HISTORY OF THE FILIPINO PEOPLE

Magic charms played an important part in the life of not only the ancient Filipinos, but also of
their descendants, who believed in black magic and sorcerers who could victimize any- body at
the drop of a putong. There was, for instance, the asuwáng, known among the Europeans as
Poltergiest, who could change his form from man to dog to harse to pig. There was the
mangkukulam who could injure any man whose face he did not like by the expedient of pricking
an image of a man. in any part of the anatomy the mangkukulam wanted to hurt; the
manggagaway who had such power as to bring harm to any. body he wanted to destroy; the
tiyariak who took pleasure in sucking the blood of babies still unborn; and the tikbalang who, like
the asuwáng, could assume different forms in order to mis- lead a traveler at night.

Some Filipinos, however, were lucky in possessing amulets or charms. They were supposed to
be insured against dangers. The anting-anting or agimat insured a man against weapons of
every kind; the gayuma made a man lovable to all the ladies; the bdom, a charm similar to the
Tagalog tagabulag, made the Bicolano invisible; the Visayan Aviga and the Tagalog agabe (sa
gabe) could make the possessor of this charm walk in a storm or swim in a river without getting
wet; and the Bicolano tagahupa was mixed in a drink and made the unfortunate drink- er a sort
of vassal to the man with the magic potion.

These beliefs, religious and otherwise, were not eradicated. with the coming of Western
civilization. Most of them were practised behind the backs of the Christian missionaries, with the
result that side by side with Catholicism, elements of pa- ganism survived and penetrated the
new religion. Today, in many rural areas and even in some big cities, the practice of Catholicism
is a curious mixture of Christian and pagan beliefs, thereby making Filipino Catholicism unique.

Economic Life.-Economic life during pre-colonial days. was not much different from that found
today in many remote barrios. The significant change is in the tempo of life: during those half-
forgotten days, life was placid and characterized by less economic and social pressure than it is
today.

Agriculture, then as now, was the main source of liveli- hood. There was an abundance of tice,
ooconuts, sugar cane, cotton, hemp, bananas, oranges, and many species of fruits and
vegetables. Land cultivation was, as it is today, done in two ways: the kaingin system in which
the land was cleared by burning the shrubs and bushes, after which the land was plant- ed to
rice and other crops; and tillage. So abundant was the produce of the land that Pigafetta, the
chronicler of the Ma- gellan expedition which arrived in the Philippines in 1521, noted that Cebu
had such foodstuffs as millet, sorgo, oranges, sugar cane, coconuts, gourds, garlic, lemon, and
other fruits. On the way back to Spain after the defeat of the Spaniards in the battle of Mactan,
the expedition dropped anchor in Pala- wan and found the place abundant with the same
foodstuffs as were found in Cebu, aside from sweet potatoes and roots similar to turnips.
Significantly, Pigafetta noted cockfighting in Palawan proof that this sport was not of Spanish
origin, although later, the Spaniards encouraged the Filipinos to in- dulge in cockfighting not
only to get more income from it but also to preoccupy the minds of the Filipinos in such
apparently harmless vice in order to prevent them from thinking of rising against the established
order."

Productivity was increased by the use of irrigation ditches, as evidenced by the world-famous
Ifugao rice terraces of Moun- tain Province. These rice terraces, which are irrigated by a system
of ditches, are stone-walled and run for thousands of feet up the mountain sides. From a
distance, the whole gives a panoramic effect of a gigantic stairway leading to the sky. If placed
end to end, the length would total an estimated 12,000 miles or half-way round the earth.

There was a system of landholding which was public or private. The less arable lands and those
along the mountain slopes were considered public property and could, therefore, be tilled freely
by anybody with enough energy and initiative. The rich and cultivated lands, on the other hand,
were consid red the private preserve of the nobles and the datus. In some places, there existed
what may be termed land rent, in which the cul- tivator of the soil paid a certain fee in kind or in
gold-to the chief or datu. Fr. Juan de Plasencia, who wrote on the customs

"A great majority of the terms now used in cockfighting are Spanish words adopted into the
native languages, e.g., ruweda (Sp. rueda), ring or arena; sentensiyador (Sp. sentenciador),
referee; pustí (Sp. apuesta), bet; dihado (Sp. dejado), underdog in the betting; liyamado (Sp.
llamado), upperdog in the betting; kristo (Sp. cristo), professional bet taker; kareo (Sp. careo),
confrontation of cocks when both are mortally wounded; and others, of the early Tagalogs at the
time of the arrival of the Spaniards, claimed that-

The reason for this [rent] was that, at the time of their settle- ment there, another chief occupied
the lands, which the new chief, upon his arrival, bought with his own and therefore the members
of his barangay paid him for the arable land, and he divided it among those whom he saw fit to
reward.

The daily food consisted of rice, which constituted, as An- tonio de Morga said, "the daily
mainstay for the entire country, together with boiled fish of which there is an abundance, and
pork or venison, likewise meat of wild buffalo or carabao." Because of the abundance of
coconut and nipa palms, the pre- colonial Filipinos fermented the sap of these palms and drank
it as liquor, as they do in the barrios today. The fermented sap is called tubâ. Said Morga of the
propensity of Filipinos to drinking:

The natives of these Islands drink this liquor in the day and night without end in their meetings,
weddings, feasts, circles, accom- panied by singing by a few who are so inclined and who come
to drink and have a good time, although this habit does not carry with it, according to their
estimation, any dishonor or infamy.

