Reading in Philippine History Module2 – Lesson 2

CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS

Objectives:
1. identify the different customs of Tagalog;
2. create a mind map of the important concepts of organization, practices
and tradition in Tagalog customs;
3. reflect on the author’s purpose of writing the document.

Introduction
To many cultural groups, customs become the greatest belief of their
daily living that started from generation to generation which also considered a
cultural identity. In this lesson, you will know and understand the different
customs of Tagalogs in Luzon which were practiced before.

Activity Cite and explain at least three (3) customs that you learn from
your family or community that has been still practicing at the
present.
Customs Explain How Does It Done
1.

2.

3.

Analysis
1. What do you think are the reasons why does our elders and ancestors
made customs in our community/organization/ or family?
____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

2. Does it have something to do with our personal life right now? Why?
____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Abstraction
CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS

THE CUSTOMS of the Tagalogs is a narrative on the established culture

of the Tagalogs in Luzon written by Juan de Plasencia, a Franciscan missionary
in the Tagalog region since 1578 until 1590.
This document was written as an answer to the request of the monarchy
in Spain which was to provide pieces of information about the government,
administration of justice, inheritances, slaves, dowries, worship, burials, and
superstitions of the “Indians” in the colony. In addition, the document is to rectify
previous reports about the people’s way of life in the region.
Plasencia wrote:
“This people always had chiefs, called by them datos, who governed
them and were captains in their wars, and whom they obeyed and reverenced.
The subject who committed any offense against them, or spoke but a word to
their wives and children, was severely punished.”
These chiefs ruled over but few people; sometimes as many as hundred
houses, sometimes less than thirty. This tribal gathering is called in Tagalog a
barangay. It was inferred that the reason for giving themselves this name arose
from the fact (as they are classed by their language, among the Malay nations)
that when they came to this land, the head of the barangay, which is a boat,
thus called—as is discussed at length in the first chapter of the first ten chapters
–became a dato. And so, even at the present day, it is ascertained that this
barangay in its origin was a family of parents and children, relations and slaves.
There were many of these barangays in each town, or, at least, on account of
wars, they did not settle far from one another. They were not, however, subject
to one another, except in friendship and relationship. The chiefs, in their various
wars, helped one another with their respective barangays.
…
In these three classes, those who are maharlicas on both the fathers and
mothers side continue to be so forever; and if it happens that they should become
slaves, it is through marriage, as I shall soon explain. If these maharlicas had
children among their slaves, the children and their mothers became free; if one of
them had children by the slave-woman of another, she was compelled, when
pregnant, to give her master half of a gold tael, because of her risk of death, and
for her inability to labor during the pregnancy. In such a case half of the child was
free—namely, the half belonging to the father, who supplied the child with food. If
he did not do this, he showed that he did not recognize him as his child, in which
case the latter was wholly a slave. If a free woman had children by a slave, they
were all free, provided he were not her husband.
If two persons were married, of whom was a maharlica and the other slave,
whether namamahay or sa guiguilir, the children were divided: the first, whether
male or female, belonged to the father, as did the third and fifth; the second, the
fourth, and the sixth fell to the mother, and so on. In this manner, if the father were
free, all those who belonged to him were free; if he were slave, all those who
belonged to him were slaves; and the same applied to the mother. If there should
not be more than one child, he was half free and half slave. The only question here
concerned the division, whether the child was male or female. Those who became
slaves fell under the category of servitude which was their parent’s, either
namamahay or sa guiguilir. If there were an were an odd number of children, the
odd one was half free and half slave. I have not been able to ascertain with any
certainty when or at what age the division of children was made, for each one
suited himself in this respect. Of these two kinds of slaves the sa guiguilir could
be sold, but not the namamahay and their children, nor could they be transferred,
however, they could be transferred from the barangay by inheritance, provided
they remained in the same village.
…
