Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By
YUSUF ROQUE SANTOS MORALES
Senior Fellow, Institute for Comparative and Advance
Studies (ICAS Philippines)
and
DR. MEINRADO MARTINEZ y DIMAANDAL
Senior Fellow, Institute for Comparative and Advance
Studies (ICAS Philippines)
Graduate Professor, The Claro M. Recto Academy of Advance Studies
Lyceum of the Philippines University
Layout and Design
Sheryl R. Morales, DEM
Polytechnic University of the Philippines
Martinez-Morales
Dedication
Publishers Foreword:
The Publishers
Looking back at the Lost Moro Kingdom Looking back at the Lost Moro Kingdom
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When we discuss
Philippine prehistory, this
would refer to the periods
before the written history.
The earliest known record
of human remains in the
Philippines are the fossilized fragments of a skull
and jawbone of three Source: Tabon Man, http://www.google.com.ph
individuals discovered on
28 May 1962 by a team headed by Robert B. Fox, an
American anthropologist for the Philippine National
Museum. These fragments are collectively called
Ta-bon Man after the place where they were found
on the west coast of the island of Palawan.
Tabon Cave was a sort of Stone Age workshop which
was Carbon-14 dated to roughly 7,000, 20,000, and
22,000 before the Common Era (BCE). The fossils
found are considered to have come from a third group
of inhabitants, who worked the cave between 22,000
and 20,000 BCE. An earlier cave level lies much
farther below the level containing cooking fire
assemblages that it is said to represent Upper
Pleistocene dates of 45- or 50-thousand years ago.i
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constructed cities.
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his forces confronted the Spaniards in the sea channel called Bankusay but after losing that skirmish and
seeing the Legazpi-led force approach with much
speed, his defenders set ablaze the ancient cities of
Tondo and Maynilad along with all the neighbouring
towns and then repaired to the hinterlands.
It was a terrible battle as the Macabebe leader
Tarik Sulayman, whose armorer was Panday Pirak
(silver smith?) of Apalit, was the only Luzon datu who
stood up against the might of the Spanish conquistadores and their Visayan allies in their 1571 invasion of
Manila.
Lakandula merely watched as the Macabebe
datu rowed down the waterways from Macabebe and
Hagonoy to Tundok with several hundred warriors on
board 20 or 30 paraos. Refusing the deceptive offer
of peace and friendship, the datu fought valiantly
against the Spaniards in the waters of Bangkusay in
Tundok. The great Macabebe datu and hundreds of
his Kapampangan host died in the battle that would
start Spain's 333-year colonization of the Philippines.
Nevertheless, the Spanish-led force occupied the
ruins of Maynilad and eventually established a fortified settlement there which became the title city of
the new Spanish colony in the Philippines. It was
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among the three rulers of the Madia-as Confederation) and sailed further North with Datu Balensusa and
Datu Domangsil. There, they found a place of many
rivers that drained into the present day Taal Lake.
Here, Datu Puti founded the Kingdom of the Tagalogs,
with its centre in the present day Balayan and extended up to the present day provinces of Quezon, Rizal, Cavite, Minodro, Marinduque and even some parts
of Romblon and Palawan. Later, studies suggested
that the Kingdom included the present day Metropolitan Manila, Bulacan, Bataan, parts of Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Zambales. Today, all of these provinces have
a significant population of Tagalogs.
It was also under the rule of Datu Puti when the
people of the Tagalog Kingdom built the first national
highway (in its sense). All around the lake, the Tagalogs made an even road by putting stones
(called sapaw). The road streched up to 40 kilometres and greatly facilitated the travel to the nearby
towns. However, the Taal Lake grew older and was
filled with water and the sapaw became submerged
under water. There, it was forgotten for more than
half a century and only discovered in the late 1970s
by an underwater archeologist.
Though great was the Kingdom Datu Puti
founded, he still could not forget the Island from
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KINGDOM OF MACABEBE
Before the conquest of the Philippines by the
Spaniards, early Macabebes already led a highly civilized way of life. They had an advanced system of
government, practiced sophisticated farming techniques, were highly skilled in various skills, and were
already
engaged in
trade and
diplomatic
re l a t i o n s
w i t h
neighboring
http://groups.yahoo.com
China and
Southeast Asian countries.
The first trickle of Macabebe settlers came
from Indonesia around 300-200 B.C. By the 11th to
12th century, a mass exodus took place at the height
of the Madjapahit era during which the empire embarked on a ruthless adventure that forced the
smaller kingdoms to establish their own independent
empires.
Among these kingdoms were the fiercely independent and free-loving Pampango speaking Sumatrans who, under Prince Balagtas,
Balagtas himself a sovereign
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Today, some historians consider the issue of Urduja's historicity as closed. Compounding the issue is
the lack of archaelogical evidence on the existence of
the Shri-Visayan Empire, but strong evidence on the
presence of Muslim rajahships throughout the archipelago, which compounds their inability to address the
issue that Urduja was in fact a Muslim Dayang Dayang
(female Royalty).
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the island of Cebu advising him instead to look elsewhere for land to settle further up north in the archipelago the course of Philippine history would have
been drastically different.
Soon after, as the merchant had warned, Spanish explorers arrive on Visayan shores after a long
voyage of exploration through the Pacific Ocean.
