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Lesson 9
Juan de Plasencia,Customs of theTagalogs–
(Garcia,1979)
- Friar Account

NAME: __________________________________________________ COURSE AND YEAR: _____________________

A. Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, the students must:

1. identify and explain the different customs of the Tagalogs as to:
a. burial customs and beliefs;
b. religious beliefs;
c. supernatural beliefs;
d. giving birth to a child beliefs;
e. marriage practices;
f. traditional jobs and industries; and
g. Filipino mythical creatures
2. analyze the different customs of the Tagalogs as to:
a. author’s background;
b. historical background of the document;
c. content; and
d. implication and relevance to Contemporary times
3. interpret properly the primary source through examining the contact and context of the document; and
4. evaluate the context behind the selected document.

B. Content

1. Concepts
Burial, Religious beliefs, Supernatural beliefs, giving birth to a child beliefs, marriage practices, traditional jobs and industries,
Filipino Mythical creatures

2. Time Allotment: 60-90 minutes

C. Navigation through Selected Readings

Excerpt from: CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS

Padre Plasencia, in Blair and Robertson

ON BURIAL CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS

1. The manner of burying the dead was as follows: The deceased was buried beside the house, and if he were a chief, he
was placed beneath a little house or porch, which they constructed for this purpose. Before interring him, they mourned
him for four days, and afterward laid him on a boat, which served as a coffin or bier, placing him beneath the porch.

ON RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
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1. In some places, and especially in the mountain districts, when the father, mother, or other relative dies, the people unite
in making a small wooden idol, and preserve it. Accordingly, there is a house, which contains one hundred or two hundred
of these idols. These images also are called anitos; for they say that when people die, they go to serve the Batala.
Therefore, they make sacrifices to these anitos, offering them food, wine, and gold ornaments; and request them to be
intercessors for them before the Batala, whom they regard as God.
2. Among their many idols there was one called Badhala, who they especially worshiped. They also worshiped the sun,
which, on account of its beauty, is almost universally respected and honored by heathens. They worshiped, too, the moon,
especially when it was new, at which time they held great rejoicings, adoring it and bidding it welcome. Some of them also
adored the stars.
3. They paid reverence to water-lizards called by them buaya, or crocodiles, from fear of being harmed by them. They were
even in the habit of offering these animals a portion of what they carried in their boats, by throwing it into the water, or
placing it upon the bank.

ON SUPERNATURAL BELIEFS
1. “If somebody sneezes, or they hear a lizard’s clucking, or if some snake crosses their path, they turn back saying that
those are signs that God had sent and that it is not His will for them to continue, and that if they proceed some evil would
befall them.”
2. “They do not allow anything to be eaten where rice is planted, because they believe that he who does so will either die or
turn mad.”
3. “When it rains while the sun is shining and the sun is somewhat reddish, they say the anitos unite to war on them and they
are in great fear; and neither women nor children are allowed to go down from their houses until the rain stops and the sky
clears up.”
4. “The first day that the new moon appears, they adore it and ask for favors. Going on water by the river or in a boat, they
pray to the crocodile, asking it to go to the deep and not to frighten or hurt them as they are not its enemies and do not
seek its harm but its well-being, and for it to inflict harm on their enemies.”
5. “They use herbs to attract those whom they like and correspondingly use others on those whom they dislike.”
6. “When women are pregnant the husbands do not cut their hair, because they say their offspring would be born bald and
hairless if they do so.”
7. “They have an aversion to eat two bananas that are joined one with another or any food that are two in one because they
believe they will give birth to two creatures from the same womb, which they consider a great insult.”
8. “When the earth shakes they say the anitos do it, and so they all go about delivering blows to the house and making much
noise, saying that the anitos become scared and stop the earthquake.”

