74

Module 7

Lumad Responses to Spanish Occupation

Sharon Obsioma Bulaclac
Department of History, CSSH, MSU-Marawi City

I. Objectives

At the end of the module, the students should be able to answer the following
questions:

1. What were the initial responses of the Lumads when they saw the Spaniards?
2. What were some of the methods used by the Spaniards to subjugate the
Lumads?
3. How did the Lumads respond to the methods mentioned above?

II. Introductory Activity

The instructor may show pictures of the different Lumad groups and photos of
the Spaniards (e.g., friars from different religious orders and the colonial officials) who
were assigned to Mindanao; at the same time, using a map of Mindanao, identify places
where a particular Lumad group would be located, as well as locate places that the
Spaniards subjugated. This would give a picture of the Spanish era on Mindanao.

III. Lesson Proper

“It will never be possible to write a real history of the Filipino people under Spain
because the colonial government enjoyed a monopoly on the production of source
materials.” ---Teodoro A. Agoncillo

“Until lions have their own historians, stories of the hunt will glorify the hunter.”
(African Proverb)

If one were to agree with the distinguished Filipino historian Teodoro Agoncillo,
then he would wonder how he could know the real story of the Lumads, especially with
regard to their response to the coming of the Spaniards. And if one pondered on the
African proverb quoted above, making the Lumads as the metaphorical lions and the
Spaniards the metaphorical hunters, then it would be impossible to get the real story of
the Lumads. Even today seldom can one find a Lumad historian and most of the time
non-Lumad scholars often could examine only colonial records and documents written
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by the “hunters” in order to gather data on the “lions.” 1 In his book, People of the
Middle Ground, Edgerton said that tribal minorities had nurtured their own sense of
identity, memory, and history. But at the onslaught of colonial forces, they had found
themselves lost or marginalized in someone else’s larger historical perspective of the
narrative. Or as James Warren would say, they have been relegated to the periphery of
events to live in the shadow of a powerful center in this global age. Seen in this
perspective, the Lumads would fall into the category of what Eric Wolf calls “people
without history.” In his work, Wolf challenges the notion that non-European cultures
were isolated and static entities, and argues that these societies were in fact changing
and responding to pre-Columbian global economic system. Past writers of history, it
would seem, viewed these minorities, including the Lumads, as voiceless communities
and objects of historical writings—or, paradoxically, “inactive participants” in the making
of their own history.

However, William Henry Scott, in his book, Cracks in the Parchment Curtain,
shares the optimism that one can still get some fairly clear pictures of our ancestors
even from the official documents of the Spanish colonial regime themselves. These
represent the “cracks in the parchment,” through which fleeting glimpses of Filipinos
and their reactions to Spanish dominion may be seen. He also quoted Renato
Constantino’s words that the recorded history of the articulate can yield data for a
history of the inarticulate indios. For this module the inarticulate would refer to the
Lumads.

On the other hand, there are voluminous unwritten sources of evidence from the
Lumad awaiting codification and incorporation into their own history. There is, for
instance, the famous Manobo epic, Ulahingan, a narrative that consists of the exploits
of their ancestors and stories about their reverence for nature and accommodation of
their neighbors. Another is the Tulelangan, also from Ilianen Manobo, which portrays
heroic deeds of their ancestors and glorification of values of forgiveness,
accommodation, resilience.2 These epics are not only mirrors of their past; they also tell
about what they are as a people.

This module is an attempt to write the story of the hunt from the perspective of
both the “lions” and the “hunters.” To achieve that aim, one may examine some of the
recorded history of the articulate and find some chinks from that “parchment.” It is

1
Oona Paredes used this African proverb at the opening of her paper “Discriminating Native Traditions among the
Mindanao Lumad.”
2
Hazel Wrigglesworth, “Tulalang slays the dragon,” Philippine Quarterly Culture and Society, Vol. 5 (1977), pp.
123-165. Starting off from the initial publication by Elena Maquiso, Christine Godinez-Ortega of MSU Iligan
Institute of Technology is now following up on the voluminous research required of transcribing 359 cassette tapes,
343 audio tapes, and four boxes of floppy disks for digitization of the Ulahingan epic. See Christine Godinez-
Ortega, “Rescuing a People’s Memory: Race to Conserve the Manobo Epic,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 27,
2013, http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/105379/rescuing-a-peoples-memory-the-race-to-conserve-the-manobo-epic.
 76

hoped that the question and answer below would lead to the better understanding of
the Lumads and, in particular, their response to the coming of the Spaniards.

