Grp 2 Pelayo, Glen Angela Mae

Araño, Alyana Cagaitan, Jessa

Anselmo, Jamie

THE CUSTOMS
OF THE
TAGALOGS
By Juan de Plasencia, O.S.F.
1 Background of the Author

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 Fray Juan de Plasencia
■ Born in the region of Extremadura, Spain
■ Came to the Philippine Islands as one of the first
missionaries of the Franciscan order in 1578
■ He was distinguished, in his labors among the natives,
for gathering the converts into reductions, for
establishing numerous primary schools, for his
linguistic abilities, and for the ethnological researches.
■ Died at Lilio, La Laguna, in 1590. 

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 Miguel de Loarca
■ Miguel de Loarca was among the first Spanish
conquerors who conquered the Philippines.
■ The first Philippine Spanish governor general Miguel
Lopez de Legaspi gave him a swath of land in Oton,
Iloilo in June 1572, one year after the establishment of
the Spanish government in Manila.
■ His admiration for the Visayan people pushed him to
study the Visayan culture, languages, and islands.

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2 Background of the Document

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 Background of the Document
■ It was written on the year 1589 during the Spanish Colonial
Period.
■ He collected Indians from different districts old men, and
those of most capacity; and from them he have obtained the
simple truth.
■ Blair and Robertson’s 55 volumes, The Philippine Islands
(1903) and in the Philippine Journal of Sciences (1958).

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3 Content Analysis

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 Regions III, IV, and NCR
 Provinces of Aurora,
Bataan, Batangas, Cavite,
Bulacan, Laguna,
Marinduque, Metro Manila,
Nueva Ecija, Occidental
Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro,
Quezon, Rizal, Palawan,
Tarlac, Zambales

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 Content Analysis

■ Datos – Dato
■ Barangay
■ Three classes:
1. nobles – maharlica
2. commoners – aliping namamahay
3. slaves – aliping sa guiguilir

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10
 Family
Plasencia Loarca
■ maharlica & maharlica – children continue to be ■ Male slave of chief & Female slave of another
so forever chief – half of the children each
■ maharlica & slaves – children and mother ■ Freeman & slave – half of the children are slave,
became free if there are two children, one is free and the other
■ free woman (maharlica) & slave (not married yet) a slave, as the parents may choose.
– they (children and father) will all be free
■ married maharlica & slave (namamahay or sa
guiguilir) – children on odd numbers belong to
the father; children on even numbers belong to the
mother; only child will be half free and half slave.

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 Laws
Plasencia
■ Moving from a barangay to another – maharlicas
could not move without paying a certain fine
■ Low birth who insulted the daughter or wife of a
chief – condemned to death
■ Condemned no one to slavery unless merited to
death penalty
■ Witchcraft – witches are killed; their children and
accomplices became slaves of the chief
■ Loans – debtor is condemned to a life of toil, and
thus become slave, after the death, the children
should pay the debt
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Loarca
■ Punishing any one so severely to slavery -
murder, adultery, and theft; and for insulting
any woman of rank or taking away her robe in
public and leaving her naked, or causing her
to flee or defend herself so that it falls off,
which is considered a great offense.
■ Loans – one year to repay. If the loan were not
repaid after the first year, double the amount
was to be paid at the second; regularly
increasing.
 Laws
Plasencia
■ All other offenses were punished by fines in gold
– if not, the culprit should serve – if some relative
or friend paid for the culprit, he will be their
slaves by debt
■ If there is a controversy laid between two chiefs –
judges act as arbiters; they did the same if the
disputants belonged to two different barangays. In
this ceremony they always had to drink, the
plaintiff inviting the others.
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Loarca
■ Punishing any one so severely to slavery - murder,
adultery, and theft; and for insulting any woman
of rank or taking away her robe in public and
leaving her naked, or causing her to flee or defend
herself so that it falls off, which is considered a
great offense.
■ If there is a controversy laid between two chiefs –
only the chiefs are defenders and executors, there
are no judges, although there are mediators who
go from one party to another to bring about a
reconciliation.
 Inheritances
Plasencia
■ Legitimate children of a father and mother –
children shall inherit equally
■ children by two or more legitimate wives –
each child shall receive inheritance and dowry
of the mother and the share of the father’s
estate
■ If a man had a child by one of his slave, as
well as legitimate children - the former had no
share in the inheritance; but the legitimate
children were bound to free the mother, and to
give him something
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Loarca
■ If a man left four children – the property and
the slaves were divided into four equal parts,
and each one of the children took his own
share.
■ Bastard child – shall receive only what the
brothers were pleased to give him; for he
had no right to one of the shares, nor could
he take more than what his brothers
voluntarily gave him, or the legacy made by
his father in his favor.
 Inheritances
Plasencia Loarca
■ Legitimate children & son by a free
unmarried woman, to whom a dowry was
given but who was not considered as a real
wife – children shall not inherit equally with
the legitimate children, but only the third part.
■ No children by a legitimate wife, but only ■ No children – all his brothers shall inherit his
children by an unmarried woman, or inaasava property, having equal shares therein; no
– the latter inherited all. brothers – his first cousins; in default of these
– all his relatives shared the estate equally.

