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READINGS IN PHILIPPINE
HISTORY
Chapter 1
John Lee P. Candelaria Veronica
C. Alporha
Introduction to History: Definition, Issues,
Sources, and Methodology

Learning Objectives
To understand the meaning of history as an academic discipline
and to be familiar with the underlying philosophy and metho
dology of the discipline. To apply the knowledge in historical
methodology and philosophy in assessing and analyzing
existing historical narratives.
To critically examine and assess the value of historical
evidences and sources. To appreciate the importance
of history in the social and national
life of the Philippines. This chapter introduces us to history as a
discipline and as a narrative. We are presented with the definition
of the history, which transcends the common definition of history
as the study of the past. This chapter also discusses several
issues in history that consequently opens up for the theoretical
aspects of the discipline. The distinction between primary and
secondary sources is also discussed in relation to
the historical subject matter being studied and the historical
methodology employed by the historian. Ultimately, this chapter also
tackles the task of the historian as the arbiter of facts and evidences
in making his interpretation and forming the historical narrative.
NI GEC Series
BASED VES
OUTCOME EDUCATION

First Edition
Definition and Subject Matter
This loophole was recognized by historians who started using other kinds of
historical sources, which may not be in written format but were just as valid. A few
of these examples are oral traditions in forms of epics and songs, artifacts, architecture,
and memory. History thus became more inclusive and started collaborating with other
disciplines as its auxiliary disciplines. With the aid of archaeologists, historians can use artifacts
from a bygone era to study ancient civilizations who were formerly ignored in
history because of lack of documents. Linguists can also be helpful in tracing historical
evolutions, past connections among different groups, and flow of cultural influence by studying
language and the changes that it has undergone to. Even scientists like biologists and biochemists
can help with the study of the past through analyzing genetic and DNA patterns of
human societies.

Questions and Issues in History

History has always been known as the study of the past. Students of
general education often dreaded the subject for its notoriety in requiring students to
memorize dates, places, names, and events from distant eras. This low appreciation
of the discipline may be rooted from the shallow understanding of history's relevance to
their lives and to their respective contexts. While the popular definition of history as the
study of the past is not wrong, it does not give justice to the complexity of the subject and its
importance to human civilization.

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 of a group of people through
written documents and historical evidences. That meaning stuck until the early parts of
the 20th century. History became an important academic discipline. It became the
historian's duty to write about the lives of important individuals like monarchs,
heroes, saints, and nobilities. History was also focused on writing about wars,
revolutions, and other important breakthroughs. It is thus important to ask: What counts as
history? Traditional historians lived with the mantra of "no document, no history." It means
that, unless a written document can prove a certain historical event, then it cannot be considered as
a historical fact.

