1

When I was a child, my entire family, including my cousins and aunts, used to play a game every
Christmas or New Years Eve that tested our knowledge about random things. Some were
riddles, and others were philosophical questions that either made sense or not, but usually, if my
uncles werent drunk enough yet, theyd ask questions revolving around the World or Philippine
history. As a child, I didnt know very much, but I was observant enough to notice one thing: all
the questions regarding the Philippine history were about things that happened only after or
during the Spanish occupation if not only after Jose Rizal. They would ask: In what year did
Ferdinand Magellan arrive? Who is our national hero? Who was the first president of the
republic of the Philippines? Who was the wealthy wife of Ferdinand Marcos? I never heard
questions like: What is the most famous literary piece made during the Pre-Hispanic Philippines?
What was the equivalent of a president back then? Why would women be happier if the
Spaniards never arrived? These questions werent asked because nobody knew the answers to
them, and if someone ever did, he or she didnt dare ask these questions because he was sure that
we would just find ourselves dumbfounded. If you were in my position on those certain
Christmas eves, and questions like that were raised, would you have known? I didnt know
anything back in those days, but now I do, and you know what? Ill share them all to you. All
you need to do is turn to the next page. Youre probably on your way to deciding not to, but are
you sincerely going to choose to be an ignorant Filipino like everybody else or would you dare
dig and discover your own roots? Its your choice.

The origin of Earth and the different continents has always been studied, but rarely do we
memorize the origins of our own land. The Philippine islands and the different land forms on it
are one of the worlds most beautiful. Do you know how these earthly wonders were formed? It
would be mind-bending to think about how long it took and what our portion of the Pacific
Ocean looked like before the process of orogenesis started. Orogenesis is the proper term to refer
to mountain-building. It emanates from two Greek words, ore and genesis, which means
mountain and creation, and definitely, the orogenesis of Philippines took thousands of years
to result to our present-day country.
Although Philippine mountains hardly look different, a more meticulous inspection will
expose their difference in origin. The origins may be due to block uplift and erosion,
compression forces, volcanic eruptions, or they may be fault-block mountain ranges. We have
enough mountains to vary under these classifications but fact is, volcanism is the primary reason
of orogenesis and landscape-change. It is also a possibility that most of our land forms were
formed through crumpling or rising from the rocks. This particular process can be described
as the moving of the folds towards each other until the folds get taller and taller, just like when a
carpet crumples when one of its sides is compresses or pushed inward. These folds are called
anticlines while the folds that move downwards are called synclines. With the stated facts,
we can assume that our mountains today are results of crumpling and eruptions. An example
would be the Mayon volcano that took 25, 000 years to be formed. The conical landmark, despite
the length in the time taken to create it, is considered as one of the smallest composite volcanoes
in the Philippines. Therefore, we can proceed in believing that

many islands that form the present-day archipelago were once situated elsewhere, or came from
diverse tectonic origins. In fact, scientists are still studying the geologic births of these islands1.

Accordingly, the small and narrow Cordillera exposes the rugged back of the Philippine
islands because of its large and central disintegration of waters. It cascades through all our waters
particularly the rivers and seas making them weak and calm. The Cordillera is also considered as
a continuation of the Pacific system causing it to also be part of the volcanic ranges that raises
the suggestion that maybe these waters surrounding our 7, 107 islands have already here long
before the islands came about.
Aside from the ruggedness brought about by the cordilleras, our irregular coastlines also
result in contours that, in return, result in making way of harbors and landlocked straits. An
example of this is the popular Manila bay which extends an area of 700 square miles and a
circumference of a hundred and twenty miles making it one of the finest harbors even then--during the pre-Hispanic period. Did you know that the Philippine coastline, ever since, has a
length of 10, 850 statute miles which is twice as long as that of the United States of America
continentally? Yes, that is one our coastal irregularities. In some references, it says that a huge
meteor

Perry S. Ong, et.al. The Philippine Archipelago. (Philippines: Asia Publishing Company
Limited, 1998), pg. 39.

hit the once whole island of what was assumed as the earliest Philippines. The meteor
resulted to the present-day thousand of islands and the irregularity, or rather, the uniqueness of
our coastlines. As far as the books go, the coastlines are not the only feature in Philippines that
the foreign researchers find surprising. Many of our other water forms such as the rivers, falls,
and lakes are edged with something special.
All the water forms that exist in the Philippines today are composed of water that
emanated from rainwater. These raindrops naturally try to find the lowest level of elevation by
flowing down slope from mountaintops penetrating permeable soil. Once they are absorbed by
the earth, they become part of the groundwater system. On the other hand, the water that werent
able to penetrate the soil become part of the channels collected in rills and lowlands. The
channels transform into small rivers while the groundwater system sustains it. Often, there are
underground water collections with nothing to sustain. These result to springs that eventually
flow down to streams and join rivers. This process of rainwater collection has been happening
from the prehistoric times and continues to take place until now.

