1.1 Meaning and relevance of history
Stories, identity and context
Why is the past important? Think back over the
events of your past. From that time to today is
your history, and it is important. You learned,
you made mistakes, and you grew. Why is it
important to study historical information of a
country or a people? Why can't the past simply
be ignored?
History can take the form of a tremendous
story, a rolling narrative filled with great
personalities and tales of turmoil and triumph.
Each generation adds its own chapters to
history while reinterpreting and finding new
things in those chapters already written.
For our first lesson in History, we have the
following as our intended learning outcomes:
1. Understand the meaning of history; and
2. Discuss its relevance in the formation of
a nation's history.
What is History?
History is the study of the past – specifically the
people, societies, events and problems of the
past – as well as our attempts to understand
them. It is a pursuit common to all human
societies. History was derived from the Greek
word historia which means "knowledge
acquired through inquiry or investigation." The
word “history” and the English word “story”
both originate from the Latin historia, meaning
a narrative or account of past events. History is
itself a collection of thousands of stories about
the past, told by many different people.
Historia became known as the account of the
past of a person or of group of people through
written documents and historical evidences. It
became the historians duty to write about the
lives of important individuals like monarchs,
heroes, saints etc. History has played various
roles in the past. States use history to unite a
nation.It can be used as a tool to legitimize
regimes and forge a sense of collective identity
through collective memory.
History provides us with a sense of identity. By
understanding where we have come from, we
can better understand who we are. History
provides a sense of context for our lives and our
existence. It helps us understand the way things
are and how we might approach the future.
History teaches us what it means to be human,
highlighting the great achievements and
disastrous errors of the human race. History
also teaches us through example, offering hints
about how we can better organise and manage
our societies for the benefit of all.
‘History’ and ‘the past’
Those new to studying history often think
history and the pastare the same thing. This is
not the case. The past refers to an earlier time,
the people and societies who inhabited it and
the events that took place there. History
describes our attempts to research, study and
explain the past.
This is a subtle difference but an important one.
What happened in the past is fixed in time and
cannot be changed. In contrast, history changes
regularly. The past is concrete and
unchangeable but history is an ongoing
conversation about the past and its meaning.
Revision and historiography
Because there are so many of these stories,
they are often variable, contradictory and
conflicting. This means history is subject to
constant revision and reinterpretation. Each
generation looks at the past through its own
eyes. It applies different standards, priorities
and values and reaches different conclusions
about the past.
Relevance in the study of History
Historians are often asked: what is the use or
relevance of studying History (the capital letter
signalling the academic field of study)? Why on
earth does it matter what happened long ago?
The answer is that History is inescapable. It
studies the past and the legacies of the past in
the present. Far from being a 'dead' subject, it
connects things through time and encourages
its students to take a long view of such
connections.
All people and peoples are living histories. To
take a few obvious examples: communities
speak languages that are inherited from the
past. They live in societies with complex
cultures, traditions and religions that have not
been created on the spur of the moment.
People use technologies that they have not
themselves invented. And each individual is
born with a personal variant of an inherited
genetic template, known as the genome, which
has evolved during the entire life-span of the
human species.
So understanding the linkages between past
and present is absolutely basic for a good
understanding of the condition of being human.
That, in a nutshell, is why History matters. It is
not just 'useful', it is essential.
The study of the past is essential for 'rooting'
people in time. And why should that matter?
The answer is that people who feel themselves
to be rootless live rootless lives, often causing a
lot of damage to themselves and others in the
process. Indeed, at the most extreme end of the
out-of-history spectrum, those individuals with
the distressing experience of complete memory
loss cannot manage on their own at all. In fact,
all people have a full historical context. But
some, generally for reasons that are no fault of
their own, grow up with a weak or troubled
sense of their own placing, whether within their
families or within the wider world. They lack a
sense of roots. For others, by contrast, the
inherited legacy may even be too powerful and
outright oppressive.
