LESSON 2: PRE-SPANISH PERIOD

ANCESTORS’ CULTURES AND WAY OF LIFE

Like any postcolonial country, Philippine culture is a melting pot of all its colonial masters with
a base that consists of its long, indigenous history. It is a culture that is difficult to pin down
since it is so diverse; the Western influences may appear to be dominant but at close inspection,
it is a mere skin over a pulsing archipelagic culture. The country's many languages underline the
numerous narratives that exist in the Philippines, each language delineating a locale. So much so
that English is currency in the country, even among the locals. The inherited language of a
colonial master is what will allow someone from one end of the country to speak to someone
from the other end. For the Filipino is a nomadic creature, even in their own land. This may
explain why hospitality is a well-documented trait—everyone is from somewhere else, everyone
is creating new home even as they wax nostalgic about their origins.

Religion is a powerful force in the country, whether it is Catholicism or Islam or the various
other religions present in the country. A place of worship is always at the center of town and in a
city; there are always numerous places to visit if spiritual sanctuary is sought. The pageantry of
these religions comes to life in the provincial fiestas, celebrations that combine colorful spectacle
and the fervor of faith.

The arts are a thriving industry in the Philippines. Entertainment is a large part of the Filipino life
locally, and cultural labor is heavily exported especially in terms of the performing arts.

There is much to explore in the Philippines, its magnificent vistas are what bring people here as
tourists. But the complex nature of its culture is what keeps people interested.

April-May 2016--Position of Tribes – on the Spaniards, the population of the Philippines seems
to have been distributed by tribes in much the same manner as at present. Then, as now, the
Bisayas occupied the central islands of the archipelago and some of the northern coast of
Mindanao. The Bikols, Tagalogs, and Pampangos were in the same parts of Luzon as we find
them today. The Ilokanos occupied the coastal plain facing the China Sea, but since the arrival of
the Spaniards they have expanded considerably and their settlement are now numerous in
Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, and the valley of the Cagayan.

The Number of People – These tribes which to-day number nearly 7,000,000 souls, at the time
of Magellan’s discovery aggregated not more than 500,000. An early enumeration of the
population made by the Spaniards in 1591, which included practically all of these tribes, gave a
population of less than 700,000. (See chapter VIII., The Philippines Three Hundred Years Ago.)

There are other facts too that show us how sparse the population must have been. The Spanish
expeditions found many coasts and islands in the Bisayan group without inhabitants.
Occasionally a sail or a canoe would be seen, and then these would disappear in some small
“estero” or mangrove swamp and the land seem as unpopulated as before. At certain points, like
Limasaua, Butuan, and Bohol, the natives were more numerous, and Cebu was a large and
thriving community; but the Spaniards had nearly everywhere to search for settled places and
cultivated lands.

The sparseness of population is also well indicated by the great scarcity of food. The Spaniards
had much difficulty in securing sufficient provisions. A small amount of rice, a pig and a few
chickens, were obtainable here and there, but the Filipinos had no large supplies. After the
settlement of Manila was made, a large part of the food of the city was drawn from China. They
very ease with which the Spaniards marched where they willed and reduced the Filipinos to
obedience shows that the latter were weak in numbers. Laguna de Bay and the Camarines were
among the most populous portions of the archipelago. All of these and others show that the
Filipinos were but a small fraction of their present number.

On the other hand, the Negritos seem to have been more numerous, or at least more in evidence.
They were immediately noticed on the island of Negros, where at the present they are few and
confined to the interior; and in the vicinity of Manila and in Batangas, where they are no longer
found, they were mingling with the Tagalog population.

Conditions of Culture – The culture of the various tribes, which is now quite the same
throughout the archipelago, presented some differences. In the southern Bisayas, where the
Spaniards first entered the archipelago, there seem to have been two kinds of natives: the hill
dwellers, who lived in the interior of the islands in small numbers, who wore garments of tree
bark and who sometimes built their houses in the trees; and the sea dwellers, who were very
much like the present day Moro tribes south of Mindanao, who are known as the Samal, and who
built their villages over the sea or on the shore and lived much in boats. These were probably
later arrivals than the forest people. From both of these elements the Bisaya Filipinos are
descended, but while the coast people have been entirely absorbed, some of the hill-folk are still
pagan and uncivilized, and must be very much as they were when the Spaniards first came.

