Notes on Philippine Historiography: Issues and Trends

Abstract

Presents a critical perspective on how Philippine historiography develops when viewed through ideological changes over time.
Compares Western/European conceptions of history with authentic Filipino kasaysayan.
Argues that history is not objective but political, serving purposes such as legitimation of Spanish colonialism via early missionary narratives and as a form of protest by Filipino propagandists.
Highlights key frameworks: Annales school, New Historicism, Pantayong Pananaw (pp) or Bagong Kasaysayan (New History).
Keywords: historiography, annales school, new historicism, Pantayong Pananaw, Bagong Kasaysayan

Introduction

Positivism as a dominant but limited tradition: history should be based on verifiable data, documents, with internal and external criticism.
Weaknesses of positivism led to a New Historicism that interprets facts from multiple perspectives, including non-historic concerns.
In the 1960s, Filipino historians broadened sources and interpretations to challenge traditional discourses.
Leslie Bauzon emphasized the need for methodology for interpretative historical analysis within Philippine society; Western social-science models did not fit the Philippine setting, constraining Filipino historians to view history from a Filipino perspective.
Core definitions and critiques of history:
- History as defined by foreign scholars: long-standing record of what one age finds worthy of note in another (Carr).
- History as more than past events; a forward projection and social construction of a future reality (Elizabeth Medina).
- History as a political endeavor; history as discourse shaped by what is privileged or muted by historiography (Keith Jenkins).
- History as a discourse involves tactics of organizing and sequencing events according to particular outlooks, interests, objectives, or goals.
Implication: in the Philippine context, the selection of what to privilege or mute is central to how the past is made legible and useful for present and future politics.

Philippine Historiography: Issues and Trends

In the Philippines, colonial discourse dominated traditional historiography for a long period, prompting Filipino historians to privilege a Filipino perspective.
Filipino historians highlighted include Agoncillo, Ileto, Guerrero, Diokno, Salazar, and others who counter colonial historiography.
New data, interdisciplinary approaches (archaeology, anthropology, psychology, linguistics, etc.) enabled reconstruction of the Philippine past from a Filipino vantage point.
Samuel Tan defined history as a dynamic process where stages of development are interrelated and understood from the present and future; history is a collective interplay of events, challenging Manila-centered histories.
Renato Constantino emphasized history as the achievement of the masses, not a single leader, aligning with Marxist and pluralist interpretations; this strengthened the “history from below.”
The post-EDSA period brought new directions, including using Filipino as the medium of instruction and Pantayong Pananaw, redirecting history to what the Filipino people consider important; emphasis on oral traditions, local history, and culture.
The broader aim is a Filipino historiography that privileges diverse voices and contexts rather than a single elite or colonial perspective.

Writing of History in the Spanish Period

Early friars produced missionary history, recording observations of early Filipino life, biased toward Spanish missionary experiences but still essential for understanding the past.
Augustinian contributions: Fray Juan de Grijalva (Cronica de la Orden de N.P.S Agustin en las provincias dela Nueva España), Fray Casimiro Diaz (Filipino uprisings in the 17th–18th centuries), Fray Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga (Historia delas Islas Filipinas).
Dominican contributions: Fray Diego de Advante (Historia de la Provincial del Santo Rosario); Fray Baltazar de Santa Cruz (Binalatongan Revolt, 1860, Pangasinan); Fray Vicente Salazar; Fray Diego Colantes (Dominican mission in Batanes); Fray Juan Ferrando (history of the Dominican Order in the Philippines).
Franciscan contributions: Fray Juan de la Plasencia (Los Casturibres de los Tagalogs, 1589) – a key source on pre-Spanish laws; Fray Francisco de Santa Ines (melding ancient Filipino cultures with missionary labor in the Philippines, China, Japan).
Jesuit contributions: Fr. Pedro Chirino (Relacion de las Islas Filipinas, published in Rome, 1604) – life of Filipinos prior to colonization; Fr. Francisco Collin; Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde (histories of the Philippines, mission and Mindanao); Fr. Juan Delgado (broader description across political, ecclesiastical, economic, social, and cultural spheres).
Recollects: Fray Juan dela Concepcion and others contributed valuable information on the cultural dynamics of the Spanish Philippines.
Key takeaway: early sources are indispensable but biased; contemporary postcolonial readings can identify and correct colonial biases in these accounts.
Secular historians in the Spanish period included: Spanish officials, foreign residents, and Filipino ilustrados; each group contributed to historical narratives from different vantage points.