But as any other academic disciplines, history progressed and opened up to the
possibility of valid historical sources which were not limited to written documents
like government records, chroniclers'accounts, or personal letters. Giving premium to
written documents essentially invalidates the history of other civilizations who do
not keep written records. Some are keener on passing their history by word of
mouth. Others got their historical documents burned or destroyed in the events of war or
colonization. Restricting historical evidence as exclusively written is also discrimination
of other social classes who are not recorded in paper. Nobilities, monarchs, the elite,
and even the middle class would have their birth, education, marriage, and death as
matters of government and historical record. But what of peasant families or
indigenous groups who do not give much thought about being registered to
government records? Does the absence of written documents about them mean
that they are people of no history or past? Have they even existed?
Indeed, history as a discipline has already turned into a complex and dynamic
inquiry. This dynamism inevitably produced various perspectives on the
discipline regarding different questions like: What is history? Why study history?
And history for whom? These questions can be answered by historiography. In simple
terms, historiography is the history of history. History and historiography should
not be confused with one another. The former's object of study is the past, the
events that happened in the past, and the causes of such events. The latter's object
of study, on the other hand, is history itself (i.e., How was a certain historical text
written? Who wrote it? What was the context of its publication? What particular
historical method was employed? What were the sources used?), and so on,
and so forth. Thus, historiography lets the students to have a better
understanding of history. They do not only get to learn historical facts, they are
also provided with the understanding of the facts' and the historian's contexts. The
methods employed by the historian and the theory and perspective which guided him will also be
analyzed. Historiography is important for anyone who studies history because it teaches the student
to be critical in the lessons of history presented to him.
History has played various roles in the past. States use history to unite a nation. It can
be used as a tool to legitimize regimes and forge a sense of collective identity through
collective memory. Lessons from the past can be used to make sense of the present.
Learning of past mistakes can help people to not repeat it. Being reminded of a
great past can inspire people to keep their good practices to move forward.
Readings in Philippine History
Chapter 1 Introduction to History: Definition, Issues, Sources, and Methodology
intended for a certain
As a narrative, any history that has been taught and written is always
group of audience. When the ilustrados, like Jose Rizal, Isabelo de los Reyes,
and Pedro Paterno wrote history, they intended it for the Spaniards so that they will
realize that Filipinos are people of their own intellect and culture. When American historians
depicted the Filipino people as uncivilized in their publications, they intended that
narrative for their fellow Americans to justify their colonization of the islands.
They wanted the colonization to appear not as a means of undermining the Philippines
sovereignty, but as a civilizing mission to fulfill what they call as the "white man's
burden." The same is true for nations who prescribe official versions of their history like
North Korea, the Nazi Germany during the war period, and Thailand. The same
was attempted by Marcos in the Philippines during the 1970s.
One of the problems being confronted by history is the accusation that the
history is always written by victors. This connotes that the narrative of the
past is always written from the bias of the powerful and more dominant player. For
instance, the history of the Second World War in the Philippines will always depict the
United States as the hero and the Imperial Japanese Army as oppressors. Filipinos
who collaborated with the Japanese were lumped in the category of traitors or
collaborators. However, a more thorough historical investigation will reveal a more nuanced
account of the history of that period instead of a simplified narrative as a story of hero versus villain.
context, environment, ideology, education, and influences, among others. In that sense,
his interpretation of the historical fact is affected by his context and circumstances. His
subjectivity will inevitably influence the process of his historical research: the
methodology that he will use, the facts that he shall select and deem relevant, his
interpretation, and even the form of his writings. Thus, in one way or another, history is
is so, can history still be considered as an academic
always subjective. If that
and scientific inquiry?
Historical research requires rigor. Despite the fact that historians cannot
ascertain absolute objectivity, the study of history remains scientific because of the
rigor of research and methodology that historians employ. Historical methodology is
comprised of certain techniques and rules that historians follow in order to properly
sources and historical evidences in writing history. Certain rules apply in cases of conflicting
accounts in different sources, and on how to properly treat eyewitness accounts and oral
sources as valid historical evidence. In doing so, historical claims done by
historians and the arguments that they forward in their historical writings, while may be
influenced by the historian's inclinations, can still be validated by using reliable evidences and
employing correct and meticulous historical methodology. For example, if a historian
chooses to use an oral account as his data in studying the ethnic history of the
Ifugaos in the Cordilleras during the American Occupation, he needs to validate the
claims of his informant through comparing and corroborating it with written
sources. Therefore, while bias is inevitable, the historian can balance this out by relying to
evidences that back up his claim. In this sense, the historian need not let his bias
blind his judgment and such bias is only acceptable if he maintained his rigor as a
researcher.
History and the Historian

Historical Sources
If history is written with agenda or is heavily influenced by the historian, is it then
possible to come up with an absolute historical truth? Is history an objective discipline? If it
is not, is it still worthwhile to study history? These questions have haunted
historians for many generations. Indeed, an exact and accurate account of the
past is impossible for the very simple reason that we cannot go back to the past.
We cannot access the past directly as our subject matter. Historians only get to
access representation of the past through historical sources and evidences.
Therefore, it is the historian's job not just to seek historical evidences and facts
but also to interpret these facts. “Facts cannot speak for themselves." It is the job
of the historian to give meaning to these facts and organize them into a timeline,
establish causes, and write history. Meanwhile, the historian is not a blank paper who
mechanically interprets and analyzes present historical fact. He is a person of his own who is
influenced by his own
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 US Commissioners, records of the
convention, the draft of the Constitution, and even photographs of the event.
Eyewitness accounts of convention delegates and their memoirs

Readings in Philippine History

Chapter 1 Introduction to History: Definition, Issues, Sources, and Methodology
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 19th 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 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. Example 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 as 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 Philippine 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 pre-colonial 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
pre-colonial 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' 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, memory, remembering and historical understanding for
both the present and the future.

