THE CEBUANO BALITAO AND HOW IT MIRRORS VISAYAN CULTURE AND FOLKLIFE

THE CEBUANO BALITAO AND
HOW IT MIRRORS VISAYAN
CULTURE AND FOLKLIFE
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION.
Statement of the problem.
Importance of the study.
Definition of terms used.-Ba1itao.-Visayan.-Culture.-Folklife.
Sources of data and method used.
Scope of the study.
11. THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE BALITAO.
Probable source of origin of this song-dance.
Diffusion into the Philippines.
The development of the balitao in Cebu.-Pre-Spanish period.-
The Spanish influences.-The famous balitao couple.-The
decline of the balitao.
111. THE COMPOSITION OF THE BALITAO.
The musical composition of the balitao.
The versification of its lyrics.
A description of its accompaniment.
The balitao romansada.
IV. DIFFERENT PHASES OF CEBUANO FOLKLIFE AS MIRRORED
by Maria Colina Gutierrez

IN THE BALITAO.
Visayan love and courtship customs.
Marriage.
Domestic problems.-Financial difficulties due to unemployment.-
Financial difficulties due to gambling.-Securing the
husband's permission.-Jealousy.-Couple quarrels over children.-
Interference of in-laws.
Visayan attitudes and ideals.-Towards hardships of marriage.
-Towards a virtuous life.-Towards the proud and haughty.
-Towards love of money.-The envious neighbor.-On the
dignity of labor.
Occupational activities of early Cebuanos in the ba1itao.-
Farming.-Tuba gathering.-Fishing.
V. THE BALITAO IN CONTEMPORARY VISAYAN CULTURE.
The Japanese occupation.-The American liberation period.-
The drama-ba1itao.-Radio programs sponsoring the balitao.
-Cebuano motion picture and the ba1itao.-The balitao in
Cebuano-Visayan literature.
VI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
APPENDIX: Musical compositions.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
"The balitao is a love debate in song and dance by a man
and a woman."l It is more sung than danced. The balitao is
a truly representative Visayan song as the kumintang and the
kundiman are representatively Tagalog. In it are embodied
faith, joy, and all sorts of human activities as well as the varied
hopes and odds of Visayan life. The religious beliefs of the early
Cebuanos, their social relationship, their loves, friendships and
enmities also find expression in the balitao.
The balitao has no definite authorship. For the most part
it has been handed down to us as survivals of the early culture
of our forebears. While the balitao affords a link between the
thoughts and aspirations of our early grandparents and the complexities
of thoughts and ideals cf the present generation, yet
no proper attention has been paid to it. The Cebuano balitao
largely was extemporaneously sung by old folks gifted with
poetic art, but since then it has remained a floating tradition,
and none has as yet ever thought of the idea of writing it down
for posterity.
The Cebuano has been lost in an age of bewildering foreign
influences so that he has completely lost tract of that which is
really his own and instead has come to love and appreciate
those cultures which have been brought by peoples with whom
he has had contact. It is a sad fact, but it is true that Filipinos
in general, and perhaps Visayans in particular feel a greater
inclination towards things and ideals Occidental rather than
for their own.
By the establishment of the commonwealth government in
the Islands, a feeling of Filipinism was aroused and encouraged
among the populace. Things Philippine were stressed. A kind
1) Galang and Osias, Encyclopedia of the Philippines (Manila:
P. Vera and Sons Company, 1935), I, p. 34.
18 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
of renaissance was on in Philippine classic art and letters.
There was a deep concern over the collection of folktales, folk
songs, epics, verses and even folk dances, but again the project
was largely undertaken iin Tagalog, it chosen to be the national
language of the Islands. So still Visayan literature and culture
went begging.
Statement of the problem. Therefore, it is the purpose of
this study (1) to describe and analyze the balitao as a typically
Cebuano folksong, (2) to trace the history and origin of its
existence and development, (3) to point out the different phases
of Cebuano folk ways as mirrored in the balitao, and (4) to appraise
its role in contemporary Visayan culture.
Importance of the study. The study of the Cebuano balitao
would tend to awaken in the Cebuanos that long dormant feeling
and love for those traits and customs decidedly our own
which were handed down to us from ages long past by our
great grandparents. All the while we are conscious that we
have such a kind of song as a literary and cultural heritage;
that it exists, but which we never appreciate not until somebody
has unveiled its beauty and significance before our eyes.
Folklorists, ethnologists and sociologists will probably find this
work interesting in the sense that old traditions and customs
of early Cebuanos are found mirrored in this song. This would
lead them to a deeper understanding of the distinguishing
characteristics of the Visayan as well as his racial inheritance.
The study will benefit students of literature for in the balitao
is woven exquisite verses replete with beautiful rhymes and
cadenced rhythm. The study will present a. challenge to music
lovers and composers for the balitao is sung to a delicate and
haunting melody all its own.
Definition of terms used. (1) The balitao is an old Visayan
folksong and dance in which a man and womaii engage in a
debate in song, over a subject or on a particular theme, while
they dance with each other keeping time with the music until
one of the parties is outwitted or if it be a love debate, until
the love of the man is accepted. The balitao is more sung than
danced. In this study, the writer will treat the balitao more as
a song than as a dance.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 19
(2) Visayan, a term which means that which pertains to
the Visayas; its people, language, culture, products, etc. The
Visayan is a group of islands occupying the central part of the
Philippine Archipelago. These islands are: Panay, Samar,
Negros, Leyte, Cebu, and Bohol. In this work, however, the
writer shall use the term Visuyan to include only those provinces
speaking the Cebuano language which are: Cebu, Bohol, Western
Leyte, and Negros Oriental. The term may also be extended
to include some sections in Mindanao settled by Cebuano
emigrants and where Cebuano is the language.
(3) Culture, the complex of distinctive attainments, beliefs,
traditions, etc., constituting the background of a racial or religious
or social group as with a n a t i ~ n .C~u lture is a collective name
for all behavior patterns socially acquired and socially transmitted
by means of symbols; hence a name for all the distinctive
achievements of human groups including not only such items
as language, tool making, industry, art, science, law, government,
morals, and religion but also the material artifacts in
which cultural achievements are embodied and by which intellectual
and cultural features are given practical effects3 The
term shall be used in this study to include all the distinctive
achievements of the Visayan people in general, and the Cebuano
group in particular which have been learned through intercommunication;
covering not only language, beliefs and traditions
but also customs and institutions.
(4) Folklife, in this study folklife shall be used to mean
the composite essence of the mental and cultural interactions
and the mode of the Visayan people in their associational interactions
among each other and their interactions between their
regional physical environment and their cultural development.
It shall embrace all that relates to ancient observances and
customs, to the notions, beliefs, traditions, superstitions, and
prejudices of the folk or the common people.
2) Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Ed. (Merriam
Company, Springfield, Mass., U. S. A,, 1948).
3) H. P. Fairchild, Dictionary of Sociology (New York City:
Philosophical Library, 1944).
20 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Sources of data and method used. The writer has used the
interview method for the major part of the study. She has
consulted almost all of the old literati of Cebu on information
about the subject although none but Mr. Piux Kabahar has
shown the greatest interest in and enthusiasm for the study. In
fact the greater portion of the history and analysis of the balitao
was gained from him. Mr. Piux Kabahar, literary and cultural
consultant, of old Cebuano traditions speaks with authority for
he has for ready reference not only a complete edition of the
Philippine Encyclopedia, which is quite rare now but also has
a file of old clippings from newspapers and magazines which
were published in Cebu before the war aside from a very old
book in Spanish on Philippine literature. The print alone
bespeaks of its hoary age. He values the book so much that
we are not even allowed to handle it. He tells the story of how
he happened to possess such a priceless treasure. The late Don
Pedro Rodriguez who was a famed Cebuano poet and man of
letters, owned two copies of this book. When he ran for governorship,
Mr. Piux Kabahar toured the whole province of Cebu
campaigning for him. They won. As a prize Don Pedro
Rodriguez handed him a book-an old, old one, leather bound,
with the admonition to treasure the book; that is why he treasures
the book, he says, "as he values his life." The other copy was
given by Don Pedro Rodriguez to Mr. Eulogio Rodriguez then
head of the National Library, and the book was, of course, placed
in the National Library, but after that great catastrope-World
War 11-like all other priceless possessions of our library, the
book is gone. Mr. Kabahar's copy is oftentimes borrowed by
such brilliant Cebuano speakers as Dm Manuel Briones and
Don Mariano Cuenco but he always follows up for the safe
return of his prized possession. From this book the writer got
her sample of an old, old balitao written in a language which
we Cebuanos now no longer speak nor understand.
The writer has also contacted famous balitao couples like
the famed radio balitao couple, Tonyo and Pasing, from whom
the writer was able to borrow their complete repertoire of the
balitao which they sang over station D.Y.R.C. from February
of 1948 to June 1950.
The writer also has, after a long search, located and invited
the famed king and queen of the balitao. She has invited them
all the way from Gingoog, Misamis to Cebu to dance for her
and to give her the needed information about the balitao during
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 21
the brilliant years of its development. A tape recording was
made by the then Very Reverend Father Rector Albert van
Gansewinkel, of the University of San Carlos, Cebu City, of the
melody, and photographs were taken of the dance. The writer
has also ransacked the Filipiniana Collection of the University of
San Carlos Library and the library of the Cebu School of Arts
and Trades for materials about the balitao in ancient times and
during the Spanish occupation of the Islands.
Scope of the study. It is the aim of this study to include
those outstanding phases of Cebuano folklife as are found mirrored
in these alternative songs. A sample song is quoted and
translated which exemplifies a particular phase of folklife. This
study shall also attempt to explain the balitao-its technique,
construction, composition, and diction. The work shall trace the
beginnings and development of this song among the Visayans
and finally this work shall appraise the importance of the balitao
in contemporary Cebuano culture.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
CHAPTER I1
THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF
THE BALITAO
The balitao had been in the Islands long before the
Spaniards came. Most of the old men the writer consulted
ascertained that the balitao is a truly native art, that before the
Spaniards came such a song already existed in the Visayas.l
This fact is attested to by different historians writing about pre-
Spanish Philippine culture. Alip reports that "the ancient
Filipinos had no less than twenty kinds of songs, the most important
of which are: the kundiman, the kumintang and the
b~litao."~Z aide writes: "The ancient Filipinos had also picturesque
folk dances for every occasion. Two of their love dances
were the balitao and the kumintang which were also song^."^
This chapter shall, as faithfully as possible, attempt to trace the
probable origin of this song-dance as well as record its history
and development in the Islands in general and in Cebu in
particular.
I. Probable Source of Origin of This Song-Dance
When the balitao was first introduced and from where it
came one can only conjecture for it has long remained unwritten
as a floating tradition among the Visayans. The balitao, however,
very snugly fits into Loeb's definition of a love song in that it
is antiphonal in character, part is sung by the man and part
1) Pedro Albafio, 88 years old of Mandawe, Cebu. He claims he is
the last old man in Mandawe alive who had served the Spanish government
in the Islands. Mariano Bacalso, 60 years old of Pardo, Cebu City.
2) Eufronio Alip, Political and Cultural History of the Philippines
(Manila: Alip and Brion Publications Incorporated, 1948), p. 38.
3) Gregorio F. Zaide, The Philippines Since Pre-Spanish Times
(Manila: R. P. Garcia Publishing Company, 1949), p. 84.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 23
by the woman, and that it is in rimed verse. Loeb traces the
origin of love songs from the delayed marriage and prolonged
courtship inevitably attendant upon payment of a "bride price"
required of a man belonging to the cattle culture age. He asserts
that singing of antiphonal love songs was common among the
cattle raisers of Europe and Africa:
. . .that cattle raising peoples in many respects may be considered
as having a uniform culture irrespective of whether cattle
raisers are nomadic or sedentary.'
The Swiss scientist Wackernagel in 1936 noted many similarities
of customs among cattle raisers of Europe and Asia and believed
that the cattle people had at one time a continuous and ancient
culture; the remnants may still be observed in Switzerland and
among the Ghurka of Nepal. The typical antiphonal love song is
so unique and so universal among cattle raisers that diffusion
appears highly probable.5
In fact Loeb further adds that:
The love song was carried by cattle-raising peoples into the
Far East where it underwent secondary developments by becoming
attached to agricultural rites. The love song has not a sporadic
distribution as might be the case with an independent invention
but it is a continuous phenomenon extending from Switzerland to
the Batak country of Sumatra.6
From these significant facts of Loeb's article the writer dates
the origin of love songs of which the balitao is a kind and traces
the diffusion of such a song from the region of northern India
and south China where the pastoral nomads may have probably
settled for a while, for according to Loeb, "The rimed love song
is ancient enough to permit a wide distribution, for it extends
back into the eighth century B.C. in China."7 These pastoral
nomads must have moved southward and in the course of their
wanderings must have come in contact with the Malays of
southern Asia, thereby passing on to them whatever cultures
they already had at that time. Alternating songs were found
-
4) E. M. Loeb, "Courtship and the Love Song," Anthropos (Fribourg,
Switzerland: Imprimerie St. Paul, 1950), vol. XLV, p. 823.
