wwRepublic of the Philippines

NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY

Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE 
IM No.: IM-GEHIST-1STSEM-2020-
2021 

College of Arts and Sciences

Bayombong Campus 

DEGREE PROGRAM General Education COURSE NO. GE-HIST SPECIALIZATION Phil.

History COURSE TITLE Readings in Philippine History YEAR LEVEL All levels TIME FRAME 6
hrs. WK NO. 2 IM NO. 1 

I. CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Philippine History: Definition, Issues, Sources, and 

Methodology 

II. LESSON TITLE: 

History: Its Roots, Meaning and Uses in Philippine

context 

III. CHAPTER OVERVIEW 

This chapter introduces history as a discipline and a narrative relative to the Philippine
context. It presents the definition of the history, which transcends the common definition of
history as the study of the past. It also distinguishes the different types of historical
sources and the historical-critical methods used by historians to establish historical truths.
It aims to introduce the students to history as a theoretical field, as well as discuss the
historiographical method of the evaluation of primary sources. 

IV. DESIRED LEARNING OUTCOMES 

At the end of the chapter, the students should be able

to: 
1. Understand the meaning and relevance of history in Philippine context; 2. Examine
and assess critically the value of historical evidences and sources; 3. Differentiate the
methods used in analyzing historical sources; 4. Identify the tools used in dealing with
historical sources; and 5. Appreciate the importance of history in the social and
national life of the Philippines. 

V. LESSON CONTENT 
 History: Its Roots and Meaning in Philippine
context 

History is an important description of the past generations. On a national level, it is an

embodiment of people’s experiences, though differ in terms of period and setting but
united towards the formation of a nation (Veneracion, 1998). As such, history is both the
past and the study of the past. It is about the past experiences of people as reconstructed
and described by a historian. 

Etymologically speaking, history came from the Greek word historia referring to the
systematic narration of past events in a chronological manner. This form of history was
popularized by famous historians like Herodotus (c. 484 – c. 425 BC) who is the Father of
History and Thucydides (c. 460 – c. 400 BC) who described their previous Greek war
engagements. According to Aristotle, regarded as the father of logic, history is a
systematic account of a set of natural phenomena which are arranged in their
chronological order. E.H. Carr likewise defines history as a never-ending dialogue of
events between the past and the present. Will Durant stated that history is a narrative of
events of what civilized men have thought and done in the past. In the words of
Jawaharlal Nehru, the theme of history should be that of man’s growth from barbarism to
civilization. 

Republic of the Philippines NUEVA

VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
 Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE 
IM No.: IM-GEHIST-1STSEM-2020-
2021 

Introduced in 1565 in the Philippines, it

also became the tradition of writing that
proliferated during the Spanish period.
For example, the subject or emphasis of
Spanish accounts during those times
was the chivalry of conquistadores or
those soldiers who have helped in the
time of conquest. A colony like the
Philippines was treated as “object” of
study – a place to be transformed
according to the image of the Spanish
empire. As such, Spain was regarded as
the center and its colonies were only
mentioned as periphery (kagiliran) in
Spanish accounts.

Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886)

With the start of the 19 century, the study of history developed as a discipline in
th

Europe through the initiative of the positivist movement. In particular, a German historian
named Leopold von Ranke (1795 – 1886) and his group pushed the idea of history as a
scientific narration and description known as positivism. They espoused a critical historical
method in which all observations and conclusions are results of careful analysis of certain
events and on how they acted upon each other. The certainty of events was based on
documents. There can be no history without sources. The existence of documents was an
essential requirement during the period. The task of the historian is to “base himself on
documentation and to draw the evidence for his assertions or interpretations from the facts
found in documents” (Schumacher, 1991). This school of thought led to the establishment
of archives supported by the monarchy and the state. Journals and chronicles were
significant sources of historical truths. Simple and unbiased descriptions became part of
the scientific tradition to maintain a history which is objective in its own right. In terms of
writing Philippine history, the Spaniards believed that they have produced an objective
history as their accounts were always been based on documents that have the
confirmation of scribes and notary public. But according to Veneracion (1998), the way the
Spaniards outlined Philippine history was an outright manifestation of a hispanocentric
perspective. It was only defined in two periods: 1) before the coming of the Spaniards, and
2) during the Spanish colonization. With this kind of periodization, one can sense the
direction of such history. 