Drinking tuba, however, did not much affect the brains of the drinker, for as Father Francisco
Colin, the Jesuit Chro- nicler, said:" But rarely do they become furious or wild; rather, after drink.
ing, they preserve their proper respect and circumspection. They only become more gay and
talkative and say some amusing things. But it is known that none of them after leaving a
banquet, even at a late hour of the night, fail to reach their home.

Aside from agriculture, the pre-colonial Filipinos had other industries, such as poultry, stock-
raising, fishing, mining, lum- bering and shipbuilding, and weaving. They raised chickens, pigs,
goats, carabaos, and small or native ponies. There must have been elephants, too, for the word
for this huge animal is present in the Philippine languages, the Tagalog word being
Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Mexico, 1699), re- printed with notes by Jose
Rizal, Paris, 1890, and translated into English by Encarnación Alzona, Manila, Jose Rizal
National Centennial Commission, 1962, p. 248.
"Rizal's note, ibid.
of Malay origin, namely, gadya. Fishing was a thriving industry, for most settlements were along
rivers and seas, which explains why those settlements were more advanced than those found in
the hinterland. Again, Morga testified: 10

Fishing of all kinds of fish in the sea or in fresh waters or rivers and streams, is very greatly
indulged in and is quite productive; in fact, this industry is quite general in the entire country and
is considered a natural activity for the self-support of the people. There is an abundance of good
sardines, bass, sea breams called bacocos, dace eels, bicuda, tánguingé, flounders,.. marine
crabs and all kinds of mollusks, etc.

Various methods were used in catching fish, such as the use of fishing nets, the bow and arrow,
fishing spear, wicker basket, hooks and lines, corrals, and fish poison. Pearl fisheries abounded
in Sulu, where the richest pearl-beds were found.

Mining was comparatively developed before the coming of the Spaniards. Legazpi, reporting to
the Viceroy of Mexico in 1569, noted that there was "More or less gold... in all these islands; it is
obtained from rivers, and, in some places, from the mines which the natives work." Speaking of
mines, Morga
said:

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.
However, after the Spaniards had settled in the land, the natives became more lax in mining
gold, contenting themselves with what they already had in the form of jewelry and ancient ingots
of gold ... In fact, poor and indigent was indeed the one who did not possess gold-chains,
bracelets and earrings.

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.... They have rich mines of
gold besides silver...**** The Ilocanos refine and finish gold and market the same through the
plains and 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 Min- danaw and Cebu, where presently [1590's] a mine called
Talibon is being developed, which yields very good gold. If all the activities and efforts of the
Spaniards were concentrated on the develop- Ibid., p. 255.
10

ment of gold-mining, there could be obtained from any of these Islands as much gold as from
any possessions in the world.

Lumbering and shipbuilding were flourishing industries in those pre-colonial days when,
according to Morga, many Fili- pinos were "proficient in building ocean-going vessels." The
abundance of thick forests teeming with first-class hardwoods and the insular character of the
country probably explain why many Filipinos were good sailors and shipbuilders. The car-
penters of some settlements were such good artisans that they were not engaged in "any other
trade than said occupation." The shipbuilders constructed all kinds of boats for travel, war, and
commerce, boats that the Spaniards later called banca, ba- langay, lapis, caracoa, virey, vinta,
and prau

Weaving was a home industry in which women not other- wise engaged in threshing and
pounding palay in wooden mor- tars, were experts Using crude wooden looms, they wove tex-
tiles such as sir amáy from hemp, medriñaque from banana, and cotton, linen, and silk.

There was domestic commerce among barangays and islands. There were probably more
commerce and business transactions along the waterways than along pathways to the
hinterland, whose connection with the seaside settlements was through narrow footpaths. Many
boats from Luzon sailed to the Visa- yas and Mindanao laden with goods to be bartered for
those necessities not found in the Luzon barangays. In 1565, Legazpi, newly arrived in Cebu,
saw many Luzon trading boats along the coasts of Bohol, Samar, and Butuan in Mindanao.
Father Martin de Rada, one of the Augustinian friars who came with the Legazpi expedition,
wrote to the Viceroy of Mexico that many traders from Luzon, Jolo and other islands sailed the
seas of the archipelago in search of trade and adventure.

There was foreign trade, too, with China, Japan, Siam, Cambodia, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and
other islands of the old Malaysia. A Spanish document of 1586 noted that the Filipinos were
"keen traders and have traded with China for many years, and before the advent of the
Spaniards they sailed to Maluco [Moluccas], Malacca, Hazian [Ache?], Parami, Burnei [Borneo].
and other kingdoms."
Because currency was not then in use, the pre-colonial Fili- pinos used the barter system in
their business transactions. The commodities were sometimes priced in terms of gold or metal
gongs. The Chinese traders testified to the honesty of the pre- colonial Filipinos who paid their
debts dutifully to the trusting Chinese upon the latter's return the following year. The Chinese
writers Chao Ju-kua (1209-1214) and Wang Ta-yuan (1349), who gathered the reports of those
Chinese traders, had made it known through their works that the pre-colonial Filipinos were
scrupulously honest in their commercial transactions. No old Tagalog word exists for the
unflattering connotations of cheat, as a verb or as a noun. The present Tagalog word for it,
suwitik, is of Chinese origin and not, as is commonly supposed, derived from the English
adjective jesuitic.