5) Loc. cit.
6) Ibid., p. 350.
7) Ibid., p. 822.
24 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
in Annam, Tongkong and Sumatra although in Indonesia
"proverbs and riddles extend only as far as cattle. There are
no riddles and proverbs in Mentawi in Borneo, nor in Eastern
Indonesia, excepting where the Malays have introduced them.
Where there are no proverbs, there likewise are no love song."*
11. Diffusion into the Philippines
From the foregoing quotation, the writer deduces that the
Malays were the sole medium through which these antiphonal
love songs were dessiminated into wider territories in the Pacific
area not, of course, excluding the Philippines.
Beyer believes:
That the early Neolithic culture spread, in an already developed
state-into the Philippines and other parts of Malaysian region at
a time when these areas were widely populated by the microlithusing
people and that these latter folk continued to survive side
by side or partly intermixed with the less numerous Early Neolithic
immigrants. . .the microlith culture might have been introduced and
spread by the probably mesolithic land-migrating Proto-Malay or
semi pygmy Mongoloid type whose descendants still form an appreciable
percentage of the inland or hill population in Luzon,
Mindanao and other Malaysian islands-there is as much more
evidence for this type than for the Negrito.9
The writer believes that alternating songs must have been
introduced into the Philippines as early as the first migratory
wave of Malays called the Proto-Malays who arrived in the
Islands between 12,000 to 8,000 B.C. Proof of this is that alternating
songs are widespread among the descendants of this
semi-pygmy Mongoloid people as these findings show:
The Lepanto Igorots have Dain Songs used in most public and
private sacrifice which is a singing contest between boys and girls
from the same town or from different towns. The Dain is a song
8) E. M. Loeb, "Courtship and the Love Sohg," Anthropos
(Fribourg, Switzerland: Imprimerie St. Paul, 19501, Vol. XLV, p. 835.
9) Otley H. Beyer, "Philippine and East Asian Archaeology," National
Research Council of the Philippines (Quezon City: University
of the Philippines, Dec. 1948 Bulletin 291, p. 10.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 25
as well as a dance.10
The Isnegs of Abra during courtship sing love songs which are
sung by both sexes.11
"0 Aggayam Galayaman" is an Apayao love song in Kabugao
dialect, between a young man and his sweetheart, sung alternatingly.
12
Just to what definite part of the Philippines these alternating
songs first took ground one can only guess, for their
chronology is so widespread that studies made by different
ethnologists reveal that practically all primitive and pagan
mountain tribes have one kind of song or another sung alternatingly.
Among the Christian Filipinos these alternating songs
are especially popular in the Visayas, more so in places where
the Cebuano language is spoken.
111. The Development of the Balitao in Cebu
From here this stud-y shall then undertake to trace the
development of the balitao (as these alternating songs are known
in the Visayas) in Cebu from its unknown beginnings till the
present time.
Pre-Spanish period. The balitao can not be accurately dated.
Most old men, if asked, respond that it has been here since time
immemorial. The balitao was not known by such a name then.
The ancient Visayan term for it was the ayayi. Then at a later
date, the dance was called baya-i. What these two terms mean,
no one can explain for these words are no longer found in the
Cebuano vocabulary. Then the balitao acquired its present name.
Nothing definite can be ascertained as to the etymology of the
word although according to Kapili, the Spaniards must have
termed such a dance valse meaning a waltz, then the natives
10) M. von Vanoverberg, "Songs in Lepanto Igorot As It Is Spoken
at Bauko," (Vienna: St. Gabriel's Mission Press, 19541, p. 16.
11) M. von Vanoverberg, The Isneg (Washington, D. C.: Publication
of Catholic Anthropological Conference, 1932), p. 1954.
12) Laurence L. Wilson, "Some Folktales of Northern Luzon,"
Journal of East Asiatic Studies (Manila: The University of Manila, July
and October), Vol. 111, No. 4, p. 426.
26 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
corrupted the word valse into bal, there being no "V" in the
Visayan alphabet, and joined it to the word tao meaning people,
thus balitao means a dance of the people.13
Most of the old people are unanimous in their assertion that
the balitao was a common form of entertainment during their
times as far back as they can remember. Whenever the early
folks gather together in communal working or at merrymaking,
the balitao was ever at hand in the hearts and throats of the
men and women. These early people especially the women were
very proficie~t in the art of rhyming and verse making. The
balitao of the early Cebuanos was sung and danced to the
accompaniment of first the subing, a kind of bamboo flute, then
later on to the accompaniment of a guitar made out of a coconilt
shell.
The Spanish influences. When the Spaniards came to Cebu,
they saw this dance among the natives in the various gatherings
and celebrations they made. Ere long Spanish influences
worked themselves consciously or unconsciously into
the balitao.
The harp was introduced into the Islands by the Spaniards,
thus superseding the coconut shell guitar and giving the balitao
a more melodious accompaniment. In fact, now most balitao
lovers do not consider the balitao complete without the harp
accompaniment.
Perhaps the greatest Spanish influence as reflected in the
balitao is the Christianization of whatever crude and pagan
elements there were in the balitao. The acceptance of the New
Faith by the natives polished and enriched the subject matter
of the balitao. Stories about the Creation; the Deluge; the Lord's
life-His Nativity, Passion and Crucifixion-began to permeate
the balitao.
The strong Catholic influence the friars wielded among the
people as well as the strict Spanish upbringing of children was
reflected in the moral tendency implicit in the balitao during
Spanish times.
Even in composition and structure, the balitao did not remain
immune from Spanish influence for Spanish words and
13) Bernabe Kapili, "The Cebuano Balitao in Philippine Literature,"
Sands and Coral (Dumaguete: Publication of Silliman University,
1952), Vol. 5, p. 44.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 27
phrases here and there grace the lines of the balitao as the following
stanza shows:
Ayaw pagsulti niana Antonio
Kay aduna na kita karoy diborsyo relativo
Kon ang bana makasala'g adulterio
May gahum ang asawa pagpaba!hug sa kalaboso.
Do not say that. Antonio
For we have now relative divorce,
That if the husband commits adultery
The wife has the right to throw him in jail.
As the cities and the poblaciones became the centers of
Spanish cultural influences, the balitao was laid aside in these
places for the people turned to everything Western: dresses,
thought, arts as well as amusement. However, in the rural
sections of the country the balitao kept its place in the cultural
development of the natives and so it stayed as still the favorite
form of entertainment among them.
According to the old folks, during their time a social gathering
always opened with a balitao. It was a highlight of agricultural
festivals. Harvest time was especially balitao time. In
the evening when the day's work was done, the harvesters would
huddle around a clearing in the field, and to the strains of guitar
music, a pair danced around and exchanged witty remarks and
verses in song while the crowd, tired from the day's work,
laughed and yelled in enjoyment. This went on into the night
more so if the moon was bright and was broken up only by a
brief interval for supper time. This oftentimes took the form
of a contest between the sexes. Whoever was outwitted was
replaced while the audience took turns booing whoever was
replaced or applauding whoever was triumphant, each sex
aligning with a particular contestant of his sex.
The American regime. The troublous years of the Revolution
and the American Occupation temporarily put a lull in all
phases of Filipino life and culture not excluding the balitao.
During these years the song temporarily left the hearts of men
and women and was replaced by fear, anguish and anxiety over
what would happen next. Insurgents penetrated into the barrios
and oftentimes the women hid while the young men were called
28 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
to arms or thrown into prison as rebel suspects.
Then came peace times again under another regime. Since
the first concern of America was in the education and civilization
of the natives along academic lines, cultural and artistic life
of the people was for a time just left to themselves. Naturally
the early Cebuanos revived whatever forms of enjoyment they
had since Spanish times, and so the balitao again was revived.
It was not only sung and danced in the rural areas but also in
centers more thickly populated. At this junction the balitao
left the sphere of impromptu singing and dancing by just anyone
in the community, and it entered upon a state of specialization
wherein a singing couple train themselves for it.
The famous balitao couple. It was at this time about 1910
when the famous couple, Pedro and Colasing, very well-known
all around Cebuano-speaking provinces as the balitao king and
queen, began their successful career. Pedro Alfafara was born
in the town of Carcar in 1881 (he can not remember the exact
date of his birth). He had an uncle, a balitao dancer, who guided
him early in his youth to dance the balitao although according
to him, he really had the poetic gift of easily putting words
together in verse and rhyme plus the blessed gift of a full and
resonant melodious voice-two very important requisites of this
art. He had had several partners, women who had trained themselves
in the art but, according to him, none could match Colaaing
whom he met in 1901. She was very young then, but she had
charms and a quick wit so that he was encouraged to train her
in the art. Pedro taught her the art and technique of the balitao
and before long they were at it dancing from place to place.
Colasing is Nicolasa Cahiban in real life, born in San Nicolas,
Cebu City, in the year 1900. To know more about her the writer
is reprinting an article from the "Ang Freeman," a then popular
daily newspaper of Cebu City in the 1920's. The article dated
November 19, 1926 is an interview made by Piux Kabahar, the
comic king of Cebu, and Colasing the queen of the balitao.
Kulokabildo ni Piux, Hari sa Mga Tistis ug ni Colasing Rayna's
Balitao-Ang Freeman-Nobiyembre 19, 1926.
Payag nga diutay ang iyang balay, apan mabigot,
mahayahay ug makalipay. Atbang sa baybayon ang iyang
tamboanam. Silingan sa mga agokoy, linandungan sa mga
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 29
dahon sa lubi ug sa rnga kahoy. Ang rnga balud naglapya sa
bay bayon.
Nalingaw ako sa taus sa balay. Nakakita ako'g siesta nga
nagbitay sa haligi. Baho nga nagtungkawo sa suok. Sa bongbong
nagwakat ang rnga hulagway. Sa lamisa tupad sa akong
gilingkuran may rnga santos nga nanagbarog nga binuhat sa
makabebe. May rnga istampa usab sa birhen. Altar diay
kadto! Sa sulod hisigpatan ko ang w n ka unlan, way sinina,
way uban;
Mipahiyum si Colasing dungan ang paglihok sa rnga
kandiis pug alsa sa rnga kilay. Maanindot ang pahiyum ni
Colasing maorang balitao. Ang iyang katawa muorang palubad
sa kitara nga ginuntan sa iyang tingog nga dili kaayo matagming
daw saxophone. Maanindot tanawon ang iyang baba
kon mokatawa. Tulo'y oro sa iyang ngipon. Mabantang, tigson.
Husto sa birada ang abaga ug mabigot ang dughan.
"Colasing, sa akong pagkamagsusulat gidamgo ko ang
imong rnga balitao; gidamnn ako sa imong rnga garay sa bukid,
ug gisalimo-ang ako sa rnga matam-IS nga saloma sa kasingkasing."
Diay? Salamat bisnn dili angay. . . ."
"Tinuod Colasing, alang kanako ikaw maoy usa ka magbabalitao
nga magtatandog sa mga kasingkasing patay nga gihaya
sa banika sa atong hinalarang yuta. Ang imong rnga balitao
makusog mogisong sa rnga dahong laya sa atong kaagi.. .
kanus-a pa ikaw magsugod paghigugmu sa balitao?"
"Gikan sa ba pa ako gimat-an ko'g gikatulgan ang balitao."
"Tigbalitao ba ang imong katigulangan?"
"00, nahisandig ako sa kaliwat; apan ang akong balitao
may pagkanahasubay sa kabagha-an."
"Ikaw nabantog sa ngalang Colasing apan unsa ang matuod
nimong binunyagan?"
"Nicolasa Caiiiban kon dunay isugo."
"Turnindog dinhi sa Sun Nicolas?"
"00, kining baryo sa Mambaling mao gayuy akong balangay
nga namat-ag mahnyag."
"Dalaga?"
''00, 23 na karon alco."
"Ang imong rnga pagawit sa balitao wala bay kombinasyon
sa imong paris?"
"Wala gayud. Ang rnga garay i-anak lung sa akong
hunahuna ug kutlo-on usab dayon sa akong rnga ngabil. Dili
30 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
gayud ako maglisud ni abutolg kahadlok kon ako aduna nay
igaparada sa balitao."
"l"Kalooy sa Dios wala gayud intawon. Aduna hino-OY
higayon nga makatando ako sa magkinahanglan kanako pinaagi
sa balitao apan kargado sa dili ug wala gayud ako mapildig
garay."
"Wala ka pa ba hilubagi sa dunggan ni Cupido?"
"Hayan hilubagan nu. . . . "
"Aduna ka nu tingali?"
"Pobre po~bre sa katungan aduna gihapoy alimango."
"Sanglit ikaw bantog sa garay, bayoting manultisulti ug
kampiyon sa balitao kalisud kaha nimong dasdason inig amoral
na no?"
"Kon dili ko higusto-an, panington gayud ug tagingog bula
sa pingpong; apan kon hiuyonan sa kabuhi mahuyang pa ako
kay sa kalamantigi."
"Kon dapiton kamog balitao wa kamoy tema nga pagasabutan
sa imong paris?
