“Philippines’ Indigenous People: A Sham”

Dr. Danilo Gerona’s message (in Partido State University, Philippines June 27, 2017) served as enlightenment about the “blind spots” we had suffered within five centuries. His extensive research about Magellan’s expedition revealed truths that were twisted by previous authors just like Dr. Jose Rizal, who aside from a writer, was also a propagandist. And this “fakelores” are continously taught to Filipino students through the years. In his speech, he said that unlike what the majority have learned, the Famous encounter of our Spanish colonizers with our Filipino ancestors were not as action packed as how we thought it to be. Again, unlike what is known to the public, the Spaniards used “Language” to gain influence over the Filipinos. Here we can see the importance of having a “language” even back then for our ancestors. The Historian mentioned facts about the famous tyrant, Magellan, and the famous, strong, warrior, Lapu-lapu. During his talk he raised the question “How indigenous are these people whom we regard as indigenous?” The History regarding Magellan is essential about this question for the reason that the Indigenous people were the primary people that he had encountered in the Philippines in the course of his search for spices. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, Indigenous is defined as “naturally existing in a place or country rather than arriving from another place”. Based on Dr. Danilo, archeologists proved that our Indigenous People did not originate here. In fact, there was a time that “The Pearl of the Orient Seas”, or the Philippines did not exist. They say that the Philippine Archipelago was only a product of an occurrence called “land uplift”. Therefore, the first people who came into our islands did not originate here. And for that exact same reason they could not be considered Indigenous People of the Philippines. Henry Otley Beyer suggested the sequencing of the migrants who went into the Philippines, and he concluded that it was the Malays whom Magellan first encountered because it was the Malays who were residing in the coastal areas and at the time that Magellan arrived in the Philippines, The Agtas were already at the top of the mountains. Anthropologists suggested that perhaps it was not the Agtas who first came into the Philippines, but the Japanese or the Australians. Due to the reason that the artifacts found on the cave in Palawan were not similar to the skulls of Agtas but were rather similar to the skulls of Tabon Man, thus the name of the cave. As for how the Japanese and the Australians traveled to the Philippines, they used “Land bridges” owing to the fact that the water level decreases during those times.

Dr. Danilo also enlightened us about the Indigenous People in the Bicol region, specifically in Camarines Sur. He answered the question “Are the Indigenous people located in the majestic, Mt. Isarog, in Camarines Sur, Indigenous people?” He clarified during his speech that these people were in fact not natives of the said Province. Based on his study of the Indigenous People, the Agta Cimarrones were like the Agta Remontados who were originally from the lowlands. They relocated to the mountains because they did not like the oppression by the Spanish regime. During those times the Spaniards found out that the Philippines had gold. The Spaniards wanted this gold and so they sent ships in the Philippines. It came to their knowledge that the Bicol Region had a lot of shipyards. That is the reason why they made Bicol the “Gateway of Galleon”. Another act of subjugation by the Spaniards was about the Tobacco prohibition. The Indigenous People were prohibited to smoke tobacco which resulted to another resistance. A proof of this is the fire that occurred in Naga on the year 1767. In the year 1860, the women of Camarines Sur sent a letter to Queen Isabel saying “you taught us to plant tobacco, you taught us to smoke tobacco, but you forbid us now from smoking them when we need them to warm our bodies when we go during the early morning in our towns.” Due to the hatred of the Filipinos with the Spaniards, they were able to make up a myth about a black man who smokes tobacco on top of a tree. The color suggests that the man was evil while his position “at the top of a tree”, was to suggest that he was living an easy life. The Agta Cimarrones were not different from us in nature but rather by politics. They allowed themselves to be branded as “outsiders”, because this was how they used to view indigenous peoples before, as a form of their resistance with the oppressive colonizers. They were forced to do labor for building bridges and churches and the Spaniards insisted that this is for their own betterment. The “forced labor” intensified during Spain’s war with the Dutch where in the Filipinos had to build weapons for the war without the technologies that we have today. They needed to cut huge trees without any heavy equipment. There was even a story where a woman said that she would rather kill her son to protect him from such drudgery that men those days were forced to accomplish.

When I read Dr. Danilo’s speech transcript, I thought of a huge “what if”. What If the Indigenous people of that day were able to establish a language by that time then maybe they were able to resist the Spanish regime. As a person who loves to read and write, and is fond of the diversity of our language, I cannot imagine a life without a proper language. I am reminded of a quotation by Manly Hall. He said that “Words are potent weapons for all causes, good or bad.” Indeed, language or words is very powerful. I was totally bewildered by all the facts that I have learned about Magellan. How he was an evangelist who also looked forward to converting the people he encountered. He maybe a tyrant to us Filipinos, but he must have been a hero to his church. As for Lapu-lapu, I never pictured him as an old man! He had always been the hero with incredible strength for me before I encountered Dr. Danilo’s speech. I used to wonder “what if the Philippines was not a country”, without knowing that there was actually a time that the Philippine archipelago did not exist. Ever so, History, as a matter of fact, does repeat itself. Before our country was colonized for three centuries, the water levels decreased due to the tectonic uplifts, and now the water levels decreases due to the global warming. And what the Indonesians and the Malays did to the Agtas is tantamount to bullying. The Agtas would not have felt the need to relocate to the mountains if only the Indonesians and the Malays did not overwhelm them. If this could not have happened then the three tribes would have been able to work together in standing against the Spanish colonizers.

The Agta Cimarrones, located in the Mt. Isarog, considered being the Indigenous people in Bicol are not Indigenous as well because they were originally from the lowlands of Bicol. These people who chose to be labeled as “others” preferred it this way because they wanted to stand against oppression. Just like the Filipinos of today who are voicing out their complaints about our present day oppressive administration in the Philippines. Just like how the Filipinos were prohibited of using Tobacco before, we are now prohibited in voicing out because they consider it as an act of “terrorism”. The Filipinos who air their opinions are labeled as a “know-it all” or as “feeling lawyer” and the worst is that by voicing your opinions, you can be jailed and be labeled as a “terrorist”. The only difference with our situation is that they were being oppressed by colonizers while we today, are being oppressed and sold off by our fellow Filipinos.

Answering the question “How Indigenous are these people whom we regard as indigenous?” I agree with the conclusion that Dr. Danilo Gerona has made. Going back to the definition of “Indigenous” by Cambridge English Dictionary, “Indigenous is naturally existing in a place or country rather than arriving from another place”. The Agtas, which are the first migrants of the Philippines according to Henrey Otley Beyer’s theory, are very much NOT “Indigenous” nor does the Japanese and the Australians found in the Tabon Cave. None of these theories show that we have Indigenous people in our country. Even the theory that the Philippine Archipelago did not exist from the very beginning implies that it is impossible for the Philippines to have not even a single tribe of Indigenous people. Although the United Nations does not acknowledge any of the definitions given by different studies of different universities or colleges regarding the definition of Indigenous, relying on how scholars define the word we would be able to conclude that our country cannot declare its Indigenous people as “Indigenous”.

Therefore I recommend that these people who are abusing their power today in our country must study about the situation of our Indigenous Peoples before in order for them to understand that we have what we now know as our Indigenous peoples because they stood and fought against oppression. Just like what Dr. Danilo said “The Indigenous People are our proof of resistance.”