LESSON 4

CUSTOMS OF THE
TAGALOGS
HISTORICAL CONTEXT

During the first century of Spanish rule, the colonial government had
difficulty in running local politics because of the limited number of
Spaniards who wanted to live outside of Intramuros. This situation
forced Spanish officials to allow Filipinos to hold the position of
gobernadorcillo. To ensure that the gobernadorcillos would remain
loyal to the Crown, the friars assigned in the parishes were instructed
to supervise and monitor the activities of the former.

Hence, the friars ended up performing the administrative duties that

colonial officials should have been doing at the local level. They
supervised the election of the local executives, helped in the
collection of taxes, were directly involved in educating the youth, and
performed other civic duties. Consequently, the friars became the
most knowledgeable and influential figure in the pueblo.
 The friars who were assigned in mission territories wee required
periodically to inform their superiors of what was happening to their
respective areas. They prepared reports on the number of natives they
converted, the peoples way of life, their socio-economic situation, and
the problems they encountered. Some of them submitted short letters
whilr others who were keen observers and gifted writers wrote long
dispatches. On top of the regular reports they submitted, they also
shared their personal observations and experiences.

Plasencia’s Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalogs (Customs

of the Tagalogs, 1589) is an example of this kind of work. It contains
numerous information that historians could use in reconstructing the
political and socio-cultural history of the Tagalog region. His work is a
primary source because he personally witnessed the events and his
account containsed his observations.
 There were other Friars and colonial officials who also wrote
about the Filipinos which could further enrich our knowledge of
Philippine History during the early part of the Spanish period. For
example,

• Miguel de Loarca, an encomendero of Panay wrote his Relacion

de las Islas Filipinas (1528) and He described the Filipinos way
of life in the Western Visyas area.

• Lieutenant Governor Antonio de Morga wrote Sucesos de las

Islas Filipinas which provides information about the state of the
Philippines in the latter part of the 16th century.
Other Spanish missionaries who continued the historiographical tradition:

• Fr. Pedro Chirino (Relación de las Islas Filipinas, 1604)

• Fr. Juan Delgado (Historia General, 1751)
• Fr. Francisco Colin (Labor Evangelica, 1663) and;
• Fr. Francisco Ignacio Alcina ( Historia natural del sitio, fertilidad y calidad de las
e Indios de Bisayas, 1668)

Most of what we know about Philippine History during the first century of the
Spanish period were derived from the accounts of the Spanish friars.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fray Juan de Plasencia (Joan de Portocarrero,
real name) was a member of one of the Franciscan
Order who came together with first batch of
missionaries to the Philippines on 1578. He and
his fellow, Franciscan Fray Diego de Oropesa,
were assigned to do mission works in the
Southern Tagalog area. He also helped in the
foundation and organization of numerous towns in
Quezon, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan. His continuous
interaction with people he converted to
Christianity enabled him to write a work titled
Relacion de las Costumbres de Los Tagalogs (
Customs of The Tagalogs, 1589) where he vividly
described the political, social, economic, and
cultural practices of the Filipinos before they were
Christianized.
 He did not limit himself to the task of administering the
sacraments and baptizing new converts. He believed that
cathechism or basic tenets of Catholic faith is another very
important function of a missionary. His biggest challenge at that
time was how to make the articles of faith comprehensible to
people who have never heard of Christ or the Catholic Church. He
wrote the Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Española y Tagala which
later became the first printed book in the Philippines in 1593. He
used it as reading material fir those Filipinos who wished to
deepen their faith in the newly-accepted religion. He died in Liliw,
Laguna on 1590.
ABOUT THE TEXT

The original document of Customs of the Tagalogs is

currently keet in the Archivo General de Indias
(A.G.I.) in Seville Spain. A duplicate copy of it is kept
in the Archivo Franciscano Ibero-Oriental (A.F.I.O.), in
Madrid, Spain. An English translation appeared in
Volume VII of the Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine
Islands. Another English Translation was published as
part of the volume for precolonial Philiippines in the
second series of the Filipiniana Book Guild.