Confederation of Madja-as

The Confederation of Madja-as was the first pre-Hispanic Philippine state within the Visayas islands region, and the second Srivijayan colony in the Philippine Archipelago, next to the Sulu Archipelago. It was established by nine rebel datus or high offcials connected with the court of Brunei, who were forced to leave that country on account of enmity of the Rajah at that time ruling the land. The datus, together with their wives and children, as well as few faithful servants and followers were secretly escorted out of the country by the Rajah's Chief Minister, whose name was Datu Puti. The local folklore says that the name of the Bornean Rajah was Makatunao.

They embarked on sailing rafts of the type used by the Visayans (the term used in the Malay settlements, of what is now Borneo and Philippines, to refer to Srivijayans) in Sumatra and Borneo. According to tradition, which survive in the local culture of Western Visayas, this seafaring vessel is called Balangay, from which Barangay - the smallest social unit in the present-day Philippines - came from.

The semi-democratic confederation reached its peak during the 15th century under the leadership of Datu Padojinog when it warred against the Chinese Empire, the Rajahnate of Butuan, and the sultanates of Sulu and Maguindanao. It was also feared by the people of the Kingdom of Maynila and Tondo. It was integrated to the Spanish Empire through pacts and treaties (c.1569) by Miguel López de Legazpi and his grandson Juan de Salcedo. During the time of their hispanization, the principalities of the Confederation were already developed settlements with distinct social structure, culture, customs, and religion. Among the archaeological proofs of the existence of this Hiligaynon nation are the artifacts found in pre-Hispanic tombs from many parts of the island, which are now in display at Iloilo Museum. There are also recent discoveries of burial artifacts of eight-foot inhabitants of Isla de Gigantes, including extra-large Lungon (wooden coffins) and pre-hispanic potteries. Another testimony of the antiquity of this civilization is the longest and oldest epic in the region, the Hinilawod.

Origin
Sailing northward from Borneo along the coast of Palawan, the ten Datus crossed the intervening sea, and reached the island of Panay. They landed at the point, which is near the present town of San Joaquin. They had been able to reach the place directly because their small fleet was piloted by a sailor who had previously visited these regions on a ship engaged in commerce and trade.

Soon after the expedition had landed, the Borneans came in contact with the native people of the island, who were called Atis. Some writers have interpreted these Atis as Negritos, other sources present evidence that they were not at all a dwarfed primitive people of Negrito type, but were rather tall, dark-skinned Indonesian type. These native Atis lived in villages of fairly well-constructed houses. They possessed drums and other musical instruments, as well as a variety of weapons and personal adornments, which were much superior to those known among the Negritos.

Negotiations were conducted between the newcomers and the native Atis for the possession of a wide area of land along the coast, centering around the place called Andona, at a considerable distance from the original landing place. Some of the gifts of the Visayans in exchange of those lands are spoken of as being, first, a string of gold beads so long that it touched the ground when worn and, second, a salakot, or native hat covered with gold. The term (which survive in the present Hiligaynon language) for that necklace is Manangyad, from the Hiligaynon term sangyad, which means "touching the ground when worn". There were also a variety of many beads, combs, as well as pieces of cloth for the women and fancifully decorated weapons for men. The sale was celebrated by a feast of friendship between the newcomers and the natives, following which the latter formally turned over possession of the settlement. Afterwards a great religious ceremony and sacrifice was performed in honor of the settlers' ancient gods, by the priest whom they had brought with them from Borneo.

Following the religious ceremony, the priest indicated that it was the will of the gods that they should settle not at Andona, but rather at a place some distance to the east called Malandog (now a Barangay in Hamtik, Province of Antique, where there was both much fertile agricultural land and an abundant supply of fish in the sea. After nine days, the entire group of newcomers was transferred to Malandog. At this point, Datu Puti announced that he must now return to Borneo. He appointed Datu Sumakwel, the oldest, wisest and most educated of teh datus, as chief of the Panayan settlement.