The pre-Hispanic era can be assumed as a time in which the backbone of the economical
society was trade and hunting, but as far as Ive read, the Mataw fishers of Batanes follow their
techniques from more than a century-old culture implying that fishing was also amongst the
forms of livelihood before the Spanish occupation. Of course, they wouldnt have fished if there
was nothing to catch.

Our seas were filled with bigger and better fishes and sea creatures before--- more squids,
crabs, eels, and ocean plants such as the Kangkong and the seaweeds. Our pre-Hispanic ancestors
may have not been aware of this oceanic wealth but they undoubtedly benefited from it.
Nowadays, despite the Filipinos abuses, our coral reefs are still healthier than most of the
neighboring archipelagos. This fortune derives from the fact that Philippines is blessed with
tropism and its being an archipelago.
Forests above the sea, may they be virgin or secondary, are contemporarily rare, but if we
reminisce through history, our ancestor were great ancestors of beautiful species that resided on
our long-ago thick forestlands. The swamp in Eastern Visayas named by the locals as Lawodlawod is one of the most visited and most featured tourists sites for the exceptional variety of
edible creatures that are either residing there or being intentionally cultured by the locals. Again,
it is because of Philippines tropism that we are also gifted with beautiful biodiversity. The
mangrove swamp forest, our characteristic type of vegetation, specifically occurs in old world
tropics proving that almost ever since, Philippines has been a tropical country.
One fact about our mangroves that have been since prehistoric times stands out: our
mangroves, instead of needing anaerobic soil conditions, high salt conditions, and unstable soil
conditions, have learned to adapt to the Philippine soil since it is often waterlogged. The
mangroves found a way to breathe by growing roots that protrude vertically. These roots are
called pneumatophores and are sometimes aerial. They cope with the saline conditions by
various ways one of which is excreting salt directly from its leaves. The smaller vertical anchor

roots were caused by the liquid mud, one of the examples of unstable soil conditions that
the mangroves were apparently tolerant with.

The Southeast Asia, which Philippines happens to be a part of, is considered as one of the
cradles one of the human existence. The discovery that Java men existed in China and the
collection of middle stone-age Pleistocene epoch hominid fossils were and is a very strong and
standing evidence that there were indeed living men both mainland and insular southeast China
long ago. Fossils of elephants, stegodons, and rhinoceros are only some of the fossils found.
These facts make the search for the origin of men in Philippines a lot easier and more believable.
Since the Philippine archipelago is obviously a part of the evolution of Southeast Asian
men, we can minimally assume that Philippines was one of the homes of the earliest men. In
scientific history, 1.6 billion years ago, the ancestors of modern men known as the Homo erectus
resided in the different parts of Asia and Africa. An appearance of the species that mostly like us,
Homo sapiens, was discovered 250, 000 years ago after the Homo erectus came about an end to
their species or as modern scientists call it, an evolutionary dead end. Sometime later, the
primary species of Homo erectus was found again in China. Though all the fossils of bones
remain as primitive as the rest of the finds, researchers have found out that the Homo erectus
species and specimens of men belong to the Pithecanthropine family scavenged in central Java
and appeared to own a thigh bone of a modern man, making a fine discovery the first in
Southeast Asia and the world. Those fossils were dubbed the fossils of Java men.

