Miguel Juan de Plasencia was a Spanish

friar of the Franciscan Order. He was among the

first group of Franciscan missionaries who arrived
in the Philippines on 2 July 1578.
He spent most of his missionary life in the
Philippines, where he founded numerous towns in
Luzon and authored several religious and linguistic
books, most notably the Doctrina Cristiana
(Christian Doctrine), the first book ever printed in
the Philippines.
 It was written on the year 1589 during the
Spanish Colonial Period. After receiving the
Lordship’s letter, Plascencia wished to reply
immediately; but he postponed his answer in order
that he might first thoroughly inform himself in
regard to People’s request, and to avoid discussing
the conflicting reports of the Indians.
 Therefore, he collected Indians from
different districts old men, and those of most
capacity; and from them he have obtained the
simple truth, after weeding out much
foolishness, in regard to their government,
administration of justice, inheritance, slaves,
 Customs of the Tagalogs is a part (either chapters
or subsections) of longer monographs written by the
chroniclers of the Spanish expeditions to the
Philippines during the early 16th and 17th centuries.
They appeared initially in Blair and Robertson’s 55
volumes, The Philippine Islands (1903) and in the
Philippine Journal of Sciences (1958).
 Customs of the Tagalogs, just like any other
colonial texts written during the Spanish colonial
period, was intentionally made to provide an
exoticize description of the Tagalog natives, clearly
fed by politics and propaganda and operated with
the Western-outsider’s gaze, that would be
appealing to them.
 Important Historical
Information found in the
Document
Social Classes
Dato
Maharlica
Timaua

Aliping Namamahai

Aliping Saguiguilid
• Barangay (derived from the Malay language means Boat)

• It was a family of parents and children, relations and slaves in its origin.

• Ruled by a chieftain called Dato.

• A Dato, or chief, was a maginoo who had
followers and who ruled beyond his immediate
household, over whole communities. This term
was used in the Visayas as well as Luzon.
• Ruler of the ancient Tagalogs
• Captains during wars
• Anyone who offended the Dato and his family
was severely punished
MAHARLICA (WARRIOR)
 Free born
 Did not pay tax/Tributo to the Dato
 Accompany the Dato in times war at his own
expense
 Members of the Tagalog warrior class known
as Maharlica had the same rights and
responsibilities as the Timaua, but in times of war
they were bound to serve their Dato in battle.
TIMAUA

 Married and can live in their own

house can enjoy and inherit their
property.

Their children cannot be made

slaves (saguiguilid), nor can be
sold.
ALIPING NAMAMAHAI

 Serve their master’s in his house

and on his cultivated lands.

 Can be sold and can be

transferred.

 Can be paid to the quality work.

ALIPING SAGUIGUILID
 Serve their master’s in
his cultivated lands.
 Can be sold and can be
transferred.
 Status of the
child/children
• Maharlica + Maharlica = Maharlica

• Maharlica + (Owned) Slave Woman = Freeman (Child &

Mother)

• Maharlica + Slave Woman (Another) = Half Free and Half

Slave
(But during pregnancy she was compelled to give her master HALF of GOLD tael for her inability to labor during pregnancy)
• Maharlica + Slave (Another) = Children were
divided & inherited the father’s status;

1st, 3rd and 5th = belongs to the father

2nd, 4th, and 6th= belongs to the mother

(If only ONE child = half FREE & Half SLAVE)
Question

As what you observe in our

country, do you think Social classes
is still visible? Explain your answer.
Mode of Dressing and
Ornaments
Dowry, Divorce and
Inheritance
• Form of payment given by men to the women’s
parents.

• If the wife has no parents = she enjoys her dowry

• If the parents of the bride died and dowry has not

consumed = divided equally among the bride
siblings
Unmarried women can own NO property (both land & dowry)
 Divorce
• In case of divorce before the birth of children, the wife left
and marry another= 2x dowry given to the husband

• If the wife left the husband and did not marry another = the
dowry was returned

• If the husband left his wife= lost the half of the dowry, and
the other half was returned to him
• If he had children before the divorce = whole dowry
and a fine went to the children.

• If the wife died in a year’s time before having

children = parents returned the dowry to the
husband

• If the husband died= ½ the dowry was returned to

the relatives of the husband
 Inheritance

• If a man had a child with slaves and legitimate children

= slaves no inheritance, but the legitimate children were

bound to free the mother of the slaves

• If he had also sons by a free unmarried woman= did not

inherit equally with the legitimate children.
• Child born by a free married woman outside marriage

= the husband punished the adulterer and considered

it’s a Dowry, and the child entered with the others into
partition in the inheritance.