Not all the Datus, however, remained in Panay. Two of them, with their families and followers, set out with Datu Puti and voyaged northward. After a number of adventures, they arrived at the bay of Taal, which was also called Lake Bombon on Luzon. Datu Puti returned to Borneo by way of Mindoro and Palawan, while the rest settled in Lake Taal.

The descendants of the Datus who settled by Lake Taal spread out in two general directions: one group settling later around Laguna de Bay, and another group pushing southward into the Bicol Peninsula. A discovery of an ancient tomb preserved among the Bicols refers to some of the same gods and personages mentioned in a Panayan manuscript examined by anthropologists during the 1920s.

The original Panayan settlements continued to grow and later split up into three groups: one of which remained in the original district (Irong-irong), while another settled at the mouth of Aklan River in northern Panay. The third group moved to the district called Hantik. These settlements continued to exist down to the time of the Spanish regime and formed centers, around which the later population of the three provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, and Antique grew up.

An old manuscript Margitas of uncertain date (discovered by the anthropologist H. Otley Beyer) give interesting details about the laws, government, social customs, and religious beliefs of the early Visayans, who settled Panay within the first half of the thirteenth century. The term Visayan was first applied only to them and to their settlements eastward in the island of Negros, and northward in the smaller islands, which now compose the province of Romblon. In fact, even at the early part of Spanish colonialization of the Philippines, the Spaniards used the term Visayan only for these areas. While the people of Cebu, Bohol, and Leyte were for a long time known only as Pintados. The name Visayan was later extended to them because, as several of the early writers state, their languages are closely allied to the Visayan dialect of Panay.

Grabiel Ribera, captain of the Spanish royal infantry in the Philippine Islands, also distinguished Panay from the rest of the Pintados Islands. In his report (dated 20 March 1579) regarding a campaign to pacify the natives living along the rivers of Mindanao (a mission he received from Dr. Francisco de Sande, Governor and Captain-General of the Archipelago), Ribera mentioned that his aim was to make the inhabitants of that island "vassals of King Don Felipe... as are all the natives of the island of Panay, the Pintados Islands, and those of the island of Luzon..."

Miguel de Loarca's reference to the Confederation
During the early years of Spanish colonization of the Philippines (c. June 1582), Miguel de Loarca made a brief reference to the Confederation. Writing a report about the people of the Philippines, Loarca was describing the various beliefs in the archipelago regarding the dead. After indicating where the Pintados say they would go when they die, he went on to note that "... the "Arayas" (which is a certain alliance of villages), they say, go to a very high mountain in the island of Panay, called "Mayas", where their god Sidapa "possesses a very tall tree"... "There he measures the lives of all the new-born, and places a mark on the tree; when the person's stature equals this mark, he dies immediately."

Sidapa is indeed one of the deities in the pantheon of gods and goddesses of ancient Panay, whose memories are preserved in the folklore of the secluded Suludnon of this island. "Mayas" is nothing but a corrupted name of Mt. Madja-as used by early Spanish settlers in the Archipelago; and the word Arayas is most probably a Spanish misconception (as they often misinterpreted what they heard from the natives) of the Hiligaynon words Iraya or taga-Iraya, or the current and more popular version Karay-a (highlanders - people of Iraya [highlands]), in contrast with the people of the coasts or people of the Ilawod ("los [naturales] de la playa"), whom Loarca called Yligueynes (or the more popular term Hiligaynon, currently referred to as "Siná").

By this time, the Hiligaynons (people of the coasts) were mostly reduced as vassals of Spain, either by the so-called "pacts of peace" or by force. In the hinterlands or "Sulod" of Panay (Ilaya), the "Karay-a" or "Araya" people (Karay-a-speaking) of the remnant villages of the Confederation managed to preserve their autonomy and culture, far from the reach of the Spanish canons and muskets. In their oral tradition and epics there still remain traces of the times of their close interaction with their confederate allies in the coastlands, especially in the revered cultural treasure of the Tumandok of Panay hinterlands, the Hinilawod.