The Pithecanthropus erectus or the erect-ape man is an ancestor of the modern man
with the combination of an apelike skull--- thick, heavy and flattened in front--- and with a
prominent ridge over the eyes. Various tests were done to be able to confirm that the skull
existed together with a modern femur. After forty years, a new discovery of fossil collection that
included the fossils of a saber-toothed tiger and a wild ox was recognized as a better specimen.
An evidence of the theory that dwarf elephants once resided in Philippines was reported
to have been found in the Lingayen Gulf, specifically in the Cabarruyan Island. It was the fossil
of the dwarf elephants tooth which happened to be completely fossilized. Another species of
dwarf elephants was identified as Elephas Beyeri by no other than H. Otley Beyer, the head of
the Philippine archaeological researches. This elephant tooth became one of the most famous
tooth fragments that spearheaded the research for new discoveries of ancient species. Alfred
Marche, a French archaeologist, started am activity in search of early tools. Alongside other
researchers, he found tools that turned out to be evidences proving the earliest existence of men
in the Philippine archipelago. They found man-made stone tools which, after further studying,
turned out to be tools that ancient Filipinos used for smoothing or sharpening trees, extracting
meat from the animals they have hunted, and for weapon-making. All these tools were found on
the Cagayan Valley. There was a reinvestigation spearheaded by Robert Fox, a prominent
archaeologist who discovered two flake stone tools that were apparently used for making spears
and he excavated them from Situ insides caves proving that our ancestors used caves as their
shelters. Penablanca is one of the caves proven to have been occupied by the early Filipinos.
There were around a hundred caves and they were numbered during the archaeological

exploration. In those caves, they also found bones of larger animals and numerous bones of small
mammals, and as studied by the researchers, the fossils found proved the ability of early
Philippine men to gather and hunt.
So much has been discussed about the archaeological findings linked to the earliest of
Filipinos, and as earlier mentioned, it is a fact that long ago, the men of Southeast Asia were one
and evolved together. The present-day features of Filipinos display the historical truths about the
people of China and Malaysia visiting and trading with the Filipinos. The first man who ever
arrived in the Philippines was during the Middle Pleistocene period ages ago. It is said that land
bridges between the Philippine archipelago and Indonesia existed long before. No wonder we
somehow look like them! The Indonesians started residing here and began a civilization allowing
the scientists and researchers to find and study whatever remained of that civilization.

The most well-known Neolithic site in the Philippines is the Duyong cave in Palawan reported
by Robert B. Fox. It was found at this site the flexed burial of a male with associated materials,
including four adzes and one stone adz which appeared to have been used as lime containers for
betel-nut chewing2

The remains found proved one recreational practice our ancestors incorporated: Betel-nut
chewing.

Fr. Gabriel S. Casal, et.al. The Earliest Filipinos. (Philippines: Asia Publishing Company
Limited, 1998) pg. 52.

We can only guess how rice became our staple food even before the Spanish
colonization; out of all the different crops, why Rice? Thanks to Carl Saver, a geographer who
reconstructed rice cultivation beginnings in 1952, we can trace back the relevant factors of our
choice of staple. He hypothesized that agriculture began in Southeast Asia and mentioned that
this system emerged because of the growing population and the changing environment. In
Thailand, Chester Gorman introduced evidence of plants recovered from the Spirit cave in
Northwest Thailand. Meanwhile, in Philippines, accordingly, agriculture began around 10, 000
B.C to 500 B.C and that these were during the Formative period. From there up until now,
agriculture remains as one of the most common means of livelihood in the Philippines.
One of the strongest evidences of rice planting before we were conquered by Spain is the
elaborate terracing system constructed in mountain provinces. Scientists speculated that these
were done not earlier than 3,000 B.C making it impossible to be part of the Spanish era. Also,
specialists mostly agree that even though the theory that Africa were once combined with Asia,
the rice terraces and fields of the present continents were cultivated separately. Chester Gorman
also argues that the evidences he found in the Thai Spirit cave proved an agricultural tradition
that probably started in 7, 000 B.C. This theory of his was upheld by several observations
including the fact that botanical data suggested a Southeast Asian origin for Rice and that the
earliest rice in China was from the Chuchia-ling sites dating after 2, 500 B.C. Plant remains,
mostly rice, were found in these sites and on various other places such as India, Pakistan,
Thailand, North Vietnam, Central and Eastern China, Sulawesi, Timor, and in northern
Philippines.