1. What were the initial responses of the Lumads when they met the
Spaniards?

Filipinos today are reputed for being friendly, accommodating and hospitable to strangers and
visitors. Did they behave the same way at the coming of the Spaniards? In the book, Butuan of a
Thousand Years, Greg Hontiveros wrote that Magellan’s expedition anchored near the island where they
saw a fire the night before. Eight natives on a small boat, called boloto, came alongside Magellan’s ship
in a mixture of curiosity and mistrust. Sensing their frame of mind, Magellan gave them a red cap and a
few other things that he handed them from a stick. The natives responded positively and went to tell
their king. Two hours later, two balanghai boats full of men came to the mooring, and with them was
the chief of the island Mazzua in the larger boat. Magellan was actually communicating through his slave
Enrique, who is believed today to be from Sumatra and was procured in Malacca when Magellan was
still with the Portuguese Navy. Enrique was able to converse with the chief, who understood him well. In
his chronicle, Pigaffetta explained that “in that country, the kings know more languages that the
common people do.”

Hontiveros also mentioned that from a boat’s distance, the Mazzaua king gifted
Magellan with “a bar of massy gold, of a good size, and a basket full of ginger.”
Magellan thanked him profusely but declined the gift. But the next day, Good Friday,
Magellan sent Enrique to the king to request to buy some provisions for the crew and
assuring him that he came as a friend. Hearing this, the king went to the ship with
some of his men, and embraced Magellan and gave him “three porcelain jars covered
with leaves and full of rice and two orades, which are fairly large fish.” In return,
Magellan gave the king “a robe of red and yellow cloth, made in the Turkish fashion,
and a very fine red cap, and to some people he gave knives and others mirrors.” The
chief even invited the Spaniards to visit his plac, welcomed them there and served food
and wine. They even got drunk together. Pigafetta mentioned that before their
separation, “the king very happily kissed our hands, and we kissed his.”

The account mentioned above only illustrates the traits ancestors had that
showed their attitude towards visitors. Agoncillo pointed out that “Filipino hospitality is
something that is almost a fault. This hospitality has been misunderstood by many foreigners,
particularly by the Spanish adventurers of the past century, who thought that such show of profuse
hospitality was a form of inferiority and obsequiousness.” That experience gave the Spaniards the idea
what kind of people were living in the islands. Seeing such show of profuse hospitality, they thought that
the natives would be easy to subjugate and that it would be easy for the Spaniards carry out the
colonization.
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2. What were some of the methods used by the Spaniards to subjugate

the Lumads?

GOD, GOLD and GLORY! Some people say these motives propelled the European
colonization of the Orient. Others would try the footnote that the Spaniards came to the
Philippines to preach their God and get the Gold of the people for Spanish Glory. The
statement may make some sense, because one very effective way used by the
Spaniards to subjugate the natives had been the work of friars. Manuel Tawagon once
jokingly said in his paper presentation 3 that “the Spaniards came to save our souls, as if
everybody was going to hell.” But before getting somewhat derailed about motives in
colonization, the obvious must be underscored that the principal motive of the
Spaniards in coming to the islands had been plainly economic, not religious as believed
by some. In his book,4 Rodil discusses the works of Reverend Nicholas Cushner and Dr.
William Henry Scott, both noted scholars of Philippine history. Cushner reveals that
Spain wished a slice of the coveted spice market in the area and Scott points out that
Magellan’s agreement with the king of Spain was a straightforward business contract.
Rodil also stresses that “there was nothing at all in Magellan’s instructions about
spreading Christianity! The Spaniards came to the Philippines primarily for their own
[economic] benefit and [not for the natives’ spiritual salvation or elucidation]. However,
by positing that they came primarily to spread Christianity, the [motivational] picture
changes radically, the implication being that they came primarily to [spiritually benefit
the natives]. And this simply [was] not true. As aggressors and colonizers, they [could]
only be the enemy of both the Filipino and Moro peoples, and all the other peoples of
the archipelago whom they had sought to dominate against their will.”

