A Feast For The Mind

When I went to Manila last October 2005, I decided to indulge myself by going on a book-buying spree. Although I do most of my reading thru the internet nowadays, there’s nothing compared to reading a book by a lampshade, so to speak.

A book brings pleasure to the mind uniquely different from browsing or surfing in cyberspace. There is the added comfort in going back to what you are reading without putting on so many lights and pressing on buttons and waiting for windows to pop up.

Anyway, there’s this book by William Henry Scott, Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino which I bought for P 234.00.

The book was published in 1992 by New Day Publishers and it turned out to be a very fascinating read. Because so many data in the book were hardly mentioned in history books published before the 1990’s, it was a virtual pioneer in the field of Filipino prehistory and ethnography.

The author gave new insights into how the Filipinos lived before the Spanish advent. All through out you feel his meticulous scholarship lending credence to newly discovered facts and tidbits of data.

There’s this chapter on “The Conquerors As Seen by the Conquered” which offers us an interesting glimpse of how a Bikolano, writing from Gumaca to his brother living in Manila in the 1590’s, explained why he would not want to become a Christian.

This Bikolano, Panpanga, a chieftain living in Gumaca, wrote to his brother Antonio Simaon (already a Christian) that the Spaniards themselves behave so unChristian as he had observed when he was in Manila. Their uncouth behavior and greed, he said, hardly recommend their religion to him.

The book also treats of preSpanish Tagalog techonology, Visayan literature, food and farming and debunks the Kalantiaw Code’s authencity. All in all, it gives one a delectable dish of prehistory hardly known to many students of Philippine history.

When I went back to Naga, I also found a book at the Naga City Public Library under his authorship and printed by the Ateneo de Manila University Press in 1994. The book, titled Barangay, apparently is a compilation of previous works he published in various scholarly magazines and journals. This might well be a fitting posthumous tribute to man who dedicated his whole life to Philippine studies for he died a year before the book was put out.

This book should be of special interest to Bikolanos because he devoted an entire chapter on prehispanic Bikolandia. The topics he discussed therein were: agriculture, drinking, social structure, religion, the alphabet and warfare.

He drew much from the entries of Lisboa’s Diccionario y vocabulario de el idioma Español y Bicol to reconstruct the prehispanic life and customs of the old Bikol.

I was expecting to find a more substantial comment on the ancient goldwork and abaca weaving of Bicol for I suspect such preoccupations were highly developed in this region before Spanish advent but I found none.

What captured my attention was his observation that prehispanic bikol engaged not only in swiddening (upland riceplanting) but also in irrigated rice planting in lowlands which the old Visayans and Tagalogs did not do.

There is also the author’s comment about the Bikol’s being the “best-armed” among the fighters during the Spanish conquest. He pooh-poohed it as a confusion on the part of Salcedo’s forays into Ilocos where he met Japanese warriors using iron armor. Let me quote him (p. 187):

“…… But the arquebuses, artillery, helmets, and full body armor of iron which were
reported from the Salcedo expedition of 1573 were no doubt a confusion with Japanese
weapons which that conquistador encountered the year before in a naval engagement on
the Ilocos coast.”

Well, anyway, if the old Bikols had them and were making them, they should have the words for such and Scott could have chanced upon them in Lisboa’s or other friars’ vocabularios.

I made a perfunctory look at Lisboa’s vocabulario and what I came upon was the bikol word “barote” which Lisboa defined as “cuerpo de armas, peto, y espallar como jubon, que solian hacer, para pelear en sus guerras.” But whether this body armor was made of iron was not particularly indicated by Lisboa altho Scott remarked the old bikols went to war wearing a carabao-hide armor.

In sum, Scott’s deep researches on sixteenth-century Philippine ethnography give us much challenge to stretch further the limits of our knowledge of regional history.

SI MARCOS DE LISBOA- SIISAY SIYA?

1. Agi-agi Kan Buhay Niya

Si Marcos de Lisboa sarong Portuges, gikan sa sarong noble asin mayaman na pamilya na mga taga-Lisba, Portugal.

An dai aram kan kadaklan, siya nagin na ngonang negosyante ba’go sya nagin pading Franciscano, mala ta pinadara siya sa India na kun saen duman siya sa Malaka nagkaag kan saiyang mga palakaya.

Alagad, sa pasabong nin mahal na Diyos, nakaisip siyang magpadi asin luminaog siya sa Order kan mga Franciscano kan 1582 duman sa Malaka na an kumbento-francsicano kaini tinogdas ni Juan Bautista Pisaro.

Kan taon 1586, isinubol sya igdi sa Pilipinas na kun saen nagtabang sya sa pagpundar kan Confraternidad del Misericordia (1594) duman sa Manila.