In all cases, understanding History is integral to
a good understanding of the condition of being
human. That allows people to build, and, as
may well be necessary, also to change, upon a
secure foundation. Neither of these options can
be undertaken well without understanding the
context and starting points. All living people live
in the here-and-now but it took a long unfolding
history to get everything to NOW. And that
history is located in time-space, which holds this
cosmos together, and which frames both the
past and the present.
The Importance of History
1. History helps us develop a better
understanding of the world.
History paints us a detailed picture of how
society, technology, and government
worked way back when so that we can
better understand how it works now. It also
helps us determine how to approach the
future, as it allows us to learn from our past
mistakes (and triumphs) as a society.
2. History helps us understand ourselves.
History tells you the story of how your nation,
city, or community came to be everything that
it is. It tells you where your ancestors came
from and tells you who they were. Most
importantly of all, it gives you the ability to spot
(and appreciate) the legacies you may have
inherited from them.
3. History helps us learn to understand
other people.
It’s also a valuable tool when it comes to
understanding those who are different from us.
Global, national, and regional history books
help us understand how other cultures affect
our own. They encourage us to develop a
greater appreciation for multicultural influences
within our own communities as well – exactly
why everyone should study history of other
people, immigrant history, and so forth,
regardless of their own cultural background.
4. History
teaches
a
understanding of change.
working
It goes without saying that change can be a
difficult concept to understand. Each of us has a
different experience with the rest of the world –
an experience shaped by societal norms,
cultural differences, personal experiences, and
more. We know when we as individuals crave
change and why. History helps us better
understand how, when, and why change occurs
(or should be sought) on a larger scale.
5. History gives us the tools we need to
be decent citizens.
Good citizens are always informed citizens, and
no one can consider himself to be an informed
citizen without a working knowledge of history.
History helps us become better citizens.
6. History makes us better decision
makers.
“Those that do not learn history are doomed to
repeat its mistake.
History gives us the
opportunity to learn from past mistakes.
7. History helps us develop a new level of
appreciation for just about everything.
History is more than just the living record of
nations, leaders, and wars. It’s also the story of
us. It’s packed with tales of how someone stood
up for what they believed in, or died for love, or
worked hard to make their dreams come true.
1.2 Historical Sources
How can I tell if something is a primary source?
Whether a resource can be considered a
primary source depends heavily on your specific
question and on the context (the who, what,
when, where, and why) of the source you are
examining. To determine whether something
can be considered a primary source, first
consider your question: Who or what are you
researching? What time period are you focusing
on? What region?
Once you've thought about the who/ what/
where/ when of your topic, ask similar
questions of the source:
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Who created this source?
What is this about?
When was it written?
Who is the targeted audience?
How about the above questions to start with
next lesson?
Intended learning outcomes:
1. Discuss the difference between primary
and secondary sources.
2. Enumerate examples of primary and
secondary sources.
What is Historical Source?
Any leftover of the past can be considered a
source. It might well be a document, and we
often think of history as a textual discipline,
based on the interpretation of written texts, but
it might also be a building, a piece of art or an
ephemeral object – a train ticket, say, or
perhaps a pair of shoes. These are all 'sources'
because they all provide us in different ways
with information which can add to the sum of
our knowledge of the past.
Sources only become historical evidence,
however, when they are interpreted by the
historian to make sense of the past. In the case
of the Kalinga rhinos, it would just be a piece of
debris during the excavation process that would
be dumped elsewhere had it not preserved,
analyzed, and reported by the experts.
It all depends on what the historian wants to
know. This is why it makes little sense to ask if
something is 'good historical evidence', without
knowing what evidence it's supposed to
provide. For us, students of history, we need to
classify these historical sources so we know
their historical value.
Primary and secondary sources
With the past as history's subject matter, the
historian's most important research tools are
historical sources. In general, historical sources
can be classified between primary and
secondary sources. The classification of sources
depends on the historical subject being studied.
Primary sources provide a first-hand account of
an event or time period and are considered to
be authoritative. They represent original
thinking, reports on discoveries or events, or
they can share new information. Often these
sources are created at the time the events
occurred but they can also include sources that
are created later. They are usually the first
formal appearance of original research.
