Sunday, March 4, 2007

The Tale of the Aeta’s


Jun Ariolo N. Aguirre
Kalibo, Aklan- Ever wondered why often when you gave money to the aeta’s, you think you were duped when they will buy it for alcoholic drinks instead of buying it for food? Then you will feel insulted that they will use your hard-earned money for their luxury?

This is natural for them according to Fr. Hermiginio ‘Jun Jun’ Felipe, an aklanon priest who is currently in the second year of the three years Cultural Heritage masteral course in University of Santo Tomas in Metro Manila.

“In my interviews with Aeta’s in Western Visayas, I realized that unconsciously their forefathers taught them that they need to demand for money as a way of charges in an unwritten agreement between the aeta’s and the Visayans,” he said.

Fr. Felipe is among the first five Filipino priests who were fortunate to study the cultural heritage course in the country. The Diocese of Kalibo led by Kalibo Bishop Jose Romeo Lazo commissioned his study.

But although several historian scholars criticize the legends, Fr. Felipe said these unwritten agreements points to the history of ten Bornean datu’s who said to have arrived in Panay in 13th century and purchased the land to the aeta’s with several golden jewelries.

“After several years, they were told to go back to their own land to continuously ask Visayan people for their dowry rights in exchanged for the Panay land they once own,” he said.

And so, the aeta’s have the rights to believe that they could do whatever they wanted to do in the money you gave them and even has the right to call one a ‘kuripot’ if you refuse to give them money.

But while, if the story of the arrival of the ten Bornean datu’s indeed arrived in Panay or not there are still many available clues to the possibility that the said story have ever happened.

Among those is the festival of ati-atihan, which Panay is famous of. Prominent of which is the Kalibo Ati-atihan and the Dinagyang of Iloilo. Both of the festivals emphasized the arrival of the ten Bornean datu’s in Panay.
Historians said that the document on the existence of the arrival of ten Bornean datu’s story were written by a questionable author in early 1990’s by a local historian in Miag-ao, Iloilo.

But Fr. Felipe said in his study, he is eyeing the possibility of recommending to the commission on culture and arts in the Diocese of Kalibo led by Fr. Boy Quan a new ati-atihan perspective that will concretize the festival based in the available evidence on Panay’s history particularly that of Kalibo Ati-atihan.

“Right now, I am gathering solid evidences that instead of focusing the festival to the arrival of the ten Bornean datu’s and the alleged purchase of Panay, I am planning to shift the focus to more concrete history of Kalibo which historians agree to which ati-atihan festivities in the country originates,” he said.

According to historians, Kalibo came from the word ‘one thousand’ (sanglibo) to which focus on the first 1,000 Christian converts in Aklan after the Spaniards arrived in 18th century.

“Is it possible that the future ati-atihan festival will give emphasis on the first Christian converts of Kalibo and the manner of celebration is giving glory to the Child Jesus (Sto. Nino) that the island of Panay have been saved through the baptism in Christ,” he said.

“In this way, the history of the ati-atihan festival will not be anymore questioned by the tourists and the historians because it will now have a solid historic foundation based on facts and available archeological evidences,” he added.

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