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In the contemporary period, Filipinos tend to take their original roots for granted. Most
often, we are misled by the historical detail that our formal education began when the Spaniards
colonized us. It creates the illusion that our earlier ancestors were illiterate and ignorant. The
truth is that when Magellan arrived in the Philippines, he did not encounter ignorant wild
savages; instead, he came across one of the epicenters of trade and industry in the Southeast
Asia. Almost no one was illiterate of their own writing. Yes, he met one of the most
sophisticated people of that time.
Though the early Filipinos society was very sophisticated, it is incomparable to the
modern ways of governing. In the ancient times, the wealth, prominence, and skills of a person
determined his position in the society whereas today, democracy is exemplified through election.
In those times, the society was composed of three main classes: The Elites or the
Maharlika, the Freemen or the Maguinoo (sometimes Timawa), the Merchants (which included
the potters and the trade people), and the Slaves. The societies varied greatly. Some were further
divided into tribes, bands, and chiefdoms. Bands are independent and self-sufficient groups that
usually consisted of only a few families; these were called balangay. The leadership among
them, as you might already know, depended on their physical aspects and past experiences
though occasionally, nobility is inherited. The nobles main purpose was to distribute the
resources such as food and water justly.
1.

The Elite The Datu, Rajah, or Sultan are the common terms used to refer to the
ancient Philippine monarchy. They represented the greatest authority in a balangay and

11

made the most important decisions. Everything can be said as somewhat similar to the
Western Monarchy except for the fact that most of the leaders were not assumed to the
position from birth (inheritance) and that the women of the ancient Filipino society had
just as much right to the throne as the men.
Laura Junker, one of the archaeologists studying chiefdoms, has speculated
the found fossils in the Philippines that suggested that prestige and expensive goods were
the primary materials that the sociopolitical elites used to expand their political power
and influence to control the chiefdoms. The Chinese Porcelain and stoneware which
served as powerful symbols of authority and wealth. The Maharlika were adorned with
precious accessories to incorporate the idea of prestige and respect for the noble families.
They were also used by the elites to strategically create alliances between the nobles of
neighboring chiefdoms for political centralization.
Among the Maharlika were the Maguinoo or the Timawa. These part of the
society consisted of the extended family of the Datus. Most of the time, they were the
nieces, nephews, or distant families or the main royal family but there were cases that the
nobles chose to be discreet about. You see, sometimes, members of the reigning family
made certain indiscretions and the results (illegitimate children) of these unspeakable
events were made part of this social class. They were also known as Freemen because of
what they were: as free as the nobles yet still under their authority.

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2. The Merchants During the pre-Hispanic era, specialists already existed. Maybe they
werent known as such but they were specialists; goldsmiths, silversmiths, pearl-divers,
carpenters, textile manufacturers. Most of them traded with neighboring countries such as
China and to the elites denial, they were the backbone of the chiefdoms economy. They
worked full-time but were likely to be ignored. Both their authority and societal respect
was very limited. The leaders were aware of the threat facing the unjust treatment and to
be able to continue to manipulate political influence, what the elites did was that they
taught themselves how to fight. Thus, the ancient society looked at them as the more
important for they defended the chiefdoms.
3. The Slaves Slaves were very common during Lapu-lapuss times and apparently, they
were the least and last in the early society. The fact that our ancestors sold and bought
slaves remains a truth. All slave were obliged to serve their masters without limitation.
They didnt have rights not the courage to fight for them. They were simply required to
obey and they embraced this culture unceasingly. There were many types of slaves two of
which remain popular: the Aliping Mamamahay and the Aliping Saguiguilid. The
former were also known as the Serfs of the ancient Philippines. They were in charge of
their lords lands and they were paid through food and were allowed to live there with
their personal quarters. On the other hand, the latter type of slave was the more harshlytreated slave. These kinds of slaves are the ones who are bought and sold by its owners.
They had to accomplish absolutely everything their master told them to do and they can
be bounded for life. Accordingly, there were many cases in which a slave would have to

13

kill herself/himself because he/she had to leave life together with the master. The status
can be acquired through several ways: inheritance, war, lawbreaking, or debt.