"Aduna usahay. Ang malagmit namong tema mao kining
mosunod: Kinabuhing Tinago, Dalagang Walay Palad, Malimbongong
Saad, Asawang Mainantuson, ug Pagpalabi sa
Bahandi Nakapa-alaut Kaniya ug uban pa."
"Aduna kamoy berso nga inandam niini?"
"Wala, ang t e r n day pagasabutan ug dihadiha tukuron
ang berso inig sugod sa sayaw. Apan kon adunay mokorte
anha diha makita ang kalaki kay walay tema nga pagasubayon
ug ana-a diha ang akong gusto.''
"Makahatag ka kanakog pila ka garay?"
"Mahimo apan paduyog akog sista. Dili ako makahimo
kon dili kantahon.' Pangayo-i akog garay bisan unsa basta
kantahon ko lung."
Dalaga Nga Ipananglit Sa Bulak
Akoy sama sa bulak
Gipanggag maayo
Gibantayang di matagak
Sa iyang pungango.
Palubad: Kay kon ako matagak
Ako dili na buwak
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Kahumot ko mahunlak
Ug si Nanay mohilak.
Bahin sa Babayeng Minyo
Akoy babayeng minyo
Ang bana ko si Indong
Tulo ka tuig pagpuyo
Tulo ka tuig pagluko,
Palubad: Kinabuhi sa minyo
Maorang upos tabako
Sa sinugdan hanggapon
Sa katapusan ibuno.
Bahin sa Asawang Abu,bho-an
Ang asawang mangabubho
Anga bana dili palakton
Kon magtuman sa gusto
Inigpauli kumoton.
Palubad: Kini gong duna nay bana
Maoray mabisyo ang parayeg
Bisan wala nu ing kwarta
Matam-is ang ligid-ligid.
A Translation of the Article
"Repartee between Piux-comic king of Cebu and Colasing
the queen of the Ba1itao"-The Freeman, November 19, 1926.
A description of Colasing's House by Piux:
Her home was a small nipa shack but it was cozy, wellventilated
and pleasant in atmosphere. The windows faced
the seashore. Neighbor to the fiddler crabs, shaded by the
palms and other trees stood her house with the waves dashing
against its shoreyard.
I was amused inside the house. I saw a guitar hanging
on one of the posts. A big bass skulk at the corner. The walls
were littered with a variety of magazine pictures. On the
32 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
table nearby where I sat, stood statuettes of saints which were
made by Macabebes.14
A description of Colasing:
Colasing smiled and with it deepened her dimples together
with the twitching of her eyebrows. Beautiful was the smile
of Colasing like the balitao. Her laughter was like the strains
of a guitar; accompanied by her voice which was not very
shrill, just like a saxophone's.
Her mouth is lovely to look at when smiling. Three gold
teeth line her denture. Well-built and robust, she has just the
right breadth of shoulders and fullness of breast.
The conversation begins:
"Colasing, because of my being a writer, I dreamed of your
balitao, daydreamed of your pastoral verses, and soliloquized
about your melodious songs of the heart."
"Is that so? Oh! thank you even if I am not worthy. . . ."
"Really, Colasing, for me you are the balitao singer who
awakens dead hearts that lie about in the farms and fields of
our beloved land. Your balitao like the wind, strongly shakes
the sere leaves of our past. Since when did you begin to like
the balitao?"
"Since I was a child. I practically woke up and slept on
the balitao."
"Did your old folks sing and dance the balitao too?"
"Yes, in fact, I am a chip of the old block, but the balitao
I sing follows a little bit the trend of modern times."
"You are known by the name Colasing, but what is your
real name?"
"Nicolasa Cafiiban, at your service."
"Were you born here in San Nicolas?"
"Yes, this barrio of Mambaling is definitely the place
where I first beheld the light."
14) Macabebe-a term given to Tagalog peddlers who sell around
clothes, wooden statues of saints and other household articles because
most of them come from the town of Macabebe, Pampanga.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
"Single?"
"Yes, I am 23 years old now."
"When you sing the balitao do you ever make a previous
arrangement with your partner?"
"None at all. The verses would. just come out of my mind
and there and then would be plucked by my lips. I do not
feel any difficulty nor encounter any fear when I come face
to face with any partner for the balitao."
"How many times have you been defeated in a balitao?"
"By the Grace of God, I have never been yet. However,
there are incidents in which I could give in to those who court
me through the balitao but in most cases I had never been and
will never be outwitted in verse making."
"Has Cupid ever hit you, by the ear perhaps?"
"Oh! I think so, he has already."
"So you have a dear one.. .already?"
"Though how poor a marsh is, there at least is a crab inhabitant."
"Since you are good at verse making, smart in retorting
and a master in balitao singing, you must be very difficult to
approach in love making?"
"If I do not like the person, he really will sweat it out;
but if he suits my taste, I can be as tender as a delicate herb.
"When you are invited to dance the balitao, do you not
first agree on a theme with your partner?"
"Sometimes we do agree on one. The most common
themes are: Secret Life, An Unfortunate Maiden, Deceitful
Promise, An Overbearing Wife, Love for Wealth Has Made
One Miserable, and many others."
"Do you have ready-made verses for these?"
"None. Only the theme is agreed upon and there and
then we build up the verse when we begin the dance, but if
somebody taps and cuts in, there is the real test of one's ability
for then no theme is to be followed and that is what I especially
like."
"Can you sing a few lines for me?"
"Certainly, but I would like you to accompany me on the
guitar. I cannot say out my verses. I have to sing them. You
may ask from me any verse provided I sing them."
Sample Balitao which Colasing Sang to Piux:
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
A Maiden And A Flower
I am like unto a flower
Endeared and very well cared for
Being carefully watched
Lest from my stem I should fall.
Refrain: For, should I ever fall
I would no longer be a flower
My fragrance would disappear
And would be the cause of Mother's tears.
On A Married Woman
A married woman am I
Whose husband is Pedro
Three years have we lived together
Three years in seclusion and confinement.
Refrain: The life of a married couple
Is like a roll of smoking tobacco
In the beginning you inhale the smoke
But in the end you throw it off.
On A Jealous Wife
A wife who is jeolous
Never lets her husband go out
But if he insists, on going
He comes home awaited by wrangling.
Refrain: For one who has already 3 spouse
Does nothing but keep to each other
Even if all their money is gone
They still lie lazily around..
This dancing couple, Pedro and Colasing, toured the whole
province of Cebu dancing the balitao in town after town. They
also went around towns in Bohol, Leyte, Negros Oriental, and
Mindanao. They especially were called to dance during town
fiestas, carnival celebrations in cities, Christmas time, on New
Year's Eve and other holiday celebrations where a big crowd
was expected. Pedro-Colasing have practically become synonymous
with balitao. Wherever they went, people awaited their
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 35
coming just as we await the coming of a celebrity. Oftentimes
a band would meet them at their arrival and usher them to the
town where they would sing for the night.
According to Pedro Alfafara, the balitao reached its zenith
of development in the second and third decades of the present
century. During these years he and Colasing could hardly fulfill
the many engagements and thus some of them had to be cancelled.
They dictated their price for indeed these years were the harvest
years of the balitao for them. Wherever they danced, people
flocked in great numbers Aside from the fixed amount agreed
upon by the person or society requesting the dance, the audience
in their amusement showered coins upon the dancing pair in
the course of the dance.
Pedro Alfafara relates that of his many partners in the
balitao, Colasing attracted the greatest number of people to
the crowd. He explains this with this incident: One day Colasing
was eating jackfruit. As she pulled out a segment from
among the many in the slice, a seed slipped from her hold. It
spun on the floor and then stood on one end on the bamboo floor.
Amazed at the sight, Colasing picked it up and examined the
seed closely, only to discover that it was not an ordinary jackfruit
seed. It was very hard. It was a "gem" of a jackfruit,
as Visayans term it, and according to Visayan belief, whoever
finds a "gem" in a jackfruit begets the quality of a jackfruit.
Just as insects and even human beings are enticed to the very
inviting smell of the jackfruit, so did the people flock around
her wherever she was. People climbed fences to catch a close
view of her or if she was sleeping, people peeped through keyholes
or if tnere was none made some especially if the house
was just walled with nipa strips. She preserved this "gem" in
a bottle of oil which she tied around her waist for luck. When
she dressed up for the balitao, she first annointed herself with
the oil, thereby making herself a prey to people's curiosity and
admiration. She kept this secret to herself for years in order
to retain the charm. But now when the writer asked her about
this "gem", Colasing wistfully smiled and said, "It is gone."
How she lost it, she does not even 1,-n ow.
The decline of the balitao. After the 1930's the interest of
the Cebuano populace in the balitao began to wane. The Cebuano
audience turned to the moving picture for entertainment, it
being novel and new. The balitao couple had to seek for greener
3 6 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
pastures somewhere. They toured the other Visayan islands
and Mindanao. For a time Pedro and Colasing entertained the
Mindanao audience, but eventually too the audience got tired
of the balitao. The balitao had been outmoded by entertainments
and amusements Western in nature. There was no more
"going back" for the balitao couple. They rolled up their sleeves
and settled in the Land of Promise for good. Pedro is now in
Gingoog, Misamis Oriental, tilling a little patch of land to keep
him and his wife together.
Colasing and her husband are in Digos, Davao, and are bringing
up eleven children by selling fish in the market. According
to the people in the market, Colasing always sells her fish faster
than the others because she sings her balitao while selling and
so more people are attracted to her stall than to the others.
The balitao did not completely leave the Visayas with the
famed balitao team. It has stayed rooted in the floating traditions
of the people. Its strains are a familiar music to hear
especially among the urban folks. Its diction and verse though
never written down, have come to stay in the hearts of a few
men and women. In rural gatherings especially on moonlight
nights, one can still hear and see the song and dance of olden
days entertaining the simple tastes and interests of the country
folks.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
CHAPTER 111
THE COMPOSITION OF THE BALITAO
The term balitao has come to be applied generally to Cebuano
folk air which is usually written in 314 time. It sings about the
people's glorious past, or praises the virtues of the Visayan
maiden of old, or idealizes the beautiful country around. This
folk air has been divided into two kinds: the original antiphonal
balitao, which up to now is still unwritten, and the balitao
romansada which is an outgrowth of it. The second type of
balitao is written although no attempt has ever been made by
anyone to collect it for posterity.
The antiphonal balitao has never been written down, neither
have its lyrics nor its notation. There has never been any felt
need for it since not every one sings this type of folksong now.
The balitao singer is not only born with the ability to rhyme, but
also has a knack for harmoniously setting his verse to music.
There is no conscious preparation done before the rendition.
The balitao couple depend upon the inspiration of the moment
and call to play their native skill in weaving witty verses to
fit into the general rhythmic pattern as furnished by the accompaniment.
This song has been passed down orally from generation
to generation of balitao singers
This chapter shall endeavor to describe the musical composition,
the versification of the lyrics as well as the development
of the accompaniment of both the antiphonal balitao and the
balitao romansada. The writer has sought the technical services
of a young and popular Cebuano composer, Mr. Manuel Cabase,
to write down the notation and lyrics of the antiphonal balitao
while an old balitao couple, Magdaleno and Cornelia Cabillon,
sang the balitao alternatingly for him.
The musical composition of the balitao. Musical compositions
of the antiphonal balitao in its three stages: the ancient,
the later or Spanish era and the modern adaptation of it which
is the tirana, in both the major and minor keys, are found in
38 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
an appendix to this paper. Two very popular balitao romansada
are copied for comparison and example. An attempt shall be
made to scan the lyrics of the balitao to determine its meter,
rhythm and rhyme scheme. Finally a description of its accompaniment
shall also be made.
In the musical composition of the balitao the accompaniment
plays a major part. In the early days the composers could not
follow a particular key in their composition because the accompaniment
furnished by a coconut shell guitar did not have a
universal pitch. There were no pitch pipes in the Philippines
then and the pitch of the guitar varied by its length, size and
tautness of strings. When the harp was introduced, it followed
the same story. In fact, the coconut-shell guitar and the harp
accompanists tuned their instruments to the pitch of the singers.
Later on when the five-string guitar was Introduced, the pitch
could be varied; so the accompanist no longer tuned his guitar
to the pitch of the singers, but merely located the chords which
harmonized with the singer's pitch.
In composing the balitao, the major key is mostly written
in the key of C while the minor key comes under the relative
minor key of A. The major key is used for the jolly and
frolicsome mood while the minor key is used for the sentimental
and pathetic mood of the balitao.
The balitao follows a general and definite pattern as is seen
in the illustrations that precede the musical composition of every
stage of the balitao (please see musical composition in the appendix).
