31

Chapter 2:

The Centrality of the War Dance:

Etymology and History of the Moro-Moro

Off Southern Mindanao, April 1, 1901

As soon as luncheon was over we were escorted to the plaza where brilliant
awnings had been spread to protect us from the heat. We waited some time for the
show to begin, but the natives were gathering in crowds and it was interesting to
watch them, as it was probably amusing to them to observe our strange attire and
pale faces. Finally the Commissioners appeared with a train of gorgeously arrayed
Dattos with their slaves… The first number on the programme was a dance by two
little Moro girls… When they had finished there were dances by women from the
mountains, wearing heavy brass rings on their ankles and bracelets from their
wrists to their elbows… After the women, men with spears and shields appeared
and a repetition of the Jolo war dance was given. Yet the last two dances were
quite different from any we had seen, for they were dramatic in character. One
represented a battle between Moros and Christians. As the participants carried long
naked swords and sharp spears the fighting was rather a series of poses than
dancing. However, it was realistic enough to make one glad when the Christians
utterly vanquished the Moros and stood, each one triumphant, over the prostrate
body of a foe…1

Excerpts from Mrs. Edith Moses’

Unofficial Letters of an Official’s Wife

The above account, as observed and recorded by the wife of an American

official traveling with the Philippine Commission in 1901, paints a rather puzzling

scenario. It takes place in Cotabato, which was then a Muslim stronghold and a

center of power of the Magindanao Sultanate. Two years before, the Philippine

Islands was ceded to the United States and the Spanish withdrew from Cotabato,

leaving behind an outbreak of violence among the Christian Filipinos, Chinese, and

Moros. With the Spanish retreat, the “pent-up wrath of the Magindanaos against the

Christian colonizers reached a peak of expression” as churches and convents were

sacked, the Christian population fled to the hills, and Christian Filipino leaders were
1
Edith Moses. Unofficial Letters of an Official's Wife. New York: D. Appleton and
Company, 1908. pp. 105-107.
 32

publicly executed.2 The Chinese-Moro mestizo, Datto Piang, with his Chinese and

Moro allies, had risen to power, as the Christian Filipino governor was overthrown.

That a dance drama depicting Christian victory over Muslims was performed in

Piang’s Cotabato, and to an audience which included “gorgeously arrayed dattos” at

that, defies conventional logic. For while dance-dramas depicting Christian victory

over Muslims are common features of festivities in Christianized parts of the

Philippines, its appearance in a Muslim area where Christians form a small minority

is virtually unthinkable.

Equally interesting is the fact that had Mrs. Moses asked around for the names

of the war dances she witnessed, she would have found out that both the Muslim

“Jolo war dance”, and the dramatic “battle between Moros and Christians”, which she

described as “quite different”, actually shared the same name in colonial writing:

moro-moro.

In Spanish and American colonial writing, the word moro-moro was used in

two different contexts - one referred to a "war dance" performed by natives, and the

other was a "theater of war", that is a dramatic presentation portraying battles between

Christians and Moros. In common usage today, the definition of moro-moro as

"theater" is privileged and the other earlier meaning of "war dance" tends to be

forgotten. This chapter recovers this earlier meaning to highlight the centrality of the

war dance in this theatric genre. It is not merely an attempt to investigate the

etymology of the term moro-moro, but rather, it is novel line of inquiry into the

genre's nature and history. The moro-moro is often associated only as a tradition of

Christianized Filipinos, but in a significant way, it is linked to Muslim war dances.

2
Reynaldo Ileto. Magindanao 1860-1888: The Career of Satu Utto of Buayan. Pasig, Philippines: Anvil
Publishing, 2007. p. 110-111.
 33

From War Dance to Theater of War

Spanish explorers who visited Mindanao in the latter half of the 19th century

used the word moro-moro as a blanket term to refer to war dances they observed

among different tribes in various parts of the island.3 Spanish priests who continued

with their missionary work in Mindanao after the end of Spanish colonial rule in the

first decades of the 20th century would write in their reports how they converted

Moros, and how the baptism rites would always be accompanied by feasting on a

roasted pig (lechon), and dancing of the moro-moro by the new converts. 4

So how is the moro-moro war dance linked to native theater? Vicente

Barrantes, in his 1878 work Guerras Piraticas, relates how in 1750 a celebration was

held in Paniqui in honor of Sultan Ali Mudin's recent conversion to Christianity.

Barrantes describes in detail a war dance performed by Muslim men who

accompanied the Sultan. Twelve years later, Barrantes published another book

entitled El Teatro Tagalo, in which he proposes that the dance performed in 1750 was

"without a doubt the origin of the moro-moro, a dance or warlike pantomime" which

has since become "an integral part of Tagalog spectacles". 5

Wenceslao Retana, writing in 1909, takes issue with Barrantes' claims,

arguing that “the war dance in Tagalog theater is as old as the theater itself” and not

3
The term “Moro-Moro” is used to describe war dances in Joaquin Rajal y Larre’s writing on Davao
(1891), Miguel Espina on Jolo (1888), Jose de Lacalle on Zamboanga and Cotabato (1886), and Jose
Nieto Aguilar on Mindanao’s History and Geography (1894). It is doubtful, however, if it was the term
commonly used by Mindanao natives themselves. A Tiruray-Spanish dictionary from 1892 for
example, has an entry for a dance that the Tiruray called “Sayau” which was defined in Spanish as “a
war dance commonly called moromoro. The 19th century Moro-Maguindanao-Spanish dictionary has
no entry for the word moro-moro even as the Spanish writer Lacalle states in his book that “the moro-
moro is their favorite dance”, in reference to the people of the area.
4
Take for example the letters written by Padre Tomas Andueza, on the missionary activities in Iligan,
written on February, 1914 found in Cartas Edificantes de la Provincia de Aragon. Año 1914, Numero
1. Manresa: Imprenta y Encuadernacion de San Jose 1915. pp. 142-147. Another example is taken
from the letters of Padre Tomas Barber, on the missionary activities in Davao in October, 1916 found
in Cartas Edificantes. Año 1916. pp. 60.
5
Vicente Barrantes. El Teatro Tagalo. Madrid: Tip. de Manuel Gines Hernandez, 1890. pp. 33-35.
 34

some recent incorporation into native theater, as Barrantes claimed.6 To back his

contention, Retana cites a passage from an earlier account, Father Colin's 1663 Labor

