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MODULE 1

INTRODUCTION TO READINGS
IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

Learning Outcome

1. To discuss the meaning and relevance of the study of history; and

2. To evaluate primary sources for their credibility, authenticity and
provenance.
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MEANING AND RELEVANCE OF HISTORY

Meaning

The English word ‘History’ is derived from the Greek noun ‘Historia’. ‘History’
or ‘Historia’ simply means ‘inquiry’ or ‘research’.

Merriam Webster defined history as a chronological record of significant events

(such as those affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their
causes.

“History is a narration of the events which have happened among mankind,

including an account of the rise and fall of nations, as well as of other great changes
which have affected the political and social condition of the human race.”
—John J. Anderson. 1876. A Manual of General History

“History is a record of unchanging past.”

- Aristotle

"History is all the remains that have come down to us from the past, studied with
all the critical and interpretative power that the present can bring to the task."
- Frederick Jackson Turner

“History deals with the past, not with the future. We use history to avoid the
mistakes of the past, not to recreate the very same events. You cannot.”
— Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Talking History: Conversations with Teodoro A.
Agoncillo

"History is not the past . . . History is the distillation of evidence surviving from
the past. Where there is no evidence there is no history."
- Oscar Handlin, Truth in History
-
“History is the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another.”
- Jacob Burckhardt

“History is a connected account of the course of events or progress of

ideas.”
- Rapson

Historiography- refers to the writing of history based on the critical examination

of sources and the selection of particulars from the authentic materials. It also includes
the synthesis of particulars into a narrative that will stand the test of critical methods
(Merriam Webster).

Philippine Historiography as mentioned by Candelaria and Alporha in 2018,

underwent several changes since the pre- colonial period until the present.
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Below are some of the Filipino historians with their different views on Philippine historiography:

a. Gregorio F. Zaide, Fr. Horacio Dela Costa and Fr. Jose Arcilla-
Philippine History in clerical point of view.

b. Teodoro Agoncillo- nationalist point of view of Filipino history (nationalist

historiography); said that Philippine History started in 1872.

c. Samuel K. Tan- Philippine history is a collective interplay of events; history is

not just the work of a particular group of people in a particular place; opposed
the Manila- centered history.

d. Reynaldo C. Ileto- history from below; “Pasyon at Rebolusyon”.

e. Renato Constantino- “history is the achievement of man not the individual but
the collective”; history from below; masses as real movers of history.

f. Zeus A. Salazar- ”pantayong pananaw”; use of Filipino language as medium

of instruction in teaching history

Elements of History

1. The Historian/ Author

Refers to the person writing/ documenting the events/ history.

2. Place

The location where the history was written.

3. Period

It refers to the context of the time when the history was written.

4. Sources

Defined as objects that have been left in the past and that exist either as relic or as
testimonies of witnesses to the past.

Relevance
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“Nationalism is nourished by a sense of history. It is of its essence to know

profoundly the past, so that we may be in complete openness with the men who made that
history and to intimate communism with their thoughts, their deeds, and their noble
lives.”
Senator Claro M. Recto

History is pre- requisite to nationalism. One cannot truly love his country without
loving its history. If one loves a person, he will be much interested and will love to know
the history of the person he loves.

We study history to know and understand the events that took place in the
country. These events are both success stories and mistakes. We are studying the success
stories for them to serve as an inspiration to further to move forward as a nation. On the
other hand, we intend to understand our mistakes to learn from them and to be careful not
to commit them again.

HISTORICAL SOURCES

Most historical source material can be grouped into four basic categories:
documents, numerical records, oral statements, and relics.

Documents are written or printed materials that have been produced in one form
or another sometime in the past.

Numerical records include any type of numerical data in printed or handwritten

form.

Oral statements include any form of statement made orally by someone.

Relics are any objects whose physical or visual characteristics can provide some
information about the past.

DISTINCTION OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES

A primary source is one prepared by an individual who was a participant in, or a

direct witness to, the event that is being described. A secondary source is a document
prepared by an individual who was not a direct witness to an event, but who obtained his
or her description of the event from someone else.

Primary Sources
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These are contemporary accounts of an event, written by someone who

experienced or witnessed the event in question. These original documents (i.e.,
they are not about another document or account) are often diaries, letters,
memoirs, journals, speeches, manuscripts, interviews and other such unpublished
works. They may also include published pieces such as newspaper or magazine
articles (as long as they are written soon after the fact and not as historical
accounts), photographs, audio or video recordings, research reports in the natural
or social sciences, or original literary or theatrical works.

Secondary Sources

The function of these is to interpret primary sources, and so can be

described as at least one step removed from the event or phenomenon under
review. Secondary source materials, then, interpret, assign value to, conjecture
upon, and draw conclusions about the events reported in primary sources. These
are usually in the form of published works such as journal articles or books, but
may include radio or television documentaries, or conference proceedings.

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL CRITICISMS

External criticism refers to the genuineness of the documents a researcher uses

in a historical study.

Garraghan divides external criticism into six inquiries:

1. When was the source, written or unwritten, produced (date)?

2. Where was it produced (localization)?
3. By whom it was produced (authorship)?
4. From what pre- existing material was it produced (analysis)?
5. In what original form was it produced (integrity)?
6. What is the evidential value of its contents (credibility)?

Internal criticism refers to the accuracy of the contents of a document. Whereas

external criticism has to do with the authenticity of a document, internal criticism has to
do with what the document says.
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Questions of External and Internal Criticisms

In doing external and internal criticisms, the following shall be considered:

a. Genealogy of the Document

Is the source an original, a copy of the original or a copy of a copy?

b. Genesis of a Document

What kind of institution or individual produced a source, with what authority,

under what circumstances?

c. The Originality of the Document

How is the document rooted from other sources?

d. Interpretation of the Document

How did the author frame the intent and meaning of a composed material?

e. Authorial Authority

With what authority does the author of a source speak?

f. Competence of the Observer

What was the psychological state of the author of the source? To what
extent was the author’s report selective?
What prejudices would have informed the account? Under
what outside influences was the source created? Could the
observer have understood what he/she saw?
Was the observer technically or socially qualified to understand what he
saw?
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g. The Trustworthiness of the Observer

How does the author conceal or suppress knowledge to advance one’s agenda?

