Maureen Cristin S. Justiniano Jose E. Marco’s Kalantiaw Code: Implications for Philippine Historiography and Filipinos’ Historical Consciousness MAUREEN CRISTIN S. JUSTINIANO University of Wisconsin - Madison Introduction On the other hand, there is not much discourse on This proposed study started as a simple examination the kind of public responses and the possible social impacts of revelation surrounding these fraudulent of the infamous antiquarian from the island of Negros documents that I believe can provide further under- in the Visayan region, Jose E. Marco, and his many standing of Philippine society as well as the shaping of alleged ‘historical works’ that influenced the writings Philippine historiography. The only comprehensive of Philippine history. Many Philippine historians con- sidered Marco to have revolutionized the dissemina- study on the impacts (or lack thereof) of the exposure of these forgeries is that of independent Philippine tion, and perhaps the manufacturing, of pre-colonial scholar Paul Morrow’s online article “Kalantiaw: The Philippine documents during the early twentieth cen- Hoax.” In his article, Morrow examines how Philippine tury. Frankly, the task is daunting because there are state institutions and Filipino academic scholars con- many avenues of inquiry that required close examina- tion to even cover the tip of this ‘confabulation.’ tinued to propagate the validity of the Code of Kalan- tiaw even though it had been debunked along with Therefore, for this research, I have decided to narrow other documents related to Jose Marco.3 down my focus on the implications of discovering and I would like to expand this inquiry by examining how proving that the Kalantiaw Code of 1433 had no his- Filipino scholars, different government institutions, torical basis apart from its only known reference men- tioned in the two-volume Pavon manuscript presented and the Filipino public responded to Scott’s potentially-devastating findings, which were associated in 1914 by Filipino antique collector Jose E. Marco to with these important pre-hispanic source materials. I the Director of Philippine National Library, James A. will do this by addressing why Scott’s revelation was Robertson.1 The perceived historical significance and largely ignored for several decades since 1968, even authenticity of this alleged ancient penal code from the Visayan region has persisted despite being proven as a though many prominent Filipino historians such as Teodoro A. Agoncillo and Gregorio Zaide did not chal- work of historical fiction. lenge a foreign scholar’s claims against the validity of In terms of available literature on the issue of Marco these documents. Given the various responses and and his ‘historical’ works, there are several scholars reactions of Filipinos to the Code of Kalantiaw issue, I such as William Henry Scott, John N. Schumacher, would like to further examine the reasons behind such Augusto de Viana and Michael Salman, who have al- responses (or lack thereof). There are two main ques- ready examined certain aspects of Marco’s historical tions that I will address in this project: (1) why this contributions. However, they all seemed to focus on potentially-charged historical issue did not evoke a contesting the authenticity of various historical docu- much stronger reaction from Filipinos (particularly ments linked to Marco, or looking at the motivation/s from Filipino scholars and government institutions behind the creation and publication of these fraudulent such as the Department of Education, Culture and 2 documents. Sports); and (2) what does this tell us about Philippine Volume 11, Issue 1, Spring 2011 19 Jose E. Marco’s Kalantiaw Code society and how it perceives the significance of pre- The Discovery and Debunking of colonial history in the Filipino national consciousness. Marco’s pre-colonial documents For most of the twentieth century, Marco’s historical Jose E. Marco and his pre-colonial documents were rarely scrutinized or questioned until ‘Code of Kalantiaw’ a retired American lay missionary, William Henry The antiquarian and stamp collector from the island Scott, examined the available pre-hispanic source ma- of Negros in the Visayan region by the name of Jose E. terials, including the Pavon manuscript, which suppos- Marco became part of ancient Philippine historiogra- edly contained invaluable information on pre-colonial phy when he presented several manuscripts containing Philippine state and society. Scott challenged the valid- significant historical information about ancient Fili- ity of several Philippine ancient documents while pur- pino society to James A. Robertson, Director of Phil- suing his doctoral degree in Philippine history at the ippine National Library, in 1914. One of these source University of Santo Tomas (Manila, Philippines) in 1965. In his doctoral dissertation Scott asserted, and materials was the Pavon manuscript, Las antiguas de later proved, that many important pre-colonial docu- leyendas de la isla de Negros (Ancient Legends of the ments