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 Inheritances
Plasencia
■ Child by a free married woman, born while she was married – if the husband
punished the adulterer this was considered a dowry; and the child entered with the
others into partition in the inheritance. His share equaled the part left by the father,
nothing more.
■ Adopted children – inherit the double of what was paid for their adoption.

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 Dowries
Plasencia Loarca
■ If the parents are still living – they enjoy the ■ Husband & wife cannot enjoy it until they
use of it have children – until then it belongs to the
■ If the wife, at the time of her marriage, has father-in-law. If the bridegroom is not of age
neither father, mother, nor grandparents – she to marry, or the bride is too young, both still
enjoys her dowry work in the house of the father-in-law until
■ In the case of a divorce before the birth of they are of age to live together.
children, if the wife left the husband for the
purpose of marrying another – all her dowry
and an equal additional amount fell to the
husband
■ If she left him, and did not marry another –
the dowry was returned

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 Dowries
Plasencia
■ When the husband left his wife – he lost the
half of the dowry, and the other half was
returned to him.
■ If he possessed children at the time of his
divorce – the whole dowry and the fine went
to the children and was held for them by their
grandparents or other responsible relatives.
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Loarca
■ If the man should through dissolute conduct
fail to support his wife – she will leave him
and shall not be obliged to return anything
of the dowry that he has given her; and she
shall have freedom and permission to marry
another man.
 Dowries
Plasencia
■ The death of the wife who in a year's time had borne no children - the
parents returned one – half the dowry to the husband whose wife had
died.
■ In the other case, upon the death of the husband – one-half the dowry
was returned to the relatives of the husband.

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 Worship
Plasencia
■ No temples concentrating to the
performing of sacrifices
■ Simbahan – a temple or place of adoration
– used when they wished to have a pandot
(festival) or worship that usually lasted for
four days
■ Bathala – “all powerful” or “maker of all
things”
Loarca
■ The world has no end.
■ Macaptan – dwells highest in the sky – a
bad god, because he sends disease and death
among them, saying that because he has not
eaten anything of this world, or drunk any
pitarrillas, he does not love them, and so
kills them.
■ Varangao – the rainbow – when they go to
war or on a plundering expedition.

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 Worship
Plasencia
■ Idols – the sun, the moon, and the stars
■ lic-ha – images with different shapes
■ Dian Masalanta – patron of lovers and of
generation
■ Lacapati and Idianale – patrons of the
cultivated lands and of husbandry
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Loarca
■ Lalahon – dwells in a volcano in Negros
island, whence she hurls fire - They invoke
Lalahon for their harvest; when she does not
choose to grant them good harvests, she
sends the locusts to destroy and consume the
crops.
■ Ynaguinid and Macanduc – for the
redemption of souls detained in the inferno.
 Belief
Plasencia Loarca
■ If they left their house and met on the way a ■ If any one who is going to war or is about to
serpent or rat, or a bird begin any important undertaking, and
called Tigmamanuguin which was singing in sneezes upon leaving the house, he
the tree, or if they chanced upon anyone considers it a bad omen, and turns back.
who sneezed, they returned at once to their ■ No native will embark for any voyage in a
house, considering the incident as an augury vessel on which there may be a goat or a
that some evil might befall them if they monkey, for they say that they will surely be
should continue their journey. wrecked.

