Historian Ambeth Ocampo says it should instead be called the ‘Velarde-Bagay’ map to highlight the contribution of its Filipino engraver Nicolas dela Cruz Bagay
MANILA, Philippines – Tucked away in the basement of a castle in the English countryside once used to film the Harry Potter movies, the “Mother of all Philippine maps” resurfaced when severe flooding forced the Duke of Northumberland to sell among other heirlooms, the 1734 Murillo Velarde map.
The stroke of serendipity meant the map would finally find its way back to the Philippines after centuries. Businessman Mel Velarde – prompted by Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio – bid P12 million for the prized artifact and won during a Sotheby’s auction in 2012.
Considered the most important map of the Philippines, the 1734 Murillo Velarde map – named after its cartographer Jesuit priest Pedro Murillo Velarde – defined in vivid detail the territory of the country nearly 300 years ago. It continues to do so until today.
After all, a spotlight was put on the map after it played a crucial role in the Philippines’ case against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands. The map had been entered as evidence for the Philippines as it showed Panatag Shoal or Scarborough Shoal (named “Panacot” on the map) has been part of the Philippine territory as far back as nearly 3 centuries ago.
‘SCARBOROUGH IS OURS.’ The Northern Luzon Command on June 6, 2016, receives a framed replica of the 1734 Murillo Map that shows the disputed Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) as part of the Philippines.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHERN LUZON COMMAND
Unlike the Philippines, China has not been able to produce a map older than this one, showing the shoal in its territory. With less than 20 copies worldwide, the Murillo Velarde map is also extremely rare and valued as the first scientific map of the Philippines. (READ: Ancient maps support PH claim over Scarborough)
But for historian Ambeth Ocampo, it’s about time the Philippines considered renaming it. Why? Because Pedro Murillo Velarde was not the only person behind the creation of the map.
What should it be called? Ocampo suggested calling the Murillo Velarde map the “Velarde-Bagay” instead.
According to Ocampo, the map is important not only for its rarity, but also because it tells us one story about who we are as Filipinos. Ocampo said while the map is largely known to have been drawn by Velarde, what’s been mostly forgotten is that it was engraved and printed by a man named Nicolas dela Cruz Bagay, who signed himself an “Indio Tagalo” on the map.
“The most important map of the 18th century is called the Murillo Velarde map, which I hope, will be renamed the Velarde-Bagay map,” Ocampo said.
“While traditionally the map should be named for the cartographer, because we’re Pinoy, we should highlight the Philippine contribution. The man may have drawn a map but without the Indio who signed, you will have no beautiful map,” he added.
For Ocampo, renaming the map to include both its creators gives credit to whom it is due.
“The map shows you not just the territory but much, much more,” he said.
Encircled in this photo is ‘Panacot’ shoal, also known as Panatag Shoal (Scarborough shoal) or Bajo de Masinloc.
SCREENSHOT FROM THE US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
What else is in the map? Aside from laying out Philippine territory, the map also earned praise from historians, scholars, and cartographers throughout the world for depicting a capsule history of the Philippines and what life was like here in the 18th century.
Images of different types of vessels sailing in Philippine waters and the ports of Manila, Zamboanga, and Cavite, show the country’s maritime culture, which many Filipinos often forget, Ocampo said. With over 7,641 islands (according to the National Mapping Resource and Information Authority) the Philippines has one of the longest coastlines in the world.
Meanwhile, 12 vignettes that decorate the sides of the map showcase Philippine products and the daily life of Filipinos. Foreigners who were in the country at the time, such as Persians, “Cafres” (Africans), Indians, Chinese, and Japanese, among others, attest to the Philippines as a rich trading port, too.
“What’s important about the map is that in the 18th century, you’d think we’re a backwater [place but] Manila was not,” Ocampo said.
SOFIA TOMACRUZ
Source: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/why-we-should-rename-1734-murillo-velarde-map
MANILA – A copy of a rare map that helped bolster the Philippines’ case against China in a dispute over the South China Sea was sold on Saturday (Sept 14) for 40 million pesos (S$1.06 million).