Through the propagandists in Spain during the 19 century, a new kind of discourse in
th

dealing with history was used known as Pangkaming pananaw. With this perspective,
the propagandists inflamed Filipino pride and asserted that the country is not backward
like what early Spanish accounts have mentioned. The propagandists used the language
of the colonizers in investigating the past. An example is Jose Rizal when he examined
and annotated Antonio Morga’s account entitled Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas. While it is
true that Morga cited the dexterity of the early Filipinos in metallurgy, their engagement in
trade and their being hardworking, Rizal emphasized that these qualities of 
Republic of the Philippines NUEVA
VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE 
IM No.: IM-GEHIST-1STSEM-2020-
2021 the Filipinos have gone as a result
of Spanish colonialism. He claimed that
the Philippines had not improved but
rather retrogressed under Spanish rule
(Schumacher, 1991). 

Different from the kind of periodization adopted by the Spaniards, Pangkaming

pananaw divided Philippine history in three periods: 1) before the coming of the
Spaniards; 2) during the Spanish colonization; and 3) after the revolution or separation
from Spain. Colonialism was the focus of history and being regarded as hindrance to
progress and solidarity. The Spanish period was considered a long period of oppression
which caused the Filipino people to revolt as a reaction and a sign of disappointment. It
was likened to a long period of darkness, an age of ignorance where in science failed to
flourish as an instrument for development (Veneracion, 1998). Pangkaming pananaw
have also influenced some Filipino historians who were successful writers of textbooks
like Gregorio Zaide and Teodoro Agoncillo. These historians imbibed the nationalist
perspective in writing history though they differed in emphasis and details. They also used
English rather than using Filipino in writing history like what propagandists did during the
19 century (Veneracion, 1998). 
th

At present, another perspective which advocated for an independent Filipino discourse

was realized. This is called the Pantayong Pananaw as popularized by Dr. Zeus Salazar
 of the University of the Philippines. The Filipino people as readers were given importance
since history is written in the language they understood. People who adhere to this view
believed that there are other events that historians should look into. Colonialism should
not be the only the focus of history since there were inhabitants of the Philippines who
were not colonized. History should be written about the development of the Filipino nation
from the different ethnic communities (pamayanan) to the formation of centralized
settlements (bayan) en route to the establishment of a state (bansa). 

Importance of
History 

It is said that history is to the human race whereas memory is to each man. It does not
only shed the light of the past upon the present time. It also: 

1. Helps every person to draw conclusion from the past events helping the person to 
understand himself by being acquainted with other
people. 
2. Helps the person or the government avoid the pitfalls of the present by knowing the 
rise and fall of the rulers, government and
empires. 
3. Makes a person’s life richer and fuller by giving meaning to the books he reads
(especially history books, the cities and metropolis he visits and the cultural
performances he hears and listens to). 
4. Broaden the person’s outlook in life by learning and understanding the various
races, cultures, idiosyncrasies, habits, rituals, ceremonies, etc. of the making of the
contemporary society out of the diverse forces of the past. 
5. Enable a person to grasp his relationship with the past, such as to who ordered the
killing of Ninoy Aquino or why China insists on occupying territories claimed by the
Philippines – and because of the events, one has to turn to history for a complete
answer. 
6. Helps social and political scientists or researchers engaged in research as for
example a political researcher doing a research on federal form of government has to
draw his data from the materials of history and finally; 
7. History preserves the cultural values of a nation because it guides society in
confronting various crisis. As Allen Nerins puts it, history is like a bridge that connects
the past with the present and “pointing the road to the future.” 
Republic of the Philippines NUEVA
VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE 
IM No.: IM-GEHIST-1STSEM-2020-
2021 
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Relevance of Studying Philippine
History 

Some students enrolled in Philippine History subject often asked the question: What is
the use or relevance of studying Philippine History? It is just an additional payment for an
additional 3-unit core subject. Why are we concerned about what happened a long time
ago? The answer to their questions is that “history is inescapable,” according to Penelope
J. Carfield. The saying “all people are living histories – which is why history matters” is
true in this case. It is not a “dead” subject, as some believed. History connects things
through time and the students are encouraged to take a long view of such connections. An
example is the legacies of the past is connected to the present so as to determine what
comes in the future. 

Understanding Philippine History is essential to a good understanding of the condition

of being human. People build, people destroy, and people change. Neither of these
options can be understood well without understanding the context and starting point of all
of these. All human beings live in the here and now, but it took a long unfolding history to
get enough to “NOW.” 

Furay and Salevouris (2000) identified some uses of history which made it important in
people’s lives: 

History is a memory. It is about the collective memory of a nation. As the Spanish-

American philosopher George Santayana (c. 1863 – 1952) has once said: “a country
without a memory is a country of madmen” (Szasz, 1974). This means that people who do
not know their history know nothing. Without history, a nation is considered rootless and
lost like an individual with amnesia. 