Evangelica, which describes in detail a "warlike and passionate" dance performed

with such "grace and elegance" that "they have not been judged unworthy to

accompany and solemnize Christian feasts". Retana claims that this warlike dance

described by Colin has "taken the name moro-moro".7

From Spanish writings by Barrantes, Retana, and Pastells, published

missionary letters of the Jesuits, available travel accounts of Mindanao, and early

dictionaries produced for Muslim ethnolinguistic groups, we can surmise that for the

Spanish one of the meanings of the moro-moro was a dance, or specifically an

indigenous war dance. We also see that its use was not confined to ethno-linguistic

groupings but, rather, was a categorical designation that encompassed the various

native war dances found in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. From both Barrantes and

Retana we also get the idea that moro-moro war dances became a component part of

Tagalog spectacles.

The moro-moro war dances were incorporated into dramatic presentations, in

battle scenes depicting Christian and Moorish kingdoms at war. This incorporation of

moro-moro war dances into dramas depicting created a hybridized comedia, localized

to suit native tastes. The comedia was a dramatic genre from the Spanish Golden Age

which had made its journey to the Philippines in the 1600's and the plays performed

during the first two centuries of colonial rule were penned by the Spaniards in their

language. Crossing geographical boundaries, the early comedia retained much of its

6
“tal era el baile clasico por excelencia de los tagalogs” in Wenceslao Retana. Noticias Historico-
Bibliograficas: de el Teatro en Filipinas desde sus Origines hasta 1898. Madrid: Libreria General de
V. Suarez, 1909. p. 53-54.
7
The quotation used by Barrantes, however, was an observation made by the Jesuit priest Colin, not of
the Tagalogs, but of native dancers in the Visayas in the mid 1600s. When Blair and Robertson
released an English translation of Colin’s work, it included a footnote from Pablo Pastells, which
mentioned that “the dance here described by the author is that which is called in Filipinas moro-moro”.
 35

original form and content. When native playwrights began to produce their own

dramas in the vernacular from the mid-eighteenth century, the comedia crossed not

only geographical but also cultural boundaries. The dramatic form was thus

appropriated, infused with moro-moro war dances, and soon came to be known as

moro-moro theater. Not a few Spanish scholars viewed the moro-moro as degenerate

and corrupt -- flawed versions of the original comedia from Spain -- leading them to

conclude that Filipinos had no legitimate drama of their own to speak of.

The moro-moro was found lacking from another angle. Even though indigenous

dances had been incorporated into the sphere of approved activities of the Catholic

Church, they were seen as remnants of pre-Hispanic practices. As Kramer explains,

“for centuries, Spanish writers had scrutinized the indio cultures through the lens of

conversion as vestiges of a pagan past to be collected for ridicule and eradicated for

the greater glory of Christendom.” The act of recording customs was used to

“establish authoritative colonial knowledge, indexing native incapacities in concrete,

empirical detail.”8 The persistence of native practices is encoded as the inability to

learn the lessons in civilization that colonial masters have desperately tried to teach.

This view is articulated by Antonio Navarro in his book Siluetas y Matices:

Nothing enlivens this sorry lot more than the staging of the moro-moro in
open air!…There they often stray, they have arms for tilling the fields, but…
spend a great deal of time practicing for their parts for the moro-moro, in this
they never fail. Like little children, indios need a great number of hours of
play everyday….It takes little to satisfy their needs: thus, they do not work
nor worry about providing for themselves…Their dormant intelligence
renders them incapable of producing anything grand. The indio is happy
because he has not grown up, and infancy – unlike serious occupations –
requires much happiness and merrymaking.”9

Navarro represents the dominant discourse which frames colonial subjects as

infantile, indolent, and savage. In colonial writing, this characterization explains, and
8
Paul Kramer. The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, The United States, and the Philippines.
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. p. 64-65.
9
Antonio Chápuli Navarro. Siluetas y Matices Galería Filipina Madrid: Impr. De la Viuda de M.
Minuesa de los Ríos, 1894. p. 168-169.
 36

is simultaneously explained by, the natives’ love for the moro-moro – both the war

dance performed by Moros, and the war dance within theater performed by

Christianized natives. Within the framework of a mind/body dichotomy, the moro-

moro is appraised as the type of theater that privileged the body more than the mind -

appealing more to the senses than to the intellect - and for this it was shunned by the

"more enlightened" among both the Spanish and native elite.

In the late 19th century, Spanish scholars Barrantes and Retana attacked the

moro-moro and used it as proof of the "indio's intellectual ineptness and penchant for

lower-order mimicry". Filipino ilustrados Rizal and Isabelo de los Reyes, on the other

hand, staunchly defended the native drama. In his recent study on de los Reyes, Resil

Mojares provides an account and analysis of the heated debate, explaining how the

Filipino intellectuals' characteristic response to Spanish criticism was to engage in

two discursive moves: One was to point out the colonizer's deficiency in "world

knowledge" (or knowledge of Asian forms of theater), and the second was to point

out their deficiency in "local" knowledge".