However, the composer, at pleasure, may vary the
time value of the notes in order to adjust to the wordings of
the balitao. Cebuano composers call this license of deviating
from the general pattern ad libbing derived from the musical
sign ad lib; ad libitum, meaning at pleasure. An example of
this is found in bars 1 and 5 of the later major balitao number
4 in the envelope. Slurring may even be employed by the
singers for a decorative touch to their line endings. This is
especially found in the tirana and is still a part of what composers
call ad libbing. The opposite of slurring is what they
call the senalypha. Where two-word syllables fall under one
note the two sounds have to be run together. Bar No. 2 of the
Old Major Balitao illustrates this form of variation. Where
ordinarily the words pa ako are spoken in three syllables pa-akol;
the second syllable a is senalyphaed with pa, so the three
syllables become only two syllables paa ko.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 39
As one sings these versions of the balitao in different stages,
the gradual development of the song is noticeable from the simple
unadorned chords of the balitao of old to the highly embellished
ones of the modern times. This has been due to the fact that
singers and accompanists who had inevitably assimilated influences
from foreign music perhaps consciously or unconsciously
have woven into our own native air such influences. This can
be observed in the change of the tempo from the old balitao to
the modern version, the tirnna. The later balitao shows clearly
the influence of the American jazz.
The versification of its lyrics. Analyzing the prosody of the
balitao lyrics one inevitably takes into consideration that it
belongs with Oriental poetry which is a ~redominantlc~ha nted
literature. Many of the verses in early Philippine literature were
incantory in nature. The war cries of the ancient Filipinos,
the boat songs which accompanied the oars of the island-hopping
barangayas were all set to music and it is difficult to imagine
them as merely recited literature.
Because of this incantory nature, much of the literature had
to depend on rhythm as the main source of its charm. In rhythm
and cadence these songs can perhaps be equalled only by the
Negro spiritual or the modern mambo. The rhythm of the
mambo is swift, active and jerky. The rhythm of many of our
Philippine songs is slow, graceful, passive. To this last observation
the Visayan balitao is no exception.
It is to be admitted, however, that the balitao does not owe
all its charm to its rhythm. Its beauty lies more in the substance,
in the play of fancy, in its irresponsible, often candid,
sometimes satiric, subject matter. Its common sense-philosophy
is helped along-carried, perhaps would be a more apt phraseby
its slow dragging, sometimes monotonous rhythm, so much
so that it is easy to believe that the words and the rhythm seem
to belong to each other for a long time. One can almost say the
same thing about the form and substance in the balitao.
That the rhythm of the balitao can be monotonous is inevitable
when we realize that it is narrative poetry. The raciness
and swift movement of the verse hardly leave any time
for variation in stanza form and in length of lines. The balitao
stanza is a common meter quatrain or a ballad stanza. The
melody into which the lyrics are woven is stereotyped and fixed.
Within the stanza no particular conventional meter is used for
40 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
a line. One verse foot may be iambus, the next a trochee or a
third an amphibrach. It follows no regular meter but uses the
slurring and the synalypha liberally to catch on with the song
rhythm. Thjs is necessary because the flow of thought in the
balitao is faster than the expression of it. It is also for this reason
that the rhyme scheme does not run according to a fixed pattern.
Instead of the a b a b pattern an a a b b or even an a a a a one
may be used.
A few examples will substantiate the above observations:
1. Mao kana'y dili gayud matarung
2. Nga imo kana, Tonyong buhaton
3. Koln imo kana nga himo-on
4. Tingali unya ikaw ay iyang imaldicion.
Notice the use of four meters in the first line. Ma01 kana'y is in
iambics. Dili is a trochee, gayud is iambus and matarung is
an amphibrach. It is, of course true that certain variations are
inevitable in other kinds of verse, except the narrative one.
Nga imo kana Tonyong buhaton.
This line is a real jumble, but in singing it, this jumble is hardly
noticeable because the irregularities are slurred. Nga imo is an
amphibrach; kana Tonyong is a pair of iambics; Tonyong is a
trochee; nga is a single syllable and bulzaton is another amphibrach.
The rhyme scheme in the balitao is remarkable for its
variation. As with the other variations, the reasons are easily
known. The flow of the narrative is faster than the mechanical
inventions of rhyme, rhythm or rhyme scheme and the balitao
singer must fall back on the device that comes nearest to his
mind. The a b a b pattern seems to be the stand-ard or the norm
of the rhyme schemes for the balitao, especially the older type.
In fact, one criticism that Pedro Alfafara, the most famous
balitao singer made on the modern balitao verse is that it does
not follow this pattern which he believes to be the rhyme scheme
of the classic balitao. This rhyme scheme is very prevalent.
0 daw tubig kang matin-aw a
Nga gibunyag ning kasingkasing b
Ni-ining dughang mamingaw a
Nanaha ka ug nanalingsing. b
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Here is the a a b b pattern:
Kon buot kang mangasawa a
Atuay balay namo ayuha a
Ang atop niya kugon b
Alisdi sa pako's alimukon. b
The a a a a pattern:
Ayaw Iti ikasakit a
Kining pamalibad kong hingpit a
Dili pa kaha buot ang langit a
Nga kitang duha magkada-it. a
An x a y a pattern also exists:
Ikaw ba mao ang bulak x
Nga kanako dili mawili a
Kong dili mo ako hikit-an Y
Mohilak ka mokisikisi. a
A careful analysis of the Cebuano balitao verse reveals that
what is commonly called rhyme is not a perfect rhyme in the
real sense of the word, but is really an assonance. Assonance
is the use of the same vowel sounds at the end of the line. An
example is mawili rhyming with mokisikisi. The correspondence
between li and si is not exact as perfect rhyming would require,
but at least they have the same vowel sound ending which is i.
This is the rule rather than the exception in most verses in
Philippine languages.
The balitao uses extensively the repetend. Its main purpose,
of course, is to delay the flow of thought in order to give the
rhymer enough time to think of the next line.
The subject matter of the balitao lyrics is as varied as the
activities, aspirations and enmities of the people. This will be
dealt with in the succeeding chapter.
In most cases the balitao verse has no plot. It only has a
theme to be argued about or a situation treated in elaborate
detail. The movement of the story is slow. Now and then digressions
from the theme are made for, like the "stream of consciousness"
attitude, the balitao singers are sensitive to what
is happening around them.
42 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
In the balitao the moral is explicitly stated. The balitao
makes many allusions, suggestions, and comparisons before it
can say what it wants to say. Figures of speech appealing both
to the senses as well as the intellect are abundantly employed.
Wit and humor are cunningly woven into the verses. However,
here and there some expressions or connotations of lewdness
and obscenity maybe scattered carelessly.
A description of its accompaniment. In olden times the
accompaniment of the balitao was much simpler than it is today.
The reason for this is simple. The earliest accompaniment to
the balitao was played on a three-string coconut-shell guitar on
which fewer chords could be strung than those which could be
produced on a harp. Besides, the early accompanists had not
discovered yet such embellishments as are played by modern
accompanists.
With the introduction of the harp, the coconut-shell guitar
was abandoned in favor of the harp because a greater variety
of chords could be played on it, therefore, the accompaniment
was more lively and varied.
The advantage the harp has over the guitar is that the right
hand plays its own accompaniment while the left makes some
progressions of its own in the form of double bass, sometimes
by thirds, sometimes by fourths in terms of musical intervals.
The present accompaniment, the five-string guitar-is a
Filipino adaptation from the six-string guitar which was introduced
by the Spaniards into the Islands. The Visayans found
this new instrument so convenient that even if a harp was used,
the guitar was always to be had besides it. The guitar has an
advantage over the harp in that its accompaniment is complete
because later accompanists, profiting from foreign music, have
modified and improvised their chords. This is easily made
possible because the guitar has its semi-tones called chromatics
while the harp is practically diatonic.
To illustrate this point the writer is asking the kind rea-der
to see Balitao No. 2 in the appendix "Pattern for the Ancient
Balitao." Attention is especially called to Measures 17, 18 and
19 of said composition. In Measure 17 the chord E b remains
Eb in the 18th measure before progressing to Bb in the 19th
measure; whereas in the pattern of the latter balitao (Balitao
No. 5 in the appendix) Chord Eb on the 17th measure progresses
to C 7 of Measure 18 before progressing to Bb 7 of the 19th
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 43
measure. Chord C 7 can never be done on the harp because as
previously stated, the harp has no semitones.
This is only a slight modification of the chords as compared
to the change which modern balitao accompanists have made
from the balitao of the later period to the tirana. The tirana
is the first attempt of the guitar accompanists to deviate from
the general pattern of the old balitao which had grown quite
monotonous by then. This fact can be observed in the chords.
(See Tirana Balitao No. 8 in the appendix.)
The balitao romansada. The melody of the tirana gave rise
to the balitao romansada. This is a modern improvisation of the
balitao not only in its musical composition and lyrics, but also
in rendition. Before the birth of this new form, all balitaos were
antiphonal in nature. To vary the montony of the song, the
balitao couple ingeniously devised some means to hold the
audience. They tried to mirror the life of the time as faithfully
as they could. The "love triangle" was a favorite theme so that
a third person was added. This third person, however, could
not participate in the antiphonal singing of the balitao couple,
so a situation had to be created in which the third party sung
alone; supposedly to himself lamenting his fate or glorying in his
luck. Thus the balitao romansada justified its existence
When Don Filemon Sotto, a Cebuano octagenarian and once
a popular newspaper publisher, said that as far back as he could
remember a new balitao always came up every Christmas time,
he meant the balitao romansada. TE.e authorship was long kept
unknown but the song easily found its way into the hearts of
the Cebuano music loving popu1ace.l
The audience responded favorably to the innovation of the
balitao sung alternatingly. For a time it seemed that the balitao
romansada was even supplanting its parent tree, the antiphonal
balitao, but no! the antiphonal balitao had deeply taken root in
the Visayan soul; that it was impossible for it to be wiped out
entirely.
Several Visayan composers have distinguished themselves
along this line. The most popular of them is Rafael Gandionco,
popularly know11 as Ramago among Cebuano music lovers. He
1) As told to the writer during her interview with Don Filemon
Sotto on December 3, 1954.
44 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
has been called "the father of the Cebuano balita~."~H e wrote
several balitao pieces, but the most popular is "Ang Dalaga Sa
Bukid" (A Country Maiden). This song composed in 1929 is
still sung in radio programs and hummed by every Cebuano
music lover. Mr. Manuel Velez is another well-known composer
whose "Sa Kabukiran" (In the Mountains) is sung not only in
the Visayas, but also in Luzon for which a Tagalog version was
printed. The writer has reprinted Ramago's "Ang Dalaga Sa
Bukid" as an example of balitao romansada in the minor key and
Manuel Velez's "Sa Kabukiran" as an example in the major key.
Both can be found in the appendix with musical compositions
at the end of this paper. Several other composers worthy
of note are Herminigildo Solon better known among Cebuanos
as Amoros, Celestino Rodriguez, Pedro Villaflor, Brigido
Lakandason, and Manuel Cabase. These composers have left
balitao pieces both vocal and instrumental which have come down
to us as Cebuano classics in the field of music.
While the balitao, the most popular of Visayan folksongs
may sound boring and monotonous to the modern ear because
of its repetitive melody, yet it has preserved that unexplainable
phrasing of uniform and long echoes pleasant to the truly
Visayan soul because of the wit and wisdom of its lyrics.
2) Bisaya, Ramon Roces Publications, Inc. (Manila: August 8,
1948), pp. 14 & 38.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
CHAPTER IV
DIFFERENT PHASES OF CEBUANO FOLKLORE AS
MIRRORED IN THE BALITAO
In the balitao we find a true reflection of the various aspects
of Cebuano life and customs. It also gives us a valuable insight
into the manners, ideals, beliefs, and social organization of our
forefathers. In the balitao we find spontaneous and informal
expressions of the Visayans' real nature and spirit. Many of
them are iiispired by the reaction of the people to their physical
environment. Others reveal feelings and emotions aroused by
the work and labor of their daily lives. The ordinary sorrows
and common joys of life are also fully represented. Relations
between the sexes with their many complications, courtship and
love making, marriage and misunderstandings, give rise to perhaps
the greater bulk of this kin6 of folksong. In this chapter
the reader will be introduced into the different phases of
Cebuano folklife as are mirrored in these alternating songs.
I. Visayan Love and Courtship Customs
Courtship is a period preceding marriage during which young
people are getting acquainted with each other in an amatory
way and during the later part of which they choose specific mates.
Among the simple folks of the Visayas, this period is long, lasting
sometimes from ten to twenty years due to the fact that the
man must first work hard and save enough jn order to meet the
manifold obligations imposed by the parents of the bride. There
is, for example, the dowry locally known as bugay which is of
two kinds and is always paid by the bridegroom. One kind is
the bride price, in the national language bigay suso, which consists
of an amount of money, a piece of land, or several heads
of carabaos or cows, or even in repairing the dilapidated house
of the parents of the girl as payment for the milk which the
mother has given to the damsel, by which he obta'ined her
46 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
completely. The other kind, termed in the national language
as bigay kaya, is the real dowry. It is a stipulated sum of money,
real estate or property including a house which is supposed to
be a gift from the boy's parents and kins to the recently
married couple for their support. At times, however,
the stipends for the holy masses to be said for the dead relatives
of the girl, and the expenses of the wedding are discounted from
it; as well as the outlay for the clothes of the bride so that very
little or nothing at all is left for the recently married couple.