The price was nearly four times what a tech executive had paid for another copy at a Sotheby’s auction in London in 2014. Mr Mel Velarde, chief executive of local telco NOW, bought his copy for 12 million pesos.
The map was expected to fetch at least 18 million pesos.
Ms Lori Juvida, a gallery owner, tendered the winning bid. She later told The Straits Times it was “for a friend”. His identity has not been disclosed but he is believed to be a Chinese Filipino.
Mr Jaime Ponce de Leon, the director of Leon Gallery, where the auction was held said: “The strength of its price is its rarity and its historical significance… As a document of history, it is very important.”
The map, first published in 1734 by the Jesuit cartographer Pedro Murillo Velarde, was among 270 maps presented to a five-man arbitration tribunal to back the Philippines’ rights to parts of the South China Sea that China was also claiming.
It drew Scarborough Shoal – referred to back then as Panacot – as part of the country’s territories. The shoal lies just 358km west of the Philippines’ main Luzon island.
The tribunal in The Hague sided with the Philippines and struck down in 2016 China’s claim to the South China Sea.
It concluded that land features, not historic rights, determine maritime claims, and ruled that the “nine-dash line” encircling two million sq km of the South China Sea on modern Chinese maps is illegal.
It upheld the Philippines’ rights to over 200 nautical miles of “exclusive economic zone”, which included Scarborough.
China, however, has ignored the ruling.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte raised the case with China’s leader Xi Jinping when he visited China last month. But he was told China would not change its position on the matter.
His spokesman Salvador Panelo later said the two leaders “agreed to disagree”, and that Mr Duterte would no longer bring up the ruling with Mr Xi.
The 1734 map is by itself an important historical artefact. It was engraved by printer Nicolas de la Cruz Bagay on eight copper plates. The plates were captured by Britain when it occupied Manila from 1762 to 1764, and taken to England as war booty.
The University of Cambridge used the plates to print copies of the map before the plates were “rubbed down” and re-used to make other maps.
The copy auctioned on Saturday had belonged to the Duke of Northumberland.
Fewer than a dozen copies of the map exist today. Three are with the national libraries of Spain and France, and the US Library of Congress, while another three are in private collections in the Philippines.
The map has been described as the “mother of all Philippine maps”, as it was the first to accurately represent the Philippines and define its borders. It had the names of over 900 towns, cities and villages, and showed important rivers and waterways. Later maps would use it as reference.
What also made the 1734 map unique were 12 panels on both sides, drawn by artist Francisco Suarez, that depict everyday life in the Philippines in the 1700s.
The panels portray “sangleys”- as the Chinese who settled in the Philippines were called – as well as African slaves, Armenian and Persian merchants, and a Japanese samurai.
There are also depictions of cockfighting, and men and women going to church, playing the mandolin, dancing, cutting bamboo for scaffolds, steering a carabao, and pounding rice. There are images of forts and the walled city of Old Manila.
“It was the culmination of two centuries of map-making,” wrote curator Lisa Guerrero-Nakpil.
China never controlled the South
China Sea (West Philippine Sea) at any
time in history, as proven by the 1734
Murillo Velarde map.
According to Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the map invalidates China’s Nine-Dashed Line and claims of
ownership of the South China Sea for over “2,000 years. Carpio delivered the keynote address at the opening of the 16th Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day Conference on Oct. 4 at the auditorium of the National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development (NISMED). The 2-day conference had the theme “Mapping Spaces and Identities in Spanish Colonial Philippines.”