De los Reyes, for example, argued that the komedya had been indigenized and

was comparable with great literatures of the world. He identified certain traits it had

in common with the Mahabharata, for instance. He pointed out how the play's kings

and princes were portrayed as valiantly as the Manobos of Mindanao, and how the

marches could be compared to how Igorots walk, reflecting local customs and local

sensibilities, and evoking an experience among its local audiences that foreigners

could not access.10

The ilustrados, however, were sensitive to the negative connotations in the

term moro-moro itself. De los Reyes proposed that the word comedia be used instead

10
Resil Mojares. 2006. Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los
Reyes and the Production of Modern Knowledge. 356-359.
 37

of moro-moro because it was a Tagalog art and not to be confused with the cultural

practices of the Muslims of Mindanao.11 Hermenegildo Cruz, in a study published in

1906, explained that he opted to use the term komedya "out of respect for the many

people here who use the name komedya for their moro-moro compositions", even as

he acknowledged that this word may not be suitable, as native drama (moro-moro)

may not meet literary standards associated with the comedia.12

In common usage today, the words comedia, komedya, and moro-moro are

used interchangeably to refer to a native dramatic genre in the Philippines. Many

writings on the subject treat these terms as synonymous with one another. However,

there are nuances in their meaning that make them interchangeable only in a limited

sense. On literary grounds, there was a degree of respectability associated with the

term comedia/komedya that is denied moro-moro, in fact the latter was used rather

condescendingly to refer to a "low-brow" form of drama. Because of the broader

scope covered by the term comedia, it was not as readily associated with native

theater alone, and was thus not used as a pejorative term in the way the moro-moro

was. Another association triggered by the term moro-moro but not by terms

comedia/komedya was the Muslim connection. If the opinion of Isabelo de los Reyes

is any indication, the word "Moro" in "moro-moro" evokes an immediate association

with Muslims, and in the context of Philippine history, where Christian and Muslim

populations have been at war for centuries, that posed certain problems. It is perhaps

this Muslim connection that caused a certain degree of ambivalence among scholars

in the usage of the term moro-moro and in current discourse, other terminologies,

such as comedia and komedya have come to be favored. These terms, though used

11
Mojares. Brains of a Nation…, p. 336.
12
Hermenegildo Cruz. 1906. Kung Sino ang Kumatha ng "Florante" (Kasaysayan ng Buhay ni
Francisco Baltazar at Pag-uulat nang Kanyang Karununga't Kadakilaan). Santa Cruz, Manila:
Libreria Manila Filatelico. p. 179.
 38

interchangeably, are not quite the same in meaning and practice, as the succeeding

section will show.

On Terminology: The Comedia, Komedya, and Moro-Moro examined

The Comedia was the most popular form of theater of the Golden Age in

Spain. A textbook definition of the Spanish comedia describes the genre as a full-

length play written in three acts, which were episodic in form and did not follow

neoclassical rules, and largely ignored the unities of time, place, and action. The

comedia was similar in form to Elizabethan drama, but differed from it in terms of

subject. For while Shakespearean drama produced tragedies like King Lear and light

comedies like Twelfth Night, the comedia was not strictly a comedy but in fact a

distinct genre that “liberally combined elements of the serious and the comic in

narrating conflicts of love and honor, daring adventures, melodramatic

confrontations, and rescues.”13

There were two major types of comedia: The first was called capa y espada

(cape and sword) after the costumes of the nobility being portrayed on stage. This

type of comedia featured the adventures of noblemen in romantic quests of love and

honor. The second type of comedia dealt with the lives of saints, rulers, historical

figures, and heroes from folk myths and legends. Called by various names, like

cuerpo, teatro, and ruido, these plays were set in distant periods and places, far

removed from contemporary Spain. The performances of comedias were preceded by

a prologue, or a monologue, and in between acts, intermissions featured farces or

short sketches called entremeses and sainetes.

13
Edwin Wilson and Alvin Goldfarb. 2000. Living Theater: A History. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher
Education. p. 214
 39

The komedya as it developed in the Philippines carries over some features of

the Spanish comedia on which it is modeled. In terms of form, the komedya inherited

the three-part structure, the episodic form, the use of verse, the use of loas or

prologues before the play, and the performance of entremeses and sainetes in between

acts. It also bore similar features of the playing space, such as the teatro-corral

layout, and the stage with two permanent doors and two levels.14

Nicanor Tiongson identifies three types of komedya: The first (and rarest)

variety dramatizes real events. An example of this is the Gran comedia de la toma del

pueblo de Corralat y la conquista del cerro (Grand Play on the Capture of the Town

of Corralat and the Taking of the Hill), written in 1637 to celebrate the triumph of

Governor-General Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera over the Maguindanao chieftain,

Sultan Kudarat. The second type deals with religious themes such as the lives of

Saints or episodes in the Bible, a well-known example being the Comedia de la venta

de Joseph (Play on the Sale of Joseph). The third and most popular type mentioned by

Tiongson deals with the conflict of Moors and Christian medieval kingdoms, and

chivalric quests for love and honor borrowing plots from the tales of Charlemagne,

King Arthur, and other Spanish ballads. 15 The term moro-moro came to be associated

with this third type of komedya.

The moro-moro we are familiar with today stems from a variant of the

komedya that emerged sometime in the eighteenth century. This was distinct from the

earlier types of komedya introduced by the Spanish not only in terms of thematic

content but more importantly, in terms of orchestration. Tiongson notes that by the

nineteenth century, a clearly defined set of conventions for this type of drama had

emerged. These include the use of comic interludes; the sing-song delivery of verses
14
Tiongson, p. 2.; A loa is a eulogizing poem recited before a play in honor of the dignitaries present.
An entremes
15
Tiongson, 1999…, p. 1-3.
 40

(which has been described as monotonous and nasal); the marches to martial music

marking entrances and exits; the stylized acting; the use of artifices to produce

magical effects, the costumes which identify opposing camps; and "most important,

the moro-moro or choreographed fighting, which was now integrated into the battle

scenes and became so popular that the term moro-moro became synonymous with

komedya especially in the Tagalog areas". Needless to say, dialogues were rendered in

the vernacular, in folk quatrains delivered in a singsong manner.