The highest grade of culture was in the settlements where there was regular trade with Borneo,
Siam, and China, and especially about Manila, where many Mohamedan Malays had colonized.

Languages of the Malayan Peoples – With the exception of the Negrito, all the languages of
the Philippines belong to one great family, which has been called the “Malayo-Polynesian.” All
are believed to be derived from one very ancient mother-tongue. It is astonishing how widely
these Malayo-Polynesian tongues have spread. Farthest east in the Pacific are the Polynesian
languages, then those of the small islands known as Micronesia; then Melanesian or Papuan; the
Malayan throughout the East Indian archipelago, and to the north the languages of the
Philippines. But this is not all; for far westward on the coast of Africa is the island of
Madagascar, many of whose languages have no connection with African but belong to the
Malayo-Polynesian family.

The Tagalog Language – it should be a matter of great interest to Filipinos that the great
scientist, Baron William von Humboldt, considered the Tagalog to be the richest and most
perfect of all the languages of the Malayo-Polynesian family, and perhaps the type of them all.
“It possesses,” he said, “all the forms collectively of which particular ones are found in other
dialects; and it has preserved them all with very trifling exceptions unbroken, and in entire
harmony and symmetry.” The Spanish friars, on their arrival in the Philippines, devoted
themselves at once to learning the native dialects and to the preparation of prayers and
catechisms in these native tongues. They were very successful in their studies. Father Chirino
tells us one Jesuit who learned sufficient Tagalog in seventy days to preach and hear confession.
In this way the Bisayan, the Tagalog, and the Ilokano were soon mastered.

Material Progress of the Filipinos – The material surroundings of the Filipino before the arrival
of the Spaniards were in nearly every way quite as they are to-day. The “center of population” of
each town to-day, with its great church, tribunal, stores and houses of stone and wood, is
certainly in marked contrast; but the appearance of a barrio a little distance from the center is to-
day probably much as it was then. Then, as now, the bulk of the people lived in humble houses
of bamboo and nipa raised on piles above the dampness of the soil; then, as now, the food was
largely rice and the excellent fish which abound in river and sea. There were on the water the
same familiar bancas and fish corrals, and on land the rice fields and cocoanut groves. The
Filipinos had then most of the present domesticated animals, dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and
pigs, and perhaps in Luzon the domesticated buffalo, although this animal was widely introduced
into the Philippines from China after the Spanish conquest. Horses followed the Spaniards and
their numbers were increased by the bringing in of Chinese mares, whose importation is
frequently mentioned.

Religion

Early Filipinos worshipped a Supreme Being they called Bathalang Maykapal.

Minor deities they worshipped:

• Idianale – god of agriculture

• Sidapa – god of death
• Agni – god of fire
• Mandarangan – god of war
• Lalahon – goddess of harvest
• Siginarugan – god of hell

The pre-Spanish Filipinos worshipped nature, the sun, the moon, the animals, the birds and even
old trees.

They believed in ancestral spirits called anitos by the Tagalogs and diwatas by the Visayans.

The babaylan and katalona are priestesses who perform ritual offerings of sacrifice.

Puberty Rites and Sexuality

Pre-Spanish Filipinos performed circumcision of their sons, a special rite done “for their health
and cleanliness”
• Among the Visayans, it was puberty that men “skillfully made a hole in their virile member
near its head, fastened it with a peg of the same material”.
• Young girls from the age of 6 and upward were “gradually opened” by certain men tasked to
such function

The Tagalogs had a different form of puberty rituals. Young girls who had their menstruations
were blindfolded for four nights. Then a feast was given to friends and relatives. The Katalona
bathe the young girl in the river and remove the blindfold.
• Filipinos also used potions for sexual malfunctioning.