REPOSITORIES OF PRIMARY SOURCES

Primary sources can be located on the following:

National Archives of the Philippines (NAP)

Repository of public documents- notaries, birth

certificates, government correspondences and
records, maps to name few. In the case of the
Philippines, the earliest public document it has is
traceable to the time of the early Spanish conquest in the
1560s. When the Spaniards surrendered the Philippines to
the Americans by virtue of the Treaty of Paris in December
1898 (effective the following year), NAP Logo
Spanish government records were subsequently turned
over to the U.S. Military Governor in Intramuros. As time goes by, the holdings
of the National Archives reached more than ten of millions. (Our government
records under Aguinaldo administration- called the Philippine Revolutionary
Records- have separate repository at the National Library of the Philippines.)

The National Archives survived the destruction during World War II,
termites and silverfishes, earthquakes, floods, and fire. The government effort in
maintaining these national treasures continues.
([Link])

National Library of the Philippines (NLP)

The official national library of the country. Its

collections consists of more than 210, 000 books; over
880,000 manuscripts, all part of the Filipiniana
Division; more than 170,000 newspaper issues from
Metro Manila and across the Philippines; some 66,000
theses and dissertations; 104,000
government publications; 3,800 maps and 53,000
photographs.
Photo NLP Logo
Accounted in its collections include valuable
Rizaliana pieces, four incunabula, the original manuscript of Lupang
Hinirang (National Anthem), several sets of The Philippine Islands, 1493-
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1898, a collection of rare Filipiniana books previously owned by the Compana

General de Tabacos de Filipinas, and the documents of five Philippine Presidents.
The most prized possessions of the National Library, which include Rizal’s Noli
Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo and Mi Ultimo adios, three of his unfinished
novels and the Philippine Declaration of Independence, are kept in a special
double- combination vault at the rare documents section of the Filipiniana
Division’s reading room. ([Link])

National Museum of the Philippines

It is the government institution in the

Philippines that serves as an educational, scientific and
cultural institution in preserving the various permanent
national collections featuring the ethnographic,
anthropological, archaeological and visual artistry of
the Philippines.

Since 1998, the National Museum has been the

regulatory and enforcement agency of the
National Government in the restoring and safeguarding of important cultural
properties, sites and reservations throughout the Philippines.

University of the Philippines- Diliman Library

Situated at Gonzales Hall of the UP- Diliman campus, primary documents

of historical significance during the Spanish and Japanese Period can be seen in
the library of the UP- Diliman.

Local Studies Centers

Described and dedicated for the enrichment and study of one locality‟s
history, culture and related studies. Some of the local studies centers in the
country are: Cebuano Studies Center (University of San Carlos, Cebu City),
Cavite Studies Center (De La Salle University Dasmariñas), Bahay-saliksikan ng
Bulacan (Bulacan State University), Center for Tarlaqueño Studies (Tarlac State
University), Cordillera Studies Center (University of the Philippines Baguio),
Juan D. Nepomuceno Center for Kapampangan Studies (Holy Angel University),
Tayabas Studies and Creative Writing Center (Tayabas, Quezon), and Sta. Rosa
Studies Center (City of Sta. Rosa, Laguna).

According to Foronda in 1991, local studies centers in the Philippines

have the following functions:
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1. these serve as clearing house in-charge of collecting, organizing,

disseminating and preserving local studies materials of their particular
locality;
2. these local studies centers are responsible for conducting, publishing
and promoting local historical researches;
3. these are responsible for promoting historical events and creating
historical activities; and
4. these local studies centers are encouraged to establish and sustain
linkage and networking with other centers, historical bodies, and
government bodies both here and abroad (Foronda, 1991 as cited by
Jimenez, 2006, p. 7).

Online Sites

Some of the Spanish era primary sources can be accessed at the websites
of the following libraries: Archivo Nacional Historico, Archivo General de
Indians, and Portal de Archivos Espanoles (PARES). American period documents
can be accessed on the other hand at the websites of the following: Library of
Congress, HathITrust Digital Library, [Link] and University of Michigan
Library.

Groups in social media sites such as Facebook also upload photographs

and documents which are considered to be primary sources.

TECHNICAL TOOLS IN EXAMINING SOURCES

1. Paleography

It is the study of handwriting. This includes the forms and the processes of
writing.

2. Diplomatics

Used primarily for textual analysis; writing styles maybe determined by

its specific time/period wherein there is a set of writing conventions and
formulas.

3. Archaeology

The scientific study of the material remains of past human life and
activities. These include human artifacts from the very earliest stone tools to the
man-made objects that are buried or thrown away in the present day.
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4. Statistics

It is the branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation

and presentation of masses of numerical data.

5. Linguistics

The study of the structure and development of language in general or of

particular languages.

6. Genealogy

The study of family relationships. It includes family history and even

tracing of family lineages.

7. Prosopography

The use of biographical material to construct group narratives.

8. Sigillography

Science and art of identifying and decoding seals. This tool in examining
sources is used to authenticate archival documents.

9. Heraldry

Study of coats of arms. Coats of arms are special design in the form of a
shield that a family, government institution or any organization use as a symbol
of their identity.

10. Numismatics

The study of coins.

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Name: Date:
Year and Section: Score:

CHAPTER 1 EXERCISES

TRUE OR FALSE

Direction: Write T is the statement is correct and F if the statement is false.

1. Some secondary sources give conjectures.

2. The National Library of the Philippines is the government institution
in the Philippines that serves as an educational, scientific and cultural institution in
preserving the various permanent national collections.
3. External criticism refers to the genuineness of the documents.
4. Internal criticism refers to the authenticity of the documents.
5. Primary sources are contemporary accounts of an event.
6. The National Archives of the Philippines has 210,000 book
collections.
7. Local studies center are dedicated for the enrichment and study of one
locality‟s history, culture and related studies.
8. Asking the real author of a particular primary document is a
question of internal criticism.
9. National Museum is the regulatory and enforcement agency of the
government in preserving of important cultural properties.
10. History is generally about the past, present and future.
11. Numismatics is the study of coat of arms.
12. Genealogy is the study of family relationships.
13. Oral statements include any form of statement made orally by
someone.
14. Genealogy of a Document refers to what kind of institution or
individual produced a source.
15. There are four major elements of history.

PRIMARY OR SECONDARY SOURCE

Direction: Identify the following sources as primary or secondary.

1. Diary of Ninoy Aquino

2. Oral Statements of Mae Delos Santos, survivor of Mt. Pinatubo
eruption.
3. Memoir of Juan Ponce Enrile
4. 2010 TV Documentary about the imposition of Martial Law in the
Philippines.
5. First class relic of San Lorenzo Ruis de Manila.
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6. Photograph of the execution of Rizal in Bagumbayan.