History is truth. It is a reminder that the past did happen. The records of past events
though seemed inadequate and difficult to interpret, constitute a connection between the
past and the present. The rapid change we see around us today shows the reality that all
we have, all we do, all we think, and all we are is the product of what we have been in the
past. For example, the kind of democracy that we have at present is a cumulative result of
what people fought and asserted for in the past. 

History gives an informed perspective on the world around us. It provides information
about particular solutions employed by the past generations to similar problems and
issues that we have at present. We should not think that the problems we face and the
solutions we propose are unique and has no relationship to past human problems. 

History shapes human affairs. Historical accounts can be a powerful tool in influencing
the minds of people about a particular event. For example, accounts of human rights
violations and corruption during the Martial Law years completely destroyed Marcos’
credibility which resulted to the fall of the dictatorship. 

Sources of
History 
 Sources are materials from which historians construct meanings. These could be
objects or things from the past or testimonies concerning the past on which historians
depend in order to come up with their own depiction of the past (Howell and Prevenier,
2001). Sources can be categorized into two based on structure or form: written and
unwritten. 

1. Written Sources. These are historical sources which are printed or in the form of
documents. 
Howell and Prevenier categorized written sources in three
types: 

a. Narrative/Literary Sources. Include chronicles or pieces presented in narrative form which

were written to impart a particular message. They vary widely in terms of intention. A scientific
piece is usually composed in order to inform contemporaries or the future 
Republic of the Philippines NUEVA
VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE 
IM No.: IM-GEHIST-1STSEM-2020-
2021 
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generations. A daily article might have been made to shape or influence people’s
opinions; personal narratives such as diaries or memoirs might be created in order to
justify the author’s actions or decisions or a biography might be written to commend the
subject’s achievements and success. 

b. Diplomatic Sources. Refer to records of existing legal situation or create a new one. They
are regarded as the “purest” and the “best” source. Classic examples are charters, laws,
statutes, declarations, treatises, agreements, ordinances and the like. These are typically
sealed or authenticated with the purpose of providing evidence of the conclusion of a legal
transaction or as evidence in judicial proceeding in the event of disputes. 

c. Social Documents. The products of record-keeping by bureaucracies such as government

offices, charitable organizations, foundations, churches and schools regarding information with
economic, social, political, and juridical importance. These documents may provide accounts
of: 
• particular charges or agencies (i.e. Cabinet’s reports, commission’s reports, SONA, election
reports) 
• meetings (i.e., bicameral congress) 
• business policies (i.e., Filipino First policy, TRAIN Law) 
• survey of administrative structure (i.e., property registers of a church or foundation) 
• fiscal structure (i.e., tax rolls) 
• social structure (i.e. registers of births, marriages, and deaths, records of migration) 
• political administration (i.e., list of rulers, cabinet members, legislators) 

2. Unwritten Sources. These are representations of the past that are not recorded or
documented. Artifacts, narratives, relics, fossils, images, audio-video records, paintings, maps,
and the like are examples of this source. 

On the other hand, the forms of historical sources as mentioned may be classified into two
types 
depending on the historical subject being
studied: 

1. Primary Sources – are direct firsthand evidences regarding an object, person, or work of art.
It is also called as original source. These are proofs of witnesses and evidences of materials
which are present at the time of the occurrence of an event or period. If an individual is
interested to study the so-called EDSA People Power 1 in 1986, primary sources can include
newspaper clippings, video reports and accounts as well as memoirs of people who joined the
said event. They include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results,
experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches,
and art objects. They also include interviews, surveys, fieldwork, and Internet communications
via email, blogs, listservs, and newsgroups. In the most natural and social sciences, primary
sources are often empirical studies – research where experiment was performed or a direct
observation was done. The results of such empirical studies are found in some scholarly articles
or papers delivered at conferences. 

Secondary Sources on the other hand describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon,
analyze, evaluate, summarize, and process primary sources. These are produced by an
author by means of primary sources. If students are interested with the Katipunan, they
may read Vivencio Jose’s Ang Diskurso ng Kaisipan at Layunin ng Katipunan or the article
entitled “Andres Bonifacio and the 1896 Revolution” by Milagros Guerrero et.al. For
example, Guerrero and her co-authors analysed artifacts and documents produced during
the existence of the KKK to write history. Secondary source materials are those that can
be found in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles written
in scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate someone else’s original research. 

