Bad news in history

WHEN a historian publishes his work, he opens himself to both praise and criticism. Over the years I have had my share of both and it goes without saying that I often prefer insincere flattery to harsh criticism. In the Philippines there is always a personal side to things that make the remark, "Boss, walang personalan, trabaho lang ito (Don't take it personally, this is just a job)" so consoling. In time, I learned to take constructive and valid criticism and ignore petty personal attacks, however, the only comment I have never recovered from came from a student who asked why I had such a negative view of our history. Looking back on the 1998 centennial countdown I wrote for the front-page of this paper, I realized the remark was true. Was this pessimism due to the historical sources or me?

To redeem myself, I embarked on the 1999 millennium series that highlighted all that was good, true and beautiful in our past in terms of culture and art. All these thoughts came back as I went through a chronology in Fredrick H. Sawyer's "The Inhabitants of the Philippines (1900)." He compiled high points of our history from 1521 to 1900 and these were, "Some of the combats, massacres and rebellions, disputes and calamities of the Philippine Islands." Naturally he begins with the death of Magellan in 1521 describing him as "killed in action" by Mactan natives. Those who survived Lapu-lapu's wrath were "treacherously killed by Hamabar [Humabon], king of Cebu." Sawyer's list is engaging because it is violent and one should say -- negative. Just like our front-page news. Good news doesn't seem to be front-page material except on Sundays when the Inquirer tries its best to be positive and sunny. History and journalism record massacres and calamities more than childbirth and goodness. Yet, this is no excuse. A historian may be faced with negative data but his narrative can still be positive, and vice-versa. In the end the buck stops with the historian's story-how he does it and what he expects to achieve.

I notice in Sawyer's chronology that Filipino participation is not very pronounced in the first three centuries of Spanish rule because the sources are by Spaniards and for Spaniards. Thus, there are entries on the failed expeditions of Gomez Perez Dasmariñas to the Moluccas (in 1582, he had to go home after two-thirds of the expedition were downed by epidemic; 1584, no luck again; 1593, "He had with him in his galley 80 Spaniards and 250 Chinese galley slaves. Because of contrary winds, his vessel put into port near Batangas for shelter. In the silence of the night, when the Spaniards were asleep, the galley slaves arose and killed them all except a Franciscan friar and secretary. Dasmariñas built the castle [Fort] Santiago and fortified Manila with stonewalls, cast a large number of guns and established the college of Santa Potenciana). Dasmariñas, who is best remembered for a busy street in Manila's Binondo district and a posh subdivision in Makati City named after him, also had a failed expedition into Cambodia in 1597. This, technically, is not our history but interesting to see how Spain tried to use the Philippines as a foothold to get into the rest of Asia.

In 1596, a Spanish galleon bound for Acapulco had to seek shelter from bad weather in a Japanese port where it was seized by the authorities and "the crew were barbarously put to death." Speaking of massacres, the most horrendous was in 1603. "Conspiracy of Eng-Cang and the Chinese against the Spaniards. The Chinese entrench themselves near Manila, Luis Perez Dasmariñas marches against them with 130 Spaniards. They were all killed and decapitated by the Chinese, who then besieged Manila, and attempted to take it by assault. Being repulsed by the Spaniards, all of whom including the friars, took up arms, they retired to their entrenchments. They were ultimately defeated, and 23,000 of them were massacred. Only 100 were left alive, and these were sent to the galleys as slaves." This should make the Binondo Chinese rethink their history and the street named after Dasmariñas.

Another Chinese uprising in 1639 described as "Insurrection of Chinese in the province of Laguna and in Manila. Out of 30,000, 7,000 ultimately surrendered. All the rest were massacred by the Tagals. The Japanese revolted in 1607; 1622, natives in Bohol, Leyte, Cagayan revolt. 1653, revolt by people of Pampanga who refused to work for free cutting timber for the navy. "

Natural calamities take up much space. Mayon Volcano eruptions in 1616, 1766, 1800, 1814. Taal Volcano eruptions in 1641, 1716 and 1749 that lasted for 20 days. In 1754 "violent eruptions which began on 15th May and lasted till end of November. This was accompanied by earthquakes, an inundation, terrifying electrical discharges and destructive storms. The ashes darkened the country for miles round, even as far as Manila. When the eruption ceased, the stench was dreadful, and the sea and lake threw up quantities of dead fish and alligators. A malignant fever burst out, which carried off vast numbers of the population round about the volcano." Earthquakes in 1599, 1627, 1628, and in 1646 a series began in March with violent shocks that lasted 60 days. More in 1648, 1658, 1665, 1675, and in 1735 an earthquake in Baler and tidal wave in 1787 Panay, 1796 Manila. Like the front page of the newspapers, good news is hard to sell in history.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu