Hernandez, Apriljoy N. BS Math-11, blk.

1 THE PRE-COLONIAL PHILIPPINES : GOVERNMENT Before the arrival of Spanish colonizers in the Philippines in the 16th century, the Barangays were well-organized independent villages - and in some cases, cosmopolitan sovereign principalities, which functioned much like a city-state. The Barangay was the dominant organizational pattern among indigenous communities in the Philippine archipelago. The name barangay originated from balangay, a Malay word meaning "sailboat". Difference from the modern entity The word Barangay in modern use refers to the smallest administrative division in the Philippines, also known by its former Spanish adopted name, the barrio. This modern context for the use of the term barangay was adopted during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos when he ordered the replacement of the old barrios and municipal councils. This act was eventually codified under the 1991 Local Government Code. There are a number of distinctions between the modern Barangay or Barrio, and the city-states and independent principalities encountered by the Spanish when they first arrived in 1521 and established relatively permanent settlements in 1574. The most glaring difference would be that the modern entity represents a geographical entity, the pre-colonial barangays represented loyalty to a particular head (datu). Even during the early days of Spanish rule, it was not unusual for people living beside each other to actually belong to different barangays. They owed their loyalty to different Datus. Also, while the modern barangay represents only the smallest administrative unit of government, the barangay of precolonial times was either independent, or belonged to what was only a loose confederation of several barangays, over which the rulers picked among themselves who would be foremost - known as the Pangulo or Rajah. In most cases, his function was to make decisions which would involve multiple barangays, such as disputes between members of two different barangays. Internally, each datu retained his jurisdiction. SOCIETY In more developed Barangays in Visayas, e.g., Panay, Bohol and Cebu (which were never conquered by Spain but were accomplished as vassals by means of pacts, peace treaties, and reciprocal alliances), the "Datu" Class was at the top of a divinely sanctioned and stable social order in a "Sakop" (elsewhere referred to as Barangay). This social order was divided into three classes. The members of the Datu Class were compared by the Boxer Codex to the titled Lords (Seores de titulo) in Spain. As Agalon or Amo (Lords), the Datus enjoyed an ascribed right to respect, obedience, and support from their "Oripun" (Commoner) or followers belonging to the Third Order. These Datus had acquired rights to the same advantages from their legal "Timawa"

or vassals (Second Order), who bind themselves to the Datu as his seafaring warriors. "Timawas" paid no tribute, and rendered no agricultural labor. They had a portion of the Datu's blood in their veins. The above-mentioned Boxer Codex calls these "Timawas": Knights and Hidalgos. The Spanish conquistador, Miguel de Loarca, described them as "free men, neither chiefs nor slaves". In the late 1600's, the Spanish Jesuit priest Fr. Francisco Ignatio Alcina, classified them as the third rank of nobility (nobleza). To maintain purity of bloodline, Datus marry only among their kind, often seeking high ranking brides in other Barangays, abducting them, or contracting brideprices in gold, slaves and jewelry. Meanwhile, the Datu's keep their marriageable daughters secluded for protection and prestige. These well-guarded and protected highborn women were called "Binokot", and the Datus of pure descent (four generations) were called "Potli nga Datu" or "Lubus nga Datu". The different type of culture prevalent in Luzon gave a less stable and more complex social structure to the pre-colonial Tagalog barangays of Manila, Pampanga and Laguna. Enjoying a more extensive commence than those in Visayas, having the influence of Bornean political contacts, and engaging in farming wet rice for a living, the Tagalogs were described by the Spanish Augustinian Friar Martin de Rada as more traders than warriors. The more complex social structure of the Tagalogs was less stable during the arrival of the Spaniards because it was still in a process of differentiating. A Jesuit priest Francisco Colin made an attempt to give an approximate comparison of it with the Visayan social structure in the middle of the seventeenth century. The term Datu or Lakan, or Apo refers to the chief, but the noble class to which the Datu belonged or could come from was the Maginoo Class. One maybe born a Maginoo, but he could become a Datu by personal achievement. In the Visayas, if the Datu had the personality and economic means, he could retain and restrain competing peers, relatives, and offspring. The term Timawa came into use in the social structure of the Tagalogs within just twenty years after the coming of the Spaniards. The term, however, was being applied to former Alipin (Third Class) who have escaped bondage by payment, favor, or flight. The Tagalog Timawas did not have the military prominence of the Visayan Timawa. The warrior class in the Tagalog society was present only in Laguna, and they were called the Maharlika Class. At the early part of the Spanish regime, the number of their members who were coming to rent land from their Datus was increasing. Unlike the Visayan Datus, the Lakans and Apos of Luzon could call all non-Maginoo subjects to work in the Datus fields or do all sorts of other personal labor. In the Visayas, only the Oripuns were obliged to do that, and to pay tribute besides. The Tagalog who works in the Datus field did not pay him tribute, and could transfer their allegiance to another Datu. The Visayan Timawa neither paid tribute nor performed agricultural labor. In a sense, they were truly aristocrats. The Tagalog Maharlika did not only work in his Datus field, but could also be required to pay his own rent. Thus, all non-Maginoo formed a common economic class in some sense, though this class had no designation. There are two types of persons belonging to the alipin class . The Aliping Namamahay who served his master in his own fields, and Aliping Saguiguilid who lived in the peripheral areas of his master's house.

