CHAPTER V

THE MORGA AND RIZAL’S SEARCH FOR

ORIGIN

INTRODUCTION
Rizal said the Noli Me Tangere is a sketch of the actual conditions of our
country and while writing his first novel, he realized that before he could write more
chapters about the present, or produce a sequel, he first had to visit the past. He had
to reflect on what had taken place during the past 3 centuries. He said he was born
and bred oblivious of our past, like most of his contemporaries; so, he felt that he had
no voice or authority to talk on what he did not know. He found it necessary “to
invoke the testimony of an “illustrious Spaniard” who ruled the destiny of the
Philippines and was witness to the dwindling of our former identity.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this chapter, students are expected to:
1. Explain Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas and the Sikatuna and
Legazpi blood compact.
2. Compare and contrast Rizal and Morga’s different views about Filipinos
and Philippine Culture
3. Analyze Rizal’s ideas on how to write Philippine History.

MORGA’S SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS

The illustrious Spaniard was Doctor Antonio de Morga, author of Sucesos de
las Islas Filipinas that was published in Mexico in 1609. The book had been out of
circulation when Rizal discovered it in an obscure corner of the British Library and
Museum. Some of my historian friends believe that Rizal had always wanted to write
a history of the Philippines but never found the time, so the next best thing was to
annotate Morga’s book, which he copied by hand. Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt was
asked to write the prologue in Spanish, instead he wrote Rizal a long letter with
constructive criticism.
Rizal had read works about the Philippines written by friars like Fr. Gaspar de
San Agustin and Fr. Chirino; these were about the conquest and evangelization of
the Philippines; Morga’s book was rare because it was written by a layperson. In his
annotations, Rizal would refer to Chirino and Gaspar de San Agustin, as well as to
Isabelo los Reyes (“Limahong and Los Régulos de Manila”), Argensola (The
Conquest of the Molucas) and to Trinidad Pardo de Tavera.
The first seven chapters which covered Spanish colonial rule from Adelantado
Miguel Lopez de Legazpi to Don Pedro de Acuña were packed with stories about
political intrigue that gurgled from the Capitania-General de Filipinas, swirled directly

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to the Metropolis (Spain), but sometimes took a circuitous route through the
Virreinato de la Nueva España (Mexico). The Captain-Generals (Governor-Generals)
while supervising the evangelization of the Philippines had their sights strained on
the Moluccas, China, Japan, and, believe it or not, Cambodia, Siam, and Cochin
China as well. Although the Moluccas fell under Portugal’s domain, the spice trade
was irresistible and the Spaniards based in Manila would sail there to sow intrigue
among the princelings that were always at war with each other.
Nepotism was commonplace, so was corruption. The religious orders were
relentless in spreading the Faith among “infidels” even if a number of them were
tortured and crucified in China and Japan and other heathen lands. Oftentimes, these
politico-religious activities were carried out without the knowledge of the Spanish
monarchs. In several annotations, Rizal repeatedly pointed out that“ to pacify” or
“pacification” which were the politically correct word during Morga’s days were, in
fact, synonyms for “make war” or “ sow animosity.” He also said that the
evangelization of the Philippines was far from complete, so there was really to need
to cross borders.
Morga wrote copiously about the Moro pirate raids of the Visayas and Luzon
and the myriad attempts of the Spanish governors to conquer Mindanao, Jolo, and
Sulu. Rizal noted that because the Spanish colonial administration forbade the
Christianized natives to bear arms, they could not defend themselves against the
Moro raids; that encouraged the marauders.
Rizal said that Antonio de Morga was a witness of the dying days of the
native way of life, the end of that contact period and because he was a lay man, his
observations would be a counterpoint to what the religious missionaries had written
about the Philippines.
The value of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas has long been
recognized. 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.

WHO IS ANTONIO DE MORGA?