The moro-moro, then, differed from comedia in offering a radically different

sensory experience for the audience, given their choreographic conventions,

spectacular fighting scenes, and much lengthier staging which could last for several

days. And unlike the 1637 play that re-enacted an actual war in Mindanao, these

newer comedias were fanciful portrayals of conquests in faraway kingdoms.

In different parts of the Philippines, various local names are used to refer to

this kind of komedya that features choreographed fighting: cumidya or curaldal in

Pampanga, linambay in the Visayas, estoke in Nueva Vizcaya, arakyo in Nueva Ecija,

hadi-hadi in Waray, bakal-bakal in Pangasinan, kuleleng in Isabela, yawa-yawa in

Iligan, moro-moro or coloquio in Catanduanes, and also moro-moro in Ilocos.16

The defining features of the genre -- the sing-song delivery of dialogue and the

choreographed fighting -- made for invariably long performances full of pageantry

and spectacle. The moro-moro scenes or choreographed fights were just so popular

that a performance was liberally injected with a lot of such scenes, and the plot line

was often thinly stretched to accommodate many battles. The epic length and

pomposity of this type of komedya led a Spanish scholar to describe them as

16
Nicanor Tiongson. 1999. Komedya. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press. p. 6.
 41

dramones tagalos or "monstrous dramas in Tagalog".17 This derogatory term, of

course, does not refer to all the three types of komedya but is reserved for the third

variety: the blood-and-thunder melodrama most loved by natives, the moro-moro.

In the nineteenth century, the Spanish authorities who regulated theatric

activity distinguished legitimate Spanish comedia from other kinds of comedia, which

were subjected to different sets of fees and regulations. The various kinds of comedia

performed in nineteenth-century Manila's theater district were differentiated from

each other through the use of racial signifiers: comedia español (Spanish), comedia

chinica (Chinese), and comedia tagala (Tagalog).

There was quite a contrast between comedia español and comedia tagala. The

former, patronized by the elite and upper classes, were written in Spanish and staged

in the better theaters constructed of strong materials and more opulently decorated.

Comedia tagala, in contrast, tended to be staged in poorly constructed theaters made

of nipa and bamboo, which proliferated in the more populous districts of Manila.

Comedia chinica, patronized by the Chinese community, was considered by the

Spanish as "heathen", and full of superstitious content, and was a pretext for gambling

and other immoral acts, and therefore was the kind of theater subjected to the most

regulations and the highest fees.18

The term comedia, then, as used in the Spanish period can refer to vastly

different kinds of plays, from opulent and compact Spanish productions, to makeshift

village productions which stretched for days. It can refer to plays with historical,

religious, or fantastic themes. “Comedia” was even used as a generic term for a play -

- all types of plays, in fact, including Chinese opera -- and so was not strictly limited

17
Atayde 21 August 1892 p. 306, quoted in Tiongson, p. 4.
18
Cristina Laconico Buenaventura. 1994. The Theater in Manila 1864-1946. Manila: De La Salle
University Press.
 42

to the Spanish meaning of a "three-act play in verse". In the vernacular, comedia is

spelled komedya, and this term carries the same scope as its Spanish equivalent.

The term moro-moro however, has not gained the same currency, nor does it

enjoy the same breadth of applicability. For while all moro-moro plays can be called

comedia/ komedya, not all comedia/ komedya can be called moro-moro. To qualify as

a moro-moro, a komedya must have the choreographed fighting, the long drawn-out

battle scenes, and above all must have the moro-moro war dance.

The Moro-Moro in the American Colonial Period

When the Americans arrived, they adopted the Spanish usage of the term, and

applied it to both the war dances of the Moros in Mindanao and the native theater of

the Christians. In 1901, five thousand copies of an article entitled “People of the

Philippines” were printed for distribution to the US Congress and War Department.

Secretary of War Elihu Root wrote in the cover letter that the compilation of

“standard works and records” of the Division of Insular Affairs “together with the

data contained in the recent report of the Philippine Commission” would “supply the

increasing demand for information” on the inhabitants of the newly acquired

Philippines. The term moro-moro makes an appearance in the section on the

"Customs of the Moros":

They have a war dance called the moro-moro, which is performed by

their most skillful and agile swordsmen -- buckler on arm and campilan
in hand -- to the sound of martial music. It simulates a combat, and the
dancers spring sideways, backward, or forward, and cut, thrust, guard,
or feint with surprising dexterity. 19

A few years later, in 1904, the American public was given the opportunity to

witness this dance at the St. Louis World’s Fair, where it was one of the attractions at
19
“The People of the Philippines”. Letter from the Secretary of War transmitting an article on the
People of the Philippines Compiled in the Division of Insular Affairs of the War Department.
Document No. 218 of the 56th Congress, 2nd Session. February, 1901. p. 64
 43

the Moro village within the Philippine Exposition. The Souvenir pamphlet informs us

that the Moros “divert themselves with dancing” and mentions the moro-moro as a

name of their dance.20 (See Illustration 2)

Illustration 2. Moro-Moro War Dance at the 1904

World's Fair or Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

In the early accounts in English, a discussion of the moro-moro among the

Moros in Mindanao is often preceded by paragraphs on gambling (i.e., cockfights,

carabao races, card games), polygamy and slave raiding. Descriptions of the moro-

moro dances then appear under the heading “The Morals of the Moros”.21 The war

dance performed during festivities is linked to gambling, vices, and promiscuity; the

vigorous movements of the body are encoded as an expression of the sensuous, wild,

and unbridled or immoral nature of the native. The displays of masculinity and

20
Souvenir of the Philippine Exposition. (Manila [s.n.], 1904), p. 63.
21
This ordering or “clustering” could be seen in Frederic Sawyer. The Inhabitants of the Philippines.
London: S. Low Marston and Co., 1900. p. 369; which reappears in the “People of the Philippines”
Document compiled by the Division of Insular Affairs of the Department of War distributed to
Congress in 1901. p. 64 ; and Samuel MacClintock’s The Philippines: A Geographic Reader. New
York: American Book Company, 1903 p. 82.
 44

warrior prowess in the war dance are manifestations of the savage, fierce, and violent

nature of Moros, which is then linked to slave-raiding. These depictions of immorality

could have found an audience among those with missionary inclinations, while

images of warriors and slave-raiding informed public debates on military activities in

the islands. The moro-moro war dance in reference to the Muslims is hence located

within a discernible “thought cluster”.