• If the adulterers were not punished by the husband of

the woman who had the child = the child was not
considered as his child and did not inherit anything.
Question
Is dowry of our ancestor’s still evident
even though we are in digital era?
Prove your answers.
THE WORSHIP OF
THE TAGALOGS
SIMBAHAN

• A temple or place of adoration, technically the house of the

chief due to the celebration of festival called “Pandot”
(worship)

• Constructed for the purpose of sheltering the assembled

people

• On each side of the house was a Sibi, to protect the people

from wet when it rained.
• Anito; the one being
worship
• Pag-anito or Nag aanito;
refers to a séance, often
accompanied by other
rituals or celebrations.
 BATHALA
All powerful or maker of
all things
Mayari – the goddess of the
moon
The Tagalogs, worshipped
the moon especially when it was
new with great rejoicings.
Mapulon – the god of
change of season
Ikapati, goddess of cultivated land,
was the most. understanding and kind
among the deities of Bathala. Her gift
to man was agriculture. As the
benevolent giver.
Dianamasalanta patron of lovers and
of generation
Idiyanale, the goddess of work
and good deeds, stands apart from
other goddesses in Philippine
mythology due to her distinct
domain and attributes.
Question

Is it true that our Filipino ancestors believe in

Animism before the coming of Spanish
colonialism?
BELIEFS
 Omen

If they left their house and met on the

way bird called Tigmamanuguin
singing in the tree, or if they chanced
upon anyone who sneezed = they
returned to their house.
Earliest Calendar
Determined through cultivation of the soil,
counted by moons and various effect
produced upon the trees, when yielding
flowers, fruits and leaves.
 Manner of offering sacrifices

• It was to proclaim a feast, and offer to the devil what

they had to eat with the officiating priest, male or
female, called CATALONAN.

• The objects of sacrifice were goats, fowls, and swine,

which were flayed, decapitated and laid before the idol.
Reasons: for personal matters, recovery of a
sick person, prosperous voyage of those
embarking on the sea, a good harvest in the
sowed lands, a propitious result in wars,
successful delivery in childbirth, happy
marriage.
 Pagdadalaga

• Young girls who first had their monthly period, their eyes were
blindfolded four days and four nights, and the friends and
relatives gathered for a simple celebration.

• At the end of this period, the Catalonan took the young girl to
the water, bathed her and washed her head, and removed the
bandage from her eyes.
Purpose: Girls might bear children and
have fortune in finding husbands to their
fate
Filipino shamans, commonly known as
Babaylan or Catalonan were shamans of
the various ethnic groups of the pre-
colonial Philippine islands. These shamans
specialized in communicating, appeasing,
or harnessing the spirits of the dead and
the spirits of nature
Manggagaway - had the power
of applying such remedies to
lovers that they would abandon
and despise their own wives
Manyisalat - a.k.a.
witches who
deceived by
pretending or heal
the sick.
Mangkukulam - The duty was to
emit fire from himself at night,
once or oftener each month, and
the fire emitted could not be
extinguished.
Hukluban or Goddess of
Death - They could kill
someone whom they chose
either by saluting or raising the
hand.
Silagan - Tears out liver and
eats it, anyone clothed in
white, thus causing death,
lives in the island of
Catanduanes.
Magtatanggal - Show himself
at night to many persons,
without his head or entrails,
and in the morning returns his
head or remaining like an alive
person.
Osuang - Sorcerer, flies,
murders men, eats their flesh,
occurs in the Visayas islands,
does not exist among the
Tagalogs.
MANGGAGAYUMA - Maker of gayuma or love potion.
 MANNER OF
BURRYING THE
DEAD
• Deceased buried beside the house

• If he were a chief, placed beneath the little house

or porch that was built for this purpose

• Before interring him, mourns the chief for four days

then afterward laid him in a boat that will serve as
a coffin or bier, a guard was kept over him by a
slave.
• If the deceased was a warrior, a living slave is tied
beneath him until the slave dies too.
• For many days the relatives of the deceased would
bewailed him, singing dirges, and praising him of
his good qualities until they got weary, this is
accompanied by eating and drinking.
 The Aetas or Negrillos (Negritos)
Form of Burial

• Dug deep, perpendicular hole, and placed the

deceased within it, leaving in an upright position with
head unburied in which they put half of the coconut
to the head that will serve as a shield.
(For retribution, they will pursuit the Indian who Killed the Negrito)
Our elderly often believes in
“pamahiin”. Do you think on the
advent of technology would it be
possible for millennial like you to still
believe in this? Why?
Contribution and Relevance of
the document in understanding
the ground narrative of
Philippine History
1. The original work itself is a product of observations and
judgments . Therefore, it is probable that Juan De Plasencia’s work
might contain partiality in presenting his observations and
judgment.

2. Pre-conquest society were not swept by the advent of the Spanish

regime.

3. It has continued to serve as a basis for historical reconstructions

of Tagalogs society.
 Relevance of the
document in the modern
time
1. Many of the 16th century beliefs and practices are still
present today.
2. It affirms that during the pre-Hispanic period Filipinos
already have government as well as set of beliefs and
practices.
3. Some of our perceptions of Filipino beliefs and practices are
somehow different from Juan de Plasencia’s point of view.
 Analysis
1. As what you observe in our country, do you think Social classes is still visible? Explain
your answer.

2. Is it true that our Filipino ancestors believe in Animism before the coming of
Spanish colonialism?

3. Our elderly often believes in “pamahiin”. Do you think on the advent of

technology would it be possible for millennial like you to still believe in this? Why?