The fact presented by the observations of Loarca is: there was indeed a confederation of barangays that was existing when the Spaniards began to take control of Panay, which centuries earlier the first settlers from Borneo referred to as the island of Madja-as. The settlements of this confederation already had a developed civilization, with defined social mores and structures, enabling them to form an alliance, as well as with a sophisticated system of beliefs, including a religion of their own.

Integration of parts of the Confederation to the Spanish Empire
The Spaniards landed in Batan (in Panay's northeastern territory, which is currently called Province of Aklan), in 1565. The Chief of this place, Datu Kabnayag, relocated his capital to what is now called "Guadalupe". Afterwards, however, the datus were overpowered by the Spaniards. Following the Spanish conquest, the locals became Christians. Father Andres Urdaneta baptized thousands of Aklanis in 1565, and consequently these settlements of the Confederation was renamed Calibo.

Legazpi then parceled Aklan to his men. Antonio Flores became encomiendero for all settlements along the Aklan River and he was also appointed in charge of pacification and religious instruction. Pedro Sarmiento; was appointed for Batan, Francisco de Rivera; for Mambusao, Gaspar Ruiz de Morales; and for Panay town, Pedro Guillen de Lievana.

Later (in 1569), Miguel López de Legazpi transferred the Spanish headquarter from Cebu to Panay. On 5 June 1569, Guido de Lavezaris, the royal treasurer in the Archipelago, wrote to Philip II reporting about the Portuguese attack to Cebu in the preceding autumn. A letter from another official, Andres de Mirandaola (dated three days later - 8 June), also described briefly this encounter with the Portuguese. The danger of another attack led the Spaniards to remove their camp from Cebu to Panay, which they considered a safer place. Legazpi himself, in his report to the Viceroy in New Spain (dated 1 July 1569), mentioned the same reason for the relocation of Spaniards to Panay. It was in Panay that the conquest of Luzon was planned, and launched on 8 May 1570.

In 1716, the old Sakup (Sovereign Territory) of Aklan completely fell under the Iberian control, and became Spanish politico-military province under the name of Capiz. And so it remained for the next 240 years.

Chinese accounts about the Confederation
To the Chinese, the people of Confederation of Madja-as were known as the Pisheya. This is a transliteration of the term Visaya or Bisaya, which gives a general reference to the people of the geographical location of the Confederation of Madja-as, the Visayan islands mentioned in the previous section of this article. In 1612, the Chuan-chou gazeeter specifically reported that the Pisheya consistently made raids against Imperial commerce Again, this Chinese account confirms that the term Visayans were first applied to the people of the Condeferation of Madja-as.

Religion of Madja-as
Some deities of the Confederation of Madja-as

1. Deities invoked before going to war, or before plundering expeditions

-Balangaw or Varangao - Rainbow God

-Ynaguinid

-Macanduc

2. Macaptan - the god who dwells in the highest sky, in the world that has no end. He is a bad god, because her send disease and death if has not eaten anything of this world, or has not drunk any pitarillas. He does not love humans, and so he kills them.

3. Lalahon - a goddess, who dwells in a volcano in Negros Island (Mt. Canlaon), from where she hurls fire. She is invoked for harvests. When she does not grant the people good harvest, she send them locusts to destroy and consume the crops.

4. Gods of the lower regions or the abode of the dead:

-Simuran

-Siguinarugan

5. Pandaque - the god to whom the natives made sacrifices and offerings in order to redeem the souls of the dead from Simuran and Siguinarugan.

6. Maguayen - the god who carries the souls of the Yligueynes to the abode of the dead.

7. Sumpoy - the god sallies forth and take away the souls of the dead from Maguayen, once they arrive to the abode of the dead. Sumpoy leads these souls to the god Sisiburanen.

8. Sisiburanen - the god who keeps all the souls of the dead people from the coast lands of Cebu, Bohol and Bantay in the island of Burney (Borneo).

