinet are members of the parliament. They
continue in office only as long as parliament supports - or has "confidence"
in - their policies. In the presidential form of government, as in Philippines,
France and the United States, the voters elect a powerful chief executive
who is independent of the legislature but whose actions are delimited by
constitutional and other legal restraints.

Dictatorship. As a form of government, dictatorship is principally a 20th-

century phenomenon. The dictator, often a military leader, concentrates
political power in himself and his clique. There is no effective rule of law.
The regime may or may not have a distinctive political ideology and may
or may not allow token opposition. The main function of a dictatorship is to
maintain control of all governmental operations. There have been some
cases - Indira Gandhi in India and several military dictatorships in Latin
America - in which authoritarian rulers have relaxed their control and have
even allowed open elections. In certain Soviet-bloc countries of Eastern
Europe dictators were forced from power in bloodless coups or voluntarily
relinquished their authority to popularly elected officials as Soviet power
declined.
 11

The totalitarian dictatorship, as in Nazi Germany, Communist China, and

the former USSR, is much more thoroughgoing. It seeks to control all aspects
of national life, including the beliefs and attitudes of its people. It has a set
of ideas that everyone is expected to embrace, such as revolutionary
Marxism or counterrevolutionary fascism. At its most extreme, as during the
leadership of Joseph Stalin in the USSR, the power of the dictator may
become more absolute than in any of the earlier forms of tyranny. Such
gross power in the hands of one person results inevitably in the
development of what has been called a cult of personality. The leader is
credited with almost infallible wisdom, because to admit that he or she
may be wrong would deprive the regime of its authority. In some
Communist countries the cult of personality appears to have given way to
the dominance of a group of party leaders - a ruling oligarchy. The
administrative complexities of managing a modern industrial state are too
great to be monopolized by an individual leader such as Stalin or Mao
Zedong (Mao Tse-tung). The successor regime in China, for example,
continues to claim infallibility for its policies and doctrines but not for the
leaders. Examples of 20th-century dictators in addition to those already
mentioned include Idi Amin Dada (Uganda), Kemal AtatÃrk (Turkey),
Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro (Cuba), Francisco Franco (Spain),
Saddam Hussein (Iraq), Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines), Benito Mussolini
(Italy), Juan Perón (Argentina), and António Salazar (Portugal).
 12

Self-
Assessment

Read the following questions and choose the letter of the correct answer.
Write them on the blanks provided before the number

_______1. A democracy is defined by the fact that

a. The leader is called the president or prime minister
b. People choose who will govern them
c. The government is popular
d. Only one person holds all the power

_______2. A country in which people vote for representatives and those

representatives choose the leader of the country is called
a. A direct democracy
b. An autocracy
c. A parliamentary democracy
d. A presidential democracy

_______3. Which of the following is true?

a. For a decade, the world has been becoming less free and
democratic.
b. When countries become less free and democratic, it usually
happens suddenly.
c. Democracies have never outnumbered autocracies.
d. The world is becoming increasingly free and democratic.

_______4. Which of the following is true about healthy democracies?

a. They protect all the pillars of democracies with laws, leaving
none as norms.
b. They always fully and completely embody the pillars of
democracy, such as having free and fair elections, protecting
civil liberties, and ensuring that everyone is equal before the
law and no one is above it.
c. Through a combination of laws, institutions, and norms they do
their best to embody the pillars of a strong democracy,
although sometimes, they struggle.
d. They need not have a civilian-controlled military or
independent media.

_______5. Anger towards the totalitarian rule of then President Ferdinand E.

Marcos for suppressing dissent and overthrowing a dictatorial regime is
primarily an example of a(n) ______ grievance that led to a revolution.
a. Social
b. Political
c. Economic