A History of the Philippines

by David P. Barrows

The barangays were grouped together in tiny federations including about as much territory as the present towns, whose affairs were conducted by the chiefs or datos, although sometimes they seem to have all been in obedience to a single chief, known in some places as the “hari,” at other times by the Hindu word “raja,” or the Mohammedan term “sultan.” Sometimes the power of one of these rajas seems to have extended over the whole of a small island, but usually their “kingdoms” embraced only a few miles.

Changes Made by the Spaniards.—The Spaniards, in enforcing their authority through the islands, took away the real power from the datos, grouping the barangays into towns, or “pueblos,” but making the datos “cabezas de barrio,” or “gobernadorcillos.” Something of the old distinction between the dato, or “principal,” and the common man may be still represented in the “gente illustrada,” or the more wealthy, educated, and influential class found in each town, and the “gente baja,” or the poor and uneducated.

Classes of Filipinos under the Datos.—Beneath the datos, according to Chirino and Morga, there were three classes of Filipinos; the free persons, or “maharlica,” who paid no tribute to the dato, but who accompanied him to war, rowed his boat when he went on a journey, and attended him in his house. This class is called by Morga “timauas.”[11]

Then there was a very large class, who appear to have been freedmen or liberated slaves, who had acquired their own homes and lived with their families, but who owed to dato or maharlica heavy debts of service; to sow and harvest in his ricefields, to tend his fish-traps, to row his canoe, to build his house, to attend him when he had guests, and to perform any other duties that the chief might command. These semi-free were called “aliping namamahay,” and their condition of bondage descended to their children.

Beneath these existed a class of slaves. These were the “siguiguiliris,” and they were numerous. Their slavery arose in several ways. Some were those who as children had been captured in war and their lives spared. Some became slaves by selling their freedom in times of hunger. But most of them became slaves through debt, which descended from father to son. The sum of five or six pesos was enough in some cases to deprive a man of his freedom.

These slaves were absolutely owned by their lord, who could theoretically sell them like cattle; but, in spite of its bad possibilities, this Filipino slavery was ordinarily not of a cruel or distressing nature. The slaves frequently associated on kindly relations with their masters and were not overworked. This form of slavery still persists in the Philippines among the Moros of Mindanao and Jolo. Children of slaves inherited their parents’ slavery. If one parent was free and the other slave, the first, third, and fifth children were free and the second, fourth, and sixth slaves. This whole matter of inheritance of slavery was curiously worked out in minute details.

Life in the Barangay.—Community feeling was very strong within the barangay. A man could not leave his own barangay for life in another without the consent of the community and the payment of money. If a man of one barrio married a woman of another, their children were divided between the two barangays. The barangay was responsible for the good conduct of its members, and if one of them suffered an injury from a man outside, the whole barangay had to be appeased. Disputes and wrongs between members of the same barangay were referred to a number of old men, who decided the matter in accordance with the customs of the tribe, which were handed down by tradition.[12]

The Religion of the Filipinos.—The Filipinos on the arrival of the Spaniards were fetish-worshipers, but they had one spirit whom they believed was the greatest of all and the creator or maker of things. The Tagálog called this deity Bathala,[13] the Bisaya, Laon, and the Ilocano, Kabunian. They also worshiped the spirits of their ancestors, which were represented by small images called “anitos.” Fetishes, which are any objects believed to possess miraculous power, were common among the people, and idols or images were worshiped. Pigafetta describes some idols which he saw in Cebu, and Chirino tells us that, within the memory of Filipinos whom he knew, they had idols of stone, wood, bone, or the tooth of a crocodile, and that there were some of gold.

They also reverenced animals and birds, especially the crocodile, the raven, and a mythical bird of blue or yellow color, which was called by the name of their deity Bathala.[14] They had no temples or public places of worship, but each one had his anitos in his own house and performed his sacrifices and acts of worship there. As sacrifices they killed pigs or chickens, and made such occasions times of feasting, song, and drunkenness. The life of the Filipino was undoubtedly filled with superstitious fears and imaginings.

The Mohammedan Malays.—The Mohammedans outside of southern Mindanao and Jolo, had settled in the vicinity of Manila Bay and on Mindoro, Lubang, and adjacent coasts of Luzon. The spread of Mohammedanism was stopped by the Spaniards, although it is narrated that for a long time many of those living on the shores of Manila Bay refused to eat pork, which is forbidden by the Koran, and practiced the rite of circumcision. As late as 1583, Bishop Salazar, in writing to the king of affairs in the Philippines, says the Moros had preached the law of Mohammed to great numbers in these islands and by this preaching many of the Gentiles had become Mohammedans; and further he adds, “Those who have received this foul law guard it with much persistence and there is great difficulty in making them abandon it; and with cause too, for the reasons they give, to our shame and confusion, are that they were better treated by the preachers of Mohammed than they have been by the preachers of Christ.”[15]