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@ensaybinibini
Would Goyong take an interest in a sassy and outspoken girl?
eh di why not
she’ll talk back to him with a lashing dangerous mouth full of poisonous words; he’ll have to kiss it shut and make sure she never ever says anything against him again.
how could she, when she realizes what dangeous growling animals lay beneath a good-mannered general uniform?
TANGINA MO JHEPOY DIXZOZN
HOY CAPTAINMALDITO hindi mo naman alam kjng ank yung pinagdaanan nina Cee para ijudge mo siya ng ganun lang. At bakit ba? May sari-sarili tayong healing process. Isa pa, hindi ba't ikaw yung immature para magsend ng ganyan?
Thank you bes.
Heneral: Pinapakulot ko yung bigote ko tuwing alas quatro nang hapon.
For dinner, Filipino comfort food at Tselogs a tiny alley sized restaurant in the tenderloin district. The setup is like a sushi bar, a long bar table with the chefs on the other side preparing food as you eat. It was amazing! Got their famous sisigsilog - chicken chopped up and stir fried with scallions and served with rice and a fried egg. Of course i also got my mango juice and the guy next to me said he “ordered way too much lumpia” which lucky for me, is a problem i can fix :D :D ⠀ The bay area has a huge filipino population. Daley City, the location of this restaurants first store, has the largest concentration of filipinos outside of the Philippines with nearly 1/3 of the population of filipino descent. Filipinos have a long history of traveling to the bay area. The first recorded landing of filipinos in the bay area occurred in 1595 in Marin County. Portuguese sailer Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno landed on Limantour beach with a number of Filipinos on the crew. Since then a number of filipino crews on Manila Galleons came to the US. The first major wave of Filipinos came during the Spanish American and the Filipino-American war, something i didn’t even know existed until today. In 1989 the Spanish american war raged over pacific and at the signing of the peace treaty, sovereignty over the Philippines was handed over to the US. At that point native Filipinos began fighting against American troops and the Filipino-American war began. Most of these troops were trained at Fort Mason (which i visited yesterday) and left from the fort to fight the war. Filipinos came over both on Spanish Gallions and on US ships following the war. The second wave came in 1917 when Filipinos were unrestricted from immigrating to the US, unlike other asians, in the Immigration Act of 1917. This generation came to be known as the manong generation, an ilokano name given to the first-born male in a filipino nuclear family. Many of this generation came as laborers and unlike other Asian immigrants came accustomed to american influences and worked freely until the Great Depression brought race based violence. Ok out of space. #AdventuresInSpaceTime #DownAndOutInSFandBerkeley (at Tselogs)
The First Quarter Storm of 1970: The Philippines on the Brink
In one of the dirtiest and controversial elections in Philippine history, the 1969 Presidential Elections was held on November 11, 1969, as more than 8 million Filipinos trooped the precincts to cast their vote for the next President of the Philippines. Prior to this, President Ferdinand Marcos was chosen as the standard-bearer of the Nacionalista Party and Senator Sergio Osmeña Jr. was chosen for the Liberal Party. In the campaign trail, Marcos had the government resources at his disposal to clinch a re-electoral win, with First Lady Imelda Marcos effectively campaigning for him.
According to Primitivo Mijares, a former Marcos pressman who became a victim of forced disappearance, Marcos overspent public and privately supplied funds for his “win at all costs” reelection campaign. This resulted in inflation in 1970, when the exchange rate dropped from P3.90 - $ 1.00 to P6.85 - $ 1.00.
On the opposition’s side, the oratorical skills of Senators Ninoy Aquino and Jovito Salonga wooed the crowds to vote for Serging. Amidst all of this, defections, a common electoral affair took place. If Marcos’s chosen running mate was the uncharismatic and stubborn Fernando Lopez, Genaro Magsaysay was the running mate of Osmeña. Despite the fact that Magsaysay was a Nacionalista, it was the Liberal Party’s decision to nominate him under the party’s banner, much to the dislike of many Liberals, and therefore causing massive defections.
Meanwhile, street demonstrations went unabated, as the price hikes continued. The protesters became more violent if only in response to the deaf ears of the administration and the increasing violence that police have inflicted upon initially peaceful rallyists. Beginning from the simple school issues in 1966, snowballing into large issues such as poverty, U.S. dependence, and graft & corruption by 1969, student activists grew in number from small pockets to thousands by 1970. From peaceful picketing, the rallyists upped their ante in proportion to police’s the mauling by use of truncheon. They learned how to hurl molotov cocktails and pillboxes. The police in turn, occasionally gunned the crowd (one University of the East student, Prudencio Tan was shot on the neck in 1966), or mauled a captured protester in the frenzy of a riot.
There was much talk of Marcos winning his reelection, the first under an independent Philippine Republic. As Congress counted the ballots, it was officially declared, albeit unsurprisingly: Osmeña lost to Marcos by over two million votes. Both Marcos and Lopez came out as victors.
*President Ferdinand Marcos takes his oath as the President of the Philippines for a second time, the second re-electionist President since Quezon. December 30, 1969. Source: Presidential Museum and Library.
Plans were immediately made for President Marcos’ second inaugural scheduled on December 30, 1969. But Marcos’s mind was clearly set not only on his second term, but beyond it, even when he publicly denied it. According to Juan Ponce Enrile, who was then Marcos’s Justice Secretary, sometime that month, Marcos ordered him to do a study on the Constitutional powers of the president as commander-in-chief in the event of an escalation of violence and disorder. The instruction was, “The study must be done discreetly and confidentially.”
Enrile wrote that after the inaugural, on New Year’s Day of 1970, he called on Efren Plana of the UP College of Law, who also referred Minerva Gonzaga Reyes, to help him in this feasibility study on Martial Law that Marcos ordered. A comprehensive research was subsequently conducted by the team, secretly rummaging the books in the Supreme Court, UP College of Law and the Justice Department, searching for that loophole in the 1935 Constitution. And they found it. Martial Law can be declared indefinitely since there were no constitutional limits to it.
At around the same time, Marcos called on Executive Secretary Alejandro Melchor and Jose Almonte to research on how martial rule was done in other countries and what its effects were. Being a “sigurista,” Marcos wanted to be sure. Almonte presented to Marcos the result of their study, saying “while Martial Law may accelerate development, in the end the Philippines would become a political archipelago, with debilitating, factionalized politics.” It would result in polarization and divisiveness. It was not a pleasant thought.
