History

• Philippine History is full of controversial issues, some of which are still unresolved up to the present time
• Dealing with controversies takes extra care because historians who have raised their arguments on them have their respective points
• Dealing with controversies would take great effort in reviewing historiographic approaches employed in the gathering, analyzing and interpreting sources
• The existence of discourses concerning these controversies makes history alive and very much interesting to study
• The site of the First Mass

  A controversial issue that has been the subject of heated debates for the past few decades
• Two leading contenders on the controversy of the site of the First Mass

  • Limasawa
  • Butuan
• The National Historical Institute through the Gancayco Commission officially recognized Limasawa as the site of the First Mass
• The finding of the Gancayco Commission was affirmed by a committee headed by Dr. Benito J. Legarda in 2008 and recently by the Mojares Panel in 2018
• The controversy still continued up to the present time due to the pieces of evidence presented by the pro-Butuan camp
• The Gancayco Commission


  A commission tasked to resolve the issue concerning the site of the First Mass
• Reasons cited by the Gancayco Commission for declaring Limasawa as the site of the First Mass

  • James Robertson's English translation of Pigafetta's account is considered most reliable
  • Pigafetta's Mazaua matches the location of Limasawa
  • The measurement of distances between Homonhon and Limasawa and between Limasawa and Cebu matches Pigafetta's description
  • Magellan's fleet took a route from Homonhon to Mazaua and from Mazaua to Cebu that did not touch Butuan or any other part of Mindanao
  • The docking facilities at Limasawa did not pose any problem for Magellan's fleet
• The Gancayco Commission submitted its findings to the National Historical Institute on March 20, 1998 and formally turned over to Limasawa officials on March 31 of the same year
• The Legarda Commission


  A commission that re-examined the matter and reiterated the conclusion of the Gancayco Commission
• The Mojares Panel was created to reexamine the Butuan claim
• Members of the Mojares Panel

  • Dr. Resil Mojares
  • Dr. Danilo Gerona
  • Dr. Carlos Madrid Alvarez-Piñer
  • Fr. Antonio Francisco B. De Castro, SJ
  • Dr. Francis Navarro
  • Dr. Jose Victor Torres
• The Mojares Panel heard arguments from Gabriel Atega and Dr. Potenciano Malvar supporting the Butuan claim
• Atega and Malvar argued that the site of the Mass was different from Mazaua and that the clue is in an 1872 monument for the First Mass in Magallanes, Agusan del Norte

  
• The Cavite Mutiny was a brief uprising of some Filipino soldiers and laborers who served the Spanish armed forces in Fort San Felipe in the Province of Cavite

  
• The Cavite Mutiny was easily crushed by the Spanish military and repressed the burgeoning of the initial nationalist movement in the country

  
• The uprising was magnified into an issue of national interest by Governor-General Rafael de Izquierdo and used as an excuse to crack down on Filipinos who enjoyed the atmosphere of liberalism during the time of Carlos Maria de la Torre y Navacerrada

  
• Several priests and intellectuals were arrested including Fr. Jose Burgos, Fr. Jacinto Zamora and Fr. Mariano Gomez, and the three priests were executed in Bagumbayan
• Three versions of the report on the Cavite Mutiny


  • Spanish Version by Jose Montero y Vidal
  • Filipino Version by T.H. Pardo de Tavera
  • Official Report of Governor General Rafael de Izquirdo

  
• Jose Montero y Vidal's report on the Cavite Mutiny was biased against the Filipinos and the Jesuits and supported the official report of Governor-General Rafael de Izquierdo

  
• Montero y Vidal became very rabid in his recital of the Cavite episode and was positive in denouncing the priests who were executed and the deportees as guilty
• It remains as one of the surviving accounts about the uprising

  
• Zaide also related the observation of the American historian James LeRoy who noticed the bias version of Montero y Vidal
• LeRoy: 'The usually sober and colorless Montero y Vidal becomes very rabid in his recital of the Cavite episode in the Philippine History and is very positive not only in denouncing the priests who were executed and the deportees as guilty, but in proclaiming their movement as actually separatist in character. He ridicules at length the account of the Frenchman Plauchut. But Plauchut, as well as Montery y Vidal, was a resident in or near Manila at the time of the occurrences.'

  
• No matter how objectively a person is when his personal interest and that of his country is put at risk, that person might become unreasonable and defend his concerns at whatever means
• Montero y Vidal


  Considered historian during his time, government official who resided in Manila

  
• Montero y Vidal's works

  • El Archipelago Filipino y las islas Marianas, Carolinas y Palaos: Su historia, geografica y estadistica
  • Historia general de Filipinas desde el descubrimiento de dichas islas hasta nuestras dias (3 volumes)
  • Historia de la pirateria Malayo-mahometina de Mindanao, Jolo y Borneo (2 volumes)

  
• All of Montero y Vidal's works were published in Madrid respectively in 1886, from 1887 to 1895 and in 1888
• Sergeant Fernando La Madrid, a mestizo, served as one of the leaders in the Cavite Mutiny
• An Indian carpenter of the Cavite Arsenal
• Fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora were the martyrs of Filipinism
• The Cavite mutiny remains as one of the surviving accounts about the uprising

  
• Perhaps one of the most controversial topics in the history of our country is Rizal's retraction of his stance against the Spaniards
• Some sources claims that Rizal retracted his Masonic ideals and reconverted to Roman Catholicism before his fateful death at the Bagumbayan in the morning of December 30, 1896
• The issue of the forgery of his signature in the document also causes another debate among scholars
• Fr. Vicente Balaguer


  Jesuit priest who claimed that he conveyed to convince Rizal to denounce Masonry and return to Catholic fold
• In 1917, an affidavit executed that proves Fr. Balaguer was who solemnized the marriage of Jose Rizal and Josephine Bracken