ON GIVING A NAME TO A CHILD

1. When a child is born, it is the mother’s duty to give it a name; and whatever appellation she gives it must remain its name.
2. The names are most often conferred on account of certain circumstances—as, for example, Maliuag, which means
“difficult,” because the child’s birth was such; Malacas, which signifies “a man of strength,” because the mother thinks that
the child will be strong, or desires that it be so.
3. At other times they name it, without any symbolism or special reason, by the first word which occurs to them—as, for
example, Daan, which signifies “road;” Babui, which means “pig;” or Manu[k], which signifies “fowl.”
4. All persons are called by these names from birth, without using surnames until they are married. The first-born son or
daughter then gives his or her name to the parents; for until they die they call the father Ama ni Coan, “father of Soand-
so,” and the mother Ina ni Coan, “mother of So-and-so.”
5. The names of the women are distinguished from those of the men by adding “in.” Thus, while the name of a man and of
a woman may be practically the same, that of the man is left intact, and to the woman’s is added the [termination] “in;” for
example, [Il]og (which means “river”) being the name of two persons of different sex, the man is called [Il]og, the woman
[Il]oguin.
6. For instance, ama means “father;” thus the son, in speaking of him to a third person calls him ang amaco, that is, “my
father.”
7. But the son in addressing his father directly does not call him ama, but bapa,* which is a more intimate and affectionate
term; nor does he address his mother as ina, but bai.*
8. On the other hand, the father and mother in familiar intercourse call their sons, brothers, uncles, and other near relatives,
not by the common appellations of such relationship, but by others more intimate and personal, which signify a like
connection.
9. This is but another illustration of the fertility, elegance and courtesy of the Tagal language.
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10. The children of those natives were reared in such respect and reverence for the names belonging to their parents that they
never called them by these, whether the parents were living or dead; they believed, moreover, that if they uttered these
names they would fall dead, or become leprous.

ON MARRIAGE
1. For marriage, they have distinct formalities of betrothal, which are accompanied by conventional penalties most rigorously
executed.
2. Here is an example: Si Apai promises to marry Cai Polosin; these married persons make an agreement with another
married pair, while the wives are with child that if the wombs of their respective wives should bear a male and a female,
these two children shall be joined in marriage, under a penalty of ten gold taels.
3. This compact is solemnized by a feast, where they eat, drink, and become intoxicated, and he who later is the occasion of
breaking the compact must pay the penalty. This is betrothal. In the marriage there figures a dowry, and the surrender of
the woman, with consent for the present, but not perpetual. It is not the wife, but the husband, who gives her the dowry—
an amount agreed upon, and fixed in accordance with his means.
4. In addition to the dowry the husband is wont to make some presents to the parents and relatives—more or less, according
to his means.

ON JOBS AND INDUSTRIES

1. [Island of Cagaian] These islands have about four hundred inhabitants, all of whom are very skillful shipbuilders. These
Indians of Cagayan have made his Majesty’s ships in these islands, as well as the galleys, galliots, and fragatas. They
also help in repairing and righting ships. [Island of Cubu (Cebu)] The town has the best port of these islands, and it was
for this reason that Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founded a settlement there. The island of Cebu produces a small quantity of
rice, borona and millet and little or no cotton; for the cloth which the natives use for their garments is made from a kind of
banana. From this, they make a sort of cloth…, which the natives call medriñaque. All are provided with fowls, swine, a
few goats, beans, and a kind of root… called by the natives camotes. After rice, fish is the main article of maintenance in
this and other islands, for it abounds in all of them, and is of excellent quality in this island of Cebu.
2. They all live in the farm by their manual labor, fisheries and trading, sailing from one island to another and going from one
province to another by land. As a matter of pastime and occupation, the women work with the needle with which they are
proficient and they engage in all kinds of needlework.
3. They also weave blankets, spin cotton, and keep house for their husbands and parents. They pound the rice, which is to
be cooked for their meals and prepare the rest of the food. They raise chickens and pigs and do the house chores while
their men-folk engage in the work of the fields, fishing, boating and farming.
4. The common way of doing business was the trading of certain things for others, such as supplies, blankets, cattle, fowl,
lands, houses, fields, slaves, fisheries, palm-trees, nipa swamps and forests; and sometimes when there was a price fixed,
it was paid in gold as might be agreed upon, also in metal bells coming from China, which articles are considered precious
jewels.
5. Throughout these islands are certain places where there is an abundance of rich gold deposits and other mineral products,
which are collected by the natives through washing or placer mining.
6. In Paracale, in the province of Camarines, certain placer and other mines were developed and worked. Likewise in Ilocos
this commodity was also being traded, because behind this province which is on the sea coast, there are highlands …
where live many natives… called Igorots, whose country has not yet been penetrated by outsiders. They have rich mines
of gold besides silver.
7. They take their still unrefined and unperfected gold to certain appointed places where they meet the people from Ilocos
where, for their gold, they are given in trade, rice, pigs, carabaos, blankets and other articles, which they need.
8. The Ilocanos refine and finish the gold and market the same throughout the… country. In the rest of the islands, there is
the same abundance of placer and other mines, particularly in the Visayas, Butuan River in Mindanao and Cebu.

