Early last January 11, 2009, I received an emailed message from a good friend and well known writer based in Iriga City, expressing appreciation for our effort to bring to the attention of the public, the story of the Indigenous People living in the slopes of Mt. Asog (Mt. Iriga). In his comment about the series, Frank Peñones, who is currently on a study leave in the United States, but still manages to write a regular column in the Bikol Reporter (another well read local paper in the Bicol Region) , added his interesting personal view on the work of Atty. Jose Reyes, whose notes on the Agta has been the source of inspiration for the series.
I would like to quote the exact words of Frank as I introduce the last piece of “Tio Peping’s work on the Agta. Frank writes: “…There are certainly a couple of old documents on the Agta of Iriga, dating back to the 1830 which support the romanticist view of Atty. Reyes and the exploratory study of Fr. Lynch on the Agta”…This treatise appropriately titled, “Primitive Art” absolutely confirm Mr. Frank Peñones view and perception, and the content speaks for itself. It is actually this romanticist view of the Agta people that convinced me to learn more about them, outside of the fact that our family has been intimately involved with the tribal community as a “ big brother of sorts” trying to find ways of helping them, in our own limited way, without intruding into their own culture and traditions.
“ The Agta has been able to preserve in his mountain fastness certain forms of primitive art. In the area of dance they have the fancy footwork dances of the Rinompo, Binatagan, and Linakaw dance to the beat of the gimbal, a drum fashioned out of goat skin. The Borokil was a war dance which weaved into the dance the expert use of Minasbad (sharp bolo) and the Borokil (a round wooden shield) from which the dance got its name.
“The primitive Agta dances have been performed by a group of Agta dancers from the aboriginal settlement at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and featured in the Dances of the Emerald Isles by the National Artist in dance, Leonor Orosa Goquinco. Another primitive dance that has not been choreographed is the Dumago. This was a religious ritual danced based on their anito beliefs where acts of propitiation have to be made to their deceased ancestors.
“Music and Fire accompanied this dance ritual. The dancers carry on top their heads the Tolodan or Raba which was a big earthen plate containing a dressed cock without entrails as they danced around a big fire at night, The dressed cock was the offering and the intricate movement of the feet and hands in the dance express a primitive call to unite with an anito spirit.
“In the field of oral literary tradition, the Agta has some very interesting Rawit-Dawit (verse songs) one of which the author has been able to record.
Ining Salampati The pigeon
Kung bagong iugbon when new born
Malumoy an Karne is soft of meat
Asin Managumon very delicious
Pero man ang gurang But the older one
Minsan man lauyon even if stewed
Matagas guiraray is hard
Asin Malabsay pa. and not tasteful
Nagtaram ang loro The Parrot Spoke
Siring an inolay This he said
Dai ka mamoot do not love
Sa peris na saday. a bird that is a small
An peris na gurang
a bird that is old
Iyo mong mamootan you should love
Ta minsan Gurang na Because even if old
Malinayaw layaw. It vibrantly flies around
“The versatility of the Agta extended beyond the confines of his earthly environment. He looked up to the sky, the moon, the stars and from them gathered the signs which made up his primitive astrology. What researchers could not explain, however, what sort of connection he may have made between what he saw in the sky and what he observed in the world around him. Did the Agta come to believe that certain aspects of the moon or the stars or some strange heavenly light affected human behaviour or living things around him?
“Pedro Paterno in a 1915 monogram entitled “Los Itas”, made particular mention of this astrological acumen of the Agta of Mt Iriga when he noted:
“Some negritos in Iriga raised their eyes to the sky to align their work with the course of the stars because in the stars they tried to fond a certain way of measuring the succession of time. They orient themselves with respect to the four principal points of the heavens to know the periodic cycles of the seasons of the year and these govern their journeys and works.
“They admire and believe in the order of the universe, the concerted movements of innumerable stars, the great influence of a major star in the heavens, lord of infinite space, whose rays elevate the intelligence and inflame the breasts with sentiments of joy and love for life. From here arises the cult to the benevolent sun. And other stars of the celestial galaxy”.
“ By this it would appear that the Agta may be counted as among the earliest recorded astrologers and, as such, a practitioner of an art that has caught the attention of the learned as well as common man ever since.
“The striking aspect of the primitive Agta art of astral reading was the influence of the celestial light, be it of the sun, the stars, or other heavenly bodies to the rise and fall of certain human emotion like joy and love for life as pointed out in the Paterno observation which in turn stir the primal hope for their renewal of life.
“The psychological state was not much different to what the peoples of the northern hemisphere experience in the winter solstice – the time when the sun climbed the lowest at noon, its rays are weakest, the days shortest, the night longest, a solar phenomenon which generated a psychic low point. The turning point of the sun’s solstice came about when light returned and the surrounding environment renewed itself.
“Since pre-history, mankind has recognized that the darkest hour of the winter, with the sun near the solstice, was the time that demanded a renewal of faith, hope and love; some form of reaffirmation that life was always renewed and spring would come. The faith and hope of life’s renewal amongst Filipinos who do not experience the winter’s solstice is, nonetheless, expressed in the common adage, “behind the darkness of the night, is the light of dawn”.
“Even the Agta, in the primitiveness of his society, that had their own version of life’s renewal from the portents of the sky and astoundingly akin to what the peoples of the Northern Hemisphere hoped for following the winter’s solstice. Pedro Paterno, in the same word, had captured this Agta experience of renewal in the following observation:
“At certain times, these tribes see the extensive fertility of the land at certain period due to the passing of some stars on counted and fixed days, covering the land with an evergreen mantle of variegated flowers, perfuming the air with a thousand gratifying aromas and proliferating in space melodious and unknown sounds and new insect life of variegated flowers with iridescent wings.
“It is but natural that in the workings of the mind, when reason can not explain the origins and cause of these things, they would ascribe them to the sky, TAY (Father) as the fecund source, father of all things that exist and the earth NAY (Mother) as the prime mover, mother of all beings and the production of all these marvels of nature as a fruit of their union.
“And so, the fate of life’s renewal although experienced in varied forms by the peoples of the world, in whatever state they maybe only simply affirmed the oneness of human nature.
“But for the Agta of Mt. Iriga whose sylvan environment gave him a keener experience of life’s renewal, the words of Scripture, “Let there be light in the firmaments of the heavens... and let them be for signs and seasons” (Gen. 1:14), had perhaps been literally fulfilled.” Bikol Maharlika, The Agta, pp.43-45, Atty. Jose Calleja Reyes.
NEXT: The SEARCH FOR A LEADER.
NEXT: Primitive Art
Members of the Agta Tribal Community in Parina (new Mamoco) in Bgy. Perpetual Help, Iriga City who participated in the recent Tinagba Festival hosted by the city government of Iriga.
An early morning view of Mt. Asog (Mt. Iriga) as seen from the vantage point in the city popularly known as Emerald Grotto.
Will this young Agta brave take on a more serious responsibility in the future? Does he have what it takes to become a leader of his people someday? Only time will tell.