In American colonial writings, the Christian moro-moro theater is likewise

located within its own "thought cluster". Of course it is not associated with polygamy

and slave-raiding, for these are activities reserved for Moros. Descriptions of the

plays fall under topics like "economic conditions"22 or "rural social problems"23. The

moro-moro is often lumped together with fiestas and gambling as manifestations of

the vicious and expensive forms of amusement enjoyed by rural folk. A different take

is provided by the Chief Clerk of the Philippine Constabulary, who blamed the moro-

moro, among other factors, for the rise of the Colorum peasant movement which was

apparently steeped in superstition.24 The contrast in treatment between the moro-moro

dance and moro-moro theater reflects notions of religious as well as racial difference

and even hierarchy in a discourse that served to justify the American "civilizing"

intervention.

In the same year as the St. Louis Fair, Arthur Stanley Riggs published an article

for the Journal of American Folklore, entitled “The Drama of the Filipinos”. In it he

offers a four-period classification of Philippine drama: 1) Prehistoric until 1521; 2)

Religious from 1529 to present time; 3) Moro-Moro or Middle Period from 1750 to

1876, and to the present day; and 4) Seditious, or anti-American from 1898. Of these

22
Miller, Hugo Herman. 1920. Economic Conditions in the Philippines.
23
Macaraig, Serafin. 1929. Social Problems. Manila: The Educational Supply Co. p. 319.
24
See the article entitled "Origin of the Colorum" written by Robert G. Woods, Chief Clerk of the
Philippine Constabulary in Philippine Education Magazine, January 1930. P. 549.
 45

four periods he proposes that “the third class, that of the moro-moro plays, affords the

most interesting study of the drama, and the character of the Filipino”. He goes on to

state that “the name indicates the nature of the pieces”, pointing out that the word

“Moro” refers to the Muslim natives, and the plays, “accordingly, recite the struggles

between these and the Christian tribes”.25

Riggs’ classification is not an innocent undertaking. His desire to know “the

character of the Filipino” is motivated by colonial interests. Portraying a picture of

Muslim and Christian “tribes” at war, is in fact a recurrent theme in colonial writing,

which, taken collectively, contributes to justifying American intervention or

“pacification”. Of course, Riggs is mistaken to think that the "Moro" in the plays

refers to Muslim natives, and equally incorrect in assuming that the battles being

portrayed on stage depicted wars between the Muslim and Christian tribes. Riggs may

have overlooked the fact that one of the biggest criticisms levied against the moro-

moro was of course its penchant for depicting fictitious faraway kingdoms from a

bygone era, and its refusal to deal with real events.

In the 1920s and 30s, newspaper editorials began to make use of the moro-

moro as a metaphor for a certain kind of politics. It became an expression to describe

the hypocrisy of Filipino politicians in relation to their attempts to gain independence

for the country. Take the following news report from 1926 wherein the expression

"moro-moro" suggests a feigned opposition in the realm of electoral politics:

Senator Osmeña speaking at Cebu points out the disastrous effects

of a policy of non-cooperation, explaining that the Filipinos do not
necessarily abdicate their rights when they cooperate with the
American administration. He warns against "Barong Tagalog" and
"Moro-moro" tactics, and states that any unwise move on the
part of the Filipinos might have the same rapid result as the case of
Japan…26
25
Arthur Stanley Riggs. “The Drama of the Filipinos”. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 17, No.
67 (Oct-Dec 1904), p. 281.
26
See Philippine Education Magazine, Sept. 1926 p. 222.
 46

As shown in the above quote, the word moro-moro began to connote how

leaders were merely putting on a show, delivering fiery speeches steeped in the

rhetoric of nationalism, while really collaborating with the American colonizers who

were also their political backers.

In the following humor-filled essay dating from 1935, “With Charity to All,”

which was intended as satire, we find an equally revealing example of the usage of

the word moro-moro as a political metaphor:

With a view to encouraging activities that entertain the public and

keep "our people's" minds harmlessly busy, we propose to establish a
Bureau of Moro-Moro Affairs. The Bureau shall take charge of the
large part of the activities of the Assembly, including the formation
and dissolution of "blocs" and their heads. It shall also arrange "splits"
and "coalitions" among political parties and their leaders. All "open
letters" and editorials "criticizing" persons in power on minor
innocuous matters shall pass through this Bureau to receive finishing
touches. The Honorable Mr. Opus, entirely unassisted, shall be in
charge of this Bureau.27 (Emphasis mine)

We can discern from the above extract the contours of the “moro-moro politics”

metaphor, which would survive up to the present. To date, in fact, the word moro-

moro regularly appears in newspapers to refer to political deception, evidence of the

durability of moro-moro theater as metaphor for political hypocrisy in contexts where

opposition is feigned -- such as a bogus trial, or an electoral contest that has a pre-

arranged outcome.

In the course of the American colonial period, the moro-moro had become

associated not only with the hypocrisy of politicians but also with the masses,

perceived to be that segment of the population that could be fooled by such hypocrisy.

