SURVEY OF PHILIPPINE LITERATURE IN

ENGLISH (ENGL 511)

SUBJECT CODE: ENGL511
TOPIC OR LESSON: LITERATURE IN PHILIPPINE SETTING
WEEK/s: 10
Term: FINAL TERM
Semester: First
SUB-TOPIC/S: FAMOUS ESSAYS WRITTEN BY NOTED WRITERS:
a. The Filipino Rebel by Maximo Ramos
b. A Borderless World by Patricia Evangelista

OVERVIEW OF THE TOPIC

Welcome to your learning material on Survey of Philippine Literature in English. These

consecutive weeks, you are tasked to read, learn and accomplish activities about Famous essays written
by noted writers.
This module is comprised of six literary pieces specifically noted essays that would take us three
weeks (3) or nine (9) hours long to complete as we go through the in-depth reading and analyzation of the
text hence, we will be able to know its fundamental literary backgrounds as well as the author’s
biography that would help us fully understand what these texts are all about.
Thus, you will go to the entirety of the essays titled The Filipino Rebel by Maximo Ramos, A
Borderless World by Patricia Evangelista, Quiapo by Paul Abellera, Where Is the Patis by Carmen
Guerrero Nakpil, I Am A Filipino by Carlos P. Romulo and The Filipino Woman by Carmen Guerrero
Nakpil. You are also expected to perform and complete activities or tasks provided on each of the literary
pieces that you will be reading.

LEARNING
OUTCOMES

On the successful completion of this module, you are expected to fully digest the texts and
passages assigned to be read. You are also expected to understand the deep advocacy of the writers
writing those specific pieces.
As students, we should not only focus on its mere plot but also its literary backgrounds and
message being conveyed by the writers related to the time when they wrote those aforementioned texts.

LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
At the end of each lesson, students should be able to:
1. Examine the themes presented in the text.
2. Identify historical perspective presented in the text.

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 3. Demonstrate critical thought by evaluating the form, style and artistic convention in
writing the text.
4. Identify social and cultural changes over time through outline.
5. Analyze the reciprocal relationship between the individual and culture.

ENGAGE

We will go over on the given essays and we will be starting with the first set of essays
titled The Filipino Rebel by Maximo Ramos and A Borderless World by Patricia Evangelista .
Below are the set of activities that you will accomplish to improve unlocking the meaning of the
texts.

Task 1
Directions: Create a timeline of events during the American Occupation.

PROCESSING QUESTIONS:

1. What happened during the American occupation in the Country?

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2. How did Philippine revolution occur during the American period?

________________________________________________________________________
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 EXPLORE

Task 2
Directions: Visit Britannica.com/event/Philippine revolution. Answer the following questions
below after reading.

1. What was the Philippine Revolution about?

2. When did the Philippine revolution start?

3. Was the Philippine revolution successful?

4. How did the revolution end?

EXPLAIN

I. A. AUTHOR

Let’s Get To Know the Author!

Maximo Ramos
(1914-1956)
MAXIMO DUMLAO
RAMOS led a triple life as teacher, editor, and writer for over
45 years. Born on November 18, 1910 he was descended from the
Dumlao and Ramos farming folk of Paoay, llocos Norte, who
pioneered in Southern Zambales early in the 19th century. His
first published work would subsequently be about folk beliefs
in San Narciso, Zambales. In later work, he explored stories from
his childhood in Boyhood in Monsoon Country.

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He had a B.S.E. from the University of the Philippines (1934), an A.M. from Indiana University ( 1948)
where he did course work under Stith Thompson, a TESL from the University of California (1963) where
he profited from the tutelage of Wayland D. Hand,
Director of UCLA’s Center for the Study of
Comparative Folklore and Mythology from 1961-1974. Ramos received his Ph.D. from the University of
the Philippines (1965) for his seminal work The Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology.
https://www.google.com/search?

q=maximo+ramos&rlz=1C1FGUR_enPH905PH905&sxsrf=ALeKk01Rgup5e3stazjc2zyn18m0p1fACw:1602382980768&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ah
UKEwigi_PivavsAhUNbKwKHcdvCSoQ_AUoAnoECB0QBA&biw=1366&bih=524#imgrc=WKSqilsTs1QbaM

Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology was a pioneering study of the beings of the otherworld often
mentioned to horrify Filipino folk. But this book was meant as a tool to get at the roots of Philippine
culture and help develop the latter and was not intended to cause shivers.

