Highest-ever 24-hour rainfall Ondoy kills 140 as NDCC rescues 7,908 persons

By Gloria Esguerra Melencio

MANILA-Typhoon Ondoy, with its heaviest rainfall the Metro-Manila has ever experienced even surpassing the highest 24-hour rainfall in 1967, killed 140 people as the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) rescued 7,908 persons as of Monday.

The NDCC report said the number could still increase as rescue operations continue around the national capital region, northern and southern Luzon. Number of families who were displaced is estimated to reach 500,000 even as schools, government offices, barangay halls, churches and covered courts continue to shelter families rendered homeless by this calamity.

Figures as of press time indicated 58 dead in Provident Village, a posh subdivision in Marikina. Its City Mayor Marides Fernando, however, said that the number of dead in her municipality is only 15.

Colonel Leonardo Espina, Philippine National Police spokesperson, said Cainta and Pasig remain to be the critical areas where hundreds of people needed rescue. He said that 22 people died in Antipolo, 12 in Marilao and 28 in Quezon City .

A subdivision in Barangay Silangan in San Mateo, Rizal is feared to be in danger of collapsing as the rains continue to soften the ground where it was constructed.

Water supply in Bulacan is now back to normal after its residents suffered two waterless days.

Meralco has switched on 60 percent of its electricity in most areas in Metro-Manila while the rest remain to be in pitch darkness in the evening.

Agricultural losses is at P821 million, according to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.

The Department of Education (DepEd) Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office reported an initial P43 million damage to public elementary and high schools around the areas covered by the calamity. Classes were suspended this week in Marikina and other areas.

Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan of Word Wildlife Foundation- Philippines reported that 341 millimeters of rain equivalent to 13.38 inches had been disastrous to 13 million people in Metro-Manila as rivers and lakes spilled all over the national capital regional as well as many areas in Luzon.

Nathaniel Cruz of Pagasa, the Philippine weather bureau chief , said : ” The volume of rain dumped by Ondoy in barely six hours, was almost equal to the average monthly rainfall of Metro Manila  at 392 millimeters. “

The disaster has affected 35 million people, he estimated.

Fellow Filipinos and other people who wish to give help and cash donations may send in their donations to the Department of Social Work and Development which address may be found in its website at www.dswd.gov.ph, or ABS-CBN Foundation Incorporated Banco de Oro account number 5630020111.

Ugat at ugit

September 21, 1972

ni Dante L. Ambrosio

Sa isang banda, tila nagtagumpay si Presidente Marcos sa isang bagay.

Ginugunita ngayon, mula pa noon, ang Setyembre 21 bilang araw ng deklarasyon ng batas militar. Bunga ng paniniwala diumano sa numerology, itinakda niya na sa petsang ito taunang aalalahanin ang ginawa niya 37 taon na ang nakakaraan. Tinagurian pa nga niya ito na “National Thanksgiving Day”!

Kahit ang mga buháy na noon at mga naging biktima pa nga ng martial law, ito rin ang petsang sasabihin, malamang kaysa hindi, na araw ng deklarasyon ng batas militar. Kaya ngayong Setyembre 21, tiyak ang mga gagawing aktibidad para muli itong gunitain lalo na ng mga nagpoprotesta sa patuloy na paggamit ng gobyerno ng kamay na bakal.

Gayunman, kailangang tandaan  na may mga pangyayaring di sana naganap sa buhay ng  isang indibidwal o ng buong bansa kung totoo ngang deklarado na ang batas militar noong Setyembre 21, araw ng Huwebes, at nang sumunod na araw ng Biyernes.

Kung martial law na nang mga araw na ito, disin sana’y di nangyari ang malaking demonstrasyon noong Huwebes ng Setyembre 21. Sa pangunguna ng Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties (MCCCL) na pinamunuan ni dating senador Jose W. Diokno, nagrali ang maraming tao sa Plaza Miranda laban sa plano at bantang deklarasyon ng batas militar.

Disin sana, nakakandado na ng mga araw na ito ang Kongreso, tahimik na ang media at suspendido na ang mga klase sa mga paaralan. Ngunit hanggang maghapon ng Setyembre 22, nakakapagpulong-pulong pa ang mga senador at kongresman, maingay pa rin ang media at masaya pang nagkakabiruan at nagkukuwentuhan ang mga dumalo sa rali, lalo na ang mga kabataan at estudyante sa kani-kanilang paaralan.

Si Marcos ang nagsabi noong araw mismo na idineklara niya ang batas militar:

My countrymen, as of the 21^st of this month, I signed Proclamation No. 1081 placing the entire Philippines under martial law. This proclamation was to be implemented upon my clearance and clearance was granted at 9 o’clock in the evening of the 22^nd, last night.

Kinabukasan, Setyembre 24, ito ang headline ng Philippine Daily Express na mistulang pahayagan noon ng gobyerno: FM DECLARES MARTIAL LAW. (Daily Suppress ang tawag ng iba sa dyaryong ito – araw-araw kasi, sinu-suppress ang mga tunay na balita.)

Setyembre 23, 1972 idineklara ang batas militar. Ngunit simula ng alas-9 ng gabi ng Setyembre 22, nabago na ang buhay ng maraming tao, lalo na ang mga unang pinagdadampot ng militar hanggang madaling araw kinabukasan. Lambong na bumalot sa bansa ang batas militar habang payapang natutulog ang mga tao.  Walang ipinagkaiba sa magnanakaw na nagsamantala sa dilim at katahimikan ng gabi. Lamang, kinulimbat na ang salapi ng bayan, dinambong pa ang kalayaan at kinabukasan nito.

Sa kabilang banda, hindi rin naman nagtagumpay si Presidente Marcos sa bagay na ito.

Ginugunita nga taun-taon ang Setyembre 21. Ngunit di bilang isang dakilang araw o araw man lamang ng pasasalamat. Inaalala ito bilang taunang pagsumpa ng mga nakikibaka – NEVER AGAIN!

Sa anumang anyo, sa anumang paraan, sa malao’t madali, di na muling papayagang maganap ang bangungot ng 1972. Anumang nais ng sinumang nasa poder, kung labag naman sa takda ng tadhana at kalooban ng taumbayan, maiiwan ito ng agos ng kasaysayan. Malamang, gaya sa itinakdang araw ng deklarasyon ng batas militar, magkakaroon pa nga ito ng bago, salungat at palabáng kahulugan – NEVER AGAIN!

(Mayroong pagtalakay nito sa Serve the People: Ang Kasaysayan ng Radikal na Kilusan sa Unibersidad ng Pilipinas ng IBON at CONTEND.)

Covering humanitarian crisis in Mindanao

By Emmalyn Liwag Kotte

(To show how displacements in Cotabato and Maguindanao have affected the lives of Filipinos – Muslims and Christians – journalist Emmalyn Liwag Kotte submitted this story to philippinehistory.ph.)

Some 258,522 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) sought the help of government agencies in the conflict affected areas of Mindanao, figures from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) showed as of May 18, 2009.  Almost half or 119,502 of them were inside evacuation centers.

Number of IDPs which government services cover varies.

Around 600,000 people left their homes in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao when government troops launched pursuit operations against three “rogue” Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) commanders in August 2008. This, according to a recent report of the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), was the largest new displacement last year and also the world’s “most neglected displacement situation”.

For a long time, very little information about IDP evacuation centers reached local and national media organizations. But disturbing cases of human rights violations such as food blockade, illegal arrest, disappearances and salvaging get passed around, thus prompting  media and civil society leaders to hold a joint media coverage in some of the war affected communities of Mindanao.

Organized by Mindanao ComStrat and Policy Alternatives, the MindaNews, the Center for Community Journalism and Development (CCJD), the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), Peace and Conflict Journalism Network (PECOJON), and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), this collaboration brought some 40 Manila and Mindanao based journalists and 20 civil society representatives to the evacuation centers of Maguindanao.

From June 29 to July 1, 2009, the group also had the chance to dialogue with government and military officials, Mindanao based civil society organizations and leaders of the MILF.

War against children
Participants made it clear that children are the most affected victims in the ongoing armed conflict at the forum that the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil in Society (CBCS) organized in Cotabato City on the first day of the media coverage.

“In isolated villages that are not reached by media practitioners, our children are accosted by government soldiers and are accused of being rebels so they are forced to drop school,” said a 32 year old Muslim woman from the municipality of Datu Piang in Maguindanao.

Thousands of IDP children are not able to attend school.  Dr. Taya Aplad of the Department of Education said that “last year, the total number of IDP students in Maguindanao was 37,000 and none of them have been integrated in schools”.

In Datu Piang alone, a big number of the IDPs are children 18 years old and below, said Yul Olaya, coordinator of a ceasefire monitoring non-governmental organization. He noted that around 10,000 of the IDPs in this municipality are school aged children but not even half of them are enrolled in school.