What method did the Spanish use to subjugate the Lumads? The success of
Spanish colonization was always attributed by historians to the zeal of the missionaries
and the superiority of Spanish arms. 5 But history should not forget the “divide and rule”
tactics used by the Spaniards6 (for example in the subjugation of the Moros in southern
and western Mindanao, the Spaniards made use of native soldiers recruited from the Caragans of
Surigao) and, moreover, the practice of Spanish explorers of befriending local chiefs. The
subjugation could not be achieved without the help of native allies.

In the first two centuries of the Spanish era, there were three aspects of control and
governance, at times overlapping, but at other junctures clearly delineated: the civil-
3
Roots of Mindanao Conflict: An Analysis
4
Rodil, B.R A Story of Mindanao and Sulu in Question and Answer. Davao: MINCODE, 2003
5
De Viana, Augusto V. The Philippines: A Story of a Nation. (Manila: Rex Bookstore, Inc., 2011), p 78.
6
It is a standard tool employed by all colonizers to advance their colonial interest, and the Spaniards were no
exception. They usually made their enemies fight each other to prevent them from uniting in a common cause and
thus facilitate conquest and control.
 78

military government, the encomienda system, and the ecclesiastical authority. 7

Hontiveros points out that as the Spaniards began to settle on Mindanao, they created
a structure of governance in various areas that affected the Lumads, That is, the
situation on Mindanao began to have a character of its own, mainly influenced by two
factors: the presence of the Muslim sultanates in Sulu and Maguindanao and the
transfer of the colonial capital of Filipinas from Cebu to Panay in 1568, and thence to
Manila by 1571, thereby moving the center of gravity of colonial rule farther north,
leaving the newly converted southern communities in the backwater of colonial
administration.

To cope with the increasing demands for the day-to-day administration in a situation in
which the burden of empire began to hang heavy on the Crown, the Spanish king
allowed a system called the encomienda to be instituted in the islands. By granting
Spanish officers a claim to the Spanish treasury for their services, by way of securing
such payments through the tribute paid by the natives, the Spanish throne was relieved
of the tremendous cost of governance. In return, the encomienderos had the obligation
to protect the lives of newly converted natives against hostile raiders, and to provide a
system of justice and religious instruction.

The encomienda eventually became a hated system. The most explosive of these
revelations was the complaint of Fr. Martin de Rada to the Spanish king about the
actuations of the Governor-General Guido de Lavazares. On June 21, 1574, Fr. Martin
de Rada wrote one of the most momentous documents against the colonial officialdom
addressed to King Philip II, decrying the abuses inflicted by Spanish civil and military
officials on the natives in the Philippines: “For as your Lordship knows, we have gone
everywhere with the mailed hand; and we have required the people to be friends, and
then on to give us tribute. At times war has been declared against them, because they
did not give us [as] much as we demanded. And if they would give us tribute, but
defended themselves, then they have been attacked, and war has been carried on the
fire, and sword… Pretext [has been made] to subjugate all these villages, and levy
tribute on them, to such amount as can be secured. With what conscience has a future
tribute been asked from them, before they knew us, or before they have received any
benefit from us? … And when base and foundation fail, all that is built thereon is
defective--all the more as the Indians are not protected from their enemies, nor
maintained in justice, as they should be. Many piracies go on as before, and those
others who are not so subject, they are given neither any satisfaction nor allowed to
secure it for themselves. And there is not sufficient reason for his Majesty to have
ordered that the land shall be allotted and divided into encomienda…”8

7
This case was actually made in reference to Butuan during the Spanish period. But also applicable to other
Spanish controlled areas in Mindanao.
8
Fray Martin de Rada, “Opinion Regarding Tribute,” In Emma Blair and James Alexander Robertson. The
Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Vol. 3, 1907, pp. 253-259. In http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13616/13616-h/13616-
h.htm.
 79

Schreurs even emphasized that with the encomienda the Spanish Crown had created a Frankenstein in
its colony. [Such] complaints and other reports of abuse committed by the
encomienderos eventually [led to] the system’s [abolition].