Of course, all this talk of extending the two-term limit of the president would not be enough. Legally, it would not hold water. However, Marcos saw an opportunity. Public opinion had been moving towards the possibility of updating or amending the Constitution. And amending the Constitution meant holding an election of delegates for a Constitutional Convention, a body tasked by the 1935 Constitution to edit and ratify the amendments. It would also mean that if the current form of government was changed to parliamentary, he become Prime Minister, further extending his rule. One of the would-be elected delegates of the ConCon to be held on November 1970 was Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. (the father of the current Senate President). Pimentel writes:
“In 1970 … Marcos called for the Constitutional Convention, to amend the 1935 Constitution, which had governed the nation for the last 35 years. The premise was that we needed a new constitution that would capture the soul and aspirations of the Filipino. The argument was that the 1935 Constitution was ‘a colonial document’ because it had provisions allowing the presence of the U.S. military bases in the country and requiring the approval of the U.S. President to make it effective even after the Filipino people ratified it.”
Journalist Pete Lacaba describes the general sentiments of the people at the time:
“When the year [1970] began, the talk was persistent that the newly elected President was already eyeing a third term, and the news leaked out that the major political parties were already re-oiling their machines in preparation for the coming Constitutional Convention elections. Tidings of this sort could only heighten the people’s already intense contempt for politicians in power. At the same time, unnoticed by a sensation-hungry press, the campuses were seething more violently than a witches’ cauldron.”
*President Ferdinand Marcos delivers his fifth State of the Nation Address, the first of his second term, on January 26, 1970 at the Legislative Building. Journalist Pete Lacaba comments: “No one would recall what it was all about.” Photo source: Presidential Museum and Library.
That was why, when President Marcos delivered his fifth State of the Nation Address, or rather the first one of his second term, an unprecedented 20,000 to 50,000 students (estimation by Lacaba) flocked P. Burgos Drive, the street in front of the Legislative Building. Edgar Jopson, an Atenean, and president of the moderate National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP), was the one who filed the rally permit to the city government of Manila. Hence, speakers and microphones were set up, as the students voiced their agreement to each speaker on the podium. NUSP was also joined by the Kabataang Makabayan, Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan, Malayang Pagkakaisa ng Kabataang Pilipino, Kilusan ng Kabataang Makati, National Association of Trade Unions, and Malayang Samahang Magsasaka.
*Protesters flock, shout and sing in front of Congress numbering to around 50,000 people, during President Marcos’ State of the Nation Address, January 26, 1970. Source: Presidential Museum and Library.
Marcos delivered his SONA, which nobody in the crowd even bothered to understand, as to them he was a “MARcos, PUPpet! MARcos, PUPpet!” Visible in the crowd were three items: a large crocodile made of cardboard to symbolize the “buwayas” of Congress, a large coffin made of cardboard to symbolize the death of democracy, a large effigy of Marcos ready to be burned, and placards with “HITLER” inscribed on the calendars that Marcos gave away during the campaign.
*The cardboard/papier mache crocodile (Above) and coffin (below) that protesters hurled on Marcos as he went out of the Legislative Building on January 26, 1970. Sources: Presidential Museum and Library and the FQS Library.
*Police and military officers surround the Legislative Building to protect President Marcos, January 26, 1970. Source: FQS Library.
At around 5:30 pm, as Marcos made his way out of the Legislative Building and where on the steps down, Lacaba as witness to the event recounts:
“When [Marcos] came out of building…, to the flash of bulbs and the scamper of security men, unseen hands hurled the cardboard coffin and the cardboard crocodile in his direction, the effigy was set on fire, and down on Burgos Drive arose an insistent chant, denouncing the puppetry of the national leadership. Then all hell broke loose.”
*Presidential security body shielding President Marcos as he entered his limousine while a rain of placard handles fly all around, January 26, 1970. Source: Presidential Museum and Library.
A riot ensued, as the crowd was pushed by the police, hitting the crowd using a rattan truncheon, while the protesters retaliated by throwing pebbles, placards, softdrink bottles and even chairs. Marcos wrote on his diary:
“I could not go into the car as Imelda kept standing on the stairs. Col. Ver tried to push me inside but I ordered the First Lady to be fetched and put inside first. Since she could not be pulled by anyone, I had to do it myself. I am afraid I pushed her into the car floor much too hard. Anyway I bumped my head behind the right ear against the car’s door side and twisted my weak right ankle again. We moved out under a hail of stones. But the PSA agent covering me, Agent Suson, was hit in the forehead and left eye and took four stitches. I thought it was Col. Ver as his barong was splashed with splotches of blood but Suson’s blood had spilled on him as he was on my right.”
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos had a quick getaway via the presidential limousine, as shouts of the thousands could be heard: “Makibaka! Huwag matakot!”
“Cooler head” student protesters try to pacify the police. Source: FQS Library.
*Kabataang Makabayan led by Joma Sison on the night of January 26, 1970, continuing the protest until they were forcefully dispersed by the police. Source: Presidential Museum and Library.
Lacaba notes:
“Each time they [protesters] attacked, the cops grew more frenzied, maddened and bewildered by the defiance they had not expected and could not understand.”
It was the first violent protest of this scale, which would bother even Congress, calling for a joint probe on the matter two days after.
*Students protesters use streamers to block police in pursuit on the night of January 26, 1970. Source: FQS Library.
*Police with truncheons chased some protesters all the way back to their jeepneys, January 26, 1970. Source: FQS Library.
*Mervin Encanto of NUSP crouches to the ground as he is truncheoned by the police, January 26, 1970. Source: FQS Library.
Marcos himself would write on his diary that night:
“After the State of the Nation address, which was perhaps my best so far, and we were going down the front stairs, the bottles, placard handles, stones and other missiles started dropping all around us on the driveway to the tune of a ‘Marcos, Puppet’ chant… Some advisors are quietly recommending sterner measures against the Kabataang Makabayan. We must get the emergency plan polished up.”
Unknown to Marcos, he had just triggered the First Quarter Storm, a series of violent street demonstrations that would extend up to March of 1970, and beyond.
It would define a generation.
Lacaba, in vivid words, described it:
“The memory of those turbulent days and nights, in those first three months of the opening year of a new decade, turns the air electric in an instant, and suddenly one is reliving a moment in time, feeling once again a throbbing in the temples, a quickening of the pulse, a fever in the blood. Sounds and images from the past rush into the mind: the blood-splattered truncheon, the fires in the night, the staccato of armalites, the thunder of homemade bombs, the teargas crawling down streets and alleys, the flag carried with the red field up, the fist in the air, the trump of tired resolute feet, and most of all, the faces of an awakened nation, the dusty, sweaty, exultant faces of militant young men and women on the march, signing the vivid air with their courage. It was a glorious time, a time of terror and of wrath, but also a time for hope. The signs of change were on the horizon. A powerful storm was sweeping the land, a storm whose inexorable advance no earthly force could stop, and the name of the storm was history.”