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 Division of Years, Months, and Days
Plasencia
■ The cultivation of the soil
■ Counted by moons
■ The different effect produced upon the
trees when yielding flowers, fruits, and
leaves
■ The winter and summer are distinguished
as sun-time and water-time
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Loarca
■ Year – twelve months, they are lunar months,
because they are reckoned by moons.
• Ulalen – 1st month – Pleiades appear.
• Dagancahuy – 2nd month – when the trees are
felled in order to sow the land.
• Daganenan bulan – 3rd month – it comes
when the wood of those trees is collected
from the fields.
• Elquilin – the time when they burn over the
fields.
 Division of Years, Months, and Days
Loarca
• Ynabuya – comes when the bonanças blow.
• Cavay –when they weed their fields.
• Yrarapun – the time when they begin to harvest the rice.
• Manalulsul – the harvesting is completed.
• remaining months – they pay little attention to them, because in those months
there is no work in the fields.

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 Sacrifices
Plasencia
■ Their manner of offering sacrifice was to
proclaim a feast and offer to the devil what
they had to eat. They praise it in poetic songs.
■ sacrifice and adoration – for the recovery of
a sick person, prosperous voyage, good
harvest, a propitious result in wars, a
successful delivery in childbirth, and a
happy outcome in married life.
■ Catolonan - officiating priest, male or
female
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Loarca
■ baylanes – sacrifices offered in times of
sickness, and in times of seed-sowing or of
war.
■ Baylanes – the priestesses, or the men who
perform sacrifices – dresses very gaily, with
garlands on their heads, and are resplendent
with gold.
■ Chants her songs and invokes the demon,
who appears to her all glistening in gold.
 Sacrifices
Plasencia
■ The devil was sometimes liable to enter
into the body of the catolonan, and,
assuming her shape and appearance, filled
her with so great arrogance.
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Loarca
■ The demon enters her body and hurls her to
the ground, foaming at the mouth as one
possessed.
■ girls who first had their monthly courses –
their eyes were blindfolded four days and
four nights; friends and relatives were all
invited to partake of food and drink. At the
end of this period, the catolonan took the
young girl to the water, bathed her and
washed her head, and removed the bandage
from her eyes.
 Sacrifices
Plasencia
■ The distinctions made among the priests of
the devil:
• Catolonan – either a man or a woman –
honorable one among the natives.
• Mangagauay – who deceived by pretending
to heal the sick.
• Manyisalat – had the power of applying such
remedies to lovers that they would abandon
and despise their own wives & could prevent
them from having intercourse with the latter.
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Loarca
■ The invocation of certain demons, whom
they call Naguined, Arapayan, and
Macbarubac.
• they offer sacrifices, consisting of cocoanut-
oil and a crocodile’s tooth; and while they
make these offerings, they invoke the
demons.
• This oil they sell to one another; beseeching
him that the power which he possesses may
be transferred to the buyer of the oil
 Sacrifices
Plasencia Loarca
• Mancocolam – whose duty it was to emit fire • They claim that the simple declaration that
from himself at night, once or oftener each one will die within a certain time is
month. sufficient to make him die immediately at
• Hocloban – by simply saluting or raising the that time, unless they save him with another
hand, they killed whom they chose; to heal oil, which counteracts the former
those whom they had made ill by their
charms, they did so by using other charms.
• Silagan - if they saw anyone clothed in
white, to tear out his liver and eat it, thus
causing his death.

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 Sacrifices
Plasencia
• Magtatangal – his purpose was to show himself at night to many persons, without his
head or entrails.
• Osuang – “sorcerer” – they say that they have seen him fly, and that he murdered men
and ate their flesh.
• Mangagayoma – make charms for lovers out of herbs, stones, and wood, which would
infuse the heart with love.
• Sonat – “preacher” – It was his office to help one to die, at which time he predicted the
salvation or condemnation of the soul.
• Pangatahojan – a soothsayer and predicted the future.
• Bayoguin – signified a “cotquean,” a man whose nature inclined toward that of a woman.

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 Sacrifices
Plasencia
• Vibit – ghosts
• Tigbalaang – phantoms
• Patianac – another deception—namely, that if any woman died in childbirth,
she and the child suffered punishment; and that, at night, she could be heard
lamenting.