Father Eduardo Vasquez complained about the sub-human condition of IDPs in the  province of Maguindanao:  “Because of the ongoing war, many IDPs are now hungry, getting sick and are dying especially the elderly, the children and new born babies”.

The Catholic priest saw that too many children die among the IDPs in his municipality and organized the construction of a small clinic for evacuees near his church in Datu Piang.  Most of the patients who are brought here have diarrhea, typhoid fever, and cough – preventable diseases that are the most common causes of death among children in the evacuation camps.

Vasquez noted that these ailments are probably caused by poor sanitation, lack of access to potable water, lack of food and radiation from bomb explosions.
Datu Gumbay Elementary School

A visit to Datu Gumbay Piang Elementary School (DGPES), which has become one of the biggest evacuation centers in the municipality of Datu Piang, was part of the media program.

The school compound, according to the municipal disaster coordinating council, presently shelters some 2,340 individuals displaced by war.

Thirty year old Rose came here with her husband and four children when fighting started in their village in August 2008. They got the municipal mayor’s permission to occupy one of the tents in the school compound. Also is the same tent is an older sister, her husband and three children.

Rose complains that the heat is oppressive inside the tent, which is made of plastic walls and light bamboo frames. It becomes submerged in water when it rains, everything gets wet and the children get sick.

There is no electricity in the GPES compound. Water, according to Rose, has to be fetched from a deep well outside the school compound.

Fighting is frequent and explosions disturb children, especially at night. “I had to send my five year old daughter to my mother in Cotabato because she always got so scared every time she heard explosions that her skin would turn dark”, said Rose.

Rose’s husband used to plant rice and corn in the nearby village where they used to live. He now drives a tricycle (motor taxi) and Rose sells sliced fruits in front of their tent but they earn so little that their survival depends on the food rations that are distributed by relief organizations such as the United Nations-World Food Program (UNWFP) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Like the other IDPs in Datu Piang, Rose and her husband are told that they could not go back to their village until it is peaceful. What awaits them there is a small farm lot that is now overgrown with grass and a small house that has been destroyed by war. But still it is the home that they want to return to.

Fighting goes on

Rose and her family may have to wait long before they could finally leave their makeshift plastic tent in Datu Piang.

The ongoing punitive action of the government against “lawless” MILF group (LMG) commanders in the provinces of North Cotabato, Maguindanao, Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur will not stop until such time that these commanders are brought to court, said Major Carlos Sol Jr. at a forum with the journalists from Manila and Mindanao last June 30.

Sol is secretariat head of the Philippine government’s Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH). The government, he said, “is forced to implement its mandate to protect the people from the acts of terrorism” committed by LMG commanders Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, Abdulrahman Macapar alias Commander Bravo and Aleem Sulaiman Pangalian.

After the spate of bombings that recently took place in Cotabato City, Jolo and Iligan, the situation has even becomes worse for the evacuees. While more people get displaced with the intensified conflict situation, food supplies run out.

The bombings prompted the United Nations – World Food Program (UNWFP) office in Geneva to issue a travel ban for its personnel in Central Mindanao. This, according to UNWFP deputy country director Alghassim Wurie, is a precautionary measure for its personnel and is “to enable us to understand the bombings and the motives behind them”.

UNWFP will review the situation with Philippine government agencies and “once it calms down, food deliveries will be continued”, said Wurie.

The target beneficiaries that the UNWFP had for its food distribution activities last month included 51,700 familes in Maguindanao, 3500 families in North Cotabato and 5800 families in Lanao del Sur, said its information officer Pia Facultad.  The daily survival of each of these families highly depends on the monthly food rations that come from the

UNWFP’s validation and post distribution monitoring activities in the IDP regions are expected to suffer from a prolonged travel ban.

Validation of the number of evacuees who receive food rations is made with partner non-governmental and governmental organizations, said Wurie. “

“The list of the population is provided to us by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the local government unit. It’s only after getting the actual number agreed upon by everybody that we do distribution,” he explained.

Limited Access to Information

Attempts to mask the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in Central Mindanao

by stifling the free flow of information and the people’s right to know can only worsen the current problem, said a collective statement made by the organizers of the recently concluded joint coverage of the IDP situation.

The statement was a response to an incident where soldiers of the Philippine Army’s 46th Infantry Battalion tried to hold the group of journalists and civil society representatives

in Maguindanao while they were on their way to the evacuation sites of Datu Piang. The incident, according to 6th Infantry Division spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, was not intended to prevent the media from accessing the areas in conflict and was a “routine security measure”.

But NUJP believes that the attempt to stop the group from proceeding to the area was intended to prevent media from reporting on the plight of the evacuees, particularly in Datu Piang. The NUJP statement described the incident as an apparent act to stifle substantial reportage on the state of internally displaced persons or evacuees in Cotabato and Maguindanao.

Straight from the hearth

“Forgive us”: 500 years of Church’s recorded sinning against the women

By Gloria Esguerra Melencio

The Catholic Church’s asking for forgiveness for the sins it has committed against women is now put to test in the Philippines. Will the Reproductive Health Bill that the Church has openly declared war with finally pass this September? Let us go back to history more than 500 years ago to see how the unfolding of events has molded the women’s lives to what it is now.

Year 1484. A Papal Bull, whom book writers Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger inspired with their printed Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of the Witches) to ferret out alleged witches, mostly women, had been issued approving the Inquisition’s prosecuting and burning of women at the stake.

It was a systematic persecution that hundreds of European women who may had been suspected of possessing stones, books, herbs, cauldrons, stick brooms  or may had a list of recipes for herbal medicine preparations or who had gone to a neighbor seeking help on how to cure a headache – were enough evidence to convict them as witches, and thus, punished with death by burning.

Year 1521 and onward. Spanish chroniclers Antonio Pigafetta, Miguel de Loarca, and Antonio de Morga, and 100 years later Fr. Ignacio Alcina, had been one in saying that Indio women were “very vicious and sensual” and that this ‘carnal pleasure” was the fault of lumay or gayuma prescribed and concocted by the ancient herbolaria, a witchdoctor or native priestesses called babaylans.

The Spaniards had declared war against the babaylans following the Inquisitors’ paradigm in Europe because they embody the early pagan beliefs that were said to be the works of Satan. Their rituals, dances, prayers and chants were all against the laws of the Church that was even made virulent with the babaylan efforts to drive the Spaniards away from the islands.

Women’s bodies represented the “perverse” Evil that must be subjugated. The Spanish colonizers’ patriarchal orientation had been particularly challenged by the Filipino society’s sexual freedom (with no concept of women’s virginity and presence of divorce, among others) and matrilineal system of naming the offspring.

Abuses, rapes, slavery, impregnations, public humiliations and whippings had been too many that Pastoral Letters and Instructions to Clergy were issued to the Spaniards in the Philippines to at least review how the women were particularly treated in the islands.

Year 1995. Pope John Paul II, in a gesture of humility and admission, had asked the women forgiveness for the Church’s persecution of the witches and wrongly placed religious piety. In His Holiness’ Letter to the Women, the Pope had asked forgiveness for burning them at the stake, mass killings and the historical degradation of countless women around the world.

Year 2009. Reproductive Health Bill 5043 sponsor Representative Edcel Lagman in his speech at the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines’ (FPOP) 40^th anniversary last August expressed hopes that the bill will be passed this September. This controversial RH Bill which has been the center of debates between RH Bill advocates and the Catholic Church represented by the Pro-Life Movement provides for a “national policy on reproductive health, responsible parenthood and population development.”

Church position supporters –for the nth time – have called this RH Bill “Satan’s work” much like Europe’s early Inquisitors and Philippines’ Spanish colonizers condemning again women to a life of oblivion.

The congressman from Albay said that 113 representatives have already supported the bill with some secretly backing it up for fear of reprisal and backlash from the Church group. Only 76 votes are needed for the RH Bill to become a law.

September 15, 2009. University of the Philippines and Gregorian University in Rome graduate Reverend Father Carlos Reyes, in The Peacemakers’ Circle Foundation’s forum titled “Freedom of Religion in Islam and Catholic Christianity” reiterated Pope Paul II’s asking of forgiveness to the women.

“Forgive us for persecuting you; forgive us for degrading you.”

RH Bill now, to my mind, becomes an acid test, for the Church.

May our nameless and hapless women ancestors now rest in peace.

FEU Cheering Squad is 2009 champion

Far Eastern University (FEU) Cheering Squad’s victory in the 2009 Samsung Cheerdance Competition is long overdue. Always placing third in ranking for the past five years, they finally made it to the championship beating the two-time champion University of the Philippines (UP) Varsity Pep Squad and even displacing the five-year champion University of Santo Tomas (UST) Salinggawi Dance Troupe out of the top three.