Secular Historians in the Spanish Period

Notable secular figures include Spanish officials such as Dr. Antonio de Morga (Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas), Miguel de Loarca (Relacion de las Islas Filipinas) – descriptions of early Filipino life and material culture.
Thomas de Comyn (Estado de las Islas Filipinas, 1810) – description of colonial economy after Manila opened to international trade.
Paul de la Goromière (surgeon mayor) – documented impressions on the country.
Jose Montero y Vidal (Historia General de Filipinas Desde Descubriemento Hastra Nuestros Dias) – three-volume history on the Spanish Philippines.
Foreign observers: Antonio Pigafetta (Magellan’s voyage chronicler); Henry Peddington (Remarks on the Philippine Islands and their Capital Manila, 1818–1822); Dr. Jean Mallat; Sir John Browning; Feodor Jagor; John Foreman; Wenceslao Retana (contemporary of Rizal) – provided outside perspectives on life in the Philippines.
Value: these accounts offered alternate viewpoints that helped contemporary historians frame the Philippine past, even if they carried biases.

Filipino Historians in the Spanish Philippines

The opening of Manila to international trade fostered a Filipino middle class (illustrados) who studied in Europe and pushed reforms.
Illustrados and nationalist figures: Rizal, del Pilar, Jaena, Paterno, Antonio Luna, Ponce, Isabelo de los Reyes, among others, forged nationalist historiography and defended the Philippines from biased foreign portrayals.
Propaganda movement and La Solidaridad: articles addressing conditions before and during Spanish colonization; notable works included Rizal’s The Philippines a Century Hence, del Pilar’s Dasalan at Tocsohan, Jaena’s Fray Botod, Paterno’s Ninay, etc.
Revolutionary period writings by Bonifacio, Jacinto, Mabini, Artemio Ricarte, and others; Bonifacio’s Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog and Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa highlighted nationalist grievances and laid groundwork for a pantayong pananaw (pp) lineage through nationalist historiography.
Mabini and Ricarte continued anti-clerical and anti-colonial discourse, shaping the later generation of nationalist historians like Teodoro Agoncillo.

Writing of History during the American Period

1898: Emilio Aguinaldo declares independence; the short-lived Philippine Republic ends with Aguinaldo’s capture in 1901; civil government established under Taft.
Overall, American-period historiography was more systematic but still biased; some American authors defended or criticized colonial administration.
Filipino ilustrados like Pardo de Tavera, Epifanio delos Santos, Teodoro Kalaw, Isabelo delos Reyes (among others) contributed to historical writing; Pardo de Tavera’s Biblioteca Filipina (1903) became a major source for later historians; Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands: 1493–1898 (55-volume compilation) became a key reference.
American colonial officials also authored histories (Fred Atkinson; James Le Roy; George Malcolm; Joseph Hayden) that emphasized colonial achievements and often portrayed Filipinos as dependent on American tutelage.
Non-colonial observers such as Catherine Mayo highlighted what they saw as backward Filipino traits.
Overall, early American historiography tended to be pro-colonial or paternalistic, though it laid the groundwork for later Filipino authors to challenge these narratives.

Historical Writings in the Third Republic

After independence in 1946, nation-building required histories that could unify the country and articulate national identity.
The era from the early 1950s maintained a positivist approach with the motto No Documents, No History, reflecting a reliance on documentary sources.
Key Filipino historians of the American era included Nicolas Zafra, Conrado Benitez, Domingo Eufronio Alip, Gregorio Zaide, and Antonio Molina; they often relied on documentary sources.
The Cold War context influenced historiography, with some authors privileging colonial achievements and presenting a conservative or clerical perspective (e.g., Horacio dela Costa, Jose Arcilla).
Teodoro Agoncillo emerged as a central figure (late 1950s onward), offering a Filipino-centered narrative emphasizing the 1896 Revolution and arguing that pre-1872 history was not fully the nation’s history; his Revolt of the Masses and the Katipunan became rallying points for later debates about methodology and national identity.
May’s critique of Agoncillo accused him of relying on unreliable sources like oral histories without adequate documentation; this sparked debates about methodology and source credibility.