Burial Mourning and Practices

• Mourning for a dead chieftain was called Laraw; for a dead man Maglahe; for a dead woman
Morotal.

• Early Filipinos believed that the tattoo was a passport to the other world.

• Sudden death of a man killed by sword, lightning or crocodile was considered honourable and
his soul went straight to Caluwalhatian by means of a rainbow.

Education

• Their alphabet, from Asokan (Indian) origin consisted of 17 letters with 3 vowels and 14
consonants.
• They used iron-pointed pens and wrote on tree boards, bamboo tubes and leaves of plants.

Language

The eight major languages spoken by the ancient Filipinos were Tagalog, Ilokano, Pangasinense,
Kapampangan, Sugbuhanon, Hiligaynon, Samarnon and Maguindanaw.

Malayo-Polynesian language is the mother tongue of Malay and Pacific races.

Music and Dances

Musical Instruments
• Kudyapi
• Tulogan
• Silbay
• Kutibeng

Music and Dances

• Balitaw - Visayan folk song
 • Dandansoy – Visayan tuba dance
• Kumintang – Tagalog love dance
• Mahinhin – Tagalog courtship dance
• Kinnotan
• Tadek – Tinggian love dance

Economy

• Agriculture was the main source of livelihood of the Filipinos.

• Two systems of land cultivation:

 Kaingin System (upland)
 Tillage System (lowland)

• Two systems of land holding:

 Private
 Public

• Other industries were mining, shipbuilding, fishing, lumbering, weaving, poultry and livestock.
• Inter- baranganic trade and commerce was carried through the water system.
• Early Filipinos traded with countries like Japan, Thailand, India, Old Malaysia and Indonesia.
• The system of weights facilitated their commercial transactions.

THE ARRIVAL AND SPREAD OF ISLAM

The Philippine military has stepped up its campaign against the nation’s Muslim separatist
movement, bombing a suspected hideout on the southern island of Mindanao. The primary
targets of the raid were members of Abu Sayyaf, which is seeking to establish a fundamentalist
Islamic state on Mindanao. How did Islam originally get to the predominately Catholic
Philippines?

The faith was first brought over by Arab traders in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, at least
200 years before Spanish explorers first introduced Christianity to the 7,107-island archipelago.
These Muslim merchants came from present-day Malaysia and Indonesia to the southernmost
points in the Philippines, namely the Sulu islands and Mindanao. At the time, the inhabitants
there were animists who lived in small, autonomous communities. The Arab newcomers quickly
converted the indigenous population to Islam, building the Philippines’ first mosque in the town
of Simunul in the mid-14th century.

The Muslim settlers didn’t just bring their religion and architecture, however—they also brought
their political system, establishing a series of sultanates in the southern Philippines. The most
celebrated of these rulers was the Sultan of Sulu, whose capital was Jolo. The first official Sultan
of Sulu was an Arab from Sumatra named Abu Bakr, who crowned himself around 1450. (He
gained power in part by marrying the daughter of a Malaysian trader named Rajah Baguinda,
who held sway over Sulu although he never gave himself the title of sultan.) Like many other
Arab rulers, he established his dynasty’s legitimacy by claiming to be a direct descendent of
Muhammad.

A similarly influential sultanate was established on the island of Mindanao about 50 years later,
and Muslim influence rapidly ascended northward up the archipelago, reaching as far as the
current capital of Manila on the island of Luzon. In fact, when the Spanish first arrived in the
mid-1500s, they were dismayed to encounter such a strong Muslim presence; they had, after all,
only recently expelled the Moors from Spain, after nearly 800 years of conflict. The Spanish
nicknamed the Philippines’ Muslim inhabitants the Moros, a corruption of the word Moors.

The Spanish quickly converted much of the Philippines to Christianity, using the sword quite
liberally. But the colonialists had a difficult time extending both their rule and their religion to
the country’s south; the Moros fiercely resisted many Spanish attempts to establish dominance
over Mindanao and Sulu. The Muslims, in turn, terrorized the Spanish by conducting frequent
slave-taking raids on Luzon and in other Christianized parts of the Philippines.