It was also such a sweet unexpected victory for the Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion who was adjudged first runner-up adding another feather to the cap of Ateneo Blue Eagles who is currently the overall topnotcher in the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) 72nd season. The girls’ Michael Jackson moon walk on the lifters’ strong hands were executed creatively.

Saving the best for last was one could only surmise when they made their opening number being this year’s host of UAAP. Donning a sarimanok-inspired costume, the team comprising of dancers and lifters – two belong to the Philippine national team and more than half are trained gymnasts – their routine was almost flawless.

The team, scoring 86.1 percent which is lower than 93.3 percent of 2008 champion UP Pep Squad, bagged the Php 225,000 cash prize, the highest ever given by sponsor Samsung in the Philippines plus 35 units of Samsung E1125 cellphones.

Garnering 83.4 percent, first runner-up Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion was even surprised of their victory ending a long drought for Ateneo in the field of cheerleading. Samsung Stunner Award for 2009 was given to Ateneo’s Sari Campos.

UP Varsity Pep Squad got 83.1 percent. The cheerdance had traced UP history marked by the students’ day-to-day living in various periods. One supposed to be second toss after the first was not successfully executed because of an accidental fall.

UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe had one tumbling that almost became a major error at the opening. Their Egyptian dance was gracefully done but their routine did not impress the judges.

DLSU Animo Squad and Adamson Pep Squad both had major falls. Three major falls brought La Salle’s score down. Same with Adamson team who sported tattoos over their white costume.

The National University (NU) Pep Squad did not make it to top three but they promised they will be back with a vengeance in 2010 cheerdance competition. (GEM)

Cheermania in the Philippines

By Gloria Esguerra Melencio

Next to basketball or even surpassing it, cheerleading can be said as a sport that has its fans trouping to sports coliseum, arena, auditorium and wherever the pep squad teams where. Like basketball fans, more than 20,000 cheerleading fans scream their lungs out and jump up from their seats– usually when they see their favorite pep team – be it the UP Varsity Pep Squad, the UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe or the FEU Pep Squad – the three perennial rivals to the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Cheerdance Competition.

Dark horses who may steal the championship are the Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion, UE Pep Squad, NU Pep Squad, DLSU Animo Pep Squad, and Adamson Pep Squad.

Tickets had already been sold out a week before this 72nd UAAP season’s Cheerdance Competition. For one to be able to buy a precious ticket to the competition scheduled today, September 13, one has to queue in a long line for five hours – longer than reviewing for an exam or cramming for a report!

I could not believe it myself had not students told me of their sweet sacrifice just to be able to watch live this cheer sport. At the Shopping Center inside the UP campus in Diliman, students started lining up from as early as 6:30 am to be able to buy a ticket by 11:30 am.

Call it resourcefulness and ingenuity for commercial sponsors. Some companies offer free tickets for two if one buys a cellphone load worth Php 500. Students bite it because they know tickets are running out.

Maybe, founder Dr. Regino Ylanan, PE professor of the University of the Philippines that began the sport in 1924 and who had fought commercialism, must be turning in his grave right now. Said professor protested against the filing of the papers of incorporation with the then Bureau of Commerce in 1930 to maintain independence of the group composed of UP, National University and UST.

UST, the five-time champion in cheerdance competition until 2006, sided with UP at that time. The National Cheerleading Athletics Association (NCAA) was thus formed with the three universities coming in as members. Later in 1936, faces changed and the NCAA members became six with Ateneo, Letran, La Salle, Jose Rizal College, Mapua and San Beda College vying for the title.

No one can deny that cheerleading as a sport is a crowd drawer for everyone – rich or poor – not only in Metro-Manila in Luzon but also in the Visayas and Mindanao. Cheerleaders who are known for their gymnastic skills, individual stunts and group pyramids have always been admired for their courage, discipline and teamwork.

A US study says that cheerleading is one of the five sports which is prone to injuries. An athlete’s fall may cause a permanent injury or disability. But other athletes debunk the study saying that all athletes in any sport must be prepared for any injury that may come.

Nevertheless, the exuberance of youth and dynamism of the team make any pep squad stand out in any school around the country.

There is this cheermania currently sending goose bumps and fiery excitement to the Philippines’ colleges and universities.

Paroo’t parito

Hukbo ng istambay

Marami ang nag-aakala na birth o marriage certificate lang ang makukuha ng mga tao sa National Statistics Office (NSO), isa sa pinakamalaking money-making institutions ng gobyerno.
Pero naglalabas rin ito ng estatistika, kaya nga ganun ang pangalan nito. At pangangalap talaga ng datos ang orihinal na trabaho nito, hanggang may isang matalinong nilalang na desperadong makakuha ng pagkikitaan para sa bangkaroteng gobyerno ang nakaisip na maging taguan ito ng mga sertipiko at pilitin ang lahat ng mamamayan na idaan at patatakan ang mga legal na papeles na kailangan nila. Kelangan NSO authenticated ang hawak mong mga papeles, lalo na kung mag-aabroad ka. Dagdag na pagkakakitaan nga naman ito para sa national government.
Ngayong naglabas ang opisinang ito ng datos tungkol sa bilang ng mga walang trabaho, nasabi ng ilan: “Uy, naglalabas pala ng ganitong impormasyon ang NSO.” Hindi ba ginagawa na ito ng Bureau of Labor Statistics ng Department of Labor and Employment? Malay ko. Siguro sa isip nila mas maraming gumagawa ng isang trabaho, mas maganda. At kung tatanggalin kasi nila ang duplication, mas lalaki ang unemployment. Mas malaking problema ’yun, di ba la?
Heniwey, naglabas nga ang NSO ng impormasyon tungkol sa lumalaking bilang ng walang trabaho sa loob ng bansa.
Walang bago rito; sino ba ang hindi nakaaalam na maraming walang trabaho? Pero maganda na ring nalaman natin na alam pala nila na maraming tambay na Pinoy. Tuwing may magsasabi kasi ng negatibo sa kalagayan ng bansa, kaagad nagsasalita kung sino man ang sinisipag sa sanlaksang tagapagsalita sa Malakanyang. Sinasabi agad na paninira ito at walang katotohanan.
Ngayon, hindi nila mapasisinungalingan ito dahil ahensya na mismo ng gobyerno ang nagsasabing tumaas ang bilang ng walang hanapbuhay na Pinoy mula sa 2.7 milyon noong Abril hanggang sa 2.9 milyon noong Hulyo. Ang underemployment naman, o yung walang sapat na trabaho (hindi permanente o wala pang 40 oras sa isang linggo), e umaabot sa 7 milyon.
Ang totoo niyan, konserbatibo pa ang numerong ito. Ano pa ba ang aasahan sa gobyernong ito? Sa listahan nila, 38.4 milyon lang sa halos 90 milyong Pinoy ang nasa labor force o lakas paggawa kaya 7.5-7.6 porsyento lang ang walang trabaho pero halos 20 porsyento ang walang sapat na trabaho.
Hindi isinasali sa lakas paggawa yung mga hindi raw naghahanap ng trabaho. Ewan ko kung paano nila nalalaman kung sino yung naghahanap o hindi naghahanap ng trabaho. Siguradong namang hindi ka mapapahiya kapag inalok mo ng trabaho ang isang tambay sa kanto. Mukha lang siyang hindi naghahanap ng trabaho dahil napagod na siguro sa kahahanap o kaya’y naupod na ang sapatos at wala siyang pambili ng bago. Mahirap maghanap ng trabaho kung wala kang sapatos.
At lumalaki ang hukbo ng walang trabaho taun-taon dahil sa maraming nagtatapos sa kolehiyo. Bukod pa sa sinasabi ng DepEd at DOLE na hindi tugma ang kursong kinukuha ng mga estudyanteng Pinoy sa pangangailangan ng mga industriya sa Pinas.
Halimbawa, napakarami nating nurses ngayon samantalang kokonti lang ang mga ospital at klinika na pwedeng kumuha sa kanila. Kahit yung mga trabaho sa labas ng bansa kinakapos na rin.
Napakaraming dahilan ang sinasabi kaya mataas ang antas ng kawalang hanapbuhay sa Pinas. Hindi lamang umaamin ang gobyerno na inutil ito pagdating sa mas importanteng bagay, gaya ng pagkontrol sa korupsyon para gawing mas madali ang pagnenegosyo sa bansa. Pag masigla ang negosyo, syempre maraming trabaho, di ba la?

