CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS

Background of the Author

• Juan de Plasencia
➢ A Spanish Franciscan friar, and was among the first batch of Franciscan
missionaries who traveled to the Philippines on July 2, 1578.
➢ Real name Joan de Puerto Carrero del Convento de Villanueva de la Serena.
➢ Born in the region of Extremadura, Spain in 1520.
➢ Grew up during the period Siglo de Oro.
➢ As soon as he arrived in the Philippines on July 2, 1578, he joined forces with Fray
Diego de Oropesa to preach around Quezon province.
➢ Spent most of his missionary life in the Philippines.
➢ Known for Doctrina Cristiana, which is believed to be the first book printed in the
Philippines.
➢ Elected as the custos of the friars on May 23, 1584 and held it until 1588.
➢ He’s also known to be a defender of the native population.
➢ Initiated the Reduccion Policy.
➢ Converted natives, taught catechisms, and organized towns and barangays in the
Philippines.
➢ Died in Liliw, Laguna in 1590.

Historical Background of the Document

• Customs of the Tagalogs is a part of longer monographs written by the chroniclers of the
Spanish expeditions to the Philippines during the early 16th and 17th centuries. They
appeared initially in Blair and Robertson's 55 volumes, “The Philippine Islands (1903)” and
in the “Philippine Journal of Sciences (1958)”.

Content Analysis
• Governing System Lead by Datos
➢ Governs only few people between 30-100 houses.
➢ This tribal gathering is called a barangay.
➢ They don’t settle far from each other.
➢ They are not subject to one another, except friendship and relationship.
➢ The chief (dato) helps one another in war.
➢ Chieftains executive function includes implementing laws, ensuring order, and
giving protection to his subject.
➢ Disputes between individuals were settled by a court made up of the chieftain and
council of elders.
• Slaves
➢ Are called aliping sa guiguilir/saguiguilid.
➢ Serve their master in his house.
➢ Can be sold.
➢ Reasons why people become slaves: By captivity in war; By reason of debt; By
committing a crime; By inheritance; By purchase
 ➢ Slaves can be emancipated through: Forgiveness; Paying debt; Condonation;
Bravery (even possibly become a dato); Marriage
• Commoners
➢ Are called aliping namamahay.
➢ They live in their own houses and are lords of their property of golds.
➢ Can’t be sold.
➢ Can’t be transferred to other barangays unless by inheritance, provided they stay
in the same village.
• Nobles or Maharlica
➢ Free born, they don’t pay taxes.
➢ Nor pay tribute to the dato, but must accompany the dato in war at their own
expense.
➢ If they marry from other barangay, the children will be divided.
➢ If a maharlica marries a slave, the first and third child goes to the father, then the
second and fourth to the mother, and so on.
➢ Can become a slave through marriage.
➢ No moving from one village to another without complying the following:
➢ Fine and gold (depend from barangay to barangay).
➢ A banquet to the entire barangay.
➢ If they marry from other barangay, the children will be divided.
➢ Sentences are passed by the dato.
➢ They condemn a man at low caste who disrespect his daughter or wife or dato.
➢ The children of the accomplices are turned to slave.
• Slave and Death Penalty
➢ 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 made some recompense to the injured person. Other
offenses are 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.
• Punishments were done in the ff. Ways:
➢ Half the cultivated lands and all their products belonged to the master. The master
will provide the culprit with food and clothing thus enslaving him and his children.
➢ The master will have the possession of the children if ever the payment could not
be met by the father.
➢ Aliping sa guiguilir – service within the house; serve the master to whom the
judgement applied.
➢ Aliping namamahay – living independently; served the person who lent them
wherewith to pay.
• Loans
➢ The same way goes to a debtor concerning loans wherein he will give half of his
cultivated lands and profits until the debt has been paid or else he’s condemned
to a life of toil and becomes a slave. After the father’s death, the children will
continue to pay the debt or the payment will be doubled.
• Inheritances
➢ The legitimate children of a father and mother will be inherited equally, not unless
the father and mother showed a slight partiality by gifts such as two or three gold
taels or a jewel.
• Dowry
➢ It should be greater than the sum given to the other sons.
• Two or more legitimate wives
➢ If one had children by two or more legitimate wives, each child will receive the
inheritance and the mother’s dowry with its increase and share of his father’s
estate.
• Slave Woman
➢ If a man had a son from one of his slaves as well as legitimate children, the former
will have no share in the inheritance. If he had a child with a slave woman, that
child will also receive some of his share.
• Inaasawa (Unmarried Woman)
➢ If ever he had children by an unmarried woman, she will still receive a dowry but
is not considered as a real wife and her children are said to be natural children. If
the father has a legitimate wife but did not have a son but had children to the
unmarried wife called Inaasawa, the latter will inherit all.
• Free Married Woman
➢ In case of a child of a free married woman which was born while she was married,
if the husband punished the adulterer and was considered a dowry, that child will
also have a share in the inheritance.
• Adopted Children’s Inheritance
➢ Dowry:
➢ Upon divorce before the birth of the children.
➢ Upon the death of the wife/husband.
➢ Upon engagement.
➢ Arranged marriage.