This can be gleaned for instance, from an editorial piece written in 1933 entitled "The

Moro-moro Performance":

27
By "Putakte and Bubuyog" (Pseudonyms which translate in English to Hornet, and Bee). "With
Charity to All" in Philippine Magazine, Vol. XXXII, No. 9, September 1935, p. 438.
 47

Our political leaders whose power like that of politicians

elsewhere, depends on a large degree upon the following they are able
to obtain from a still principally ignorant electorate, must emotionalize
and dramatize every issue to make an impression on the people, or so,
at least, they appear to believe. And what standard and ensign can be
waved before the people with more instant effect than the banner of
immediate independence?

Thus it is that a political performance is being staged that

reminds the observer of the Moro-Moro shows in our villages, while
the players as well as the audience appear oblivious to the grim
realities which surround us."28

The equivalence being suggested above between a "political performance" and a

"moro-moro show" is yet another example of the moro-moro metaphor at play.

Moving beyond metaphor, we can also discern a direct link between the moro-

moro and elections. Since moro-moro as a form of entertainment was very popular

among rural folk, politicians soon discovered its potential as a tool to gain access to

the "ignorant electorate." In the 1920's, when the country was just learning the ways

of popular elections, creative ways for gaining votes were devised and exploited.

Among them was the traditional balagtasan, which involved poetic exchanges or

verbal jousts in verse, among skilled orators. In time the most popular of these

declaimers were hired to represent electoral candidates. Abstract concepts like

constitutional principles and platforms of government could then be made accessible

to the ordinary voters; foreign ideas could be translated and conveyed through a

familiar idiom. Among the commonly-used practices were poem recitations, singing,

dancing, the handing out of souvenirs and the awarding of prizes to entice people to

listen to political speeches. All of these techniques proved to be effective to a greater

28
A.V.H. Hartendorp "The Moro-moro Performance" in Philippine Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 5.
October, 1933. p. 195.
 48

or lesser extent, but nothing could match the staging of a moro-moro play to draw the

crowds in.29

The Moro-Moro and Christian Chauvinism

In his 1930 book, Tagalog Literature: A Historico-Critical Study, Eufronio

Alip explains how the native writers inherited the chauvinistic outlook against

Muslims from their Spanish colonizers. According to him, the "chivalric spirit of the

Spanish conquistadores, their legendary traditions at home, their missionary zeal, and

their glorious heritage of age-long struggle against the Moors” were valuable “assets”

to Spanish writers who wrote about their exploits in the Philippines in the light of the

Iberian Reconquista.30 The successful grafting of a past experience to new setting

explains the ease with which the theme of Christian-Muslim struggle became the

essential feature of moro-moro plays:

Although the setting and personages of these plays are different,

their arguments are one and the same thing: the struggle between
the Mohammedans and the Christians, resulting invariably in the
triumphant victory of the latter and the humiliation and conversion
of the former.31

A year later (1931), Ignacio Manlapaz shared his observation that the

principal attraction of the moro-moro were the Christian-versus-Muslim combats,

which he described as "a sanguinary confusion invariably ending in the Moslems

biting the dust to the holy delight of the Christian spectators". Manlapaz doubted that

the moro-moro would have survived without this "eminently edifying feature".32

Writing in 1936, Leopoldo Yabes echoed Alip and Manlapaz in describing moro-

29
Clarita Carlos and Rommel Banlaoi. 1996. Elections in the Philippines: from Pre-colonial period to
the present. Makati: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. pp. 38, 39 and 46.
30
Eufronio M. Alip. Tagalog Literature: A Historic-Critical Study. 1930. p. 73.
31
Eufronio Alip. Tagalog Literature: A Historic-Critical Study. p. 38-39.
32
Ignacio Manlapaz. <Filipino Drama: A Sketch> in Philippine Magazine Vol. XXVIII, November
1931, No. 6. p. 260.
 49

moro plays as religious propaganda, a form of drama aimed at propagating

Christianity.33

Just 20 years later, in the 1950's, what was once viewed and admitted as

religious propaganda began to be disowned by the Catholic Church hierarchy in the

newly-independent Philippines. Following the inclusion of Jose Rizal's novels in the

school curriculum and the ensuing emergence of anti-friar sentiments, the Church

tried to distance itself from association with Spanish friars and their legacy. Under

Spanish colonialism, the parish priest closely watched moro-moro/komedya

performances, censoring their content if necessary. Some priests even wrote plays

themselves, or commissioned playwrights to write stories of their choosing that

highlighted Christian themes. In the post-independence era, however, parish priests,

the vast majority of whom were now Filipinos, no longer played a central role in the

production of the plays. Some even opposed their continued staging.

Reverend Mariano A. Madriaga, Bishop of Lingayen, for instance, in a

Sunday sermon delivered in May 1953, branded the practices in connection with the

Santa Cruz de Mayo as celebrations smacking of vanity and paganism. He opined

how "May devotions are pretexts or occasions for more eating than praying, more

material enjoyment than spiritual upliftment, and for ostentation of the particular

queens". 34

It was not just the Catholic clergy, however, that were abandoning the moro-

moro in the postwar period. So too were audiences everywhere. In the 1960's, moro-

moro enthusiasts from Parañaque felt that they needed to update the moro-moro in

order to cater to the changing tastes of its audience. As the Catholic reforms of

Vatican II got underway and the spirit of ecumenism grew, local civic leaders in
33
Leopoldo Y. Yabes. A Brief Survey of Iloko Literature from the Beginnings to its Present
Development. 1936. p. 51.
34
Francisco G. Tonogbanua. A Survey of Philippine Literature. 1959. p. 82.
 50

Parañaque endeavored to write a new moro-moro that would replace the culturally

offensive theme of Christian victory over Muslims with one of brotherhood. Thus the

play Prinsipe Rodante was created. The production featured innovations in theme and

incorporated elements of modern drama. The director of the play, Felicidad Mendoza,

was a drama coach at St. Paul College. She attempted to combine the traditional

aspects of the moro-moro with what she knew of modern drama. Mendoza was very

active in efforts to revive and popularize the moro-moro and infuse them with

messages of brotherhood and nationalism.

