DABAL, Jessa Mae P.

II-Block C

Code of Maragtas
The stories known as the Maragtas are legends that may or may not be based
on actual events in the remote past. They are about the ten datus or chiefs who
escaped the tyranny of Datu Makatunaw of Borneo and immigrated to the
island of Panay. Once there, they supposedly bought the lowland plains of the
island from Marikudo, the leader of the indigenous Aytas, for the price of a
solid gold salakot (hat). According to the legend, these ten chiefs and their
families are the very ancestors of the entire Visayan population. This is the
legend that has been celebrated yearly in the Ati-atihan festival since the late
1950s when it became a part of the annual feast of the Santo Niño in Kalibo,
Aklan
Even though Monteclaro did describe the customs and rules of Sumakwel's
community, he never made reference to any Code of Sumakwel or Code of
Maragtas. Indeed Maragtas was simply the title of his own book and a word
which was supposed to mean "history". Thus any Code of Maragtas that
predated his book would be highly suspect from the start. In fact, the Maragtas
Code only first appeared in an article entitled El Código de Maragtás written
by Guillermo Santiago-Cuino in 1938. These were a set of laws which were
said to have been enacted in the year 1212. This code was allegedly translated
by Santiago-Cuino from "ancient Filipino writing". He claimed that he had
found these documents in the mountains of Madya-as and that he was
accompanied by a Bishop Gabriel Reyes at the time. However, when Reyes
was asked about the incident by a relative, Jaime de Veyra of the National
Language Institute, he said that he did not know Santiago-Cuino nor had he
ever been to the Madya-as mountains. Guillermo Santiago-Cuino never
produced his original document for the public or any believable proof for his
essay. Santiago-Cuino probably took the date of the Code of Maragtas from a
work by Josué Soncuya, Historia prehispana de Filipinas (1917). The year
1212 is the date that Soncuya gave for the emigration of the ten datus. He
based this on two unpublished documents from Mambusao, Capiz and
Bugasong, Antique which were never recognized to be prehispanic by any
historian. In fact, these said documents were not dated as such but were
assigned this date by local school teachers who had prepared chronicles for
their towns to submit to the National Library in 1911. Aside from this,
Soncuya's calculations are generally quite unreliable. For example, by his
estimation, the year 1212 is 16 generations after the year 1160. Obviously, 16
human generations could not fit into a span of only 52 years.1
Code of Maragtas
>> It is a written law.
>> It was the first law written that focuses on the penalty for those who are

1
https://aboutphilippines.ph/files/The-Maragtas-Legend.pdf
lazy.
>> It was written by Datu Samaktel of Panay in 1250.
1. Great penalty shall be imposed on laziness. Land shall be cultivated and
planted.
2. A lazy person shall be arrested and sold as a slave to work in the fields.
3. When a slave becomes industrious and an able worker, the purchase money
shall be returned to his purchaser and the slave shall be freed to till his own
land.

4. When a man, after gaining his freedom, again becomes lazy and
improvident he shall be re-arrested and thrown into the deepest forest to keep
him from associating with his own people.

5. Theft and reaping of plants grown and cultivated by others shall be severely
punished and the person found guilty shall have his fingers cut.
6. Marriage to as many as three women may be permitted in the beginning in
order to increase the population. Afterwards only those who can support many
wives and children may be permitted more than one wife.
7. Poor person shall not have more than two children. Children of the poor in
excess of two in number shall be killed or thrown to a swift river.
8. The authorities shall arrest a man who dishonors a woman, runs away and
does not marry her.
9. If the man is not found, the illegitimate child shall be killed and they shall
both be buried in one grave.
10. Parents shall no longer take care of their children who beget illegitimate
children.2

THE CODE OF KALANTIAW

ARTICLE I
You shall not kill, neither shall you steal, neither shall you do harm to the
aged,
lest you incur the danger of death. All those who infringe this order shall be
condemned to death by being drowned in the river, or in boiling water.

ARTICLE II
You shall obey. Let all your debts with the headman be met punctually.
He who does not obey shall receive for the first time one hundred lashes.
If the debt is large, he shall be condemned to thrust his hand in boiling water
thrice. For the second time, he shall be beaten to death.

ARTICLE III
Obey you: let no one have women that are very young nor more than
2
https://prezi.com/7c48xxsd9fj2/code-of-maragtas-and-kalantiao/
he can support; nor be given to excessive lust. He who does not comply
with, obey, and observe this order shall be condemned to swim for three
hours for the first time and for the second time, to be beaten to death with
sharp thorns.