The pre-Hispanic Philippines relationship with China was proven to be one of the
oldest--- this fact remains evident especially to the researchers. Most of the relationships we had
with Chinese folk were commercial. Trade relations with the latter began approximately in the
ninth century around the time when the Arabian who were barred from the coast of Asia found a
new route. This new route starts from Malacca passing through Borneo and into Philippines and
Taiwan. Southeast Asian goods were delivered by the Arabian traders through the southern
route. Philippine products, meanwhile, were carried to China through the port of Canton. The
rule of the Sung dynasty and the Ming period in China began a natural flow of continuous
founding of Chinese colonies in the Philippines. These colonies were founded in the coastal
towns of the archipelagoes well as in the hinterlands. By the middle of the 14th century, however,
the Philippine trade has, however, gained activity and interest from other Asian countries such as
Cambodia, Champa, Indo-China, Annam, Siam, and Tonkin. The trade became so keen that the
competition between Chinese and the non-Chinese grew rapidly.
In the late centuries, when Islam started to be embraced by southern Philippines, the
Chinese and the Indo-Chinese temporarily suppressed their trade. They sought for new routes
leading to Philippine islands that stayed non-Islamic. It was only after the Chinese folk agreed to
the business terms of the Filipino-Arab people that business was resumed. Together with the
Arabs Islamic influence was the arrival of widespread Bornean trade. Although the Borneans

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were discontented with the Arabic influence, they continued trade together with the Chinese.
They never were able to equalize the commercial relationship of Philippines and China.
The early Chinese traders referred to Philippines as Ma-I which meant The land of
Gold. They also sometimes called it Lia-Sing. In a map, Cladius Ptolemy, it was named
Maniolas or Islas Del Poniente The name Felipinas was given by Ruy Lopez de
Villalobos, a Spanish explorer in the year 1543 to honor Prince Philip OS Asturias, who later
became Philip II, King of Spain.

Our earliest ancestors, when they were children, invented games by making use of
materials that they found in their environment. They utilized stones, shells, leaves, and, of
course, their own bodies. Through researching about these games that they invented, we learn
more about the different influences on our country culturally. Examples of these games are the
Cara y Cruz, Siklot, Tubigan, Pari-parian, Jack en Poy, Jackstones. Usually, to start a game, the
players would find a way to assign the taya. One way would be to play the abovementioned Jack
en Poy. Two players singing--- Jack en Poy/ Hale Hale hoy/ Sinong matalo/ Siyang Unggoy! --and each baring a clenched fist following the tempo or the song. At the end of the last line, both
of the players shall choose what to bare: a rock, a pair of scissors, or paper (English: PaperRock-Scissors). Paper beats rock, rock beats scissors, and scissors beat paper.
There were also games that required both luck and physical abilities. For instance, a
more muscular boy would win an arm-wrestling challenge and a more enduring and long-legged
boy would win a race.

15

If some needed either luck or strength, the games for girls were usually less physical. Their
games required focus and cleverness instead. Example would be the Sungka. Why do girls not
play physical games such as luksong Tinik or luksong baka, you ask? It was because of the fear
that they would be humiliated (Baka sila makitaan).

The position of women during the pre-Hispanic era was the most beautiful among all
the social classes.
Women before the coming of the Spaniards enjoyed a unique position in society that their
descendants during the Spanish occupation did not enjoy. Customary laws gave them the right to
be equal of men, for they could own and inherit property, engage in trade and industry, and
succeed to the chieftainship of a barangay upon the absence of male heir3.

There was no such thing as feminism because women were bowed upon. Do you know
that during those eras, men always walked behind women? If men happened to come across a
woman in the streets, they would all stop to let the woman walk ahead regardless of her speed.
See how gentlemen were formed in the earliest Philippine times?
In the pre-colonial society, no matter how elegant and dignified the Filipinas were, their
virginity was never valued.

Teodoro A. Agoncillo, History of the Philippine People. (Quezon City: Garotech Publishing,
1990), pg. 36.

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This fact stands not because they werent conservative, which they were, but because on the
other hand, the virginity of men was irrelevant, too. Evidently, the fact that women werent
judged that way proves that men and women were truly equal. If a man was never asked about
his virginity, why trouble the women.
Like todays generation, husbands and wives enjoyed freedom and equality, but one of
the greatest diversity in detail is that the ancient marriage did not require women to take after the
surname of their husbands whereas nowadays it is an accepted tradition. Most married women
kept their maiden surname, and sometimes, if the wifes name is prominent and distinguished
due to family connections, its the husband that takes after her name. Another difference would
be that divorce was already existent. In the cases where a certain member of the union becomes
unfaithful or irresponsible, or if they are not able to produce an offspring, they would peacefully
separate.
Despite the equality of women and men, promiscuity was still frowned upon. Yes, both
women and men were encouraged to work, but both men and women were being dissuaded to
become prostitutes or concubines.
When the Spanish explorers docked on our Philippine archipelago, they were shocked at
how liberate the Filipinas were. Their solution was to force the women to acknowledge the
superiority of men by molding and remolding the Philippine women in various ways (which
some references cited as violent) according to the norms of feminine behavior from the Iberian
Society.

