CUSTOMS OF THE

TAGALOGS
JUAN DE PLASENCIA, O.F.M.
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Fray Juan de Plasencia (real name is Joan de
Portocarrero) is one of the seven children of
Pedro Portocarrero

He grew up in the region of Extremadura

during the Golden Age (Siglo de Oro) of
Spain

During this period there was an upsurge of

men entering religious life with the intention
of suiting up for missionary works in the
newly discovered territories
Plasencia belonged to the Franciscan
order and came together with the first
batch of Franciscan missionaries who
arrived in the Philippines on July 2, 1578

He and Fray Diego de Oropresa were

assigned to do mission works in
Southern Tagalog area; helped in the
foundation of numerous towns in
Quezon, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan
Aside from performing sacerdotal and missionary
functions, Plasencia also helped in the foundation
and organization of numerous towns in Quezon,
Laguna, Rizal and Bulacan

His continuous interaction with the people he

converted to Christianity enabled him to write a
book entitled Relacion de las Costumbres de Los
Tagalos (Customs of the Tagalogs, 1589)

It vividly describes the political, social, economic

and cultural practices of the Filipinos before they
were Christianized.
His biggest challenge at that time
was how to make the articles of
faith comprehensible to people who
have never heard of Christ nor the
Catholic Church

In 1593, he published the book

Doctrina Christiana en Lengua
Espanola Y Tagala, the first printed
book in the Philippines  
He used it as reading material for those
Filipinos who wanted to deepen their
faith in the newly accepted religion

After several years of converting the

natives and teaching catechism, the
Franciscan Order honored him with the
title "Venerable."

Plasencia died in Liliw, Laguna in 1590

 HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
During  the first century of Spanish rule, colonial officials had
the hard time running local politics because of the limited
number of Spaniards who wanted to live outside Intramuros

This situation forced them to allow Filipinos to hold the

position of gobernadorcillo

To ensure that the gobernadorcillos would remain loyal to the

Crown, they instructed the friars assigned in the parishes to
supervise and monitor the activities of the gobernadorcillo

Hence, the friars ended up performing the administrative

duties that colonial officials should have been doing in the
local level
 HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
 
Supervised local elections of
executives, helped in the collection of
taxes, and were directly involved in
educating the youth.

Due to this, the friars ended up the

most knowledgeable and influential
figure in the pueblo.
Some duties of friars assigned in mission
territories:
inform periodically their superiors of what
was going on in their respective assignments

report the number of natives they converted,

the people’s way of life, their socio-economic
situation and the problems they encountered

 some submitted short letters while others

who were keen observers and gifted writers
wrote long dispatches.
On top of the regular reports they
submit, they also shared their
personal observations and
experiences

Plasencia’s Relacion de las

Costumbres de Los Tagalos
(Customs of the Tagalog, 1589) is
an example of this kind of work.
Other friars and colonial officials who
wrote about the Filipinos that could further
enrich our knowledge of Philippine history
during the early part of the Spanish period.

Many of the what we know about Philippine

history during the first century of the Spanish
period were derived from the accounts of the
Spanish friars.
Miguel de Loarca
• Arrived in 1576 and became an
encomendero of Panay.

• He wrote Relación de las Islas

Filipinas (1582) and his work
described the way of life of Filipinos
living in Western Visayas area.
Antonio de Morga
• He came to the Philippines in 1595 as
Asesor and Teniente General.

• His Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

gives us a lot of information about the
state of the Philippines at the latter part
of the 16th century.
Other Spanish missionaries who
continued the historiographical tradition
initiated by Loarca and Plasencia were:
• Fr. Pedro Chirino S.J. (Relación de las
Islas Filipinas, 1604;
• Fr. Juan Delgado S.J. (Historia General,
1751);
• Fr. Francisco Colin S.J. (Labor Evangelica,
1663);
• Francisco Ignacio Alcina S.J. (Historia
natural del sitio, fertilidad y calidad de las
Islas e Indios de Bisayas, 1668); and
• Fr. Joaquin Martinez de Zuniga O.S.A.
(Historia, 1803).
ABOUT THE TEXT:

The work of Plasencia is

considered by many historians as
an example of a friar account.

This kind of writing is one of the

most common contemporaneous
account during the early part of the
Spanish period.
 ABOUT THE TEXT:

The original text of Plasencia’s

Customs of the Tagalogs is currently
kept in Archivo General de Indias
(A.G.I.) in Seville, Spain.