‘Mamahi:’ Stars of Tawi-tawi

By Dante L. Ambrosio
(Edited by Juan V. Sarmiento Jr., Talk of the Town)
BITUIN, BITUUN, BITUON — this is how various groups in the country call a star. But to the Samas of Tawi-tawi, a star is mamahi. This I learned when I surveyed the islands’ astronomical lore starting in 1995, the year a solar eclipse was seen over the province.
Two Sama Dilauts, known as Badjaos, from the capital town of Bongao drew their version of the sky for me. They identified several asterisms or star groups which they use in their activities. I confirmed these later with other fishermen, farmers, seafarers and religious leaders they call imam.
Among these asterisms are Batik (Orion’s belt), Mupu (Pleiades), Bubu (Big Dipper), Paliyama (parts of Aquila), Mamahi Uttara (North Star), Saloka (Scorpius), Anakdatu and Sahapang (Alpha and Beta Centauri), Bunta (Southern Cross), Lakag or Maga (morning star), Mamahi Kagang and Mamahi Pagi. There are many more.
It is unfortunate that city-bred denizens like us have almost no chance to acquire the knowledge of the heavens which our forefathers mastered. While scientists and astronomers built upon the knowledge of the ancients, the educated among us are not even cognizant of our own astronomical lore.
Some might have heard of Orion but not Batik or Balatik, Pleiades but not the Tagalogs’ Mapolon or the Bikolanos’ Moroporo, Big Dipper but not Bubu or the Samarnon’s Lusong, and Southern Cross but not Bunta. Although on occasions they might have heard of Tatlong Maria (Orion’s belt), Supot ni Hudas (Pleiades) or Krus na Bituin (Southern Cross), these came to us only with the advent of Christianity.
In fostering science awareness, we could start and build on what we already have and what is, in fact, still being used out there in the field. Thus, my attempt to document our own astronomical lore.
What did our forefathers think about when they looked at the heavens? Why did they organize the stars into groups and named them after specific objects in their immediate milieu? What prompted them to believe that stars influence their lives? How come people still hang on to these beliefs?
Posing these questions means venturing into the realm of a people’s culture. It requires probing into the indigenous system of knowledge. A system which a group of people develops in the course of time in a continuing interaction with nature. It enabled the group to survive in the past and continues to inform its way of thinking and acting at present.
We often look down on this knowledge as a hodgepodge of superstitions which we regard as irrational and without scientific basis. Still we are astounded by the rich treasury of knowledge of indigenous peoples when we come to learn of it and which science, when it tries to, finds to have some solid basis and logic of its own. Just look at modern medicine as it engages the albularyos’ indigenous knowledge of herbal cure!
The Samas possess their own knowledge of the stars. Like other peoples of the world, they long ago divided them into groups, betraying again man’s propensity to classify and organize things to better grasp and understand them.
Star groups are named after objects which are familiar to a particular culture. Thus, in naming stars, a particular group of people puts its own mark—its own culture—in the sky complete with stories that also bear its identity.
It thus becomes “natural” for the stars of Tawi-tawi to display the characteristics of a culture nurtured by watery surroundings. Mamahi Kagang, Mamahi Pagi, Bunta, Sahapang, Bubu, and Anakdatu are all related to the sea by their nature, use and activity.
Kagang is a crab, pagi is a stingray while Bunta is a puffer fish. Sahapang is a three-pronged spear used to catch fish while bubu is a rectangular bamboo fish trap. Anakdatu is a fisherman poised to spear a puffer fish with his sahapang.
Besides fishing, the Samas plant in the uplands and hunt in the mountains. Thus, they have Saloka, a coconut tree, in the sky. They also have Batik for an asterism which is also a spear trap used in hunting wild pigs. It is the most prominent asterism in the Philippines and is called Balatik, Belatik, Bayatik and Blatik by various ethnic groups.
While people put their own mark on the stars by grouping and naming them, these stars in turn influence their lives. Used as markers, they help organize the activities of the people as they appear in the night or dawn sky.
The Samas consult Batik, Paliyama and Saloka in planting their crops. Their appearance and location at various times coincide with conditions necessary for each stage of kaingin farming.
With some variation, kaingin farming in the Philippines is done during the months of December to May. The land to be farmed is chosen and cleared from December to February. Between March and April, when the sun is at its hottest and there is enough wind to fan the flames, the cut trees and grasses are dried and burned. Planting is done in April and May when it starts to rain. Hardly could one plant with the onset of the rainy season.
Farmers in Tawi-tawi now use clock position to indicate the stars’ location in the sky. It is at 6 o’clock when a star is seen in the east or in the west and is at 12 o’clock when it is at the zenith.
Imam Ladia said that the clearing of the huma should start when Batik appears at 10 at nightfall. This is around December to January. Burning should start when it is already at 11:30 after sunset. This is from February to March. Planting is done when it starts to rain around April to May or before Batik appears ready to set in the west at nightfall. After this, one could no longer plant; the bird maya and other pests would be out to wreak havoc on the newly planted field. This also marks the onset of the rainy season.
While Batik is consulted at nightfall, Paliyama is used as a marker at dawn. Clearing and burning is done when Paliyama appears in the east at positions called sampangan (8-9 o’clock) and malambang musim (10-11 o’clock). This is from January to April. It is time to plant while it is at luttu Paliyama (at the zenith) when it starts to rain. This is around April to May.
Aside from Batik and Paliyama, Saloka is also used as a marker in planting coconuts. The Samas believe that a coconut tree bears fruit quickly when planted at a time when Saloka appears low on the eastern horizon at nightfall. It will bear fruit at a later date if planted when it is already at luttu or at the zenith after sunset.
When Samas see many stars inside the rectangular trap Bubu, they set down their own fish traps into the sea, believing that they will have a good catch. The appearance of many stars indicate good weather, which may be one reason for the good catch.
My Sama Dilaut informants said that the position of the stars, which form the rope used to pull up the bubu out of the sea, indicated the strength of the current. These stars form the handle of the Big Dipper. When they are in the east, the current is strong but when they are in the west, the current is weak or there is no current at all.
Several stars, together with the wind, are used in direction finding. Samas know that the morning star Lakag or Maga is in the east, Bubu and Mamahi Uttara are in the north, while Bunta is in the south.
The western direction is reckoned with stars Tunggal Bahangi and Mamahi Magrib. Unfortunately, I failed to identify these stars. The same goes with Mamahi Satan, the south star. Of course, the east-west direction is easily identifiable with the aid of the sun which is also a star. For the same directions, the Samas also observe Batik and Mupu which traverse the sky from east to the zenith to the west.
Together with stars, winds are also used to mark direction. Satan or salatan, the south wind, is associated with Bunta, the asterism named after a puffer fish. The heavenly fish releases the air from its puffy body once it ends its seasonal appearance in the night sky. That air is satan or salatan.
When Anakdatu, which follows Bunta, has come and gone, the north wind called uttara replaces the south wind. Another marker for uttara is the appearance of Mupu in the east at nightfall. It is also uttara that blows when the northern stars of Batik get dimmer. Its southern stars dim when it is satan’s turn to blow.
To take note of these subtle changes, one must be very knowledgeable about and sensitive to incremental changes in the environment. A characteristic which the Samas possess considering their continuing close relationship with the environment.
Samas are noted seafarers. They once manned the ships of the sultans of Sulu who traded across the seas. Their use of celestial navigation is thus legendary, albeit unresearched and unstudied.
Mamahi Uttara is a prominent navigational star. This is the north star which remains “steady” unlike other stars which changes position as they cross the sky from east to west, according to Imam Yasin. Using this as a guide, one may reach Cotabato and Zamboanga by sailing northeast, Sabah northwest, Celebes or Sulawesi and Balikpapan in Kalimantan southeast with some necessary adjustments along the way.
Bunta is used in crossing the Sulu Sea from Mapun near Palawan to the capital town of Bongao on the Tawi-tawi mainland. To reach Bongao, the pilot with an outstretched arm must keep Bunta one dangkal — from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the middle finger — to the left of the boat’s prow. If the prow veers to the left by a dangkal, it will reach Languyan instead which is at the northern end of Tawi-tawi. But if it veers to the right, the boat will land at Sibutu which is at the southern end of the archipelago.
Cardinal directions
One of the more experienced seafarers of Panglima Sugala, another Tawi-tawi municipality, is Aspalman Jalman. He uses five stars to mark the four cardinal directions—Maga for the east, Tunggal Bahangi and Mamahi Magrib for the west, Mamahi Uttara for the north, and Mamahi Satan for the south.
As long as one knows the position of Mamahi Uttara and Mamahi Satan and the relative position of one’s destination, one could readily lay down the path to be taken by the boat, according to Aspalman. This is easily said than done because one must expect the unexpected during a trip. Like when he drifted down to the Celebes Sea after his engine broke down between Sibutu and the Tawi-tawi mainland. On occasions like this, no star would be of help.
All these are but a part, a very small part, of Tawi-tawi’s astronomical lore. Indeed, there is much to be learned not only from the Samas but also from other groups in the country. Aware of this lore, we will not only be enjoying the sky when we look at it at night. We will also be reading — and will be reminded of — our own past and culture.

