Leader: Cemberlyn Feliciano

Jhon Andre Radam

John Rafael Potestad
 Antonio de Morga (1559-1636)
 Spanish Historian and Lawyer
 Colonial Official for 43 years in the Philippines,
New Spain and Peru
 He stayed in the Philippines , then a colony of
Spain from 1594 to 1604 (10 years)
 As the Deputy Governor in the Philippines. He
reestablished the audencia and took over the
function of Judge (oidor)
 Reassigned to Mexico, he published the book
Sucesos de las islas Filipinas (1609)
 Considered one of the most significant works on the
early history of Spanish colonization of the
Philippines
 Morga’s work is based on documentary research, the
author’s keen observation and his personal
involvement and knowledge.
 The book was published in two volumes, both in
 1609,by Casa de Geronymo Balli, in Mexico City
 First English Translation was published in 1868 in
London
 Rizal had to look for a reliable account of the Philippines
before and at the onset of Spanish colonization
 Dr. Ferdinand Bluementritt his friend ( Knowledgeable
Filipinologist) recommended Dr. Antonio Morga’s Book
 In 1888-1889 Rizal largely spent his many months of stay
in
London at the British Meseum, looking for Morga’s book
 And then copying and annotation this rare book
available in the library
 Having no high-tech copying techonology at that time,
he had to painstakingly hand-copy the whole 351 pages of
Morga’s work
 March 1889 leaving London for Paris
 Rizal frequented the Bibliotheque Nationale to
continue working on his annotation of the “Sucesos”
 The annotation of the Sucesos was finished and
published year 1890 in Paris
 Rizal meticulously annotated every chapter of the
Sucesos, commenting even on Morga’s typographical
error
 He also enlighten every statement which he believed
misrepresentin g the locals’ cultural practices.
 In page 248 Morga describes the culinary of the
ancient Philippines natives by recording ( They prefer
to eat salt fish which begin to decompose and smell.)
 Rizal’s annotative footnore explains: ( This is
another preoccupation of the Spaniards who, like any
other nation in the matter of food, loathe that to
which they are not accustomed or in unknown to
them.)
 The fish that Morga mentions does not taste better
when it is beginning to rot; all on the contrary; it is
Bagoong.
Jose Rizal (Europe,1889)
 By the Christian religion, Dr. 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.
 These 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 civilization of the Pre-Spanish Filipinos in
regard to the duties of life for that age was well
advanced, as the Morga history shows in its
eighth chapter.
 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.
 Of the native Manila rulers at the coming of the
Spaniards, Raja Soliman was called “Rahang
mura,” or young king, in distinction from the old
king, “Rahang matanda.” Historians have
confused these personages.
 The artillery cast for the new stone fort in
Manila, says Morga, was by the hand of an ancient
Filipino. That is, he knew how to cast cannon
even before the coming of the Spaniards, hence
he was distinguished as “ancient.” In this difficult
 art of ironworking, as in so many others, the
modern or present-day Filipinos are not so far
advanced as were their ancestors.
 From the earliest Spanish days ships were built
in the islands, which might be considered
evidence of native culture. Nowadays this
industry is reduced to small craft, scows and
coasters.
 In Morga’s time, the Philippines exported silk to
Japan whence now comes the best quality of that
merchandise.
 Morga’s views upon the failure of Governor
Pedro de Acuña’s ambitious expedition against
the Moros unhappily still apply for the same
conditions yet exist.
 Ancient traditions ascribe the origin of the Malay
Filipinos to the island of Sumatra. These traditions were
almost completely lost as well as the mythology and the
genealogies of which the early historians tell, thanks to
the zeal of the missionaries in eradicating all national
remembrances as heathen or idolatrous. The study of
ethnology is restring this somewhat

 Filipinos had had minstrels who had memorized songs

telling their genealogies and of the deeds ascribed to their
 deities. These were chanted on voyages in cadence with
the rowing, or at festivals, or funerals, or wherever there
happened to be any considerable gatherings. It is
regrettable that these chants have not been preserved as
from them it would have been possible to learn much of
the Filipinos’ past and possibly of the history of
neighboring islands

 Rizal had proved that the Philippines was an

advanced civilization prior to the Spanish conquest
 “If the book succeeds to awaken your consciousness
of your past, already effaced from your memory, and
so 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”