It was not until the mid-1800s that advancing military technology, such as the steam-powered
gunboat, began to tip the scales in favor of Spain. In 1878, the Sultan of Sulu finally signed a
peace treaty with Spain, and his domain officially became an autonomous protectorate of the
European power. However, localized resistance still flared up on occasion.

The United States took control of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War in 1898. The
Moros viewed the new colonialists as no less objectionable than the Spanish, and they fiercely
resisted attempts to westernize Mindanao in particular. The U.S. military even had to invent a
new, more powerful handgun, the Colt M1911, in order to stop the Moro insurgents; they tended
to keep on coming at the American soldiers, daggers in hand, despite having been shot.

The latest wave of Muslim separatism in the nation’s south began in the 1970s. Since the country
became independent, the Filipino government has encouraged non-Muslims to move to
Mindanao and other impoverished locations in the south. The Moros view this policy as designed
to de-Islamize the region and believe that the Christians treat them like second-class citizens.
Years of bloody struggle have resulted.

Roots

Mindanao and Sulu are the original homeland of the Philippine Muslims. These areas are
now the third political subdivision of the Philippines. They are located at the southern part of the
country, and lie around hundred miles north of equator. The areas occupy a strategic position at
the center of shipping line between the Far East and the Malayan world. They are situated north
of Sulawise and to the west is the state of Sabah. Mindanao and Sulu has a total land area of
102,000 square kilometers. It is a fertile region and known to be rich in agricultural plantation,
marine and mineral resources. As reported, more than half of the country’s rain forest are found
in Mindanao. While its agricultural crops include rice, corn, root crops, vegetables, cassava and
fruits. Marine products like seaweed production, fish as well as gas and oil are dominant in the
Sulu sea. Fifty nine percent of tuna and sardines are largely taken from the Sulu sea. Mainland
Mindanao has substantial mineral deposits. Zamboanga del Sur has gold, silver, lead, zinc
deposit; Davao oriental has chromite reserves; marble deposits for Davao del Norte and oil
deposit in South Cotabato. These huge resources of the southern islands have made Mindanao
the land of promise.

However, the main concentration of the Philippine Muslim population is confined largely to
the western side of Mindanao down to the Sulu Archipelago. In mainland Mindanao, the
Muslims are dominant only in Lanao and Maguindanao provinces. While the rest of the Muslim
populations are scattered in nearby provinces such as Zamboanga peninsula, North Cotabato,
Sultan Qudarat, South Cotabato, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur and Sarangani island. In the
Sulu Archipelago, the Muslims are all dominant in three island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and
Tawi-Tawi.

The Muslim Ethnic Groups

Ethnic is an Italian term for nation. An ethnic community may be defined as tribal group
which has its own language, hold in common a set of tradition different from others whom they
are in contact. It has its own territory from which its ethnic identity is derived, and thus becomes
a uniting factor for group cohesion. The Muslim ethnic groups in Mindanao and Sulu are linked
by both ideological and geographical factors.

The Muslims in the south are also culturally linked to Muslim countries in Southeast Asia
such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Patani of southern Thailand. They are composed of
eleven ethnic groups. Each group has its own language but only a few controls a political unit
like a province or municipalities. Some groups speak one language with three variations like the
Maranao, Iranun and Maguindanaon. The Sama people have one language with many variations
such as the dialect of the Jama Mapun, and the Bangingi.

Islam in the Philippines

The rise of Islamic political institutions in Southeast Asia in the early 15th century is viewed
as the culmination of Islamization after about 200 years when the Arabs introduced Islam direct
to the masses. This political development was a turning point in the history of the people because
it revealed two important things: the formation of the Muslim nationalism and the birth of the
first Muslim society in this country. Islam for this matter changed the political course of
Mindanao and Sulu from the feudalistic as well as from colonialistic. The survival of Islam as
ideological force in the south is an indication that their political course remained in the Islamic
orbit.