In order to meet all these obligations, a man usually has to
remain single long after his puberty, although this enforced
period of celibacy is an active time of courtship. Among the
rural populace this courtship often consists of pre-marital
intimacy, frequently of an innocent nature, consisting mainly in
the man's helping the lady at her daily chores and the singing
of antiphonal love songs locally known as the "balitao sa
paghigugma" or alternative songs of love.
During this period of courtship the man gets better acquainted
not only with his bride-to-be, but also with her family and
relations; for he has to serve the parents of the bride for some
years; to feast them on certain days, to assist in the sowing of
the rice or corn and in the harvest, and to carry food for the
laborers. All the relatives of the bridegroom have to be
obsequious to the bride, to her parents, and to all her relatives
so long as those years of service last. During this period the
girl's parents observe the suitor closely-his habits, customs and
ways, and test his constancy now and then. So if the parents
of the girl see some defect inconsistent with their customs and
ways, such fact is sufficient ground for breaking the engagement.
This period is termed pangagad in the dialect, which means
acting to be liked. This differs from the service marriage as
described by Sieber and Mueller in The Social Life of Primitive
Man which is:
The man to all appearances had to work for his wife. Thus
we find him taking up his abode in her compound (matrilocal
marriage) and only after a year or two or three, whatever the case
may be does he take his wife home (patrilocal marriage).
Thus the contact of matrilineal customs with patrilineal peoples
gave rise to an almost infinite number of forms of service marriage.
. . .
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 47
At marriage the man takes up residence in his wife's territory
and he remains, as it were a stranger among his wife's kin.. . .l
In this Visayan custom of pangagad the couple are not married
yet. In fact the girl is very closely guarded by a sister or a
brother, so that no intimacy goes beyond conversing or the
singing of the balitao. The man also watches his steps carefully
else he gets the bolo or the spear of the strict father of the girl
on his head. Both act under close surveillance; consequently
this period is one more of concealment than of revelation of their
true selves.
In the balitao of courtship one finds a unique character that
is truly native to the Visayan lover. Love to him is a sacred
fragile thing which should be handled with care, and even
tenderly. The man always starts his song with an address of
greeting to everyone for courtesy is an outstanding requisite in
a man who wants to find favor with the parents and kinsfolks
of the girl.
Balitao Sa Paghangyo Sa Gugma
LALAKE: Maayong gabi-i mga kahigala-an,
Pamati kay amo nga awiton,
Kay sama sa tingog sa kalanggaman
Nga mabati ninyo sa kabuntagon.
Day,2 ang pagsubang sa adlaw sa kabuntagon
Ang kangitngit nga tanan mihayag,
Sa imong kaambong
Ang kasingkasing ko nabihag.
BABAYE: Dong? kining akong kaanyag
Ako ra kining kaugalingm.
Ug pananglit ikaw nabihag,
Unsay labut ko sa imong dangaton.
- -
1) S. A. Sieber and F. H. Mueller, The Social Life of Primitive
Man (Illinois: Mission Press, S.V.D. Techny, 19501, pp. 199-202.
2) Day is a shortened form of Inday which is the Cebuano pet
name in addressing a girl or a young woman whose name one does
not know.
3) Dong, a corruption of Dodong, is the equivalent term for a boy
or a young man.
48 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
LALAKE: Day, tinuod wala kay kalabutan,
Tinuod nga wala mo ako sugo-a,
Kay ang kaibog ko kanimo guikan
Kanimo ko gayud usab panilnga.
BABAYE: Dong, ngano nga ako'y imong panilngan,
Uma may utang ko kanimo?
Ngano nga ako'y imong pasanginlan,
Nga imo ra man kanang gusto?
LALAKE: Day, dili man utang ang gui ingon ko kanimo,
Ug dili sinugo lang ako sa akong kaibug.
Panimpalad lang kini ug kaluy-an mo
Kay usahay dili ako mahikatulog.
BABAYE: Dong, aron mo gayz~d hisayran
Timan-i aron dili ka malimot,
Bisan unsay imong dangatan
Para kanako wala kay mapa-abut.4
A Balitao of Courtship
MAN : Good evening to you, our friends
Pray hear for we are going to sing
'Tis like the melody of the birds,
That we hear in the morn arising.
When the sun sends forth its rays in the morn,
All darkness around is lit up.
With your womanly beauty and grace,
My heart is completely captivated.
WOMAN: This loveliness in me that you see,
Is personally mine to have and treasure.
4) This is only a fragment of a courtship balitao in order to give
a sample; for a man and a woman could argue about this topic for
hours and hours, and yet not exhaust the subject-love.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 49
So, granted that you are captivated,
What have I to do with what happens to you in
the future?
MAN : It is true that you have nothing to do with it:
And it is also true that you did not ask me to do it.
But since my love for you is caused by you
Then I shall ask of it from no one but from you.
WOMAN: Why will you collect from me?
What is my debt or obligation to you
Why will you lay the blame on me
When nobody asked you to do so?
MAN : It is not a debt or obligation that I asked from you
But my love has prompted me to say so
For who can tell if in the end you will pity me,
For oftentimes you rob me of my slumber.
WOMAN: Now so that you may well know
Mark this so you will not forget
That happen what may with you
From me you have nothing to expect.
Here is another balitao of courtship in which the young
woman is greatly offended at the young man's offer of love to
her in public. In her anger she calls the young man names and
even lambasts the male species wiles and tricks at winning the
love of a lady.
Balitao sa Pagpangolitawo
LALAKE: Maayong gabi-i kaninyomg tanan
Nga nia karon ning kalingawan,
Kining akong paghatag ug katahuran
Way guipili bata, tigulang, ug mga kahigala-an.
Karon kay tapus nu ang akong paghatag ug
katahuran,
Ug nabati nu dinhi sa kadaghanan,
Wala'y lain Inday, akong isunod pagsumbong
Kining guibati sa dughan ug dugay nu guilu-um.
50 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
BABAYE: Dong, pagka wa' nimoy batasan
Ug pagkadaku nimong lampingasan,
Ngano nga anhi ka dinhi sa kadaghanan
Magasurnbong sa imong guitago-an?
LALAKE: Day, pagkapait sa imong mga pulong
Nga sama ka sa daob nga dili mapalong,
Apan kon mahurot nu ang kahoy nga diin midukot,
Tingali unya'g ikaw kanako magpangab-ot.
BABAYE: Kay nasayud nu ako ning mga lalake
Nga maayong molhambog sa mga babaye,
Mo ingon sila nga kanamo mangasawa
Aron lang intawon kami kanila mahigugma.
LALAKE: Dal, ayaw nu intawon ako pagpa-antusa
Sa paghalad sa tinusd kmg paghigugma.
Kay ikaw ra ang bugtong kong pinili
Nga natingban sa tanan kong pagbati.
BABAYE: Dong, bisan ka pug mag unsa pakilooy,
Kay ako wala gayud kanimo mobati ug kalo-oy,
Pangita nu lang, Dong sa laing kabulakan
Aron didto ka mabulahan.
The Translation--A Balitao of Courtship
MAN : Good evening to each and everyone
Who is here to witness the fun,
These respects which I am paying everyone,
Discriminates not my friends, the old nor the
young.
Now that I have paid my respects,
Which are heard by the majority around.
The very next thing that I shall relate
Is the feeling within my heart which has long
been drowned.
WOMAN: Young man, how ill-mannered you are!
And what a vile and despicable cheat!
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Why must you, in front of this mass
Unveil what you have long kept?
MAN : Young lady, how bitter are your words,
As if they come from a bonfire forever burning,
But when the fuel that feeds it shall have been
exhausted,
You might, for me be vainly yearning.
WOMAN: Oh! I know the male specie
That they are very good in fooling a lady,
They say to her "I will really marry you."
Just so the lady would also say "I love you."
MAN : Young lady, please make me suffer no more,
In offering you my truest affection.
You are my one and only choice, there's no other
more,
On whom are vested all my feelings and emotions.
WOMAN: Though how much you beg and entreat of me,
But for you I do not even have the least of pity.
So will you kindly seek for love in other maidens,
And with them perhaps be fortune laden.
The Visayans are fond of riddles and love is often expressed
through them. This fact very well tallies with Loeb's finding
that:
In the Orient along with the love song went proverbs and riddles
which are to be found among cattle raisers intimately associated
with the love song.5
He further asserts that:
Proverbs and riddles in Indonesia extend only as far as cattle.
There are no riddles or proverbs in Mentawi in Borneo nor in
eastern Indonesia, excepting where the Malays have introduced
them. Where there are no proverbs, there likewise are no love song.6
5) E. M. Loeb, "Courtship and the Love Song," Anthropos
(Fribourg, Switzerland: Imprimerie St. Paul, 19501, Vol. XLV, p. 831.
6) Loc. cit.
52 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Visayan riddles like the antiphonal love songs are rhymed as
these three samples show;
1. Tigmo, tigmo agokoy
Ugma ra kita magaso1y.-damgo
The riddles made in tlie night
Will be answered in the morning light.-a dream
2. Kabayo ni Adan
Dili moka-on ug dili kabay-an.-kudkuran
The horse of Adam does not eat
Unless someone rides on it.-coconut grater
3. Baboy sa lasang
Ang tunok puro 1ansang.-nangka
A wild pig of the forest
Is covered with thorny pricks-jackfruit
Parrying and answering riddles are a popular pastime among
young men and women when they come together on leisure
hours or at social gatherings. Sometimes a man may even begin
his wooing with them. Love among the Visayans should be
surrounded with mysteries and conveyed by appropriate allusions
and even far-fetched comparisons that are sometimes
unintelligible to the modern reader or hearer as these stanzas
show:
LALAKE: Kining akong paghigugma
Sa bukug ko lnday mikagit
Kon hinog ka pa lamang nga sub-a
Lamyun ko hangtud ang panit.
BABAYE: Dili ako Dong motu-o
Nianang imong mga sulti
Pila na kaha ka babaye
Ang imo nianang guitonto.
LALAKE: Sa saya m.o nga malbarosa
Nga nalibut Fa piligis
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Malooy ka ako pasoksoka
Sa hawak mo pabilikisa.
BABAYE: A yaw Dodong ipadayon
Kanang imong mga pulo~ng
Kay ikaw gamay pang bata
Ana-a pa ang gatas sa imong baba.
Translation
MAN : My love for you, Young Lady,
Is deeply embedded in my bones;
That if you were only a ripe banana,
I would swallow you skin and all.
WOMAN: I will not believe you, young man,
In what you have just said.
No one knows how many women
You may have fooled that way.
MAN : In your skirt which is like a "rnalbar~sa,'~~
Which is so full of pleats,
If you pity me, hide me within its folds
And around your waist let me cling.
WOMAN: Please, hold, and do not go on
With your ideas and intentions.
You are very, very young indeed
That milk8 is still in your mouth.
The seclusion in which the early Visayan girl was often kept
led at times to strange outbursts on her part. Guarded closely
by her parents, excluded so often from normal companionship,
she found herself buried in vain regrets and anticipations. When
7) A certain plant grown by the early Visayans, valued for its
aromatic leaves which young women often wear in their hair for its
scent. Its scientific name is Pelargonium graneolens and it belongs to
the oxalidaceae family. It is said that this plant is of African origin.
8) The expression "milk is still in your month" means youth or
young for babies' months are literally, forever wet with mother's milk.
54 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
her love had been aroused, the tormenting loneliness of her life
warped her nature. As another result of her secluded life the
maiden acquired impossible ideas. In courtship for example, she
puts all kinds of conditions and obstacles in the path of her
lover.
BABAYE: Kon buot kang mangasawa
Atu-ay lawod pa hunasa
Kon dili ka gani makapahunas
Si Inday dili mo maganas.
LALAKE: Buot ka ba gayud motan-aw
Sa akong pagka lalake
Kuyugi ako sa linaw
Kay hunsan ko unyang gabi-i.
BABAYE: Kon buot kang mangasawa
Atu-ay lasang daruha
Ang kabato-an ug kabatangan
Imong pagahinluan.
LALAKE: Kanang tanan nga guisugo mo
Sa madali akong tumanon
Maoy mahimmg daro ang baboy
Ang amo maoy mag kupot sa liboy.
Translation
WOMAN: If you want to marry me,
First you must dry up that sea.
If you cannot dry up that sea,
You shall not carry me away.
MAN : Would you really like to see,
My being a man and my ability?
Then come with me to the sea
And I will dry it for you tonight quickly.
WOMAN: If you want to marry me
You must plow yon forest for me
Of the rock and the bushes
It must be rendered free.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
MAN : All this that you ask me to do
I'll do as quickly as possible
For a plow a pig will do
And a monkey will hold the handle.
Usually a Visayan girl does not say "yes" or "no" for herself
when accepting or rejecting an offer of love. She often refers
the man to her parents who have the last say on whom to marry
or not to marry.
BABAYE: Kon ikaw Dong, mangasawa,
Si Tatay ug si Nanay maoy sultihi.
Kay kinsa bay mosaka sa kahoy
Nga sa punuan dili mo agi?
LALAKE: Matuod ikaw mao ang bulak
Sa usa ka maambong nga kahoy
Dili ko ma agi ang puno-an
Kon dili hagdanan sa imong kalo-oy.
