Bago tayo naging Filipino...

 

History of the archipelago before the Spaniards

 

The tradition of Philippine history writing, which the Spanish chroniclers originated and which American and Filipino writers followed later, had the Spaniards, more specifically, Ferdinand Magellan, discover the Philippines.  The obvious implication is that the Philippines, or more accurately, the archipelago later called the Philippines, was unknown to all.  However, archaeological records and narratives written by Chinese officials, including those written by Muslim scholars, point to the early relations of the Philippines with the neighboring countries.  But these records, written or floating, are not sufficiently numerous to form a continuous and meaningful narrative of Philippine history before the coming of the Spaniards.  Even so, the records are in themselves clear proofs of the existence of a civilization which had an oriental texture.

 

Peopling of the Philippines

 

Up to the early 1970s, it had been assumed that the Philippines was a part of mainland China.  It was theorized that during the Pleistocene or Ice Age, the waters surrounding what is now the Philippines fell about 156 feet below the present levels.  As a result, a vast area of land was exposed and became a sort of land bridges to the mainland of Asia.  In February 1976, however, this theory of the “land bridges” to Asia was disputed by Dr. Fritjof Voss, a German scientist who studied geology of the Philippines.  According to Dr. Voss, THE PHILIPPINES WAS NEVER A PART OF THE MAINLAND OF ASIA but that it rose from the bottom of the sea and “continues to rise as the thin Pacific crust moves below it.”  As proof that the Philippines was never a part of the Asian mainland, Dr. Voss points to the fact that when scientific studies were done in 1964-67 on the thickness of the earth’s crust it was found out that the 35 kilometer thick crust underneath China does not extend to the Philippines.  Hence the latter could not have been a part or “land bridge” to the mainland of Asia.  On the other hand, the Philippines lies “along the great earth faults extending to deep undersea trenches” and through violent earthquakes what is now the Philippines rose to the surface of the sea.

 

Whatever the cause of the Philippines coming to the surface of the sea, it is certain that ancient man came to settle in it.  The widely accepted theory that the Negritos were the aborigines of the Philippines is now severely criticized in anthropologically literate quarters.  The young Filipino anthropologist, F. Landa Jocano of the University of the Philippines, disputes Professor H. Otley Beyer’s assumption that the Malays migrated to the Philippines and now constitute the largest portion of the population.  It was also Beyer who theorized that the present Filipinos had a Malayan culture.  Jocano, on the other hand, believes that fossil evidences of ancient men show that they came not only to the Philippines but to New Guinea, Java, Borneo, and Australia, and that there is no way of telling whether or not they were Negritos.  But whether they were Negritos or not is not of great moment, what concerns us is that there is positive proof that man was in the Philippines at least as early as 21,000 or 22,000 years ago.  The discovery in a Tabon cave in Palawan in 1962 of a skull cap and a portion of a jaw, presumed to be those of a human being, shows conclusively that MAN CAME EARLIER TO THE PHILIPPINES THAN TO THE MALAY PENINSULA, where, according to the old theory, the Filipinos came from.  As to the present Filipinos, Indonesians, and Malays of Malaysia, Jocano maintains that they are the “end results of both the long process of evolution and the later… movements of people.  They stand co-equal as ethnic group, without anyone being the dominant group, racially or culturally.  Culturally, it is likewise erroneous to state that Filipino culture is Malay in orientation.  Even our historical experiences and social organization differ from those of the people identified as Malays.”  The differences, according to Jocano, are due to the differences in their responses to their environment.  On the other hand, the similarities found among them are due to the adjustment to their environment.

 

Excerpts from History of the Filipino People by Agoncillo & Guerrero, 6^th edition (pp. 19-20)