RELIGION There is little evidence remaining of the nature of religion in pre-colonial Philippines. The possibilities include animism, Philippine mythologies such as Anito, and influences from Hinduism or Buddhism. The earliest pieces of evidence that exist are archaeological finds including gold statues of Hindu or Buddhist mythology. The earliest written evidence comes from the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, dated to around 900 CE, which uses the BuddhistHindu lunar calendar. With the arrival of Islam in the 14th century, the older religions gradually disappeared, and after the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 Christianity became the dominant religion. However, some of the indigenous Philippine tribes continue to practice animism today, and many of the traditions in Anito have been Christianized and turned into Folk Catholicism. Rise of Islam The arrival of Muslims changed the demographics of the Philippines. Before 1521, Maynilad (now Manila) was divided into Muslim domains under Rajah Suleyman and Rajah Matanda in the south (now the Intramuros district) and the Buddhist-Hindu settlement under Raja Lakandula in northern Tundun (now Tondo.) With the rise of Islam, other religions in the archipelago gradually disappeared. Buddhism Buddhism is a relatively minor religion in the Philippines. It is largely confined to the Filipino Chinese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese communities. There are temples in Manila, Davao, and Cebu, and other places. Estimates at the Buddhist population of the Philippines varies between 0.1% and 2%. Several schools of Buddhism are present in the Philippines. There are Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist temples as well as Theravada followers, lay organizations, meditation centers and groups, such as Soka Gakkai International. There is no written record of when Buddhism first arrived in the area today known as the Philippines, but various archaeological finds suggest that it was likely present in some form by the 9th century CE. The popularity of Buddhism in the area declined with the influx of Muslim immigrants and missionaries and then with Catholic colonists between the 14th and 16th centuries CE. The Spanish Inquisition had an especially pronounced effect on the area, effectively eliminating all forms of religion other than Catholicism. The persecution of Buddhism in the Philippines ended when Spain ceded the country to the Americans after their defeat in the Spanish-American War in 1898. The new colonial government granted the Philippine people freedom of worship. A fair number of words in Filipino dialects have been noted to have roots in the Pali and Sanskrit languages related to Buddhist and Hindu concepts. This has raised the question of a connection between these dialects and ancient religious practices in the area. Hinduism Before the Spanish period, the archipelagoes of Southeast Asia were under the influence of traders from the Hindu-Malayan culture, such as the Majapahit Empire, which was then supplanted by Islamic teaching by Muslims traders from Gujarat, India. Influences from the

Indian subcontinent may be traced earlier to before the arrival of the Arabs and the Europeans during the 15th and 16th centuries respectively. The rulers of many of the islands were called Rajas, or Rajahs. An example would be the Visayas, said to be named after the last Southeast Hindu Prince Srivijaya. THE PRESENT PHILIPPINES : GOVERNMENT The Philippines has a democratic government. It is a constitutional republic with a presidential system. It is governed as a unitary state with the exception of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao which is largely free from the national government. The President functions as both head of state and head of government and is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The president is elected by popular vote for a single six-year term, during which he or she appoints and presides over the cabinet. The bicameral Congress is composed of the Senate, serving as the upper house, with members elected to a six-year term, and the House of Representatives, serving as the lower house, with members elected to a three-year term. The senators are elected at large while the representatives are elected from both legislative districts and through sectoral representation. The judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court, composed of a Chief Justice as its presiding officer and fourteen associate justices, all of whom are appointed by the President from nominations submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council. There have been attempts to change the government to a federal, unicameral, or parliamentary government since the Ramos administration. SOCIETY The Philippines continued to be primarily a rural society in 1990, despite increasing signs of urbanization. The family remained the prime unit of social awareness, and ritual kin relations and associations of a patron-client nature still were the basis for social groupings beyond the nuclear family, rather than horizontal ties forged among members of economically based social classes. Because of a common religious tradition and the spread of Pilipino as a widely used, if not thoroughly accepted, national language, Filipinos were a relatively homogeneous population, with the important exceptions of the Muslim minority on Mindanao and in Sulu and southern Palawan provinces, and the upland tribal minorities sprinkled throughout the islands. Filipinos shared a common set of values emphasizing social acceptance as a primary virtue and a common world view in which education served as the principal avenue for upward social mobility. Cleavages in the society were based primarily on religious (in the case of Muslims versus Christians), sociocultural (in the case of upland tribes versus lowland coastal Filipinos), and urban-rural differences, rather than ethnic or racial considerations. Improvements in the national transportation system and in mass communications in most parts of the archipelago in the 1970s and 1980s tended to reduce ethnolinguistic and regional divisions among lowland Filipinos, who made up more than 90 percent of the population. Some resistance to this cultural homogeneity remained, however, and continued