Friars and their strategies

According to Father Bernad, the missionaries were initially viewed with suspicion. The
Spanish encomienderos and their agents went to Mindanao for one obvious reason—to
enrich themselves, but not the friars. Though there were accounts later on that piety
was used as an instrument of absolute tyranny, there were more accounts that showed
that the friars protected the natives.

The first to come were the Jesuit missionaries. Their strategy consisted of three things.
First, they used songs as a medium to start their evangelization with the children. 9 The
second was to pray for, and to try to win over, those “who can most help or hinder” the
work of evangelization.10 And in the third strategy, they opened a small primary school,
such as in Cebu in 1595. In later years, it became a secondary school and, eventually, a
college and a seminary. This was the third part of the Jesuit mission strategy: to form
an elite corps of educated lay persons who would go back to their respective
communities and become the leaders of a Christian society. Quite the same sentiment
was articulated when Father Juan Ricart in 1882 voiced his concern about the question
of the new converts of Mindanao to be exempted for life from tribute, man-service and
military draft. He said, “Let us generously open our arms for the present generation,
and the future generation will be ours.” This strategy was effective: some datus sent
their sons to the said schools. Paredes also indicated that some Spanish missionaries
were supported by military detachments to protect converts from Moro domination and
raiding. This support must have made Christian conversion appealing to people who felt
vulnerable to raids.11

9
Agoncillo also mentioned that “as part of the strategy of enticing the unwilling unbaptized indios, the Spanish friars
utilized the novel sights, sounds, and even, smell of Christian rites and rituals─ colorful and pompous processions,
songs, candle-lights, saints dressed in elaborate gold and silver costumes during the May festivals of flores de Mayo
or the santa cruzan, the lighting of firecrackers even as the Host was elevated, the sinakulo (passion play), and the
Christian versus Muslim conflict drama (moro-moro). Other attractions included medals, scapulars, cords and
rosaries. All these “hypnotized” the spirit of the indios. Upon baptism, the Filipinos were given Christian names
usually derived from the feast day of the saint when they were born or baptized, which facilitated identification and
recording of population for collecting purposes.”
10
In keeping with the said principle, the two missionaries in Butuan aimed their work at the leaders of the people,
the principalia. Before a church was built, the catechetical instructions were held in the houses of the principal
residents. This strategy resulted in some notable conversion, the most spectacular being that of the most feared and
respected chieftain, Elian.
11
Paredes, Oona. “Higaunon Resistance and Ethnic Politics in Northern Mindanao,” The Australian Journal of
Anthropology, 1997
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3. How did the Lumads respond to the methods mentioned above?

The story of the Lumads at the coming of the Spaniards was different from the Moro-
Spanish story. If the Moros would tell theirs as a narrative of relentless resistance, as they were a
nation under endless tyranny,12 the Lumads’ would be a story, perhaps, of “unending
accommodation” (for lack of a better term) both to the Moros themselves and the Spaniards.
They were a people who survived the schemes of different tyrants and oppressors—vulnerable, as
perceived by many, yet undeniably resilient. Before the advent of the Spaniards, the Lumads
were already dealing with the Moros. Some of them were paying tribute for their safety
and some of them were even considered subjects. 13 Lumad responses to the coming of
the Spaniards varied also according to geographical location. The Lumad responses in
the coastal area and those in the mountains differed.

If one were to label the different responses of the Lumads to Spanish occupation, he
could probably describe them as: accommodation (creative), resistance [in different
forms-withdrawal, revolts, nonviolent form of resistance (latent)] subterfuge (the case
of Caraga and Butuan) and retaliation.