Sulu was the first Muslim community in the south to establish a centralized government, the
Sultanate of Sulu in 1450. The introduction of this sultanate implies that the indigenous
institution became Islamized. This sultanate was a superstructure imposed without destroying
the old foundation. This was one of the reasons that made the Sulu Sultanate strong. Hashim
Abubakar was the founder and the first sultan of the Sulu sultanate. His father was an Arab from
Hadramaut; his mother was a princess from Johore. According to the Tausug salsila, Abubakar
belongs to a sharif lineage, which is one of the descendants of Nabi Muhammad (S,.A.W.). The
term sharif is a title of nobility. When Abubakar rose to power, he assumed five titles affixed to
his name, thus his official name runs as follows: paduka, mawlana, mahasiri, sharif sultan
Hashim Abubakar.

The Sulu sultanate is multi-ethnic. At the height of its power in the early part of the 18th
century, its territory encompassed the whole Zamboanga peninsula, Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi,
Palawan and Sabah. On the same period, the sultanate began to intensify its foreign relations
with neighboring Muslim principalities in Brunei, Makassar, Manila, Cebu (before Spanish era),
Maguindanao, Buayan and Batavia including China. This foreign relations of the Sulu sultanate
involved trade, mutual friendship and military alliance. The sultanate had in fact dispatched
ambassadors to different places and also received ambassadors from other countries.

Dr. Majul describes the history of the Sulu sultanate as had been one of war. Since 1578 up
to the 1927, the Sulu sultanate was at the forefront of the struggle for freedom and national
liberation. It was able to survive two major colonial waves: the Spanish and the US colonialism.
Despite its political decline in the beginning of the 19th century, the Sulu sultanate maintained
her status as independent sultanate from 1450 to 1936.

The spread of Islam to Mindanao between 1450 and 1500 was part of the political goal of
the Sulu sultanate. A Maranao oral report revealed that the first Tausug preachers reached the
Lanao lake before the arrival of foreign Muslim missionaries, possibly the Malay preachers. This
report is sufficient to establish the fact the Muslim settlements had gradually thrived in the Illana
bay up to the lake area and the Pulangi valley. People from these areas were already used to
come to Jolo for trade as well as for Islamic learning. It is for this account that Sulu became
known in history as the center of Islamic learning in this country.

The full Islamization of the west coast of Mindanao was accelerated with the arrival of
Muhammad Sharif Kabungsuwan. Like Abubakar, the first sultan of Sulu, Sharif Kabungsuwan
is also an Arab and a descendant of Nabi Muhammad (S.A.W.). His Malay sounding name
attests his forefathers had settled long time in Johore. Kabungsuwan and his followers arrived
Malabang in 1515. He was accompanied by large group of Sama people who according to Dr.
Kurais, a Sama scholar Kabungsuwan had passed by Tawi-Tawi and picked up some Sama
people to accompany him in his journey to Mindanao. This means that the coming of
Kabungsuwan to Mindanao was not accidental. It was the Sama people who guided him to
Mindanao. During this period, inter-island contact was already in place. Both the Sama and the
Iranun had already explored the many sea routes in the Sulu archipelago.

It was not long after his arrival that Sharif kabungsuwan established the Sultanate of
Maguindanao, possibly in 1516. The rise of this sultanate is almost similar to that of Sulu, should
be viewed as the culmination of Islamization in Mindanao. It was actually a political necessity.
Clearly, the sultanate was adopted as an instrument to consolidate the emerging Muslim
communities.

The first seat of the political power of Maguindanao was Slangan and Maguindanao.
Originally, these areas were the bastions of Iranun political activities. When the sultanate passed
into the Maguindanao family and dynasty, the seat of power was moved to Pulangi valley. The
term Maguindanao actually referred to a family. It was the royal family with which Sharif
Kabungsuwan was linked through affinity. Since Maguindanao family became a symbol of
Muslim power in Mindanao, their name became the official designation of Muslims throughout
the Pulangi valley.