Antonio de Morga Sánchez Garay (November 29, 1559 – July 21, 1636) was
a Spanish soldier, lawyer and a high-ranking colonial official for 43 years, in the

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Philippines (1594 to 1604), New Spain and Peru, where he was president of the Real
Audiencia for 20 years. He was also a historian. After being reassigned to Mexico, he
published the book Sucesos de las islas Filipinas in 1609, considered one of the
most important works on the early history of the Spanish colonization of the
Philippines. As Deputy Governor in the Philippines, he restored the audencia. He
took over the function of judge or oidor. He also took command of Spanish ships in a
1600 naval battle against Dutch corsairs, but suffered defeat and barely survived.
His history was first published in English in 1868; numerous editions have
been published in English, including a 1907 edition that is online at the Gutenberg
Project. It has also been reprinted in Spanish and other languages.
Antonio de Morga Sánchez Garay was born in Seville. He graduated from the
University of Salamanca in 1574 and in 1578 received a doctorate in canon law. He
taught briefly in Osuna, and then returned to Salamanca to study civil law. In 1580 he
joined the government service as a lawyer. Among other positions in Spain, he held
that of auditor general of the galleys. In 1582 he was serving as mayor of Baracaldo
in Vizcaya when he first married, to Juana de Briviesca de Munotones.
In August 1593 he was notified that he had been selected as Lieutenant to
the Governor-General of the Philippines, starting what would become 43 years of
colonial service. He traveled accompanied by his family, 14 servants, three black
slaves and his collection of books. Following the route of that time, he sailed from
Cadiz in February 1594, arriving in Mexico in May. During the following period of
preparation for the Pacific voyage, he heard two important cases, and supervised the
supplying of the two ships to be used. He also recruited 200 soldiers for the garrison
in Manila. They departed Acapulco on March 22, 1595, reaching Manila on June 11,
1595. He had the second-most powerful position in the colony.
He first served under Governor-General Luis Pérez Dasmariñas, who was
interim after his father's death. Francisco Tello de Guzmán soon succeeded him, and
Morga reported to him during most of his time in the colony. In his account of the
colonial Philippines published in 1609, Morga noted the miserable condition suffered
by many of the Spanish/Mexican soldiers, who were young, ill-paid and suffered in
that unfamiliar environment. Few wanted to settle in Manila, and higher-level
government officials also sought to leave the colony in a few years. His first two
reports to the Crown covered a wide variety of topics, mentioning Japan, Mindanao,
and China, in addition to civil, military and ecclesiastical activities within the colony.
He issued regulations for administrative reform, known as the Ordenzas.
Among his reforms was to restore the audencia. In 1598 he resigned as lieutenant
governor to assume the office of oidor, or judge, in the newly re-established
Audiencia of Manila. The position required his removal from much public life.
Morga suffered important failures in both his military and political capacities.
The same cannot be said for his work as historian. In 1609, he published the work for
which he is now remembered – Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Events in the
Philippine Isles). This work, perhaps the best account of Spanish colonialism in the
Philippines written during that period, is based partly on documentary research, partly
on keen observation, and partly on Morga's personal involvement and knowledge.
The history was published in two volumes, both in 1609 by Casa de
Geronymo Balli, in Mexico City. (The work had circulated for years before this in
manuscript form.) New Spain Viceroy Luis de Velasco (hijo) authorized the

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publication and granted Morga the sole right to publish it for ten years, on April 7,
1609. On the same date, Fray García Guerra, archbishop of Mexico, approved the
publication of the work. The history covers the years from 1493 to 1603. Political,
social, and economic phases of life, both among the natives and their conquerors,
are treated. Morga's official position allowed him access to many government
documents.
The work greatly impressed Philippine independence hero José Rizal (1861–
96), himself a man of letters and of action. He decided to annotate it and publish a
new edition. He began work on this in London, completing it in Paris in 1890. He
wrote:
If the book (Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas) succeeds to awaken your consciousness
of our past, already effaced from your memory, and to rectify what has been falsified
and slandered, then I have not worked in vain, and with this as a basis, however
small it may be, we shall be able to study the future.

The first English translation was published in London in 1868. Another

English translation by Blair and Robertson was published in Cleveland in 1907, (it is
available online at the Gutenberg Project) and an edition edited by J.S. Cummins
was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1971 (ISBN 0-521-01035-7).

SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS

Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (English: Events in the Philippine Islands) is a

book written and published by Antonio de Morga considered as one of the most
important works on the early history of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. It
was published in 1609 after he was reassigned to Mexico in two volumes by Casa de
Geronymo Balli, in Mexico City. The first English translation was published in London
in 1868 and another English translation by Blair and Robertson was published in
Cleveland in 1907.
The work greatly impressed the Philippine national hero José Rizal and
decided to annotate it and publish a new edition and began working on it in London
and completing it in Paris in 1890.
The title literary means Events in the Philippine Islands and thus the books
primary goal is a documentation of events during the Spanish colonial period of the
Philippines as observed by the author himself. The book also includes Filipino
customs, traditions, manners, and religion during the Spanish conquest.