ARTICLE IV
Observe and obey; let no one disturb the quiet of the graves. When passing
by the caves and trees where they are, give respect to them. He who does
not observe this shall be killed by ants, or beaten to death with thorns.

ARTICLE V
You shall obey; he who exchanges for food, let it be always done in
accordance with his word. He who does not comply, shall be beaten for
one hour, he who repeats the offense shall be exposed for one day among
ants.

ARTICLE VI
You shall be obliged to revere sights that are held in respect, such as those
of trees of recognized worth and other sights. He who fails to comply
shall pay with one month's work in gold or in honey.

ARTICLE VII
These shall be put to death; he who kills trees of venerable appearance;
who shoot arrows at night at old men and women; he who enters the
houses of the headmen without permission; he who kills a shark or a
streaked cayman.

ARTICLE VIII
Slavery for a doam (a certain period of time) shall be suffered by those
who steal away the women of the headmen; by him who keep ill-tempered
dogs that bite the headmen; by him who burns the fields of another.

ARTICLE IX
All these shall be beaten for two days: who sing while traveling by
night; kill the Manaul; tear the documents belonging to the headmen;
are malicious liars; or who mock the dead.

ARTICLE X
It is decreed an obligation; that every mother teach secretly to her
daughters matters pertaining to lust and prepare them for womanhood;
let not men be cruel nor punish their women when they catch them
in the act of adultery. Whoever shall disobey shall be killed by being cut
to pieces and thrown to the caymans.

ARTICLE XI
These shall be burned: who by their strength or cunning have mocked at
and escaped punishment or who have killed young boys; or try to steal away
the women of the elders.
ARTICLE XII
These shall be drowned: all who interfere with their superiors, or their
owners or masters; all those who abuse themselves through their
lust; those who destroy their anitos (idols) by breaking them or throwing
them down.

ARTICLE XIII
All these shall be exposed to ants for half a day: who kill black cats during
a new moon; or steal anything from the chiefs or agorangs, however
small the object may be.

ARTICLE XIV
These shall be made slave for life: who have beautiful daughters and
deny them to the sons of chiefs, and with bad faith hide them away.

ARTICLE XV
Concerning beliefs and superstitions; these shall be beaten: who eat the
diseased flesh of beasts which they hold in respect, or the herb which
they consider good, who wound or kill the young of the Manaul, or the
white monkey.

ARTICLE XVI
The fingers shall be cut-off: of all those who break idols of wood and
clay in their alangans and temples; of those who destroy the daggers of the
tagalons, or break the drinking jars of the latter.

ARTICLE XVII
These shall be killed: who profane sites where idols are kept, and sites
where are buried the sacred things of their diwatas and headmen. He who
performs his necessities in those places shall be burned.

ARTICLE XVIII
Those who do not cause these rules to be obeyed: if they are headmen, they
shall be put to death by being stoned and crushed; and if they are
agorangs they shall be placed in rivers to be eaten by sharks and caymans.

NOTE: In the famous epic story of Maragtas, there was this mythical legal
code called "The Code of Kalantiaw". It was named after its supposed
author, Datu Kalantiaw, who allegedly wrote it in 1433. Datu Kalantiaw
was a chief on the island of Negros. It was written about by Jose E. Marco
in 1913 in his historical fiction "Las Antiguas Leyendes de la Isla de
Negros" (The Ancient Legends of the Island of Negros). He ascribed
its source to a priest named Jose Maria
Pavon.

The historian Josue Soncuya wrote about the Code of Kalantiaw in 1917
in his book "Historia Prehispana de Filipinas" (Prehispanic History of the
Philippines) where he transferred the location of the origin of the Code
from Negros to Panay because he contended that said Code may have
been related to the Binirayan
festival.

The story on this Code has been recognized through the ages by
known authors. In 1968, however, historian William Henry Scott
called this a "hoax" in his book "Prehispanic Source Materials
for the Study of Philippine History". Consequently, Filipino historians
agreed to expunge the Code of Kalantiaw in future materials on Philippine
history.

Although the said Code ceases to be part of the texts of Philippine

history, however, many still believe its validity.3

3
http://www.chanrobles.com/codeofkalantiaw.html#NOTE_TO_CODE_OF_KALANTIAW