The Road to Martial Law is a series of blog posts documenting the unprecedented rise of a Filipino dictator and the sudden death of Philippine democracy with the declaration of a nationwide Martial Law via live television on September 23, 1972.
The Road so far:
- It Takes a Village to Raise a Dictator: The Philippines Before Martial Law
- Marcos Beginnings
- Truth or Dare?: Marcos during WWII
- The Turbulent ‘60s and Marcos’ Ascent to Power
- The Gathering Storm: Beginnings of the Communist insurgency and Moro secessionism in the ‘60s
Photo slide above:
(1) 50,000 people assembled in protest calling for a non-partisan Constitutional Convention led by the NUSP in front of Congress (now National Museum) on January 26, 1970 in time for President Marcos’ first State of the Nation Address (SONA) for his second term. This triggers the First Quarter Storm. Source: "UG: An Underground Tale" by Benjamin Pimentel.
(2) Students from the National Unions of Students in the Philippines at P. Burgos Drive, the street fronting the Legislative Building, January 26, 1970. Courtesy of the FQS Library
(3) A rallyist surrounded by police with truncheons, caught on camera. Later on, Jerry Bariccan of the UP Student Council would prevent the guy from being arrested, January 26, 1970. Courtesy of the FQS Library.
(4) President Ferdinand Marcos and his family does the ceremonial ascending of the Malacañan Palace Grand Staircase for the second time as the first reelectionist President since Quezon, December 30, 1969. Courtesy of the Presidential Museum and Library.
Bibliography
Almonte, Jose and Vitug, Marites. Endless Journey: A Memoir. Quezon City: Cleverheads Publishing, 2015.
Enrile, Juan Ponce. Juan Ponce Enrile: A Memoir. Quezon City, ABS-CBN Publishing Inc., 2012.
Lacaba, Jose. Days of Disquiet, Nights of Rage: The First Quarter Storm & Related Events. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, Inc., 2003.
Liang, Dapen. Philippine Parties and Politics: A Historical Study of National Experience in Democracy. San Francisco, The Gladstone Co., 1970.
Kiunisala, Edward, “How Lopez won,” Philippines Free Press, November 29, 1969, link.
Marcos, Ferdinand E., “January 26, 1970,” Philippine Diary Project, link.
Mijares, Primitivo. The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. San Francisco: Union Square Publications, 1976.
Pimentel Jr., Aquilino. Martial Law in the Philippines: My Story. Mandaluyong City: Cacho Publishing House, 2006.
Rama, Napoleon, “The Final Round,” Philippines Free Press, November 1, 1969, link.
Robles, Raissa. Marcos Martial Law: Never Again, Student Edition. Quezon City: Filipinos for a Better Philippines, Inc., 2016.
*Credits to my history colleagues Sasha Wong, Jad Arcinas and Coli Cardeño, who helped me gather these sources last year.
The Gathering Storm: Beginnings of the Communist insurgency and Moro secessionism in the 60s
We turn back to the ‘60s. Underneath all the firestorms of public opinion against Ferdinand Marcos in his first term as President of the Philippines was a brewing corruption in almost all levels of government. This was beyond a doubt, as evidenced by numerous news weeklies of the time. And this only fed the fire that has taken the form of the beginnings of a Communist wave in the country during this time, which Marcos saw as a legitimate reason for his planned Martial Law.
When Marcos won in the Presidency in 1965, much have been promised. Immediately there was a boom in infrastructure projects. Marcos made sure that a number of public schools, and roads were built. The Cultural Center of the Philippines, proposed during the campaign by Imelda Marcos, would be realized with the issuing of Executive Order No. 30, s. 1966, with the establishment of the center’s Board of Directors, all of whom, when in the position, voted (or pressured to vote?) for Imelda Marcos as chairperson. Tis’ the beginning of what critics of the Marcos administration would call, the “Edifice Complex.” Here was when Marcos honed his ability to use created space and structures to perpetuate the illusion of progress and power. Much of these infrastructures, especially during Martial Law, was funded largely by foreign loans, with most earnings and war reparations received diverted to corrupt government officials, including that of President Marcos.
*First Lady Imelda Marcos poses in front of her pet project, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, designed by architect Leandro Locsin (circa late 60s). Imelda said in April 1998: “I was born ostentatious. They will list my name in the dictionary someday. They will use ‘Imeldific’ to mean ostentatious extravagance.” Source: Arkitektura.Ph.
With much protestation from the adversary of Marcos in the Senate, Senator Ninoy Aquino, the rampant excessive government spending and lavish parties were pointed out, to Malacañang’s chagrin.
Moreover, there was the backdrop of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was part of the communist scare that spread around the Western world in the late 50s to the 70s.
I must then take a pause to define what is Communism, and the brand of communism that took root in the Philippines.
Communism, proposed by German philosopher Karl Marx, is a political philosophy simply stated that it is through labor that we the People, or the Workers, produce and express our true humanity and dignity as human beings. However, “urbanization” and “industrialization” taking the form of Western intrusion on Asian affairs (Imperialism) exploit the people’s productivity and therefore their dignity. It is therefore the goal of communism to resist these imperialist forces and encourage “class struggle” to establish a communist society–one that is defined by common and equal share of ownership of production, effectively abolishing all social classes–no oppressive “mayaman” and no oppressed “mahirap.”
I won’t dwell with my disagreements of this worldview (that takes another blogpost), but one can see how the Filipinos, especially those of the middle class and the poor, and those who study and were witnesses to social realities in a wide angle of academic inquiry–the college students–were ready captive audiences to this utopian philosophy. The abuse of the Philippine Constabulary on the student protesters that were seen in the news, side by side with the pomp and pageantry of government officials and the Marcoses only validated the communist cause in the activists’ eyes.
The proposal of President Marcos to send Filipino troops to their deaths to help American troops push back the Communists of North Vietnam and defend the democratic South Vietnam was all over the news in 1966. The reason implied by Marcos was for the U.S. to continue sending financial aid to the Philippines and for the American protection of the Philippines against communist insurgency not to be withdrawn (At this time, Clark and Subic remained U.S. Bases since 1946). And yet by this time, even the American public opinion had shifted against this costly U.S. intervention in Vietnam altogether, while the U.S. government refused to pull out because it did not want to lose face.
*American protesters against the Vietnam War assembled outside the United Nations Building in New York City, 1967.
*The Pulitzer winning photograph that became a haunting image of the Vietnam War, the 9-year old “Napalm Girl” Phan Thị Kim Phúc, runs naked with burns, fleeing to safety after South Vietnamese forces dropped napalm bombs on the village of Trang Bang in Vietnam. Photographed by Nic Ut on June 8, 1972.