ON SOCIAL CLASSES
1. This people always had chiefs, called by them datos, who governed them and were captains in their wars, and whom they
obeyed and reverenced.
2. These chiefs ruled over but few people; sometimes as many as a hundred houses, sometimes even less than thirty. This
tribal gathering is called in Tagalo a barangay. It was inferred that the reason for giving themselves this name arose from
the fact … that when they came to this land, the head of the barangay, which is a boat, thus called … became a dato. And
so, even at the present day, it is ascertained that this barangay in its origin was a family of parents and children, relations
and slaves. In addition to the chiefs,… there were three castes: nobles, commoners, and slaves.
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3. The nobles were the free-born whom they call maharlica. They did not pay tax or tribute to the dato, but must accompany
him in war, at their own expense…. Moreover, when the dato went upon the water those whom he summoned rowed for
him. If he built a house, they helped him, and had to be fed for it.
4. The same was true when the whole barangay went to clear up his lands for tillage. The lands, which they inhabited, were
divided among the whole barangay, especially the irrigated portion, and thus each one knew his own.
5. The chiefs in some villages had also fisheries, with established limits, and sections of the rivers for markets. At this no one
could fish, or trade in the markets, without paying for the privilege, unless he belonged to the chief’s barangay or village.
The commoners were called aliping namamahay.
6. They are married, and serve their master, whether he be a dato or not, with half of their cultivated lands.
7. They accompanied him whenever he went beyond the island, and rowed for him. They live in their own houses, and are
lords of their property and gold. Their children inherit it, and enjoy their property and lands.
8. The slaves are called aliping saguiguilir. They serve their master in his house and on his cultivated lands, and may be
sold.
9. The master grants them, should he see fit, and providing that he has profited through their industry, a portion of their
harvests, so that they may work faithfully. For this reason, servants who are born in the house of their master are rarely, if
ever, sold. That is the lot of captives in war, and of those brought up in the harvest fields.
10. There are three kinds and classes of people: the chiefs, whom the Visayans call dato and the Tagalogs maginoo; the
timauas, who are the ordinary common people, called maharlica among the Tagalogs; and the slaves, called oripuen by
the Visayans and alipin by the Tagalogs.
11. The most general origin of those slaveries were interest and usury.
12. If payment was not made when promised, the debtor remained a slave until he paid. That happened often, for the interest
or increase continued to accumulate just so long as the payment was deferred.
13. Other slaveries were due to tyranny and cruelty. For slave were made either in vengeance on enemies, in the engagements
and petty wars that they waged against one another, in which the prisoners remained slaves, even though they were of
the same village and race.
14. The worst thing is that all those who had been made slaves by war, or for punishment of debts, were rigorously regarded
as such, as slaves for any kind of service or slavery, and served inside the house. The same was true of their children, in
the manner of our slaveries, and they could be sold at will.
15. The Tagalogs called such true slaves sanguiguilir, and the Visayans halon. Other slaves were called namamahay, for they
did not serve their master in all capacities, nor inside his house; but in their own houses, and outside that of their masters.
16. They were bound, however, to obey their master’s summons either to serve in his house and its repair, and in the seasons
of sowing and harvest.
17. They [also had] to act as his rowers when he went out in his boat, and on other like occasions, in which they were obliged
to serve their master without any pay.