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Our present-day Filipino language is composed of various words rooting from different
parent languages. A parent language is the ultimate origin of a certain word. More often than not,
foreign languages originate from the most common parent languages--- Greek and Latin. For the
Philippines, the most popular borrowing of words is credited to the Spanish language. While we
do several of burrowing from Spanish, we have had our own vocabulary before it. Where did
they come from? Well, it would be from the nearer countries that visited and traded with us
before the arrival of Magellan.
It is clear nowadays that the Spanish legacy stays not only in physical attributes and
religious beliefs, but also through our verbal communication. What we should realize is that even
though the Spanish influence is thoroughly accepted, it is not the only language that the Filipino
language should take credit for. Malaysian, Indonesian, and Chinese words were adapted and
minimally edited by the ancient Filipinos to ease trade and political relationship.
The earliest recalled influence of foreign dialect was that of the early immigrants in
Mindanao. The exact spot or place where they landed or docked is, up until now, undetermined
but as stated in most references, it was probably on the coast Southwestern Philippines facing the
Celebes Sea. Negritoes, during that time, peopled the Mindanao, and at some point in time,
immigrants arrived so, of course, they needed to converse with the local citizens. They used an
old language that was later on titled as Proto-Manobo. This language as agreed upon by
majority of the historians not only gave birth to the present-day Manobo language but also
contributed to the development of the rest of the Filipino dialects.

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Among the Philippine languages, Tagalog and the Pampangan language shows a lot of
linguistic resemblance to the Malayan language --- another proof that besides Spanish, Philippine
has acquired many donors for language-burrowing.

As the pre-Hispanic Filipinos acquired more and more unique cultures and traditions,
they found more and more ways to celebrate these traditions with rituals and ceremonies. These
were accompanied by tool technologies resulting to stone carving and pottery. Tool technologies
manufactured better control over the raw materials and goods. Thus, the rituals and ceremonies
became very common. The ritual and the ceremonial traditions that were born during the
Neolithic society were called Magico-Religious emanating from the word magic and religion.
This word means that the religion of a certain group of people is the belief in Magic. Our ancient
magico-religious ancestors accordingly contacted supernatural beings and ask for things or
happenings. Sometimes, it became a means of contacting the demised relatives.
Among all the rituals and ceremonies, archaeologists hypothesized that the burial rites
were the most important and most commonly performed.
Excavations in many parts of the archipelago indicate that the disposal of the dead was done
amidst elaborate rituals and that burial ceremonies constitute the most elaborate magico-religious
practice4.

Alfredo R. Roces, Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation, Vol. 1. (Singapore: Lahing
Pilipino Publishing Inc., 1977) pg. 149

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Healing rituals--- these were the magico-religious solutions to the early illnesses. They
sacrificed precious animals and in return, the gods will heal a sick or dying loved one. They
shook leaves on your head, pierced you on your different body parts, and whispered to the
supernatural beings expecting them to reply. For the present-day Filipinos, it was the
profession of quack doctors (whom they called Shamans), but for them, it was a matter of life
and death.
Our ancestors also believed in nature spirits: the spirit of rivers, seas, trees, forests,
animals, the sun, and whatnot, but their ultimate god was Bathala who they consistently prayed
to.

Youd wonder how everything stated in the books about the pre-Hispanic Philippine
history came about after reading the teaspoon of information stating that the Spaniards ruined
about 98 percent of our earliest pieces of literature to the point that the only things that were left
for us to study is tantamount to a very, very tiny portion of the pre-Magellan Philippines. Well
even the contemporary Spanish people will accept the immaturity of their explorers who sought
to spread Christianity ---which they did and a lot of us are thankful for---but were too naive to
contradict their own religion to pursue their goal. They killed Shamans and priestesses with the
rest of their belongings due to the belief that they were demons. Together with the things they
burned was also our literature--- the epitome of ancient Philippine creativity. It has taken us a
great deal of time and money to be able to know what we do today about them and we owe it to