As Walter Lippman, quoted by Teodoro Locsin Sr. of the Free Press, stated:
“What is the root of all this swelling anti-Americanism among the Asians? It is that they regard our war in Vietnam as a war by a rich, powerful, white, Western nation, against a weak and poor nation , a war by white men against non-white men in Asia.”
And yet despite all this was Marcos’ proposal that would eventually push through with the formation of the Philippine Civic Action Group (PHILCAG).
*The PHILCAG in Tay Ninh, Vietnam, circa 1966-1969. Source: Philippine Defense Forces Forum.
It was here where Marcos began to be framed in the protesters’ lens as “tuta ng Kano” or puppet of the Americans. Indeed, as we will see, Marcos did not merely become a pawn, but rather negotiated his way to get what he wanted. He would push the envelope, to see how the Americans would react if he imposed a “constitutional authoritarianism.” But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
The pulse of the young student activists in the late 60s, numbering to the thousands rallying to the streets began in small pockets. Like fire fed by old corroding wood, the fire would spread uncontrollably it seems, and it became more vocal and even more violent.
*One of the largest leftist youth groups, the Kabataang Makabayan threw stones and softdrink bottles on the police that had just clubbed some protesters. Source: Presidential Museum and Library.
Journalist Pete Lacaba immortalized the placards raised during these violent demonstrations by including it in his reportage in the Philippines Free Press. The placards had the texts: “No more aggression thru Philcag”; “A puppet can never be great”; “Johnson - Modern Hitler”; “Philcag - imperialist tool”; “Marcos and Crisologo - Iloko warlords”; “Ang Pilipino muna”; “Pauwiin ang Philcag!” A letter sent to Manila Times aptly described the popular sentiment then, dated January 1968:
“Life is so difficult nowadays. One ganta of rice costs over P2; movie prices have gone up; one small calamansi is worth 5 centavos. Even a trip to Baguio is now more costly; toll fees have been jacked up from P2 to P4.
“The Marcos administration is to be congratulated for its success in making the people believe that the situation is not as difficult as it really is. The President’s bright boys talk of ‘miracle rice’; but has the price of rice gone down? They build a Cultural Center; but, does this alleviate the plight of the poor? They plan grandiose state visits; but, will these visits make life a little more bearable? What the people need are bread and butter, not circuses fit for kings!”
It was a common sight then to see young men and women assembled with placards in front of the U.S. Embassy in Roxas Boulevard Manila, marching towards the Manila Hotel (a stone’s throw away), the Legislative Building (a short walk from the embassy to Luneta) or Mendiola at Legarda, and Plaza Miranda in Quiapo.
*The Jabidah trainees left graffiti on the walls of an old abandoned hospital in Corregidor Island which can still be seen today.
As protesters snowballed from the concluded Manila Summit of 1966 onwards, leading to the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines in 1968, another issue was brewing. Following President Diosdado Macapagal’s initiative of reclaiming Sabah under Philippine sovereignty, President Marcos moved up the ante and secretly initiated Project Merdeka (meaning “freedom” in Bahasa, the language in Sabah) in 1967, authorizing Major Eduardo Martelino to lead the covert operation codenamed “Jabidah” with the sole mission of destabilizing Sabah and forcibly invading it, grabbing the opportunity of an unstable Malaysian federation. Around 180 Tausug and Sama men underwent reconnaissance training initially in Simunul, Tawi-Tawi, and were transferred to further train in jungle warfare training at Corregidor Island by December 30 of the same year. After months of harrowing training on the island without being paid, and having slept on ipil wood and cot, as high-ranking officers were billeted to Bayview Hotel in Manila, around 62 of them sent a secret petition to President Marcos to complain about their plight. After this, Martelino met with the petitioners and assured them of their pay. They were subsequently given immediate comfort. However, on March 1, 1968, all of the signees of the petition were considered resigned. Moreover, 60 to 70 trainees were said to have been moved to Camp Capinpin, Rizal. By March 15, another batch of 24 men of the operation were removed from Corregidor, and then another batch followed on March 18, 2:00 am. Then another batch at 4:00 am. Jibin Arula, the survivor, recounted, that his batch was requested to ride a military truck accompanied by armed men, to Corregidor airport. When they reached the airport, they were asked to get down from the truck and line up. Only the did Arula heard of gunshots as one by one, his colleagues fell “like dominoes.” He ran as fast as he could, and swam from Corregidor to Caballo Island, where he was rescued by two fishermen.
*Senator Ninoy Aquino delivers the speech, “Jabidah! Special Forces of Evil?” in the Senate Session Hall of the Legislative Building (now National Museum) in Manila, March 28, 1968. Source: Presidential Museum and Library.
Senator Ninoy Aquino exposed the whole cover up on the Senate floor on March 28, 1968, to the shock of the political establishment, the media and the Marcos administration. The privilege speech was just an allegation, Marcos said, used by the opposition to discredit him. The massacre is contested until today in that Aquino was said to only have corroborated the account as divulged by Arula and by use of his journalistic deductions. However, the question remains, it this was all a ruse, how come it was enough for many of the key military men in the “massacre” to be court-martialed in that same year?
The issue was largely publicized by the media, incurring condemnation from the international community. In response, Malaysia severed its diplomatic ties to the Philippines, with much negotiation from Marcos’s end to restore it.
Two months after the massacre, in reaction to the injustice done on Jabidah men, on May 1, 1968, former Cotabato governor Datu Udtog Matalam established the Muslim Independent Movement, the first organized secessionist group in Mindanao, and a precursor to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), which would be founded in October 1972, a month after the declaration of Martial Law.
In conclusion, much of the Mindanao conflict and the leftist insurgency that can still be seen today were largely due to the pre-Martial Law Marcos administration–the disregard for social welfare, the excessive use of force against protesters, the cover ups on corruption allegations, vis-a-vis with the show of extravagance and wealth of the First Family. We will soon find that the leftist protests would gather steam and find its greatest expression in what would be known as the First Quarter Storm of 1970.
The Road to Martial Law is a series of blog posts documenting the unprecedented rise of a Filipino dictator and the sudden death of Philippine democracy with the declaration of a nationwide Martial Law via live television on September 23, 1972.
The Road so far:
- It Takes a Village to Raise a Dictator: The Philippines Before Martial Law
- Marcos Beginnings
- Truth or Dare?: Marcos during WWII
- The Turbulent ‘60s and Marcos’ Ascent to Power
Photo above:
Protesters protect student Rene Ciria Cruz from arresting officers at the U.S. Embassy, December 29, 1969 (Source: Jose Lacaba, “The First Quarter Storm was No Dinner Party”)
Bibliography
___, “Dissenting Opinion: Don’t Go to War,” Philippines Free Press, March 12, 1966, link.
___, “Gaudencio Antonino: Man of the Year, 1967,” Philippines Free Press, January 6, 1968, link.
___, “Eduardo L. Martelino, et al, vs. Jose Alejandro et al.”, G.R. No. L-30894, March 25, 1970.
___, “Jibin Arula vs. Brig. Gen. Romeo C. Espino, members of the court martial, et al.”, G.R. No. L-28949, June 23, 1969.