When an author is interested to write about Filipinos during the early Spanish contact, he
may refer to Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas or Pedro Chirino’s
Relacion de las Islas Filipinas as primary sources. The output will be considered as
secondary source later on. 
Republic of the Philippines NUEVA
VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE 
IM No.: IM-GEHIST-1STSEM-2020-
2021 
NVSU-FR-ICD-05-00 (081220) Page 6 of 8 
The Methods of
History 

To come up with historical truth, an individual interested in dealing with history must know
how to examine historical sources. Any source material collected should be subjected to
both external and internal criticism. 

1. External criticism. Concerned with establishing the authenticity of data. It is focused at the
document itself rather than the analysis or its meaning. The genuineness of a document may
involve tests of factors such as signatures, handwriting, scripts, type, style, spelling, and the
setting and timing of events. External criticism is concerned in dealing with the following
questions: 
• Is the document authentic? 
• When was it written? 
• Where was it written? 
• Why did it survive? 
• Who was the real author? 

2. Internal criticism. Concerned with the meaning or interpretation and the value of the
document relative to context. The accuracy of the information contained in a document as well
as the credibility of the author is evaluated. It tries to answer the following questions: 

• What is the meaning of the document? 

• Is it a work of an eyewitness or just a second-hand account? 
• Why was it written? 
• What is its literal meaning? 
• Is their internal consistency? 

RELATED DISCIPLINES USED IN THE STUDY OF HISTORICAL

SOURCES 

Howell and Prevenier (2001) identified and described related disciplines in which historians and 
students of history sought help in dealing with
sources: 

1. Paleography. It is the study of ancient and historical handwriting. Historical and social
change over the centuries can be reflected in changes of styles and form of writing. The
changing concerns of society are mirrored in the content and style of manuscripts. Paleography
as a discipline can be used for tracing history. The precise mode of delineation of letters, the
identification of local script styles or individual scribal hands and the intricacies of punctuation
and abbreviation are analysed to trace influences across time and space, and even to trace the
movements of individuals. 2. Statistics. It is the analysis of quantitative data and their
relationships. An American Statistician named Carroll Davidson Wright (c. 1840 – c. 1909) once
believed in the dictum “history is past statistics, statistics present history” (Hull, 1914). This
means that the events of the past are reflected in numbers or that numbers tell stories. In
establishing historical truths, a historian may utilize numerical data. For example, if the historian
wanted to prove the historical truth that human rights violations were rampant during the
administration of then former President Ferdinand Marcos then he or she may present statistical
data persons killed, raped, tortured, imprisoned and the like. 3. Diplomatics. This pertains to
the study of formal properties of charters or agreements. It is a tool that can be utilized by
historians to determine the authenticity of official documents or legal agreements issued by
governing bodies. Note that it is not the same with palaeography. Its techniques are somewhat
similar with textual criticism and historical criticism. 4. Archaelogy. It is known as the study of
artifacts and relics. Archaeology plays a very crucial role in the reconstruction of history. This is
true in looking and studying ancient cultures and civilizations especially when there are no
written records available. By finding and studying, with the utilization of carbon dating and other
methods to determine the precise age of the items discovered in archaeological sites,
archaeology can reconstruct events and things of the past. 
Republic of the Philippines NUEVA
VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE 
IM No.: IM-GEHIST-1STSEM-2020-
2021 
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5. Sigillography. It is the study of seals particularly on identifying and decoding them.
Sigillography is derived from the word “Sigil” means a seal or signature. It also means a “mark”
or sign supposed to exercise occult power. Particularly, this discipline is a helpful tool in
reconstructing history since it deals with seals including their authenticity, age, history, and
content. During the olden times and even now, seals play a very important role in the
administration of people in power. Seals provide information about the name of rulers, their
titles, the extent of their empires, the dates of documents, religion or dynasties they belonged as
well as the date and era of issuance. These seal also indicates the level of cultural development
of the period. 6. Chronology. It is the study of the different ways people have kept and marked
time. A historian or a student of history should have a grasp of such discipline because it
specifically deals with the exact order of events that occur. As such, the cause and the effect of
events are better understood, and thereby allow people to step back in time and view the wider
context of history as to how and why events unfold in the way they do, and how they are related.
7. Codicology. It is the study of manuscripts/handwritten books as archaeological objects,
including the study of the materials (i.e., parchment, paper), of the bindings, of cataloguing, and
of preservation problems. Knowledge of codicology helps the historian to make inferences about
events from the perspectives of the learned or literate who penned the manuscripts. For
example, the clergy house in Bayombong has left little for archaeologists after it went on fire in
the 1980s but it has left a set of accounts that tell much about daily life and work in the
community and the town. 8. Papyrology. It is the study of writing on papyrus. The study of
papyrology is very important for understanding of history specifically the ancient world. The texts
it deals provide information about language, culture, and literature in the ancient world which
cannot be found in any written records. 9. Epigraphy. It is regarded as the study of texts written
on hard materials, such as stone and metal. Epigraphs are commonly called inscriptions.
Epigraphs or inscriptions provide valuable evidence pertaining to the political, social and
economic conditions of the period and the country to which they belong. They are visual
testimonies of the activities of the periods when they were created. The historian should have
the ability to read them or get them deciphered and translated for him by those who know the
language. 10. Numismatics. It is the study of coins, paper currency, and medals. Coins are
useful in many ways to reconstruct history. Names of the rulers, order of time, extent of
territories, kind of government and the like are provided in coins which could be of great help for
historians to establish knowledge about the past. 11. Heraldry. It is the study of coat of arms,
banners, flags and shields. Knowledge in Heraldry aids the historians in deciphering the
meanings of symbols present in the heraldic forms of a particular group of people. The
meanings we Filipino people attached to the symbols of our flag, for example, could establish
our history as a nation. 12. Linguistics. It is the study of language (i.e., grammars,
vocabularies). Knowledge in this related discipline enable a historian to reconstruct earlier forms
of present languages thus providing direct evidence of words, their meanings and historical
influences in the past. Studies on Filipino languages, for example, established the Filipino
people’s history of colonization. 13. Genealogy. This pertains to the study of family relationships
which is the basis of studies about social groups based on blood or marriage ties. For example,
knowledge on tracing kin relations benefits the historian studying the political history of a
particular place. With genealogy, he or she can establish how or why a particular family rose to
power and the extent of their extent of influence. 14. Prosopography – the use of biographical
material to construct group portraits. It is concerned with personalities, the appearance and
career of a particular group. Prosopography capitalizes on collective biography to make sense
of political action, to help explain ideological or cultural change, to identify social reality and to
describe and analyse the structure of the society and the degree and the nature of the
movements within it. For example, a historian who is interested on the historical development of
feminism in the Philippines may look into the different biographies of feminist and activist
women all 
Republic of the Philippines NUEVA
VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE 
IM No.: IM-GEHIST-1STSEM-2020-
2021 
NVSU-FR-ICD-05-00 (081220) Page
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throughout the country. The biographies of women can be used to infer about the birth
and development of such group. 

