Langkit : Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities

The 1902 Battle of Bayang from the American perspective

2023-05-23T09:00:28+08:00

This article revisits the May 2, 1902 Battle of Bayang, a village in Lanao, the scene of the first deadly encounter between the United States Army and the Meranaw Moros (Muslims of Mindanao). It probes into the events that led to this incident, depicting the retaliatory expedition led by Col. Frank Baldwin against the beleaguered Meranaw warriors under the sultan of Bayang who bravely stood their ground amid a powerful occupying army. Despite the mediation effort of an influential imam, Sharif Afdal, the two parties engaged each other that saw the death of hundreds of Meranaw compared to the few casualties on the American side. The war is an epitome of the brutal colonial program to crush all opposition along the way, using might with little diplomacy and lack of understanding of the local culture. The conquerors won the war but failed to stifle the resistance that persisted even after they left Mindanao. Lanao serves as a showcase of indigenous struggle against foreign domination, and the eventual state formation that made Moroland an unwilling part of it.

Descend or Defend: Iligan as a Toponym and its Relevance to Local Historiography

2023-02-28T16:08:51+08:00

The history of Iligan City in Northern Mindanao, the Philippine Islands, stretches back as far as the beginning of Spanish colonization in the second half of the 17th century. Although its contemporary history ranging from the later American Period during the Second World War to its rise as an industrial city in the following three decades after the war is well- examined, Iligan’s history during the Spanish Period remains a difficult picture to imagine. It is not only because documentary evidence is very limited, its indigenous population relies on oral tradition to tell the story of its past. The difficulty of access to primary sources which are either tucked away in the national archives or that they are written in a language that in contrast to the rest of the then Spanish Empire never became the primary language of the country contributed to local historiography in the Philippines making use of oral accounts by indigenous peoples, and this is similar when it comes to Iligan. Specifically, this paper examines Iligan as a toponym to trace the possible origin and meaning of the term. By looking into both readily available archival sources and the cultural memory of the tribal authorities of one of the city’s indigenous peoples, the Higaunon, this paper shows that they are the first settlers of Iligan and that one of the earliest sites of culture contact was the mouth- river of Iligan, which perhaps one of the reasons why Spaniards chose this area to establish a fort. Most importantly, this paper proves that Iligan as a toponym is not empty in meaning, but rather mirrors past relations and activities, which are relevant in the writing of local history.

Pagsasalin ng Kuwento ni Paramata Gandingan Mula Wikang Mëranaw Tungo sa Wikang Filipino: Konsiderasyon at Aplikasyon ng mga Dulog at Teknik sa Pagsasaling Kultural

2022-10-19T13:26:25+08:00

Diwa sa diwa ang karaniwang tuon ng mga tagapagsalin sa pagsasalin ng isang teksto. Nagkaroon ito ng paglihis nang sumibol ang kilusang “cultural turn” sa pagsasalin dahil higit na pinahalagahan dito ang lapit-kultural sa pagsasaling-wika. Pangunahing panlantaw sa kilusang ito na maikintal ang kulturang nakapaloob sa teksto kaya ito ang naging sandigan sa ginawang pagsasalin ng Paramata Gandingan, bahagi ng epikong Darangen, mula wikang Meranaw tungo sa wikang Filipino. Sa paggamit ng lapit na ito sa ginawang pagsasalin, igiinit nito ang paglilok sa pamamagitan ng proseso ng pagsasalin ang kultura at kaakohan ng tribong Mëranaw. Sa kabuuan, anim (6) na paraan o teknik ang mahalaga sa pagsasalin ng kultural na materyal gaya ng Paramata Gandingan ito ang: Adapsyon at/o ang Kultural na katumbas, Modulasyon, Amplipikasyon, Naturalisasyon, at ang paghahalo ng higit sa isang teknik na tinatawag na Kuplets. Ipinakita ang kulturang Mëranaw sa pagsasalin sa pamamagitan ng pagpapanatili ng mga kultural na salita tulad ng tonong, torogan, ayonan, datu. Kung hindi man pinanatili ay tinumbasang ito ayon sa pagsasakonteksto sa lipunang Mëranaw. Pinahalagahan ang mga tradisyon at klasikong katawagan sa proseso ng pagsasalin gamit ang iba-ibang teknik upang maitanghal ang kaakohang natatangi sa tribong Mëranaw.

The Philippines-China Maritime Dispute: Mapping Post-Arbitration Narratives and Ways Forward

2022-10-26T00:48:09+08:00

This study mapped out post-arbitration narratives to comprehend the power play in the Asia-Pacific region and to survey reasonable options for the resolution of the maritime dispute of the Philippines and China. The PCA rendered its decision on the SCS Arbitration to China's rejection on July 12, 2016. Six years later, the Award failed to resolve the region's geopolitics and geoeconomics and reached an enforcement deadlock. The non-recognition and absence of UNCLOS enforcement mechanism, the inadequacies of the state-level conditions of the Philippines which stands in stark contrast to the preponderance of China, the structural realist ASEAN consensus, and US non-aligned position on competing claims have notably incentivized the aggressive resolve of China in the SCS. However, diplomatic activism grounded on mutual interests and advantages on economic, political and administrative imperatives are potential pathways for settlement. This is rather a delicate exercise if China should not take the lead. In the foreseeable future, the Philippines will maintain playing the waiting game in terms of enforcing its rights outlined in the ruling, as paths forward remain unlikely to deliver a modus vivendi for both countries given current state-level conditions and surrounding international circumstances.

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

2023-07-21T11:21:33+08:00

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.