There is also a duplicate copy of it in

the Archivo Franciscano Ibero-
Oriental (A.F.I.O.), in Madrid, Spain.
ABOUT THE TEXT:
In the Philippines, an English version
of it appeared in volume VII of the
Blair and Robertson collections

Another English translation of it was

published as part of the volume for
pre-Hispanic Philippines of the
Filipiniana Book Guild series and what
will be presented below is from this
version
CONTENT PRESENTATION AND
ANALYSIS OF THE IMPORTANT
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
FOUND IN THE DOCUMENT
1. Community (Barangay, Dato, Three
Castes)
2. Property
3. Marriage Customs
4. Worship (Religion)
12 Priests of the Devil
5. Superstition
6. Burying the Dead
  Barangay – tribal gathering ruled by chiefs
It is called a “barangay” because they associate
themselves with the “Malay” who are one of the first
people to arrive in the Philippines through a boat in
which they call “barangay”
Some consisted of around 30 - 100 houses
Barangays also have some sort of diplomacy
All barangays were equal in terms of status

COMMUNITY
DATU/DATO
the chiefs of the
village; they governed
the people as captains
even in wars, were
obeyed, and revered;
any subject who
committed any
offense against them,
or spoke to their wives
and children, were
severely punished.
SOCIAL HIERARCHY
There are three status/castes within a barangay: Maharlica, Aliping
Namamahay, Aliping sa Guiguilir.

 Maharlica are those who are born free;

 Aliping Namamahay are those who

serve their masters; they can have their
own properties

 Aliping sa Guiguilir are those

considered to be slaves who serve their
masters or can be sold off
 • People who are born free

Maharlica (nobles) • Do not need to pay taxes

 
• Must accompany the datos in war

Aliping Namamahay • They have their own properties but they need to serve
  their own masters
(commoners)
• Children belonging to this caste inherit the status of
their parents

• Cannot be treated as a slave nor can be sold off.

Aliping sa Guiguilir • They serve their master in their houses and lands
(slaves)
• Can be sold off; captives of war

• The master can reward his/her slaves by giving them

a portion of the harvest so that the slaves would be
faithful to him/her
 Maharlica
He would keep their status for a lifetime however, this can be
taken if he/she marries a slave.

In this case, the kids would be divided and they would inherit
the status of their mother or father.

Maharlica (husband) + Alipin (wife; Namamahay or Saguguilir)

= 1st, 3rd, and 5th belongs to the father (maharlica) whilst the 2nd,
4th, and 6th belongs to the mother (Alipin); regardless of sex

Maharlicas could not, after marriage, move from one barangay

to another unless they pay a certain amount of gold. Failure to
pay might result to a war between the barangay that he left and
the one he entered
 Property
   The land area was divided among the whole
barangay, especially the irrigated portions.
 No one from a different barangay could
cultivate land unless they inherit or buy the
land
 The lands on the tingues, or mountain
ridges, are not divided but owned by the
barangay as a whole.
 At the time of rice harvest, any individual
(regardless of their barangay) that starts to
clear any land area may sow in it.
PROPERTY
 Fisheries of chiefs had
established limits, and sections of
the rivers for markets
 Unless you were a member of
the chief’s barangay, you had to
pay for the privilege of fishing or
selling in the chiefs’ fisheries
JUSTICE SYSTEM
• Investigations and sentences made by the Dato should be
in the presence of those in his barangay

• Arbiter must be selected unanimously from another

barangay; dato or not

• Condemns no one to slavery unless the accused got the

death penalty

• Fines in gold, if not paid, servitude should be done

MARRIAGE CUSTOMS
  In the case of a divorce, if the wife would
leave her husband for the sake of marrying
another man, all her belongings plus a certain
amount would be given to her former husband
however, if she chooses to leave and do not
have any plans to marry, then all of her dowry
will be returned to her.
 In the case of an adoption, the children
would receive double the value of how much
they were bought to be adopted;

 Investigations and sentences for the

accused shall be presented and read in front
of the tribe.
 Worship and Belief
(Religion)
 There were no temples or sacred places in
which Filipinos would worship
 The word simbahan means a place to
worship which is constructed at a large
house of the chief where people of the tribe
go to celebrate festivals (aka pandot or
worship)
 They beat large and small drums
successively during the feast which usually
lasted four days
Worship and Belief (Religion)

nagaanitos - worship; (anito - soul or spirit of

ancestors)
sibi - a temporary shed, made on each side of
the chief’s house, for the assembled people.
Bathala - one of their many idols, whom they
primarily worshipped. 
  They worshipped the sun, the moon, and even
the stars or a particular dead man with special
capabilities who fought bravely or protected them
in their time of need
 Worship and Belief (Religion)

sun - almost universally respected and honored

because of its beauty;
moon - they would rejoice, especially when new
stars - they did not name them except for the
morning star, which they called Tala
 “Seven little goats” - the Pleiades; a star cluster
Balatic - the Greater Bear constellation
Mapolon - the change of seasons
Worship and Belief (Religion)

lic-ha - idols; images with different shapes;

