Austronesia: The Revival

Austronesia: The Revival

Gerardo L. Bautista

Copyright © 2019 Gerardo L. Bautista

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2019

ISBN 978-1-64531-494-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64531-495-0 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Episode 2: Spaniards in the Archipelago (1521–1899)

Series 8: Clash of Warriors

Act 4: The Conspiracy

Incident at Havana

Script 6: Rebels’ Siege of Manila

Screen 5: Cease-Fire

Track 6: The Spanish Surrender

Set 6: The Revolution Lost Its Steam

Sixth Whisper: Economic Effect

Foreword

The literary is not intended to offend the Spanish, Mexicans, and other affected nations in the story. It happened a long time ago when the attitude and behavior of the players were different then. At present, the Filipinos have a better relation with most of the countries involved in the story.

In this book, some characters’ names, events, and locations have been altered for secrecy. Although the players in this literary are generalized, it fortifies the fact that past history could not be altered.

This book is based on a true story. Although it may contain some improbable events or acts, they are intended to justify what might have transpired during those early years. They are of significance to this literary after all.

In addition, it is difficult to recollect the real story since there are too few artifacts and memorabilia on which to base a complete story. The book is controversially written and may be in conflict with or dissimilar to existing books. It is written to let the readers form their own opinion and draw their own conclusion.

In order to make the long story short, its context is written purely from extensive research. Therefore, any similarities, replicas, versions, or close resemblance to existing literatures is purely coincidental.

Stories were gathered from barbershop chitchats, caleche (two-wheeled horse carriage) and passenger jeep drivers, uncles and grandfathers, local libraries, and subjects taught by history teachers at the Philippine high schools and college institutions.

This book is especially created for those who have partly or haven’t read a book, watched a movie (if there’s any), and heard of or known about the forgotten region of Austronesia.

Furthermore, pictures and drawings are included as factual witnesses to the story and to serve as sweeteners for this book. This literary includes trilingual sentences and humorous add-ons. Therefore, all options for interpretation and correction are on the table.

Likewise, it’s up to the scholars and professors to probe what’s to prove. There’s also room for criticizers and reviewers to have their own scientific, theoretical, and philosophical questions to ponder with plenty of pages to flip over.

Signed,

Gerardo L. Bautista, the author

Acknowledgments

My sincere gratitude is extended to the journalists, photographers, artists, writers, and publishers for their credible information and valuable references which helped in the creation of this literary.

In return, the production of this book may at least provide a direct or indirect promotion and advertisement of their profession.

Likewise, I thank the readers who are enthusiasts, skeptics, or curious, for taking the time to give attention on this literary.

Any reader may someday become a writer too. It isn’t necessary that a writer must be a graduate of journalism, a history professor, or a wealthy person. Any writer could come from anywhere as long as he or she has the desire to write a story whether fake’tion (fiction) or not fake’tion (nonfiction).

My special thanks go to the publisher and their editorial staff for their generous support in publishing this literary into something worth reading. In addition, thanks for the endorsement from:

Tony Nofuente, retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), and his wife, Norma

Priscilla Gomez de Jesus from Pampanga, Philippines, and husband retired Air Force CMSgt. or GS13 Dennis Earl from Ohio, United States

Michelle Bautista Lindsey Hymel, my agent

Vivian Bautista Villiatora, nurse in Las Vegas, Nevada

Lea Bautista Ward, CPA at Microsoft in Washington

Florita Gomez Bautista, author’s wife from Pampanga, Philippines

Cassidy B. Gillespie, my granddaughter in Sammamish, Washington

Divina B. Singer, realtor in Las Vegas, Nevada

Cynthia and husband Melvin Kluthe (helicopter pilot and instructor).

Origin of Austronesia

One cold winter month, there was nothing better to do; so being the second eldest of five inquisitive siblings, I asked my father where the Filipino race came from.