PACTO DE SANGRE: WHY WERE WE CONQUERED?

Pacto de sangre
The Pacto de sangre, Sandugo was a blood compact performed in the island
of Bohol in the Philippines, between the Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi
and Datu Sikatuna the chieftain of Bohol on March 16, 1565, to seal their friendship
as part of the tribal tradition. This is considered as the first treaty of friendship
between the Spaniards and Filipinos. "Sandugo" is a Visayan word which means
"one blood".

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 The Sandugo is depicted in both the provincial flag and the official seal of the
government in Bohol. It also features the image of the blood compact. The top of the
seal explains the history behind the Sandugo event that occurred in Bohol, the fleet
and the location where the Spaniards anchored and the place where the treaty was
conducted which was dated on March 16, 1565.
In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan became the first person
from Europe to reach Asia by sailing west, a voyage of which he would meet an
untimely death in the island of the Philippines. Spain sent expeditions to colonize the
East Indies in their competition with Portugal to seize control over the spice trade.
However, all of these expeditions failed. It was not until Miguel López de Legazpi,
sailing from Mexico with five ships and five hundred men, reached the Philippines in
1565 and a Spanish settlement was established. López de Legazpi was greeted by
hostile Muslim tribes opposing a foreign invasion. His attempt to land on the island of
Cebu resulted in the death of one of his soldiers prompting him to explore another
island and seek trade with various tribes.
Sailing south toward the island of Mindanao, López de Legazpi's fleet
encountered highwinds forcing them to sail northward to the island of Bohol. There,
he captured a vessel from Borneo whose Malay sailors informed the Spaniards that
the natives inhabiting the region traded with people from Borneo and Indonesia.
Arriving in Bohol, López de Legazpi noticed the hostility of the people. The Malayan
servant explained that such hostility was due to the expeditions conducted by the
Portuguese from the Moluccas islands. In 1563, Portuguese fleets arrived in Visayan
waters and enslaved about 1,000 inhabitants. López de Legazpi, with the help of the
Malayan sailor, explained to the tribes in Bohol that they were not Portuguese and
that they had come to the islands to trade. Upon learning this, the chieftains and their
tribes became friendlier and welcoming to the Spaniards.

The Significance
The hostility of the Visayans toward the Legazpi expedition was
understandable in view of their bad experience with the Portuguese. Two years
before Legazpi came, a group of Portuguese and their allies tricked the Boholanos
and plundered the island of Dauis-Panglao. They also did the same to Camiguin and
other Visayan settlements. So when Legazpi came, the hatred against the "white
men with beards" was still strong. Being white and bearded, Legazpi and his men
were easily thought of as Portuguese.
Because of this hostile attitude, Legazpi and his men could not get help from
the natives in terms of getting food to eat and supplies. But when Legazpi learned
about the reason for the hostile behavior, he used an interpreter to inform the
Boholanos that he and his men were not Portuguese and that they did not come to
plunder but for peace.
That the Boholanos welcomed the Spaniards despite their bad experience
with white and bearded foreigners is also understandable since Legazpi met
Pagbuaya or Lagubayan. Pagbuaya was the brother of Dailisan, the great datu of
Bohol who was killed by the Portuguese. Pagbuaya migrated to Dapitan after the
siege of Bohol. His rank was higher compared to Sikatuna. According to some
sources, Sikatuna was a vassal (a person under the protection of a feudal lord to
whom he has vowed homage and fealty) of Pagbuaya. And according to Rizal's
sources, Pagbuaya gave Legaspi sea pilots. Hence, it is very likely that the pilots

