THE DepEd has started sounding off historians and textbook authors about "re-writing" the history textbooks of basic education. My question might be naïve, but I think it should be answered: From whose perspective will the new books be written? Whose account will it be? Whose version of the story?
I distinctly remember that when I was a grade school student at the Tuguegarao Central Elementary School (now called the West Central), we learned about the oppressiveness of the Spanish regime. The friars leaped from the pages of our history books in very dark hues, agents of an exploitative colonial master, guardians of the interests of Spain. We heard almost nothing about the fact that many Spanish friars wrote lengthy and learned treatises in defense of the "indio." We never came across such names as those of Francisco de Capillas and his works of mercy at a hospital he built in Lallo — right in our province. The books we had were "hate" books of American provenance and obviously portraying the Americans, led by the gallant George Dewey and his victory over the Spanish Armada, as the heralds of freedom and the champions of democracy. I remember distinctly how our "social studies" (that is how the subject was called at the time) emphasized that America had done for the Philippines in decades what the Spaniards did not even attempt to do for centuries!
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