As we sat by the antique dining table, he told me that according to geologists, philologists, and naturalists, about millions of years ago, there was a very large continent south of the continent of Eurasia between Africa and America. The continent was called Austronesia. Then, my father said, Let’s start the story.

*****

The story was about a large continent that stretched west from the island of Madagascar all the way to Hawaii and Easter Island and from the northern tip of Australia to the southern strait of Formosa (presently Taiwan).

This ancient large continent was called Austronesia, pronounced Ostronesia. Ostro means south, n means of, and Esia (ese) means beyond Asia. Esia had diversified languages, dialects, and literary styles or dictions that were used by a particular place, group of people, or country.

This continent was dotted and clustered with active and inactive volcanoes. Over the course of time, the continent had a series of volcanic eruptions. (Anyone who witnessed an erupting volcano is a testimony of what happened to Austronesia.)

Its volcanic fragments spread by molten lava had created the different structures of the scattered islands. However, in its wake, the continent left a large tract of land called Malay Archipelago.

This Malay Archipelago’s own volcanoes had reactivated after the effect of Austronesia’s continental breakup. Hundreds of thousands of years later, its volcanoes exploded creating the islands of Malaysia, Indonesia, Borneo, and New Archipelago (presently Philippines) and islets south and southeast of the archipelago.

In time, water from the clouds and land surfaces started to fill the deep and wide crevices that were carved by the volcanic eruptions. Thereafter, oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, lagoons, forests and vegetations, animals, birds, fowls, insects, lizards, crawlers, and fish of different types began to appear followed by humans.

Classification of by-products between the Asian and Esian family:

Southwest Asia: ranging from Afghanistan to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and from Turkey to Saudi Arabia. Language is non-Austronesian.

South Asia: ranging from the Himalayas to Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. Language is non-Austronesian.

East Asia: ranging from Mongolia, China, North and South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Language is non-Austronesian.

Orient means east constituting the biogeographic region that is South Asia and east and southeast of the Himalayas. Language is non-Austronesian.

Southeast Asia: ranging from Burma (presently Myanmar), Laos, Siam (presently Thailand), Annam (presently Vietnam), and Cambodia (presently Kampuchea). Language is non-Austronesian.

Even though Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and New Guinea are within the Southeast Asia map, they are classified as Austronesian because of their categorical languages.

Esia or Austronesia: comprised of Indonesia, Philippines, Oceania (Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia), Madagascar, and islands south of the Pacific Ocean that include the western half of New Guinea, Hawaii and Easter Island, and, excluding Australia, New Zealand. Principal language is Austronesian.

In summation, the Austronesian race is brown in complexion except the region of Polynesia which has a division of whitish-colored skin from their interracial contact with French and English voyagers during the age of exploration.

Theoretically, according to a rabbinic legend, the brown race descended from the first wife of Adam named Lilith with a skin complexion called Melanochroi which means brown. Their siblings had a brownish skin or tan and scattered to populate from the land of Akkad to northern Africa and East Asia to the scattered islands of Austronesia. This was where the Filipino race came from.

*****

Now that I learned where the Filipino race came from, my next question to my father was, where did the name Philippines come from and how did it come about? My father said it was a long story that started from the subsequent arrival of the emigrants and the Spanish conquistadors.

The occupation of the islands came from emigrants with different ethnic cultural backgrounds or lifestyles and languages. The emigrants did not come with political ambition, but more like military exploration in order to acquire the lands that they wanted.

Then he said, Let’s move on to chapter 2, and started to relate the discovery of the archipelago by the order of infiltration, from the time of migration to the time of their dispersal.

Discovery of the Archipelago (Philippines)

Episode 1: Emigrants (27,000 BC–AD 1500)

The discovery of the archipelago (Philippines) did not begin in 1521 AD. Prior to the exploration of the seven thousand islands by foreign voyagers, dark-skinned people had inhabited parts of the islands followed by different categories of emigrants.