Translation
WOMAN: If you want to marry me,
Then tell my father and mother.
For who would ever climb a tree
Without first passing by its trunk?g
MAN : It is true that you are the flower
Of EI tall and beautiful tree.
But the trunk will be impassable for me,
Unless you will lend me your mercy for a ladder.
9) This is a 15teral translation of ihe last two lines of the first
stanza and may not sound logical to English readers. The expression
in Visayan is proverbial: the girl is compared to a fruit and her parents
to the trunk of the tree bearing the fruit. As one cannot get the fruit
without passing by the trunk, even so one cannot just ask the girl
without first consulting the parents.
56 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
11. Marriage
The long time of courtship being over! the pair enters a
period of engagement in which the man serves in the house of
his bride-to-be. This service usually lasts for a certain period,
say two years or more. If the parents of the girl find fault with
the groom-to-be because he has failed in some points set forth
by them, consequently the marriage is dissolved. A disappointed
suitor files a suit with the court seeking to recover the value
of services rendered to the family of his intended bride. A
penalty is imposed on the party who should withdraw from the
agreement. This penalty varies in the different towns and in
accordance with the means of the contracting parties. In fact
Father Placiencia,l0 a Spanish missionary, tells us that the
parents of the suitor or girl who refused to marry after the
marriage was arranged, were punished for they were presumed
to have induced their child to withdraw from the agreement.
However, there are also those meek. and simple-minded suitors
who, though they have been disappointed, do not like to go
through the ordeal of court trials; so instead of filing their case
in court, would merely sigh their troubles off to the moon and
learn to forgive and forget. In fact the greater part of the young
men in the rural areas belong to this type.
If, on the other hand, the parents of the bride find no inconsistencies
In the man, the marriage is arranged. There was
only one kind of marriage before;-the religious one. The ceremonies
were more or less elaborate according to the rank of
the families interested. During the marriage feast they ate, drunk
and made merry by dancing and singing-not the balitao this
time; for the early Visayans had their particular epithalamion
and dance called alap. In this ceremony the couple just married
do not dance themselves but another pair dances and sings for
them calling forth the relatives of both the bride and groom to
come across with any amount as a coctribution or gift, whichever
way it is taken, for the newly married couple to begin life
with.ll
10) Encyclopedia of the Philippines, edited by Galang and Osias
(Manila: P. Vera & Sons Co., 19351, Vol. VI, pp. 38-40.
11) This marriage ceremonial will be discussed in detail by Mrs.
Lourdes Quisumbing in her thesis "Marriage Customs in Cebu."
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 57
The marriage ceremony being over, the couple start l i f e
anew, usually in their new house which was constructed before
the wedding. So starts the family which is the universal nucleus
o f human society. Here is a balitao sung by a newly-wedded
couple.
Balitao sa Bag-ong Minyo
BABAYE: Unsa man karo'y maayong buhaton
Sa magtiayon nga maingon kanato.
Ug mahitungod sa kaugalingon
Ikaw gayud ang magtudlo.
LALAKE: Ako ikaw Day, nga tudloan
Sa usa ka asawa'ng maligdong,
Kinahanglaw, imong bantayan
Ang mga buhat nga matarung.
BABAYE: Mao nu ba kining atong kahimtang
Mahunahuna man diay nato ang tanan
Kon magpuyo kita sa kalisdanan
Maihap ta ang bito-on. sa kalangitan.
LALAKE: Mao nu gayud ang magpuyo'g kaugalingon
Ang tanan atong tagamtamon
Labi nu ug gukdon kita sa kawad-on
Mahadagan kitang ~uala'y kuha-on.
BABAYE: Kinahanglan atong matngonan
Ang atong kalihukan
Kay kon atong an~pi.ngan
Madimdim ta ang katam-isan.
Mao may atong guipaninguha
Nga madayon ang atong panumpa
Kay matam-is ang kaminyo-on
Kon wala kanatoy magmalu-ibon.
LALAKE: Mao kana'y maayo tang himo.on,
Kon magpuyo kitang malipayon,
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Ang kalinaw maoy patunhayon,
Aron matahum ang panagtipon.
BABAYE: Ma tahum kon imong ampingan
Ug sa mga panumpa magtuman
Apan kon ikaw magpatuyang
Duo1 ra ang kalbaryo sa kasakitan.
A Song of A Newly Wedded Couple
WOMAN: Now, what is best for us to do,
Since we are only newlyweds, I do not know
But when it comes to household management
Direction and guidance must come solely from you.
MAN : Yes, my dear, I shall teach you
The duties of an exemplary wife
Bear in mind ever and only to uphold
The good and praiseworthy work.
WOMAN: So this is what it is to be married
Everything is our concern
And if we live in poverty and squalor
The stars in heaven could be counted.
MAN : That is what it is to live independently
We are going to experience everything
Most especially when we are hard up financially,
We do things that we know not what we are doing.
WOMAN: It is necessary that we exercise care
In all our actions and movements
For if we are careful
We can attain a life of bliss.
We have earnestly been striving
For the fulfillment of our promises,
For the marriage is a bliss
If none of the two turns faithless.
MAN : So, it must be our main concern
If we want to live in joy and contentment.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Peace in the home must reign supreme,
If matrimony be made sweet as a dream.
WOMAN: It would be lovely if this state we t-r easure
And the realization of our promises we make sure,
But if we live in wanton disregard
The Cavalry of suffering could easily be had.
11. Domestic Problems
The early Cebuanos possessed a strong respect for conventions.
Certain social forms and practices concerning the relationship
of husband and wife were evolved early and strenuously
maintained. Failure of the one or the other to keep these conventions,
often led. to domestic troubles occasioned by such situations
as: financial hardships, a breach in family traditions, infidelity,
or the interference of the in-laws. It will be iioticed,
however, that even though how bitter the quarrel might have
been between the couple, they in most cases come to a peaceful
settlement of their troubles, for the Cebuano couples especially
the early ones firmly believe in the Catholic idea of wedlock that
"what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
Financial dificulties due to unemployment. The balitao as
a song of love not only mirrors the pleasant aspects of love, but
also portrays the love that remains strong in a turmoil brought
about .by a clash over circumstances occasioned by financial
problems as these stanzas show:
Balitao Sa Kapait Nga Walay Pangita
LALAKE: Unsa man karon Day, ang imong nagul-an
Mahitungod ni-ining atong kahimtang.
Sultihi intawon ako sa hinungdanan,
Aron ang tanan akong himbaw-an.
BABAYE: Kining ato Dong, nga kaminyoon
Maoy mapa-it nga walay sama,
Gisagubang nato ang dakung kawad-on,
Tungod kay wala man kita karo'y kuarta.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Apan aron pagsulbad ni-ining tanan
Sa mga kalisud nga atong giatubang,
Kay ingon pa kanatong walay trabajo
Mag palakaw gayud una ug nigosyo.
LALAKE: Ayaw taksa Inday ang kalisdanan
Kay bulag naman kita sa guinikanan
Antuson to gayud ang mga kapaitan
Kay ato man kini nga tinuyo-an.
BABAYE: Mao ba gayud kini an magminyo
Ang tanang Santos atong masangpit,
Mao ba diay ang magpuyo,
Nga magsagubang sa mga kasakit.
Apan wala ako, Dong magmahay
Kay ato mm kining duhang gusto,
Asdangon lamang gayud kini kanunay
Ang langit ug ang infierno.
The Translation: Balitao of Financial Difficulty
Because of Unemployment
MAN : What are you worried over, my dear?
Is it over our present set up of things?
Please tell me the cause of the worrying,
So I will have a knowledge of everything.
WOMAN: This matrimonial state that we share,
Is indeed bitter beyond compare.
We are in a great financial crisis,
We do not even have a cent to spend.
But in order to solve all,
These many difficulties we are now confronted,
Since both of us are jobless,
Why don't we engage in a little business?
MAN : Please do not measure the hardships,
Since we are already separated from my parents,
Let us bear patiently all hardships,
Since we entered into this state by mutual consent.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
WOMAN: So this is what it is to be married,
All saints do we call for us to intercede.
So this is what it is to live,
Bearing the hardships and burdens of life.
But I have no regrets, young man:
Because these conditions were agreed upon by us
two.
Let's just face the music and dance
Whether to Heaven or to Hell we go.
The following alternating song describes a family crisis over
non-employment. While the husband almost despairs of his
inability to land himself on a job, the wife consoles him with
the idea that behind the cloud there's always a silver lining;
that, if their lot be hard now, the morrow might bring them
fairer and better luck.
Balitao Sa Kapait Sa Pagpangita Ug Trabajo
BABAYE: Unsa man Dong, ang hinungdan,
Nga nagmahay man ikaw sa kahimtang.
Kini kay ato *nang gisugdan,
Magantus bisan unsay dangatan.
Busa inaya-naya lamang ang kaguol
Niining mga adlaw nga tugob sa kasakit
Kay ang mga hunahunang pun0 sa kahasol
Ma angkon gayud ang tumang kapait.
LALAKE: Bisan gi unsa ko pagpaningkamot,
Gikan sa kabuntagon, hangtud sa kagabhi-on,
Sa akong kahago wala gayu'y nakab-ut,
Kay ang buhat mapait kaayong pangita-on.
Nagpakilo-oy pa gani ako sa mga kadagkucan
Nga ako sa buhat ilang kahatagan.
Apan ang tanan nakawang lamang
Kay ila man akong gibalibaran.
BABAYE: Unsa bay takus nga buhaton,
Nga ikalipay sa atong katigulangan.
MARIA COLlNA GUTIERREZ
Mao kini gumonhap nga sulbaron,
Aron ang makalolo-oy ilang lipayon.
Apan mahitungod sa atong kahimtang,
Ayaw lamang niana ug kabalaka,
Kay unsa may imong nalisdan,
Nga aduna pa man kitay kahinguha-an.
LALAKE: Ang mga gutlo sa kinabuhi tang pini-utan
Mao day mahimo ang panghayhay,
Inagulo sa kapait linagbasan
Sa kawad-on, gaantus sa mga pagmahay.
BABAYE: Pasagding molunop ang dug-urn sa kalangitan,
Pasagding sa luyo nianang naglugitom,
Makita ta ang adlaw sa kahitas-an,
Nga maga banwag sa yutang tabunon. ,
Human sa atong mga pagantus
Ang kalipay ato clang ihibalag,
Kay mao man gayud ang ibalus
Ang adlaw mopakita sa iyang kahayag.
The Translation-An Alternative Song Telling
About the Dificulty in Looking for a Job
WOMAN: Will you tell me the cause
Of your remonstrations against our present state.
Though what is began is began
So we might just as well bear the hardships, whatever
happens.
Then cheer up and forget your sorrows
On these very days of grief and woe
For a disturbed and troubled conscience
Is likely to suffer and meet with defeat.
MAN : Though how much I have striven to gain success,
From daybreak till day is done.
Yet nothing have I gained from my labor and pains,
For work nowadays is very difficult to find.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
I had begged of the "big men"
That they give me a certain employment
But everything was just in vain,
Because they turned me down in disappointment.
WOMAN: What then shall we do
To make our "old folks" happy?
This is a problem to be solved
To make the poor happy.
But with regard to our situation,
Don't you worry about that.
For why should you be greatly troubled,
When we still have another means of livelihood?
MAN : During the moments of this restricted life,
Nothing else could be done but heave a sigh.
Moanings of bitterness pervade the spirit
And poverty is borne with regrets.
WOMAN: Let the clouds cover the heavens entirely,
For behind the thick darkness,
We could see the sun up above,
Shedding its rays over this, our land.
After these sufferings of ours are over,
Happiness will surely cross our path,
For it has always been, that behind
The clouds, the sun is still shining.
Financial difficulties due to gambling. Among the Visayans
gambling is a deeply-rooted vice. It had been even probably
before the Spaniards came, because all appraisals of Filipino
traits, be they made by a Spaniard, an Englishman, a Frenchman,
or a Filipino himself, never fail to mention about the
Filipino's passion for gambling, in particular for cockfighting.
Father Chirino, a Spanish missionary, says:
. ..The Indians are passionately fond of cockfighting and
spectacles of all sorts.12
12) E. H. Blair and J. A. Robertson, The Philipppine Islands 1493-
1898 (Cleveland, Ohio: 1903-1909, 55 Vols. Vol. LI), p. 249.
64 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
. . .Often the Indian is seduced into debt contracts by his passion
for cockfighting and gambling.13
Sir John Bowring, an Englishman governor of Hongkong, who
made a visit to the Philippines during which he travelled extensively
through the Islands, says:
While the less honorable characteristics of the people are known
to be a universal love of gambling which is exhibited among the
Indian races by a passion for cockfighting, an amusement made a
productive source of revenue to the State. Artists usually introduce
a Philippine Indian with a gamecock under his arm to which he
seems as much attached as a Bedouin Arab to his horse. It is said
that many a time an Indian has allowed his wife and children to
perish in the flames when his house has taken fire, but never was
known to fail in securing his favorite gallo from danger.14
Mr. John Foreman, an American who resided in the Philippines
for a number of years in his book, The Philippine Islands writes:
He is fond of gambling. Cases have been known of natives
having fled from their burning huts taking care to save their fighting
cocks but leaving their wives and children to look after themselves.