Dangan pinadara siya igdi sa Camarines. Mayong tala’ sa mga kasuratan kun nangyari ini bago nagtongtong an 1600 alagad garo sa indikasyon, naenot siyang magministro sa mga duluhan (village) kan Polangui asin Oas.

Pagdatong kan taon 1602, malinaw na napadpad siya igdi sa Naga, na an toka niya bilang definidor asin ministro. Balik naman siya sa Oas paglaog kan 1605. Dangan sa inaapod na “chapter”kan Mayo 24, 1608, napili syang magin naman definidor kan Naga. Dai sana naghaloy, kan Enero 16, 1609, pinatukaw siya komo vicar-general. An turno niyang ini uminabot sagkod Oktubre 29, 1611.

Pakatapos kan katongdan niya bilang vicar-general, ibinalik siya igdi sa Naga. Nagtukaw siya bilang sarong guardian, bako nang definidor. Naglimang taon naman siya igdi. Nag-abot an 1616, na-eligir siyang definidor kan Dilao. Kaya, tolong beses siya definidor, duwa igdi sa Naga, saro duman sa Dilao, Quezon.

Duwang taon sana siya sa Dilao. Mala ta kan 1618, nagpasiring na siya sa Mehiko. Haros apat man na taon siya duman. Kan Hulyo 16, 1622, sa sarong General Chapter sa Roma kan saiyang Orden, natokahan siyang “custodian”. Kaya naghapit siya sa Madrid tapos diretso sa Roma na kun saen ginibo an General Chapter.

Pakatapos kan Chapter, nagretiro na siya sa kumbento kan San Gil, Madrid. Nasabi sa mga surat, duman na siya nagadan kaamayan kan taon 1628.

Toltolan: The Philipppine Islands, 1493-1803. Blair and Robertson, vol. 35, pp. 313-314; vol. 17, p. 210-211.

2. An Mga Sinurat Niya

Si Lisboa daa may nawalat man magkapirang mga kasuratan, an apat (4) kaini manongod sa tataramon na Bikol. Osipon kan mga nakakaaram, siya daa an pinaka-enot na nag-adal asin nagsurat sa tataramon na ini.

Kaya, makaka-onabi kita na may dakulaon na papel siya sa agi-agi kan Kabikolan por dahel ta saro siya sa nagtala’ sa libro kan satong lenggwahe.

Maigot niyang iginuhit an detalye asin kalag kan satong tataramon sa sarong libro na igwa pa ngani mahihiling na mga huwad igdi sa Museo kan Universidad de Nueva Caceres asin sa Museo kan Holy Rosary Seminary. Pareho naimprenta bilang ika-2ng edisyon, taon 1865. Igwa daa nin enot na edisyon kan taon 1754 alagad mayo pa kong nahiling nin kopya kan edisyon na ini.

An yaon sa Museo kan Universidad de Nueva Caceres saro sa koleksyon nin mga libro ni Domingo T. Abella asin an yaon sa Seminario, walat na kopya kan mga Kastila pang kapadian.

Dakul man an dai nakaka-aram na an obra niyang ini sa totoo lang, Bicol-Español asin Español-Bicol. Baling-baling kumbaga. An enot igwang 418ng dahon asin an ikaduwa, may 100 na dahon sana.

An makangalas, asin sarong puntong dapat linawon kan mga buntog sa adal kan Nakaagi, ano ta kan 1754 sana nakaag sa pormal na libro an saiyang obra mantang an Vocabulario niya tinipon niya igdi sa Camarines kaamayan kan 1600 alagad naimprenta sana kan 1754, enot na edisyon? Anong nangyari, ta kanigoan an kaabalahan? Ano ta labing sarong siglo bago na-imprenta ini?

Kun baga, halawig na panahon yaon sana ini sa porma nin manuskrito.

May ebidensiya kita na ini talagang dai tolos nakaag sa imprentadong libro ta ini an tomoy kan sarong pading nagsurat:

“… Fr. Andres de San Agustin printed a grammar of the bicol language in the province of Camarines in the bicol language (which is the commonest and most universal of that province), in the year 1647, and translation that he made into that language of the Doctrina of the same Cardinal Bellarmino, in the same language and in the same year.

Fr. Fray Juan del Spiritu Santo printed another Tratado de Comunion y Confesion with which the father ministers and the natives have sufficient for study- the first, the so important barbaric languages of these kingdoms; and the second, the so necessary mysteries of our holy faith, the above is what has been printed in the bicol language; and since the writings left by frs. Fray Marcos de Lisboa and Fray Diego Bermeo , the first ministers of that province and the first masters of that language, have not been printed, we shall make no mention of them. “

Toltolan: The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803. Blair and Robertson, vol. 35, pp. 313-314

Dawa dai ta na Bikolon an sa itaas, malinaw na gayo na an Vocabulario ni Lisboa dai tolos nasangal sa imprentahan. Ano kaya idtong tolo pang sinurat niya? Nagsurat man siya kaya nin sarong gramatica nin bicol arog ni San Agustin? Magayon gayod masusog sa San Gil na kumbento sa Madrid kun saen siya nag-estar na sagkod binawian sya nin buhay, ta an Franciscanong kumbentong ini bakong harayo ti’mos ninda an mga manuscritong sinururat kan mga prayleng Franciscano.

