The Waray Culture Is a Response to a Need and a Challenge
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1 PREFACE This writing on the Waray culture is a response to a need and a challenge. The dearth of a systematic body of knowledge to understand a people who are the fourth largest ethnolinguistic group in the Philippines and who occupy the third largest island in the archipelago pressed the author to respond to that need. The unconsolidated data from various sources here and there and the absence of venues for discourse pose a formidable challenge for any writer. The changing landscapes and seascapes in the island worlds of Samar and Leyte islands are compelling. The cultural worker is bound to get to work – retrieve and document and advocate for the conservation of the natural and cultural wealth there are. But these cannot be frozen in a time warp. Time moves on and life goes on. Generations past are gone and generations now will produce and raise the next ones. How do we bring them to the world of the next millennium? We are limited by our own lifeline. As the Jesuit chronicler Father Francisco Alcina did in the 1600s, the necessary act is to write. Write or things would be forgotten. Write or else nobody would know of how people in this part the world made meaning of their lives. Write or else nobody would know of us at all. Write so our children would know and understand themselves. Write of what is, has been and could be so they would see the paths that they could take, not just to survive but to live happily. This monograph on the Waray is an ordering of the seeming helter-skelter information, written and oral, recollections and reflections, memories and current meanderings of thoughts on the savoring of Waray food as the pristinely fresh kinilaw or of a moment of ringing laughter over a friend’s funny anecdote over a sip of tuba. The narratives written here is a portrait composed out of primary field data, published materials and interview conversations, observations of the daily life of the Waray in the market, in the church, in school, in jeepneys, in the streets, at the farm, at the beach, on a boat a sea, underwater, during parties, fiestas, funerals and weddings, onstage, backstage, in various homes and at home. It is a recollection and reflection of the unfolding of the author’s life in this ancient fertile land that arose from the sea eons ago. This record is by no means complete as it is uneven. Only distinctive Waray traditions and readily accessible information have been included here due to lack of data and limits of space and time. This attempt at consolidating 2 Waray cultural information can perhaps serve as a springboard for a more appropriate framework and for setting other possibilities in the study of Waray culture, its conservation and advocacy. Magellan came to Samar and Limasawa, sailed on and was killed by Lapu-lapu in Mactan. Bankaw of Limasawa and Sumuroy of Palapag and others fought the cruel colonial masters for freedom. In humiliation for the U.S. army’s “single worst defeat” in the annals of their war history, General Jacob Smith retaliated and massacred the people of Samar, left, got court-martialed and is unknown to the present-day Waray. The stories of the Waray people’s courage, sacrifice, heroism and wisdom must be told, written and retold. Their weaknesses as well as their strengths, too, must come to the fore of knowledge so that lessons would be learned and better choices would be made for the future. This book is a way of thanking the Waray whose contentment in a world of abundance and whose love for their family, kin, friends and homeland kept them rooted. There has been no massive Waray diaspora in the history of Philippine in- and out-migration as there were Ilonggo, Ilokano, and Cebuano migrations to Mindanao in the beginning of the 20 th century. Waves of Ilokanos, the quintessential adventurers, have ventured to foreign shores. But, the Waray stayed. For how can one leave one’s home where the land and sea are blessed with plenty and where one wakes up with precious family? Only either Mother Nature’s wrath and human rapacity could destroy this haven. And only one with innate wanderlust would leave it. The Waray have stayed and have shared the blessings of their island home with Cebuanos and Boholanos who now comprise a large part of Leyte. The Waray welcoming warmth is disarming. Life here, among and with the Waray is, as Edilberto N. Alegre puts it – “… as subtle as a soft drizzle in the early morning light”. 