15
Dr. Paul de la Gironigre, a French surgeon who lived in the
Philippines for twenty years, wrote an account of his observations
and describes the natives thus:
They are fond of fights between animals especially cockfights.
16
Statement of Ramon Reyes Lala (The Philippine Islands, New
York, 1899, pp. 8'0-87) himself a Filipino:
. ..fond of dress and show, hunting, riding and other field exercises,
but prone to gambling and dissipation.17
13) Loc. cit., Vol. LII, p. 305.
14) Census of the Philippine Islands taken under the direction of
the Philippine Commission in the year 1903 (Washington, D.C.: United
States Bureau of Census, 1905), Vol. I, p. 497.
15) Ibid.
16) Ibid., p. 495.
17) Blair and Robertson, op. cit., pp. 101-105.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 65
This vice was greatly enhanced during the Spanish regime due
to example set by the conquerors, to oppression, and to misgovernment.
If non-employment causes financial difficulty, it would not
be as bad as habitual gambling indulged in by the head of the
family in causing such a crisis among the Visayans. What is
worst is that oftentimes an unemployed man tries his luck at
gambling and may even make it his life occupation. In most
instances instead of alleviating their lot, the family sinks deeper
into misery and squalor. This passion for gambling may even
allure the husband into concluding debt contracts, which is then
the beginning of the real financial tragedy of the family. Seldom
do peace and tranquility reign in the home of a gambler as this
alternating song shows:
Away sa Magtiayon Kay Ang Bana Sugar01
BABAYE: Pamati kay ako kanimmzg isulti
Aron imo nga himbaw-an
Nganong gihurot mo ang kmrta'g pildi
Didto, Antonio sa sugalan.
Dili ba ikaw akong gimaymayan,
Sa dili pagtambong sa mga sugalan,
Mao unya kini ang sinugdanan,
Sa pagpuyo ta nga wala'y kahusayan.
LALAKE: Hinaya lamang ang imong sulti
Tinuod nga ako, Day napildi
Apan kon nakadaug pa kaha ako karon
Anha ko nga ang baba mo motak-um.
BABAYE: Bisan ug pila pay madaug nimo
Dili gayud ako niana malipay.
Kay nasayud kana kanako, Antonio
Nga ang pagpanugal ako nga kaaway.
Kay sa pagpaninguha mo pa kanako
Ikaw sa akong atubangan nangaliyupo
Ug una ang gugma ko kanimo ipiyal
Nga biya-an mo ang pagpanugal.
66 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
LALAKE: Wala na lamang kadtoy bali
Ang tanan kong napildi
Ayaw na lung niana pag asercaso
Ganansiya man kadto nako sa Purico.
BABAYE: Mao kana'y makaanindot kanimo
Tungod lung kay ganansiya sa Purico
Unsa na man karo'y imong igasto
Wala man gani karon kita'y paniudto.
Kon himbaw-an ko pa lung da-an
Nga mao gayu'y imong pagabuhaton
Masbali gibulagan ko ikaw sa dayon
Aron wala unta karon akoy paga antuson.
A Couple Quarreling Because of Gambling
WOMAN: Now, listen for I will tell you
So that you may very well know
Why you lost all our money
In the gambling den, Antonio.
Did I not advise you before
Never to be around these gambling dens
For this could very well be the beginning
Of a living without peace and blessings.
MAN : Take it easy and please don't shout
It is true that I, in gambling. lost.
But had I been lucky in that set
You would shut up your mouth, I bet.
WOMAN: Though how much you may win.
That does not make me a bit happier
For you very well know that since
The beginning, I have always hated gambling.
When you were yet courting me
You, in my very presence, did entreat.
But before my love to you I trusted
That your gambling be forever buried.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
MAN : Let us try to forget that which is past
And all that which I have lost
Over it pray, do not fuss,
For as profit from Purico sales, so it goes.
WOMAN: Very well, that is fine of you!
Just because it was a gain from Purico.
Now what are we going to spend
For lunch, there's nothing to be eaten.
Had I known beforehand
That these things would by you be done
To have parted with you would have been better,
So, I would have known no sorrows to suffer.
Securing the husband's permission. It formerly was a tradition
which the Filipinos perhaps borrowed from the Chinese'
and other Oriental neighbors that once a woman was married,
her only sphere was the home. She was not supposed to leave
the portals of that confinement without first securing the permission
of her husband. Failure to do this would surely result
in a quarrel between the couple as reflected in this alternating
song:
Away Kay Ang Asawa Minlakaw Nga Wala
LALAKE: Dili nu gayud kini kapugngan
Kining ako kanimong kalagot,
Ug nganong imo akong guibuhatan
Maoy naingnan karon ning kaligutgut.
BABAYE: Ngano unsay imong hingsigpatan
Sa akong kina-iya ug pamatasan,
Sa madali intawon kanako itug-an
Kon aduna ba ako'y mga kasal-anan.
LALAKE: Pamati kay ako kanimong isugid,
Gusto man kaha nimong himbaw-an,
Amber nganong wala ka kanako mananghid,
Sa pug-adto nimo sa baylihanan.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Makapila ako kanimo magsulti
Sa imo Inday, nga pagkababaye
Nga una unta ikaw moadto sa bayle,
Kinahanglan gayud ang akong pug-uki.
BABAYE: Unsaon man nimo, Dong pug-uki,
Nga wala man kadto ikaw dinhi.
Apan ang tanan lamang hingkalimti
Kay human nu man kana mangagi.
Dili ka usab takus niini mabalaka
Kay ni Tining man lamang ako gidala
Dili man tuyo ko dido tang pagsayaw,
Sa kalingawan man lung unta ko motan-aw.
LALAKE: Ang nakanindot raba, Inday ninyo
Sa pagsulod gayud didto ninyo
Bisan gayud ug hikit-an ako nimo
Gipaduko mo lamang ang imong ulo,
Ug dayon sa lingkoranan kaayo ikaw gilabni,
Aron makigsayaw kanimo ang lalake,
Ug ikaw kaayo, Inday nagdiki-diki,
Kay nakakita ka man diay sa dala kong garoti.
BABAYE: Wala gayud ako, Dong malisang,
Kay ako man kadtong tinuyo-an.
Mangayo ako kanimo ug pasaylo,
Dinhi karon sa imong atubangan.
LALAKE: Mao gayud kamong mga babaye
Kon wala nay mga katarungan,
Paraygan lamang ninyo ang lalake,
Aron malosno ang among balcrtian.
BABAYE: Ato lamung kana nga hingkalimtan,
Kay ako man gayud nga kasal-anan.
Dili ba ikaw kanako makapasaylo,
Nga sala ko man kadtong nahimo?
LALAKE: Busa sukad karon gayud matngoni
Ang imo nga pagka babaye.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Kon mosulod ka ugaling sa bayle,
Mananghid ka una sa tinyente.
The Translation: A Family Quarrel Because
The Wife Went to A Dance Without the
Husband's Permission
MAN : I can no longer keep and withhold
These ruffled feelings I have for you,
For, why you have done all these things
Is the cause of my present misgivings
WOMAN: Why, what have you observed lately
About my own habits and ways?
Will you please tell me quickly,
What faults do I have, if any?
MAN : Now, please listen for I am going to tell you.
If you are interested and eager to know.
Now, why did you not secure my permission,
When you went to attend that social function?
How many times have I reminded you,
That since you are a woman,
You must before you go to any dance,
First secure the approval of your husband.
WOMAN: How could you. give me your consent,
When you were not at home at that moment?
So please, forget everything,
For what is past is past, there's no need arguing.
Besides, there is no cause for you to worry
I was asked by Tining only to give her company.
In fact it was never my intention to dance
But merely to see the terpsichorean performance.
MAN : And what is nice about you
Is that when you entered the dance saloon,
Though you saw me in person
You bowed your head and pretended non-recognition.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
'Then from your seat you were pulled by a young
man,
Who wanted to dance with you at that time,
But then you acted as if you did not like him,
Because you saw my beating stick from behind.
WOMAN: I was not in the least scared, Antonio,
For I did those acts with intention.
But I beg forgiveness of you
Here and now before you in person.
MAN : It is always the case with you, women,
When you already run short of reasons,
You very well know how to touch the sort spot of
men,
So that you can very well conquer their emotions.
WOMAN: Let us try to forget this happening,
I know I am really to blame for everything,
So now will you be kind enough to forgive
The faults that I have committed.
MAN : Therefore, from now on you must be vigilant
Over your honor as a womaii.
Should you ever go to a dance
You must secure the permission of your husband.
Jealousy. The early Cebuanos seemed to have ideals of
marriage that were essentially monogamous. When the Spaniards
came to the Philippines, although polygamy was practiced by
some chiefs "the most common and general usage was to marry
one woman."18 Husbands were, and even now in rural areas,
are horribly jealous of their wives so much so that she is not
supposed to leave the confines of her home nor to adorn herself
once she is married. If a married woman dresses up or beautifies
herself, she not only becomes the object of her husband's suspicion
and jealousy, but also the object of the townfolk's gossips. She
in retaliation for this miserable and monotonous life imposed
on her by cu.stoms and conventions, also lays down strict rules
18) Blair and Robertson, op. cit., pp. 293-296.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 7 1
of conduct on her husband regarding his attitude towards the
fairer sex except her. For a man then, who is already married,
to pay special attention to another woman by engaging her in
a prolonged conversation, walking her home, or sitting close
to her is a breach of the moral law and woe to him if his wife
senses the wrong-doing. This often leads to great troubles and
may even head the marriage to the rocks.
Balitao Sa Pangabubho
BABAYE: Pagbantay lung karon, Antonio
Sa daghan mong mga tinunto,
Dili nu gayud kini mahimo
Ning hilabihan mong pagka abusado.
lkaw na usab mihadla
Sa laing babaye mingparayeg,
Ako gayud kaninyo nakakita,
Nga kamong duha nanaghagwa.
LALAKE: Unsa nu usab intawon kini, Sing,
Ningkalit man lamang ikaw ug kabalhin,
Unsa may imo karong mga kamatuoran,
Mahitungod sa imong guikatahapan?
Ayaw una, Sing ug padayona,
Kanang imo karong mga pagduda.
Ang kasingkasing mo lamang lukmaya,
Kay wala ka may nakitang pruyba.
BABAYE: Hingkit-an ko kamo si Dalmacia,
Nagpahayahay sa daplin sa baybayon,
Nagpinarayganay kamong duroha,
Mao ra ang tukmo ug alimokon.
Gisingitan ko ikaw kaganina,
Apan wala mo lamang ako lingi-a,
Gingil-aran ka ba sa akong hitsura,
Nga nakatupad ka na ni Dalmacia?
LALAKE: Ayaw intawon, Sing pagdali-dali-a,
Bahin sa katahap mo karon ug duda;
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Si Dalmacia adunay hinigugma
Anak ra usab ni Manang Barista.
Dili ba humana man ako kanimo magsulti,
Nga wala nu ako'y amor so ubang babaye;
Kay dili ko na gayud ikaw ibaylo,
Tungod sa ka-anyag ug kabuotan nimo.
BABAYE: Ayaw nu lung ako'g ulo-ulohi,
Nianang imong mga sulti;
Nganong sa baybayon kamo nagpahayahay,
Kon wala pa kamo magka hinigugma-ay?
LALAKE: Gialam-alaman ko lung si Dalmacia,
Kay nag-away man t ~ gan g iyang hinigugma;
Apan walu ko intawon palandonga,
Nga magkahibalag ba kaming duha.
BABAYE: Dili gayud ako niana motuo,
Sa mga pulong mo karon, Antonio;
Da-an nu akong nasayud kanimo,
Kay bilyako ka ra kaayo.
The Translation-Alternative Song
Depicting Jealousy
WOMAN: You better watch out, Antonio,
For the very many tricks you've played,
This shall no longer continue,
For you have in abusiveness exceeded.
You again entertained another woman,
An2 with you she also flirted.
With my own eyes, I actually saw,
That the two of you were in a love play engaged.
MAN : For pity's sake, what is this again?
What is the cause of this sudden change?
Now what evidences have you found,
Regarding your unfouilded allegation?
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Calm down, and please do not give vent,
To your unfounded accusations.
Soothe your heart and pacify your emotions,
For you do not have a strong evidence.
WOMAN: I saw you together with Dalmacia,
Enjoying the freshness of the sea breeze.
You were making love to each other,
Just like two love birds, a dove and a pigeon.
I called aloud for you a while ago,
But you never did pay a heed to it,
Does my face look very ugly to you,
Now that you are at the side of your beautiful
Dalmacia?
MAN : Please, do not draw rush conclusions,
Regarding your doubts and present suspicions,
For Dalmacia has already a sweetheart,
And besides she is also the daughter of Aunt
Barista.
Did I not tell you already,
That I have no more love for other women.
For I will never trade you in with anybody,
Because of your beauty and virtuous mien.