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brought Legazpi to Bohol or informed Legazpi about it when the expedition was near
the island.
We can only surmise the intention why Sikatuna went on board a Spanish
vessel and performed the sandugo rite with Legazpi. Probably, Legazpi told Sikatuna
that he was a friend of Pagbuaya. Probably, the previous raid taxed the courage of
the Boholanos and made them complacent to offers of friendship. Perhaps the
memory of the plunder simply made them glad that white foreigners are friendly and
then seized this opportunity to formally seal the friendship to prevent any more
Portuguese or similar attacks. Sikatuna's intention, however, may become clearer by
looking at the context of sandugo.
The prehispanic Visayan settlements were regularly at war with each other.
These hostilities were "suspended or avoided by sandugo (Scott, p. 156, 1994)."
Sandugo is a Visayan procedure by which "two men, not necessarily enemies,
became blood brothers, vowing to stick together through thick and thin, war and
peace, and to observe mourning restriction whenever they were separated from one
another (Ibid.)." Because of this, "[A]ll Spanish explorers from Magellan to Legazpi
made such pacts with Visayan datus (Ibid.)." Since sandugo is a Visayan rite, it was
very likely that Sikatuna had good intentions in making the peace pact.
What is questionable was the motive of Legazpi in agreeing to perform the
sandugo. First, he was authorized by the King of Spain to enter the Philippine Islands
and to use force when necessary (of course with the concurrence of his chiefs who
are part of his council). Second, his men were hungry so they needed the natives to
provide them with food, even if they have to rightfully pay for it. Third, he did not have
the cultural background to understand the natives' sandugo rite, hence, probably did
not understand the deep and wide implications of such rite. Fourth, he took
possession of the island in the name of the King of Spain inspite of the sandugo. And
fifth, he made Bohol part of the encomienda system of the country.
The Sikatuna-Legazpi sandugo, therefore, was not a formal international
treaty of friendship. Granting that it was, the terms and conditions were definitely not
consummated on the part of the Spaniards. On the contrary, the blood compact could
be interpreted as the first formal treachery or swindling committed by the Spaniards
against the Boholanos, as distinguished from the one committed by the Portuguese
and their allies.

RIZAL’S MORGA AND ILUSTRADO VIEW OF THE

PRECONQUEST
To the Filipinos: In Noli Me Tangere I started to sketch the present state of
our native land. But the effect which my effort produced made me realize that, before
attempting to unroll before your eyes the other pictures which were to follow, it was
necessary first to post you on the past. So only can you fairly judge the present and
estimate how much progress has been made during the three centuries (of Spanish
rule).
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, I deem it necessary to quote the testimony of an illustrious Spaniard who in

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the beginning of the new era controlled the destinies of the Philippines and had
personal knowledge of our ancient nationality in its last days.
It is then the shade of our ancestor's civilization which the author will call
before you... If the work serves to awaken in you a consciousness of our past, and to
blot from your memory or to rectify what has been falsified or is calumny, then I shall
not have labored in vain. With this preparation, slight though it is, we can all pass to
the study of the future.
Rizal painstakingly put things in their proper context: Morga said the natives
revere and venerate the crocodile because they are afraid of its power. Even
Christians curse “may the crocodile kill him!” to those who make false promises,
perjure, and breach contracts. May they suffer the wrath of the buhaya! Rizal
explained that there were instances when crocodiles, while sparing their Indio
servants, gobbled friars. Historians have given propitious explanations when that
happens, but not when Indios are victims.

DR. JOSE RIZAL'S ANNOTATIONS TO MORGA'S 1609

PHILIPPINE HISTORY

Governor Antonio de Morga was not only the first to write but also the first to
publish a Philippine history. This statement has regard to the concise and concrete
form in which our author has treated the matter. Father Chirino's work, printed at
Rome in 1604, is rather a chronicle of the Missions than a history of the Philippines;
still it contains a great deal of valuable material on usages and customs. The worthy
Jesuit in fact admits that he abandoned writing a political history because Morga had
already done so, so one must infer that he had seen the work in manuscript before
leaving the Islands.
- 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.
Nevertheless in other lands, notably in Flanders, these means were
ineffective to keep the church unchanged, or to maintain its supremacy, or
even to hold its subjects.
- Great kingdoms were indeed discovered and conquered in the remote and
unknown parts of the world by Spanish ships but to the Spaniards who sailed
in them we may add Portuguese, Italians, French, Greeks, and even Africans
and Polynesians. The expeditions captained by Columbus and Magellan, one
a Genoese Italian and the other a Portuguese, as well as those that came
after them, although Spanish fleets, still were manned by many nationalities
and in them went negroes, Moluccans, and even men from the Philippines
and the Marianes Islands.
- Three centuries ago it was the custom to write as intolerantly as Morga does,
but nowadays it would be called a bit presumptuous. No one has a monopoly
of the true God nor is there any nation or religion that can claim, or at any rate
prove, that to it has been given the exclusive right to the Creator of all things
or sole knowledge of His real being.
- 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

