Asociación de Historiadores

18/03/2026

11/03/2026

𝐁𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐓 𝐊𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐎, 𝐁𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐓 𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐍, 𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝐊𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐎!

Alam mo ba na may mga kalsada sa ating bayan na may kakaibang pangalan, ngunit madalas ay hindi natin alam kung saan o kung ano talaga ang tawag sa mga ito?

Isa na rito ang-- 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐊𝐎 𝐁𝐎𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐓 na matatagpuan sa bayan ng Daet, Camarines Norte!

Sa espesyal na handog ng Museo Bulawan "𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐄𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐒𝐀𝐘𝐀𝐍", makakasama natin ang mga estudyante ng Camarines Norte State College History Major o ang Asociación de Historiadores upang ibahagi ang kasaysayan at kahulugan ng lugar na ito na madalas nating nadaraanan.

Halina’t samahan kami sa pagtuklas ng mga nakatagong kasaysayan ng Daet, Camarines Norte dahil ang ating mga kalye ay hindi lamang daanan, sila ay buhay na tala ng ating kultura at pagkakakilanlan. ✨

Abangan at makiisa sa paglalakbay ng ating bayan sa kasaysayan!

20/08/2025

Benigno Aquino, Jr. (born November 27, 1932, Tarlac, Philippines—died August 21, 1983, Manila) was the chief opposition leader during the era of martial law in the Philippines (1972–81) under Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos. Aquino’s assassination in 1983 galvanized popular opposition to the Marcos government and brought his widow, Corazon Aquino, to the political forefront.

The grandson of a Philippine general and the son of a well-known politician and landowner, Aquino began his career as a journalist and then was elected mayor of Concepción in 1955, vice-governor of Tarlac province in 1959, governor of Tarlac province in 1961, Philippine senator in 1967, and national leader of the Liberal Party in 1968. Meanwhile, he had become wealthy through his marriage (1955) to the daughter of one of the largest landowners and manufacturers in the country.

Ostensibly planning to run for president in 1973, Aquino was thwarted in 1972 when President Marcos declared martial law; he spent the next eight years in prison, being sentenced to death in November 1977. In 1980 Marcos commuted the death sentence and allowed Aquino to go to the United States for heart-bypass surgery. Aquino remained there with his family for three years, receiving research grants from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Two years after martial law was lifted in the Philippines, he flew home, intending to campaign in promised elections. He was shot in the head while leaving the airplane at Manila Airport under security guard.

Aquino’s death sparked widespread demonstrations charging government complicity in the act. An independent commission concluded in October 1984 that a military conspiracy led by the Philippine armed forces chief of staff, Gen. Fabian C. Ver, was responsible for the assassination. Ver and 25 other suspected participants in the plot were acquitted of these charges by three Marcos-appointed judges in 1985. However, that decision helped to set in motion the chain of events that culminated in Marcos’s downfall and Corazon Aquino’s rise to power in 1986. In May 2010 the couple’s son, Benigno S. (“Noynoy”) Aquino III, was elected president of the country.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benigno-Aquino-Jr

17/06/2025

Dearest History Graduates,

You've done it! Your journey through the BA History program has been one of discovery, dedication, and hard work. Your explorations of the history of the Philippines and the whole world have been truly remarkable. We celebrate your success and look forward to witnessing your future accomplishments. Congratulations!

Padayon, HISTORYADOR NG BAYAN!

05/06/2025

26/02/2025

“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” – Andy Warhol

You can visit our photobooth at the CAS ground this 17th HAYAG FESTIVALS 2025

11/02/2025

On February 11, 1860, General Vicente Lukban was born in Labo, Camarines Norte. After studying law in Manila, he became an oficial criminalista in the Court of First Instance. He would later return to Labo where he served as juez de paz. When the Philippine Revolution erupted, he was involved in the agricultural and commercial society "La Cooperativa Popular."

Lukban would find himself arrested on September 29, 1896 for suspicions that his entrepreneurial ventures were financing the revolutionaries. He was released in 1897 upon being granted amnesty by Spanish Governor General Fernando Primo de Rivera. Thereafter, he supposedly tore his pardon document and joined the Filipino revolutionaries. Lukban would become one of the ratifiers of the Biak-na-Bato Constitution in November 1897.

During the second phase of the Revolution, Lukban would be appointed General in Chief of Operations for Southern Luzon by President Emilio Aguinaldo, a position he assumed on July 9, 1898. When he arrived in Batangas, however, General Miguel Malvar refused to spare Lukban any troops or armaments as he reasoned that they were needed for the liberation of Laguna and Tayabas. The least Malvar was able to accommodate the Lukban expedition was some of his officers.