3 THE WARAY CULTURE Chapter I Land and People The Land Legend of Origin and Geological History Long time ago, the universe was divided into two worlds. Each was ruled by a giant. Amihan governed the land in the northeast and Habagat took charge of the one in the southwest. Food became scarce in Amihan’s land that his children and kin went southward to fish in Habagat’s realm. Habagat was offended and in his anger, he challenged Amihan to a battle at sea. The two giants and their forces fought at the middle of the sea between their domains. They destroyed each other’s ships but these were too huge to completely sink into the depths of the sea. In time, these vessels formed into two masses of land which eventually became the islands of Samar and Leyte (Sugbo and Zafra 1994: 454). Archaeologists have established that the Philippine islands were mainly connected as a group of large islands during the Pleistocene period (2 million to 8,000 years ago). Luzon, Leyte, Samar and Mindanao extended as one long island. Panay, Masbate, Negros and Cebu comprised one chunk. Palawan connected with Borneo and the islands farther south were a series extending to Indonesia. The Ice Ages of the Pleistocene were characterized by the fluctuations of the water levels so that in the recent Holocene period, the waters rose and the Philippines became archipelagic - an ecosystem of numerous islands. Thus, what was once the whole long island of Luzon-Leyte-Samar-Mindanao differentiated into smaller and separate islands. Geographical Location and Topography 4 The two main islands, Samar and Leyte, and the island province of Biliran now comprise the Eastern Visayas region. The region is bound by the Pacific Ocean in the East. It defines the eastern boundary of the Philippines. To the west is the Camotes Sea which marks the boundary between the Eastern Visayas region and the rest of the Visayas. At the north is the San Bernardino Strait which links Eastern Visayas to Luzon. At the southeast side is the Surigao Strait which separates it from the northeastern part of Mindanao. The water body between the islands of Leyte and Samar is now the San Juanico Strait. The terrains of these two islands are different. Leyte has high peaked mountain mass and Samar has low rugged hills interspersed with valleys. Land Use Primarily an agricultural region, Eastern Visayas produces rice, abaca, corn, coconut, sugarcane and banana as major crops. It has a total land area of 21,431.7 square kilometers. Of its total land area, 52% are classified forest land and 48 % are alienable and disposable land. Natural Resources Eastern Visayas land and sea teem with the abundance of endemic flora and fauna. Endangered species found in the region are the dugong ( Dugong ), mago or tarsier ( Tarsius syrichta ), the Philippine brown deer, ), kaguang or flying lemur (Cynocephalus volans ), baboy ihalas or Visayan warty pig (( Sus cebifrons) , amo or Philippine monkey ( Macaca fascicularis ), kulaknit or giant flying fox ( Pteropus vampyrus ) kalaw or rufous hornbill (Bucerus hydrocorax ), the Philippine eagle ( Pithecophaga jeferryi ), tikarol or silvery kingfisher (Alcedo argentata ) and numerous other endemic birds. The rare and ancient giant flora Rafflesia still thrives in the forest here. Forest reserves are substantial in the interior hinterlands. Mineral deposits include chromite, nickel, clay, coal, limestone, pyrite and sand and gravel. The National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) include four natural parks in Eastern Visayas as components being proposed for establishment. These are MacArthur Park in Palo, Leyte; Kuapnit Balinsasayao National Park in Baybay and Abuyog, Leyte; Mahagnao Volcano National Park in Burauen and La Paz, Leyte; and, Sohoton Natural Bridge Natural Park in Basey, Samar. The national list of 5 proclaimed/declared protected areas include five protected landscapes/seascapes: Guiuan, Eastern Samar; Cuatro Islas in Inopacan and Hindang, Leyte; Biri Larosa in Lavezares, Rosario, San Jose, Biri and neighboring islands in Northern Samar; Calbayog- Pan-as Hayiban in Calbayog, Samar and Calbiga Caves in Calbiga, Wright and Hinabangan, Samar. Four natural parks are also protected: Jicontol Natural Park in Maslog, Dolores Can-avid in Eastern Samar; Mahagnao Volcano in Burauen and La Paz,. Leyte; Lake Dana in Ormoc, Leyte; and, Samar Island Natural Park of Samar, Eastern and Northern Samar. The Taft Forest Philippine Eagle Sanctuary is the only wildlife sanctuary in the list. The People Population The total population of the region is 3,912, 936 (as of August 1, 2007). It is inhabited by mostly Waray or Waray-waray, known to be the country’s fourth largest ethnolinguistic group. Cebuanos who migrated from the adjacent island of Cebu have descendants who now live in Ormoc City (western part of Leyte), northwest part of Leyte, central part of Southern Leyte, western part of Biliran and in some communities of Northern Samar. Most of Southern Leyte are of Boholano ancestry. Provinces and Municipalities As a political aggrupation, the region is now composed of six provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar and Samar with four cities: Tacloban, Ormoc, Maasin and Calbayog, 139 municipalities and 4,390 barangays.