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Remember The Order of Kalantiaw
Remember The Order of Kalantiaw
the Philippines, was born, and where Philippine independence was solemnly
proclaimed on June 12, 1898; Batan, Aklan, where the Code of Kalantiyaw was
promulgated in 1433; etc.
The last mentioned was a source of pride in 1956 when the Philippine Historical
Committee, at the request of the Municipal Council of Batan, Aklan, installed a
bronze marker in the area with text that read:
CODE OF KALANTIAW. Datu Bendehara Kalantiaw, third Chief of Panay, born in
Aklan, established his government in the peninsula of Batang, Aklan Sakup.
Considered the First Filipino Lawgiver, he promulgated about 1433 a penal code
now known as Code of Kalantiaw containing 18 articles. Don Marcelino Orilla of
Zaragoza, Spain, obtained the original manuscript from an old chief of Panay which
was later translated into Spanish by Rafael Murviedo Yzamaney.
At the time, Kalantiaw was a source of national pride, and the Kalantiaw Shrine and
Museum was established in Batan. Numerous streets were named after this
legendaryor should we say mythicalfigure; a segunda mano US destroyer was
acquired by the Philippine Navy in 1967 and christened the RPS Datu Kalantiaw,
but this ship was wrecked by a storm in 1981 and decommissioned.
Then, in a doctoral dissertation defended in 1968, William Henry Scott proved that
the Code of Kalantiaw was a forgery made in the early 20th century by Jose E.
Marco of Negros. As a historiographical issue it was solvable, but what complicated
matters were people who could not let Kalantiaw go peacefully into the night. In the
website of the Bengzon Law Office you will find a photo of a wood relief that adorns
its headquarters, and which is described thus:
The mural wood sculpture is the centerpiece of the inner sanctum of The Bengzon
Law Firm. It depicts the proclamation of the Code of Kalantiaw, said to be the first
codification of laws in the Philippines before the Hispanic era, and enacted by Datu
Bendahara Kalantiaw in the year 1433 on the island of Panay. Discovered in a 2volume work Las Antiguas Legendas de las Islas de Negros by Fr. Jose Maria
Pavon. Today the Order of Kalantiaw is the highest honor to be bestowed upon
deserving judges or legal luminaries.
There are many examples of invented tradition, or how myth and legend
sometimes endure against historical truth. One of the memorable exchanges I had
with my students was when a Chinoy remarked that ka isnt a precolonial honorific
because in Chinese it was a verb that meant to bite/chew, while lantiaw was the
vulgar word for testicles. By creating Kalantiaw, Jose E. Marco had the last laugh
at Philippine historys expense.