7. Appointment paper of Emilio Jacinto signed by Andres
Bonifacio.
8. The History Textbook authored by Teodoro Agoncillo.
9. 2017 News Article featuring the Bataan Death March.
10. Research on the Philippine Revolution published in the journal of
social sciences.
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Name: Date:
Year and Section:

CRITICISM INSTRUMENT FOR PRIMARY DOCUMENTS

(Please attach a copy of the primary document produced) EXTERNAL

CRITICISM

Title of Primary
Source:

Type of Primary Source:

When written?

Where written?

How did it survive?

Who was the real author?

INTERNAL CRITICISM

Is the author an eyewitness or secondhand account holder?

Why was it written?

Does the content have literal meaning or connotation? Explain.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DOCUMENT TO PHILIPPINE OR LOCAL HISTORY

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MODULE 2

ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY SOURCES

Learning Outcomes

1. Analyze the context, content and perspective of different kinds of

primary sources;
2. Determine the contribution of different kinds of primary sources in
understanding Philippine history; and
3. Develop critical and analytical skills with exposure to primary sources.
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CONTENT AND CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

After doing external and internal criticisms of the historical sources and when the
authenticity and credibility is already established, we can now analyze these sources to
understand them more and for us to make historical claims and positions.

Context Analysis

This analysis considers the following: the historical context of the source (time
and place it was written and the situation at the time; the author’s background, intent (to
the extent discernable), and authority on the subject; and the source’s relevance and
meaning today.

Content Analysis

This analysis on the other hand, applies appropriate techniques depending on the
type of source (written, oral, visual). In the process students will be asked, for example,
to identify the author’s main argument or thesis, compare points of view, identify biases,
and evaluate the author’s claim based on the evidences presented or other available
evidence at the time.

In doing both analyses, the student should also be able to give his over-all
assessment of the primary source. This may include discussion of the knowledge
gained by the reader from the primary source; and a critical assessment on the
historical value/ significance of the source in understanding the events of Philippine
History.
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READING NO. 1 KARTILLA NG KATIPUNAN

KARTILLA NG KATIPUNAN
Emilio Jacinto

Mga Aral ng Katipunan ng mga A.N.B.

1. Ang kabuhayang hindi ginugugol sa isang malaki at banal na kadahilanan ay

kahoy na walang lilim, kundi damong makamandag

2. Ang gawang magaling na nagbubuhat sa pagpipita sa sarili, at hindi sa

talagang nasang gumawa ng kagalingan, ay di kabaitan.

3. Ang tunay na kabanalan ay ang pagkakawang gawa, ang pagibig sa kapua at

ang isukat ang bawat kilos, gawa’t pangungusap sa talagang Katuiran.

4. Maitim man at maputi ang kulay ng balat, lahat ng tao’y magkakapantay;

mangyayaring ang isa’y higtan sa dunong, sa yaman, sa ganda…; ngunit di
mahihigtan sa pagkatao.

5. Ang may mataas na kalooban inuuna ang puri sa pagpipita sa sarili; ang may
hamak na kalooban inuuna ang pagpipita sa sarili sa puri.

6. Sa taong may hiya, salita’y panunumpa.

7. Huag mong sasayangin ang panahun; ang yamang nawala’y magyayaring

magbalik; nguni’t panahong nagdaan na’y di na muli pang magdadaan. Value of
time

8. Ipagtanggol mo ang inaapi, at kabakahin ang umaapi.

9. Ang taong matalino’y ang may pagiingat sa bawat sasabihin, at matutong

ipaglihim ang dapat ipaglihim.

10. Sa daang matinik ng kabuhayan, lalaki ay siyang patnugot ng asawa’t mga

anak; kung ang umaakay ay tungo sa sama, ang patutunguhan ng iaakay ay
kasamaan din.

11. Ang babai ay huag mong tignang isang bagay na libangan lamang, kundi
isang katuang at karamay sa mga kahirapan nitong kabuhayan; gamitan mo ng
buong pagpipitagan ang kaniyang kahinaan, at alalahanin ang inang
pinagbuhata’t nagiwi sa iyong kasangulan.
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12. Ang di mo ibig na gawin sa asawa mo, anak at kapatid, ay huag mong
gagawin sa asawa, anak, at kapatid ng iba.

13. Ang kamahalan ng tao’y wala sa pagkahari, wala sa tangus ng ilong at puti
ng mukha, wala sa pagkaparing kahalili ng Dios wala sa mataas na kalagayan sa
balat ng lupa; wagas at tunay na mahal na tao, kahit laking gubat at walang
nababatid kundi ang sariling wika, yaong may magandang asal, may isang
pangungusap, may dangal at puri; yaong di napaaapi’t di nakikiapi; yaong
marunong magdamdam at marunong lumingap sa bayang tinubuan.

14. Paglaganap ng mga aral na ito at maningning na sumikat ang araw ng mahal
na Kalayaan dito sa kaabaabang Sangkalupuan, at sabugan ng matamis niyang
liwanag ang nangagkaisang magkalahi’t magkakapatid ng ligaya ng walang
katapusan, ang mga ginugol na buhay, pagud, at mga tiniis na kahirapa’y labis
nang natumbasan. Kung lahat ng ito’y mataruk na ng nagiibig pumasuk at
inaakala niyang matutupad ang mga tutungkulin, maitatala ang kaniyang
ninanasa sa kasunod nito.

The Katipunan Code of Conduct

[translation by Gregorio Nieva, 1918]

1. The life that is not consecrated to a lofty and reasonable purpose is a tree
without a shade, if not a poisonous weed.

2. To do good for personal gain and not for its own sake is not virtue.

3. It is rational to be charitable and love one's fellow creature, and to adjust

one's conduct, acts and words to what is in itself reasonable.

4. Whether our skin be black or white, we are all born equal: superiority in
knowledge, wealth and beauty are to be understood, but not superiority by nature.

5. The honorable man prefers honor to personal gain; the scoundrel, gain to
honor.

6. To the honorable man, his word is sacred.

7. Do not waste thy time: wealth can be recovered but not time lost.

8. Defend the oppressed and fight the oppressor before the law or in the field.

9. The prudent man is sparing in words and faithful in keeping secrets.

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10. On the thorny path of life, man is the guide of woman and the children, and if
the guide leads to the precipice, those whom he guides will also go there.

11. Thou must not look upon woman as a mere plaything, but as a faithful
companion who will share with thee the penalties of life; her (physical) weakness
will increase thy interest in her and she will remind thee of the mother who bore
thee and reared thee.

