Historical Interpretation


History is the study of the past but
a more contemporary definition is
centered on how it impacts the
present through its consequences.
 Geoffrey Barraclough

“History is the attempt to discover, on
the basis of fragmentary evidence, the
significant things about the past.”
“The history we read though based on
facts, is strictly speaking, not factual at
all, but a series of accepted
judgements.”
The Code of Kalantiaw

 
 In the famous epic story of Maragtas, there was this
mythical legal code called "The Code of Kalantiaw".
It was named after its supposed author, Datu
Kalantiaw, who allegedly wrote it in 1433. Datu
Kalantiaw was a chief on the island of Negros. It was
written about by Jose E. Marco in 1913 in his
historical fiction "Las Antiguas Leyendes de la Isla
de Negros" (The Ancient Legends of the Island of
Negros). He ascribed its source to a priest named
Jose Maria Pavon.
 PEKNOS

 The historian Josue Soncuya wrote about the Code of
Kalantiaw in 1917 in his book "Historia Prehispana
de Filipinas" (Prehispanic History of the Philippines)
where he transferred the location of the origin of the
Code from Negros to Panay because he contended
that said Code may have been related to the
Binirayan festival.
 
 The story on this Code has been recognized through
the ages by known authors. In 1968, however,
historian William Henry Scott called this a "hoax" in
his book "Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study
of Philippine History". Consequently, Filipino
historians agreed to expunge the Code of Kalantiaw
in future materials on Philippine history.
 Although the said Code ceases to be part of the texts
of Philippine history, however, many still believe its
validity.
 Laws of the Kalantiaw
Code

 Article I
Ye shall not kill, neither shall ye steal nor shall ye hurt the
aged, lest ye incur the danger of death. All those who this
order shall infringe shall be tied to a stone and drowned in a
river or in boiling water.
 Article II
Ye shall punctually meet your debt with your headman. He
who fulfills not, for the first time shall be lashed a
hundredfold, and If the obligation is great, his hand shall be
dipped threefold in boiling water. On conviction, he shall be
flogged to death.
 
 Article III
Obey ye: no one shall have wives that are too young, nor shall they
be more than what he can take care of, nor spend much luxury. He
who fulfils not, obeys not, shall be condemned to swim three hours
and, for the second time, shall be scourged with spines to death.
 Article IV
Observe and obey ye: Let not the peace of the graves be disturbed;
due respect must be accorded them on passing by caves and trees
where they are. He who observes not shall die by bites of ants or
shall be flogged with spines till death.
 Article V
Obey ye: Exchange in food must be carried out faithfully. He who
complies not shall be lashed for an hour. He who repeats the act
shall, for a day be exposed to the ants.
 
 Article VI
Ye shall revere respectable places, trees of known value, and other
sites. He shall pay a month's work, in gold or money, whoever fails
to do this; and if twice committed, he shall be declared a slave.
 Article VII
They shall die who kill trees of venerable aspect; who at night
shoot with arrows the aged men and the women; he who enters the
house of the headman without permission; he who kills a fish or
shark or striped crocodile.
 Article VIII
They shall be slaves for a given time who steal away the women of
the headmen; he who possesses dogs that bite the headmen; he
who burns another man's sown field.
 
 Article IX
They shall be slaves for a given time, who sing in their night
errands, kill manual birds, tear documents belonging to the
headmen; who are evil-minded liars; who play with the
dead.
 Article X
It shall be the obligation of every mother to show her
daughter secretly the things that are lascivious, and prepare
them for womanhood; men shall not be cruel to their wives,
nor should they punish them when they catch them in the
act of adultery. He who disobeys shall be torn to pieces and
thrown to the caymans.
 
 Article XI
They shall be burned, who by force or cunning have mocked at
and eluded punishment, or who have killed two young boys, or
shall try to steal the women of the old men (agurangs).
 Article XII
They shall be drowned, all slaves who assault their superiors or
their lords and masters; all those who abuse their luxury; those
who kill their anitos by breaking them or throwing them away.
 Article XIII
They shall be exposed to the ants for half a day, who kill a black cat
during the new moon or steal things belonging to the headmen.
 