What have hobbled the fascinating study of Philippine mythical beings is the many names they are known
by, perhaps due to the number of Philippine languages, variously reckoned at 179.

https://www.google.com/search?
q=maximo+ramos&rlz=1C1FGUR_enPH905PH905&sxsrf=ALeKk01Rgup5e3stazjc2zyn18m0p1fACw:1602382980768&source=lnms&tbm=isch&s
a=X&ved=2ahUKEwigi_PivavsAhUNbKwKHcdvCSoQ_AUoAnoECB0QBA&biw=1366&bih=524#imgrc=oMTkkVs012TJBM

But this is so only in part; H. Otley Beyer estimated that the lfugao alone had “millions of gods.”

By looking behind the creatures’ names and examining their traits as reflected in Philippine folklore,
Maximo D. Ramos scaled down the subject to manageable size and succeeded in categorizing the entire
lower Philippine pantheon under just 12 types. In some detail he then defined the implications for the
schools and society. He also related these creatures to those in better studied traditions, thus inviting
further research.

The study of harmful spirits is more fruitful than research on the beneficial such as angels and gods
which, withdrawn from human affairs, affect human lives little. The folk believe that the harmful spirits
frequent and even inhabit their homes and places of work and thus profoundly influence their thoughts,
behavior, values, and world view.

By identifying the personnel of Philippine lower mythology and examining the beliefs about them, Dr.
Ramos touched the wellsprings of Filipino motivations and got at the matrix of the Filipino ethos.

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Before his important 1965 thesis was published in 1971, Ramos was already making a name for himself
as an author of Folklore and Mythology having published four titles on the subject. Tales of Long Ago in
the Philippines (1953) and Philippine Myths and Tales for Young Readers (1968) were collections
gathered from historical sources. His 1967 work, The Creatures of Midnight is perhaps the title that most
Baby Boomers and Gen X remember from their childhood. Ramos’ hope was that after people got to
know these creatures of lower Philippine mythology better, they would never fear them again. He further
hoped that knowledge of these creatures would help enrich Philippine life and culture by artists weaving
the beliefs about them in games, dances, songs, stories, poems, and pictures.

In 1971 The Philippine Folklore Society published The Aswang Syncrasy in Philippine Folklore, With
Illustrative Accounts in Vernacular Texts and Translations, which was a bold attempt to present to the
reader and to students of Filipino society and culture one of the dominant Filipino beliefs, the aswang.
Ramos wrote, “What’s an aswang?” once asked Wayland D. Hand, fascinated by the conflicting traits
glimpsed through the scattered material about this mythical being. I rashly volunteered to find out, little
knowing that the search was to get me into unexplored territory and that to answer Dr. Hand’s question I
must first categorize and classify the traits and functions of just about the entire lower Philippine
pantheon.”

1971 edition of The Aswang Syncrasy in Philippine Folklore

https://www.google.com/search?
q=maximo+ramos&rlz=1C1FGUR_enPH905PH905&sxsrf=ALeKk01Rgup5e3stazjc2zyn18m0p1fACw:1602382980768&source=lnms&tbm=isch&s
a=X&ved=2ahUKEwigi_PivavsAhUNbKwKHcdvCSoQ_AUoAnoECB0QBA&biw=1366&bih=524#imgrc=oMTkkVs012TJBM

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Ramos taught at the Cagayan, Lanao, and Mapa high schools (1935-47, minus the war years) and in each
he was the faculty adviser and literary critic of the campus journal as well. He then moved into college
teaching and, in hopes of academic fresh air, ended his 17-year service in the Philippine Normal College
(1948-65) as English professor, director of publications, and chairman of the English department to
become Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of the East (1965-70), and subsequently
Dean, College of Graduate Studies & Research, Western Philippine Colleges, in Batangas City.

Maximo Ramos became the first editor in chief of Phoenix Publishing House, and was associated with the
company from 1963 until his death on December 12, 1988. As editor and consultant, he gathered together
a team of teachers who were creative, understood the needs of Filipino students, knew their pedagogy,
and, above all, were committed to the ideals of nationhood espoused by Dr. Ernesto Y. Sibal, founder of
Phoenix Publishing and a pioneer in gathering government support for Filipino-authored textbooks. The
leadership of Phoenix Publishing House in the textbook field in all subject areas on all three levels of the
educational system is due, in a large measure, to the unfaltering loyalty and passion for work of Dr.
Ramos.

While with Phoenix Publishing, Ramos never relaxed his own personal pursuit of the Muse and continued
to write short stories, poems, and essays culminating in two titles, Patricia of the Green Hills and Other
Stories and Poems and Remembrance Of Lents Past and Other Essays. At the same time, he devoted
special attention to serious research on Philippine mythology and folklore. All these were done as he
taught and performed administrative duties at the Philippine Normal College and later at the University of
the East.