12. What thou dost not desire done unto thy wife, children, brothers and sisters,
that do not unto the wife, children, brothers and sisters of thy neighbor.

13. Man is not worth more because he is a king, because his nose is aquiline, and
his color white, not because he is a *priest, a servant of God, nor because of the
high prerogative that he enjoys upon earth, but he is worth most who is a man of
proven and real value, who does good, keeps his words, is worthy and honest; he
who does not oppress nor consent to being oppressed, he who loves and cherishes
his fatherland, though he be born in the wilderness and know no tongue but his
own.

14. When these rules of conduct shall be known to all, the longed-for sun of
Liberty shall rise brilliant over this most unhappy portion of the globe and its rays
shall diffuse everlasting joy among the confederated brethren of the same rays,
the lives of those who have gone before, the fatigues and the well-paid sufferings
will remain. If he who desires to enter (the Katipunan) has informed himself of all
this and believes he will be able to perform what will be his duties, he may fill out
the application for admission.

Background (Katipunan and Kartilya)

The Kataas-taasang, Kagalang-galang na

Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK) or simply
Katipunan was a Philippine Revolutionary Society
founded by Andres Bonifacio, Teodoro Plata, Ladislao
Diwa, Darilyo Valino, Rulfo Guia, Dano Belica,
Tiburcio Liamson and Gabrino Manzanero in 1892 at
Manila. Its primary aim is to gain the independence of
KKK Flag the Philippines from Spain through revolution.

The Kartilya ng Katipunan is the guide of KKK members in its rules and
principles. It was initially written by its Supremo, Andres Bonifacio but was later revised
by Emilio Jacinto as the Decalogue of Katipunan.
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READING NO. 2 THE ACT OF DECLARATION OF PHILIPPINE

INDEPENDENCE

Declaration of PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE

Translation by Sulpicio Guevara
In the town of Cavite-Viejo, Province of Cavite, this 12th day of June 1898:

BEFORE ME, Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, War Counselor and Special

Delegate designated to proclaim and solemnize this Declaration of Independence
by the Dictatorial Government of the Philippines, pursuant to, and by virtue of, a
Decree issued by the Engregious Dictator Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy,

The undersigned assemblage of military chiefs and others of the army who could
not attend, as well as the representatives of the various towns,

Taking into account the fact that the people of this country are already tired of
bearing the ominous joke of Spanish domination,
Because of arbitrary arrests and abuses of the Civil Guards who cause deaths in
connivance with and even under the express orders of their superior officers who
at times would order the shooting of those placed under arrest under the pretext
that they attempted to escape in violation of known Rules and Regulations, which
abuses were left unpunished, and because of unjust deportations of illustrious
Filipinos, especially those decreed by General Blanco at the instigation of the
Archbishop and friars interested in keeping them in ignorance for egoistic and
selfish ends, which deportations were carried out through processes more
execrable than those of the Inquisition which every civilized nation repudiates as
a trial without hearing.

Had resolved to start a revolution in August 1896 in order to regain the

independence and sovereignty of which the people had been deprived by Spain
through Governor Miguel Lopez de Legazpi who, continuing the course followed
by his predecessor Ferdinand Magellan who landed on the shores of Cebu and
occupied said Island by means of a Pact of Friendship with Chief Tupas, although
he was killed in the battle that took place in said shores to which battle he was
provoked by Chief Kalipulako ** of Mactan who suspected his evil designs,
landed on the Island of Bohol by entering also into a Blood Compact with its
Chief Sikatuna, with the purpose of later taking by force the Island of Cebu, and
because his successor Tupas did not allow him to occupy it, he went to Manila,
the capital, winning likewise the friendship of its Chiefs Soliman and Lakandula,
later taking possession of the city and the whole Archipelago in the name of Spain
by virtue of an order of King Philip II, and with these historical precedents and
because in international law the prescription established by law to legalize the
vicious acquisition of private property is not recognized, the legitimacy of
such
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revolution can not be put in doubt which was calmed but not complete stifled by
the pacification proposed by Don Pedro A. Paterno with Don Emilio Aguinaldo
as President of the Republic established in Biak-na-Bato and accepted by
Governor-General Don Fernando Primo De Rivera under terms, both written and
oral, among them being a general amnesty for all deported and convicted
persons; that by reason of the non-fulfillment of some of the terms, after the
destruction of the plaza of Cavite, Don Emilio Aguinaldo returned in order to
initiate a new revolution and no sooner had he given the order to rise on the 31st
of last month when several towns anticipating the revolution, rose in revolt on the
28th , such that a Spanish contingent of 178 men, between Imus Cavite-Viejo,
under the command of major of the Marine Infantry capitulated , the
revolutionary movement spreading like wild fire to other towns of Cavite and the
other provinces of Bataan, Pampanga, Batangas, Bulacan, Laguna, and Morong,
some of them with seaports and such was the success of the victory of our arms,
truly marvelous and without equal in the history of colonial revolutions that in the
first mentioned province only the Detachments in Naic and Indang remained to
surrender; in the second all Detachments had been wiped out; in the third the
resistance of the Spanish forces was localized in the town of San Fernando where
the greater part of them are concentrated, the remainder in Macabebe, Sexmoan,
and Guagua; in the fourth, in the town of Lipa; in the fifth, in the capital and in
Calumpit; and in last two remaining provinces, only in there respective capitals,
and the city of Manila will soon be besieged by our forces as well as the provinces
of Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union, Zambales, and some others in the
Visayas where the revolution at the time of the pacification and others even
before, so that the independence of our country and the revindication of our
sovereignty is assured.

And having as witness to the rectitude of our intentions the Supreme Judge of the
Universe, and under the protection of our Powerful and Humanitarian Nation,
The United States of America, we do hereby proclaim and declare solemnly in the
name by authority of the people of these Philippine Islands,

That they are and have the right to be free and independent; that they have ceased
to have allegiance to the Crown of Spain; that all political ties between them are
should be completely severed and annulled; and that, like other free and
independent States, they enjoy the full power to make War and Peace, conclude
commercial treaties, enter into alliances, regulate commerce, and do all other
acts and things which and Independent State Has right to do,

And imbued with firm confidence in Divine Providence, we hereby mutually bind
ourselves to support this Declaration with our lives, our fortunes, and with our
sacred possession, our Honor.
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We recognize, approve, and ratify, with all the orders emanating from the same,
the Dictatorship established by Don Emilio Aguinaldo whom we reverse as the
Supreme Head of this Nation, which today begins to have a life of its own, in the
conviction that he has been the instrument chosen by God, inspite of his humble
origin, to effectuate the redemption of this unfortunate country as foretold by Dr.
Don Jose Rizal in his magnificent verses which he composed in his prison cell
prior to his execution, liberating it from the Yoke of Spanish domination,