Post-EDSA Period and Pantayong Pananaw (PP)

After the EDSA Revolution, Filipino historians sought a Filipino standpoint that privileges local experiences and languages; Pantayong Pananaw (pp) advocates a from-us-for-us perspective.
Zeus Salazar and proponents of PP used Filipino (Tagalog) as a medium for interpretation and argued that history should reflect what groups within society deem meaningful.
PP redirected historical study toward oral traditions, local histories, and culture; themes included indigenous worldviews, anting-anting (charms), symbolic representations, reduccion (the reduction of arbitrary colonial cultural imports), and other culturally rooted topics.
PP is tied to Salazar’s work in the 1970s, including Ang Pagtuturo ng Kasaysayan sa Pilipino (1971) and Ukol sa Wika at Kulturang Pilipino (1973), which connect language and culture as core to historical understanding.
Ramon Guillermo suggested Salazar’s PP concept originated from external dialogue (introductions from outside) but then evolved into a deeply internal framework; Salazar’s work emphasizes an inside-out approach to Austronesian religious and cultural systems (AC*’anitu’ and animism).
PP aims to include religious-political movements, indigenous communities, and marginalized groups in historiography, seeking to counter the elitist, pueblo-centered narratives.

Key Theorists, Concepts, and Turning Points

Samuel Tan: Methodology of Filipino Muslim History; broader view of history as a process with interrelated stages and a collective dimension.
Renato Constantino: The Philippines: A Past Revisited (1975); argued for a masses-centered, Marxist understanding of history; promoted the idea of pre-colonial as significant and communal democracy; his work faced criticisms (e.g., Glen May questioned methodological rigor and nationalist overreach).
Reynaldo Ileto: Pasyon and Revolution (1998, Ateneo de Manila Press) – post-structuralist approach; used non-traditional sources (pasyon texts) to illuminate the collective psyche of the pobre y ignorantes; argued for a non-linear historiography and a counter-hegemonic discourse that centers the voices from below (folk, healers, tulisanes, colorums, etc.).
Francisco Gealogo (Gealogo): critiqued for relying on unconventional sources; proponents such as Guerrero and May debated the value and verifiability of Ileto’s sources.
Vicente Rafael: Contracting Colonialism (1996); analyzes language, Christian conversion, and misinterpretations arising from translation; argues the natives actively participated in shaping their culture and religion rather than passively accepting colonization.
Connie Alaras: Pamathalaan; documented worldview of kapatiran (religio-political movements); contributed to understanding the mentality of these groups and their role in the independence struggle.
Annales school influence: long-term, structural, and social-history oriented approaches; adjacent to the PP and new historicism in broadening the historical gaze beyond political events.

Annales School, New Historicism, and Post-Structural Readings

Annales framework provided an alternative emphasis on long-term social, economic, and cultural structures rather than episodic political events.
New Historicism opened up the use of non-traditional sources (oral histories, folklore, indigenous materials) and emphasized silences in history (the things not written in official records).
Post-structuralism and the turn toward discourse, language, and collective consciousness influenced how Philippine history was read and written, enabling historians to explore the symbolic and cultural dimensions of historical processes.
Critics ( Guerrero, May ) argued about the epistemic risks of relying on sources without verifiable authorship; Ileto defended the tactic as a response to the tyranny of archives and lack of accessible materials for the masses.

Methodologies and Sources in Philippine Historiography

Traditional sources: written, material, and traditional sources.
Written sources subdivided into literary (subjective interpretation) and official (records of transactions).
Traditional sources: folklore, oral traditions, epics, indigenous materials.
The emergence of new sources: oral history, folklore, indigenous data, archaeology, and ethnography—broadening the base of historical evidence.
The role of material culture: money, weapons, church bells, and other artifacts as historical evidence.
The notion that history is a social science depends on evidence and methodology, but interpretation is shaped by discourse and power relations.

The Significance and Implications for National Unity and Real-World Relevance

History serves as a tool for national unity and identity formation; different schools (eg, PP, Annales, post-structural) offer varied avenues to include diverse sectors (religious, ethnic-linguistic groups) in the national narrative.
Emphasizing a Filipino perspective helps counter colonial legacies and fosters inclusive national memory.
The shift toward a history from below and the inclusion of marginalized voices supports more democratic, pluralistic historical narratives that better capture the lived experiences of a broader population.
Ethical considerations: the use of oral histories and non-traditional sources requires rigorous methodological safeguards to ensure credibility and avoid romanticizing or essentializing groups.

Connections to Foundational Principles and Real-World Relevance

Foundational principle: history is a contest of discourses, shaped by who is allowed to speak and what sources are privileged.
Real-world relevance: understanding how history legitimates political power explains why historians must constantly renegotiate their sources and frameworks to reflect current ethical and political sensibilities.
The Philippine case demonstrates how historiography is a site of political struggle and cultural reaffirmation, with implications for education, public memory, and policy.