To recall, Malvar had to struggle in acquiring their fair share of weapons from the Aguinaldo government, even as Malvar dedicated his allocation of the indemnity from the Pact of Biak-na-Bato for the purchase of armaments. Only after Aguinaldo ordered Malvar did the Batangueño general supply the half the needed arms. Meanwhile, troops from Cavite were dispatched to reinforce Lukban's expedition.

Thus, Lukban decided to stay in Tayabas, establishing their small force in the town which name was similar to his, until the Spanish surrendered on August 17, 1898, believing it was improper to resume his mission without sufficient support. For the meantime, he helped organize the Red Cross in Tayabas. By September, the Lukban expedition reached Daet, where he assigned the area to Captain Antonio Sanz. The following month, they entered Nueva Caceres (now Naga City), where Lukban replaced Elias Angeles as governor of Ambos Camarines and Leon Reyes as governor of Catanduanes. Angeles and Reyes were both municipal captains when the Spanish handed them command over their respective provinces.

Also in October 1898, troops under Major Estanislao Legaspi were sent to assume command in Catanduanes. By November 1898, Lukban's representative Fulgencio Contreras arrived in Albay, where he was received well by the delegation led by Julian Gerona. The warm welcome for the Lukban expedition, however, was replaced with anxiety when Sorsogon was attacked by two Spanish gunboats. This prompted Lukban to come personally to Albay.

By December 1898, Lukban's assignment in Bicol was officially over, with local elections successfully held among its provinces. He was given a new mission in Samar and Leyte, while General Vito Belarmino was tasked to the Bicol region. President Aguinaldo approved the election results via decree on December 20, 1898. Two days later, the new officials took their oaths. Lukban, meanwhile, would issue his first proclamation for Samar and Leyte by January 1, 1899, where he became governor.

At the outbreak of the Filipino-American War, a small American contingent was sent to occupy Samar, which military campaigns met limited success due to Lukban's fierce resistance. It was during Lukban's service in the area when the Balangiga Conflict occurred. While the general was not directly involved in the planning of the Filipino attack on September 28, 1901, he nonetheless promoted to all forces under his command to follow the example of Balangiga. Lukban, however, was captured on February 19, 1902. And thus, his impending promotion as military commander of Filipino forces in Visayas and Mindanao was not fulfilled. He was imprisoned until the war was formally declared over by July of the same year, after which he was released.

From 1912 to 1916, Lukban served as governor of Tayabas. He was part of the Nacionalista Party. Prior to this, Lukban returned to business with a certain Esperidion Borja. He died in Manila on November 16, 1916. Learn more about Lukban and the Balangiga Massacre: https://history-ph.blogspot.com/2018/12/balangiga.html

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CRDTS/SOURCES: Filipino Historian / https://www.facebook.com/share/18r6eSdL52/

01/02/2025

𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗝𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗔 𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗕𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗡 𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗥 𝗘𝗡 𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗦?
by Javier Leonardo V. Rugeria

One of the pervasive myths surrounding José Maria Panganiban concerns his educational background. Both popular belief and previous historiography have it that the propagandist graduated at the top of his class having received sobresaliente in all his courses and earned his bachiller en artes from the Seminario Conciliar de Nueva Caceres (now the Holy Rosary Minor Seminary) in 1883.

The earliest articulation–and to my mind the origin of the myth–seems to have come from Domingo Abella, whose essay “Jose Maria Panganiban y Enverga: An Indio Intellectual and His Times" appeared in the 1958 issue of The Journal of History. The essay was written in view of the repatriation of Panganiban’s remains in the same year. In the essay, Abella opines that Panganiban came to Manila at age 18 after graduating with honors from the Seminary of Nueva Caceres. He adds that he obtained the highest rating in the validating examination at Santo Tomas although it was not particularly clear what the examination was for. Through countless iterations and reiterations (including Holy Rosary Minor Seminary’s Hingowa Journal’s republication of Abella’s essay in 1998), the claim passed as historical fact.

Documentary sources extant at the Archivo de Universidad de Santo Tomas (AUST), however, show otherwise. Panganiban, together with Tomas Prieto (one of the fifteen martyrs of Bikol), left the Seminary in 1882 and continued his studies at the Colegio de Santo Tomas.

Five documents incontrovertibly prove that Panganiban did not graduate from the seminary.

The first is a handwritten letter by Panganiban himself addressed to Fr. Bernardino Nozaleda, O.P., then vice-rector of the University of Santo Tomas and later Archbishop of Manila. Dated June 4, 1882, it contained Panganiban’s intent to pursue his studies at Santo Tomas and his request that the courses he took at the seminary be credited.