Aquino Jr., Benigno S., “Jabidah! Special Forces of Evil?”, Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, March 28, 1968, link.
Hicks, Peter. The Journey So Far: Philosophy Through the Ages. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2003.
Lacaba, Jose. Days of Disquiet, Nights of Rage: The First Quarter Storm & Related Events. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, Inc., 2003.
Liang, Dapen. Philippine Parties and Politics: A Historical Study of National Experience in Democracy. San Francisco, The Gladstone Co., 1970.
Lico, Gerard. Edifice Complex: Power, Myth, and Marcos State Architecture. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2003.
Robles, Raissa. Marcos Martial Law: Never Again, Student Edition. Quezon City: Filipinos for a Better Philippines, Inc., 2016.
Tolentino, Arturo. Voice of Dissent. Quezon City: Phoenix Publishing House, 1990.
Bakit wala po kayong pagmamahal sa sariling wika? Sino po ba ang nais niyong makabasa ng inyong mga akda? Mga amerikano po ba? O mga pilipino? Mas gusto niyo po bang makilala kayo ng ibang bansa kaysa sa sariling bayan?
Ang dahilan kung bakit kadalasan ay ginagamit ko dito ang wikang Ingles ay para mas madaling maintindihan ng mga kababayan nating hindi pa ganoon ka-galing sa wikang Pilipino ang mga posts ng blog na ito. Kung tutuusin, may iba sa mga kababayan nating kabilang ng Filipino diaspora na sa buong buhay nila ay hindi natuto sa wikang Pilipino (dahil maaring tinuro sa kanila ang ating kultura ngunit hindi naman tinuturo sa kanila ang ating wika). Sana maintindihan mo rin na hindi lamang mga Pilipino ang intended audience ng blog na ito kundi pati na rin ang mga banyagang interesadong matutunan ang kultura at mga pangyayari ng ating bansa. At isa pa, sa totoo lang, napakababaw ng tingin mo upang sabihin mo na wala akong pagmamahal sa pambansang wika dahil lamang pinili kong gamitin ang wikang Ingles sa blog na ito - parang sinasabi mo na rin na hindi mga Pilipino ang mga Bisaya, ang mga Chavacano, dahil lamang hindi nila ginagamit ang wikang Filipino sa pang-araw araw nilang pagsasalita. Ibig sabihin, hindi na din mahal ni Rizal ang Pilipinas dahil may mga pagkakataon na gumamit siya ng banyagang wika upang ipahayag sa mundo ang pag-aapi ng mga Kastila sa atin (kung hindi mo alam, ang La Solidaridad ay nakasulat sa wikang Espanyol kahit na marunong na marunong si Rizal sa wikang Filipino at sa mga panahon na iyon, hindi pa Ingles ang kinokunsiderang wikang pangdaigdig).
Ang matuto ng ating wika ay isang bagay pero pwede ka naman ding matuto ng Pilipino ngunit tinatanggi mo ang pagka-Pilipino mo sa katotohanan, sa simpleng salita, hindi nasusukat ang pagiging Pilipino mo sa kung gaano mo kadalas ginagamit ang wikang Pilipino sa pang araw-araw, sa internet man o sa tunay na buhay. Nasusukat ang pagiging Pilipino mo sa kung gaano mo ipinagmalaki ang pagiging Pilipino mo kahit saang sulok ka man ng mundo naisilang.
Sometimes I find things I forget to post :))
2 illustrated versions of my Heneral Luna Squad
HENERAL LUNA
Heneral Luna character illustration for my comic design thesis.
I have noted in a previous post how maps tell a story. And in the case of contesting claims of states, maps provide strong evidence of the past geopolitical realities.
Hours before the Permanent Court of Arbitration hands down their verdict over the 9-dash line claim of China over the South China Sea, take time to read about why the historical revisionism of the Chinese have distorted their view of their maritime claim reflected in their foreign policy.
Philippine Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio masterfully makes a strong case against China’s claim of “historic right” by showing ancient Chinese maps as evidence pointing out that the southernmost part of ancient China was not James Shoal (on the southernmost tip of the 9-dash line claim) as claimed by China, but had been consistently Hainan Island. The Chinese imperial dynasties never included the Scarborough Shoal nor the Spratlys on their maps. The claim on these islands was bolstered only by a recent Chinese map drawn in 1947, where the ambiguous 9-dash line was solely based.
In contrast, Justice Carpio also shows maps dating back to the Spanish Colonial Period that show that Scarborough Shoal had always been a Philippine possession, marked even on the maps made during the American Colonial Period in the Philippines.
Arm yourselves with knowledge and download the pdf of the cartographical exhibit, courtesy of the Institute for Maritime and Ocean Affairs (IMOA).
Click this LINK to access the virtual exhibit of evidentiary maps proving the Philippine case. You can click each map thumbnail to have a high-resolution view of the maps.
Maps above, from IMOA:
(1) Carta Hydrographica Y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas (1734) map published by Pedro Murillo and made by Francisco Suarez and Nicolas dela Cruz. It is the oldest map that gives a name to Scarborough Shoal as “Panacot.”
(2) Islas Filipinas - Mapa General - Observatorio de Manila (1899), published by Jose Algue and the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in Washington, D.C., calls Scarborough Shoal as “B. Masinloc.”
@useless-singaporefacts i think this should be able to help you on your MUN
settle this for me once and for all
is “chai” a TYPE of tea??! bc in Hindi/Urdu, the word chai just means tea
its like spicy cinnamon tea instead of bland gross black tea
I think the chai that me and all other Muslims that I know drink is just black tea
i mean i always thought chai was just another word for tea?? in russian chai is tea
why don’t white people just say tea
do they mean it’s that spicy cinnamon tea
why don’t they just call it “spicy cinnamon tea”
the spicy cinnamon one is actually masala chai specifically so like
there’s literally no reason to just say chai or chai
They don’t know better. To them “chai tea” IS that specific kind of like, creamy cinnamony tea. They think “chai” is an adjective describing “tea”.
What English sometimes does when it encounters words in other languages that it already has a word for is to use that word to refer to a specific type of that thing. It’s like distinguishing between what English speakers consider the prototype of the word in English from what we consider non-prototypical.
(Sidenote: prototype theory means that people think of the most prototypical instances of a thing before they think of weirder types. For example: list four kinds of birds to yourself right now. You probably started with local songbirds, which for me is robins, blue birds, cardinals, starlings. If I had you list three more, you might say pigeons or eagles or falcons. It would probably take you a while to get to penguins and emus and ducks, even though those are all birds too. A duck or a penguin, however, is not a prototypical bird.)