(Dante Ambrosio Ph.D., is a professor at the Department of History of the University of the Philippines-Diliman.)
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:06:00 01/26/2008

Filed Under: Nature, Astronomy, Travel & Commuting, Science (general)

Historical Markers on Filipino Women’s Sexuality During Spanish Colonial Times

By Gloria Esguerra Melencio

The intention of this research paper is to compile data about the Filipino women’s activities, rituals and customs related to sexuality and mark its historical markers along the way from the 16th up to 17th centuries.

The paper asks the following questions: What did the Spanish colonizers find out when they first saw the women? How did the Spanish colonizers view the Filipino women through time? What were the Filipino women’s activities, rituals and customs that pertain to sexuality? How did they express their sexual desires? Why were polygamy, concubinage and abortion practiced ? How did the Spanish colonizers wield the Christian Doctrine to conquer the so-called Evils that plague the Filipino women? What was the perception of the Filipino women of the Spanish colonizers?

Why sexuality? Why Historical Markers?

First, the researcher chooses the sexuality aspect of women as a topic because most of the materials gathered about womanhod focus on chastity, modesty, virginity, relationship with men and everything related to her being a woman that involves conception, childbearing, giving birth or failing to give birth.

Sexuality here as the Webster’s Dictionary defines is the “possession of the structural and functional differentia of sex.”

Second, the researcher sees putting historical markers on the important events related to women’s sexuality using the historical process of Spanish colonization as a backdrop while putting forth forward the social issues that have arisen as past and present-day problems.

Third, the researcher categorizes the historical markers as nodal points in the meeting of two different peoples and cultures – the paganistic native Filipinos and the Christian Hispanics – and discovers along the way a metamorphosed culture where can be threshed out specific issues of Filipino women related to sexuality.

The periodization, as the researcher discerns, is fluid. It means the event or symbolical object had begun or surfaced when the Spanish colonizers set foot on the islands in the 16th century and continued until the 17th century. Or may have been continuing up until the present time. Further study on the periods that are marked as nodal points in women’s sexuality is a must in the future because it will provide explanations and clarifications as to what had transpired in the past that led the way to where the women are now in history.

Moreover, this is a challenging and an exciting journey for the researcher.

Historical Marker 1: Sagra , the Barrier (Before and After 1521)

Antonio Pigafetta, Miguel de Loarca, Antonio de Morga, and Fr. Ignacio Alcina had written about sagras at different times. Literally translated as “barrier” (sagka in Tagalog), Pigafetta wrote lengthily about it as a “gold or tin bolt as large as a goose quill” in 1521 which less than 100 years later will also find its way in Alcina’s account.

What is more striking though was Pigafetta’s interviewing the men to ask why do they have to suffer such pain – and a little drop of blood, at that – as they permanently keep the sagras pierced through their private parts. Pigafetta writes:
“They say that their women wish it and that if they did otherwise, they would not have communication with them.”

Alcina attests Pigafetta’s account:

“This was done for a greater incitement to carnal pleasure , not only on the part of the men, but especially the women.”

Morga affirms Pigafetta’s findings and also says the Spanish friars made a great effort to eliminate them:
“With this device, they have communication with their wives, and are unable to withdraw until a long time after copulation. They are very fond of this and receive much pleasure from it, so that, although they shed a quantity of blood, and receive other harm, it is current among them… strenuous efforts are being made to do away with these, and not consent to their use; and consequently the practice has been checked in great part”.

Based on this experience, Morga opines that the women are “very vicious and sensual” and describes the use of sagra as “perverseness.”

The use of sagra had also been prevalent in Cambodia, Bengal, Malaysia and other parts of Asia. Pigafetta, Loarca, Morga and an anonymous writer of the Boxer’s Codex describe the early Filipinos’ version of goat’s hair as a sophisticated material for sagra different from that of other peoples. The natives also use 20 kinds of wheels for sagras. The Boxer’s Codex puts it to 30.

It pervasiveness throughout the region can be proven in a royal request of a Cambodian queen who dissuaded her minions to stop using sagras for an unexplained reason but which Alcina describes as an “unnatural sin” and causes “virulent cancer.”

He even writes that some men died because of sagra but is not clear if women suffer, too, from the cancerous affliction. However, the cancerous infection as a result of foreign objects such as wood, tin or gold inserted through a body part during repeated sexual encounters should be the reason for reported deaths.

Women demanding for this sexual satisfaction is beyond the colonizers’ world view that expects the women to be modest and chaste. While they cannot control totally what is
happening between man and woman in their sexual trysts, the colonizers check on the men’s private parts and punish with beating the men who wore them.

Absence of the words sagra, sacra, sakra or chakra in the Diccionario compiled by Domingo delos Santos and Alfonso Mentrida is a silence that speaks a lot. Its visual existence and use was prohibited, and thus the word not spoken, lest the Spaniards punish the natives. The word has lost its use through time.

Related to this, women use lumay (Bisaya) or gayuma (Tagalog), herb mixed with drinks to seduce their beloved into liking them. Alcina admits in his account that he once gave a woman a “good whipping” for doing so.

Again, like the sagras, lumay or gayuma are representations of ancient Filipino women’s expression of sensuality and sexuality that have transgressed the boundaries of Western standards of morality. But unlike sagras that can be inspected in men’s body, the lumay or gayumas are herbs that can pass on as medicinal and taken internally upon prescription of an herbolaria, a witchdoctor or a babaylan. This survives until the present day in history.

Historical Marker 2:Virginity since 1604

The natives have no concept of virginity. Men are not concerned whether their wives are virgins or not. Men are paid to “deflower” the virgin girls. Pedro Chirino in his account says:
“…they did not value virginity, nor set any store by it, regarding it rather as misfortune and degradation.

Virgin girls are brought to the men whose work is to “ravish” them so that they are no longer virgins when they get married. The natives believe that virginity is a “hindrance” and an “impediment” for the husbands during the first few nights of marriage.

Loarca further emphasizes that it was a disgrace for any woman not to have a sweetheart because she is deemed as “ugly” or may be surmised as unwanted. Or is it because it is meant as completeness and wholeness? Alcina cites in his account that a woman who died a virgin or had only one husband is called a bingil (Bisaya) and buried with her is a half coconut shell and a pati (half-ax handle). What do the half coconut shell and half-ax handle mean? Why are they halves? Are round coconut and elongated ax mean the woman’s and man’s sex organs respectively? Can one-half mean there is a need for another half to complete the essence of each other’s being?

In line with this, ancient Filipinos circumsize both the male and female children. Female children are circumsized where a slit is made to ensure there is an opening in the girl’s private part. Again, the purpose of female circumcision is to prepare the girl for less painful sexual encounter during her first sexual act with a male.

But while the outright elimination of sagra is explicitly mentioned in the historical accounts, there is no single account that reveals the prohibition of female circumcision. Sagras had been replaced by the bolitas ; female circumcision was replaced by nothing. The Spaniards point to the Chinese as the source of sagra; they also blame female circumcision to the Moros who are said to be the “source of this Mohammetan practice.”

Historical Marker 3: Slavery of Women (Before 1609 and Onwards)
Fray Pedro de San Pablo, preacher and provincial minister of the Philippines Islands, wrote a long letter to Charles V in 1619 approximating the relatively “peaceful” life of the native Indians before Governor Don Juan de Silva established shipyards and fleets in 1609. The Governor, acoording to him, forced the Indians to work and conscripted them in “compulsory service” that made this grand plan of ship building possible.

Along the process, many natives were made slaves, “many others were killed” presumably when they refused to be part of the labor force and some escaped to the woods to save their lives.

An item in the letter reveals about the women slaves who were made to labor for the ship sailors and most likely act as sex slaves while on board the ships. Fray de San Pedro requests the Majesty in his letter this numbered item:
“23. Item: That slave women be not conveyed in the ships, by which many acts offensive to God will be avoided. Although that is not prohibited by your royal decree, and it is also entrusted to the archbishop to pace upon them the penalty of excommunication and to punish them, this evil has not been checked; and many sailors – and even others, who should furnish a good example – take slave women and keep them as concubines. He knew a certain prominent official who carried with him fifteen of these women and some were delivered of children by him, while others were pregnant, which made a great scandal.”

Documents of 1609 that include among others a report of the Jesuit Missions confirms the prevailing abduction of women in the inner part of the islands to be sold later as slaves and prostitutes. The report quotes:
“XI. The attention of Ours at Tinagon has wisely been given to the women since they are more ready to take on an interest in sacred things, and are more seldom absent from the village – except when one or another makes her escape from the hands of some procurer, preferring to pass the nights in the forest and mountains in the midst of serpents, rather than at home to suffer danger to her chastity among men that are as deadly.”

Selling slaves – men and women – has been so rampant because it was profitable. Fray de San Pablo even urged the King to issue a Royal Decree to stop the trade as this is “evil” and may “destroy” Spain in the future. He continues in the letter:

“24. Item: That no sailor, and no passenger unless he be a person of rank, be allowed to take more than one male slave…”

He explains that slaves consume the food provision in the ship and also steal while on board. He discloses, too, that they are charged additional tax for each slave when they dock at any port.