In the letter, Panganiban wrote:

Most Reverend Father Vice-Rector of this University:

Jose Ma. Panganiban, native of Mambulao, province of Camarines Norte and student who has been from the Seminary of Nueva Caceres, to Your Reverence, with all due respect, it is submitted and agreed that according to the said seminary, four years of Latin and three of Philosophy are accredited, including those in the last subject, according to the Statutes in force in the aforementioned Seminary, Arithmetic and Algebra, Geometry and Elements of Physics; and wishing to continue his career in this University. To Your Reverence, it is humbly requested that the aforementioned studies and previous regulatory requirements that are missing be incorporated. That it be graciously conceded as it no doubt deserves the well-known goodness of Your Reverence whose life God loves.

Jose Ma. Panganiban

The second document is a letter from Fr. Nozaleda dated 9 June 1882, it was a reply to Panganiban’s letter of intent sent a few days earlier. Nozaleda informs Panganiban that he was to take a qualifying examination in Latin and Spanish grammar with Fr. Jose Alvarez Cienfuego, O.P. The friar also instructed him to submit the required documents, particularly his certifications from the Seminario Conciliar de Nueva Caceres so that the University may credit his Latin and Philosophy courses.

The third is a document dated June 13, 1882 which contains the results of Panganiban’s admission exam. Fr. Cienfuego wrote to Don Antonio Estrada, then secretary-general of the University to wit: “Don Jose Ma. Panganiban was examined by the undersigned in Latin and Spanish grammar, being approved with the grade, notablemiente aprovechado (meaning very good least according to Dominican historian Fidel Villaroel). I stumbled upon this as well as the first two documents sometime in 2018 in a folder titled Diligencias de Grados at the AUST.

The fourth documentary source is a student record titled Libro de Matriculas de Segunda Enseñanza. In the academic year 1882-1883, Panganiban’s name appears in both books. In the former, one may glean that he enrolled in three more courses before finishing his segunda enseñanza: Natural History under Fr. Raimundo Velasquez, O.P., Rudiments of the Greek Language under Fr. Jaime Andreu, O.P., and French under Fr. Genaro Buitrago, O.P., who also became his professor in advanced physics when he enrolled for preparatory courses leading to a licentiate in medicine in 1883. He obtained sobresaliente in all three courses.

The last is an annual inscription of all boarding students (internas) between 1759 and 1885 titled Libros de Asientos de los Colegiales de este Colegio. It informs us that Panganiban was enrolled as a capista or a boarding student who did not have to pay tuition and fees.

Together, these documentary sources render both popular belief and previous historiography untenable. They prove that Panganiban did not finish his segunda enseñanza at the Seminario Conciliar de Nueva Caceres as Abella claims; rather, with the support of its rector, Fr. Antonio Santonja, C.M. he left the seminary for Manila in 1882 and pursued his studies at the Colegio de Santo Tomas, where he earned his bachiller en artes on 14 March 1883.

References:

Abella, Domingo. 1958. Jose Maria Panganiban y Enverga: An Indio Intellectual and his Times. The Journal of History 6 (1): 4-26.

Panganiban, José María. 1883. Diligencias de Grados. AUST, Manila.

Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomas. 1882-1883. Libro de Asientos de los Colegiales de este Colegio, Tomo II. AUST, Manila.

Rugeria, Javier Leonardo V. 2021. Jose Ma. Panganiban’s “La Universidad de Manila” and the Liberal Campaign for Reforms in Philippine Higher Education. Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints 69 (2): 221-57.

Note: The author wishes to thank Dr. Francis M. Navarro for his help in translating Panganiban's June 4, 1882 letter to Fr. Nozaleda.

TODAY WE CELEBRATE THE 162TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARRY OF OUR HERO, JOSE MARIA E. PANGANIBAN
FEBRUARY 1, 2025



CRDTS: Saysay Bikol

19/01/2025

On January 19, 1977, Asian-American broadcaster Iva Toguri D'Aquino was pardoned by US President Gerald Ford. Born on July 4, 1916 in Los Angeles, California, her parents moved to the United States from Japan. She graduated from the University of California in 1940 with a degree in zoology, and during the same year, she voted Republican.

In July 1941, she went to Japan to visit a sick relative and to study medicine. She was not granted a passport prior, but while she was processing it through the State Department, Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan. She withdrew her application, deciding to remain in Japan for the duration of the Pacific War. On the part of the US government, they denied to certify her American citizenship. The Japanese government, meanwhile, pressured her to renounce her US citizenship. Toguri refused.