 Article XIV
They shall be slaves for life, who having beautiful
daughters shall deny them to the sons of the headman,
or shall hide them in bad faith.
 Article XV
Concerning their beliefs and superstitions: they shall be
scourged, who eat bad meat of respected insects or
herbs that are supposed to be good; who hurt or kill the
young manual bird and the white monkey.
 
 Article XVI
Their fingers shall be cut off, who break wooden or clay idols in
their olangangs and places of oblation; he who
breaks Tagalan's daggers for hog killing, or breaks drinking vases.
 Article XVII
They shall be killed, who profane places where sacred objects of
their diwatas or headmen are buried. He who gives way to the call
of nature at such places shall be burned.
 Article XVIII
Those who do not cause these rules to be observed, if they are
headmen, shall be stoned and crushed to death, and if they are old
men, shall be placed in rivers to be eaten by sharks and crocodiles.
 “Sa aking mga Kabata”

 "Sa Aking Mga Kabatà" (English: To My Fellow
Youth) is a poem about the love of one's native
language written in Tagalog. It is widely attributed
to the Filipino national hero José Rizal, who
supposedly wrote it in 1868 at the age of seven.
There is no evidence, however, to support
authorship by Rizal and several historians now
believe it to be a hoax. The actual author of the poem
is suspected to have been the poets Gabriel Beato
Francisco or Herminigildo Cruz.

 PEKNOS

 Written by an eight-year-old Rizal
 No evidence supporting Rizal’s authorship of this
poem
 No manuscript
 Never mentioned in other writings
 Written in tagalog (“kalayaan” – M.H.D.P.’s
“kalayahan”)
 Spelling (‘k’ & ‘w’ replacing ‘c’ & ‘u’)
 Trivia

1. Not all primary sources are
accessible to General Audience.
2. History is a construct; as construct, it
is open for interpretation.
 History is..

Biased
Partial
Contains preconception
 Failure in Historical
Interpretation

Historians:
may omit significant facts
may misinterpret evidence
decide on what sources to use
may provide a single cause only
may impose a certain ideology
 
Interpreting history requires
incorporating source materials
that reflect different views of an
event in history.
First Mass in the
Philippines

 
 On Holy Thursday, March 28, the fleet landed in
Masao-Butuan, Agusan del Norte.
 On Easter Sunday, March 31, 1521, the first mass
held in the Philippiness, officiated by the Fleet’s
captain Fr. Pedro de Valderrama.
 First Mass where? Masao
or Limasawa?

The first kingdom visited by Magellan in
1521, and the site of the first recorded Mass
in the Philippines, have been the subject of
controversy since the Spanish era. In 1872, a
Spanish district governor erected a marble
monument at Magallanes, then, the center
of Butuan, to celebrate Magellan’s first
arrival and the commemoration of the first
Mass.
 
Although Limasawa, Southern Leyte,
has the official title at present, and it
would take new legislation to dislodge
it, the evidence points to Masao, now
a Municipality of Butuan, Agusan del
Norte, as the site of the first kingdom,
and hence, the first mass.
 The evidence for Masao, rather than
Limasawa, are as follows:


1. The name of the place. In all the primary
sources, including the diary of Antonio
Pigaffeta, the chronicler of Magellan’s
voyage, the name of the place was three
syllables – “Masao” or something close to it.
Limasawa has four syllables and begins with
another letter.
 
 2. The route from Homonhon. According to the
primary records, again, the expedition travelled 20
to 25 leagues from Homonhon, their first landing
point, to the site of the first mass, taking a west
southwest course. If they had been at Limasawa
Island, the distance is only about 14.6 leagues, or
one half of that length. Moreover, the island of
Limasawa is blocked from Homonhon by the tip of
Southern Leyte.
 
3. The latitude position. Some of the
primary sources locate the place at 90 North
latitude, and others at 9 2/3 degrees. The
latitude position eliminates Limasawa,
because it is closer by ten degrees, and
strengthens the claim of Masao, Butuan
because it is exactly at nine degrees.
 