Primary sources are those produced at the
same time as the event, period, or subject being
studied. For example, if a historian wishes to
study
the
Commonwealth
Constitution
Convention of 1935, his primary sources can
include the minutes of the convention,
newspaper clippings, Philippine commission
reports of the U.S. etc. Secondary sources
involve analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or
evaluation of primary sources. They often
attempt to describe or explain primary sources.
On the other hand secondary sources are those
which are produced by an author who used
primary sources to produce the material. For
example, on the subject of the Philippine
Revolution of 1896 students can read Teodoro
Agoncillo's Revolt of the Masses: The Story of
Bonifacio and the Katipunan published
originally in 1956.
Scholarly
journals,
although
generally
considered to be secondary sources, often
contain articles on very specific subjects and
may be the primary source of information on
new developments. Primary and secondary
categories are often not fixed and depend on
the study or research you are undertaking. For
example, newspaper editorial/opinion pieces
can be both primary and secondary. If exploring
how an event affected people at a certain time,
this type of source would be considered a
primary source. If exploring the event, then the
opinion piece would be responding to the event
and therefore is considered to be a secondary
source.
1.3 Criticism of Historical Sources
Evaluation of historical data and information is
often referred to as historical criticism and the
reliable data yielded by the process are known
as historical evidence. Historical evidence is
derived from historical data by the process of
criticism, which is of two types: external and
internal criticism.
External criticism is the practice of verifying the
authenticity of evidence by examining its
physical characteristics of the time when it was
produced; and the materials used for the
evidence.
Criticism of Historical Sources
This topic will teach you how to criticize a
historical source. In this time and age of
proliferation of fake news, this skill is very much
indispensable. So, join me now and let us begin
to learn how to criticize a historical source and
see whether these are historically accurate or
not. Here we go!
Historical criticism - is also known as the
historical-critical method or higher criticism, is a
branch of criticism that investigates the origins
of ancient texts in order to understand "the
world behind the text". It is a literary criticism
in the light of historical evidence or based on
the context in which a work was written,
including facts about the author’s life and the
historical and social circumstances of the time.
This is in contrast to other types of criticism,
such as textual and formal, in which emphasis is
placed on examining the text itself while
outside influences on the text are disregarded.
The historian should be able to conduct an
external and internal criticism of the source,
specially the primary sources which can age in
centuries.
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Here, evidence is examined based on
physical characteristics like materials
used for the evidence, the structure,
layout and the design are scrutinized
also.
Involves finding out if the sources
material is genuine and if passes textual
integrity. External criticism in historical
research evaluates the validity of the
document this is, where and by whom it
was produced.
Internal criticism, on the other hand, is the
examination of the truthfulness of the evidence.
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It looks at the truthfulness and
factuality of the evidence by looking at
the author of the source and its
context.
Internal criticism evaluates the meaning
accuracy and truth worthiness of the
content of document.
Internal criticism concerned with the
accuracy and meaning of the data
contained in the document.
Questions to put to the source:
The toolbox for source criticism. The point of
source criticism is exactly that: to examine one's
source critically to determine its reliability and
whether it is relevant or good enough to answer
the question. When using sources – irrespective
of whether they are ancient or from yesterday –
one should consider the following
1. What kind of source is it?
What type of source is it? Is it minutes, a letter,
a diary, a law, instructions etc? The type of
source can explain why it contains the
information it does.
2. Who has written the source?
Who has written the source and why? Is the
content biased? Did the creator have a special
motive for writing the narrative and is the
source influenced by his or her motive? Always
take into consideration whether the creator of
the source can have had a special interest in
lying, exaggerating or altering the truth
3. When is the source from?
Notice when the source was written. Was it
written down close to the event or many years
later? If it was written a long time after the
event took place, there is a risk that the creator
of the source has forgotten what actually
happened or that he or she does not remember
correctly.