Readings in Philippine History

Chapter 1 Introduction to History: Definition, Issues, Sources, and Methodology
2.
It ...

Chapter Exercises

True or False. Write true if the statement is true. Otherwise, write false.

1. History is the study of the past. 2. Historical sources that are 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 criticism is done by examining the physical
characteristics of a source. 9. Internal criticism is done by looking at a source's quality of
paper, type of ink, among others. 10. The historians are the only source of history.
It was Lean's first day in his first year of college in a big university. His excitement
made him come to class unusually early and he found their classroom empty. He
explored the classroom and sat at the teacher's table. He looked at the table drawer
and saw a book entitled U.G. An Underground Tale: The Journey of Edgar
Jopson and the First Quarter Storm Generation. He started reading the book and
realized that it was a biography of a student leader turned political activist during the time of
Ferdinand Marcos. The author used interviews with friends and family of Jopson, and other
primary documents related to his works and life.
Is the book a primary, secondary, or a tertiary source?
3. Lorena was a new teacher of Araling Panlipunan in a small
elementary school in Mauban, Quezon. Her colleagues gave her the new textbook that
she ought to use in class. Before the class started, Lorena studied the textbook
carefully. She noted that the authors used works by other known historians in
writing the textbook. She saw that the bibliography included Teodoro Agoncillo's
"The Revolt of the Masses" and "The Fateful Years." She also saw that the authors
used Ma. Luisa Camagay's "Working Women of Manila" and many others. Is the
textbook a primary, secondary, or a tertiary source? Manuel visited the United States for
a few months to see his relatives who have lived there for decades. His uncle brought
him on tours around Illinois. Manuel visited the Field Museum of Natural History
where a golden image of a woman caught his eye: Manuel looked closer and
read that the image was called "The Golden Tara." It originated from Agusan del
Sur and was bought by the museum in 1922. It was believed to be made prior to the
arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines.

Is the sculpture a primary, secondary, or tertiary source? 5. Gregoria loved to travel

around the country. She liked bringing with
her a travel brochure that informs her of the different sites worth visiting in the
area. Her travel brochure was usually produced by the tourism department of the
province. It shows pictures of destinations visited by tourists and a few basic
information about
B. What Source? Read the following scenarios and classify the sources
discovered as primary, secondary, or tertiary sources. 1. Jose was exploring the
library in his new school in Manila. He
wanted to study the history of Calamba, Laguna during the 19th century. In one of the books,
he saw an old photograph of a woman standing in front of an old church, clipped
among the pages. At the back of the photo was a fine inscription that says: "Kalamba,
19 de
Junio 1861." Is the photograph a primary, secondary, or a tertiary source?
00

Readings in Philippine History

Chapter 1 Introduction to History: Definition, Issues, Sources, and Methodology
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the place like the origin of the name, the

historical significance of the place, and
some other information acquired by the
office's researchers and writers. Is the
travel brochure a primary, secondary, or a
tertiary source?
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My Primary Source. Using the examples of

a primary source in this chapter, bring a
primary source that can be used in the
writing of your life history. Present this in
class and discuss how it qualifies as a
primary source.
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Chapter 2
References Carr, E. (1991). What Is History.
London, United Kingdom: Penguin. Lemon,
M. (1995). The Discipline of History and
the History of Thought. New
York, United States of America:
Routledge. Tosh, J. (2002). The Pursuit of
History: Aims, Methods and New Directions
in the Study of Modern History (Revised
3rd Ed.). London, United Kingdom:
Pearson Education Ltd.
Content and Contextual Analysis
of Selected Primary Sources in
Philippine History

Learning Objectives:
• To familiarize oneself with the primary documents
in different
historical periods of the Philippines.
To learn history through primary sources.
To properly interpret primary sources through
looking at the content and context of the
document.

To understand the context behind each

selected document. In the preceding
chapter, we have discussed the importance
of familiarizing oneself about the different kinds
of historical sources. The historian's primary
tool of understanding and interpreting the past
is the historical sources. Historical sources
ascertain historical facts. Such facts are then
analyzed and interpreted by the historian to
weave historical narrative. Specifically,
historians who study certain historical
subjects and events need to make use of various
primary sources in order to weave the narrative.
Primary sources, as discussed in the preceding chapter,
consist of documents, memoir, accounts, and other
materials that were produced at the period of the
event or subject being studied.

Readings in Philippine History

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