They condemned no one to slavery, unless he merited the death-penalty.
As for the witches, they killed them, and their children and accomplices became
slaves of the chief, after he had some recompense to the injured person. All other
offenses were punished by fines in gold, which, if not paid with promptness,
exposed the culprit to serve, until the payment should be made, the person
aggrieved, to whom the money was to be paid. This was done in the following
way: Half the cultivated lands and all their produce belonged to the master. The
master provided the culprit with food and clothing, thus enslaving the culprit
and his children until such time as he might amass enough money to pay the
fine. If the father should by chance pay his debt, the master then claimed that
he had fed and clothed his children, and should be paid therefore…
In what concerns loans, there was formerly, and is today, an excess of
usury, which is a great hindrance to baptism as well as to confession; for it turns
out in the same way as I have showed in the case of the one under judgment,
who gives half of his cultivated lands and profits until he pays the debt. The
debtor is condemned to a life of toil; and thus borrowers become slaves, and after
the death of the father the children pay the debt. Not doing so, double the
amount must be paid. This system should and can be reformed.
…
In the case of a child by a free married woman, born while she was married,
if the husband punished the adulterer this was considered a dowry; and the
child entered with the others into partition in the inheritance. His share equaled
the part left by the father, nothing more. If there were no other sons than he, the
children and the nearest relatives inherited equally with him. But if the adulterer
were not punished by the husband of the woman who had the child, the latter
was not considered dishonored by the punishment inflicted, nor did the husband
leave the woman. By the punishment of the father the child was fittingly made
legitimate.
…
Dowries are given by the men to the women’s parents. If the latter are
living, they enjoy the use of it. At their death, provided the dowry has not been
consumed, it is divided like the rest of the estate, equally among the children,
except in case the father should care to bestow something additional upon the
daughter, If the wife, at the time of her marriage, has neither father, mother, nor
grandparents, she enjoys her dowry—which, in such a case, belongs to no other
relative or child. It should be noticed that unmarried women can own no
property, in land or dowry, for the result of all their labors accrues to their
parents.
…
The above is what I have been able to ascertain clearly concerning customs
observed among these natives in all this Laguna and the tingues, and among the
entire Tagalog race. The old men say that a dato who did anything contrary to
this would not be esteemed; and, in relating tyrranies which they had committed,
some condemned them and adjudged them wicked…
In all the villages, or in the other parts of the Filipinas Islands, there are
no temples consecrated to the performing of sacrifices, the adoration of their
idols, or the general practice of idolatry. It is true that they have the name
simbahan, which means a temple of place and adoration; but this is because,
formerly, when they wished to celebrate a festival, which they called pandot, or
“worship,” they celebrated it in the large house of a chief. There they constructed,
for the purpose of sheltering the assembled people, a temporary shed on each
side of the house, with a roof, called sibi, to protect the people from the wet when
it rained. They so constructed the house that it might contain many people –
dividing it, after the fashion of ships, into three compartments. On the posts of
the house they set small lamps, called sorihile; in the center of the house they
placed one large lamp, adorned with leaves at the white palm, wrought into many
designs. They also brought together many drums, large, small, which they beat
successively while the feast lasted, which was usually four days. During this
time the whole barangay, or family, united and joined in the worship which they
call nagaanitos. The house, for the above-mentioned period of time, was called a
temple.
Among their many idols there was one called Badhala, whom they
especially worshiped. The title seems to signify ‘all powerful,” or “maker of all
things.” They also worshipped the sun, which on account of its beauty, is almost
universally respected and honored by heathens. They worshipped, too, the
moon, especially when…
…
These natives had no established divisions of years, months, and days;
these are determined by the cultivation of the soil, counted by moons, and the
different effect produced upon the trees when yielding flowers, fruits, and leaves:
all these help them in making up the year. The winter and summer are
distinguished as sun-time and water-time – the latter term designating winter in
those regions, where there is no cold, snow, or ice…
Their manner of offering sacrifice was to proclaim a feast, and offer to the