• The Worships of the Tagalogs

➢ There were no temples for their idols, SIMBAHAN means a place of adoration;
because when they wish to do feast, called PANDOT or worship in a large house
of chief. There it’s constructed to provide shelter, with sheds for on both sides
called SIBI, means roof. On each posts there’s a small lamp called SORIHILE; in the
center of three column divided for people to gather, a large lamp with leaves of
white palms into many designs.
➢ The use of drums which beats the feast until it ends for usually four days. During
this; the barangay or family unite to worship which they called NAGAANITOS.
➢ Among many other idols, there was named BATHALA, means to signify “all
powerful”, or “maker of all things”, which they worship the most.
➢ They also worship the sun, for its beauty. Also, they worship the moon, especially
when it sets to be new.
 ➢ Some of them adored the stars, knowing it to be the morning star, which they
called TALA.
➢ Also, they knew the “seven little goats” (THE PLEIADES), and the change of season
called MAPULON and BALATIK, happens when the GREAT BEAR (URSA MAJOR).
• Idols, Time, and Seasons
➢ They have many idols name LICHA, which comes in many forms. They had another
called DIAN MASALANTA, who was the patron of lovers and of the generations.
The called LACAPATI and INDIANALE, patron of cultivation of land and husbandry.
➢ Honoring the crocodiles, named BUAYA, fear from being the harmed.
➢ Moreover they tend to look at omens at what they encounter. For example, a bird
called TIGMAMANUGUIN which sings from the tree, they consider good or bad
omens may come in their journey. They also practice divination as to show their
luck.
➢ These natives determine time by cultivation of soil, counted by moons, and other
more effects of the nature; all these helps to make the year. The winter and
summer were named as SUN-TIME and WATER-TIME.
➢ The years of the advent of the SPANIARDS, seasons were determined by names,
and have been divided into weeks.
• Feast
➢ Their manner of offering sacrifice.
➢ They offer to devil what they had to eat.
➢ Done in front of the idol.
• Catolonan
➢ The officiating priest.
➢ The devil is sometimes liable to enter the body of the Catolonan.
➢ Objects of the sacrifice were goat, fowls, and swine.
• The reasons for offering this sacrifice and adoration was:
➢ The recovery of sick person
➢ The prosperous voyage
➢ Propitious result in war
➢ Good harvest
➢ Successful deliver of childbirth
➢ Happy outcome in married life
➢ The girls who had their monthly courses had their eyes blindfolded for four days
and four nights. At the end of the period, the Catolonan took young girls to the
water. The old men said that they did this for girls to have a fortune of finding their
husband.
• Distinction of Devils According to the Priest:
➢ CATOLONAN – This office was an honorable one among the natives, and was held
ordinarily by people of rank, this rule being in general in all the islands.
➢ MANGANGAUAY – Witches who deceive by pretending to heal the sick. Uses
witchcraft that is capable of causing death.
➢ MANYISALAT – Had the power of applying remedies to lovers that they would
abandon and despise their own wives. It could prevent them from having
 intercourse with the latter. If the woman constrained by this means, were
abandoned, it would bring sickness upon her.
➢ MANCOCOLAM – Its duty was to emit fire from himself at night.
➢ HOCLOBAN – Another kind of witch, has greater efficiency than the mangangauay.
Without the use of medicine, and by simply saluting or raising the hand, they killed
whom they chose.
➢ SILAGAN – If they saw anyone in white, they’ll tear out its liver and eat it, thus
causing his death.
➢ MAGTATANGAL – Her purpose was to show herself at night without her head or
entrails.
➢ OSUANG – Equivalent to sorcerer. They say that they have seen him fly, and that
he murdered men and ate their flesh.
➢ MANGAGAYOMA – They made charms for lovers out of herbs, stones, and wood
which would infuse the heart with love.
➢ SONAT – Which is equivalent to “preacher”. It was his office to help one to die, at
which time he predicted the salvation or condemnation of the soul.
➢ PANGATAHOJAN (babaylan) – Is the spiritual leader of the tribe in pre-colonial
Philippines. They are also soothsayers, and predicts the future.
➢ BAYOGUIN – Signified a “cotquean”, a man whose nature inclined toward that of
a woman.
• Manner of Burying
➢ The deceased was buried beside his house.
➢ If the deceased 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, placed him in a boat which served as a coffin or bier. In place
of rowers, various animals were placed at the oar by twos – male and female. It
was the slave’s care to see if they were fed.
➢ If the deceased is a warrior, a living slave was tied beneath his body until in this
wretched way he died. And for many days, the family of the dead man bewailed
him. Until finally they wearied of it. This grief was also accompanied by eating and
drinking – a custom of the Tagalogs.
➢ The Aetas or Negrillos (Negritos) had also a form of burial, but different. They dug
a deep, perpendicular hole, and placed the deceased within it leaving him upright
with head or crown unburied on top which they put half a coconut which was to
serve him as a shield. Then they went in pursuit of some Indian, whom they killed
in retribution for the Negrillo who had died.
• After life
➢ The Aetas said that they knew there was another life of rest for those who were
juts and valiant in their lifetime, which they called maca, just as if we should say
“paradise”, or, in other words, “village of rest”.
➢ They also said that there was a place of punishment, grief, and affliction, called
casanaan, which was “a place of anguish”. There dwelt the demons, whom they
called sitan.
➢ No one goes to heaven where Bathala is residing.
 • Superstitious Beliefs
➢ They believed in aswang, duwende, kapre, vibit or ghosts, tigbalaang or phantoms,
and patianac or a woman who died from childbirth.
➢ They also believed in magical power of amulets and charms such as anti-aging,
kulam, and gayuma or love potion.

Conclusion
• The Customs of the Tagalogs mainly accounts the life system of the Filipinos during the -
Hispanic period.
• This account strengthens the claim that even before the Spaniards colonized the
Philippines, Filipinos already have their own set of traditions, customs, practices, beliefs,
and governments that they abide to.
• Our customs and practices changed along with time however, there are still fragments of
our past that remain and will continue to remind us of our origin.
• The knowledge on the different customs of the Tagalogs will be unknown hence, making
the relationship between the past and present customs will not be made.