In the upper Pulangi valley the ruling datus were the Buayan family. Because of their
influence, the whole areas were called Buayan. The political institution of the Buayans became
Islamized as a result of the marriage of the Buayan prince to the daughter of Sultan Sharif
Muhammad Kabungsuwan. After the death of Kabungsuwan, the Buayan family founded the
Sultanate of Buayan as independent entity from the Maguindanao sultanate. The existence of two
sultanates in mainland Mindanao strengthened Islam but often the source of friction between the
Buayan group and the Maguindanao. In lull times, these sultanates fought each other for political
supremacy over Mindanao. They also fought together against their common enemy in the face of
foreign aggression.

One of the best Maguindanao rulers was Rajah Buisan who was the leading commander
during the third stage of the Moro wars. He was remembered for his famous speech at Dulag,
Leyte where he delivered his message inspiring the datus of Leyte to rise against the Spaniards.
In his battle against the Spaniards, he aligned himself with Rajah Sirungan the ruler of the
Buayan sultanate. Both leaders had for several times joined forces in their expedition to the
north. The Buayan leaders managed to gain supremacy in the Pulangi valley only after the death
of Rajah Buisan. The latter was succeeded by his son Sultan Qudarat. During his ascension to
power, Qudarat was too young. It was for this reason the Maguindanao sultanate became
overwhelmed. It took more than ten years for Sultan Qudarat to build his political power over the
whole of Mindanao. He is remembered for his political prowess in uniting the two sultanates and
the rest of the people in Mindanao under his strong leadership. Sultan Qudarat is also
remembered for his famous speech challenging the Maranao datus to oppose the Spanish
encroachment in Lanao lake.

The political hold of the Maguindanao sultanate over Mindanao however did not last long.
Dynastic quarrels often broke out among the Muslim leaders. In the later part of the 18th century,
the Maguindanao sultanate loosened its hold upon the Buayan (Majul, 1997:31). Its steady
decline continued up to the arrival of the American colonialists in 1900. This decline created a
vacuum of leadership and finally led to the rise of small principalities in Mindanao, while others
proclaimed their own sultanates as in the case of the 18 royal houses in Lanao area. The rise of
Lanao royal houses in the face of the decline of the Maguindanao sultanate signaled the
disintegration and break-up of asabiyah (tribal solidarity) among the Muslims in mainland
Mindanao.

The current continued political assertion of the Maranao people should beviewed from the
political development on the part of their society, which began to evolve as a political institution
towards the later part of the 18th century. This development did not move further.The struggle of
Amai Pakpak, a great Maranao fighter, was short-lived. While building his own political clout,
he suffered defeat in the hands of the Spanish invading forces in March 10, 1895. His dream of a
strong political organization was not realized and was further arrested with the introduction of
US imperialism in 1900. Although the Lanao royal houses still exist, they are no longer viewed
as political force of the society.
Muslim Legacy

Just like other Muslim nations in Southeast Asia, national identity of the Philippine Muslims
was shaped by Islam and further developed in the course of their heroic struggle against western
colonialism. Right after the first encounter with foreign aggressors in 1570 at Manila, the
Philippine Muslims won a distinct honor as “Moro”, an identity put forward by the aggressors
after the Moors of Spain. They were called Moros only on account of their Islamic ideology and
their culture being similar to the Moors who conquered Spain for 785 years. To the Spaniards,
the term Moro would also mean Muslim. Since then, the Muslims in this country have been
identified in Southeast Asia and across the Muslim world as the Bangsamoro people. This
identity is officially recognized by the Organization of Islamic Countries. This is the reference
by which the historians and government legislators recognized the official designation of the
Muslims in the country and is now enshrined in the Muslim Organic Act of 1989.

The history of the Bangsamoro people is no doubt ranked as the first line of historical
development of the Philippines. The Muslims’ sultanate institution, the religious legacy of Islam
and the Muslim adat have nurtured the doctrine of Bangsamoro nationalism. The cohesiveness of
the 11 Muslim groups under the spirit of Islamic brotherhood is a living reality of Bangsamoro
nationalism. This should form part of the Philippines’ political foundation. It is within this
context by which the struggle of the Bangsamoro people finds a just treatment in Philippine
history.