considered as definitive sources of the official Island of Negros) that was allegedly written by Father version of ancient Philippine history were fraudulent Jose Maria Pavon y Araguro, a Spanish secular priest in works provided by Jose E. Marco. In his dissertation the Diocese of Cebu, during the mid-nineteenth cen- chapter on Jose Marco’s contributions, Scott con- tury. This two-volume manuscript supposedly con- tained the only reference to one of the oldest penal cludes that Marco’s collection of ancient documents, codes in pre-colonial Philippines, the so-called Code including the Pavon manuscript, “appear to be deliber- ate fabrications with no historical validity. There is no of Kalantiaw promulgated by Datu Kalantiaw from the present evidence that any Filipino ruler by the name of island of Panay in 1433.4 Kalantiaw ever existed or that the Kalantiaw penal code Anyone who has read or who is familiar with the is any older than 1914.”6 Moreover, Scott recalled that Code of Kalantiaw took notice of Datu Kalantiaw’s during his 1968 doctoral defense== harsh approach in enforcing social order within his chiefdom. In Philippine schools, Filipino students are . before a panel of eminent Filipino historians such as Teodoro Agoncillo, Horacio de la Costa, taught about Datu Kalantiaw’s laws, which clearly em- Marcelino Foronda, Mercedes Grau Santamaria, phasized that he ruled with an iron-fist to ensure obe- Nicholas Zafra and Gregorio Zaide. not a single dience and order from his people. However, upon question was raised about the chapter which I close examination of the actual laws listed in the penal called ‘The Contributions of Jose E. Marco to Phil- code (see Appendix I), there are contradictions and the ippine historiography’ . For some years after these publications, I have reason to hope that the laws themselves are just plain outrageous.5 When I first ghost of Kalantiaw had finally been laid. Yet, at learned about these laws in secondary schools, I began the time I retired from teaching Philippine history to wonder what kind of society would actually enforce in 1982, freshmen were still entering the State Uni- such peculiar and brutal laws because there seemed to versity persuaded that Kalantiaw was an actual be no rationale behind them. historic figure and that he promulgated a genuine Philippine penal code in 1433. I wonder if my suc- Despite the peculiarity and absurdity of the penal cessors are still sharing their classrooms with this code of Kalantiaw, both Filipino and non-Filipino Filipino phantom and the law code that never was.7 scholars immediately embraced it as a definitive source of existence of ancient Philippine legal system. Moreo- However, it should be noted that Scott was not the ver, throughout the early and mid-twentieth century first scholar to question the validity of these source Philippine scholars referred to Marco’s documents materials. Mauro Garcia, a prominent Filipino scholar such as the Pavon manuscript as the key to understand- on ancient Philippine history and a bibliographer, ing ancient Philippine civilization and society. raised questions about the documents obtained from Marco as early as 1950s in his public lectures. In Janu- ary 1968 Garcia also participated in (and perhaps, or- ganized) a symposium dealing with the Maragtas leg- 20 EXPLORATIONS a graduate student journal of southeast asian studies Maureen Cristin S. Justiniano end that originated from one of Marco’s source materi- amine the earlier Marco contributions without als, which narrates the arrival of ten datus/chiefs from prejudice.”13 Scott added that “a review of the note- Borneo who settled in the Visayan region and estab- books which record our [with Garcia] collaboration lished flourishing settlements. According to the Ma- reveals that the more blatant forgeries were not pre- ragtas Symposium proceedings: sented to me until after I had already drawn my conclu- sions about the so-called Povedano and Pavon [a] panel of Filipino historians and folklorists met 14 in Manila a few weeks ago to explore the many manuscripts.” In 1969 Scott published his disserta- subsidiary factors involved in the Maragtas ac- tion entitled “A Critical Study of the Pre-hispanic count. Several of them denounced it as a palpable Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History,” fake. Dissatisfaction with history and historiog- which included a separate section on Marco’s contribu- raphy has been diffuse and largely inarticulate in tions to Philippine historiography. Manila, but nevertheless there. A new understand- ing is apparent that historians after all are not tech- Despite his published findings on Marco’s fraudulent nicians piling up cold hard facts into a brick wall. source materials that proved that the Code of Kalan- They must move in a complex web of circumstan- tiaw had no historical basis, the necessary changes in tial evidence, full of loose ends and maddening textbooks and in academic curriculum were not forth- strings and probably silly old men making up pretty tales in their dotage.