chapter 6

• Manobo Language family


  The largest, most diverse, and most widespread group of all language families found on Mindanao
• Symbols of political and legal authority are relevant to a study of the Lumad colonial experience because they are a poorly understood legacy of the colonial-era administration of the Lumad areas
• The colonial past plays a significant role in how these offices are "remembered" in oral history, which has interesting implications for our general understanding of the Lumad past
• Ancestral symbols of political and legal authority shared by the Manobo subgroups

  • Giling
  • Takalub
  • Bagobal ha bulawan
• Giling


  A black stick of wood with markings that refer to the balaud or ancestral/ customary law (the Lumad equivalent of Indonesian adat), especially as it pertains to the traditions of datuship
• The first giling was made by supernatural beings and granted to ancestors to symbolize the rule of law. The true giling has never been photographed as it is a sacred object with non-human origins
• Takalub


  A bracelet made of pig tusks that symbolizes the authority of its holder to mediate disputes
• The takalub was given by the epic hero and immortal ancestor Agyu to one of his mortal sons, who then passed it on to his descendants. The true takalub has never been photographed as it is a supernatural object
• Bagobal ha bulawan (Golden Cane)


  A sign of leadership that gives one the authority to settle disputes. It symbolizes the Higaunon and Manobo customary law, known as the bungkatol ha bulawan daw nangka tasa ha lana, which was passed down from the ancestors
• Bungkatol ha bulawan daw nangka tasa ha lana

  The customary laws or rules and standards of the Higaonon way of life; it could be considered as the charter or constitution of the Higaonon
• The bungkatol embodies values such as helping one another, loving and caring for each other, sharing with each other, open communication, and justice and absence of exploitation
• The legend of the golden cane's origins has an empirical, historical basis in the Spanish colonial practice of granting a "cane of office" to native leaders in the Philippines
• Gobernadorcillo (municipal officer)


  Appointed by the region's military governor to assist in collecting local taxes and ensuring local compliance with corvée labor obligations and other colonial laws
• The gobernadorcillo had a cane and wore a special kind of hat as emblems of his authority and influence
• The mythical golden cane appears to be a wholly Spanish introduction to Lumad culture, similar to the vara staff used by the Portuguese in colonial Timor as a token of office
• The colonial pageantry of gifting prestigious items like canes and hats to indigenous leaders was likely a way to appropriate existing political hierarchies in Mindanao, similar to the process in Timor
• Tangkulu


  The head covering worn by datus in public when acting in an official capacity, which appears to be an important marker of authority, possibly echoing the mythological kalu from Lumad political history
• Hats also signified a connection to the Iberian world elsewhere in island Southeast Asia's history, among the Topasses, or the "Black Portuguese", of East Timor
• The Ulaging epic and the Gugud oral tradition of Bukidnon feature stories of brothers Kumbalan, Tawaga, and Ubatling procuring the golden cane from Manila, symbolizing the adoption of foreign customary laws
• According to the Gugud, Ubatling was responsible for Kalambaguhan (Cagayan de Oro City), while his older brothers Kumbalan and Migtawaga were responsible for the central plains of Bukidnon and the upper Pulangi river area, respectively
• According to old folks, Ubatling was made to swim the sea and landed in the plaza for Manila at the mouth of Digkaaldaw River, because there the sun never shines
• In the Ubatling version, the cane symbolizes the customary laws of the people of Manila, a place that even today is imagined by the denizens of upland Mindanao as being located at such a great distance
• The story of the cane's foreign origins appears to symbolize the adoption of an existing set of truly foreign customary laws
• According to this gugud, Ubatling was said to be responsible for Kalambaguhan, the area now known as Cagayan de Oro City, while his older brothers, Kumbalan and Migtawaga, were responsible, respectively, for the central plains of Bukidnon and the upper Pulangi river area
• Ubatling and his brothers were grandchildren of Bala-as and his wife, Nangilayanen, "the ancestors of the Talaandig, Higaunon, Tagoloanon, and Pulangi-en
• Ubatling's sibling set also included a brother named Kuwabuwa, the datu charged with Sinakungan, a younger sister named Gawhanen, and a brother named Dalabahan, said to be responsible for the area around the upper Cagayan River
• Dalabahan is also named in yet another gugud as having been the only high-ranking leader to survive the last
• The Tagoloan River area is immediately to the east of Cagayan
• Maestre de campo


  The rank of a superior military officer who had command responsibility over several tercios, or Spanish infantry regiments
• Mariscal de campo


  Exercised comparable command responsibility, and today the rank would be equivalent to the Spanish general de division (major general), who falls below the teniente general (lieutenant general) in military rank
• Datu Silongan of Butuan, one of the earliest Lumad converts ever named in historical records, was reportedly given the title of maestre de campo very early in the seventeenth century, but there is no word as to whether he was given a cane or other symbol of his favored position
• 3 datu leaders from Mindanao, including one named Silongan (maestres de campo), who was rajah of Buayan during roughly around the same period, were identified in the document as leaders of the "Mindanao," which is what the Spaniards called the Magindanaw
• Butuan was already a very familiar place to Spaniards
• In 1727, a man in Iligan named Basilio Virtudes Tamparong, described as a "general of the natives of the Presidio and the jurisdiction of Iligan, on the border with the Moros" and recognized by the title of maestre de campo indigena, was approved to receive a stipend of six pesos monthly for his services
• Spanish Jesuit Jose Clotet would report in the late nineteenth century that a handful of elders in the Bukidnon and Misamis areas were referred to as masalicampo, which denoted a special status among their peers
• The masalicampo title still commands respect in many Manobo language family groups, and its cognates are also found among other Philippine ethnic minority groups, for example, the maslicampo of the Tagbanuwa of Palawan
• The word masalicampo is a corruption of either maestre de campo or mariscal de campo, a curious vestige of Spanish colonialism buried deep inside Lumad culture
• The golden cane is an integral part of the Higaunon Lumad's historical narrative that deals with the origins of the political authority of the datu, and it symbolizes the roots of present-day political organization among the Higaunon
• The golden cane also symbolizes the formation of possibly the first confederation of datus from across north-central Mindanao, where different datus, along with their sacups, commit themselves to coalescing as needed into a hierarchical structure under one so-called "supreme datu"
• Lumad settlements were very clearly characterized as politically autonomous units, and more often than not the presence of multiple principales in each polity was noted with frustration by missionaries and other colonial agents