In the 1960s, the term "Moro" was considered a derogatory term, a

designation that was considered insulting by Muslims. As a sign of cultural

sensitivity, and perhaps as a reaction to the call made by the Muslim senator

Mamintal Tamano in 1967 to ban moro-moro performances because of their offensive

theme, Mendoza became a proponent of the name comedia. She argued that the term

moro-moro should be avoided "if only to prevent offending our minority brothers. . .

The original name of the drama is comedia and that should be the name used for this

ancient traditional drama form."35

Mendoza was keen on displaying sensitivity to Muslims because at the time

that she was actively involved in the revival of the moro-moro in the late 1960's, news

broke out about the “Jabidah massacre” that involved the deaths of Muslim trainees

allegedly at the hands of the Philippine military. This event served to galvanize the

Muslim separatist movement and soon enough Muslim rebels were engaging the

Armed Forces of the Philippines in a bloody war which began in Mindanao in 1968

and raged through the 1970s and 1980's.

35
Felicidad Mendoza. 1976. The Comedia (Moro-Moro) Rediscovered. Makati: Society of St. Paul. p.
188.
 51

The outbreak of hostilities and soaring activism among Muslims in the 1970's

saw again a shift in the meaning of the word "Moro". As mentioned previously, in the

Philippines the term "Moro," stemming from Spanish usage, traditionally carried a

negative connotation. But by the 1970’s the younger leaders of the Muslim

secessionist movement decided to embrace the term positively, reversing its age-old

connotation and making it evoke pride instead of shame.

In the 1970s appeared the Moro National Liberation Front and Moro Islamic

Liberation Front reflecting the conscious decision of the rebel leaders to appropriate

the term Moro. This would refer not only to themselves but even more importantly to

their envisioned union of various Muslim ethno-linguistic groups - Manobo,

Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausug, Badjao etc. - into a Bangsamoro or "Moro Nation".

The secessionist movement needed a name that could be embraced by different and

even competing groups, one that emphasize their shared religion.

An important shift in consciousness is registered by the appropriation of the

term Moro by the secessionist movement. As is stated ina a reader on Muslim

Separatism in the Philippines:

No longer would Moro be considered derogatory or insulting to

Muslims, as it used to be. In the new Moro the youth found symbolic
meaning that evoked shared historical memories of fearless and
successful resistance to colonial rule. Moro referred to a people who
were masters of their own destiny, who had cultural and economic
systems that projected presence throughout Southeast Asia… Moro
was equated with valor and resistance, and to be called one fueled
yearnings for a unique, historically-different nation all the more.
Thus, from the 1970s until today, 'Bangsamoro' has become an
inspiration, a word that names a people's shared identity and vision
for a new nation."36

36
Gutierrez, Eric. "The Re-Imagination of the Bangsamoro" in Guiterrez, Eric et.al. 2000. Rebels,
Warriors, and Ulama: A Reader on Muslim Separatism and the War in the Southern Philippines.
Quezon City, Philippines: Institute for Popular Democracy. p. 312.
 52

That the meaning of the word Moro has shifted from being a pejorative

terminology to a source of pride is manifested in this comment made by one Salah

Jubair who identifies himself as a Moro. Jubair states:

The pride in being a 'Moro' becomes even more pronounced when

this is distinguished from 'Filipino'. 'Moro' was a tag 'chosen for him
by his enemy and not himself, and was the result of animosity,
warfare and resistance to foreign pressure." "Filipino" on the other
hand, was initially the term applied for Spanish born in the
Philippines, and thus signified allegiance or subservience to Spain.
Filipino was the child of colonialism, Moro was the offspring of
anti-colonialism".37

From the above quote, we can see the outlines of a nationalist history that is

rooted in a narrative of Muslim resistance to Spanish rule. Not only Moro separatists,

however, but also a particular segment of the Christian population creatively latched

on to this glorious image of Muslim resistance. This segment is the martial arts

community, which has produced a narrative of Philippine history that draw lines of

continuity between the stories of Moro's resistance and the Christianized indio's

conversion. In the following section, we look into still another variation in the

meaning of the terms Moro and moro-moro, which are found in the literature on the

national martial art called arnis.

The Moro-Moro in the History of the Martial Art Arnis

Arnis has become the most popular Filipino martial art "export", and

numerous schools and clubs dedicated to the art of stick-fighting have been

established all over the USA, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. In writing about

the origins and development of this Filipino martial art form, Arnis practitioners

emphasize that the Spanish banned fighting arts but were unable to stamp it out

because the natives, through the moro-moro, were able to conceal and pass down

37
Ibid., p. 313
 53

local martial arts styles from generation to generation, practicing and flaunting their

skills right in front of the colonizers.

The language and choreography of specific schools and styles of Arnis are

often traced to moro-moro performances of particular regions, with some schools

being named after the titles of actual moro-moro plays such as Doce Pares, a Filipino

take on the medieval romance, “Twelve Peers of France”. A certain style of fighting,

the Garimot system of arnis, has as part of its curriculum, modules called Moro-Moro

which makes use of thirty choreographic fighting sequences that have been passed

down through generations of moro-moro actors/combatants.38

Arnis websites explain Philippine Martial Arts history with reference to the

moro-moro play as instrumental in the development of the modern martial art form.