4. The route to Cebu. The route to Cebu taken by the
explorers is almost exactly similar to the one now taken
by motor vessels from Cebu to Butuan. The King of Masao
(Kolambu) even guided the explorers to Cebu and acted
as their interpreter and intermediary when they met the
Cebu king. On the contrary, there is no sea traffic from
Limasawa to Cebu, then or now. And the distance to
Cebu, according to Pigaffeta, was 35 leagues (140
miles). If it were Limasawa that they came, the distance
would only be 80 miles, or only half of the alleged
distance travelled.
 
 5. The geographical features. The following physical
features of the first kingdom point to Butuan,
rather than Limasawa, as follows:
a. The bonfire: the explorers where attracted to
the light present the night before they came to
shore. Now, the name “Masao”, in Butuan precisely
means “bright”, which could refer to the local
custom of celebrating a harvest by cooking rice
flakes in open fires. By contrast, there are no
ricefields in Limasawa.
 
 b. The balanghai: which was a prominent feature of
the story of their stay in the first kingdom. It was
said that the king came to their ship in a
“balanghai”, and Pigaffeta and his companion
attended a party in a ritual “balanghai”, with the
local king. Butuan is now the site of at least nine
excavated “balanghai” relics; by contrast,
Limasawa has no significant archaeological relics or
“balanghai” tradition.
 
c. Abundance of gold: the Western explorers
got excited at the abundance of gold in
Masao and Butuan, for that was the main
currency at that time. Both archaeological
relics (e.g. the “Gold Image of Agusan”) and
gold mines today attested to the abundance
of gold in the Agusan valley. However, there
is no gold in Limasawa.
 Trivia

 On June 19, 1960, R.A. No. 2733, called the Limasawa
Law, was enacted without Executive approval on
June 19, 1960. The legislative flat delcared “The site
in Magattanes, Limasawa Island in the Province of
Leyte, where the first Mass in the Philippines was
held is hereby declared a national shirne to
commemorate the birth of Christianity in the
Philippines.”
 
 The location of the first catholic mass in the
Philippines were unclear because of Francisco Albo’s
Log (Pilot of one of Magellan’s Ship, Trinidad):
Route of Magellan’s Expedition in the Island of Saint
Lazarus and The Account of Antonio Pigafetta:
Route of Magellan’s Expedition in the Island of St.
Lazarus (Primo viaiggio intorno al mondo “First
Voyage around the World”)
 Cry of Rebellion

 The term "Cry" is translated from the Spanish el grito
de rebelion (cry of rebellion) or el grito for short.
Thus the Grito de Balintawak is comparable to
Mexico's Grito de Dolores (1810). However, el grito
de rebelion strictly refers to a decision or call to
revolt.
 Occurred on August 23, 1896
Different Dates & Places of
the Cry

 An officer of the Spanish guardia civil, Lt. Olegario
Diaz, stated that the Cry took place in Balintawak on
August 25, 1896.
 Historian Teodoro Kalaw in his 1925 book The
Filipino Revolution wrote that the event took place
during the last week of August 1896 at Kangkong,
Balintawak.
 Santiago Alvarez, a Katipunero and son of Mariano
Alvarez, the leader of the Magdiwang faction in
Cavite, stated in 1927 that the Cry took place in
Bahay Toro, now in Quezon City on August 24, 1896.
 
 Pío Valenzuela, a close associate of Andrés Bonifacio,
declared in 1948 that it happened in Pugad Lawin on
August 23, 1896.
 Historian Gregorio Zaide stated in his books in 1954 that
the "Cry" happened in Balintawak on August 26, 1896.
 Fellow historian Teodoro Agoncillo wrote in 1956 that it
took place in Pugad Lawin on August 23, 1896, based on
Pío Valenzuela's statement.
 Accounts by historians Milagros Guerrero, Emmanuel
Encarnacion and Ramon Villegas claim the event to have
taken place in Tandang Sora's barn in Gulod, Barangay
Banlat, Quezon City.