For a living, she found herself as a typist in Radio Tokyo (NHK, 日本放送協会), where Toguri would eventually be recruited as one of the hosts of "The Zero Hour" in 1943. Airing every day except Sundays from 6 to 7:15 PM, Tokyo time, she worked with Major Charles Cousens (Australia), Captain Wallace Ince (US), and Lieutenant Normando Reyes (Philippines).

Notably, Reyes was a broadcaster for the Allied radio station "Voice of Freedom", known for his announcement of the fall of Bataan in 1942.

While meant to be a foreign language propaganda medium by its creator, Japanese Major Shigetsugu Tsuneishi, the radio show also became an avenue for entertainment purposes, including comedy sketches, satire, and pop music. Toguri acquired the moniker "Ann" (as in "announcer") and "Orphan Annie" (a reference to the comics "Little Orphan Annie").

However, Allied soldiers who heard these radio shows gave the more enigmatic nickname "Tokyo Rose" to refer to all their female broadcasters, Toguri included, regardless of the radio names they individually used on air. The story of an alleged equivalent in the Philippines, who they called "Manila Rose", also spread among military ranks. While Army analysis indicate that said broadcasts had little effect on troop morale, it helped Allied intelligence to assess how much the Japanese knew about unit movement and dispositions.

When the war ended in 1945, American media offered a prize to gain an exclusive interview with Tokyo Rose. In dire need of money, Toguri stepped up, but was instead arrested after the interviewers reneged on their offer. With insufficient evidence for prosecution, she was released. When Toguri requested to permit her return for her child to be born in the United States, an enraged American public fueled by extensive media coverage persuaded the US government to reconsider her case. In 1949, she was found guilty, the seventh person to be convicted of treason in the history of the US.

Among her coworkers in The Zero Hour, Reyes was later suspected as a Japanese spy, but was thereafter cleared of all charges. He obtained an American citizenship. Reyes died in the Philippines on January 7, 1999. Some of his ashes were scattered over Corregidor.

Read more about the history of the Pacific War: https://history-ph.blogspot.com/2017/05/bataan-corregidor.html

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CRDTS: Filipino Historian
https://www.facebook.com/share/18WCCFop7s/

29/11/2024

Andres Bonifacio, the Father of the Philippine Revolution, was born on November 30, 1863, in Tondo, Manila, to Santiago Bonifacio and Catalina de Castro.

His early life was marked by tragedy, with his mother passing away from tuberculosis in 1881, followed by his father's death the next year. This forced Bonifacio to drop out of school and work to support his younger siblings.

Bonifacio's patriotism and desire for Philippine independence led him to join Jose Rizal's La Liga Filipina in 1892. However, after Rizal's arrest and deportation, Bonifacio co-founded the Katipunan, a secret society aimed at overthrowing Spanish colonial rule. He became the organization's president and leader, adopting the pseudonym "May pag-asa" (There is hope).

In 1896, Bonifacio led the Philippine Revolution against Spain, declaring the country's independence on August 23. However, his leadership was challenged by Emilio Aguinaldo, who eventually became the president of the revolutionary government. Bonifacio's refusal to recognize Aguinaldo's government led to his arrest, trial, and ex*****on by firing squad on May 10, 1897.

Despite his tragic end, Bonifacio's legacy as a hero of the Philippine Revolution has endured. He is celebrated as a national hero, and his birthday, November 30, is commemorated as Bonifacio Day. As historian Kallie Szczepanski notes, "Bonifacio's exact legacy is the subject of dispute among Filipino scholars and citizens," but his contribution to the country's struggle for independence remains undeniable.

References:

¹ Agoncillo, Teodoro A. (1990). The Revolt of the Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan. University of the Philippines Press. p. 12.

² Guerrero, Milagros C. (1998). Andres Bonifacio: A Biography. National Historical Commission of the Philippines. p. 15.

³ Rizal, Jose. (1892). La Liga Filipina. La Solidaridad. p. 1.

⁴ Kalaw, Maximo M. (1927). The Development of Philippine Politics. Oriental Commercial Company. p. 123.

⁵ Bonifacio, Andres. (1896). The Act of the Proclamation of Independence. National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

⁶ Agoncillo, Teodoro A. (1990). The Revolt of the Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan. University of the Philippines Press. p. 250.

⁷ Szczepanski, Kallie. (2019). Andres Bonifacio and the Philippine Revolution. ThoughtCo.