Reading in Philippine History
Reading in Philippine History
In Tina Clemente's article on Rizal's Morga, we can read the annotations made by Jose Rizal about the pre-Hispanic Philippines, especially in terms of economics and culture. In the article, three different topics were tackled specifically: The chiefly rulership, laws, and international trading. We can see it was mostly to awaken a "consciousness of our past ... to rectify what has been falsified and slandered ... " as stated in one of Rizal's annotations in Sucecos de las islas filipinas by Dr. Morga. This means the purpose of the annotation was to give light on our pre-colonial past that was painted by the colonizers as uncivilized, and our ancestors are savages.
Andres Bonifacio, a determined and valorous soldier who led a battalion against the Spanish reign, is well known to be one of our national heroes. Jose Rizal on the other hand used his gift of writing in order to reform the Spanish reign. Both national heroes took two different weapons, a sword and a pen, in order to free our country from the grasp of colonization.
If Andres Bonifacio were to annotate Dr. Morga Sucesos de las islas filipinas, in my personal opinion, most of his annotations would not be that different from Jose Rizal. Both figures recognize that Spain has regressed the country more than it has progressed. However, the reason for the annotation would be different. According to the article by Tina Clemente's Rizal's Morga, Rizal's annotations focused more on correcting cultural misconceptions, and fostering Filipino identity. On the other hand, I personally think Bonifacio's annotations would lean towards the insolence of the Spanish reign, focusing more on how Spain took such a negative toll on the already rich culture our country had as he was described as being hostile against the Spains in my previous lessons. Additionally, he would annotate Sucecos de las islas filipinas to learn more.
To wrap it up, Bonifacio would focus more on how Spain likely ruined our possibility to progress on our own, while still highlighting the rich culture we have had, the annotation that he would make would most likely to learn more about our pre-colonial roots, because although Bonifacio did not have the same privilege as Rizal in terms of education, he was still highly intelligent and self-educated.