The Maragtas is written by Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro.

Maragtas is all about the

History of Panay from the first inhabitants of the Bornean immigrants from which are
descended (to go orchange of state) to the arrival of the Spaniards. The work is
written in mixed Hiligaynon and Kinaray-languages. Monteclaro have been a native
border between the two Visayan Dialects. The maragtas second edition was published
by the Makinaugalingon Press in 1929, and a third edition in 1957 by Sol Gwekoh
under the copyright held by the author’s son Juanito L. Monteclaro, which deffers
form the original only in certain orthographic reforms and a more colloquial version.
Pedro Monteclaro was born in Miag-oa, Iloilo on October 15, 1850. Graduated from
the Seminario College de Jaro in 1865, was twice married and had 5 children, He
served as Teniente Mayor in 1891, and Gobernadorcillo in 1892-1894 and become a
local hero during Revolution and the American Invasion. He serves as Liaison Officer
during the American occupation of the area, and was first president of Miag-ao (1901-
1903), during which period he began to search which resulted in his publication of
The Maragtas.

THE MARAGTAS

The word Maragtas is equivalent of the Spanish word “Historia”.

Present dayspeakers of Visayan, know only the word as the title of the book or some
prehispanic manuscript believed to be its origin. It is consideration of the latter
opinion that the provenance and contents of the book must be examined in detail.

The provenance of maragtas begin with the author’s own statement in his
“Foreward to the Readers”

He wrote maragtas, first inhabitants of Panay. He even refrained from writing it but
for his burning desire to reveal to the public the data which he gathered from the
records. The first inhabitants of Panay is the arrival of the Datus from borneo and
their settlement in the lands, their spread to different parts of the island and their
customs and habits until the Spaniards came and ruled to the Philippines.

In order for the reader of maragtas not accuse him of having merely composed the
book from just imagination. He wish to mention two manuscripts he found. One is
given to him by an 82 year old man, who had been the first teacher in the town. It was
given by the old man’s grandfather. The long years which the manuscript must have
passed of theory a wore out the paper so much that it is impossible to handle. The
other manuscript he found in a bamboo tube where monteclaros grandfather used to
keep his old papers. The manuscript was so brittle that he could hardly handle it
without tearing it to pieces. He copied these records in a book on june 12 1901 as a
memoir for the town of Miag-oa, but did not publish them for the reasons stated.
Besides he is waiting for someone better qualified to write a history of the Island of
Panay form the time of its inhabitants.

He would like his readers know that his purpose in writing the Maragtas in not to gain
honor for himself but to transmit to others what he read in the records he collected.

The Contents of Maragtas

They are about the ten datus or chiefs who escaped the tyranny of Datu Makatunaw of
Borneo and immigrated to the island of Panay. Once there, they supposedly bought
the lowland plains of the island from Marikudo, the leader of the indigenous Aytas,
for the price of a solid gold salakot (hat). According to the legend, these ten chiefs and
their families are the very ancestors of the entire Visayan population. This is the
legend that has been celebrated yearly in the Ati-atihan festival since the late 1950s
when it became a part of the annual feast of the Santo Niño in Kalibo, Aklan. The 10
Datus are namely: Puti, Sumakwel, Bangkaya, Palburong, Padohinog, Dumangsol,
Dumalogdog, Lubay, Balensuela amd Umangsil.

There are six chapters and an epilog. The 1st chapter describes the former customs,
clothes, dialect, heredity, organization and others of the Aetas of Panay, with special
mention of Marikudozson of old Chief Polpulan. Second Chapter begins a narrative of
ten datus flight from Borneo and the Tyranny of Datu Makatunaw there, and their
purchase of the island of Panay from Marikudo. The Third chapter tells of the
romance of Sumakwel, Kapingan and her lover Gurung-gurung. The forth chapter
concludes the tale of ten datus, telling of their political arrangements and their
circumnavigation of theisland. The fifth chapter describes language, commerce,
lothing, customs, marriages, funerals, mourning habits, cockfighting, timekeeping
techniques, calendars and personal characteristics. The sixth and Final chapter gives a
list of Spanish officials between 1637 and 1808. And Epilog contains afew eighteenth
century dates.

