Petition for History Books

Bro. Armin Luistro, FSC
Secretary Department of Education
DepEd Complex, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City

Dear Bro. Armin Luistro, We, the students of De La Salle University are gravely concerned that our history books that are required in the secondary levels are not accurate as they should strongly be. We would like to address this issue in accordance to what must be revised and give emphasis regarding on these 3 specific issues that we will point out below.
1. Americans are kinder, benevolent, and more humane than Japanese.
2. Americans contributed education to the Filipinos so we need to thank them for their contribution.
3. The Filipino- American War is forgotten by the students today.

Issue # 1 To start off, Americans were never kinder or more humane than the Japanese, in fact they are evidences that proved Americans are guilty of various torturing spree during their stay. One example is the famous water cure, this one torture had countless victims over the time. They were never better than the Japanese in the first place. They gave the same amount of suffering to the Filipinos of what the Japanese did or maybe even more because of their longer stay. The only reason why people see Americans were more humane is because of what they sugar-coated, in the midst of suffering Americans did give us considerable offerings, but enough to cover up the atrocities they committed in the past. Most History books nowadays are more focused on the good things and less of the gruesome things they did to us Filipinos. History books like these should indeed be revised. In my own personal experience during my high school days, my teachers always portrayed Americans as our heroes. We were never deeply exposed on what the Americans atrocities were.

Issue # 2 Education is not unattainable for anyone who lives in this planet, for most people “education” is the 2nd best thing what the Americans have given us, next to Independence. Again this all sugar-coated. Before the pre-colonial period we had our own set of educational system. According to Margaux Panlilio (CTP) our educational system before was highly influenced by the kind of economic situation. So you see, we were already growing up even before the Americans fed us. Any layout of these kind of saying should be revised and be reminded on how smart and not stupid the Filipinos were before.

Issue # 3 Yes students should be reminded that there was once a serious conflict between the Americans and the Filipinos. Although the Americans did not acknowledge it as a war because they thought this wasn’t necessary to include in their history. Because of an incident between at American and a Filipino who had miscommunication that sparked the war. According to Anabeth Ocampo, a writer in Inquirer said “The Philippine-American War is a forgotten war because it is not fully explained in both American and Philippine textbooks. When George Dewey and his ships blasted the floating wooden antiques that comprised the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, that was the first shot in the Spanish-American War. We must remember that the US was interfering in the way Spain was running neighboring Spanish Cuba which, like the Philippines, had people fighting for their independence.” Enough said. Textbooks should give more serious emphasis regarding on this unvoiced issue.

To make ends meet, we would like to petition for the revision and the reinterpretation of the listed issues that is said and explained clearly above. Thank you and good day!

Sincerely yours,