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 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. Then the islands which the Spaniards early
held but soon lost are non-Christian-Formosa, Borneo, and the Moluccas.
And if there are Christians in the Carolines, that is due to Protestants, whom
neither the Roman Catholics of Morga's day nor many Catholics in our own
day consider Christians.
- Morga shows that the ancient Filipinos had army and navy with artillery and
other implements of warfare. Their prized krises and kampilans for their
magnificent temper are worthy of admiration and some of them are richly
damascened. Their coats of mail and helmets, of which there are specimens
in various European museums, attest their great advancement in this
industry.
- Morga's expression that the Spaniards "brought war to the gates of the
Filipinos" is in marked contrast with the word used by subsequent historians
whenever recording Spain's possessing herself of a province, that she
pacified it. Perhaps "to make peace" then meant the same as "to stir up war."
(This is a veiled allusion to the old Latin saying of Romans, often quoted by
Spaniard's, that they made a desert, calling it making peace.
- Morga has evidently confused the pacific coming of Legaspi with the attack of
Goiti and Salcedo, as to date. According to other historians it was in 1570 that
Manila was burned, and with it a great plant for manufacturing artillery. Goiti
did not take posession of the city but withdrew to Cavite and afterwards to
Panay, which makes one suspicious of his alleged victory. As to the day of
the date, the Spaniards then, having come following the course of the sun,
were some sixteen hours later than Europe. This condition continued till the
end of the year 1844, when the 31st of December was by special
arrangement among the authorities dropped from the calendar for that year.
Accordingly Legaspi did not arrive in Manila on the 19th but on the 20th of
May and consequently it was not on the festival of Santa Potenciana but on
San Baudelio's day. The same mistake was made with reference to the other
early events still wrongly commemorated, like San Andres' day for the repulse
of the Chinese corsair Li Ma-hong.
- 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. "Otherwise, says Gaspar de San Agustin, there
would have been no fruit of the Evangelic Doctrine gathered, for the infidels
wanted to kill the Friars who came to preach to them." An example of this
method of conversion given by the same writer was a trip to the mountains by
two Friars who had a numerous escort of Pampangans. The escort's leader
was Don Agustin Sonson who had a reputation for daring and carried fire and
sword into the country, killing many, including the chief, Kabadi.
- "The Spaniards, says Morga, were accustomed to hold as slaves such
natives as they bought and others that they took in the forays in the conquest
or pacification of the islands." Consequently in this respect the "pacifiers"

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 introduced no moral improvement. We even do not know if in their wars the
Filipinos used to make slaves of each other, though that would not have been
strange, for the chroniclers tell of captives returned to their own people. The
practice of the Southern pirates almost proves this, although in these piratical
wars the Spaniards were the first aggressors and gave them their character.

RIZAL AND MORGA’S VIEWS ABOUT THE FILIPINOS

AND PHILIPPINE HISTORY
Jose Rizal lamented that he was born and bred without knowing about our
pre-colonial past. As a result, he felt that he had neither voice nor authority to talk on
what he did not know. You can be sure that most of his contemporaries felt the same
way. When he was a student of the Ateneo Municipal, Rizal did write an allegorical
anti-colonial play where the Devil was raving about how beautiful this archipelago
was before the Spaniards came.
We can only imagine how difficult it must have been to research about our
past history in those days. Most of the available sources were written by friars of the
religious orders, zealous missionaries determined to obliterate native beliefs which
they considered idolatrous and cultural practices which to them were savage. Rizal
must have spent hours plowing through early Philippine histories by Fathers Pedro
Chirino (1604), Francisco Colin (1663), Gaspar de San Agustin (1698), all of which
he mentioned in his annotations of Dr. Antonio Morga’s book, Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas, published in Mexico (Nueva España) in 1609. It was already out of
circulation when Rizal saw it in an obscure corner of the British Library and Museum.
Rizal and his barkada, the “Indios Bravos,” were not entirely ignorant of the
ethnic or indigenous communities of the Motherland; in fact, they abhorred the
colonial practice of displaying “samples” of these “savages” in European fairs to
justify the conquest of the Philippines by Spain. While in Europe, Rizal came across
research papers about various ethnic communities in Asia published by eminent
European scientists; one of them was Ferdinand Blumentritt, the author of “Versuch
einer Etnographie der Philippinen.” Rizal wrote to him and that was how their
friendship began.
Chapter 8 is, about how the natives looked like, their clothes and gold jewelry,
customs, and governance before the arrival of the Spaniards and after the conquest
and other special features. Rizal’s annotations are longer than the chapter itself. He
noticed all of Morga’s “mistakes.” The author had misspelled many native names of
places, flora and fauna, and social classes, which Rizal corrected; he also clarified
geographical locations. For example, Morga said Tendaya island was one of the
largest. Fr. Urdaneta said it was close to Maluco but Fr. Colin vouched it was in the
vicinity of Leyte. Other sources revealed that Tendaya was a person’s name, the
island never existed.
Morga said that cotton was grown extensively in practically all the islands
which the natives sold as thread and woven fabrics to Chinese and other foreign
merchants. They also spun thread from banana leaves; Rizal clarified, Morga must
have meant sinamay, which was woven from abaca thread that comes from the