Official. Printed in Manila, the 1734 Murillo Velarde map by the Jesuit priest Pedro Murillo Velarde, was the Spanish government’s official map of its territories (both terrestrial and aquatic) in the Philippines. Called the mother of all Philippine maps and widely copied by Filipino and European cartographers, the map showed the maritime routes from Manila to Spain and Mexico and other Spanish territories to the New World, something very vital to the Galleon Trade, the first global trade by sea. According to the National Library of Spain, the map was drawn by Filipino Francisco Suarez and engraved by another Filipino, Nicolas dela Cruz Bagay. “The map is so detailed that when a magnifying glass is used, one can see all the towns and pueblos of the Philippines in 1734,” Carpio said. He was part of the team that argued before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague in the Netherlands on the Philippines’ claim on the Sea. Included in the 1734 Murillo Velarde map are the Panacot shoal (Scarborough Shoal) and the Los Bajos de Paragua (Spratly Islands or Spratlys). It was one of the 270 ancient maps presented at the PCA hearings contesting China’s claim over the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) that began in July 2015. Among the other maps presented were ancient maps of China throughout the Chinese dynasties, Philippine ancient maps and maps of Southeast Asia and European maps of Asia. China’s historical claim that it owned the South China Sea since 2,000 years ago (ed: roughly around the time of the Han Dynasty which began from 206 BC – 220AD) was refuted by Carpio and the Philippine team of experts. He said none of the ancient maps showed that China owned the contentious waters nor the Spratly islands and the Scarborough Shoal. The ancient Chinese maps’ southernmost territory was Hainan. “China in its earliest dynasty, from the Song and fast forward to their last dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and all their maps uniformly show that their southernmost territory is Hainan. So we presented this to the Tribunal. If you superimpose all the maps from the Song to the Qing dynasty, to over almost a thousand years, the southernmost territory of China was Hainan,” he said.
No historical claim. The Nine-Dashed Line is the demarcation line China used to claim the major part of the South China Sea. China maintains it owns any land or territory contained within the line. Among the territories claimed are the Spratlys and Scarborough shoal. The demarcation line was formerly 11 dashes. In his book “The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea,” Carpio explained that in December 1947, the “Kuomintang Government of China adopted the Nine-Dashed Line claim” that was embodied in a map “‘Location Map of the South Sea Islands’ released within China in February 1948, with 11 dashes forming a broken U-shaped line covering almost the entire South China Sea.” Carpio further explained the map indicates a claim to the islands and not the sea. In addition, there was no basis how the 11 dashes came about nor what its coordinates were. China claimed the islands enclosed in the 11 dashes, among them the Nansha Islands (Spratlys). Scarborough Shoal which is called Huangyan Island or its previous name, Min’zhu was not included. “China was silent on any claim to the surrounding waters,” Carpio said. In 1950, China under communist rule removed two dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin without any explanation. This was the beginning of the Nine-Dashed Line. On July 12, 2016, PCA tribunal ruled China had no evidence that historically it had exclusive control over the waters or resources of the South China Sea.
Carpio and Spanish Ambassador to the Philippines Jorge Moragas Sanchez (second and third from left) with Velarde (right) and other
international guests at the UP-NISMED Auditorium
History will correct them. Carpio aims to right this false claim of ownership, almost making it his personal crusade, reasoning that any person believing thus will know the truth because “History will correct them.” The associate justice conducts lectures here and abroad to let everybody know about the historical demarcation lines concerning the South China Sea and of the Scarborough Shoal and Spratlys as Philippine territories. Some members of the international community, even other Filipinos, are currently inclined to believe otherwise, particularly when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the United States think tank in Washington, on Feb. 25, 2016. In his speech, he said the Treaty of Paris of 1898 proves the Scarborough Shoal and the Spratlys are not Philippine territories because they are all outside the Treaty Lines. The Treaty of Paris of 1898 was an agreement between Spain and the United States which included among others, the United States’ payment of US$20 million to Spain to cede the Philippines to them. In the Treaty, there were areas in the 1734 map of Murillo Velarde that Spain failed to cede to the United States, including Scarborough Shoal and the Spratlys. Nevertheless, Carpio argued the existence of the Treaty of Washington of 1900. “After signing the Treaty of Paris of 1898, the Americans came here and they discovered there were many islands outside the Treaty lines. So they went back to the Spaniards and asked the Spaniards to sign a Treaty clarifying the Treaty of Paris and that would include all these other islands outside of Treaty Lines. The Spaniards refused to sign,” Carpio said. He continued, “So the Americans told them, ‘On top of the US$20 million that we paid
you, we will pay you an additional US$100,000 to sign a second Treaty to make the clarification.’ The
Spaniards said, ‘Yes, we will sign!’” According to The Treaty of Washington of 1900, “Spain relinquishes to the United States all title and claim of title, which she may have had at the time of the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace of Paris, to any and all islands belonging to the Philippine Archipelago lying outside the lines described in Article III of that Treaty and particularly to the islands of Cagayan Sulu and Sibutu and their dependencies, and agrees that all such islands shall be comprehended in the cession of the Archipelago as fully as if they had been expressly included within those lines.” Therefore, Carpio said, with the Treaty of Washington of 1900 amending the Treaty of Paris of 1898, the Philippines can claim the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal.