Maximo D. Ramos

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https://www.google.com/search?
q=maximo+ramos&rlz=1C1FGUR_enPH905PH905&sxsrf=ALeKk01Rgup5e3stazjc2zyn18m0p1fACw:1602382980768&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwig
i_PivavsAhUNbKwKHcdvCSoQ_AUoAnoECB0QBA&biw=1366&bih=524#imgrc=aaysjsx-4S_pcM

Ramos’ legacy has fired the imagination of Filipino students and inspired them to know more about their
own folkways and folklore and to write them down for others to enjoy and appreciate. Dr. Ramos’s only
limitation perhaps is access to Filipino language as medium of his literary output. But he has shown the
Filipino student that one can master the English language and use it to advantage in portraying Philippine
reality. And because the setting is Filipino and the experiences are part of the Filipino tradition, his
writings appeals to children and adults.

His works, collectively titled REALMS OF MYTHS AND REALITY, consist of the following:

1. TALES OF LONG AGO IN THE PHILIPPINES

2. PHILIPPINE MYTHS, LEGENDS,AND FOLKTALES
3. LEGENDS OF THE LOWER GODS
4. THE CREATURES OF MIDNIGHT
5. THE ASWANG COMPLEX IN PHILIPPINE FOLKLORE
6. PHILIPPINE DEMONOLOGICAL LEGENDS AND THEIR CULTURAL BEARINGS
7. BOYHOOD IN MONSOON COUNTRY
8. PATRICIA OF THE GREEN HILLS AND OTHER STORIES AND POEMS
9. REMEMBRANCE OF LENTS PAST AND OTHER ESSAYS
10. THE CREATURES OF PHILIPPINE LOWER MYTHOLOGY
This above collection was published posthumously as a tribute to Dr. Maximo D. Ramos and as a
contribution to Filipiniana. And therein lies the lasting contribution of Maximo D. Ramos not only to the
study of Philippine folklore in particular but also to the understanding of Filipino society and culture in
general.

SOURCE: Compiled from the various books of Maximo Ramos.

A. ESSAY
THE FILIPINO REBEL

Although the fighting with Spain in the Philippines had ended in August 1898, American troops
found themselves with more battles to fight there in order to assert U.S. dominance over the region. The
fighting with Filipino rebels began as a result of the U.S. refusal to include the Filipino nationalists in
negotiations over the future of the Philippines. The Philippines were ceded to the United States by Spain for
$20 million by the Treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898. On December 21, 1898, President
McKinley issued the Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation, which outlined his colonizing policies in the
Philippines. In response, the Philippine Republic was declared on January 1 with Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy
as its president, but the United States refused to recognize it as the legitimate government. In reaction to this
non-recognition, the Filipino government proclaimed its constitution on January 27, 1899. By February 4, the
Philippine Republic had declared war on the United States after three Filipino soldiers were killed by U.S.
troops. The fighting eventually came to be known by a variety of names: the Philippine Insurrection, the
Philippine-American War, the Filipino-American War, the Philippine War, and the Philippine Revolution, to
name a few.

American Mutoscope & Biograph Co. March 23, 1900. The Philippine Islands. Camera, Raymond
Ackerman. Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress.

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(Continue to the next page)

Aguinaldo was eventually captured by American troops led by Colonel Frederick Funston on March 23, 1901.
Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the hostilities in the Philippines over on July 4, 1902, although guerrilla
resistance continued.

Biograph sent two expeditions to cover the Philippine Campaign, as it was called in the company catalog. Three
films in this presentation were shot in 1900 during the Philippine Revolution: Aguinaldo's Navy, filmed on the
Pasig River near Manila; 25th Infantry; and An Historic Feat.

The film 25th Infantry featured an African-American regiment, which had won an impressive victory at El
Caney, Cuba. The regiment had been sent to the Philippines in August 1899, and engaged frequently with the
enemy in many skirmishes, winning particular recognition for their successful raid on the town of O'Donnell.

An Historic Feat featured General J. Franklin Bell's mule pack train swimming the Agno River in Northern
Luzon. General Bell arrived in the Philippines as a major in a volunteer regiment. Often performing dangerous
reconnaissance missions, he rose quickly through the ranks to become colonel in command of the 36th Infantry.
He eventually attained the rank of Chief of Staff of the Army. Bell's contribution to the fighting included
strengthening the intelligence services of the army and taking hard measures against rebels and their supporters,
even to the extremes of harassment and punishment. His most controversial measure was ordering the
concentration of the populace into protected zones to fight counterinsurgency. Although efforts were made to
prevent the suffering of these people, poor conditions in the camps may have led to the deaths of as many as
11,000 Filipinos, according to some estimates.

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