CUSTOMS OF THE TAGALOGS

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
During the first century of the Spanish rule, the colonial
government had difficulty in running local politics because of the limited
number of of Spaniards who wanted to live outside of Intramuros. This
situation forced Spanish officials to allow Filipinos to hold the position of
gobernadorcillo. To ensure that the gobernadorcillos would remain
loyal to the Crown, the friars assigned in the parishes were instructed to
supervise and monitor the activities of the former. Hence, the friars
ended up performing the administrative duties that colonial officials
should have been doing at the local level. They supervised the election
of the local executives, helped in the collection of taxes, were directly
involved in educating the youth, and performed other civic duties.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fray Juan de Plasencia (Joan de Portocarrero, real name) was a
member of the Franciscan Order who came together with the first batch
of missionaries to the Philippines in 1578.
Franciscan Fray Diego de Oropesa, were assigned to do mission
works in the Southern Tagalog area.
Plasencia wrote the Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Espanola y
Tagala which later became the first printed book in the Philippines in
1593.
Plasencia died in Liliw, Laguna in 1590.
About the Text
The original copy of Customs of the Tagalogs is currently kept in
the Archivo General de Indias (A.G.I) in Seville, Spain. A duplicate copy
of it is kept in the Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental (A.F.I.O), in Madrid,
Spain.
Experts from Customs of the Tagalogs
This people always had chiefs, called by them datos,
governed them and were captains in the their wars.
As many as a hundred houses, sometimes even less
than thirty it is called barangay in Tagalog. It was inferred that the
reason for giving themselves this name rose from the fact (as
they are classed, by their language, among the Malay nations)
that when they come to this land, the head of the barangay,
which is a boat, thus called- as is discussed at length in the first
chapter of the first ten chapters- became the dato.
Three (3) castes
• Nobles
were the freeborn whom they called maharlica.

• Commoners
are called aliping mamahay. They are married, and serve their master,
whether he be a dato or not.
• Slaves
aliping sa guiguilir. they serve their master in his house and on his cultivated
lands,and may be sold
 The difference between the aliping namamahay
and the aliping sa guiguilir, should be noted for by a
cunfusion of the two terms, many have been classed as
slaves who really are not.
If two persons married, of whom one was a
maharlica and the other a slave, whether namamahay or sa
guiguilir, the children were divided; the first, whether male or
female, belonged to the father, as did the third and fifth; the
second, the fourth, and the sixth fell to the mother, and so
on.
 They had laws by which they condemned to
death a man of low birth who insulted the daughter
and wifeof chief; likewise witches of the same class.
In the case of divorce before the birth of the
childen, if the wife left the husband for the purpose of
marrying another, all her dowry and an equal
additional amount fell to the husband; but if she left
him, and did not marry another, the dowry was
returned.
Worship of the Tagalog

In all the villages, or in other parts of the Filipinas

Islands, there are no temples consecrated to the
performing of sacrifices, the adoration of their idols,
or the general practice of idolary.
Simbahan
- which means a temple or place of adoration; but
when they wished to celebrate a festival, which they
called pandot or “worship,” they celebrated it in a
large house of a chief.
 they constructed for the purpose of sheltering the
assembled people, a temporary shed on each side of the
house, with a roof called SIBI, to protect people from the
wet when it rained.

On the posts of the house they set small lamps they called
SORIHILE.
During this time the whole barangay, or family, united and joined in the
workship which theycalled NAGAANITOS.
The house, for the above mentioned period of time was called a temple.
Among their many idols there was one called Bathala, whom
they especially worshipped. The title, seems to signify “all powerful,” or
“maker of all things.”
Sun which, on account of its beauty, is almost universally respected and
honored by the heathens.
Moon especially when it was new, at which time they had great rejoicings,
adoring it and bidding it welcome.

The Spaniard and other nations know the planets with the exception of the
morning star they called tala.
 The change of seasons, which they call Mapolon
and balastic which is our greater bear. they
possessed many idols called lic-ha, which were
image with different shapes, and at times they
workshipped any little trifle, in which they adored, ad
did the romans.
they had another idols called Dian Masanta, who has
the patron of lover and of generations. The idols
called Lacapati and Idianale were patrons of the
cultivated lands and husbandry. They paid revenence
to water-lizards called them buaya or crocodiles,
for fear of being harmed by them.