3. Ano An Kamanongdanan Kan Vocabulario ni Lisboa?

An diksyunaryo niyang ginuhit kanigoan an halaga sa presenteng Bikolano, orog na duman sa nagaadal kan soanoy na kaugalean, buhay-buhay asin manera nin pagtaram kan mga bikol kan mga siglong idto, taon 1600 pababa’.

Sa masurunod na artikulo, matao ako nin dikit na pag-anyap sa antigong panahon igdi sa bikol paagi sa pag-ogid kan sinurat ni Lisboa.

Halimbawa, dai makapaniwala, an sabi ni Lisboa kaidtong panahon an katagang “ngimot” boot sabihon idtong ngabil na sa itaas (labio de arriba, d. 154 kan Vocabulario ni Lisboa) asin an “ngabil” iyo an sa ibaba na ngabil (labio de abajo, d. 151)!!

Ngonyan, an kaibahan kan duwang kataga’ maheheling ta sa pagtaram nin siring:

Itikom mo lang an ngimot mo, dai magpararibok…. Pigngimot nya sana kun saen mapasiring.

Gatok an sa ibabang ngabil nya, kinagat nin putyukan.

An sa enot, garo baga pag “ngimot” an ginamit, tinotomoy an kabilogan kan duwang ngabil. Pag “ngabil” an binanggit, orog nang tinata’wan atensyon an saro sa ngabil. Dai nasabing, “sarong ngimot mo gatok”.

A NATION WAITING ON THE PATRONAGE OF FOREIGNERS

The commentary of de Quiros on Juan de la Cruz forces us to pause and seriously consider the state of our nation. (vide, There’s the Rub, by Conrado de Quiros, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Oct. 31, 2005)

Have we indeed sunk so low we would prefer “to clean the toilet bowls” of the world than become novelists and teachers in our land?

De Quiros speaks of greatness for our nation. He noted our penchant for smallness, and the failure of our people to aspire for grand visions, or, simply, to go after dreams in an extraordinary way. We are a people who only want to be mediocre, I could almost hear him say this. But is this not because our nation is blanketed by a deathly feeling of malaise?

There is a restlessness in the air, so it seems. A great fissure in the national psyche, I would even say. Why else, as de Quiros somberly noted, a “young man who topped the national medical board exam prefers to work in New York as a nurse.”?

It makes us cry in hopelessness as we see around us the flight, not only of plumbers, caregivers and truck drivers, but also of the best minds of our nation to take on menial jobs in other countries.

But our problem of brain flight is made more complicated by a bigger threat right in our backyard.

Globalization has set in. This is an economic tsunami we have to deal with. Our manufacturing industries are dying slowly for the products we produce are being sorely beaten by very cheap products flowing in from abroad. There is little desire for our people to go into entrepreneurship so we can nurture businesses that will give massive employment to our growing population. What we see are our college graduates scampering to get on to the next flight for the big cities of the world.

In and out of our country, many of us are beccoming ADAGS*, people waiting on the patronage of foreigners!

(*according to the old Bikols of 1600, an ADAG is a “criado o criada que sirve a los españoles”- a male or female servant who serves the Spaniards. Is there any difference now?)

MGA ADAG – Mga Oripon kan Kastila

Kan ako nagbubulitlit sa Vocabulario ni Marcos de Lisboa, napangalas ako ta may sarong tataramon na ilinaog si Lisboa na ba’gong kataga’, ba’gong imbento kan mga Bikol- an taramon na ADAG.

Susog sa pakahulogan nya, an adag boot sabihon, “criado o criada que sirve a los españoles.” (vide, Marcos de Lisboa’s Vocabulario de la lengua bicol, p. 10)

Oripon, surugoon, busabos kan mga Kastibol na nagsakop sato!

Si Lisboa nagpoon magtipon kan mga tataramon na bikol kan 1602, o duwangpolo may siyam (29) na taon pakalihis pagsakyada kan mga Espanyol (1573) igdi sa Kabikolan. Abang dali’ naka-imbento an mga Bikol nin kataga’ nababagay sa ba’gong kamugtakan ninda!

Bako’ daw na parapsak o pagtuya’tuya’ an pagtaram kaini? Sarong pag-insulto duman sa mga nagpapa-oripon sa mga kagsakop na kastila? Igdi gayod maheheling an pait asin kulogboot kan mga apoon ta kan sinda nasakop.

Kita ngonyan, bako kaya mga adag nang sayod sa mga kultura asin ideyolihyang dayo?