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the difficult but fruitful recovery of the 2 percent of the supposed pieces of literature. Therefore,
we must be thankful for it.
The Filipinos owned a system of writing even more sophisticated and complicated than the
English alphabet. Our syllabary was probably Sanskrit or of Arabic provenance. It consisted of
seventeen letters that represented the five vowels and sounds of the contemporary language. The
ancient Filipinos wrote beautiful letters that comprised thought on tree barks, leaves, and on
bamboo tubes using any sharp tool or a stone knife.
Folk tales and songs were only some of the examples of orally-delivered literature. The
Filipino lullabies (uyayi), riddles (bugtong), love songs (kundiman), wedding songs (ihiman),
and elegies (tagulaylay) were, too, existent.
Hayo nat dimugin ang bato mong puso/ Sa pait ng aking lubhang tumutulo/ Nang ang
mailap mong away nang umamo/ Sa walang hangganang tapat kong pagsuyo. This verse was
one of the kundimans that were verbally passed down from one generation to another and was
sung to the desired woman of the singer. The English translation of this is: Let thy hard heart be
softened/ By my bitter tears flowing/ That you may take pity/ On my sincere and boundless
love. The romance in this song will simply prove that our ancestors, the Filipino gentlemen of
Lapu-lapus era, were already quixotic even before Rizals time. If every single man was as
talented as the composer of the abovementioned love song, I doubt if any woman will stay single
for long.
The gentleness and simplicity of the lullabies are also among the most adored up until now.
The diction of music of every uyayi is appropriate for a sleepy infant. The combination of the

21

basic choice of words in the lyrics and the tune of the music itself makes the song charming to
anyones ears. A beautiful example would be: Matulog na aking bunso/ Ang ina mo ay malayo/
Hindi ko naman masundo/ May putik at may balaho. In English, it directly means: Sleep
now,baby, darling/ Thy mother is far away/ I cannot fetch her/ The path is filled with mud and
mudholes.
Besides love songs and lullabies, another originally Filipino form of Literature was the
Dung-aw or the dirges. Dirges are funeral hymns expressing misery and mourning. Ay
annakko bunga!/ Bilbilenka ama/ Ta no makitamto ni Kalla/ Pakomusta amto koma. In
translation: Ay, my child, my fruit/ This I wish to ask of you/ should you ever see Kalla/ Extend
to her my regards. In this particular dung-aw, it is evident that the Spanish influence already setin (the word Pakomusta derives from the Spanish phrase Como Esta). As a result, the original
dialect used in the verse was lost. Besides from being a dung-aw, this specific example also
informs us that there are Filipino literary works which were edited and reedited because of
language development. The story behind the dirge was that a mother had previously lost a child
named Kalla and so she chants this verse as a message to another daughter, who died as well,
that on the way to heaven, greet Kalla for her.
The Biag ni lam-ang or the Life of Lam-ang is a folk epic written by the early Ilocanos.
The Ifugaos residing in the northern part of Luzon have their epics HudHud and Alim. The
Hudhud glorifies the history of the Ifugaos by telling a tale centered on the adventures of hero
named Aliguyon. The Alim, on the other hand, is a mythological work of literature (story
dealing with Filipino gods) resembling the Indian epic Ramayana.

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The first glimpse of the creativity of the first inhabitants of the Philippines when it comes
to arts can be witnessed through the artifacts of tools and weapons found in the excavations. You
see, there were very unique tools that were used to shape or draw petals or flowers. They were
polished out of stone and were tracked to have begun existing during the Philippine Stone age.
Other forms of artistic expression were the beaded amulets, bracelets, and other accessories that
were made out of precious raw materials such as the jade, red cornelian, and other attractive
stones. At this stage, they have had already learned to dye clothes for which designs in
ornaments were credited for. With the arrival of the Bronze Age, Bello, drums, and gongs
renewed social arts with dancing and music.