Category 1: Negrito Society (27,000 BC–1000 BC)

Their migration period started from 27,000 BC to 6000 BC. Accordingly in 24,000 BC, dark-skinned people inhabited the island of New Guinea.

Hypothesis on Negrito emigrants, 8000 BC through 1000 BC (Neolithic period):

Aeta (Kalahari, Africa, or Bushmen)

Africans (Madagascar, Southeast Africa)

Melanesians (Papua Island, Maori aborigines)

Andamanese (Andaman Islands, Negrillo aborigines)

The Negrito society who first discovered the archipelago became known as the aborigines of the Philippines. One hypothesis is that this black-skinned, black-eyed, black, curly, short, compact-haired small people who stood less than five feet tall were Melanesians.

The other belief is that they were formerly Africans of whom both male and female were midgets. Another belief is that they were inhabitants of the Andaman Islands situated at the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. Wherever they came from, they were Negroid.

Category 2: Igorot Society

Their emigration period started from 5000 BC through 3000 BC. Accordingly, early Austronesians had inhabited the Solomon Islands of Oceania.

Hypothesis on Igorot emigrants:

Ziggurat (Babylonia, Chaldea)

Bantu (Eritrea, Karangas, Zimbabwe)

Uruburu (Malacca)

Madagascar

These second emigrants came to the archipelago with military-like invasion sometime in the year 5000 BC through 3000 BC in the era of the Bronze Age. These emigrants were called Igorot with heavily tattooed bodies. Their women wore some wooden or ivory jewelries.

The Igorot had darker-brown skin, wavy black hair, and dark-brown eyes and stood few inches taller than the Negrito. They were used to living in rocky and clay temples or hills similar to the Ziggurat Pyramid of Mesopotamia in 3600 to 1500 BC. And others were used to living on mountainous areas like Zululand or other hilly locations in Africa.

Perhaps the word ziggurat was where the term Igorot came from. The letter z of the word ziggurat was omitted from their diphthong by social or economic changes when they settled in the archipelago.

Category 3: Ifugao Society

Their emigration period started from the Bronze Age of 4000 BC to the Iron Age of 1000 BC. Accordingly, a subclass of Austronesian (Polynesian) people inhabited the islands of Fiji and New Caledonia.

At the same period in 1300 BC, China adopted the use of bronze metal the same year when interest in gold was spreading in every continent.

Hypothesis on Ifugao emigrants:

Fijian (Fiji, Phrygian of Asia Minor)

Fulani (Sudan, Africa)

Pagan (Phoenicia)

Ilonggo (Meroe, Kush)

Bagubo (ancient Baqubah, Mesopotamia)

These third emigrants were called Ifugao and were numerous with better weaponry. They introduced a bronze sword, spear, and bow and arrow.

They also had sailboats called vinta similar to the Egyptian sailboats of 2600 BC. The vinta was fast, quick, and light in motion.

The belief is that they were originally from the island of Fiji. The word Fijian was pronounced by the archipelago inhabitants as Figao.

Through the passage of time, the succeeding natives had pronounced the word as Ifugao. The Ifugao had brown skin tone lighter than the Igorot, and their bodies had fewer tattoos. Their women wore wraparound clothing on their bodies and wore ivory or gold jewelries similar to the women of Siam and Egypt.

They had brown eyes and black straight hair and were few inches taller than the Igorot. Their women’s bodies were firm, and their stout men were physically strong. The men had a warrior build that showed they were hardworking people.

The Ifugao warriors attacked the Igorot and Negrito who were scattered, and through the course of time, they settled at different uninhabited islands of the archipelago.

Category 4: Moro Society

These Moors or Moro people emigrated from the period of 500 BC through 106 BC. Accordingly, in 500 BC, a mixed race of Austronesians inhabited the islands of Tonga and Samoa.