“Chai” means tea in Hindi-Urdu, but “chai tea” in English means “tea prepared like masala chai” because it’s useful to have a word to distinguish “the kind of tea we make here” from “the kind of tea they make somewhere else”.
“Naan” may mean bread, but “naan bread” means specifically “bread prepared like this” because it’s useful to have a word to distinguish between “bread made how we make it” and “bread how other people make it”.
We also sometimes say “liege lord” when talking about feudal homage, even though “liege” is just “lord” in French, or “flower blossom” to describe the part of the flower that opens, even though when “flower” was borrowed from French it meant the same thing as blossom.
We also do this with place names: “brea” means tar in Spanish, but when we came across a place where Spanish-speakers were like “there’s tar here”, we took that and said “Okay, here’s the La Brea tar pits”.
Or “Sahara”. Sahara already meant “giant desert,” but we call it the Sahara desert to distinguish it from other giant deserts, like the Gobi desert (Gobi also means desert btw).
English doesn’t seem to be the only language that does this for places: this page has Spanish, Icelandic, Indonesian, and other languages doing it too.
Languages tend to use a lot of repetition to make sure that things are clear. English says “John walks”, and the -s on walks means “one person is doing this” even though we know “John” is one person. Spanish puts tense markers on every instance of a verb in a sentence, even when it’s abundantly clear that they all have the same tense (”ayer [yo] caminé por el parque y jugué tenis” even though “ayer” means yesterday and “yo” means I and the -é means “I in the past”). English apparently also likes to use semantic repetition, so that people know that “chai” is a type of tea and “naan” is a type of bread and “Sahara” is a desert. (I could also totally see someone labeling something, for instance, pan dulce sweetbread, even though “pan dulce” means “sweet bread”.)
Also, specifically with the chai/tea thing, many languages either use the Malay root and end up with a word that sounds like “tea” (like té in Spanish), or they use the Mandarin root and end up with a word that sounds like “chai” (like cha in Portuguese).
So, can we all stop making fun of this now?
Okay and I’m totally going to jump in here about tea because it’s cool. Ever wonder why some languages call tea “chai” or “cha” and others call it “tea” or “the”?
It literally all depends on which parts of China (or, more specifically, what Chinese) those cultures got their tea from, and who in turn they sold their tea to.
The Portuguese imported tea from the Southern provinces through Macau, so they called tea “cha” because in Cantonese it’s “cha”. The Dutch got tea from Fujian, where Min Chinese was more heavily spoken so it’s “thee” coming from “te”. And because the Dutch sold tea to so much of Europe, that proliferated the “te” pronunciation to France (”the”), English (”tea”) etc, even though the vast majority of Chinese people speak dialects that pronounce it “cha” (by which I mean Mandarin and Cantonese which accounts for a lot of the people who speak Chinese even though they aren’t the only dialects).
And “chai”/”chay” comes from the Persian pronunciation who got it from the Northern Chinese who then brought it all over Central Asia and became chai.
(Source)
This is the post that would make Uncle Iroh join tumblr
Tea and linguistics. My two faves.
Okay, this is all kinds of fascinating!
Quality linguistic research
A Pact Violated: What We Must Remember in Araw ng Maynila
Today is the 445th foundation day of the city of Manila, this city that has been our very own “King’s Landing,” (to borrow the fictional city of power in the Game of Thrones universe) or as the peripheries would call it, the “Imperial Manila,” because it has been the country’s center of government, commerce, and pretty much everything (to a fault). Nick Joaquin, in his Manila, My Manila, wrote:
When the pilgrims from the south stumbled upon that entrance to Manila Baym what came about was the history not just of a city but of a nation. Manila happenings have a national effect. When Manila sneezes, the Philippines catches a cold.”
Hence, this city’s founding remains important in Philippine history, especially when much of it has been misconstrued. And yet if one zooms in, Araw ng Maynila as a commemoration has many sides to it, and it to our benefit to learn of its contradictions so that we can learn more of ourselves and of our story as a people.
The story of the founding of Manila is as complicated as the contradicting choices of generations, the city plans that would have transformed its landscape for the better but never came to be, the entangled roads and eskenitas that seem to defy the meaning of grid road patterns, and the changing circumstances that made Manila as faded, smelly, messy, and yet rich in history and meaning.
As put forward by many historians and writers, there are two Manilas: the Manila of the pre-colonial period, the wooden palisades of Raja Soliman (now the site of Fort Santiago, Intramuros), Raja Matanda and Lakandula, and the Spanish Manila (Intramuros) established by the Spanish conquistadors, with its walls to keep out the indios and to keep in the privileged. The former has been largely forgotten, its foundations, dug up by archaeologists, and the latter is the one standing on the former. The one we commemorate today is the latter, the foreign one, founded by a people who travelled halfway across the world 445 years ago, to claim this land of ours as theirs.
*Map courtesy of the Malacañang Presidential Museum and Library.
Manila’s location is still one of the best locations in terms of maritime trade in pre-modern era. Its location on a bay protected by a peninsula and a chain of small islands was seen as an advantage, its bay acting as a natural harbor for incoming ships. This explains why Manila is on this very spot. Laura Lee Junker, an archaeologist, say that before the Spanish advent, the ships would be docked at what is now Manila Bay, and products would be passed on in a complicated trade network that span the hinterland of Luzon and beyond. Indeed, archaeologists have found evidences that the site of Manila, specifically that of Santa Ana, has been settled on 1,000 years before the coming of Spain. Archaeologists use the word “polity” as an entity similar to a kingdom, but not quite, a group of self-governing people relying on trade with other polities across Southeast Asia. Based on the small size of such communities, polity is a suitable word to use to describe these than grandiose terms such as “kingdoms” or “citystates.” Tondo (Tundun) was another powerful polity, mentioned in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription a copper engraved document which dates back to the 10th century. The document shows not only Tondo but its part in the larger scheme of things–of alliances, political systems, and a heavily Indianized group of polities.
Hail! In the Saka-year 822; the month of March-April; according to the astronomer: the 4th day of the dark half of the moon; on Monday. At that time, Lady Angkatan together with her relative, Bukah by name, the child of His Honor Namwran, was given, as a special favor, a document of full acquittal, by the Chief and Commander of Tundun, the former Leader of Pailah, Jayadewah. To the effect that His Honor Namwran, through the Honorable Scribe was totally cleared of a debt to the amount of 1 kati and 8 suwarna (weight of gold), in the presence of His Honor the Leader of Puliran, Kasumuran; His Honor the Leader of Pailah, namely: Ganasakti; (and) His Honor the Leader of Binwangan, namely: Bisruta. And (His Honor Namwran) with his whole family, on orders by the Chief of Dewata, representing the Chief of Mdang, because of his loyalty as a subject (slave?) of the Chief, therefore all the descendants of His Honor Namwran have been cleared of the whole debt that His Honor owed the Chief of Dewata. This (document) is (issued) in case there is someone, whosoever, some time in the future, who will state that the debt is not yet acquitted of His Honor… [Emphasis mine]
*Photo of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, from the Lucban Historical and Heritage Conservation Society.
