In 1212, as legend has it, 10 Bornean datu (chiefs), fleeing the collapse of the once-mighty Srivijayan empire, sailed northwards with their followers and landed on the island of Panay. At that time, Panay was widely populated by Negritos. The Bornean Malays, although superior fighters and better armed than the Negritos, chose not to take the island by force but rather to buy it from the native inhabitants. They struck a deal with the local chieftain. A contract was made between Datu (chieftain) Puti of the Bornean and the Negritos’ chief Marikudo. There the Borneans bought the coastal lands from the native Negrito inhabitants with gold, pearls and other ornaments.

Photo Credit – philippinetraveldestinations.com

This legendary barter between Malays and native inhabitants is commemorated yearly in what is the most popular, colorful and exuberant festival in the whole country featuring a Mardi Gras like revelry worth a trip to Kalibo…

Limahong Fort – Photo Credit: Watawat.net

Foiled in his attempt to establish a kingdom in Manila, Limahong set sail for Lingayen Gulf, to settle in Pangasinan province. As a rich place and far enough from the reach of the Spaniards and the Chinese emperor, Limahong decided he would stay in Pangasinan and make himself master of the region.

In a few days he landed in Sual Bay with 64 war junks and over 3,000 followers. He informed the natives that he had conquered the Spaniards and that he had come to rule over them as their king. The inhabitants there, having no particular choice between two masters, welcomed Limahong.

Limahong subjugated the inhabitants and seized their principal chiefs, holding them hostage so that they supplied him with wood and food as he set about the foundation of his new capital some four miles from the mouth of Agno River. He…

Jose Rizal Monument at Luneta Park by Flcikr

One hundred twenty-two years ago, on Dec. 30, 1896, Dr. Jose Rizal, the greatest Filipino patriot, was shot by firing squad at the order of the Spanish military in Manila.

Dr. Rizal was born on June 19. 1861 in Calamba, Laguna. His full name is Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda. He was the seventh child of Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado y Alejandro, and Teodora Morales Alonzo Realonda y Quintos, a prosperous landowner and sugar planter of Chinese-Filipino descent. His mother was one of the most highly educated women in the Philippines and exerted a powerful influence on his intellectual development teaching him his alphabet at age 3.

At 9, he was sent to Biñang where he studied under the charge of G. Justiniano Aquino Cruz, but after a few months he was advised by his teacher to study in Ateneo…

An old Christmas card (1973) from a relative in the Philippines

The symbol of Christmas in the Philippines is not the Christmas Tree but the Parol that probably had its origins in the Mexican’s piñata. While parols come in all sizes, in Pampanga, the electric parols in later years stand 20 to 30 ft high, giving off a blaze of kaleidoscopic color and light that fills the evening sky.

Every house including the little bahay kubo, nipa hut have a small parol. Filipinos make parol, a Christmas lantern in the form of a five-pointed star. Sometimes it is inside a circle, sometimes not. It is made of bamboo strips and covered with cellophane paper in various hues. There is usually a light inside the star. These lanterns represent the star of Bethlehem, the guiding light that led the three wise men to the infant Jesus. Sometimes they finish…