Readings in the Philippine history  The government, barangay

Pre-colonial period relations law and judicial

process
 Houses  BARANGAY
 Bahay kubo ( nipa hut) - Composed of 30 – 100 families
 Tree top houses - Derived from the malay word
 Boat houses “balangay” meaning boat
 Mode of dressing - Ruled by a chieftain called
 female DATU, HARI or RAJA (in Muslim
 Gold accessories communities)
 Baro/ camisa  SANDUGUAN
 Saya/ patadyon - Barangays concluded a treaty
 Male of friendship and alliance
 Putong through this ritual
 Kanggan  Maragtas code
 Bahag - One of the earliest example of
 Gold accessories written laws
 Ornaments  JUDICIAL PROCESS
 Gold armlets - Trial by ordeal
 Gold rings - trial by combat
 Gold necklaces  music and dances
 Gold for filling teeth  musical instruments
 Social classes - kudyapi
 Nobles - tulogan
- The chiefs, their families and - silbay
relatives - kutibeng
- Carried the title Gat or Lakan  music and dances
 Free men - BALITAW- visayan folksong
- Free born persons or freed - DANDANSOY- visayan tuba
slaves dance
 Dependents - KUMINTANG- Tagalog love
- Also known as ALIPIN dance
- Aliping namamahay - MAHINHIN- Ragalog courtship
- Aliping sagigilid dance
- KINNOTAN
- TADEK- tinggian love dance - idianale- god of agriculture
 Economy - sidapa- god of death
 Agriculture was the main - agni- god of fire
source of livelihood of the - magdarangan – god of water
Filipinos. - lalahon- goddess of harvest
 Two system of land - siginarungan- god of hell
cultivation:
 Kaingin system
(upland)
 Tillage system
(lowland) - the pre- Spanish Filipinos
 Two system of land holding: worshipped nature, the sun,
 Private the moon, the animals, the
 Public birds and even old trees.
 Other industries were - They belived in ancestral spirits
mining, shipbuilding, fishing, called anitos by the tagalogs
lumbering, weaving, poultry and diwatas by the visayans.
and livestock - The babaylan and katalona are
 Inter- baranganic trade and priestesses who perform ritual
commerce was carried offerings of sacrifice
through the water system
 Early Filipinos traded with
countries like Japan,
Thailand, India, old Malaysia
and Indonesia
 They system of weights
facilitated their commercial
transaction.
 religion
early Filipinos worshipped a
supreme being they called
BATHALANG MAYKAPAL
 minor deities they
worshipped
Conclusive endings
When does a writer end a story or a novel?
HINDSIGHT
F. Sionil Jose
The Philippine Star
August 2, 2021
There is no rigid rule here. In my case, I end the story or a novel when the dilemma or problem
is resolved, when the hero dies. I like my stories and novels to end conclusively with bells
ringing and canons booming, as in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture. Otherwise, as the plot
demands, as quietly as a breeze. However, it is very rare to have a story or a novel end with all
that noise, i.e. Po-on and the battle of Tirad Pass.
Often, it is quiet and final like Dr. Puro in Olvidon discovering his disease and himself, or the
Ifugao, Philip Latak, recovering his roots in The God Stealer.
It is important for the author to know when to stop, that his story will not be anti-climactic and
will be losing its power to make the reader think and ponder the emotional and intellectual
awakening.
Do you remember that beautiful movie, Anastasia, starring Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner? It’s
about Anastasia, the daughter of the Czar of Russia, who is supposed to have survived the
massacre of their family. The story is set in Paris where the Russian survivors went into exile.
The Queen Mother questions Anastasia (Ingrid Bergman) and realizes, in this famous
recognition scene, that she is, indeed, Anastasia. By my lights, the movie should have ended
there. The rest of it was anti-climactic.
Now in real life, in history particularly ours, are so many stories and the loose strings – so-
called, untied, the conclusions left hanging. For instance, if the Spaniards did not kill Rizal,
would he have led the Revolution against Spain? Like Hamlet, he equivocated, contemplated so
much. He didn’t seem decisive except in his writing. If Bonifacio wasn’t killed in Tejeros, would
the Pact of Biak-Na-Bato have been avoided, and would his Revolution have triumphed?
I remember very well a conversation I had with historians Teddy Agoncillo and Chitang Nakpil.
Aware as I was of the social divide in the Malolos Republic, the wealthy ilustrados against the
poor Mabini and his supporters, I wondered if a civil war would have erupted if the Americans
didn’t come. Both Chitang and Teddy said, most probably, it would have come sooner than
expected.
The Huks were on the verge of capturing power in 1948-49. What would have happened if they
did? Would the Communists have ruled differently? Dr. Salvador Puro in Olvidon suggests
otherwise – they would have ruled just as badly because they are Filipinos, hostage to family,
ethnicity and all the traditional cultural obstacles to democratic development.
Magsaysay defeated the Huks, and he proved that we are capable of forging an honest
government. President Duterte is wrong; the Filipino can be very honest if he knows his leaders
are honest, that they punish – I repeat – punish the corrupt and sequester their stolen
properties. Why is the Singapore government clean? China often executes its high but corrupt
Party leaders. But even Magsaysay began to feel the intense political pressures on his regime,
the subtle beginnings of corruption. I realize now that he was on the verge of forming a new
political party when he died in that plane crash.
And Marcos and Ninoy, is it true that they met in secret when Ninoy was in jail? And after EDSA
I, what would have happened if Marcos went to Paoay, NOT Hawaii?
Ninoy, who helped negotiate the surrender of Taruc to the government, wanted desperately to
be president. He was ruthless and single-minded in this ambition, and he sought allies, whoever
they were and wherever he found them – including the Communists and the CIA. How would he
have fared as president with this Communist alliance? He who rides the tiger – as the old
warring goes – cannot dismount. There are no IFS in history. There are only the iron realities of
men acting out their destinies, a people deserving their leaders whom they have placed on
pedestals made of sand. I’ve looked at them – our presidents from Aguinaldo to Duterte; all of
them were vested with so much power to do away with our most pernicious and crippling
sickness – moral poverty.
All societies – pre-historic, ancient and tribal – have taboos, moral guidelines, that bond them
to make them secure. This is so true even with us, as the Spaniards found out. But this moral
code has been eroded through the years, resulting not just in poverty, but poverty of the spirit.
This moral poverty has grown slowly, unperceptively, fed by continuing depredations of social
instability, colonization and occupation during which moral standards are discarded as people
struggle to survive. Each crisis demands such behavior until that moral malaise is accepted as
normal, making recovery more difficult. Democratic institutions malfunction, apathy and
cynicism induce acquiescence. A society, a state, fails without its people being fully aware of
what had happened. In their despair, they vote for charlatans who promise them utopia. But
metastasis has set in.
Thank God, we are not in this condition. But for all the evident progress – infrastructure, and
ribbons and ribbons of new roads Duterte has built, he had also polarized the country – not
united it. It will take a new kind of leadership to unite us and banish the magmatic hatreds and
seismic fanaticism.
We are now in this stage of trying to recover our ancient values. At no other time in our history
have we been overfed with all sorts of information on the condition of our country, information
including our relations with our neighbors. We know now the most intimate knowledge of our
leaders, their picadillos even. But still, we don’t use this knowledge to better our lot. Indeed,
knowledge is not wisdom.