Cosmopolitan Manila. Not only did the Murillo Velarde map debunk China’s historical
narrative of South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) ownership, it also showed an 18th century Manila that was a rich cosmopolitan city, inhabited not only by the locals but foreigners from different parts of the globe and was a key city of the Galleon Trade. The associate justice said Father Pedro Murillo Velarde once wrote that if one stands on a bridge in Manila, one can see people from all parts of the globe, from Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. The Murillo Velarde map was originally engraved in eight copper plates and had on its sides a total 12 vignettes on the people and landscape of 18th century Philippines. The whole 1734 Murillo Velarde map is engraved on eight copper plates. The map itself is divided into four copper plates. It is between four other copper plates, two on each side. Each of these copper plates bear three vignettes. Eight vignettes depict people of varied ethnicities living in the country, and of flora and fauna found in the country. There is also a map of Samboagan (a city in Mindanao), a map of the port of Cavite — for the port was vital in building galleons at the time a map of the island of Guajan (Guam) and a map of Manila. The vignettes clearly depicted how important 18th century Philippines was in the Galleon Trade, and largely, to the Spanish empire.
The crucial role of the 1734 Murillo Velarde map in the Philippines’ case against China’s claim over the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea)is but one example of the importance of ancient maps in understanding history and present-day claims and situations. “Ancient maps are not merely decorative items far removed from present day reality. Ancient maps can come alive to help settle contentious present-day disputes among states. Individually, ancient maps contain errors and omissions because they do not have a satellite to get the correct configuration, but taken collectively over a period of time… ancient maps point to basic historical truth and expose greater than historical bias,” Carpio said.
UPD’s own copy. At the conference, UP Diliman (UPD) received a facsimile of the mother of all Philippine maps. Its donor was information technology entrepreneur Mel Velarde, chair of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication. “I’m ere with a simple mission to give you a gift of the official replica of the 1734 Murillo Velarde map. My mission was to buy the map at an auction in London for you (the youth) because Justice Carpio wanted the youth to be able to see it and understand how blessed and rich our country is,” he said. Along with the official replica, Velarde brought the original map at the UPD conference for public viewing. He purchased the map for P12 million in an auction at London Sotheby’s in 2014. In 2017, Velarde donated the map to the National Museum. The original map once belonged to the Duke of Northumberland. It was one of a number of maps the University of Cambridge produced as fresh prints from the copper plates of the 1734 Murillo Velarde map. The Duke of Northumberland of the late 18th century bought a copy of the map and brought it to his residence at Alnwick Castle. The Castle has been used as a setting to many films and television series, and may be familiar to Potterheads for this was the interior and exterior of Hogwarts of “Harry Potter” films. There at Alnwick Castle,the map remained at its basement for over 200 years. In 2014, the current Duke of Northumberland announced the sale of family heirlooms that included the celebrated map. The official replica is currently at the UPD Department of istory and its public viewing is yet to be set.
By Mariamme D. Jadloc
Images by Leonardo A. Reyes
Source : https://upd.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/NEW-UPDATE-OCT-DEC2018.pdf