Conclusion
Before researching about the pre-colonial lives of our ancestors, like most of the
contemporary Filipinos, I thought we were the isolates of Asia before the fleets of Ferdinand
Magellan docked on the shores of Visayas. Why? Its not because I didnt care about the
Prehistoric Philippines, but because when it was introduced as a lesson during the elementary
days, they didnt make it seem interesting enough. What the teachers mostly focused on was the
historical lesson about our national hero, specifically, Jose Rizal. Im definitely not saying that
he wasnt important enough, what I want to deliver is that his heroic life is just as significant to
the Philippine history as the history of the coming of our own country from scratch, not just from

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the start of the Spanish colony. Aside from the fact that we were forced to absorb knowledge
about the Prehistoric Philippines at a very ignorant age, some historians were biased enough
tothank the Spaniards for colonizing us implying that that we wouldnt have progressed without
the help of foreign colonizers which, of course, is not entirely false, but what are we nowadays?
Is the inevitably corrupt government and the unaccountable poverty experienced by Filipinos
today what we all call progress?
Philippines was already civilized before the coming of the Spaniards and thats just a
fact nobody can escape, no matter how excellent the Spanish-influenced changes were. Its a
very awful thing to know that some full-blooded Filipinos believe the Spanish history is much
better to learn. To my dismay, they are neither correct nor wrong, but what is even more
depressing is that almost nobody knows about the original Philippines at all. All they remember
is that the earliest historic event is the fight for Mactan between Lapu-lapu ang Magellan.
The country of Ma-I, as the Chinese used to call it, was filled with various civilizations
of different sophistications. Our society may have not been democratic but it comprised of social
classes that classified our ancestors way of life. This is one of the many examples of the things
that were given birth during the pre-Hispanic period of our nation that nobody acknowledges. If
this isnt enough for you, take the position of the pre-colonial Filipinas for instance. For most
people, this is the epitome of the Spanish feminism. None of the books really state the specific
procedures that the Spaniards followed to be able to properly and formally convince both the

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antiquity-bided men and women that men were more superior but Im pretty sure that public
speaking would have been insufficient.
The beauty of the Philippines wasnt limited to its social complexities. The literary pieces
that the youth created hundreds of years ago arent particularly popular but they signify the sense
of art and talent that the original Filipinos possessed. They were able to invert the art of creating
necklaces, bracelets, and other body accessories that wealthy people used to represent
themselves.
Truly, without question, given the qualities and brilliance that our ancestors were able to
put into their lifestyles, traditions, industries, and literature, it easy enough to say that we were
already uniquely beautiful before Ferdinand Magellan stepped into the picture. To those who
stay hesitant in believing this, kindly ponder why we dont speak in straight Spanish. If there
were absolutely nothing to change when the intruders arrived, why we dont look exactly like the
present-day Spaniards? Shouldnt we be completely alike? Even if you raise the argument that
the Spaniards were not our sole colonizers, the ratio of the length in time that they consumed in
our country is approximately thirty to one. Remember, our other colonizers, the Japanese and the
Americans, stayed no longer than five years each while on the other hand, the Spaniards had
lived with us for almost more than a century, and yet our original roots of pre-Hispanic aspects
still remain--- proof that those influences are in our lineage. A veteran priest even commented:

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The pre-Hispanic Filipinos were very literate and used syllabaries of Indian origin. Father
Chirino (1604, 39): these islanders are so given to reading and writing that there is hardly a man,
much less a woman, who does not read and write in the letters of the island of Manila5

Charity Beyer-Bagatsing, the Philippines Before Magellan. Pp. 1.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Agoncillo, Teodoro A. History of the Filipino People. Quezon City: Garotech Publishing, 1990.

Beyer- Bagatsing, Charity. The Philippines Before Magellan.

Casal, Fr. Gabriel S., et.al. The Earliest Filipinos. Philippines: Asia Publishing Company
Limited, 1998.

History of the Philippines. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Philippines_ (900-1521).

Ong, Perry S. et.al. The Philippine Archipelago. Philippines: Asia Publishing Company Limited,
1998.

Pelmoka, Juana Jimenez. Pre-Spanish Philippines. Caloocan City: Philippine Graphics Arts, Inc.,
1996.

Roces, Alfredo R. Filipino Heritage: the Making of a Nation. Philippines: Lahing Pilipino
Publishing Inc., 1977.

Roces, Alfredo R. Filipino Heritage: the Making of a Nation, Vol. 1. Singapore: Lahing Pilipino
Publishing Inc., 1977.

The Philippines Before Magellan. Zylla3.Wordpress.com/2008/06/22/the-philippines-beforeMagellan.

What

is
the
name
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Philippines
before
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Philippines.
wiki.anwsers.com/Q/what_is_the_name_of_Philippines_before_the_name_Philippines.

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