Customs of the Tagalogs, like any other colonial text written during the Spanish colonial period, was

written with the intention of providing an exoticized description of the Tagalog natives, clearly fed by
politics and propaganda and operated with the Western-gaze, outsider's that would be appealing to
them.

First and foremost, the author, Juan de Plasencia, was not a local Tagalog but a Franciscan missionary
who came in the Philippines in 1577. The King of Spain charged him with documenting the habits and
traditions of the colonized ("natives") based on, perhaps, his own observations and judgements.
Notably, de Plasencia authored the Doctrina Cristiana, an early book on catechism that is said to be the
first book printed in the Philippines. During the Age of Discovery, such activities were common practice
among colonizers to demonstrate their supremacy over the colonized and the legitimacy of their so-
called obligations and legacies to the world. It is well known that during this period, the Spanish
colonizers, led by missionaries, gathered a wide range of literature ranging from journey tales and
colony records to sermons.

The governing system lead by the datos rules only a few people between 30-100 and the tribal gathering
is called as barangay and which they also don’t settle far from others and they are not subject to one
another except friendship and relationship. In addition to the chiefs, who corresponded to our knights,
there were three castes: nobles, (datu/maharlica), commoners, (aliping namamahay) and slaves (aliping
saguiguilid)

The nobles were the free-born people known as maharlica. They paid no tax or tribute to the dato, but
were required to accompany him in battle at their own expense. The commoners are referred to as
aliping namamahay. They are married, and they serve their master, whether he is a dato or not, with
half of their cultivated lands, as agreed with from the outset. Slaves are referred to as aliping sa guiguilir.
They work in their master's house and on his cultivated grounds, and they can be sold.

In the marriage of the tagalogs, The children were split are the the first, third, and fifth offspring,
whether male or female, belonged to the father, while the second, fourth, and sixth belonged to the
mother, and so on. He will be half free and half slave if he had more than one kid. If the father was free,
all those who belonged to him were free; if he was a slave, all those who belonged to him were slaves.
In addition, Slaves were among those who belonged to him. The same was true for the mother. If an odd
number of children were present, the odd one was half free and half slave. Lastly, Only saguiguilir could
be sold; the namamahay and their progeny could not be transferred.

The rules of the tagalogs are first After marriage, the maharlica could not travel from one village to
another, or from one barangay to another, without paying a specific fee in gold, as agreed upon among
them. Failure to pay the fee may lead to a conflict between the barangay where the individual departed
and the one where he arrived. They had rules that sentenced to death a man of low birth who insulted
Datu's daughter or wife, as well as witches of the same class. The dato's investigations and sentencing
must be carried out in the presence of people from his barangay. If any of the litigants felt wronged, an
arbiter was unanimously selected from another town or barangay, whether he was a dato or not,
because they had certain people recognized as fair and just men who were supposed to deliver accurate
judgment according to their norms. When a dispute arose between two chiefs, they summoned judges
to act as arbiters in order to avert conflict; they did the same if the disputants belonged to two separate
barangays. They always had to drink in this ritual, with the plaintiff inviting the others. And many more
The aforementioned is what I have been able to determine clearly regarding customs observed among
these people in all of Laguna and the tingues, as well as among the whole Tagalog race. The old folks say
that a dato who did anything contrary to this would be despised; therefore, while recounting tyrannies
perpetrated by them, some condemned and considered them evil.

In relation of the worship of the tagalogs There are no temples dedicated to the performance of
sacrifices, the veneration of their idols, or the widespread practice of idolatry in any of the villages or
other areas of the Filipinas Islands. True, they have the term simbahan, which means "temple or place of
devotion," but this is because, in the past, when they wanted to celebrate a festival called pandot, or
"worship," they did it in the huge home of a leader. There, for the aim of sheltering the collected people,
they built a temporary structure on each side of the house with a roof called sibi to keep the people dry
when it rained. They built the home in such a way that it could accommodate a large number of people,
splitting it into three compartments in the manner of ships. Small lights, known as sorihile, were put on
the home's posts, and a huge lamp, ornamented with white palm leaves worked into numerous designs,
was placed in the center of the building. They also gathered a slew of huge and tiny drums, which they
pounded in unison throughout the duration of the feast, which was generally four days. During this time,
the entire barangay, or family, came together and participated in the worship known as nagaanitos. For
the aforementioned time period, the house was referred to as a temple. Among their numerous idols
was one known as. They were extremely devoted to Badhala. The title appears to either "all powerful"
or "creator of all things."
"Katipunan" is derived from the entire Tagalog name for the: "Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalang na
Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan" (Supreme and Venerable Society of the Children of the Nation) The
Tagalog term "katipunan," which literally means "association," "gathering," and so on, derives from the
root word "tipon," which means "gathering" or "to gather." Katipunan members (also known as
Katipuneros) who were also La Liga members disclosed to the Spanish colonial authorities that there was
a schism among La Liga members. One side adhered to La Liga's philosophy of peaceful reformation,
while the other advocated armed revolution.

On July 7, 1892, a secret meeting was formed in No. 72 Azcarraga Street after discovering that Dr. Jose
P. Rizal was to be deported and his works were to be prohibited in the country. Andres Bonifacio,
Deodato Arellano, Valentin Diaz, Teodoro Plata, Ladislao Diwa, Jose Dizon, and a few others were among
those there, all members of La Liga Filipina, a progressive group formed by Rizal. The men gathered
agreed that a revolutionary secret organization must be established, and so the Kataastaasang Kagalang-
Kagalang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan was created.

