Readings in Philippine History

Historiography
The study of how history is written
✣ Involves how history is interpreted by the various writers
✣ History is not totally OBJECTIVE; It has a SUBJECTIVE side

Factors Affecting Historiography

1. Time it was written
2. Bias of the writer
3. Intentions of writing narrative
4. Proximity to the event

Philosophy of History
1. Herodotus
 Father of History
 The origins and execution of the Greco-Persian Wars (499–479B.C.) that he called “The Histories.”
 The Histories” was a straightforward account of the wars.

2. Thucydides
 History of Peloponnesian War
 His writing is condensed and direct, almost austere in places, and is meant to be read rather than
delivered orally.
 He explains in a scientific and impartial manner the intricacies and complexities of the events he observed

3. Giambattista Vico
 “comes to be at once a history of the ideas, the customs, the deeds of mankind.
 the principles of the history of human nature, which we shall show to be the principles of universal
history, which principles it seems hitherto to have lacked

4. Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel

 History has a Telos (Goal)
 Dialectics ( Thesis-Antithesis= Synthesis)
 Ideas towards the Human Freedom

5. Karl Marx
 Materialistic version of Dialectic
 Production affecting the movement of history
 A history of class struggle
 Towards a communist society

6. Fernand Braudel
 Founded the Annales school of History
 Importance of economic, social, political and cultural context of the writing of History
 The subject matter of history changes because of the changes in time frame

7. Michel Foucault
 Archeology of knowledge
 There is no such thing as objective truth
 Everything is an interpretation
 History is about power relation

8. Zeus Salazar
 “Pantayong pananaw” lamang kung ang lahat ay gumagamit ng mga konsepto at ugali na alam ng lahat
ang kahulugan, pati ang relasyon ng mga kahulugang ito sa isa’t isa. Ito ay nangyayari lamang kung iisa ang
code o “pinagtutumbasan ng mga kahulugan,”
MGA DALUMAT (sources of history) ayon kay Zeus Salazar
1. Pasalaysay na Kasaysayan
2. Epiko
3. Mito
4. Kwentong Bayan
5. Biro
6. Awit
7. Tula

Historical Sources
1. Primary
- First hand experience
- Written during the event
- Diaries, letters, pictures, and government documents

2. Secondary
- Interpretation of primary sources
- Written at the time way beyond the event

Elements of History
1. People
2. Date
3. Place
4. Significance
Oral History
1. NATURE OF ORAL HISTORY
Unwritten sources couched in a form suitable for oral transmission and that their preservation depends on the
power of memory of successive generations of human beings

2. DANGER OF ORAL HISTORY

The end-product is conditioned both by the historian’s social position vis-à-vis the informant, and by the terms
in which he or she learned to analyze the past and which may well be communicated to the informant.

3. INTERPRETATION OF ORAL HISTORY

It requires critical evaluation and that it must be deployed in conjunction with all other available sources.
Transcriptions of testimonies is needed.

Local History
1. NATURE OF LOCAL HISTORY
- Narrative in the Local Context
- Concentrated in the local community

Important in Building the National History.

- Local history is the study of history in a local context, often concentrating on events that affected a local
community.

STATE
1. Nature
- A community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a definite portion of territory,
having a government of their own to which great body of inhabitants render obedience, and enjoying freedom
from external control. (de Leon & de Leon, 2014)

2. Element
A. People C. Government
B. Territory D. Sovereignty

3. Power of the State

A. Power of Eminent Domain
B. Power of Taxation
C. Police Power

Constitution
A. Malolos Constitution
 Date of Ratification: January 21, 1899
 Historical Event Which Leads to the Creation: Philippine Revolution against Spain and Declaration of
Independence
 Chairman of the Commission: Felipe Calderon
 President of the Philippines: Emilio Aguinaldo
 Form of Government: Republican
 Form of Legislature: Unicameral
 Term of the President: 4 years with reelection
 Suffrage: Male, 21 yrs old, welleducated and had properties and annual tax amounting to 500 pesos.

Significant Provisions of Malolos Constitution

1. Legality of the Declaration of Independence
2. Division of Government into three branches; Legislative, Executive and Judiciary.
3. The Separation of Church and State
4. Freedom of Religion
5. National Assembly approve rules for it’s internal government.
6. To approve a bill, only 1⁄4 of the vote of the members of the legislative body is required.
7. The Chief Justice and the Solicitor-General shall be chosen by the Natl. Assembly
8. the Executive Committee, headed by the Prime Minister, as hereinafter provided, shall exercise the powers
and discharge the duties of the President until a President shall have been elected and qualified
9. If the Batasang Pambansa withdraws its confidence in the Prime Minister, the Speaker shall preside over the
Executive Committee.
10. In the absence of an Executive Committee, the Speaker of the Batasang Pambansa shall act as President
until a President shall have been elected and qualified.
THEORIES IN TAXATION
A. Ability-to-pay principle
 the belief that taxes should be based on the individual’s ability to pay.

B. Benefit principle
 the idea that there should be some equivalence between what the individual pays and the benefits he
subsequently receives from governmental activities.

Types of TAXATION
 A progressive tax imposes a higher percentage rate on taxpayers who have higher incomes.
 A regressive tax is a tax imposed in such a manner that the tax rate decreases as the amount subject to
taxation increases
 A proportional tax is a tax imposed so that the tax rate is fixed, with no change as the taxable base
amount increases or decreases.