Key Terminology and Concepts (Glossa)

Kasaysayan: Filipino concept of history as meaningful narrative of the past for a group.
Panayong Pananaw (Pantayong Pananaw): a from-us-for-us perspective; emphasizes insider language and worldview in historical interpretation.
Bagong Kasaysayan (New History): a movement toward interpretive, multi-perspective history within the Philippine setting.
Annales School: a long-term, structural approach to history focusing on social, economic, and cultural factors.
New Historicism: interprets historical facts from multiple perspectives, including those outside traditional historical concerns.
Pasyon and Revolution: Ileto’s study on how popular religious texts were used to mobilize the masses; highlights non-elite voices and collective psychology.
Damayan, Loob, Liwanag, Lakaran, Kalayaan: symbolic motifs in the pasyon that communities appropriated to resist and redefine power.
Pamanathalaan: kapatiran worldview documented by Alaras; highlights indigenous religious-political actors.
AC*’anitu’ and animism: Salazar’s Austronesian concepts used to frame the internal logic of Philippine religious-cultural systems.

Notable Works and Figures (Selected List)

Rizal, del Pilar, Jaena, Paterno, Luna, Mabini, Ricarte – early nationalist historiography and propaganda writings.
Bonifacio: Ang Dapat Mabatid ng mga Tagalog; Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa – precursors to PP thinking.
Agoncillo: Revolt of the Masses; The Philippines: A Past Revisited – introduced a nation-centered, social-history approach; faced methodological critiques.
Constantino: The Philippines: A Past Revisited; Marxist analysis emphasizing masses and pre-colonial communal democracy.
Ileto: Pasyon and Revolution – non-linear history, voices from below, challenges to positivist cannons; sparked intense debate.
Scott and Jocano: The History of the Inarticulate; The Philippine Pre-history – integrating anthropology and archaeology to broaden the history beyond elite sources.
Rafael: Contracting Colonialism; language and religion as sites of active participation by natives in the colonial process.
Alaras: Pamathalaan; worldview of kapatiran and the role of non-state actors in independence.
Salazar: Ang Pagtuturo ng Kasaysayan sa Pilipino; Ukol sa Wika at Kulturang Pilipino – foundational PP writings; language-kulture nexus.
Guillermo: critiques and historical context around Salazar’s PP; debates over origins of PP concepts.

Notes on Periodization and Shifts in Philippine Historiography

Spanish Period: missionary and secular historiography; biased but foundational; heavy reliance on church and colonial records.
American Period: mixed biases; rising Filipino intellectuals; establishment of major reference works; shift toward documentary bases and nationalist debates.
Third Republic: postwar nation-building; positivist methods; competing interpretations of precolonial history and revolutionary origins.
Post-EDSA Era: diversification of historiographical methods; PP and Annales frameworks; emphasis on languages, marginalized voices, and local cultures; broader disciplinary collaborations.

Ethical and Critical Implications

The necessity of critical reading of colonial sources to uncover biases and power relations.
The legitimacy of unconventional sources (oral history, folklore, indigenous materials) depends on transparent methodology and triangulation with other sources.
The ongoing tension between national pride, nationalist legitimation, and scholarly objectivity; the need to balance advocacy with rigorous historical method.

Summary Takeaways

Philippine historiography has evolved from a colonial, church-centered narrative to a pluralistic, multi-source, and locally grounded discourse.
Key turning points include the rise of New Historicism, the emergence of Pantayong Pananaw, and the influential works of Agoncillo, Constantino, Ileto, and their successors.
The field continues to wrestle with how best to represent diverse voices, including the masses and marginalized communities, while maintaining methodological rigor.
The ongoing dialogue among Annales, New Historicism, PP, and other approaches reflects history as an evolving discipline shaped by politics, culture, and language.

Footnotes and References (Selected)

See notes in the source for specific page numbers and bibliographic entries, including works by Cortez, Cast, Ileto, Rafael, Salazar, and others cited in the transcript.
Representative references include: The Philippines: A Past Revisited (Constantino); Pasyon and Revolution (Ileto); Contracting Colonialism (Rafael); The Writing of People’s History in the Philippines (Gealogo); Bibliotheca Filipina (Pardo de Tavera); The Philippine Islands: 1493–1898 (Blair & Robertson).