What are the hoaxes during Marcos administration? What kind of historical criticism did historian use to uncover those hoaxes?
Answers
Answer:
The Code of Rajah Kalantiaw was a supposed legal code in the epic history Maragtas that is said to have been written in 1433 by Datu Kalantiaw, a chief on the island of Negros in the Philippines. The code is now believed by many historians to have been a hoax and that it had actually been written in 1913 by Jose E. Marco as a part of his historical fiction Las antiguas leyendas de la Isla de Negros (English: The Ancient Legends of the Island of Negros), which he attributed to a priest named Jose Maria Pavon.
In 1990, Philippine historian Teodoro Agoncillo described the code as "a disputed document."[1] Despite doubts on its authenticity, some history texts continue to present it as historical fact.[2]
Contents
1 History and authenticity dispute
2 Laws of the Kalantiaw Code
3 See also
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
History and authenticity dispute
A woman at the Kalibo Ati-Atihan Festival.
In 1917, the historian Josué Soncuya wrote about the Code of Kalantiaw in his book Historia Prehispana de Filipinas ("Prehispanic History of the Philippines") where he moved the location of the Code's origin from Negros to the Panay province of Aklan because he suspected that it may be related to the Ati-atihan festival. Other authors throughout the 20th century gave credence to the story and the code.
In 1965, then University of Santo Tomas doctoral candidate William Henry Scott began an examination of prehispanic sources for the study of Philippine history. Scott eventually demonstrated that the code was a forgery committed by Marco. When Scott presented these conclusions in his doctoral dissertation, defended on 16 June 1968 before a panel of eminent Filipino historians which included Teodoro Agoncillo, Horacio de la Costa, Marcelino Foronda, Mercedes Grau Santamaria, Nicolas Zafra and Gregorio Zaide, not a single question was raised about the chapter which he had called The Contributions of Jose E. Marco to Philippine historiography. However, in 1971 a decoration to be known as the Order of Kalantiao was created, to be awarded to any citizen of the Philippines for exceptional and meritorious services to the Republic in the administration of justice and in the field of law.[3]
Scott later published his findings debunking the code in his book Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History.[4] Filipino historians later removed the code from future literature regarding Philippine history.[5] When Antonio W. Molina published a Spanish version of his The Philippines Through the Centuries as Centuries as historia de Filipinas (Madrid, 1984), he replaced the Code with one sentence: "La tésis doctoral del historador Scott desbarate la existencia misma de dicho Código" (The doctoral dissertation of the historian Scott demolishes the very existence of the Code).[6]
The authenticity of the code had been questioned previously by other scholars,[8] However, despite this and despite Scott's findings, changes in textbooks and in academic curriculum were not forthcoming until almost thirty years following the release of Scott’s publication in 1969. In the interim, the Code of Kalantiaw continued to be taught as a part of ancient Philippine history.[9]
In 2004, National Historical Institute (NHI) Resolution No. 12 "[d]eclaring that Code of Kalantiao/Kalantiaw has no Valid Historical Basis" called for: (1) the official affirmation that the Kalantiaw Code is a twentieth-century fraudulent work by Jose Marco, (2) the President of the Philippines cease to honor retiring Supreme justices and other international dignitaries with the ‘Order of Kalantiaw’, and (3) the revoking of Executive Order 234, which recognized Datu Bondahara Kalantiaw as "The First Philippine Lawgiver" and declared a Hall of Fame and Library to be constructed in his honor in Batan, Aklan as a national shrine.[10] This NHI resolution was approved by the Office of the President in 2005.[11]
Laws of the Kalantiaw Code
In his book, Struggle for Freedom (2008), Cecilio Duka provides a full reproduction of the code for the reader's "critical examination... to decide on its veracity and accuracy".[12]
These are the hoaxes during Marco's administration. This is the kind of historical criticism historians used to uncover these hoaxes.
- The Code of Rajah Kalantiaw was a fictitious legal code in the epic history of Maragtas, allegedly written in 1433 by Datu Kalantiaw, a chief on the Philippine island of Negros. Many historians now believe the code was a hoax, written in 1913 by Jose E. Marco as part of his historical fiction Las antiguas Leyendas de la Isla de Negros (English: The Ancient Legends of the Island of Negros), which he attributed to a priest named Jose Maria Pavon.
- Teodoro Agoncillo, a Philippine historian, described the code as "a disputed document" in 1990.
- Despite doubts about its veracity, it is still presented as a historical fact in some history books.
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