devil what they had to eat. This was done in front of the idol, which they anoint
with fragrant perfumes, such as musk and civet, or gum of the storax-tree and
other odoriferous woods, and praise it in poetic songs sung by the officiating
priests, male or female, who is called catolonan. The participants made responses
to the song, beseeching the idol to favor them with those things of which they
were in need, and generally, by offering repeated health, they all become
intoxicated. In some of their idolatries they were accustomed to place a good
piece of cloth, doubled, over the idol, and over the cloth a chain or large, gold
ring, thus worshipping the devil without having sight of him. The devil was
sometimes liable to enter into the body of the catolonan, and, assuming her
shape and appearance, filled her with so great arrogance – he being the cause of
it – that she seemed to shoot flames from her eyes; her hair stood on end, a
fearful sight to those beholding, and she uttered words of arrogance and
superiority. In some districts, especially in the mountains, when in those
idolatries the devil incarnated himself and took on the form of his minister, the
latter had to be tied to a tree by his companions, to prevent the devil in his
infernal fury from destroying him. This, however, happened but rarely. The
objects of sacrifice were goats. Fowls, and swine, which were flayed, decapitated,
and laid before the idol…
…
 In the case of young girls who first had their monthly courses, their eyes
were blindfolded four days and four nights; and, in the meantime, the friends
and relatives were all invited to partake of food and drink. At the end of this
period, the catolonan took the young girl to the water, bathed her and wash her
head, and removed the bandage from her eyes. The old men said that they did
in order that the girls might bear children, and have fortune in finding husbands
to their taste, who would not leave them widows in their youth.
…
Their manner of burying the dead was as follows: the deceased was buried
beside his house; and, if he were a chief, he was placed beneath a little house or
porch which they constructed for this purpose. Before interring him, they
mourned him for four days; and afterward laid him on a boat which served as a
coffin or bier, placing him beneath the porch, were guard was kept over him by
a slave…
These infidels said that they knew that there was another life of rest which
they called maca, just as if we should say “paradise,” or, in other words, “village
of rest.” They say that those who go to this place are the just, and the valiant,
and those who lived without doing harm, or who possessed other moral virtues.
They said also that in the other life and morality, there was a place of
punishment, grief, and affliction, called casanaan, which was a “place of
anguish;” they also maintained that no one would go to heaven, where they dwelt
only Bathala, “the maker of all things,” who governed from above. There were
also other pagans who confessed more clearly to a hell, which they called, as I
have said, casanaan; they said that all the wicked went to that place, and there
dwelt the demons, whom they called sitan…
There were also ghosts, which they called vibit; and phantoms, which they
called Tigbalaang. They had another deception – namely, that if any woman died
in childbirth, she and the child suffered punishment; and that, at night, she
could be heard lamenting. This was called patianac. May the honor and glory be
God our Lord’s that among all the Tagalogs not a trace of this is left; and that
those who are now marrying do not even know what it is, thanks to the preaching
of the holy gospel, which has banished it”.

Source: Plasencia, Juan de. “Customs of the Tagalogs” In Emma Helen Blair and James Robertso. The
Philippine Islands: 1493-1898. Cleveland. OH: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1906.

Application
Task 1 Write true if the statement is correct, otherwise, write false.
________ 1. The Tagalogs believe in the other life, mortality, and the place
of anguish called Casanan.
________ 2. The belief behind the practice of blindfolding among girls who
had their first monthly courses was for them to be able to bear
children and keep a lifetime marriage.
________ 3. The Tagalog alipin was categorized into aliping saguiguilir wh
claims privileges and the aliping namamahay who can be
sold.
________ 4. The lands on the tingues were divided among the barangay
people.
________ 5. Other than the sun and the moon, the Tagalogs had one idol
worshipped which they called Badhala, a title that signify
“benevolence”.

Task 2 Base from the lesson, create a mind map of the important
Concepts of the following;

Political Organization

Economic Organization

Cultural Practices and Traditions

Task 3 Give a concise explanation on the following items.
1. What was the author’s main argument? What was he
trying to say about the customs of the Tagalog?
2. What was the author’s purpose of writing the document?
3. What is the important connection of the document to
your recognition and appreciation of the Tagalog
customs?