Fray de San Pedro likewise narrates in the letter that ordinary seamen are not treated well and die of hunger and cold while working on the vessel. They are not given clothes (they are not used to wearing such because they are from the interiors of the land) so that they freeze and eventually die at dawn). If this is how the seamen are treated, the questions that come to mind are: How are the male slaves treated? How are the female slaves turned concubines treated too? His letter does not mention anything about how male or female sex slaves are treated thereat.

The preacher emphasizes in the letter towards the end:
“If he (the letter writer) were to tell them in detail the evil that is done to them, it would fill many pages. He petitions your Majesty to change your governor straitly to remedy this.”

What is surprising is that decrees have already been issued even earlier. Felipe II and Felipe III in two separate edicts in 1597 and 1608, respectively, prohibited the selling of slaves to Nueva España and ordered the limiting of the slaves’ number while on ship. Felipe III in particular issued Law LVI that says:

“It has been reported that the passengers and sailors of the trading ships of Filipinas transport and carry the slave-women who are the cause of very great offenses to God and other troubles. This should be prohibited and reformed (and more reasonably so in a navigation so long and dangerous)…For the remedy of this, we order and command…not to permit any slave-women to be transported or carried on those ships…”

Abducting a woman is also done to show political strength as what Governor Morales of Jolo did during the same period. He abducted the beautiful daughter of Salibanza, a local datu, that angered the father so greatly. Salibanza staged a conspiracy against Morales in retaliation.

Historical Marker 4: Concubinage (Before 1577 and Onwards)

The Spanish colonizers, secular or religious, keep the native women as mistresses. Sinibaldo de Mas notes in his short-stay in the Philippines that the general weakness of Spanish men is concubinage. They call them despenseras (stewardess) and later, queridas. They may be the laundrywomen, vendors, cooks, modistas, house or church cleaners – all women who serve and make the Spanish men’s lives easier.

Mas, a diplomat and a traveler exposed to so many cultures, has no ill words for the native Indian women but regards concubinage as a normal way of life. He allows the one he is reporting to read between the lines:
“Many keep a mistress…inside and outside the convent. The convent in Filipinas has no cloister, as it is a parochial house. And this fault, if one considers the climate of the country, the circumstance and the ideas of the natives, is to say, truth, the most excusable and the least harmful.”

Mas’ statement pointing to the “circumstance and ideas of the natives” on the issue of concubinage is highly palpable. He excuses the Spanish men from committing such and blames it altogether to the natives.

Earlier, 71 years before Mas’ report, a Pastoral Letter entitled Instruction to the Clergy was issued to the friars in the Phippines imposing rules on the conduct of the Spanish friars in their parishes. The Pastoral Letter in several numbered items reads:
“8. They shall not allow the dalagas (i.e , young girls) or any woman to clean the church; the sacristan must perform this duty…
10. No woman shall enter the clergyman’s house.”

The need for this Instruction item numbers 8 and 10 reveals a situation that involves women and Spanish friars. What is this situation? Why are the dalagas not allowed to clean the church? What has been happening inside the clegyman’s house? Why did the Instruction not mention the problem? Is it up to covering something?

Is the answer to the above questions the reason why the older women, Manang in many Filipino languages, the ones who clean the altar, arrange flowers and do other church chores up until this time?

For the Spanish soldiers who are not required by the Catholic Church’s dictum of celibacy and are not regarded to become the vanguards of morality, Francisco de Sande was proud to write about their “improvement” as regards concubinage in 1577. He reveals:
“ It is desirable that the soldiers should always lead honest lives; but as they are young, and the women in this country are so many and so bad, it is more difficult to correct this evil.”

De Sande’s description of “improvement” among the Spanish soldiers again reveals the existence of rampant concubinage in the Philippine Islands where the men are stationed. Much like Mas, de Sande justifies the sexual affairs but is outright explicit when he claims that because the men are young, the need for sex with women is only but natural. De Sande likewise is clear in blaming the native women’s increasing population and state of being “bad” (“lewd,” “unchaste” and “lustful”) that the men cannot refuse them.

In 1594, a petition was presented to the Governor to act on widespread concubinage. The petition reads:

“There are reports, and even numerous complaints from both the secular and religious sources, and for lack of means to pay the fees, many persons do not marry, but live in concubinage; the Jesuits think that this fee-system is wrong and that the priest should be content with his stipend, at least among the poor, whether Indians or Spaniards; this applies to both regular clergy and to friars; the bishop is urged to remedy this abuse. (The Petition Presented to the Governor by the City and the Encomenderos on the 15th of February 1591, BR Vol. 5, p. 317.)

There has also been cases of native Indian men committing concubinage. One such celebrated case that merited several pages in Alcina’s accounts is Sumuroy’s alleged having a querida. Alcina reports this act necessitated an “admonishment” that angered Sumuroy, a sacristan and son of a babaylan, to high heavens.
He eventually abandoned his wife to live with his querida. The parish priest after hearing this, took the woman away and sent her to Catubig several miles away from Palapag. This angered the native and was reported as the reason for the Sumuroy-led uprising in 1649. He killed Fathers Miguel and Damian during the attack.

Kasaysayang Bayan: Sampung Aralin sa Kasaysayang Pilipino has another reason for the Sumuroy Uprising. It gets out of the old mold and traces the uprising to the general sentiment of the Samareños – having influenced by the native religion – against the conscripted forced labor that had sent many Bisayans (who are the best shipbuilders- Alcina) to Cavite dockyards.

Historical Marker 5: Marriage and Divorce (Before 1582)
The so-called uncivilized natives consider it a disgrace to bear a child out of wedlock. Children born outside of marriage, regardless of rank (datu, maharlika, timawa and ayuey), do not inherit anything unless the father or mother has no legitimate heirs or alive relatives of nearest kin.

Juan de Plasencia says the natives have a caste-like system and laws about inheritance by way of marriage are as varied and complicated. The slaves have a confusing strata that there are a “full-slave”, a “half-slave;”, a “quarter-slave”; aliping namamahay, aliping saguiguilid for the Tagalogs; and tumataban and tumatarampoque for the Bisayans.

They usually marry their relatives but cannot marry those belonging to the first degree of consanguinity. Thus, nieces and nephews are sometimes married to uncles and aunts.

No one marries below his or her rank in the Bisayas but there were cases of cross-marriages among the Tagalogs. A datu and a woman binukot marry in an elaborate marriage ceremony by joining hands together over a dish of rice in a makeshift venue that is made just for the occasion. People of other ranks do not do this ritual as doing so will be disrespectful for the datu and binukot.

The timawas finalize their marriage by drinking pitarilla in one cup. Marriage ritual is done after the symbolical drinking towards the evening. Rich and respectable slaves have this ritual too.

The ayueys or the slaves just say “Let us marry” and they are married without fanfare.

Upward mobility of rank happens when a free woman bears a child from a slave. The children of this union become free provided that the woman is not married to the slave.

Bethrotals of would-be children among friends are a way of life, says Loarca. Punishment and fines are imposed on those who cannot make true with their promise.

So-called heathens marry and divorce each other in ceremonies that is in accordance with their rank. Returning of the dowry of the one at fault (in case of adultery) to the one without blame is enough for divorce. Chirino emphasizes:

“Not even married women felt honor bound to remain faithful to their husbands, although the husbands deeply resented their wives’ adultery and considered it a very just cause for repudiating them.”

A datu can kill his wife and her other man caught in the act of adultery. Minor penalty and punishments are imposed on the slaves for same crime.

On the other hand, a datu who commits adultery pays the wife a handsome amount before final separation. In cases where he cannot pay, his relatives help out in the payment in according to degree in accordance with the kinship. Should the datu fail to pay for the retribution, he becomes a slave until such time that he can pay the ransom.

Dowries are given to the parents as a way to compensate for raising the daughters. Dr. Jose Rizal in his annotation of Morga’s account writes:

“This dowry of one may call it so, represented to the parents an indemnity for the care and vigilance that they had exercised for their daughter’s education. The Filipina woman, never being a burden to any one (either to her parents or to her husband), but quite the contrary, represents a value, whose loss to the possessor must be substituted…The Tagal wife is free, and treated with consideration; she trades and contracts, almost always with the approbation of her husband, who consults her in all her acts. She takes care of the money and educates the children, half of whom belong to her…”

In the Visayas and Mindanao, dowries are “returned” to the giver when the marriage is annulled. But when the parents are poor and cannot produce the dowry back, it is repudiated.

Historical Marker 6: Polygamy (Before and During 1604)

Chirino notes that some of the natives practice polygamy which is not a custom in Manila, Panay and other Islands. They usually have one wife or one husband. Datus and wealthy men are allowed to take on concubines if the wife cannot bear children.