4. Is it a primary or secondary source?
Investigate whether the source has copied its
information from another source. You may
know the story of Herodotus, the Greek
historian who in the 5th century wrote about
events that had taken place several hundred
years before he was born. Where did Herodotus
get his information? He must have had it told to
him or have copied from other sources. We call
the oldest known variant of a source the
primary source. If the source is a copy or relies
on another source, it is a secondary source
because it is based on the primary source. It is
important to know this, because just imagine if
the secondary source has copied wrongly from
the primary source! This is why it is a good idea
to go to the primary source if it still exists. If it
does not exist anymore, then the copy suddenly
becomes the primary source, because it has
now become the oldest known variant of the
source.
5. Is the information first-hand or secondhand?
Think about whether the creators of the
sources have seen what they are writing about
with their own eyes. Was the creator present
when it happened or was he or she told about it
by someone else? If the creator was present
and saw what took place, we call this a firsthand account. If he or she heard about it from
others, we call the source a second-hand
account. As a point of departure, first-hand
sources are best because we know that the
creators have seen it themselves and have not
got incorrect information from someone else.
But you should still be critical about first-hand
sources, because even if the creator was an
eyewitness to an event, he or she could still
have an interest in exaggerating, lying or not
telling the whole truth. Or he or she could have
forgotten what took place.
6. Who is the source addressed to?
Pay attention to the recipient of the source. The
creators of the sources may have had an
interest in writing as they did because they
knew who would read it. You probably know
this from yourself. When you write a message,
you also consider what your recipient should
know – or not know – about a certain situation.
7. Is the source backed by other sources?
One source is not enough to explain the past!
After all, the information in the source may not
be correct. There are often several different
accounts that tell about the same event. In
addition, almost as often, the accounts disagree
about what actually happened. Make use of
your toolbox for source criticism to assess
which sources come closest to the truth.
1.4 Introduction to Philippine History
Pre-Spanish Times
There are two theories on the origins of the first
Filipinos, the inhabitants of what will later be
called the Philippine Islands and eventually the
Republic of the Philippines.
At the beginning of the 3rd century, the
inhabitants of Luzon island were in contact and
trading with East Asian sea-farers and
merchants including the Chinese. In the 1400s
the Japanese also established a trading post at
Aparri in Northern Luzon.
In 1380, Muslim Arabs arrived at the Sulu
Archipelago and established settlements that
became mini-states ruled by a Datu. They
introduced Islam in the southern parts of the
archipelago including some parts of Luzon and
were under the control of the Muslim sultans of
Borneo. They had a significant influence over
the region for a couple of hundred years. The
Malay Muslims remained dominant in these
parts until the 16th century.
Philippine history during the Spanish Colonial
Times
In 1521, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese
explorer who was serving the Spanish crown,
landed in Samar Island on his voyage to
circumnavigate the globe. He explored the
islands and named it Archipelago of San Lazaro.
Magellan was killed during a rebellion led by a
Datu named Lapu Lapu in Mactan Island
(adjacent to Cebu Island). Spain continued to
send expeditions to the island for financial gain
and on the fourth expedition, Commander Ruy
Lopez de Villalobos, named the islands:
Philippines, after Prince Philip (later King Philip
II), heir to the Spanish throne. Spain ruled the
Philippines for 333 years.
In 1565, King Philip II appointed Miguel Lopez
de Legaspi as the first Governor-General of the
Philippines. Legazpi chose Manila to be its
capital because of its natural harbor. Spain's
legacy was the conversion of the people to
Catholicism and the creation of the privileged
landed class. Because of abuses and
suppression of the Spaniards, a Propaganda
Movement emerged with the aims for equality
between Filipinos and Spaniards. The arrest of
propagandist Dr. Jose Rizal and execution in
1896 gave fresh momentum to Filipino rebels to
fight against Spain.
The secret society of the Katipunan, founded by
Andres Bonifacio attacked the Spanish Garrison
in San Juan with little success, while
Katipuneros in Cavite Province headed by Emilio
Aguinaldo defeated the Guardia Civil in Cavite.
Aguinaldo's victories lead him to be elected as
head of the Katipunan. The factions of Bonifacio
& Aguinaldo fought and lead to the trial and
execution of Bonifacio on Aguinaldo's orders.