 Dian masalanta - an idol; patron of lovers and
generation
 Lacapati and Idianale - idols; patrons of the
cultivated lands and husbandry;
 buaya - crocodiles; were respected by the
Tagalogs due to their fear of being harmed by
them; they offered a portion of what they carried in
their boats to them
‘12 PRIESTS OF THE DEVIL’
1. Catolonan
o Priest from a people of rank
o Officiates the offering sacrifice for a
feast and the food to be eaten being
offered to the devil
2. Mangagauay
oThey pretend to heal the sick in order
to deceive others
3. Manyisalat
oThey can cast remedies to couples for
them to abandon one another
4. Mancocolam
oCan emit fire from himself which cannot
be extinguished
5. Hocloban
oMuch more powerful than a
mangagauay in which they can kill
anyone without the use of any medicine.
They can also heal those who are ill.
6. Silagan
oThey would tear out and eat the liver of
those they saw were wearing white
7. Magtatangal
o They would go out at night without their
heads and put it back into their bodies
before the sun rise
8. Osuang
o Tribesmen reported that they saw the
“osuang” who can fly and murdered a man
and ate his flesh.
9. Mangagayoma
o They would seduce their partners with
charms and other accessories so they can
deceive them.
10. Sonat
o This devil helped people to die. They
can also know if the soul they helped
to die can either be saved or not.
11. Pangatahojan
o They can predict the future.
12. Bayoguin
o These are men who are in the nature of
a woman.
 Placencia’s referred to certain ‘devil-
ish belief’s e.g. the mangagauay and
mangagayoma.
 He regarded them both as “witches”
who performed deceitful healing
procedures, a judgment made by an
outsider who knew nothing about the
complexity of indigenous psyche.
 What he failed to realize is that in
traditional cultures, these so-called “evil”
practices were an integral part of Filipino
folk beliefs
 SUPERSTITION
 They find omens in events they witness
 (i.e. when someone sneezed, met on
their way a rat or serpent, or the
Tigmamanuguin bird sang they would
go home in fear that evil would befall
them if they continued their journey)

   The Tigmamanuguin bird’s (a blue bird as large as a turtle-

dove) song had two forms: a good omen, and a bad omen.
BURYING THE DEAD
In burying the dead, the corpse would be
placed beside its house and be mourned at
for 4 days.

 It will then be laid on a boat which serves

as a coffin which is guarded by a slave.

 The grief of the relatives of the deceased

is followed by eating and drinking.
CONTRIBUTION AND RELEVANCE OF
THE DOCUMENT
It contains numerous information that
historians could use in
reconstructing the political and socio-
cultural history of the Tagalog region

His work is a primary source

because he personally witnessed the
events and that he discussed in his
account
Plasencia’s Customs of the Tagalogs is
a very popular primary source because
it vividly described the situation of the
Philippines before it was tainted with
Spanish and Christian influences.

Scholars like it because it covered

numerous topics that are relevant in
many disciplines.
Political scientists for instance find it useful
because it contains a lot of information about
the social classes, political stratifications
and legal system of the Tagalog region.

Many of what we know about the duties and

responsibilities of the datus, maharlikas and
alipins came from Plasencia’s account.
Moreover, it also talks about
property rights, marriage rituals,
burial practices and the manner
in which justice is dispensed.
Plasencia also preserved and
popularized the unwritten customs,
traditions, religious and superstitious
beliefs of the Filipinos.

One can also say that our historical

knowledge about the manananggal,
aswang, hukluban, gayuma, etc. came
from Plasencia’s works.
Priests and missionaries also read
Plasencia’s Customs of the Tagalogs and
Doctrina Christiana because they get a lot of
insights that help and inspire them to
become effective evangelizers.

One insight they got from Plasencia is the

the realization that one needs to master the
local language and study the culture of the
people if you want to be a successful
missionary.
They also learned from him that preaching
should be accompanied with reading
materials that contain the basic elements of
faith.

These readings serve as their guide and

reference when the missionaries are no
longer around.

All these insights from Plasencia are

applicable not only to missionaries but to
other professions as well.
Plasencia’s historical writings also disprove
the claim of some Spaniards that when they
arrived in the Philippines, Filipinos were still
uncivilized and lacking in culture.

It is clear in the excerpts quoted above that

at the time Plasencia was assigned in the
Tagalog region, Filipinos were already
politically and economically organized.
They have a functioning government,
tax system, set of laws, criminal justice
system, indigenous calendar and long-
standing customs and traditions.

Moreover, they have already a concept

of supreme being (Bathala), practiced
burial customs and believed in life after
death.
 Lastly, Plasencia also mentioned that the
people he met were wearing garments, gold
ornaments and their houses were decorated
with idols.
All of these lead to the conclusion that prior
to the coming of the Spaniards, Filipinos
were already civilized and maintained a
lifestyle that was at par or even better than
other countries in Southeast Asia.