And in punishment for the impunity with which the Government sanctioned the
commission of abuses by its officials, and for the unjust execution of Rizal and
others who were sacrified in order to please the insatiable friars in their
hydropical thirst for vengeance against and extermination of all those who oppose
their Machiavellian ends, trampling upon the Penal Code of these Islands, and of
those suspected persons arrested by the Chiefs of Detachments at the instigation
of the friars, without any form nor semblance of trial and without any spiritual aid
of our sacred Religion; and likewise, and for the same ends, eminent Filipino
priest, Doctor Don Jose Burgos, Don Mariano Gomez, and Don Jacinto Zamora
were hanged whose innocent blood was shed due to the intrigues of these
so-called Religious corporations which made the authorities to believe that the
military uprising at the fort of San Felipe in Cavite on the night of January 21,
1872 was instigated by those Filipino martyrs, thereby impeding the execution of
the decree- sentence issued by the Council of State in the appeal in the
administrative case interposed by the secular clergy against the Royal Orders
that directed that the parishes under them within the jurisdiction of this Bishopric
be turned over to the Recollects in exchange for those controlled by them in
Mindanao which were to be transferred to the Jesuits, thus revoking them
completely and ordering the return of those parishes, all of which proceedings are
on file with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to which they are sent last month of
the year of the issuance of the proper Royal Degree which, in turn, caused the
grow of the tree of the liberty in our dear land that grow more and more
through the iniquitous measures of oppressions, until the last drop of our
chalice of suffering having been drained, the first spark of revolution broke out
in Caloocan, spread out to Santa Mesa and continued its course to the
adjoining regions of the province were the unequalled heroism of its inhabitants
fought a one sided battle against superior forces of General Blanco and General
Polavieja for a period of 3 months, without proper arms nor ammunitions, except
bolos, pointed bamboos, and arrows.

Moreover, we confer upon our famous Dictator Don Emilio Aguinaldo all the
powers necessary to enable him to discharge the duties of Government, including
the prerogatives of granting pardon and amnesty,
 22

And lastly, it was results unanimously that this Nation, already free and
independent as of this day, must used the same flag which up to now is being
used, whose designed and colored are found described in the attached drawing,
the white triangle signifying the distinctive emblem of the famous Society of the
"Katipunan" which by means of its blood compact inspired the masses to rise in
revolution; the tree stars, signifying the three principal Islands of these
Archipelago - Luzon, Mindanao, and Panay where the revolutionary movement
started; the sun representing the gigantic step made by the son of the country
along the path of Progress and Civilization; the eight rays, signifying the eight
provinces - Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bataan, Laguna,
and Batangas - which declares themselves in a state of war as soon as the first
revolt was initiated; and the colors of Blue, Red, and White, commemorating the
flag of the United States of America, as a manifestation of our profound gratitude
towards this Great Nation for its disinterested protection which it lent us and
continues lending us.

And holding up this flag of ours, I present it to the gentlemen here assembled:
Don Segundo Arellano, Don Tiburcio del Rosario, Sergio Matias, Don Agapito
Zialcita, Don Flaviano Alonzo, Don Mariano Legazpi, Don Jose Turiano
Santiago y Acosta, Don Aurelio Tolentino, Don Felix Ferrer, Don Felipe
Buencamino, Don Fernando Canon Faustino, Don Anastacio Pinzun, Don
Timoteo Bernabe, Don Flaviano Rodriguez, Don Gavino (?) Masancay, Don
Narciso Mayuga, Don Gregorio Villa, Don Luis Perez Tagle, Don Canuto
Celestino, Don Marcos Jocson, Don Martin de los Reyes, Don Ciriaco Bausa,
Don Manuel Santos, Don Mariano Toribio, Don Gabriel de los Reyes, Don Hugo
Lim, Don Emiliano Lim, Don Faustino Tinorio(?), Don Rosendo Simon, Don
Leon Tanjanque(?), Don Gregorio Bonifacio, Don Manuel Salafranca, Don
Simon Villareal, Don Calixto Lara, Don Buenaventura Toribio, Don Gabriel
Reyes, Don Hugo Lim, Don Emiliano Lim, Don Fausto Tinorio(?), Don Rosendo
Simon, Don Leon Tanjanque(?), Don Gregorio Bonifacio, Don Manuel
Salafranca, Don Simon Villareal, Don Calixto Lara, Don Buenaventura Toribio,
Don Zacarias Fajardo, Don Florencio Manalo, Don Ramon Gana, Don
Marcelino Gomez, Don Valentin Politan, Don Felix Politan, Don Evaristo
Dimalanta, Don Gregorio Alvarez, Don Sabas de Guzman, Don Esteban
Francisco, Don Guido Yaptinchay, Don Mariano Rianzares Bautista, Don
Francisco Arambulo, Don Antonio Gonzales, Don Juan Antonio Gonzales, Don
Juan Arevalo, Don Ramon Delfino, Don Honorio Tiongco, Don Francisco del
Rosario, Don Epifanio Saguil, Don Ladislao Afable Jose, Don Sixto Roldan, Don
Luis de Lara, Don Marcelo Basa, Don Jose Medina, Don Efipanio Crisia(?), Don
Pastor Lopez de Leon, Don Mariano de los Santos, Don Santiago Garcia, Don
Andres Tria Tirona, Don Estanislao Tria Tirona, Don Daniel Tria Tirona, Don
Andres Tria Tirona, Don Carlos Tria Tirona, Don Sulpicio P. Antony, Don
Epitacio Asuncion, Don Catalino Ramon, Don Juan Bordador, Don Jose del
Rosario, Don Proceso Pulido, Don Jose Maria del
 23

Rosario, Don Ramon Magcamco(?), Don Antonio Calingo, Don Pedro Mendiola,
Don Estanislao Galinco, Don Numeriano Castillo, Don Federico Tomacruz, Don
Teodoro Yatco, Don Ladislao Diwa(?).

Who solemnly swear to recognize and defend it unto the last drop of their
blood.

In witness thereof, I certify that this Act of Declaration of Independence was

signed by me and by all those here assembled including the only stranger who
attended those proceedings, a citizen of the U.S.A., Mr. L.M. Johnson, a Colonel
of Artillery.

Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista

War Counselor and Special Delegate-Designate

Background (Proclamation of Philippine Independence, June 12, 1898)

The Philippines independence from Spain was proclaimed

by Gen. Emilio F. Aguinaldo, then the president of the country on
June 12, 1898. The declaration of independence took place at
Aguinaldo’s home in Kawit (then Cavite El Viejo), Cavite
following the unfurling for the first time of the Philippine flag and
the playing of Marcha Nacional (now the Philippine National
Anthem) by the band of San Francisco de Malabon.

The Act of Declaration of the Philippine Independence by

solemnly read by its author Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista, the War Ambrosio Rianzares
Bautista
Counselor and Special Delegate of President
Aguinaldo. It is a 16- page document, as Torres in 2018 pointed out, contained the
country’s “aspirations of freedom from Spanish rule, the sacrifices made, and the
revolution that resulted from it.”
 24

READING NO. 3 SPEECH OF CORAZON C. AQUINO BEFORE THE JOINT

SESSION OF UNITED STATES CONGRESS

Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)
by Corazon Aquino

11th President of the Philippines

Delivered on September 18, 1986 at the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.,
United States of America

Mr. Speaker, Senator Thurmond, Distinguished members of Congress, 3 years

ago I left America in grief, to bury my husband Ninoy Aquino. I thought I had left
it also, to lay to rest his restless dream of Philippine freedom. Today, I have
returned as the President of a free people.

In burying Ninoy, a whole nation honored him by that brave and selfless act of
giving honor to a nation in shame recovered its own. A country that had lost faith
in its future, founded in a faithless and brazen act of murder. So, in giving we
receive, in losing we find, and out of defeat we snatched our victory.

For the nation, Ninoy became the pleasing sacrifice that answered their prayers
for freedom. For myself and our children, Ninoy was a loving husband and father.
His loss, three times in our lives was always a deep and painful one.

Fourteen years ago this month, was the first time we lost him. A President turned
dictator and traitor to his oath, suspended the constitution and shut down the
Congress that was much like this one before which I’m honored to speak. He
detained my husband along with thousands of others - Senators, publishers, and
anyone who had spoken up for the democracy as its end drew near. But for Ninoy,
a long and cruel ordeal was reserved. The dictator already knew that Ninoy was
not a body merely to be imprisoned but a spirit he must break. For even as the
dictatorship demolished one-by- one; the institutions of democracy, the press, the
congress, the independence of a judiciary, the protection of the Bill of Rights,
Ninoy kept their spirit alive in himself.

The government sought to break him by indignities and terror. They locked him
up in a tiny, nearly airless cell in a military camp in the north. They stripped him
naked and held a threat of a sudden midnight execution over his head. Ninoy held
up manfully under all of it. I barely did as well. For forty- three days, the
authorities would not tell me what had happened to him. This was the first time
my children and I felt we had lost him.
 25

When that didn’t work, they put him on trial for subversion, murder and a host of
other crimes before a military commission. Ninoy challenged its authority and
went on a fast. If he survived it, then he felt God intended him for another fate. We
had lost him again. For nothing would hold him back from his determination to
see his fast through to the end. He stopped only when it dawned on him that the
government would keep his body alive after the fast had destroyed his brain. And
so, with barely any life in his body, he called off the fast on the 40th day. God
meant him for other things, he felt. He did not know that an early death would still
be his fate, that only the timing was wrong.

At any time during his long ordeal, Ninoy could have made a separate peace with
a dictatorship as so many of his countrymen had done. But the spirit of
democracy that inheres in our race and animates this chamber could not be
allowed to die. He held out in the loneliness of his cell and the frustration of exile,
the democratic alternative to the insatiable greed and mindless cruelty of the right
and the purging holocaust of the left.

And then, we lost him irrevocably and more painfully than in the past. The news
came to us in Boston. It had to be after the three happiest years of our lives
together. But his death was my country’s resurrection and the courage and faith
by which alone they could be free again. The dictator had called him a nobody.
Yet, two million people threw aside their passivity and fear and escorted him to
his grave. And so began the revolution that has brought me to democracy’s most
famous home, the Congress of the United States.

The task had fallen on my shoulders, to continue offering the democratic

alternative to our people.

Archibald MacLeish had said that democracy must be defended by arms when it
is attacked by arms, and with truth when it is attacked by lies. He failed to say
how it shall be won.

I held fast to Ninoy’s conviction that it must be by the ways of democracy. I held
out for participation in the 1984 election the dictatorship called, even if I knew it
would be rigged. I was warned by the lawyers of the opposition, that I ran the
grave risk of legitimizing the foregone results of elections that were clearly going
to be fraudulent. But I was not fighting for lawyers but for the people in whose
intelligence, I had implicit faith. By the exercise of democracy even in a
dictatorship, they would be prepared for democracy when it came. And then also,
it was the only way I knew by which we could measure our power even in the
terms dictated by the dictatorship.

The people vindicated me in an election shamefully marked by government

thuggery and fraud. The opposition swept the elections, garnering a clear
 26

majority of the votes even if they ended up (thanks to a corrupt Commission on

Elections) with barely a third of the seats in Parliament. Now, I knew our power.

Last year, in an excess of arrogance, the dictatorship called for its doom in a
snap election. The people obliged. With over a million signatures they drafted me
to challenge the dictatorship. And I, obliged. The rest is the history that
dramatically unfolded on your television screens and across the front pages of
your newspapers.

You saw a nation armed with courage and integrity, stand fast by democracy
against threats and corruption. You saw women poll watchers break out in tears
as armed goons crashed the polling places to steal the ballots. But just the same,
they tied themselves to the ballot boxes. You saw a people so committed to the
ways of democracy that they were prepared to give their lives for its pale
imitation. At the end of the day before another wave of fraud could distort the
results, I announced the people’s victory.

Many of you here today played a part in changing the policy of your country
towards ours. We, the Filipinos thank each of you for what you did. For
balancing America’s strategic interest against human concerns illuminates the
American vision of the world. The co-chairman of the United States observer
team, in his report to the President said, “I was witness to an extraordinary
manifestation of democracy on the part of the Filipino people. The ultimate result
was the election of Mrs. Corazon Aquino as President and Mr. Salvador Laurel
as Vice-President of the Philippines.”

When a subservient parliament announced my opponent’s victory, the people then

turned out in the streets and proclaimed me the President of all the people. And
true to their word, when a handful of military leaders declared themselves against
the dictatorship, the people rallied to their protection. Surely, the people take
care of their own. It is on that faith and the obligation it entails that I assumed the
Presidency.