Aguinaldo later drafted a constitution and
established the Republic of Biak-na-Bato in
Bulacan province. In 1897, an impasse between
the Spanish government and Aguinaldo arose.
After negotiations between the two sides,
Aguinaldo accepted an amnesty from the
Spaniards and US$ 800,000.00 in exchange for
his exile to Hong Kong with his government.
Philippine history during the American Era
The Spanish-American war which started in
Cuba changed the history of the Philippines. On
May 1, 1898, the Americans led by U.S. Navy
Admiral George Dewey, in the participation of
Emilio Aguinaldo, attacked the Spanish Navy in
Manila Bay. Faced with defeat, the Philippines
was ceded to the United States by Spain in 1898
after a payment of US$ 20 million to Spain in
accordance with the Treaty of Paris ending the
Spanish-American War. On June 12, 1898,
Filipinos led by Emilio Aguinaldo declared
independence. This declaration was opposed by
the U.S. who had plans of taking over the
colony. And this led to a guerrilla war against
the Americans. In 1901, Aguinaldo was captured
and declared allegiance to the United States. In
the same year, William Howard Taft was
appointed as the first U.S. governor of the
Philippines. The U.S. passed the Jone Law in
1916 establishing an elected Filipino legislature
with a House of Representatives & Senate. In
1934, the Tydings-McDuffie Act was passed by
the
U.S.
Congress,
established
the
Commonwealth of the Philippines and promised
Philippine independence by 1946. The law also
provided for the position of President of the
Commonwealth of the Philippines. On the May
14, 1935 elections, Manuel L. Quezon won the
position of President of the Philippine
Commonwealth.
In accordance with the Tydings-McDuffie Act of
1934, The Philippines was given independence
on July 4, 1946, and the Republic of the
Philippines was born.
Philippine history
Occupation
during
the
Japanese
On December 8, 1941, the Japanese invades the
Philippines hours after bombing Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii. While the forces of Gen. Douglas
MacArthur retreated to
Bataan, the
Commonwealth government of President
Quezon moved to Corregidor Island. Manila was
declared an open city to prevent further
destruction. After the fall of Bataan on April 9,
1942, and Corregidor, In March 1942,
MacArthur & Quezon fled the country and by
invitation of President Roosevelt, the
Commonwealth government went into exile to
Washington D.C. American and Filipino forces
surrendered on May 6, 1942. Soon a guerrilla
war against the Japanese was fought by the
Philippine & American Armies while Filipinos
were enduring the cruelty of the Japanese
military against civilians.
Prior to Quezon's exile, he advised Dr. Jose P.
Laurel to head and cooperate with the Japanese
civilian government in the hope that the
collaboration will lead to a less brutality of the
Japanese towards the Filipinos. Rightly or
wrongly, President Laurel and his wartime
government were largely detested by the
Filipinos.
In October 1944, Gen. MacArthur with
President Sergio Osmeña (who assumed the
presidency after Quezon died on August 1,
1944, in exile in Saranac Lake, New York)
returned and liberated the Philippines from the
Japanese.
The Philippine Republic
On July 4, 1946, Manuel Roxas of the
Nacionalista Party was inaugurated as the first
President of the Republic of the Philippines.
Roxas died in April 1948. He was succeeded by
Elpidio Quirino. Both Roxas & Quirino had to
deal with the Hukbalahap, a large anti-Japanese
guerrilla organization which became a militant
group that discredited the ruling elite. The
group was eventually put down by Pres.
Quirino's Secretary of Defense, Ramon
Magsaysay.
Magsaysay defeated Quirino in the 1953
elections. He was a popular president and
largely loved by the people. Magsaysay died in
an airplane crash on March 17, 1957, and was
succeeded by Carlos Garcia.
Diosdado Macapagal won the 1961 presidential
elections and soon after he changed history by
declaring June 12 as Independence Day - the
day Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence in
Cavite from Spain in 1898. Aguinaldo was the
guest of honor during the first Independence
Day celebrations in 1962.