As their version of Philippine history goes, in the Spanish times, the carrying of

blades and practicing of indigenous martial arts were outlawed, making it necessary

for martial artists to pass on skills in secret. The blade, for example, was replaced

with the inocuous wooden stick (either hardwood or rattan) as the central weapon of

the indigenous Kali fighting style. With the introduction of komedya or moro-moro

plays that required fight scenes between Christians and Moros, clever Filipinos

learned to appropriate the moro-moro as a means of practicing and displaying their

fighting art, incorporating this in the choreography of the moro-moro battles.39

The origin of the term “Arnis” is attributed to poet/playwright Francisco

Balagtas, the Tagalog literary giant of his time. Epifanio de los Santos explains how

“arnés” was used by Balagtas instead of the Spanish word for fencing, esgrima,

originally de espada y daga (sword and dagger). And arnés was used not in its

38
See the Garimot Arnis Training Website [http://garimotarnistraining.weebly.com/]
39
History and Philosophy of Kuntaw Kali Kruzada [http://www.kuntawkali.com/_wsn?page4.html]
 54

Spanish sense as defensive armor40 but as a sport. The fighting art is thus

immortalized in line 223 of Balagtas’s epic Florante at Laura which reads:

Larong buno't arnés na quinaquitaan

(tha game "buno" wrestling and "arnes" that he showed)

And in the following stanza, Balagtas describes the manner in which the

leading character Aladin fought and killed the lions:

cong ipamilantic ang canang pamatay,

at saca isalag ang pang-adyang camay

he thrust his right dagger

and blocked with his other hand

The term arnés coined by Balagtas has eventually become arnis, which is a

short version of “Arnis de Mano” (or harness of the hand).41 Over time, arnis

incorporated Spanish fencing methods, which were blended with the native art.42

Today the native fighting arts of the Philippines are grouped under the name arnis.

The National Arnis Association of the Philippines (Naraphil), a government-

supported organization, is attempting to unify the different native fighting arts and to

document the many styles that have been handed down from fathers to sons, and

generally confined within families. From this perspective, the choreography of long

battle scenes in the moro-moro play carries more significance than first meets the eye.

For each type of arnis handed down through different families and locales in the

Philippines is accompanied by its own account of the development of unique fighting

styles, combat sequences, and sets of skills, all of which contribute to the diverse

choreographies found in moro-moro.

40
Part of the costume of actors playing kinghts who used to wear defensive harnesses over their hands
and forearms during medieval times
41
Epifanio de los Santos. 1916. Florante : versión castellana del poema Tagalo con un ensayo crítico /
Manila : Philippine Review. p. 64.
42
This is mentioned in a majority of arnis websites, for an example see: “Arnis de Mano History”
http://www.arnisdeleon.com
 55

Through the moro-moro, then, the locals were ingeniously able to establish a

space for their homegrown fighting arts to develop and be displayed. The moro-moro

offered a means for circumventing the prohibitions of the Spaniards under their very

noses and even with their blessing! As an American teacher, in narrating his travels in

the Philippines, noted:

Those who were to participate in the dramas began by studying their

lines and planning their costumes. Rehearsals took place daily in the
grass-grown streets, and might be witnessed by any who wished. Even
the moonlit nights were dedicated to practice in the wide street in front
of the presidencia.43

The moro-moro is predominantly viewed as complicit in the colonial project,

as a tool wielded by the Spanish to impose the superiority of their race and religion.

From the angle of vision of arnis practitioners, however, the moro-moro is seen as a

site of resistance, and even as an activity that spawned uprisings against colonial

rulers. It is often mentioned in websites that the leaders of the Katipunan were adept

at native fighting arts, and were likewise professional moro-moro actors.44 From this

view of history, moro-moro performances can be imagined as likely occasions for the

plotting of insurrections.

The version of Philippine history being repeated in arnis websites traces a line

of continuity between Muslim fighters who resisted the Spanish and those who

converted to Christianity but continued to practice the indigenous fighting style

despite Spanish prohibition, and who later, during the Philippine Revolution against

Spain, put the fighting skills they honed in secret to good use against the colonizers.

In this view, the history of conflict between Christian and Muslim Filipinos is

43
William Bowen Freer. 1906. The Philippine Experiences of an American Teacher; a narrative of
work and travel in the Philippine Islands. New York: C. Scribner’s sons. p. 74.
44
There are many arnis-related websites that mention these details. To name just a few: the Kuntaw
Kali Cruzada Martial Arts Website [http://www.kuntawkali.com/history.html]; International Kali Arnis
Eskrima Federation website [http://www.ikaef.com]; Balintawak Style Arnis
[http://www.buot.net/History/history.html]; Sikaran Pilipinas
[http://www.sikaranpilipinas.com/History/history_ffa.html]
 56

downplayed, and their common origins, fighting traditions, and resistance to

colonizers are emphasized. Arnis masters of today trace their lineage to the famed

Moro warriors of the past, in particular, Lapu-lapu, who is popularly associated with

the native repulsion of Ferdinand Magellan’s expeditionary force.

While the veracity of this kind of history can be questioned, and evidence used

may be flimsy, erroneous, or simply absent, the widespread acceptance of this view

among the Filipino Christian arnis community is worth examining for what it reveals

to us about the alleged binary opposition between Muslim and Christian in the

popular imagination. In this case, we see how migrants marketing a "Filipino martial

art product" are able to capitalize on the stereotype of Muslims as superior fighters by

creating a historical narrative that traces Christian fighting styles preserved in the

moro-moro as a continuation of pre-Hispanic and Muslim martial arts.

The attitude of arnis practitioners towards the moro-moro is in marked

contrast to the tentativity, cautiousness, and ambivalence displayed by scholars who

see in the genre an art form that is complicit with the Spanish colonial project. The

conscious preference in the academe for the term komedya over the term moro-moro

is one manifestation of such ambivalence. That the term was once used

condescendingly in the Spanish and American colonial periods, and that the word

"Moro" used to be offensive to Muslims, may have prompted scholars to somewhat

distance and dissociate the genre from its negative connotations, hence the preference

for the broader and more respectable (though less precise) komedya. For arnis

practitioners, however, there is no hesitation in using the term moro-moro because it

is the terminology that best captures what martial artists value: the war dances, the

fighting styles, and the battle scenes that are so central to this genre.