Agree/Disagree: Pre-colonial Filipinos are cultured and civilized. Explain.

 

Agree. Our predecessors, contrary to western accounts, were not just these primitive, jungle-living savages. In fact, before the arrival of the Spanish, the pre-colonial Philippines had a very advanced civilization. Our predecessors had a diverse working community and a history full of artwork and literature. Anything contrary to their own system had to go as the colonizers arrived. It removed sculptures, books, religious rituals, and practically everything else considered obscene, evil, or a threat to their laws.

The pre-colonial Filipinos taught themselves quite well by using an ancient writing system called the Baybayin, so when the Spanish eventually arrived, they were surprised to find out that the Filipinos had a literacy rate higher than that of Madrid. However after the Spanish arrived, the high literacy rate still proved to be a double-edged sword for the Filipinos. The missionaries, determined to evangelize and subjugate our ancestors, manipulated the Baybayin for their own purposes, studying and using it to translate their separate works. The pre-colonial Filipinos were thus more readily vulnerable to foreign interference.

The pre-colonial Filipinos, in addition to being farmers, hunters, weapons-makers, and seafarers, also ventured and succeeded in many other occupations. Most were interested in fields such as mining, textiles, and metalworking, to name a few. Locally-produced items such as plates, jewelry, and clothes were widely pursued in other countries due to the excellent craftsmanship of the Filipinos. It is claimed, in fact, that products of Filipino origin might even have reached as far as ancient Egypt. Obviously, our predecessors were very professional craftsmen.

Furthermore, our ancestors were far from being the idealized tribal leaders we imagine as spear-carrying, bahag-wearing. In the art of war, they were very skilled. They also learned how to make and carry weapons and cannons, aside from wielding blades and spears. In fact, Rajah Sulayman was said to possess an immense 17-foot-long iron cannon. Our predecessors, apart from weapons systems, also learned how to build immense fortresses and body armor. For instance, the Moros living in the south always wore armor that protected them head-to-toe. And indeed, they bore weapons with them as well. You would think that the Spanish would have had a harder time colonizing the land, with all these arms at their disposal and the fact that they were strong hand-to-hand combatants. Unfortunately, the Spanish skillfully manipulated the pre-colonial Filipinos' regionalist impulses. The key explanation of why the Spanish have effectively dominated the country for more than 300 years is this divide-and-conquer policy.

The fact that our ancestors already had a functioning judicial and legislative structure, while not as developed (or as complex) as our own today, only indicates that they were well-versed in the philosophy of justice. A series of statutes, both unwritten and written, regulated life in the pre-colonial Philippines and included rules for civil and criminal laws. It was normally the datu and the elders of the village who enacted those rules, which were then proclaimed by a town crier called the umalohokan and demonstrated to the citizens. Penalties entail censure, fines, imprisonment, and death for those found guilty of a felony. During this time, torture and trial by ordeal were also common. The method, as we said, was not flawless, but it succeeded.

Our ancestors, in terms of food, did not struggle from the shortage thereof. They had plenty for themselves and their families, blessed by such a resource-rich world. Forests, waterways, and seas offered ample quantities of beef, fish, and other food. Later on, as they began to cultivate the land using farming methods that were very sophisticated for their time, their food became more diverse. One such evidence of the creativity of our ancestors is the Banaue Rice Terraces. They had an advanced notion of agrarian equity already. Men and women served in the fields similarly, and everybody could openly improve public lands. Also, our ancestors usually took good care of the ecosystem because they had a little-to-no understanding of exploitation for benefit.

This era was probably the nearest thing we ever had to the Golden Age, even though it was not perfect.