Philippine history during the Martial Law
Regime
Ferdinand E. Marcos won the presidency in
1965 and was the first president to be reelected for a second term in office. Marcos
embarked on an ambitious public works
program and maintained his popularity through
his first term. His popularity started to decline
after his re-election due to perceived
dishonesty in the 1969 campaign, the decline in
economic growth, government corruption, and
the worsening peace & order. He declared
Martial Law in 1972 near the end of his second
& final term in office. Staunch oppositionist,
Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino (later went on
self-exile to the U.S.) and Senator Jose Diokno
were one of the first to be arrested. During the
Martial Law years, Marcos held an iron grip on
the nation with the support of the military.
Opposition leaders were imprisoned and the
legislature was abolished. Marcos ruled by
presidential decrees.
Post-Martial Law up to the Present Time
The 21-year dictatorial rule of Marcos with wife
Imelda ended in 1986 following a popular
uprising that forced them to exile to Hawaii.
Corazon "Cory" Aquino, the wife of exiled and
murdered opposition leader Benigno Aquino
who was perceived to have won a justconcluded snap election was installed as
president. Aquino restored civil liberties,
initiated the formation of a new constitution
and the restoration of Congress.
On September 16, 1991, despite the lobbying of
Aquino, the Senate rejected a new treaty that
would allow a 10-year extension of the US
military bases in the country.
In the 1992 elections, Pres. Aquino endorsed
Secretary of Defense Fidel Ramos as her
successor, which Ramos won with a slight
margin over his rival, Miriam DefensorSantiago. During the Ramos presidency, he
advocated "National Reconciliation" and laid
the groundwork for the resolution of the
secessionist Muslim rebels in the southern
Philippine island of Mindanao.
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) led
by Nur Misuari, signed a peace agreement with
the government. However, a splinter group, The
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) led by
Hashim Salamat continued to fight for an
Islamic state. Ramos worked for the economic
stability of the country and the improvement of
infrastructure facilities like telecommunications,
energy, and transportation.
Joseph Ejercito Estrada, a popular actor,
succeeded Ramos in 1998 with Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo (daughter of former
President Diosdado Macapagal) as his VicePresident. Estrada's lack of economic &
management skills plunged the economy
deeper as unemployment increased and the
budget deficit ballooned. In October 2000,
Estrada's close friend Luis "Chavit" Singson
accused Estrada of receiving millions of pesos
from "Jueteng", an illegal numbers game. Soon
after, Congress impeached Estrada on grounds
of bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of
public trust, and culpable violation of the
constitution. His impeachment trial at the
Senate was however blocked by his political
allies in the Senate. Shortly after the evidence
against Estrada was blocked at the Senate,
thousands of people rallied up at the EDSA
Shrine, site of the People Power Revolution
which ousted Marcos in 1986.
Presidential form of government
Parliamentary form of government.
to
a
Arroyo's husband and son have been rumored
to be receiving money from gambling lords and
this has tainted her reputation. A tape
recording of Arroyo talking with a commissioner
on elections surfaced establishing impropriety
by Arroyo and suggesting that she might have
influenced the outcome of the last elections.
Demonstrations followed in June 2005 calling
for Arroyo to resign.
On the eve of the anniversary of the People
Power Revolution on February 24, 2006, the
government took pre-emptive measures to
quash alleged plots to unseat Arroyo through
massive rallies and a coup. Arroyo declared a
"State of Emergency" the next day mobilizing
the police and the military averting any
destabilization moves. Note: Arroyo is has been
under hospital arrest since 2011 for charges of
electoral sabotage and misuse of public funds.
She is detained at the Veterans Memorial
Hospital in Quezon City, Metro Manila.
In January 2001, the Supreme Court declared
Joseph Estrada unable to rule in view of mass
resignations from his government and declared
Vice-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as his
constitutional successor. To this date, Estrada
remains detained facing graft charges before
the Sandigan Bayan, the Anti-graft court.