It is important to note that from the 16 th century to the present, Lumad peoples (with
the possible exception of the historical Mandaya) had been considered as the militarily,
politically, and demographically the weaker party in the face of the dominant group,
whether Moros (e.g., Magindanao, Maranao), Spaniards, or 20 th- century Filipinos.14

Although all Lumad peoples at one time or another responded to foreign and Filipino
domination with violence, only some populations (such as the historical Mandaya and
Caraga) gained the reputation for belligerence.15

In the 16th and 17th centuries Spanish missionaries and their activities in northern
Mindanao were not necessarily perceived as threatening by the locals. In places like
Himologon (now the city of Cagayan de Oro) and Butuan, it appeared that they were
simply incorporated into the existing settlements. That many Lumads (with the notable
exception of the Caragas) welcomed the missionaries and even chose to become
Christians demonstrated that, contrary to common perception, the Spaniards were not
necessarily hated nor was Christianity necessarily perceived as a serious threat in the
12
Jubair, Salah. Bangsamoro: A Nation Under Endless Tyranny. IQ Marin SDN BHD (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:
1999).
13
The Moro datus of Davao, who claimed that the tribes of Caraga were their vassals and had to pay tribute to them;
“restored” Jesuits faced a nearly identical problem in their mission territory of Cotabato and southern Bukidnon.
Here, certain Moro datus claimed that some neighboring Tiruray or Manobo groups or individuals had to pay tribute
to them and/or were in fact their slaves whom they would treat as “property.”
14
Paredes.
15
Ibid
 81

northern Mindanao area. Schreurs even writes that the Manobos in northeastern
Mindanao ‘behaved peacefully with the Spaniards but that was definitely not the case
with regard to the neighboring . . . tribesmen’.16

Let us examine how Bukidnons and Manobos coped with the new Spanish presence in
their upland region not by rejecting or becoming dependent on Spaniards, but by
employing, whenever possible, methods of creative accommodation. 17 When Spanish
Jesuits arrived to convert them, Bukidnons accommodated by making a place for the
priests among their baylans (native shamans), for God with their Magbabaya or among
their diwatas; and for Christ and the saints among their inkantos (unseen spirits).

Bukidnons and Manobos responded to these forces of change by neither wholeheartedly

welcoming nor adamantly rejecting them. True, the new Spanish ceremonies and
celebrations - the Mass, pasyon (Passion of Christ) and fiesta - reoriented them more
and more unequivocally to the hispanized culture of their lowland neighbors. But they
sought to keep their bearings in both the new Hispanic and old pre-Hispanic worlds.
Thus they settled in the new reducciones (settlement of converts) as Spanish officials
and priests insisted, but also maintained their old tulugans (traditional houses) back in
the rain forest. They tilled new fields on plateau grasslands, but frequently returned to
their swidden plots in the mountains. They accepted the new appellations given them
by Jesuit fathers, but when speaking to each other they continued using their old
names. Their leaders adopted titles bestowed on them by the Spaniards – such as
maestro de campo and capitan - but remained datus to their own people. They all got
married twice - once in a formal Roman Catholic service, and one more in their
traditional Bukidnon or Manobo ceremonies. And those who had been trading with
both Moros and north coastal Christians continued to do so despite Spanish efforts to
enlist them as allies in the Christian-versus-Moro wars. They would slide back and forth
between pueblo and tulugan, fiesta and kaliga, and the new God of their Jesuit padres
and their old Magbabaya. When exploitation from whatever quarter became intolerable,
they did not mount an attack or beg for Spanish help. They retired instead to their
forest havens, abandoning the new reducciones and driving their erstwhile Spanish
mentors to despair. 18

These responses indicated a general tendency for non-violence among the Lumads.
They would prefer to avoid conflict rather than confront it, to withdraw rather than face

16
Ibid
17
Ronald K. Edgerton. People of the Middle Ground: A Century of Conflict and Accommodation in Central
Mindanao 1880s-1980s. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2008.
18
Ibid
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a formidable enemy, and to become conciliatory and accommodating toward their

Christian and Moro neighbors.

