Controversies hound Magellan’s discovery of RP

Source: Manila Bulletin
By INA HERNANDO-MALIPOT
According to history, the Philippines was discovered by Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan on March 16, 1521. This was after he landed on an island “Homonhon” and later on, introduced Christianity to its inhabitants.

Four hundred eighty nine years later, the same story is being told to students as early as grade school during their History classes. But it seems that nobody remembered and would acknowledge Magellan’s discovery.

Department of Education (DepEd) Communications Unit head Kenneth Tirado said that Magellan’s discovery of the Philippines is part of lessons being taught in school under history.

“As for celebrating it, we may need to consult the National Historical Institute and it may also need legislation,” he said.

NHI chairman Ambeth Ocampo said that the reason behind why there are no celebrations about the discovery of the Philippines is because of the controversies that surround Magellan’s claim in its “discovery” and the contention between historians as to what really happened.

Ocampo explained that discussions are being undertaken this early for the 500th anniversary of the Magellan Expedition in the Philippines in 2021. “Half a millennium has passed and one would think that we should know all there is on the subject but till this day there are a number of controversial points in the story,” he said.

He said that among the most controversial would be Magellan’s discovery about the Philippines. Historian Gregorio Zaide said that Filipinos should see history from the distinctly Philippine viewpoint.

Ocampo said that Magellan did not “discover” the Philippines but merely “re-discovered” it. He said that how can Magellan discover a place that already had people in it.

The same belief of Magellan’s “discovery” was opposed by another Filipino historian Teodoro Agoncillo in an article "A Reinterpretation of Our History Under Spain" published in Sunday Times Magazine in 1958. According to him, “there are misconceptions in the treatment of our history that should be exposed and corrected for the intellectual health of our students and general readers.”

The foremost among these is the belief that Magellan discovered the Philippines because this came from Spaniard chroniclers that were tasked spread the greatness of Spain. He said that Magellan did not discover the Philippine because “our country already had commercial relations with her Asian neighbors hundreds of years before Magellan was born.”

But Agoncillo opposed Zaide’s proposal to change the word “discover” to “re-discover” because according to him, “how can you re-discover what is not lost?”

According to Ocampo, the controversies that surround history may contribute why it is taking a backseat. “Each generation writes its own history, each generation interprets history differently as it is based on their worldview, their needs, and their aspirations,” he said. Still according to him, this also explains why history is both “confused and confusing” and why it is “slippery as an academic discipline because it’s always open to new information new views,” he said.

Ocampo also shared that when he started teaching more than 20 years ago, he thought history was an informative subject, “because the challenge simply was to present the dates, names, places, and events in the most engaging manner possible but as I matured as a teacher I realized that history is actually formative.”

A historian himself, Ocampo shares that when he will write his own history, “I will not say that Magellan “discovered” the Philippines, that is the Spanish viewpoint. I will not say Magellan “re-discovered” the Philippines, for that is the rabid nationalist Filipino viewpoint. All I will say is that Magellan “arrived” in the Philippines in 1521,” he said.

He said that the dates, names, and facts will not change. “But one can readily see how the change of one simple word — from discovered, to rediscovered to arrived — how one word changes the whole way in which we see ourselves in relation to our past, our present, and our future.”

Ocampo stressed that history is the story of any nation came to be and usually illustrates the how the people fail to be the nation that they want to be. “History is not the only way to learn love of country, but it has a unique way of showing the different ways we see and deal with the past,” he said