But Chirino got the surprise of his life when he discovers a woman who has two husbands. He narrates:

“I was in the Philippines almost 10 years without knowing of a man married to several women, until I came to the islands of Ibabao and Leyte, for in Manila, Mindoro, Marinduque and Panay where I had stayed, I had not seen any such thing practiced. I had only been told by a certain Spaniard that it was the practice in a part of Mindanao, towards Dapitan, for one Bisayan woman (for the people of Mindanao are also Bisayans) to marry two husbands, and that having several wives was known only among the Mohammedans, who are settled in Mindanao and in Burney. The fact is that it is not a general practice in the Philippines to marry several wives, nor is it common even in those places where it is sometimes practiced. The more common and more widespread custom is to marry one wife only.”

This poses a problem to the priests in the conversion of the natives to Christianity. For if the datus and chiefs are the ones having more than one wife, the Spanish friars cannot dissuade their throng of followers to be baptized in the church. Alcina tells of his experience in his book where he was able to convince the local chieftain to choose his favorite concubine and leave his other wives and were converted to Christianity eventually.

Historical Marker 7: Abortion (Before 1582)

The undated Boxer’s Codex and Loarca in 1582 record the practice of abortion among the native women. It is universally practiced by ancient Filipinos, according to both of them. The Boxer’s Codex reports:

“There this calling (abortion) and by massaging the stomach and placing certain herbs the creature later dies and the pregnant woman aborts.”

The natives do not want many children and consider having plenty of them a “disgrace” especially when the man and woman are not married. It is the unmarried who are accustomed to this practice of abortion, reveals the Boxer’s Codex, for they consider it a “dishonor” for an unmarried woman to give birth.

The Codex likewise reveals that the Moros and the Bisayans “kill” the offsprings. Majority of the women are used to having many births but would like to have fewer children.

Loarca says that the division of inheritance among many children reduces the share of each child. He explains that “when the property is to be divided among all the children, they will all be poor, and that it is better to have one child and leave him wealthy.”

Conclusion: Historicity of  Women’s Social Blueprint
The Trend in Historical Markers

Based on the data gathered, seven historical markers related to the Filipino native women’s sexuality had happened during the 16th century until the 17th century: sagra (before and after 1521), virginity (since 1604 and onwards), slavery of women (before 1609 and onwards), concubinage (before 1577 and onwards), marriage and divorce (before 1582), polygamy (before and during 1604) and abortion (before 1582).

Over-all trend during the identified historical markers shows coercion and physical abuse of the native women by the colonizers in the whole of the Philippine islands, regardless of the women’s rank in society or age.

During the first nodal point, Spaniards conducted a virulent war against the babaylans, the embodiment of the paganistic beliefs visually seen in women’s bodies, because they “made every effort so that the Spaniards might not set foot on land.”

As the first nodal point proceeds to the second and third nodal points from 1521 up to 1604 and 1609, it can be gleaned that the colonizers immensely enjoyed the fruits of their sacrilegious labor as they reap left and right profits from selling women’s bodies and taking in control of other people’s lives. This created quite a stir among the native population and instilled fear to the women who do not hold weapons other than the bolos they use to cultivate the land.

Marriage and divorce customs from 1577 up to 1609 showed that the Philippine society regard women as equals with men and that they can freely express themselves sexually.

The colonizers lambast the women for not being virgins as the Spanish friars introduced Virgin Mary as the supposed role model for women and girls.

The names of Tapihan, Cariapa, Tuambaloca (queen of Jolo, 1649-50), and Oley may have claimed a space in the remote pages of history but they were only named because they allowed themselves to be baptized by the Spanish friars. More unnamed and faceless native women had been lost through time either because they remained to be themselves unaffected by foreign influence, refused to be baptized or they squarely faced the colonizers in uprisings and revolts.

Women slaves had been forcibly taken, sold, raped and impregnated. Trafficking of women for sexual gratification can be said to have begun in this landmark period.

Abuse is very common in the provinces. The friars whip the girls and women with a thong, even in the presence of their husbands, who dare not say anything. This is not done in Manila. Women are punished and whipped in public for not going to church even for a day, Le Gentil continues.

A women-blaming syndrome in the course of this research emerges. The blame has always been put on women because they are “many, lewd, lustful, lascivious, unchaste, immodest, immoral, deceptive, weak in mind” and so forth and so on. The concubines or the queridas are the reason for the men’s uprising against the foreign colonizers, as in the case of Sumuroy’s Uprising in Palapag, Samar.

Because of mentioned oppressions at different periods in history that has persisted for a long time, the native Indian women much like the babaylans, hate the Spaniards. Their actions and reactions – that need to be retrieved and again must be read between the lines – deserve another research.

Tracing the Women in History

Tracing the women in history is like separating the grains from the chaff – but this time the chaff is plenty than the grains. It is sieving through a wealth of information only to find out that there is a dearth of data about women that have to be read between the lines. Discovered data must be corroborated and confirmed by other existing authentic accounts as well.

Contribution

The periods are fluid as they are based on existing documents at hand but nevertheless will serve as a guidepost for any future researcher interested on history and women.

Marked event during a certain period establishes its presence and authenticity. The genuine characteristic of the experiences permanently etched in history’s pages becomes now the social blueprint, hopefully, for future reference.

Bibliography

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Documents of 1609, Jesuit Missions, 1608-1609, From Annuae Litterae, Dilingae, 1610. Emma Helen Blair and James Richard Robertson, (1609-1616), Volume 17, First Printing, 1903, CD-ROM Edition, Bank of the Philippine Islands, 2000

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Reforms Needed in the Philippines, Emma Helen Blair and James Richard Robertson, Volume 18, First Printing, 1903, CD-ROM Edition, Bank of the Philippine Islands, 2000.

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Miguel de Loarca, Relacion de las Yslas Filipinas, June 1582. Translated and annotated in Emma Helen Blair and James Richard Robertson, Volume V, First Printing, 1903, CD-ROM Edition, Bank of the Philippine Islands, 2000.

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Fray Juan de Medina, Historia, Emma Helen Blair and James Richard Robertson, Volume 23, First Printing, 1903, CD-ROM Edition, Bank of the Philippine Islands, 2000.

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(The author submitted this paper as a requirement for Kasaysayan 321 at the University of the Philippines.)