While the Aginid retells the story of how Humabon
befriends the travelers, converts to Christianity and,
according to Italian historian Antonio Pigafetta, requests Magellan to kill Lapu-lapu, the
Aginid also relates how Kaggi Pulaku outplays, outlasts, outwits and eventually slays Magellan in the
battle of Mactan in the month of April 1521. xi
Out of the five ships and more than 300 men
who left on the Magellan Expedition in 1519, only one
ship (the Victoria) and 18 men returned to Seville in
September 1522. Juan Sebastian de Elcano, the master of one of those ships, the Concepcion (which
sank on the return trip), took over command.
They started off through the westward route
and returning to Spain by going east; Magellan and Elcanos entire voyage took almost three years to complete but earned the distinction of being the first to
circumnavigate the world in one full journey. It proved
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with other parts of the archipelago which was settled by the former forces sent by the Shri Vishaya,
Madjapahit and Chola empires) this gave way to a
community where the predominantly migrant seafaring Malays took over the whole settlements and
assimilated them.
As such was born the Rajahnate of Cebu, a
classical state which existed in the centre of the
Visayas region prior to the arrival of the Spanish, and
was supposedly founded by Sri Lumay or Rajamuda
Lumaya as its first ruler.
Sources say he was either a minor or an ambitious native prince from Sumatra who traced his ancestry to the Chola dynasty, or one of those who
came from the lineage of Merong Mahawangsa. It is
said that he was sent to the Philippines by the ruling
maharajah to establish a forward base for expeditionary forces.
The strategic position of Southeast Asia naturally became part of the trade route of the ancient
world. Agricultural products were bartered for Chinese
silk cloths, bells, porcelain wares, iron tools, oil lamps,
and medicinal herbs. From Japan, perfume and glass
utensils were usually traded for native goods. Ivory
products, leather, precious and semi-precious stones
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The group apparently migrants-refugees originated from Sumatra-Manselis (the western side of
Sumatra, Indonesia) on board a Lutsa a type of
sailing vessel somewhat resembling a cross between
a Chinese junk rig or a Portuguese (or European style)
hull. Eventually, Dang-kos only daughter married a
chieftain of Butuan. This narrative attempts to create
a relationship which tries to explain why the Eskaya
were once part of the Butuan thalassocracy (a state
with primarily maritime realms) and also why members of the Eskaya in Butuan maintain close contact
with the Eskaya of Bohol to this day.
Only few places in the Philippines have a longer
and more colorful history than Butuan. Through most
of the Middle Ages, specifically between the 5th to
the 14th century AD, Butuan was a flourishing and
highly-civilized community.
It rose to become an international trading centre
and possessed a developed political structure, cosmopolitan tastes for fine clothing and jewelry, chinaware, cosmetics, gold ornamentation and silversmithing technology.
El Dorado in the Philippines.
Gold has always played a role in our history.
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Since ancient times, these islands have been an active producer of this and other precious metals. In
that respect, Butuan owes its existence largely to gold
mined at the headwaters of Agusan River in the Diwata mountain range. Then as now, it was known as a
major source of this metal during the 11th century.
Today, nearly 70% of the Central Bank of the Philippines prehispanic gold collection comes from Butuan
and its neighboring areas. It has grown into one of
the most important gold collections in Asia.
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An enlightened people
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Philippines_(900-1521)
Bulwagan Foundation Trust, Karl Quirino, Philippine History, The Community
WellNZ Project, The
Kingdom of Maynila.
William Henry Scott (1992), Looking for the prehispanic Filipino: and other
essays in Philippine his
tory, New Day Publishers, ISBN
9789711005245, http://books.google.com/books?
id=Z6ZwAAAAMAAJ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajahnate_of_Cebu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajahnate_of_Cebu
Bulwagan Foundation Trust, Karl Quirino, Philippine History, Rajahnate of Cebu, The Commu
nity WellNZ Project.
Marivir Montebon, Retracing Our Roots A Journey into Cebus PreColonial Past, p.15
Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn Baa, A.D. 13251354, vol. 4,
trans. H. A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham (London: Hakluyt Society,
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The Kingdom of Namayan and Maytime Fiesta in Sta. Ana of Old Manila". Traveler on Foot: A Travel Journal. May 12, 2008. Retrieved 200809-27.
Community
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Tondo
Wang Zhenping (2008). "Reading Song-Ming Records on the Pre-colonial
History of the Philippines"
(http://www.icis.kansai-u.ac.jp/data/
journal01-v1/journal01-19-wang.pdf) . Journal of East
Asian Cultural Interaction Studies 1: 249260. ISSN 1882-7756 (http://
www.worldcat.org/issn/1882-7756)
XXXX-end
William Henry Scott (1992), Looking for the prehispanic Filipino: and other
essays in Philippine history, New Day Publishers, ISBN
9789711005245, http://books.google.com/books?id=Z6ZwAAAAMAAJ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajahnate_of_Cebu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajahnate_of_Cebu
Bulwagan Foundation Trust, Karl Quirino, Philippine History, Rajahnate of
Cebu, The Community WellNZ Project.
Marivir Montebon, Retracing Our Roots A Journey into Cebus PreColo
nial Past, p.15
Ibn Battuta, The Travels of Ibn Baa, A.D. 13251354, vol. 4, trans. H.
A. R. Gibb and C. F. Beckingham
(London: Hakluyt Society,
1994), "In Search of a Princess" from Urduja.com (http://
www.urduja.com/princess.html)
Karl Quirino, Kingdom of Tondo, Philippine History, The Community WellNZ
Project
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