Hypothesis on Moro emigrants:

Moors (Morocco)

Moro (Comoros, Malagasy island)

Gokomere (Nigeria)

Waray (Tuareg, Algeria)

Muslim (Saracen)

Cimmerian (Scythian)

These fourth emigrants brought with them better weaponry than the Ifugao. They were fierce warriors similar to the ancient Scythian of 700 to 106 BC from the Balkans. They brought with them bigger sailboats called barangay that could carry more warriors than the Ifugao’s vinta.

These Moors were brown people with masculine and stout bodies and were as tall as the Ifugao. However, the Moros had stronger weapons made of steel, spears, and bows and arrows and called their swords kris (serpentine-like double-edged blade).

The Moro women were very beautiful and adorned with pearl, silver, and gold jewelries for earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and head ornaments similar to the Persian women and Egyptian maidens. They also wore wraparound clothing called sari. Perhaps that was why the Moro men were fierce warriors, because they had to protect their lovely women. They didn’t want a foreign gigolo to steal their pricey ladies.

The Moros eventually conquered the entire island of Mindanao and permanently settled there. They ventured off the island briefly and tried to conquer the neighboring islands, but gave up. Perhaps they found out that they had several enemies, and they didn’t want to lose more of their depleted army.

At present, they call themselves Muslims, and they are very religious. Perhaps they follow the teachings of the prophet Muhammed and the book of Koran. However, they don’t call their teacher or leader mullah, but address their leaders as sultan (Muslim king), datu (chief), lakan (leader), maharajah (Hindu king), and rajah or raja (Indian or Malay prince).

Category 5: Malay Society

Their migration period started from 330 BC through 1500 AD. This new breed of brownish-skinned people came from the region of the ancient Malay Archipelago.

Hypothesis on Malayan emigrants:

Poni (Brunei, Borneo)

Malaysia (Mysia, Lydia in Asia Minor)

Sumatra

Java

Timoris (Timor, Malaya)

The hunger for power by the existing empires, expanding empires, and emerging empires had systematically displaced people with different cultures and languages mostly called dialects. Therefore, Filipino people being forced out from their habitat was the result of continuous strife between powerful empires and warlords.

The archipelago inhabitants could be summarized as the by-products of migration from southwestern Asia (Caucasian) and the continent of Africa (Afro-Asiatic people).

Withered by the passing of time, their leapfrogging from place to place had stretched all the way to the Easter Island.

Therefore, the emigrants converging in the archipelago with brown skin tone and different dialects were classified as Negrito, Igorot, Ifugao, Moro, and Malay.

These inhabitants of the archipelago eventually developed into a single family of brown race and paved the way to become the Filipino race with thirty-six distinct dialects.

Note: The abovementioned dialects did not identify the origin of the ethnic-speaking people. They came from a mixture of emigrants who might have established, reconstructed, retained, and spoken their own language.

Meanwhile in the fifth century, inhabitants of the northern island called Lisi (present-day Luzon) began trading commercially with the Chinese merchants from Macau.

One day, a foreign boat captain approached a native vendor selling fish. The captain asked the vendor, What is this place called? The vendor thought that the captain was asking the name of the barracuda fish, since his hand was close to the mouth of the fish.

In an instant, the vendor told the captain, "Maninila iyan (It bites)." The boat captain upon hearing the reply of the vendor immediately faced the group of foreign merchants who were also asking for the name of the place.

While jumping with joy, the captain raised both arms up in the air and hollered, Maninila! Maninila! The foreign merchantmen heard the captain, and so they broke the silence and hollered, Maninila! Maninila!

Time went by, and the phonetic word Maninila got lost in translation and was pronounced Manila. Since then, the regional cartographers scribbled the place on their maps, and Manila became the central trading area for every watercraft.

When the news reached the ears of Sultan Bolkeiah (1365–1449) from the island of Poni (present-day Brunei), he set up for exploration with his vast army and navy. He took the route through the Visayan lagoon and landed in Tayabas