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 Burial and Mourning
Plasencia
■ The deceased were buried beside the
house
■ Deceased chief – little house or porch
which they constructed for this purpose –
they mourned for four days – laid on a
boat which served as a coffin – beneath
the porch and guarded by a slave.
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Loarca
■ Deceased chief – a slave is made to die by
the same death as that of the chief.
■ These natives bury their dead in certain
wooden coffins, in their own houses.  They
bury with the dead gold, cloth, and other
valuable objects.
■ Guarding the dead – people light many fires
near his house; and at night armed men go
to act as sentinels about his coffin.
 Burial and Mourning
Plasencia
■ Warrior – had a living slave tied beneath
his body until he dies
■ Mourning of the relatives of the dead –
bewailed the deceased, singing dirges, and
praises of his good qualities, until finally
they wearied of it – accompanied by
eating and drinking.
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Loarca
■ Mourning of the relatives of the dead – they
promised to eat no rice until they should
seize some captive in battle – wearing of
armlets made of bejucos (rattans) which
covered the entire arm, with a similar band
around the neck
■ Morotal – mourning among the women –
women embarks in a barangay with many
women; they have one Indian man to steer,
one to bail, and one in the bow.
 Burial and Mourning
Loarca
■ Larao of the dead – mourning – this rule requires that when a chief dies all must
mourn him must observe the following restrictions: 
• No one shall quarrel with any other.
• Spears must be carried point downward, and daggers be carried in the belt
with hilt reversed. 
• No gala or colored dress shall be worn. 
• Strict silence is maintained. 
• They make an enclosure around the house of the dead man.
• He who transgresses the law must pay the penalty, without fail.  If he who
does this wrong be a slave.

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 Belief Concerning
the Destination of the Soul
Plasencia
■ Maca – another life of rest – “paradise,” or
“village of rest.” – the just, and the valiant,
and those who lived without doing harm, or
who possessed other moral virtues.
■ Casanaan – a place of punishment, grief, and
affliction – a “place of anguish” - dwelt the
demons, whom they called sitan.
■ No one would go to heaven, where there
dwelt only Bathala, “the maker of all things,”
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Loarca
■ Souls of those who are stabbed to death, eaten
by crocodiles, or killed by arrows –
considered as a very honorable death – go to
heaven by way of the arch which is formed
when it rains, and become gods.
■ souls of the drowned – remain in the sea
forever.
■ Sidapa – another god in the sky - measures
the lives of all the new-born, and places a
mark on the tree; when the person’s stature
equals this mark, he dies immediately.
 Belief Concerning
the Destination of the Soul
Loarca
■ It is believed that at death all souls go directly to the infernal regions; but that, by means of
the maganitos, which are the sacrifices and offerings made to the god Pandaque.
■ Maguayen – carries them to Inferno – when he has carried them thither in his barangay,
Sumpoy, another god takes them away, and leads them to Sisiburanen who keeps them all.
■ Good or bad alike, he takes them all on equal terms, when they go to Inferno.  But the poor,
who have no one to offer sacrifices for them, remain forever, in the inferno, and the god of
those regions eats them, or keeps them forever in prison.

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 Contribution and Relevance of the
4
Document

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 Contribution and Relevance of the
Document
■ Pre-Spanish regime was not completely swept by Spanish
colonizers because it has continued to serve as a basis for
historical reconstructions of the Tagalog people.
■ It affirms that during the pre-Spanish period, Filipinos already
have the concept of government and laws.
■ Some of our perceptions on the beliefs and practices are
somehow different from Placensia’s point of view.

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 Contribution and Relevance of the
Document
■ The original work itself is a product of observations and judgements.
Therefore, Placensia’s work is subjective.
■ Placensia made a conclusion that Catholicism was able to expel primitive and
evil belief systems of the Tagalogs regarding gods, burials and superstitions,
saying that “all the Tagalogs not a trace of this is left; and that those who are
now marrying do not even know what it is, thanks to the preaching of the
holy gospel, which has banished it.” This claim undermines that the Tagalog
population did not fully embrace Catholicism but appropriated it according
to their indigenous religious practices.

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5 Personal Learnings

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 Learning Experiences
■ Did not experience difficulties on looking for the document.
■ Many of the beliefs and practices during the pre-Spanish regime are still
present today.
■ We were able to determine how the authors wrote about the beliefs and
practices of the Filipinos.
■ There are many interesting information regarding the social and
economic condition of our natives.
■ These documents revealed how rich and blessed the culture the people
have.

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Thanks!
Any questions?

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