May 14, 2007 - National Elections for Senators,
Congressmen, Governors, Mayors, and local
officials. Although there are instances of
violence and allegations of cheating specially in
Mindanao, this election is considered by many
as one of the most peaceful elections
conducted in the Philippines.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo completed the
remaining term of Estrada and run for reelection against Fernando Poe, Jr., another
popular actor and a friend of Estrada in May
2004. Arroyo with her running mate Noli de
Castro was eventually proclaimed the winners
of the Presidential & Vice-Presidential elections.
She has been advocating a change from a
September 12, 2007 - Former President Joseph
Ejercito Estrada is convicted of plunder by the
Sandiganbayan, the anti-graft court and is
sentenced to 40 years imprisonment. He is the
first former president ever convicted of any
crime in Philippine history. Six weeks later, on
October 26, Estrada was pardoned by President
Arroyo. Because of the pardon, Estrada was
able to run for Mayor of Manila and won. He is
presently the city mayor of Manila.
Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III,
affectionately called "Noynoy" and "Pnoy", a
former senator is the son of former President
Corazon C. Aquino and the late Senator Benigno
Aquino. He won May 10, 2010, presidential
elections and was proclaimed president on June
30, 2010, at Rizal Park in Manila. Former
President Gloria Arroyo was elected
congresswoman for the second district of
Pampanga. This was the first computerized
national election in Philippine history. Aquino is
generally perceived as honest with high public
satisfaction ratings. Under his presidency, the
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Renato
Corona was impeached in 2011 for nondeclaration of assets and prominent politicians
like Senators and Congressmen are being
charged with corruption. Aquino continues his
anti-corruption crusade. Under the present
constitution, Aquino cannot run for a second
term. Presidential elections were held on May
9, 2016. Strong candidates were Mary Grace
Sonora Poe-Llamanzares, Rodrigo Roa Duterte,
Manuel "Mar" Araneta Roxas II, and Jejomar
Cabauatan Binay.
On June 30, 2016, Rodrigo "Rody" Roa Duterte
(a.k.a. Digong), the former mayor of Davao City
in Mindanao who is known for his strong stance
against illegal drugs and crime, assumed the
presidency succeeding Benigno Aquino III after
receiving an overwhelming win in the May 9
elections. On the same day but separately,
former congresswoman Maria Leonor "Leni"
Santo Tomas Gerona-Robredo (Leni Robredo for
short) who belongs to a different party, takes
oath as vice-president succeeding Jejomar
Binay. Both Duterte & Robredo serves a singleterm limit of six-years (till 2022). Duterte is
advocating a change of government from
presidential to a federal form of government.
Unlike previous presidents, the tough-talking
Duterte is antagonistic towards the United
States, which has been a long time ally of the
Philippines. Remarkably, he is more friendly
with China, a country which the previous
administration filed a case against at The
Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague
for occupying several islands within the
Philippine 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
The court decided overwhelmingly in favor of
the Philippines in July 2016, China refuses to
accept the verdict. Duterte has been criticized
by human rights groups and some in the
international community for his hard-handed
tactics against illegal drugs which have to lead
to the killings of thousands (including innocent
bystanders) allegedly involved in the drug trade.
On March 10, 2020, due to the worldwide
spread of the Novel Coronavirus (officially
named COVID-19), Duterte has declared a
public health state of emergency in the
Philippines. The virus was first discovered in
Wuhan, China. To slow the number of infections
and fatalities, Metro Manila and later the whole
island of Luzon has been placed under
lockdown. The total number of victims of
COVID-19 has yet to be determined.
1.5 Summary (Introduction to Philippine
History)
History is the study of the past – specifically the
people, societies, events and problems of the
past – as well as our attempts to understand
them. It is a pursuit common to all human
societies.
Primary sources are those produced at the
same time as the event, period, or subject being
studied.
Secondary sources are those
which are
produced by an author who used primary
sources to produce the material.
Historical criticism is a literary criticism in the
light of historical evidence or based on the
context in which a work was written, including
facts about the author’s life and the historical
and social circumstances of the time.
External criticism is the practice of verifying the
authenticity of evidence by examining the
physical characteristics of the source, time and
the materials.
Internal criticism is the examination of the
truthfulness of the evidence.