Before taking “Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas” classes in college, students are being taught that the Spaniards discovered Philippines. But how about those who lived in the Philippines before the Spaniards came? Did they not discover the Philippines? Even before the Spaniards came there are already people in the said country. They even have their own religion, beliefs and culture. The first people that was said to be in the country were the Negritos, Malay and Indones. The Negritos or the Aytas migrated in the Philippines in land bridges. They are excellent in hunting and gathering foods. The Malays were the second race to come in the Philippines. They migrated to the Philippines through a boat called balangay. They have brought the knowledge about seafaring, farming and creation of fire when cooking. Third, was the Indones. They have more advanced knowledge in terms of agriculture, writing, boat building and jewerly-making.
Moreover, the Spaniards treated Filipinos before as if they don’t know anything, even calling them ‘indios’ which means an ignorant or an indigenous person. But I would say that the Filipinos before already has a culture and a living. An example of this is the Banaue Rice Terraces that may be found in themountains of Cordilleras. These rice terraces were built by the Ifugaos where they grow they crops and have a great water irrigation system. Early Filipinos does not only race crops but also medicinal herbs. Also, early Filipinos not just have agriculture as their sense of living but also, they do trade to different race. One of the evidences was the sculpture of boats at the top of a manunggul jar. It is said that this jar was a proof that early Filipinos knew how to boat and fish as well as significance that there was already the pottery industry.
Moreover, according to the recent study of Bellwood and Solheim, there are already trading happening from different countries, which all would pass the Philippines. Furthermore, early Filipinos have already their own beliefs and religion. They are already giving their praises to a god which they called “anitos”. They are believed to be their ancestors that have died that are still continuously guiding them. They have different gods for agriculture, rain and more. In addition, our ancestors also have classes and a sense of leadership. These classes are composed of datus, maharlika, timawa and the alipins. The datus are the head official of each barangays which makes them the most powerful.
There were two accounts that our professor, Ms. Rita Agudon told us to read so that we may further understand the topic pre-colonial Philippines. One of the accounts was the account of Antonio Morga, Morga’s Sucesos de Las Islas Filipinas. Antonio Morga is a Spanish jurists, historian as well as a soldier. His account was for the Filipino people as well as foreigners. This account was written descriptively about the culture and the traditions of early Filipinos. Descriptions on how early Filipinos dressed or put on their clothing, the type of clothing that they wear (e.g. for men, short collarless garments and strip of colored clothe wrapped above the waist), their occupation (e.g for women, they do needlework and for men, field labors, fishing, navigation and trading). Moreover, he further elaborated on jars, pintados, weapons and language. This article is dedicated both to Filipinos so that they would further love and appreciate the things that they have also to increase their esteem and be more proud of what they have as well as for the foreigners for them to not under estimate Filipinos and eliminate tagging Filipinos as ‘indios’.
Another account was about the written records written by a Chinese superintendent Chao Ju Kua. In his documents, he emphasizes that the early Filipinos were not barbarians or ignorant people, in fact he even pin pointed scenarios wherein written records from other countries would prove the culture and traditions of Filipinos. One of the reasons why he would want to write document about the history of the Philippines, is because there were unauthentic documents about it. The author would be on the side of Filipinos wherein he justifies the impudent calling of the Spaniards to our ancestors as ‘indios’. And with this, Filipinos are very thankful and grateful.
SHOUT LOUD AND BE PROUD! AKO’Y PILIPINO!
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