Lesson 3: Looking at the Filipino Past

Antonio Morga was a Spanish administrator who served in the Philippines in the late sixteenth century. He was
born in Seville in 1559 and began working for the government in 1580. He served as the Lieutenant-Governor—second
most powerful position in the colony—of the Philippines in 1593 and then as a judge of the Audiencia in 1598. By 1615,
he moved to Mexico where he served as the president of the Audiencia. He was later investigated for corruption and
was found guilty. Before being sent to the gallows, however, he died in 1636.

Morga's work, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, was published in 1609 in Mexico and consisted of eight chapters.
The first seven chapters dealt with the terms of the governor-generals who had served in the Philippines from the time
of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565 to Pedro de Acufia in 1606. The last chapter, titled "An account of the Philippine
Islands," provided ample descriptions of early Filipinos upon the arrival of the Spaniards in the sixteenth century.

While at the British Museum in late 1889, Rizal found a copy of the first edition of Antonio Morga's Sucesos de
las Islas Filipinas and began copying the text by hand. He annotated the work along the way with the intention of
creating a critical work on the history of the Philippines. Despite hopes of getting the work published through the help of
Antonio Regidor, Rizal ended up with no publisher when his annotations were done.

By September 1889, Rizal decided to publish the annotations himself in Garnier Hermanos, a printing press
based in Paris.

Rizal's choice of annotating Morga's work among all other early chronicles written by Spaniards is not
coincidental. Historian Ambeth Ocampo provides five reasons behind Rizal's choice.

The first reason, according to Ocampo, was the fact that Morga's work in its original Spanish edition was rare. In
fact, the original Spanish text had never been reprinted in full until Rizal published his annotations in 1889. Second,
unlike other early Spanish chronicles written by ecclesiastics, Morga was a civil administrator and therefore provided a
secular view of historical events during the early Spanish colonial period. This second reason relates to Rizal's belief that
a secular account was more credible than those written by religious missionaries, which is the third reason for his
choice. Fourth, it was more sympathetic towards the natives in contrast to the biased accounts written by the friars.
Finally, Morga's work was a fitting choice because he was an eyewitness to historical events that occurred in the
Philippines during the period of early Spanish colonization.
With the publication of his annotations to Sucesos, Rizal presented an outline of a linear conception of history.
While Noli Me Tångere dealt with the nineteenth century or Rizal's present, and El Filibusterismo and the essay titled
"The Philippines a Century Hence" covered the future, the annotations of Sucesos tackled the past.

More than an attempt to write the country's history, however, Rizal's annotation of Morga's Sucesos must also
be seen within the context of the Propaganda Movement. At a time when Filipino propagandists were clamouring for
reforms in Spain, presenting a critical narrative of the country's history might be considered as an endeavor to create a
sense of national consciousness or identity that was anchored on a glorious past. Whereas early Spanish chroniclers
ridiculed the early Filipinos for being barbarians, Rizal's copious notes of Sucesos revealed early Filipino culture as rich
and flourishing. Thus, Rizal's annotations may be considered an effort to assert Filipino identity within an oppressive
colonial framework.