IV. Lessons Learned and Peace Message

This chapter has taught us certain values: accommodation, empathy, respect,

appreciation, and recognition of Lumad efforts and style to resist aggression from the
Spaniards. In general, their resistance was non-violent. Though their way of resisting
was primarily to avoid Spanish contact, this module acknowledges that some of the
Lumad groups like the Mandaya and Caraga fought despite their weakness and
unpreparedness to face foreign occupation. In the end, they peacefully accommodated
with both Moro and Christian ways of life.

V. References and Recommended Readings

Alameda, Jr. Fernando A. Story of a Province: Surigao Across The Years. Quezon City:
Philippine National Historical Society and Heritage Publishing House, 1993.

Arcilla, Jose S., S.J. An Introduction to Philippine History. Quezon City: Ateneo de
Manila University Press, 1998.

Bernad, Miguel S. J. The Great Island: Studies in the Exploration and Evangelization
of Mindanao. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2004.

Blair, Emma and James Alexander Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Vol. 3,
1907. Published by Project Gutenberg in http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13616/13616-
h/13616-h.htm.

De Viana, Augusto V. The Philippines: A Story of a Nation. Manila: Rex Bookstore, Inc., 2011.

De la Costa, Horacio, S.J. 1967. The Jesuit in the Philippines, 1581-1768. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Edgerton, Ronald K. People of the Middle Ground: A Century of Conflict and

Accommodation in Central Mindanao 1880s-1980s. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila
University Press, 2008.

Gaspar, Karl M. Manobo Dreams in Arakan: A People Struggle to Keep Their Homeland.
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2011.
 83

Godinez-Ortega, Christine. “Rescuing a People’s Memory: Race to Conserve the Manobo

Epic,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 27, 2013.

Hontiveros, Greg. Butuan of A Thousand Years. Butuan City: Butuan City Historical and
Cultural Foundation, Inc., 2004.

Mercedes, et al. Mindanao Ethnic Communities: Patterns of Growth and Change.

Quezon City: University of the Philippines-Center of Integrative and development
Studies, 2001.

Paredes, Oona. “Discriminating Native Traditions among the Mindanao Lumad,” pp. 74-
90 in Charles J. Macdonald and Guillermo Pesigan (eds.), Old Ties and New Solidarities:
Studies on Philippine Communities. Quezon City, Ateneo de Manila Press, 2000.

___________. “Higaunon Resistance and Ethnic Politics in Northern Mindanao,” The

Australian Journal of Anthropology, 1997, pp. 270-290.

Rodil, B.R. The Minoritization of Indigenous Communities of Mindanao and the Sulu
Archipelago. Davao City: AFRIM, Inc., 1994.

_______. A Story of Mindanao and Sulu in Question and Answer. Davao: MINCODE,
2003.

Salah, Jubair. Bangsamoro: A Nation Under Endless Tyranny. IQ Marin SDN BHD (Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia: 1999).

Schreurs, Peter MSC. 1989. Caraga Antigua, 1521-1910 The Hispanization and
Christianization of Agusan, Surigao and East Davao . Manila: National Historical
Institute, 2000.

Sitoy, Jr., T. Valentino. A History of Christianity in the Philippines: The Initial Encounter,
Vol. 1. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1985.

Tan, Samuel K. A History of the Philippines. Manila: Manila Studies Association, Inc. and
Philippine National Historical Society, Inc., 2012.

Warren, James Francis. At the Edge of Southeast Asian History. Quezon City: New Day
Publisher, 1987.

William Henry Scott. Cracks in the Parchment Curtain. Quezon City: New Day
Publishers, 1982.
________________ Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society.
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2010.
 84

Wolf, Eric R. Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1982.

Wrigglesworth, Hazel. “Tulalang slays the dragon,” Philippine Quarterly Culture and
Society, Vol. 5 (1977), pp. 123-165.