As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it. That is my contract with my

people and my commitment to God. He had willed that the blood drawn with a
lash shall not in my country be paid by blood drawn by the sword but by the
tearful joy of reconciliation. We have swept away absolute power by a limited
revolution that respected the life and freedom of every Filipino.

Now, we are restoring full constitutional government. Again as we restore

democracy by the ways of democracy, so are we completing the constitutional
structures of our new democracy under a constitution that already gives full
respect to the Bill of Rights. A jealously independent constitutional commission is
completing its draft which will be submitted later this year to a popular
referendum. When it is approved, there will be
 27

elections for both national and local positions. So, within about a year from a
peaceful but national upheaval that overturned a dictatorship, we shall have
returned to full constitutional government.

Given the polarization and breakdown we inherited, this is no small achievement.

My predecessor set aside democracy to save it from a communist insurgency that
numbered less than five hundred. Unhampered by respect for human rights he
went at it with hammer and tongs. By the time he fled, that insurgency had grown
to more than sixteen thousand. I think there is a lesson here to be learned about
trying to stifle a thing with a means by which it grows. I don’t think anybody in or
outside our country, concerned for a democratic and open Philippines doubts
what must be done. Through political initiatives and local re-integration
programs, we must seek to bring the insurgents down from the hills and by
economic progress and justice, show them that which the best-intentioned among
them fight. As president among my people, I will not betray the cause of peace by
which I came to power. Yet, equally and again, no friend of Filipino democracy
will challenge this. I will not stand by and allow an insurgent leadership to spurn
our offer of peace and kill our young soldiers and threaten our new freedom.

Yet, I must explore the path of peace to the utmost. For at its end, whatever
disappointment I meet there is the moral basis for laying down the Olive branch
of peace and taking up the sword of war.
Still, should it come to that, I will not waiver from the course laid down by your
great liberator.

“With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God
gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s
wounds. To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and
for his orphans to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations.”

Like Abraham Lincoln, I understand that force may be necessary before mercy.
Like Lincoln, I don’t relish it. Yet, I will do whatever it takes to defend the
integrity and freedom of my country.

Finally may I turn to that other slavery: our $26 billion foreign debt. I have said
that we shall honor it. Yet, the means by which we shall be able to do so are kept
from us. Many of the conditions imposed on the previous government that stole
this debt, continue to be imposed on us who never benefited from it.

And no assistance or liberality commensurate with the calamity that was vested
on us have been extended. Yet ours must have been the cheapest revolution ever.
With little help from others, we Filipinos fulfilled the first and
 28

most difficult condition of the debt negotiation, the full restoration of democracy
and responsible government. Elsewhere and in other times, a more stringent
world economic conditions, marshal plans and their like were felt to be necessary
companions of returning democracy.

When I met with President Reagan, we began an important dialogue about

cooperation and the strengthening of friendship between our two countries. That
meeting was both a confirmation and a new beginning. I am sure it will lead to
positive results in all areas of common concern. Today, we face the aspiration of
a people who have known so much poverty and massive unemployment for the
past 14 years. And yet offer their lives for the abstraction of democracy.

Wherever I went in the campaign, slum area or impoverished village. They came
to me with one cry, democracy. Not food although they clearly needed it but
democracy. Not work, although they surely wanted it but democracy. Not money,
for they gave what little they had to my campaign. They didn’t expect me to work
a miracle that would instantly put food into their mouths, clothes on their back,
education in their children and give them work that will put dignity in their lives.
But I feel the pressing obligation to respond quickly as the leader of the people so
deserving of all these things.

We face a communist insurgency that feeds on economic deterioration even as we

carry a great share of the free world defenses in the Pacific. These are only two of
the many burdens my people carry even as they try to build a worthy and
enduring house for their new democracy. That may serve as well as a redoubt for
freedom in Asia. Yet, no sooner as one stone laid than two are taken away. Half
our export earnings, $2 billion dollars out of $4 billion dollars which is all we
can earn in the restrictive market of the world, must go to pay just the interest on
a debt whose benefit the Filipino people never received.

Still we fought for honor and if only for honor, we shall pay. And yet, should we
have to ring the payments from the sweat of our men’s faces and sink all the
wealth piled by the bondsman’s two-hundred fifty years of unrequited toil. Yet, to
all Americans, as the leader to a proud and free people, I address this question,
“Has there been a greater test of national commitment to the ideals you hold dear
than that my people have gone through? You have spent many lives and much
treasure to bring freedom to many lands that were reluctant to receive it. And
here, you have a people who want it by themselves and need only the help to
preserve it.”

Three years ago I said, Thank you America for the haven from oppression and the
home you gave Ninoy, myself and our children and for the three happiest years of
our lives together. Today I say, join us America as we
 29

build a new home for democracy; another haven for the oppressed so it may stand
as a shining testament of our two nations’ commitment to freedom.

Background (Speech of Corazon Aquino)

Corazon C. Aquino is the first female president and the 11th President of the
Philippines. She is the president after the twenty (20) year rule of former president
Ferdinand E. Marcos who was removed from office through the bloodless EDSA People
Power Revolution.

She is the housewife of former Senator Benigno S.

Aquino Jr., the most prominent opposition leader during the
presidency of former president Marcos. She ran for president
against Marcos during the 1985 Snap Elections. She was
believed to won that election characterized by fraud and
anomalies. Marcos was later proclaimed winner by the Batasang
Pambansa based from the COMELEC, He will later be removed
from office because of EDSA People Power Revolution.

President Cory Aquino’s speech before the Joint Session

Corazon C. Aquino
of the US Congress talks about the experiences of
her husband Ninoy Aquino in fighting for democracy in the country; the condition of the
Philippines under Marcos rule; and the restoration of democracy in the Philippines
through the 1986 People Power Revolution. The speech was delivered on September 18,
1986 at the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C., United States of America and was
numerously applauded by the members of the US Congress.

READING NO. 4 TESTIMONIES OF THE SURVIVORS OF BATAAN DEATH

MARCH

Excerpt from interview with former American POW Alf R. Larson

You and Your group began the march on April 12, 1942?

“Yes. We began walking the next morning. It was about eighty miles from where
we started to where we ended up. It doesn’t seem very far, but we were in such
awful condition that eighty miles was a heck of a long way to walk. It took six
days to get to San Fernando […] On the first day, I saw two things I will never
forget. A Filipino man had been beheaded. His body lay on the ground with blood
everywhere. His head was short distance away. Also, there was a dead Filipino
woman with her legs spread apart and her dress pulled up over her. She obviously
had been raped and there was a bamboo stake on her private area […]”
 30

You didn’t eat a thing for four days and you were already starved when you were
captured.

