The Chronicle of the Centennial School Years of Pasig Catholic College

History is not just the events that happened in the past, it is about the cultural, economical and political development of a society. It is about preserving and “re-presenting” the past through retelling a story. It is a process of coming up with the final product which is History itself from its writing, interpretation, and analysis of the past. Thus, the researcher would like to retell, the history of his alma mater, Pasig Catholic College due to the fact that the school stands up and survived its hundred years of providing good education to Filipino students.

The primary purpose of this paper is to create a narrative based on the Centennial History of Pasig Catholic College (PCC), the researcher’s former elementary school. This paper will look into PCC as an educational institution that still stands today since 1913. The research will also look to understand the school’s early years when the Belgian CICM Missionaries build a Catholic school known as “Escuela Catolica” for teaching Filipino children while passing on the cultural heritage and tradition of the people as the American government recognized PCC as a primary school during the colonial years. Specifically, this research will provide an understanding of the ways in which it will look into the parish of Pasig in the Hispanic era, early challenges of PCC, the birth of Catholic School, efforts of the the first administrators in reconstructing PCC, the transition of Parochial to Diocesan, and the evolution of the seals of the PCC.

Therefore, the researcher's partial methodology in his topic on the Centennial History of Pasig Catholic College from 1913-2013, will apply Braudel’s School of Annales, Microhistory, and Anthropology. The preliminary description of the historical phases that can possibly lead on this paper is divided into seven stages of the development of PCC: (1) the parish of Pasig, (2) the Evangelizing mission of the Roman Catholic missionary religious congregation of men (CICM) and De Brower’s Legacy of Catholic school, (3) Expanding the school, (4)Reconstructing PCC after Japanese period, (5) the Efforts of the missionaries in adding new buildings, (6) PCC under the Archdiocese of Manila, and (7) PCC in fullness of time: changes and inauguration of New College and Graduate School. The sources to be utilized in this historiographical paper will be composed of primary and secondary sources. Numerous resources were found to be useful that are to be included this researcher paper. Certainly, the sources are coming from the library department of PCC wherein the researcher accessed in the archival room upon the request of the professor. The researcher found publications of the school and archival materials to be studied on. The primary source of the History of PCC was accessed by the researcher through the help of the high school and college librarians. The librarian gave the researcher the primary source which is only available in softcopy, due to the fact that the school has not done in publishing hard copies of it. The primary source is entitled: “The History of PCC”.

This was released by the Office Research, Planning, Development, Quality Assurance and Extension of PCC. This resource is researched based on previously released and edited materials provided by the Center for Institutional Information Technology (CIIT), CICM website, and Nova et Vetera (CICM newsletter). Additional details of the primary source are that it was researched and compiled by Antonio L. Cruz, a senior researcher of PCC. Then, it was edited and reviewed for release by Perlita R. Antonio, VP for Research and Planning. Moreover, secondary sources that will be used include school publications of journals, yearbooks, handbook and manuals, newspaper articles, old pictures and old documents preserved. The conceptual or methodological points from the various historiographical theories that were studied so far that can be relevant in this research are the following: Firstly, The Three Anales Generations entitled “The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (Excerpt) by Fernand Braudel (Example of the 2nd generation)”, this reading is under the Annales school. The Annales new methods consider geography as one of the important aspects of history to study on. The most significant aspect to study on geography is particularly its geographical features wherein Fernand Braudel mentions in the reading the geographical determinism of mountains, islands, and lowlands. Geographical determinism posits the social milieu and environment is the factor in the formation of a culture.

Moreover, what made Braudel’s study of the mountain dwellers authentic, is because of his impartiality --his equal and fair treatment of the different views of the dwellers. He relies more on descriptions rather than judging the people. Hence, this historiographical theory on geography can be relevant to the research because the school is set in Pasig, the researcher will look into the geography of the surrounding of the school in which the architecture of the place in Pasig, is heavily influenced by the Spanish Architecture wherein the church is at the center, signifying that Catholic faith played importantly in society and that can provide for emergency needs for evacuation in case there was typhoons or incidents. Henceforth, the surrounding places that the church cover are the schools, market, park, hospital, city hall, and other buildings. Thus, one of the important places to be cared for by the church is obviously the school. Thus, PCC is one of the schools that is covered and basically besides the church, the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, the main seat of the Diocese of Pasig. Secondly, is Microhistory. The required reading that was discussed in the class is entitled the “Introduction” from What is Microhistory? by Magnússon and Szijártó. Basically, Microhistory is a smaller unit of the research study that focuses on an intensive and particular historical investigation of a certain event, place or an individual person.

Due to the fact that Microhistory focuses on smaller or a more specific historical event, place or people, it is more likely to reveal the complicated function of individual relationships within each and every social setting and as they stressed its difference from larger norms. For microhistorians, they see people who lived in the past are not puppets on hands of great underlying forces of history, but they are regarded as active individuals, conscious actors because if everyone contributes to history then, everyone is part of its history. This means that in applying this to the research, the primary sources (specifically most were under school publications that were gathered) will help him in a useful way because of the fact that the certain people who contributed in the school publications of PCC will be then, part of retelling its history. Therefore, the researcher would certainly use Microhistory as one of the methodologies in applying to the relevance of his study of the history of PCC. The researcher will use Microhistory specifically the historical events in founding the school, the challenges it faced during the American and Japanese occupation, and to the historical figures who contributed a lot in spearheading the school and also to the construction of the different buildings in the school. Thirdly, Anthropology will be another methodological theory that can be relevant to the research.

The Anthropology is based on the reading “Anthropology and Ethnohistorians,” by Green and Troup. In this reading, Anthropology is defined by Keith Thomas as a studied by the whole. Also, it is defined by Émile Durkheim as a study of a society or group over studying the individual. Durkheim believed that “human behavior is fundamentally shaped by the moral, religious, and social society in which the individual lives”. Thus, the main idea of this historical theory of by Green and Troup which is the center of the study is the concept of human culture according to Edward Burnett in 19th-century. To further reiterate, the researcher on his study would like to focus on his study about of two out of four features of Anthropological work that historians could learn from. First, is the close observation of the living processes of social interaction of the PCCians, a term called to people who study or work in the PCC. Second, is either the interesting ways of interpreting the symbolic behavior of the PCCians or on suggestions about how parts of the social system in PCC fit together.

Finally, in relating the researcher’s study on the history of PCC, he will connect it to the legacy of Anthropology in inclusion on the need of careful, synchronic analysis a product of its holistic approach to the study of society. Ultimately, the research will show the importance of understanding the organizational social structure of the PCC on the elementary, high school, and college students and teachers, together with the heads administrators of the school and staff. And lastly, Anthropology is definitely relevant in this research because it allowed historians or even amateur researchers to make most out of limited materials through the use of “scraps evidence”, and “controlled speculation”.