1 Ancient Pinoy entrepreneurs Pilipino Express • Vol. 2 No. 17 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada September 1, 2006 History books tell us that Ferdi- nand Magellan discovered the Philip- pines in 1521. The familiar story says that he landed in the Visayas and soon met his end when he tangled with Lapulapu in the Battle of Mactan. Because the books all tell us that Magellan discovered the Philippines, many people assume that the Philip- pine Islands were somehow isolated from their neighbours. We have an image of pre-colonial Filipinos just minding their own business, perhaps doing a little trading with visiting Chinese merchants, when suddenly, the Spaniards show up, claim the is- lands for their empire and drag the natives into the modern world. This idea is probably a remnant of the co- lonial eras of Spain and the United States when the people really were cut off from their neighbours in South East Asia due to the protectionist trade practices of the two successive occu- piers. However, it wasn’t like that before the Spaniards arrived. Some of the places where pre-colonial Filipinos did business Filipinos in Southeast Asia Europeans had already met some other Tagalogs to also settle in China mentioned that Luzon traders Filipinos at least ten years before Ma- Malacca. Regimo was not just a sim- had done business there before. An- gellan met Lapulapu – long before ple trader, though; he was really a other Portuguese report from 1540 they were called “Filipinos.” The Por- business tycoon. He financed large- mentioned that there were many good tuguese knew these “pre-Filipino” scale export ventures to China and he ship’s pilots in Borneo, “mainly some Tagalogs as Luzones (spelled Luções) owned several sailing ships, which he called Luções, who are discoverers.” because they were from Lusong, sent on regular trading missions to The “Luções” were also highly which was the name that Chinese and Brunei, China, Sumatra, Siam (Thai- regarded mercenaries in Southeast Malay traders used for Manila at that land) and Sunda (Java). Asia. They served the exiled Sultan of time. It is a Tagalog word that means Apart from Malacca, there was Malacca in 1525 when he attempted “to come down to water from higher also another colony of about 500 Tag- to take back the city from the Portu- land” and, of course, Luzon eventu- alogs in Minjam on the Malay Penin- guese. Jaõa de Barros, an early Portu- ally became the name for the whole sula, which may have been selling guese historian, called the Filipinos island on which Manila is located. cotton from Mindoro to the Chinese “the most warlike and valiant of these When the Portuguese conquered as early as the 1300s. parts.” Filipino mercenaries also the Sultanate of Malacca (Melaka) on Another pre-Filipino business fought at Aceh in northern Sumatra in the Malay Peninsula in 1511, they mogul, named Surya Diraja, owned a 1529 and they served the king of found a community of Tagalogs with plantation and an estate. He exported Burma (Myanmar) in a battle at their own shops and several prominent 175 tons of pepper to China every Martaban. businessmen. The Portuguese gover- year and one of his ships was in the Cosmopolitan Manila nor even appointed one Tagalog, first Portuguese fleet to make an offi- While Filipinos were active named Regimo, as the temenggung or cial visit to the Chinese empire. throughout Southeast Asia, the port of police commissioner. Pre-colonial Filipinos were known Manila, or Maynila, as the inhabitants Regimo was the head of the Taga- throughout Southeast Asia. Magel- called it, also enjoyed lively trade log community in Malacca. He had lan’s navigator, Antonio Pigafetta relations with the region. A Bornean married into a local upper class family spotted a Luzon ship in Timor in 1521 trading colony was established there and acquired the title of diraja, mean- and a 1515 Portuguese account about in about 1500 and when the Spaniards ing royal, and he had persuaded many the port of Canton (Guangzhou) in arrived in Manila in 1570, the three Paul Morrow • In Other Words • The Pilipino Express • September 1, 2006 2 main rulers of the area were descen- (jar) were also introduced and trendy like kaban and tsupa were also used at dants of Muslim royalty who had mar- new foods came into style such as this time but have now been replaced ried into the population. Ache, known atsara pickles and puto cakes. The with the metric system. as Rajah Matanda, was the grandson term alak, for alcoholic drinks, began The Tagalog language had of the Sultan of Brunei. to be used as well. changed so much in Manila due to its At that time Manila had already It was at this time that many Malay connections that even two cen- become quite cosmopolitan. The Ma- common religious and intellectual turies later new Spanish missionaries lay influence meant that many people terms entered Tagalog such as pag- had to be sent away from Manila, into of the ruling class called themselves samba (worship), aral (learning) and the rural areas, if they wanted to learn Muslims, though apparently, for most, kawani (clerk). Many of the words “proper” Tagalog. this meant little more than refusing to borrowed from Malay had already So, it seems that the pre-colonial eat pork. been borrowed by the Malays from Philippine Islands were not exactly Malay was a second language for other cultures. Words like basa, (read), obscure backwaters in Asian affairs. wealthy people in Manila and it was guro (teacher) and diwa (spirit) came Magellan may have “discovered” the changing the Tagalog language from the Indian Sanskrit language and islands, but considering that he was through many fashionable borrow- from Arabic came terms such as asal among the Portuguese who conquered ings. Upper class ladies were ad- (behaviour), hukom (judge) and agi- Malacca in 1511, he may have dis- dressed as binibini, the Malay word mat (amulet). covered the Philippines there in Ma- for female. A blacksmith’s shed in Since Manila was the main trading laysia, ten years before he got to Ho- Malay became the new Tagalog word port in the archipelago, many words monhon in the Visayas. for a great hall, gusali, and a dis- related to commerce were borrowed bursement in Malay became a gra- from Malay such as lako (peddle), E-mail the author at: cious gift in Tagalog – biyaya. The utang (debt), and bayad (payment), [email protected] or Malay word karabaw replaced the Old which the Tagalogs initially modified visit www.mts.net/~pmorrow for Tagalog anuwang for water buffalo. from bayar to make their name for a more about Filipino history and lan- New cooking items such as the kalan slave trader, mamamayar. Many Ma- guage. Also find Paul Morrow on (stove), sandok (ladle) and balanga lay terms for weights and measures FaceBook. Selected sources: Pigafetta, Anotnio Magellan’s Voyage: A Narrative of the First Circumnavigation, (Dover edition 1994) Scott, William Henry, (1994) Barangay: 16th Century Philippine Culture and Society 1994 Scott, William Henry, (1993) Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino, 1993.