regional identification was manifested in loyalty to regional languages and in opposition to the imposition of a national language based largely on Tagalog, the language of the Manila area. Large numbers of rural migrants continued to flow into the huge metropolitan areas, especially Metro Manila. Filipinos also migrated in substantial numbers to the United States and other countries. Many of these migrants, especially those to the Middle East, migrated only to find temporary employment and retained their Philippine domiciles. RELIGION Christianity and Islam have been superimposed on ancient traditions and acculturated. The unique religious blends that have resulted, when combined with the strong personal faith of Filipinos, have given rise to numerous and diverse revivalist movements. Generally characterised by anti-modern bias, supernaturalism, and authoritarianism in the person of a charismatic messianic figure, these movements have attracted thousands of Filipino people, especially in areas like Mindanao, which have been subjected to extreme pressure of change over a short period of time. Many have been swept up in these movements, out of a renewed sense of fraternity and community. Like the highly visible examples of flagellation and reenacted crucifixion in the Philippines, these movements may seem to have little in common with organised Christianity or Islam. In the intensely personalistic Philippine religious context, however, these are less aberrations and more of extreme examples of religion's retaining its central role in society. Christianity Christianity arrived in the Philippines with the landing of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. In the late 16th century, soldiers and missionaries firmly planted the seeds of conversion when they officially claimed the archipelago for Spain and named it after their king. Missionary activity during the country's long colonial rule by Spain and the United States transformed the Philippines into the first and then one of the two predominantly Christian nations in East Asia, with approximately 90% of the population belonging to the Christian faith, the other Christian nation being East Timor. Islam Islam reached the Philippines in the 14th century with the arrival of Malay and Javanese merchants and Muslim merchants from Malaysia and Indonesia, although the spreading of Islam in the Philippines is due to the commercial contacts between the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia. It was the merchants of the Gulf Arabs, Persians, Sindhis, Azeris and even Pashtuns who brought Islam to Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. There are about 5 to 10 million Muslims in the Philippines, approximately 5-10% of the total population. Muslims make up about 20 percent of the population of the island of Mindanao, approximately 5 million of the 25 million people on Mindanao. Buddhism and Hinduism Many Filipino customs have strong Buddhist influences. Hinduism arrived when the Hindu religion and culture arrived from India by southern Indians to Southeast Asia from the

4th centuries to the 14th century. The same case can also be found in Buddhism since early Buddhist did follow many of the Hindu cosmology and Hindus themselves considered Buddha to be an avatar of their god, Vishnu. The Srivijaya Empire and Majapahit Empire on what is now Malaysia and Indonesia, introduced Hinduism and Buddhism to the islands. Statues of HinduBuddhist gods have been found in the Philippines. Today Hinduism is largely confined to the Indian Filipinos and the expatriate Indian community. Theravada and Vajrayana Buddhism, which are very close to Hinduism, are practiced by Tibetans, Sri Lankan, Burmese and Thai nationals. There are Hindu temples in Manila, as well as in the provinces. There are temples also for Sikhism, sometimes located near Hindu temples. The two Paco temples are well known, comprising a Hindu temple and a Sikh temple. Buddhism in the Philippines is growing because of an increasing Chinese population in the country. Buddhism is largely confined to the Filipino Chinese, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese communities though local adherents are on the rise. There are temples in Manila, Davao, and Cebu, and other places. Several schools of Buddhism are present in the Philippines Mahayana, Vajrayana, Theravada Buddhist temples as well as Lay Organizations are present in the Philippines as well as meditation centers and groups such as Soka Gakkai International. -The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines declares: The separation of Church and State shall be inviolable. (Article II, Section 6), and, No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights. (Article III, Section 5). Joaquin Bernas, a Filipino Jesuit specializing in constitutional law, acknowledges that there were complex issues that were brought to court and numerous attempts to use the separation of Church and State against the Roman Catholic Church, but he defends the statement, saying that the fact that he [Marcos] tried to do it does not deny the validity of the separation of church and state.