“That’s right. We weren’t given any water either. There was good water all
around us. Artesian wells flowing everywhere! They would not let us go and get
it. Men went stark raving mad! Soldiers broke ranks and ran towards the water.
They went completely insane because they had to get it. They never got it! Of
course, you know what happened to them.”

Our soldiers were shot before they reached water?

“That’s right.”

Excerpt from interview with former American POW Alfred X. Burgos

“[…] If you should not want to walk anymore—let’s say you were tired—well,
I’ve seen them shoot walking prisoners of war—actually be shot. Or if you
tried to get food which was thrown by the civilians to the walking military,
the Filipino military, that not only endangered you, but the one who was
giving the food or throwing the food to you […] If you could not keep up with the
group in the Death March, rather than slow the Death March, they’d get rid of you
by shooting you […] Oh, they bayoneted people, they shot people, and if they
think that you were delaying the Death March, you’re dead.”

Except from the book “My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March” by former
American POW Lester I. Tenney

“[…] I was talking with Bronge and Cigoi when a Japanese officer came
riding by an horseback. He was waving his samurai sword from side to side,
apparently trying to cut off the head of anyone he could. I was on the outside of
the column when he rode past, and although I ducked the main thrust of the
sword, the end of the blade hit my left shoulder, missing my head and neck by
inches. It left a large gash that had to have stitches if I were to continue on this
march and continue living. As the Japanese office rode off, Bronge and Cigoi
called for a medic to fall back to our position. The medic sewed up the cut with
thread, which was all he had with him and for the next two miles or so, my two
friends carried me so that I would not have to fall out of line. We all knew that
falling out of line meant certain death.” (p. 53)
 31

Background (Bataan Death March)

There are more than 76,000 USAFFE

soldiers, including 66,000 Filipinos who laid down
their arms in Bataan. These soldiers marched from
Mariveles, Bataan to Camp O’Donnell, a
concentration camp in Capas, Tarlac (Zaide, ). It
was called the infamous DEATH MARCH that
began on April 10, 1942.

The Death March that began on April 10, 1942 has

two major points; Mariveles, Bataan to San
Fernando, Pampanga, a distance of over a hundred
Capas National Shrine kilometers. Thousands of soldiers walked from
Mariveles to San Fernando. Many
were sick, hungry and thirsty. They were marched without any food or water, and were
even intentionally prevented from having water when it was available. Food were thrown
by civilians to the soldiers but the moment the Japanese soldiers caught them getting the
food, they will be shot to death. Some Filipino and American soldiers who just started
their ordeal along the way were beaten and tortured. Those who are physically weak were
bayoneted, and beheaded. Some were stopped, making unmistakable demand for money,
rings, watches, fountain pens, knives, flashlights stripping them of their valuables, except
for the clothing they wore. Those who were slow in giving up their last earthly
possessions were slapped, beaten or even shot to death (Office of the Army Chief
Historian, Philippine Army).
 32

READING NO. 5 POLITICAL CARTOONS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Cartoon 1

“Uncle Sam to Little Aguinaldo -- See Here Sonny, Whom Are You Going to
Throw Those Rocks At? September 1898. Charles L. Bartholomew, Minneapolis Journal.
(Cartoons of the Spanish-American War by Bart, Minneapolis: Journal Printing
Company, 1899). The cartoon shows President Emilio Aguinaldo’s condition after Spain
gave the control of the Philippines to the United State by virtue of Treaty of Paris.
 33

Cartoon 2

The Editorial cartoon on National Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1936. (Photo
from Philippines Graphic.). It shows that the Filipino people are grateful to President
Manuel L. Quezon for giving them “the right to live”.

Manuel L. Quezon, is the second president of the Philippines and the first
president of Philippine Commonwealth of the Philippines. Commonwealth was the
government of the Philippines from 1935 to 1946 (excluding 1942 to 1945, the period of
Japanese occupation in the Philippines). It was the transitional government of the country
in preparation for its full autonomy and achievement of independence.
 34

Cartoon 3

Women Suffrage. The editorial cartoon depicts the support shown by Former
President Manuel L. Quezon to the Women’s Suffrage Movement. President Quezon,
having signed the Woman's Suffrage Plebiscite Bill on September 30, 1936, said that, “…
it is essential and even imperative that the right to vote be granted to Filipino women if
they are not to be treated as mere slaves” and that, for women, it was “…their
opportunity to wield a very important weapon to defend their right to secure for
themselves and those to follow them their well- being and happiness.”

The Women’s Suffrage movement in the Philippines started as early as 1906

pioneered by Pura Villanueva Kalaw. Kalaw organized the Associacion Feminista
Ilongga that led to the proposal of the first women suffrage bill in the Philippine
Assembly in 1907. A women’s suffrage plebiscite was held in 1937 winning the “yes” for
the female to have the right to participate in elections, of 447,725 over 44,307 “no” votes.
 35

Cartoon 4

The cartoon symbolizes the Marcos Rule characterized by political patronage,

crony capitalism and corruption in the government. Ferdinand Marcos is the 10 th
President of the Philippines from December 30, 1965 to February 25, 1986. The longest
served president of the country so far.
 36

Cartoon 5

This political cartoon shows the martial law rule of former President Ferdinand
Marcos characterized by the suspension of writ of habeas corpus. It also projects the huge
role of former Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, tagged as the administrator of martial
law.

Marcos government is marked by his declaration of Martial Law or Proclamation

1081 on September 21, 1972. It placed the entire Philippines under military rule
characterized by dissolution of press freedom and other civil rights, arrest and
incarceration of opposition leaders and political activists, human rights violations and
abuses of military men.

CLASS ACTIVITY

1. Critical essay about a primary source: students are to discuss the

following:

 Importance of the text;

 the author’s background;
 the context of the document; and
 its contribution to understanding Philippine history.
 37

Name: Date:
Year and Section:

CONTEXT AND CONTENT ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY SOURCE

Name of Primary Source:

Type of Primary Source:

Context Analysis

The historical context of the source:

Describe the time and place it was written and the situation at the time.

Describe the author’s background, intent (to the extent discernable), and authority on the
subject.
 38

Content Analysis

Identify the author’s main argument or thesis

Evaluate the author’s claim based on the evidences presented or other

available evidence at the time.

Over-all assessment of the primary source. This may include

Discussion of the knowledge gained by the reader from the primary source;

Critical assessment on the historical value/ significance of the source in understanding

the events of Philippine History.