Jamail A. Kamlian and Juvanni A. Caballero. Informal Credit (Pagsanda) Among the Tausug of Sulu, Mindanao, Philippines: The Interrelation of Economic, Social and Religious Factors (New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2018). A Book Review

Abstract

Focusing on an indigenously evolved informal credit system (pagsanda), the book dwells on the centrality of money-lending and indebtedness as the fulcrum of the dynamics of society. How is it that the pagsanda as a communal self-help mechanism intended to lend a hand in moments of need is tied up with, or even central to the dynamics of conflict among the Tausugs in Sulu? How can something so condemned as un-Islamic become so prevalent and widespread among the Muslims in the area? The book opens the discourse to help find answers to these questions. And it did so by weaving a narrative that captures the interplay of various issue areas that feed on the other to create a self-sustaining system that becomes a precarious social powder keg. The pagsanda’s pristine form of unselfish assistance has clearly morphed through time into many variants of exploitative and even oppressive callous social exchange. By analyzing the complex network of connections between the pagsanda, local politics, economics, socio-cultural practices and violent conflict, the book sheds light into the nature and causes of the social dynamics in Sulu.