Remembering historian William Henry Scott of Sagada
Historian William Henry Scott | Contributed photo
SAGADA, Mountain Province — After three decades, I had the chance to personally visit the humble and simple tomb of historian William Henry Scott at the Saint Mary the Virgin Cemetery.
I have been looking for his tomb every time I was in Sagada but always failed perhaps due to its simplicity despite his stature as a respected scholar.
Scott died on October 4, 1993 at the age of 72.
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His tomb is near the tomb of the late Prime Bishop Edward Malecdan of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.
Fondly called “Scotty,” I had the privilege to meet him during my first visit of Sagada in 1991.
I told him that I read in my history classes in UP Diliman one of his works titled “The Igorot Defense of Northern Luzon,” a book which he authored in 1970 about Igorot resistance against Spanish colonial rule.
“They were never slaves to the Spaniards nor did they play the role of slaves. Quite the contrary, Spanish records make it clear that they fought for their independence with every means at their disposal for three centuries, and that this resistance to invasion was deliberate, self-conscious, and continuous,” Scott said in the book.
Scotty added: “the Spaniards did not consider this resistance a fight for independence. They considered the Igorots to be bandits and savages and lawbreakers because they did not submit to Spanish rule like the lowlanders. And they explained the Igorot defense of their liberty as the instincts of uncivilized tribes who had always been at war with their more peace-loving neighbors.”
“The traditional Igorot arsenal consisted of wooden shields, bamboo lances and highly effective stakes planted in the grassy trails to strike their enemies in the ankle or foot. Bows and arrows were only rarely used, and iron weapons like spears, bolos and head-axes only appeared later.”
“Their defensive tactics included blockades of trees and branches in mountain passes where they could roll down big stones and tree trunks.”
“They often pretended to retreat until the invaders lowered their guard, or even pretended—to surrender and then wiped out the supposed victors by ambush on their way home. More especially, they tried to keep all their trails and villages secret, and killed their fellow Igorots who acted as guides for the enemy.”
Ironically, this same work was used against him as one of the “evidence” (along with Mao Zedong’s “red book”) after he was arrested a month after Martial Law was imposed in 1972.
The book was often tagged as “subversive” by the military although it was actually about incidents which took place from 1576 to 1896, the Spanish colonial era.
As a political prisoner, Scott was accused of being a communist sympathizer involved in “seditious activities” and an “undesirable alien” subject to deportation “because his presence has been and will always be inimical to the peace, security and tranquility of the community.”
Perhaps this was due to the fact that many of his students had joined the anti-Marcos opposition, especially in view of the controversial Chico River hydroelectric project, a Marcos project that would have flooded and submerged Sagada and many other places in the Mountain Province. Many of the arrested youth in the north were generally queried about his book.
Scott defended himself in a public trial, with scholars testifying on his vast contribution to Philippine historiography and ethnography. All charges against him were eventually dropped.
In Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History (1968), Scott debunked the fraudulent Codes of Maragtas and Kalantiaw which compelled historians to revise Philippine history books.
Some of his books include The Discovery of the Igorots (1974) Hollow Ships on a Wine-Dark Sea (1976) Cracks in the Parchment Curtain (1982), Ilocano Responses to American Aggression (1986), A Sagada Reader (1988), Who are You, Filipino Youth (1989), Slavery in the Spanish Philippines (1991), Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino (1992).
Scott said in one of his works that when a person dies, his soul does not die but becomes a spirit (anito) that then lives in the village, especially in the caves or rocky places where its former body is entombed.
Sagada allowed Scott the solitude he needed to write about precolonial Philippine society, ethnology, linguistics, and the history of the Cordilleras as well as theological discourses.
He was initially assigned as a lay missionary of the Episcopal Church in 1954. He served as a teacher of English and history at St. Mary’s School and later as the school principal for many years. He also taught at various educational institutions like the University of the Philippines (UP).
It is unfortunate that I was not able to have a photo taken with him during our encounters in Sagada when he was still alive.
On December 8, 2021, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines unveiled a historical marker in memory of Scott at St. Mary’s School which is part of the celebration of his centennial birth anniversary.
(Peyups is the monicker of University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the seafarers’ division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan law offices. For comments, e-mail [email protected], or call 09088665786.)
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