PHILIPPINES BELIEFS

Prepared by:
Joylyn Faith G. Gayomale
The Philippines is predominantly Christian.
Approximately 84% of its people are Roman
Catholics, 10% Protestants, and 5% Muslims. The
remainder are Buddhists, animist, or non
believers.

The predominance of Christianity in the

Philippines reflects Spain’s colonization of the
Islands in the 16th century. Spanish colonial
authority hinged on locally-based.
Catholic religious groups to help exercise
political control.
Roman Catholic Church continuous to have
enormous influence in the Philippines politics.
The Muslims in the Philippines live mainly in the
southern islands of Mindanao and the Sulu
archipelago.
Islam existed before Christianity in the region,
spreading to the Sulu archipelago in the 14th
century and Mindanao in the 15th century.
Islam had a few supporters as far north as
Manila by the time the Spanish arrived.
Various terms have been used to refer to
the religious beliefs of the 175 ethnolinguistic
groups of the Philippines, where each had their
own form of indigenous government prior to
colonization from Islam and Spain.

They are characterized as being animistic,

and have been collectively referred to
as Anitism or Bathalism or the more modern
and less Tagalog-centric Dayawism.
From Latin word anima, means “breath, spirit,
life”. Our ancestors worshipped the sun (the
source of life and energy), the birds, the trees,
the mountains and the hills, and the rivers,
brooks, and lakes.
Early Filipinos were animists who believed in
the existence of a supreme being whom the
Tagalogs referred to as Bathala
The Ilocanos call him Kabunyan and he is
called Laon or Aba by the Bisayas. This
animism was further strengthened by the
early migrants from Island Southeast Asia
who were themselves animists.
The early Filipinos believed in the cult of the
dead and, in addition, the cult of the spirits.
They also believed in the offering of sacrifices
to appease their gods. In the absence of
temples, sacrifices and the accompanying
rituals took place in their own homes, at sea
or the rivers. or sometimes in the mountains
and open fields.
Our forefathers believed in the underworld where
creatures that can cause unexplainable misery
lived. However, there were also powerful talisman or
agimat that were used against these creatures.
Moreover, Filipinos had beliefs that normally guided
their way of life. With these beliefs, they devised
means to counteract the consequences and effects
that might befall them in some extreme cases.
These beliefs persisted even with the introduction
of Christianity, which was coupled with new
expressions and things associated with the new
faith. Folk Christianity was born out of the weaving
of Christianity and traditional folk beliefs.
refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and
deities in the indigenous animistic religions of
precolonial Philippines

“worshiping the Spirit of God Most High”

gallant religions that give thanks to all living

and non-living things'.