The Katipunan had four goals:

1. to form a solid partnership with each and every Katipunero

2. to bring Filipinos together as one strong country;

3. to achieve Philippine independence by military struggle (or revolution); and

4. to form a republic upon independence

New members of the secret organization were subjected to a rigorous initiation procedure, comparable
to Masonic rituals. A novice, clothed in black and escorted by his sponsor, was led to a tiny room filled
with patriotic posters (1), in front of a black-draped cabinet. He was then placed at a darkly lighted
table, which had a bolo (2), a handgun (3), and a series of questions that he had to answer to the
satisfaction of the gathering members: What was the situation of the Philippines in the early days? What
is the current state of affairs? What will the situation be in the future?

The candidate was supposed to answer that the Filipinos were previously independent, that the
Spaniard colonists did not better the Philippines' situation, and that the Philippines will be free again
soon. The master of ceremonies would try to dissuade him once again by urging him to back down if he
lacks bravery; if he persists, he is brought blindfolded into another room for a physical test. The final
ceremonies included the novice writing the oath of membership in his own blood, which was generally
taken from a scalpel cut on the left forearm.

The recruitment technique is the triangle method in which a member recruits two adherents who do not
know each other but just the initial member who took him in, demonstrating the formation of a network
of two triangles. This was done to guarantee that expansion was discrete while also ensuring that new
members strictly adhered to the katipunan's values. The triangle methof permitted for steady
development in the two-tier sanggunian organization, and it was agreed in October 1892 that members
would be allowed to recruit as many people as they could.
Though the Katipunan's organizational structure was continuously shifting, it is widely assumed that
they established local branches ruled by the sangguniang balangay, and these tiny branches grew into
bigger provincial councils governed by the sangguniang bayan. All of this would be controlled by the
Katipunan's Supreme Council (Kataastasang Sanggunian), which included a president (pangulo),
secretary (kalihim), fiscal (tagausig), treasurer (tagaingat yaman), and six councilors (kasanguni).

The Katipunan Assembly was the Katipunan's legislative assembly, and it was made up of members of
the Supreme Council as well as the presidents of the popular and provincial councils. The sangguniang
hukuman, which were provincial courts that decided on internal matters, had judicial power; however,
judgment on grave matters (such as betraying the Katipunan or committing acts punishable by the
organization's laws) was meted out by the "Secret Chamber," which was made up of Andres Bonifacio,
Emilio Jacinto, and Dr. Pio Valenzuela.

Andres Bonifacio, the founder of the Philippine Revolution and former President of the Supreme Council
of the Katipunan, authored the Obligations of the Sons of the People in 1896, a list of the duties and
responsibilities that every member of the organization must carefully observe. The regulations formed a
decalogue and represented Bonifacio's fervent convictions.

The Katipunan's code of conduct is represented by the Kartilya. It comprises fourteen guidelines that
outline how a Katipunero should act and which ideals he should respect. In general, the regulations
described in the Kartilya may be divided into two categories. The first group includes the rules that will
make the member a good person, while the second group contains the rules that will govern how he
treats his fellow man.

According to Jim Richardson, "the kartilya is the best known of all Katipunan manuscripts" and "the only
document of any length placed in print by the Katipunan prior to August 1896 that is known to be still
surviving." The Kartilya was printed as a small pamphlet and distributed to the Katipunan members. Its
name was derived from the Spanish cartilla, which was a grade school primer during the Spanish period.
This text, like the cartillas, functioned as the major instruction for the katipunan members. The Kartilya
contains not just instructions for the novice Katipunero, but also guiding concepts for society. These
lessons are demanded of members even after they have gained independence from the conquerors. The
Kartilya concludes with the member's confirmation of the society's teachings. The Kartilya was more
than simply a Katipunan document. Its current significance is based on the teachings that represented
the moral and patriotic values of a people fighting for freedom. These ideas are still important today,
when the cultural and historical values of every Filipino are under attack from the flood of foreign
influences brought about by today's globalization.

In appreciation for Emilio Jacinto's writing flair, Bonifacio subsequently adopted Jacinto's Kartilya as the
Katipunan's official doctrines. The Kartilya, like the Decalogue, was designed to introduce new recruits to
the ideas and ideals that should govern all members of the organization. The katipunan established a
sophisticated structure and a defined value system to lead the organization as a collective striving for a
common objective over the course of their fight. The Kartilya ng Katipunan was one of the most
important Katipunan documents. The document's original title was "Manga [sic] Aral Nang [sic]
Katipunan ng mga A.N.B." or "Lessons of the Organization of the Sons of Country." Emilio Jacinto
authored the paper in 1896. Jacinto joined the movement while he was just 18 years old. He studied law
at the Universidad of Santo Tomas. Emilio Jacinto was the youngest member of the Katipunan, a
clandestine group. He was appointed as Andrés Bonifacio's fiscal adviser and secretary. He was
eventually dubbed the "Brain of the Katipunan." Bonifacio selected him as the leader of Laguna. A La
Patria and the Katipunan Cart are two of his masterpieces. He was also a contributor to the Katipunan
newspaper Kalayaan. In the Katipunan, he wrote as "Dimasilaw" and used the alias "Pingkian."