THE DISTINCTIONS MADE AMONG THE PRIESTS OF THE DEVIL WERE AS FOLLOWS:
1. The first, called CATOLONAN, as above stated, was either a man or a woman. This office was an honorable one among the
natives, and was held ordinarily by people of rank, this rule being general in all the islands.
2. The second they called MANGAGAUAY, or witches, who deceived by pretending to heal the sick. These priests even induced
maladies by their charms, which in proportion to the strength and efficacy of the witchcraft, are capable of causing death. In this
way, if they wished to kill at once they did so; or they could prolong life for a year by binding to the waist a live serpent, which was
believed to be the devil, or at least his substance. This office was general throughout the land.
3. The third they called MANYISALAT, which is the same as magagauay.
These priests had the power of applying such remedies to lovers that they would abandon and despise their own wives, and in
fact could prevent them from having intercourse with the latter. If the woman, constrained by these means, were abandoned, it
would bring sickness upon her; and on account of the desertion she would discharge blood and matter. This office was also general
throughout the land.
4. The fourth was called MANCOCOLAM, whose duty it was to emit fire from himself at night, once or oftener each month. This fire
could not be extinguished; nor could it be thus emitted except as the priest wallowed in the ordure and filth, which falls from the
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houses; and he who lived in the house where the priest was wallowing in order to emit this fire from himself, fell ill and died. This
office was general.
5. The fifth was called HOCLOBAN, which is another kind of witch, of greater efficacy than the mangagauay. Without the use of
medicine, and by simply saluting or raising the hand, they killed whom they chose. But if they desired to heal those whom they had
made ill by their charms, they did so by using other charms. Moreover, if they wished to destroy the house of some Indian hostile
to them, they were able to do so without instruments. This was in Catanduanes, an island off the upper part of Luzon.
6. The sixth was called SILAGAN, whose office it was, if they saw anyone clothed in white, to tear out his liver and eat it, thus
causing his death. This, like the preceding, was in the island of Catanduanes. Let no one, moreover, consider this a fable; because,
in Caavan, they tore out in this way through the anus all the intestines of a Spanish notary, who was buried in Calilaya by father
Fray Juan de Merida.
7. The seventh was called MAGTATANGAL, and his purpose was to show himself at night to many persons, without his head or
entrails. In such wise the devil walked about and carried, or pretended to carry, his head to different places; and, in the morning,
returned it to his body - remaining, as before, alive. This seems to me to be a fable, although the natives affirm that they have seen
it, because the devil probably caused them so to believe. This occurred in Catanduanes.
8. The eighth they called OSUANG, which is equivalent to " sorcerer;" they say that they have seen him fly, and that he murdered
men and ate their flesh. This was among the Visayas Islands; among the Tagalogs these did not exist.
9. The ninth was another class of witches called MANGAGAYOMA. They made charms for lovers out of herbs, stones, and wood,
which would infuse the heart with love. Thus did they deceive the people, although sometimes, through the intervention of the devil,
they gained their ends.
10. The tenth was known as SONAT, which is equivalent to " preacher." It was his office to help one to die, at which time he
predicted the salvation or condemnation of the soul. It was not lawful for the functions of this office to be fulfilled by others than
people of high standing, on account of the esteem in which was held. This office was general through- out the islands.
11. The eleventh, PANGATAHOJAN, was a soothsayer, and predicted the future. This office was general in all the islands.
12. The twelfth, BAYOGUIN, signified a “cotquean," a man whose nature inclined toward that of a woman.
D. It’s Time to Conquer the Island!

Directions for Playing Who Wants To Be a Millionaire

1. Allow students to read the primary source at the beginning of the class.
2. Divide the class into two groups.
3. The students can play individually or in groups. If they play in groups, they will play multiple games, or they may
alternate questions between the groups.
4. Start the game and click on the Php100 question.
5. Have the student give the answer to the question.
6. Press Final Answer? and then click the appropriate answer box.
7. If a student would like to use 50/50, phone a friend or ask the audience, click on the appropriate button. Then follow
the slides.
8. When the correct answer is selected, a new slide appears, click the word NEXT to move back to the main game
board.
9. Ask questions are answered correctly, the arrows will fill in and point to the next question amount.
10. Click on the appropriate peso value.
11. The arrows will continue to color in until reaching the Php1 Million point.
12. The game is over when a question is missed or a player/team reaches the Php1 Million mark.

Modification Suggestions
1. Add a button to the Incorrect Answer slide to re-start or continue the game instead of pressing ESC to stop the game.
2. Add/change sound effects (i.e. phone).
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POWERPOINT PRESENTATION- WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE

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E. References

➢ https://www.iup.edu/teachingexcellence/reflective-practice/past-events/2008-09/ sam ple- games- to- be- used- in- the-

classroom/ instructions- for- playing- who- wants- to- be-a-millionaire/. Retrieved on February 18, 2019.
➢ Plasencia, J. Customs of the Tagalogs. Retrieved from https:// www. facebook. com/ aswan gmovie /photos /excerpt-from-
customs-of-the-tagalogs-by-juan-de-plasencia-osffrom-the phili ppine/45313 1434 on February 18, 2019.
➢ Sulyap sa Pamumuhay ng mga Sinaunang Panahon. Retrieved from http:// kumusta 2012. weebly. com/ uploads/ 1/2/5
/5/12 55093 9/jun_ 23__s ulyap _sa_ pamu muhay _noong _sinaunang_panahon.pdf753717/ on February 18, 2019.