One of the earliest references that I find to the Manóbos of the Agúsan Valley is in the General History of the Discalced Augustinian Fathers (1661-1699) by Father Pedro de San Francisco de Assis.3 The author says that "the mountains of that territory4 are inhabited by a nation of Indians, heathens for the greater part, called Manóbos, a word signifying in that language, as if we should say here, robust or very numerous people." I have so far found no word in the Manóbo dialect that verifies the correctness of the above statement. It may be said, however, in favor of this derivation that manúsia is the word for "man" or "mankind" in the Malay, Moro (Magindanáo), and Tirurái languages. In Bagóbo, a dialect that shows very close resemblance to Manóbo, the word Manóbo means "man," and in Magindanáo Moro it means "mountain people,"5 and is applied by the Moros to all the mountain people of Mindanáo. It might be maintained, therefore, with some semblance of reason that the word Manóbo means simply "people." Some of the early historians use the words Manóbo, Mansúba, Manúbo. These three forms indicate the derivation to be from a prefix man, signifying "people" or "dweller," and súba, a river. From the form Manúbo, however, we might conclude that the word is made up of man("people"), and húbo("naked"), therefore meaning the "naked people." The former derivation, however, appears to be more consonant with the principles upon which Mindanáo tribal names, both general and local, are formed. Thus Mansáka, Mandáya, Mañgguáñgan are derived, the first part of each, from man ("people" or "dwellers"), and the remainder of the words, respectively, from sáka ("interior"), dáya ("up the river"), guáñgan ("forest"). These names then mean "people of the interior," "people that dwell on the upper reaches of the river," and "people that dwell in the forest." Other tribal designations of Mindanáo races and tribes are almost without exception derived from words that denote the relative geographic position of the tribe in question. The Banuáon and Mamánua are derived from banuá, the "country," as distinguished from settlements near the main or settled part of the river. The Bukídnon are the mountain people (bukid, mountain); Súbanun, the river people (súba, river); Tirurái, the mountain people (túduk, mountain, etéu, man);6 Tagakaólo, the people at the very source of a river (tága, inhabitant, ólo, head or source).
3Blair and Robertson, 41: 153, 1906.
4The author refers to the mountains in the vicinity of Líano, a town that stood down the river from the present Veruéla and which was abandoned when the region subsided.
5Fr. Jacinto Juanmarti's Diccionario Moro Magindanáo-Español (Manila, 1892), 125.
6My authority for this derivation is a work by Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera on The Origin of Philippine Tribal Names.
The derivation of the above tribal designations leads us to the opinion that the word Manóbo means by derivation a "river-man," and not a "naked man."
A further alternative derivation has been suggested by Dr. N. M. Saleeby,7 from the word túbo, "to grow"; the word Manóbo, according to this derivation, would mean the people that grew up on the island, that is the original settlers or autochthons. The word túbo, "to grow," is not, however, a Manóbo word, and it is found only in a few Mindanáo dialects.
7Origin of Malayan Filipinos, a paper read before the Philippine Academy, Manila, Nov. 1, 1911.
Father F. Combes, S. J.,8 says that the owners, that is, the autochthonic natives of Mindanáo, were called Manóbos and Mananápes.9 In a footnote referring to Mananápes, it is stated, and appears very reasonable and probable, that the above-mentioned term is not a tribal designation but merely an appellation of contempt used on account of the low culture possessed by the autochthons at that time.
8Historia de Mindanáo y Jolo (Madrid, 1664). Ed. Retana (Madrid, 1897).