VI. LEARNING ACTIVITIES 

Supplementary
Readings: 

• Ang Kasaysayang sa Kasalukuyang Henerasyon by Jaime Veneracion (This can be

accessed at https://www.scribd.com/document/397957580/01-Veneracion-Ang-
Kasaysayan-Sa-Kasalukuyang-Henerasyon) 
• Readings in Philippine History by John Lee P. Candelaria and Veronica C. Alporha (This
can be access at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41062826-readings-in- philippine-
history 
• Readings in Philippine History by Dr. Mariano M. Ariola
https://www.unlimitedbooksph.com/product-page/readings-in-philippine-history 
• Making Philippine History More Interesting: A Chronological Booklist by Mariel Uyquiengco.
June 5, 2017. (This can be accessed at
http://www.thelearningbasket.com/2017/06/philippine-history-for-kids.html 

VII. ASSIGNMENT 

A. Essay Writing. Using the example of a primary source, look for a primary source that can be
used in the writing (type written) of your life history. Insert the photo/picture of the primary
source in your life history and discuss how it qualifies as a primary source. (50 pts.) Format:
Paper size: Letter 8.5x11 Font style: Times New Roman Font size: 12 
Line Spacing: 1.15 Minimum Words: 500 Heading: Mark Lester P. Salvia
September 4, 2020 CAS – 2D Readings in Philippine History 8:30-9:30
MWF 

My Primary
Source 

(Insert
Picture) 

(discuss your primary source how it qualifies as a primary source in

relation to your life history). 

B. Words to Know. (50

pts.) 
Define the following terms based on your own point of view. Don’t copy from the internet.
1. History (10 pts.) 2. Primary Source (10 pts.) 3. Secondary Source (10 pts.) 4. Internal
Criticism (10 pts.) 5. External Criticism (10 pts.) 
 Mark Lester P. Salvia September 4, 2020 CAS – 2D Readings in
Philippine History 8:30-9:30 MWF 

Words to Know 1. History –

(define on your own point of view.) 

Prepared
by: 

MARK LESTER P. SALVIA,

MAED