9. Sidapa - another god in the sky, who measures and determines the lifespan of all the new-born by placing marks on a very tall tree on Mt. Madja-as, which correspond to each person who come into this world. The souls of the dead inhabitants of the Confederation go to the same Mt. Madja-as.

Confederation's Rules on Just War
According to the  ancient inhabitants of the Confederation, the first man who waged war was Panas, son Anoranor, who was grandson of the first human beings. He declared war against Mañgaran, on account of inheritance; and from that time date the first wars, because the people were divided into two factions, and hostility was handed down from father to son. They say that Panas was the first man to use weapons in fighting.

There are three cases, in which the natives regard war as just:

1. When a person goes to another village and there put to death without cause.

2. When wives are stolen from their husbands.

3. When persons go in friendly manner to trade at any village, and there, under the appearance of friendship, are wronged and maltreated.

Folklore from the Book Maragtas
According to local oral legends and the book entitled Maragtas, early in the 13th century, the datus: Sumakwel, Bangkaya, Paiburong, Paduhinog, Dumangsol, Dumangsil, Dumaluglog, Balkasusa, and Lubay who were led by Datu Puti and their followers,  fled to the sea on their barangays and sailed north to flee from the oppressive rule of Rajah Makatunaw, of Borneo and the destruction of the Srivijayan Empire. Until they reached Panay island .They immediately settled in Antique and made a trade treaty with the Negrito hero named, Marikudo and his wife Maniwantiwan, from whom they wanted to purchase the land. A golden salakot and long pearl necklace (called Manangyad) was given in exchange of the plains of Panay. The Negritos relocated to the mountains while the newcomers occupy the coasts. Datu Bangkaya then established a settlement at Madyanos, while Datu Paiburog established his village at Irong-irong (Which is now the city of Iloilo) while Datu Sumakwel and his people crossed over the Madyaas mountain range into Hamtik and established their village at Malandong

Datu Puti, left them for explorations, northwards, after ensuring his people's safety. He designated, Datu Sumakwel, being the eldest, as the commander-in-chief of Panay before he left.

By 1213, Datu Sumakwel invoked a council of datus to plan for common defense and a system of government. Six articles were adopted and promulgated, which came to be known as Articles of Confederation of Madja-as.

The confederation created the three sakups (Sovereign territories) as the main political divisions, and they defined the system of government, plus establishing rights of individuals while providing for a justice system.

As a result of the council, Datu Paiburong was formally installed as commander-in-chief of Irong-irong at Kamunsil, Sumakwel of Hamtik at Malandog, and Bangkaya of Aklan at Madyanos.

Bangkaya ruled his sakup from Madyanos according to local customs and the Confederation of Madyaas' articles. The first capital of Aklan was Madyanos. Commander-in-chief, Datu Bangkaya then sent expeditions throughout his sakup and established settlements in strategic locales while giving justice to this people.

After his election as commander-in-chief of Aklan, Bangkaya, transferred his capital to Madyanos for strategic and economic reasons and renamed it to Laguinbanwa.

Bangkaya used his two sons as officers in the government of his sakup. He appointed Balengkaka in charge of Aklan, and Balangiga for Ilayan. Balangiga had twin sons, Buean and Adlaw, from which Capiz (Kapid) was originally named, before the Spaniards came.

The center of government of the Confederation was Aklan, when Sumakwel expired and Bangkaya succeeded him as leader of Panay. Bangkaya was then replaced by Paiburong. Aklan returned to become the center of Confederation again, when Paiburong expired and was replaced by Balengkaka.

The Datus of Madja-as according to oral tradition in Panay
Datu Puti - Aklan, 13th century,  c. 1212 Datu Sumakwel - Malandong ( in Antique ), c. 1213 ? Datu Bangkaya - Aklan Datu Paiburong - rong-Irong Datu Balengkaka - Aklan

Datu Kalantiaw - Batan, 1365 - 1437 Datu Manduyog - Batkcan, c. 1437? Datu Padojinog - Irong-Irong now Iloilo

Datu Kabnayag - Kalibo, c 1565? Datu Lubay - San Joaquin ?