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trunk, not the leaves. He then quoted Fr. Chirino who wrote that these cotton fabrics
were sought-after in Nueva España and that encomenderos made fortunes on the
cotton trade. That was 31 years after the encomiendas were created, but, Rizal
pointed out, the industrious natives were so discouraged by extreme exploitation,
they abandoned the fields and burned the weaving looms.
Morga was obviously fascinated with the social organization of the natives; he
described origins, differences, privileges of social classes, upward and downward
mobility, inheritance of possessions and titles. Rizal emphasized that native women,
unlike their European counterparts, never lost their noble titles. In marriage, it was
the groom who gave the bride’s parents a dowry because they were losing a
precious daughter.
As expected, Morga was critical of the system of government, which he said,
barely existed because there was no powerful figure that ruled over myriad
communities, most of them coastal, each with its own set of leaders. Rizal argued
that it was better that way; why should the communities be beholden to one ruler who
didn’t even live among them and was not familiar with their needs and problems?
How could he have solved disputes, mete justice, implement policies, if he didn’t
even live in the community? (Perhaps Rizal was in favor of federalism.)
One of the most laborious footnotes was about the literacy of pre-colonial
Filipinos. Morga said that natives of all the islands had their own form of writing with
characters that looked like Greek or Arabic. Sadly enough, Rizal said, that was no
longer true. Although the colonial government claimed, in word and deed, that it was
instructing the Filipinos, in truth, it was fomenting ignorance by putting the friars in
charge of education. Not only Filipinos but also Peninsulares and foreigners accused
them of wanting to stupefy (embrutecer) the nation and that was evident in their
writings and behavior.
With regard to the ancient script, many eminent scholars have written about it.
After Chirino, Colin, and De San Agustin came Jacquet of “Journal Asiatique,” Alfred
Marche’s “Luçon and Palaouan” which was about the Tagbanuas; T. Pardo de
Tavera’s, “Contribucion para el studio de los antiguos alfabetos Filipinos (1884).
Through Ferdinand Blumentritt, Rizal met the most eminent European
ethnologists of those days. They must have been quite impressed by the intellectual
curiosity of this young Asian that they invited him to be a member of their prestigious
society of ethnologists. Rizal was so enthused, he made plans for an international
conference about the Philippines, but unfortunately his audacious ideas not pull
through.
Had he lived longer, I am sure he would have spent many years studying the
past. After all, his third novel, Makamisa, was about the period of transition about
which we know so little. He would have gone to the highlands to meet the Ifugaos
and Tinggians and live among our ancestors.

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 ASSESSMENT

Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _____

Course / Section: _______________________________________ Score: ______
Instructions: Write your answer on a separate sheet of paper. Always write your
NAME, COURSE and YEAR, and STUDENT NUMBER.
A. Make a table comparing and contrasting Rizal and Morga’s views on Filipino
culture and history in relation with the Sucesos delas Islas Filipinas.
B. Make a short essay expressing your impression towards Jose Rizal as a
historian.

REFERENCES
The Kahimyang Project. (n.d.). Dr. Jose Rizal’s annotations to Morga’s 1609
Philippine History. Retrieved October 25, 2020 from
https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/966/dr-jose-rizals-annotations-to-
morgas-1609-philippine-history
The Biography (2018). Biography of Antonio de Morga (s.XVII). Retrieved October
25, 2020 from https://thebiography.us/en/morga-antonio-de
Cajes, A.S. (March 31, 2011). The Sikatuna-Legazpi Blood Compact. Retrieved
October 25, 2020 from http://alsalca.blogspot.com/2011/03/sikatuna-legazpi-
blood-compact.html

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