The document Translated by Father Santeran tells the same story of the ten datus,
their purchase of the island from Negritos, and one of their leaders marital problems,
names of the deities,slaves and descendants to the fifth generation, and list of more
than 158 placenames connected with their settlement of Panay. Father Santeran added
the translation of some additional information whichhe took from a second document,
to a third much longer but wholly genealogical in content, which he does not translate.
There is no information given about the language of the original or the condition of
the manuscript except that it was old and the last page got lost, but by its style is
characterized by the repetitions, abrupt changes of subject, incomplete plot
development, and lack of planning which are the earmarks of oral history taken down
from the lips of reminiscing elders.

All of these stylistic shortcomings are missing from Monteclaro’s more polished
literary work. The maragtas, for example, introduces new characters with necessary
biographical identification, while the Historia in the manner of folk history, often
mentions their names only after they have already played some part in the narrative.
The Historia presupposes the readers’ prior knowledge of the places mentioned but
the Maragtas cites municipality and province.

It is difficult to doubt a common source. Considering the internal evidence, there is no

reason why the Historia de los primeros datos could not have been written or dictated
by a Filipino as late asthe first half of the nineteenth century, or why the entire
maragtas with no exceptions could not have been written between 1901-1907 with
reference to no other written sources than a list of government officials and Father
Santeran’s translations.

The Confideration of Mediaas.

Following the romance which ends Monteclaros chapter 3, Father Santeran’s

Translation adds some disconnected geographic and genealogical data, most of which
appears in monteclaros chapter 4, but in between, the maragtas has an account of
sevenresolutions formally adopted by the seven panay datus as a kind of political
constitution.

The author of maragtas unfortunately gives no information about any of his sources,
oral or written, except to say that two of them where rotten and almost unreadable. He
makes no comment or speculation on their date or provenance, no direct quotations or
hints of incorporation them into the text and disavows any claims to “clarity or
comprehensiveness”. The Maragtas therefore, gives no reasonable grounds for
supposing the existence of any prehispanic Confederation of medias.

The Maragtas Code.

The other exceptional passage of historic significance which does notoccur in the
Historia de los primeros datos compromises the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th paragraphs of
chapter 5 of The Maragtas. This chapter is description of a variety of general cultural
information such associal customs, Visayan equivalents of the days of the ween and
dialect differences. Among thecustoms, there are four stringent sanctions.
1. Those too lazy to work were bonded over to the wealthy until they reformed,
failing which they were cast out of society to live with negritos and breedhalfcaste
offspring.
2. Polygamy was practiced until population control became necessary, it was
restricted to the well-to-do and the children of those too poor to support them were
drowned.
3. Unredeemed adultery was punished by death or disinheritance.
4. Fingers of thieves were cut off.
These statements can be authenticated as an actual Spartan way of life practiced by
prehispanic Filipinos, at least they are not phrased in the maragtas as “laws”. It is
stated that The most serious and most severely punished offence was lainess which is
technically untrue since other offenceswere punished by death.

Although the author did not provide any data or clue by which the authenticity of this
codecould be established. The available evidence suggest that the Maragtas code
should be dated in the forth decade of the twentieth century at the earliest.

SUMMARY

The maragtas is an original work by Pedro Monteclaro published in mixed Hiligaynon

and Kin-iraya in Iloilo in 1907 which claims to be nothing more than that. It was
based on written and oralsources then available, and contains three sort of subject
matter, folk customs still being practices or remembered by old folks, the description
of an idealized political confederation whose existence thereare reasonable grounds in
1858 of a migration of Bornean settlers, some of whom are still remembered as folk
heroes, pagan deities, or progenitors of part of the present population of panay. There
is no reason to doubt that this legend preserves the memory of some actual event, but
it is not possible to date the event itself or to decide which of its details are historic
facts and which are the emblellishments of generations of oral transmission.