The Spaniards first established a foothold in Cebu in 1565, half a century after Magellan failed to make headway there. Led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, they heard of reports of a lucrative center of trade further north, of what is now Manila Bay. Legazpi appointed Martin de Goiti to head an expedition there. In 1570, the Spaniards first came to Manila Bay for the first time. What they found were indeed lucrative polities, and a perfect site for a colony, better than the one in Cebu.
De Goiti began negotiations with the leaders of these polities, namely as inscribed in Spanish documents–Raja Ladyang Matanda, Raja Lakandula (the former’s cousin), and Raja Suleyman. Suleyman is referred to as the ruler of Manila. According to Spanish records, all of them were of Bruneian descent, linked by blood with the rulers of the Sultanate of Brunei in the south. Accounts say that Raja Suleyman had the Spaniards wait for three days before meeting the Spanish delegation, one of those refreshing episodes in the history of a country usually enamored by the foreign. De Goiti and Suleyman entered a pact through Sanduguan, a pre-colonial way of doing treaties, where two parties would cut their arms and pour blood into a cup of wine which both would drink. The agreement stated that the two parties would coexist peacefully in the land, with the rajas and their people accepting the protection of the King of Spain.
Negotiations soon broke down when De Goiti cannon fired a warning shot on an incoming merchant ship docking the settlement thinking it was an attack ship. Suleyman interpreted this as an act of war, culminating in the conflict of May 24, 1570, known as the First Battle of Manila. Of course, while Suleyman had portable cannons called “lantakas,” these were no match for the Spanish firepower. The Spaniards soon defeated the original settlers, at the mouth of the Pasig River opening to Manila Bay, and thereafter established their own settlement there. Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived a year late on May 1671, and he later granted amnesty to Suleyman, Matanda, and Lakandula. On June 3, 1571, Legazpi conferred the title ciudad on the fledgling small Spanish settlement, and finally on June 24, he established the city government.
I’ll be quoting in full the elaborate ceremony usually done by the Spaniards of that time whenever they establish a city, in the words of historian Jose Victor Torres:
“Witnessed by a group composed of Spaniards and natives, the commander of the colonizers selected a spot and had a hole dug deep enough for a tree trunk to be buried in and leave a protruding section around 1.4 to 1.8 meters high. The trunk was then lowered into the hole with the help of the natives. Then the commander will drive a knife into the trunk, turn to his audience and announce in a loud voice:
“Gentlemen, soldiers and comrades and all others who witness this: Here I set gallows and sword, and found and place the city of ________, which may God keep long years: reserving the right to move it to any another site that might prove more convenient. And this city I cause to be in the name of the King, and in his name I will defend it and will maintain peace and justice with all the Spaniards, conquistadores, citizens, residents and strangers, with all the natives meting justice alike to the rich and to the poor, to the lowly and to the high, and protecting the widows and orphans.”
The commander then draws his sword and made a wide clearing of the people around him as he shouted a challenge: “If there be any here who would challenge this, let him come forward and out with me to the open field where I will measure my sword with his. And this I swear, for I am intent to die defending this city, now or whenever, keeping it for the King my Lord and his Captain, servant and subject, and as a gentleman born…”
This challenge is recited thrice and three times the Spaniards will respond: “The city is well founded. Long Live the King and Our Lord.”
A translator was present so that the natives understood. After reciting the ritual, the commander then slashed at the surrounding plants saying that he is placing the city under the authority of the Audiencia or Governor and that he is making it the capital. A cross is then planted on the site of the planned church for the city and a Mass is said by a priest. The ceremony is then ended with a salvo from cannons and a celebration.
And, thus, a City is made.
*”La fundación de Santiago” (1898) by painter Pedro Lira, depicting Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia establishing the City of Santiago, Chile.
Of course, with this narrative, one might miss this important fact: that we as a conquered people had a pact or treaty with the conqueror.
Whether or not the two parties recognized each other on equal footing is besides the point. The point is, this process of sanduguan, also done in Bohol (between Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Datu Sikatuna), was an agreement reached by two peoples. And it was this agreement that was, as firmly believed by Filipino revolutionaries in the late 19th century, violated by Spain.
It was perhaps Jose Rizal who, thinking of what he learned from Spain during his studies there, saw this narrative of a violated pact. Rizal, in his essay FIlipinas dentro de cien años (translated by Austin Craig):
Scarcely had they been attached to the Spanish crown than they had to sustain with their blood and the efforts of their sons the wars and ambitions of conquest of the Spanish people, and in these struggles, in that terrible crisis when a people changes its form of government, its laws, usages, customs, religion and beliefs the Philippines were depopulated, impoverished and retarded–caught in their metamorphosis, without confidence in their past, without faith in their present and with no fond hope for the years to come. The former rulers who had merely endeavored to secure the fear and submission of their subjects, habituated by them to servitude, fell like leaves from a dead tree, and the people, who had no love for them nor knew what liberty was, easily changed masters, perhaps hoping to gain something by the innovation. Then began a new era for the Filipinos. They gradually lost their ancient traditions, their recollections–they forgot their writings, their songs, their poetry, their laws, in order to learn by heart other doctrines, which they did not understand, other ethics, other tastes, different from those inspired in their race by their climate and their way of thinking. Then there was a falling-off, they were lowered in their own eyes, they became ashamed of what was distinctively their own, in order to admire and praise what was foreign and incomprehensible: their spirit was broken and they acquiesced.
Raised in the Spanish liberal tradition, Rizal would not have escaped the ideals of the Cadiz Constitution of 1812, which put into writing for the first time the equal rights of both of the Spanish colonizer and the colonized (the Spanish peoples “overseas” or ultramar) and the thought that these overseas peoples, Filipinos included, entered an agreement with Spain for mutual responsibility. It crafted a federal republican government based on this pact of overseas peoples with Spain. This pact and the Filipino perception of its violation was enshrined in our very own Proclamation of Independence read aloud on June 12, 1898:
… he [Legazpi] went to Manila, the capital, winning likewise the friendship of its Chiefs Soliman and Lakandula, later taking possession of the city and the whole Archipelago in the name of Spain by virtue of an order of King Philip II, and with these historical precedents and because in international law the prescription established by law to legalize the vicious acquisition of private property is not recognized, the legitimacy of such revolution cannot be put in doubt …
Thus, the Katipuneros who fought for independence against Spain in the Revolution of 1896, recognize that their revolution was a moral right–even a righteous cause.