Balátik and Moropóro Stars of Philippine skies

By Dante L. Ambrosio
(Edited by Juan V. Sarmiento Jr., Talk of the Town))
AMONG THE STAR groups that are often mentioned in studies of stars in Philippine skies, two appear to be more prominent. These are Orion and the Pleiades, which are called by various names, among which are Balátik and Moropóro.
How to explain the prominence? There is a combination of reasons.
One, Orion is composed of several bright stars. The combination of the stars of Orion’s Belt and Orion’s Sword remind many Philippine cultures of the spring trap used in hunting wild pigs. They call the trap balátik. Christian Filipinos, on the other hand, see in the stars of Orion’s Belt the Tres Marias or Tatlong Maria (Three Marias) which are of Spanish-Christian origin.
Prominent positions
The Pleiades’ distinguishing mark is the bunching together of its stars, a rarity among naked-eye stars. It is called Moropóro, Molopólo or Mapúlon by various ethnic groups throughout the archipelago. Christian Filipinos know it as either Supot ni Hudas (Judas’ pouch) or Rosaryo (rosary).
Two, Orion and the Pleaides occupy very prominent positions in Philippine skies. They both rise in the east, traverse the sky almost through the zenith and set in the west. Orion’s brightness and the large area it occupies horizontally in the middle of the sky make it the most visible among constellations during its seasonal appearance, with Pleiades leading it off not far ahead.
Swidden farming
Three, their seasonal appearance in Philippine skies at night coincides with environmental conditions that are conducive to various cultures’ activities, most especially kaingin or swidden farming. Thus, the local population’s dependence on these stars in timing the various stages of their agricultural work.
It is this third reason which makes Orion and the Pleiades particularly important among Philippine cultures. The two appear from October to May in the Philippine night sky. This is the kaingin period for swidden farmers. They choose the land for kaingin around December and January, clear it from January to February, let the cut trees and grasses dry during the hot months of March and April, and burn them around late April as the gentle northeast wind blows.
They plant the cleared land around May after the first drops of rain. Both Orion and the Pleiades’ changing positions at nightfall during these months serve to guide the swidden farmers in their work.
A number of stars of Orion form the Philippine constellation commonly known as Balátik. It is named after a spear trap used for hunting, especially wild pigs. William Henry Scott described a Visayan spear trap in this manner:
Balátik
“The balátik was a rather sophisticated machine. Standing on two stout poles driven into the ground in the form of an X, it had a long stock with a slot to hold the shaft, a powerful bow or spring to propel it, and a catch to hold the string and release it when triggered. It even had a safety lock to prevent it from firing accidentally….”
It is indeed a widely used trap which researchers had described or drawn a number of times. Francis H. Lambrecht had a drawing of an Ifugao bala’ih trap which is no different from a balátik.
Balátik as an asterism clones the trap in the sky. My Badjao or Sama Dilaut informant pointed it out to me as it sets in the west in an early May night. It is composed of Orion’s Belt as the shaft or arrow and Orion’s Sword as the bow or thruster.
Nicole Revel had the same stars and form for the Palawan Binawägan mägsasawäd , which is also named after the Palawan’s spear trap.
Spanish chroniclers
Philippine groups already recognized Balátik as a trap and a constellation by the time Spaniards colonized the archipelago in 1565. Juan de Plasencia mentioned it in his 1589 account as one of the Tagalog stars though misidentifying it as Ursa Major. Alonso de Mentrida mentioned the same in his Hiligaynon vocabulary but like Plasencia misidentified it—for Gemini this time.
Seventeenth century compilers of Tagalog vocabularies like Francisco de San Antonio and Pedro de San Buenaventura described it as both a trap and an asterism composed of the stars of Orion. They identified it as the Spanish Tres Marias, referring to Orion’s Belt.
Ethnographic studies
Later ethnographic studies revealed Balátik’s popularity across the archipelago. The asterism is known as Balátik or by its cognates Bayatik, Belatik, Batik to several Philippine groups. The Ifugao Balbalays, the Jama Mapun Batik and the Palawan Binawägan mägsasawäd refer to the same trap and asterism.
The Teduray Seretar and the Bukidnon Magbangal may not be a trap, yet they are also associated with hunting. Both are hunters and kaingin farmers in the myths. Seretar’s body is formed by Orion’s Belt, his left arm by Betelgeuse and his right by Rigel. His bolo, kept in a rattan scabbard, is Orion’s Sword in modern astronomy. Fay-Cooper Cole did not identify the Bukidnon stars by their modern names but it may be surmised that Magbangal is composed of the stars of Orion given the facts of his observations. He did mention that Magbangal is a hunter and a swidden farmer.
Weaving
Weaving is an important craft among the Ilokanos and Igorots of northern Luzon. This is, perhaps, one reason they see quite a different figure in the stars of Orion. Rather than a trap, they see their weaving frame, the gagan-ayan, among its stars.
The three stars of Orion’s belt are known as Tatlong Maria, Atlung Maria and Trismariiya to Christian Filipinos from the Spanish Tres Marias. Still we find the old Tagalog name Balátik being reported among the Christian Tagalogs of Tayabas (now Quezon province) as cited by Arsenio Manuel in his Tayabas Tagalog lexicography.
Moropóro
The Pleiades is the next well-known asterism in Philippine skies. I use the term Moropóro to refer to it because it is known to several Philippine groups by this name or by its cognates.
Plasencia reported in 1589 that the Tagalogs knew of the Spaniards’ siete cabrillas or “seven goats,” the Spanish version of the Pleiades. The Tagalogs called theirs Mapúlon. He added that because of this, they knew of the changing of the season.
San Antonio and San Buenaventura listed Mapolon in their respective 17th century Tagalog vocabularies, identifying it likewise with the Pleiades and the Spanish goats. Juan de Noceda and Pedro de Sanlucar had Mapolong or Polonpolon as the Tagalog name for the Pleiades.
Cock’s foot
Three hundred years later, the Tagalogs of Tayabas still recognize it as Mapúlon, while those of Laguna province call it Mapulong. Manuel gave three meanings to the Tayabas Tagalogs’ mapulún: it is a group of stars in which one is surrounded by many; it is a group of scales in a fighting cock’s foot in which one scale is surrounded by six others; and, it is the neat winding of a string on a spool.
Miguel de Loarca, reporting on the Bisayans of Panay in 1582, observed that the Pleiades marked the first month of their seasonal calendar, the time to start preparing land for farming. He did not give its name or the time of its appearance.
Mentrida, however, said the Hiligaynons of Panay called Pleiades Molopólo. Scott averred that the Bisayan name for Pleiades is Moropóro, meaning “boiling lights” or “flock of birds.” He timed its appearance in the month of June at dawn.
The early Bikolanos of southeastern Luzon also called the Pleiades Moropóro.
These names or their cognates are still with other Philippine groups particularly on the central and southern islands of the Visayas and Mindanao. The Pleiades is Murupúru in Antique on Panay island and among the Tagbanuas of Palawan, Molopólo to the Bukidnons of Bukidnon, and Mulupúlu to the Arumanen Manobos of Cotabato.
Sweet potatoes
These names, however, mean different things. I have mentioned Scott’s meaning of Moropóro, though I do not understand what he meant by “boiling lights.” To the Bisayans, Molopólo is a plant belonging to the mallow family.
Other Philippine groups have different names for the Pleiades. The Teduray Kufukufu are flies swarming over the remains of the wild pig killed by the hunter Seretar. To the Palawans, Manapuru is a bunch of sweet potatoes eaten by a wild pig. Mopo, to the Jama Mapuns, is the pig, which is the target of their Batik.
Myths
The stories about Balátik and Moropóro are closely tied with two different economic activities of the early Filipinos. One story revolves around hunting, while the other centers on agriculture, kaingin farming in particular.
Stuart Schlegel said the Teduray Seretar (Orion) is a hunter. Baka (the Hyades) is the jaw of the wild pig he killed while Kufukufu are the flies swarming over the remains of the pig. A Teduray myth, recounted by Schlegel, tells that the three are cousins who consented to be left behind in the sky to serve as guides to farmers while their kin proceeded to the region of their great god to live there forever.
The story of the hunter, the pig and the trap is quite common among some southern Philippine cultures. It can be found among the Palawans, Bukidnons, Jama Mapuns and Samas.
The story of Magbangal and his wives among the Bukidnons as recounted by Cole is not unlike the story of Tohng and his wives, which Eric Casiño found among the Jama Mapuns and which I also heard among the Tausugs and Samas of Tawi-tawi. Magbangal is a star group formed out of the stars of Orion while Tohng and his two wives are the Jama Mapun Tanggung composed of the three main stars of Aquila. Tanggung is the Sama Paliyama.
The story is about a kaingin farmer with magical powers who ordered one of his wives not to interfere with his work but who nonetheless disobeyed him. This forced him to go to the sky with his tools and wives to help guide those left behind in their agricultural work. The story tells why people have to break their back doing kaingin farming to survive.
Seasons
Orion and the Pleiades are two of the more prominent star groups among Philippine cultures mainly because they serve as guides to kaingin farmers.
Schlegel, Revel and Cole described how the Tedurays, Palawans and Bukidnons use the stars of Orion and the Pleiades in swidden farming. In Teduray kaingin farming, for example, Schlegel identified at least four positions of Seretar and Kufukufu that are crucial in determining its stages.
Two of these are their appearance in the east at nightfall and their setting in the west before the end of their seasonal appearance. The other two are when they are at locations the Tedurays call ranga (chicken’s nest), which is 10 degrees around the zenith, and kemuda (riding the horse) which is the zenith itself. These positions signify the propitious times for particular stages of kaingin farming.
Since the changing of the seasons indicates when to begin agricultural work, it follows that the stars used as kaingin markers also serve as indicators of this change. As early as late 16th century, both Plasencia and Loarca had noted this in the case of the Pleaides among the Tagalogs of Luzon and the Bisayans of Panay.
The Bukidnons know that when all constellations (i.e. Magbangal, et al) appear in the east it is the dry season; when they appear at the zenith it is the hot season, and when they rise in the west it is the beginning of the rainy season—exactly the positions taken by Orion and the Pleiades during these periods.
Rice ritual
Reports from Cordillera in northern Luzon usually mentioned the stars in rituals and prayers. An example is the botó sacrifice by the Mayawyaw Ifugaos as reported by Lambrecht. The sacrifice is supposed to be the most important part of the Ifugao rice ritual. Invoked in the prayers, aside from the sun and the moon, are 10 stars: Balbaláys, Tállo, Pumînal, Tunúgan, Ilîhan, Palpállo, Nahikîhig, Nachalipópong, Agiwána and Nîpngot.
In the pakdé sacrifice of the Kankana-eys, Morice Vanoverbegh found a number of star groups to which some of the prayers are addressed. He named and identified them thus: Kinamálig or Balangáy (Ursa Major), Tudóng, Binabbáis (Orion’s Belt), Salibúbu (Pleiades), Pinadánga (Hyades), Wáyat, Dopó, Ketmá, Uling, and Liwliw. He also mentioned a few asterisms not mentioned in the prayers: Kinallaúb (Coma Berenices), Sangbát and Laská.
(Dante L. Ambrosio is a professor at the History Department, College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. He can be reached at danteambrosio@yahoo.com)

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: February 02, 2008
http://services.inquirer.net/print/print.php?article_id=20080202-116441

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