Set of Reflections on Filipino Culture, Nationalism, Economic Development, and Philippine Politics and Democracy By: Virgilio Angelo G. Gener
A Review and an Overview – the Introduction
As I begin to think on what I will write on my reflections on the significant lessons and insights that I have distilled in my readings for the past two months, I remember that American journalist and essayist Henry Louis “H.L.” Mencken once opined that: “A Historian by his nature, is an unsuccessful novelist.” If there is a commonality that I have noticed in the methodology of writing of the scholarly articles that I have read, it is the fact that majority of them was written in a narrative and historical standpoint. Thus, when I was brainstorming prior to the completion and formal writing of this essay, I deemed it necessary that the methodology or mode of presentation of my reflective essay should complement the style of writing the journal articles were presented.
This was one of the things that I had in mind and served as my setback in finally commencing the writing of my reflective essay. The past two months of attending classes and racing through the pages of the assigned readings were, in my own personal opinion, a review of history as well as an overview of the opinions of scholars on certain social aspects, whether they be on the past, present, or the uncertain future of the Philippines.
It is a review, since most of the readings discussed matters and happenings that were mostly covered by my secondary and undergraduate history lessons. In light of this statement, I would like to note the works of Patricio Abinales, Donna Amoroso, as well as Oscar Evangelista for their works provide a bird’s eye view of the pre-colonial Philippines and the twilight of the Spanish colonial administration in the archipelago in such a manner that I learned it during the later