Which brings us to our commemoration of Araw ng Maynila today.
Is it fair?
If one would commemorate such an event, it would be fair to commemorate not only the pre-colonial Manila that was buried and forgotten underneath it, but also the agreement that was entered into on this day 445 years ago. Its violation, we must never forget, led to the national call for independence and freedom.
PS: I highly recommend visiting the Araw ng Maynila commemorative page of the Presidential Museum and Library for an in-depth look at the city’s history from pre-colonial times to the present.
*Photo Above: “Pacto de Sangre” (1885) by Filipino painter Juan Luna y Novicio, depicting the pact between Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and Raja Sikatuna of Bohol in 1565. The painting was a gift by Luna to the Ayuntamiento (Manila City Council under the Spanish colonial bureaucracy) who sent him to Spain to study art. The painting has been transferred to the Malacañan Palace during the American Colonial Period and it now hangs at the palace’s Reception Hall.
MY FIRST TIME MAKING STICKERS!!! might sell some on the next LLB event abangerz na lang! :D
Tinikling involves two people hitting bamboo poles on the ground and against each other in coordination with one or more dancers who step over and in between the poles in a dance. It originated in Leyte among the Visayan islands in central Philippines as an imitation of the tikling bird.
Two little fuzzy furballs…
Quick lesson for today: Tagalog gods.
Tagalog: Language from which Filipino is based off of; a tribe in the Philippines [based majorly in Manila and the areas around the National Capital Region].
The Tagalog gods are interesting because they were what you’d call “minor gods” or anito, who all serve under the major god Bathala. It was said that humans could not speak directly to Bathala, so they spoke to the anito, who would relay their prayers to Bathala.
Because records of these gods were not too well-kept, there’s little known about them except some features and what they were gods of–though that tells us enough about what Ancient Tagalogs valued, such as sex, agriculture, the sky, and the ocean.
Despite the lack of records for most of these gods, there are quite a few intriguing myths surrounding Bathala himself, which show that while he was considered a major god, he was not the only one.
Tagalog myths emphasize gender equality, gender fluidity, sex-positivity, since the Tagalogs, among many other tribes, held females in high regard and considered LGBTQs to be special, even allowing same-sex marriages for transwomen.
Meanwhile, let me explain the above photo of the unusual Tagalog gods family trees–unusual because there’s little relation between their roles and their familial ties.
NOTE THAT SINCE RECORDS WERE NEVER KEPT, DIFFERENT MYTHS VARY IN TELLING, BUT ALL HAVE SIMILAR ELEMENTS. My stories might sound different from other tellings, but these are based off of what I’ve learned over the past ten years.
Bathala: major and primordial god of the sky, warred with Aman Sinaya, befriended Galang Kaluluwa, and killed Ulilang Kaluluwa
Aman Sinaya: major and primordial goddess of the ocean, warred with Bathala
Amihan [also the name for the north east trade wind]: a small bird, also a primordial being, who was tired of Bathala and Aman Sinaya’s wars and forcibly brought the sky and the sea together, allowing the two gods to make peace. She is also credited with the creation of man and woman, because she pecked them out of a bamboo shoot. Presumably, Amihan took the appearance of a maya bird in some interpretations, a kite in others.
Ulilang Kaluluwa [orphan spirit]: a giant sky snake, a primordial being who Bathala killed. The legend is that his body was turned into the trunk of the coconut tree.
Galang Kaluluwa [wandering spirit]: a winged primordial being who became Bathala’s friend. When he died, he asked to be buried where Ulilang Kaluluwa had been, and from their grave sprung the coconut tree–whose fruits were shaped like Galang Kaluluwa’s head and whose leaves were like his wings.
Mayari, Hanan, and Tala: Bathala’s daughters by a mortal woman. Mayari is the goddess of the moon and the most beautiful of all the gods, Hanan is the goddess of dawn/daylight, and Tala is the goddess of stars.
Idiyanale: Goddess of labor and marine culture, wife of Dimangan, mother of Anitun Tabu and Dumakulem.
Dimangan: god of agriculture and harvest. Husband of Idiyanale and father of Anitun Tabu and Dumakulem.
Lakampati: hermaphrodite goddess of fertility [goddess because she chose to identify more as a feminine or female presence, and was a mother and wife], most compassionate of all the gods. People offered plates of rice on their doorstep for her blessings. Wife of Mapulon, mother of Anagolay.
Mapulon: god of the changing seasons. Husband of Lakampati, father of Anagolay.
Anitun Tabu: flighty and fickle goddess of wind and rain. She could be both kind and cruel, because the islands of the Philippines often suffered from storms and monsoons. Daughter of Idiyanale and Dimangan, sister of Dumakulem.
Dumakulem: god of the mountains, described as the “fastest” and a warrior god, brother of Anitun Tabu and husband of Anagolay, son of Idiyanale and Dimangan, father of Diyan Masalanta and Apolaki.
Anagolay: goddess of lost things, daughter of Lakampati and Mapulon, wife of Dumakulem, mother of Diyan Masalanta and Apolaki.
Apolaki: god of the sun, patron of warriors, son of Dumakulem and Anagolay, brother of Diyan Masalanta. Sometimes he is said to be the brother of Mayari, Hanan, and Tala, and son of Bathala–but this might just be because of his similarity to them as gods of the sky.
Diyan Masalanta [literally means “to be destroyed there,” which is funny because she’s the goddess of love]: youngest of the gods, goddess of love and childbirth. Daughter of Dumakulem and Anagolay, sister of Apolaki.
Lakambakod: God of protection, specifically protection of crops. “Bakod” means “fence”, so he was the god of fences that protected crops. He was also a god of healing, though this might coincide with the god Linga, who was also a phallic god of healing. He was described as having a gilded penis the size of a rice stalk [because elaborate penis piercings were a thing among Tagalog men]
Linga or Lingga: Honestly he’s a very minor god I should not have included in this photo [which is four years old so forgive me] but he is considered a god of healing–or technically, a god that if you didn’t pray to him, you would get sick. He’s also a phallic god, based off of the Indian Lingam.
Lakambini/Lakambuwi: god of gluttony, food, and eating. Sensibly, since they put so much effort into preserving crops for food, they would value the enjoyment of it as well.
There are other gods not listed here, but I hope this was an interesting lesson :)
Other major myth elements include
the sky was so close to the earth you could touch it
myths about how different people got the color of their skin or the rank of their caste
the way the Philippine islands came to be created