WOMAN: Now you stop flattering me,
With those honeyed words of yours,
Why were you two strolling by the sea,
If you two were not in love with each other?
MAN : 1 was oidy trying to alleviate the sufferings of
Dalmacia,
Because she had a break-up with her sweetheart.
But I really never anticipated the idea,
That we two would cross each other's paths.
WOMAN: I will never believe
The words you have just said.
For I already very well know,
That you are a cunning and shrewd Romeo.
74 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Quarrels of couples caused by jealousy are in most cases
the bitterest of all. The wife particularly is so embittered towards
her husband, who still makes love to other women, that
she not only neglects her household chores and refuses to talk
to her husband, but may even leave her home and children to
return home to her parents. There she enjoys a haven of safety
and refuge, for, her husband, fearing his in-laws, can do nothing
except to plead for forgiveness and pity to make her return to
their home. Sometimes this separation is only temporary, but
even then it lasts for as long as five to ten years, the couple
only to be miraculously reconciled in old age; if not on their
death beds. In some cases they just agree to part from each
other and live their lives separately.
Unlike common divorce practices in America in which the
wife brings her case to court and sues her husband for an alimony,
or a pension for the children if there are any, the Visayan wife,
especially in the rural towns, does not make much ado about it,
but without even making her plans known to her husband, merely
packs her belongings and in the absence of her husband drags
along her children and returns home to her people. There she
brings up her children, maybe in suffering and poverty, but she
finds solace in the thought that it is better to bear the yoke in
hard work and dire poverty than to endure the cruel treatment
of a husband whose feelings and emotions are estranged by
another woman.
The husband on the other hand, after moments of reflection
and contemplation, perhaps realizes his fault too late. Since he
cannot win her back by force because she is under the protecting
folds of her parents, he enters a second stage of courtship to
win back the confidence and love of his lost wife. If he succeeds,
the family is reunited, but if not, he usually lives a life of
dissipation and remorse.
The following alternative song exemplifies such a crisis in
a couple's life.
Balitao Sa Panagbulag Tungod
Sa Pangabubho
LALAKE: Dili masukod, Sing and akong pagmahay,
Tungod sa imo kanakong pagbutang-butang;
Dili na usab ako ni-ana malipay,
Gibuhatan mo man ako'g kasal-anan.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Tungod lung niadtong hitabol-a,
Maghari gayud ang imong pagduda;
Ug alang sa imong gikatahapan,
Wad-a nu lung sa imong dughan.
BABAYE: Kutob karon magbulag kita,
Kay nagdala ka lamang sa disgrasya;
Kon magpadayom kanang imong bisyo,
Ako'y paka ulawan nimo sa mga tawo.
Wala na gayud kini hinungdan,
Kining ato karon'g panagtipon,
Nahisama lung kini sa usa ka tanaman,
Nga ang rnga bulak nahutdan sa alimyon.
LALAKE: Ayaw niana, Sing ug komidya,
Kuyawan man lung ang akong dughan;
Pahiyum ug daliti sa imong katawa,
Isalikway kanang rnga kagul-anan.
Duo1 ngari kanako 0, pinangga,
Kay pahiran ko ang imong rnga luha;
Bag-uhon ta ang atong mga panumpa,
Aron walay kasakit kanato'ng mosanta.
BABAYE: Ayaw pug hunahuna ug komidya,
Kining akolng mga sulti;
Ayaw lamang ako paghanduma,
Ang tanan karon hingkalimti.
Adios, nu lamang kanimo,
Daghang salamat sa imong kaayo
Wad-a nu lung ang tanan,
Kay i m o man akong gibudhi-an.
LALAKE: Pasing ko-0, Pasing intawon,
Ayaw ako pagtalikding makaliton;
Dili gayud ako niana mo uyon
Sa imo karong buot buhaton.
H~nahuna-a lamang pug-ayo,
Ang rnga tahum tang damgo,
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Isugba ba diay ako nimo sa kalayo
Tungod lamang sa pangabubho?
BABAYE: Ayaw lang pagdagha'g sulti .
Kadaghan nu ako nimo niini buhati;
Karon kay dili nu ako maka aguanta,
Masbali lamang ako moritira.
Daghan nu lamang nga salamat,
Sa kadautan sa imong gibuhat;
Hikalimti nu lung kining imong asawa,
Ug kamo lay pagtipon si Dalmacia.
LALAKE: Unsaon man niini, Sing paghimo
Nga wala pa man itugot ang diborsyo,
Malisud nga atong bugto-on,
Kining ato nga kaminyo-on.
BABAYE: Walay malisud sa panagsabut,
Kon uyonan lang natong duha;
Bisan dili ka pa karon mosugot,
Basta bulagon ta gayud ang atong gugma.
The Translation--An Alternative Song of Separation
Because of Jealousy
MAN : My feeling of compunction is immeasurable
Because of your false allegations on me,
Now that is not fair and agreeable,
For you are defaming and reviling me.
Just because of that one incident
Your suspicions are reigning supreme,
With regards to those you are in doubt about
From your heart, please strike them out.
WOMAN: From now on let us part ways
For you are but disgracing me,
If you would go on with your vice,
You put me to shame before people's eyes.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 77
This married state of ours
Is after all as good as useless;
Like unto a garden, whose
Flowers had been deprived of their sweetness
MAN : Please, do not play a joke on me
I am scared as my heart throb shows
Please smile and give me the sunshine of your
laughter
Dispel the gloom of sadness about us.
Come, 0 come to me my beloved,
For I will dry the tears from your eyes;
Let us renew the promises that we have made
So that no troubles would bar our ways.
WOMAN: Do not think that I am joking
In this conversation with you
Just think of me no more
And forget everything said today.
So now fare thee well,
And many thanks for thy care;
Erase everything from memory,
For thou have betrayed the trust I gave to thee.
MAN : Pasing, my beloved oh! Pasing dear,
Please turn not away from me so hastily;
I will never approve of that
Which you are planning to do on me.
Just reflect and consider very well,
Our lovely aspirations and dreams;
Will you then throw me into the fire,
Just because of your jealousy?
WOMAN: Pipe down! and enough of those talks,
For how many times have you done this to me!
Now that I can no longer bear the troubles you
give
It is but logical that I go away.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
So many, many thanks to you,
For the baseness of what you have done;
Forgive and forget me, your wife,
And in Dalmacia seek companionship.
MAN : How can this be done, Pasing,
When divorce is not granted here?
It would be difficult to sever
What marriage has joined together.
WOMAN: There is nothing difficult if we talk things over,
Especially if not one of us would disagree
But even if you will not accede,
I am decided to call this love "quits."
Couple quarrels over children. All travelers unite in attributing
to the early Filipinos extreme family affection.lg The
husband takes to himself not only the obligation of providing
for his wife and children, but also the duty of bringing up his
children in the path of righteousness and in the fear of God.
The father loves his children so much that even if he now and
then wields the rod to punish and correct his children, yet he
does it only when necessary so that he is much feared by the
children, yet they give him that filiation and respect due only
to a patriarch.
On the other hand, the mother whose heart is more tender
but whose patience and temper are also as unpredictable often
times punishes the children just for a little mischief or misbehavior.
Sometimes bored of her daily chores and exhausted
from the discharge of her daily routine, she turns a deaf ear
to a baby crying and crying his lungs out. When the father
comes home from work, he meets with such a troubled atmosphere
that this most often leads to petty bickerings, which however,
may sometimes become a serious quarrel between the husband
and the wife over their children.
19) Blair and Robertson, op. cit., pp. 102-103.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 79
Balitao: Away sa Magtiayon Tungod Sa Ilang Anak
LALAKE: Ang bana ug mahiabut gikan sa buhat
Gubot kanunay ang iyang hunahuna;
Inig saka niya ang bata durong hilak,
Pangotan-on dayon ang asawa ug unsay sala.
BABAYE: Tubagon siya sa iyang asawa
Kastigohon ba ang tawo ug wala pay sala;
Kay ug pasagdan kining bata-a,
Magsalig ang iyang huna-huna.
LALAKE: Mao gayud ug wala ako dinhi sa balay,
Masamok ang atong kaugalingon;
Gub-on mo ang hunahuna'ng mahusay
Kay ang mga bata sa diyotay nga sayop kastigohon.
BABAYE: Ay pastilan kanimong banaha ka,
Wala lamang ikaw ing kalibutan;
lnig abut mo modayon ka lang ug singka,
Dili ka lang mangotana ug unsay kasalanan.
LALAKE: Ngano nga mangutana pa ako
Nga mao naman ang imong batasan
Tarnbagan ikaw dili kaman patu-o
Puriso mao kana ang atong paga awayan.
BABAYE: Ako daku kaayong katarunganon
Kay ako man pirmi ang ania sa puloy-anan
Kay ang panimalay ug dili ko atimanon
Walay makab-ut nga ka-uswagan.
The Translation-An Alternative Song
Depicting A Couple's Quarrel Over
Punishing Their Own Child
MAN : When the husband arrives home from work,
Tired and perplexed are his thoughts;
When he enters the house a child's cries greet him.
So at once he asks his wife for the cause.
80 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
WOMAN: The wife then answers her husband
That no one would be whipped for no cause
For if the rod be spared for this child
He becomes overconfident and spoiled.
MAN : That is always what you do when I am away
No peace and harmony ever reigns in our house
You destroy whatever peaceful atmosphere there
be
Because the children are whipped for a flimsy
cause.
WOMAN: Ay! my husband, you just presume that to be
But what do you know of the true state of things
here
When you arrive, you immediately scold and
censure
Without even finding out who is the sinner.
MAN : Why should I bother to ask,
When I know that that has become your habit?
If I give counsel they are unheeded,
That again would just start another trouble.
WOMAN: I have every reason to act that way
For I am the queen of this household
If I ever neglect my duties as a wife
No prosperity could we reap from our endeavors.
Interference of in-laws. Among the Cebuanos the relation
between parents and children is strong and close. In the early
days before any Occidental influence infiltrated the country,
parental authority was so ample with respect to the person and
property of the son that the latter, even after reaching the legal
age, did nothing without the consent of his parents. Love and
respect to his parents made him leave to his father the election
of his wife, and the father in turn, took care of his son after
marriage as if his child continued being a member of his household
even as a branch still clings to the tree from which it has
grown. His wife, too, belongs to the family, but oftentimes. much
to her earnest endeavor to adjust to her husband's family, the
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 8 1
in-law trouble still sets in. Parents intervene in the affairs of
their children especially in their quarrels. At present in spite
of the fact that married couples are living their own lives in
their own houses, parental intervention is still felt, though no
longer as strong as it was in the olden days when the couple
lived with their parents' family. Nowadays in most instances
during a family crisis, the wife returns home to her parents to
report about the happening. Either her parents accompany her
back to her husband, but extract from him a promise that he
will be good from now on and not abandon or beat his wife or
else they, the parents would get their daughter back; or the
daughter stays at her parents' home and the parents wait for
the husband to come and get his wife. Again, the parents before
yielding their daughter to her husband make him pledge better
treatment and relationship between him and his wife.
The following are two alternating songs depicting parental
intervention in the quarrels of their children. In the first one
the parents are quite hard with the husband to the extent that
they not only threaten him with the infliction of physical punishment
but also with the getting back of their daughter The
second one, however, depicts parents cooling off the two from
the heat of their argument by admonishing and advising them
about the ups and downs of married life.
Balitao Sa Paglaban Sa Ginikanan Sa
llang Anak nga Minyo
AMAHAN: Unsay gitugon ko kanimo, Antonio,
Nga dili mo pasipad-an ang anak ko;
Kay kon wala kana kaniya'y gusto,
Ayaw kahadlok sa pug-uli sa mga kamot ko.
Angay nimo kining himbaw-an
Wala ako makasamad sa iyang balatian,
Kay kon imo gani si Pasing nga pasipad-an,
Tadtaron ko ikaw sa akong sundang.
INAHAN : Isulti ko usab kini kanimo
Ayaw kanamo pagtinunto,
Kon dili ka gani patu-o,
Makatilaw kana gayud ug santako.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Human baya ako kanimo magsulti
Sa imo nga pagka lalake,
Kon mao kanun,ay imong bzihaton
Si Pasing ako gayu'ng kuha-on.
The Translation-Parents Intervene in
the Quarrels of their Children
FATHER : Did I not tell you, Antonio
That you should not abandon my daughter
For if you have grown tired of her,
Do not hesitate to return her to my care.
Please be it known to you
That I have never hurt her feelings,
So, if you would ever neglect my daughter
I will cut you into pieces with this bolo.
MOTHER : I am also telling you this:
Never to commit any foul play with us
But if you will not take heed
Perhaps it is my punch on your nose which
you need.
I have repeatedly reminded you
Of your being a vicious man;
But if you persist in doing what you have often
done, . . . .
I will surely get back my daughter from you.
Balitao Sa Pagtambag Ug Pagmaymay
Sa Magtiayon
INAHAN : Unsa man kaninyo ing nahinabo,
Nga ingon man kami ug nahibulong
Nga dugay nu man nga kamo nagminyo
Na lain man sa among pagsud-ong?
BANA : Ikaw amo man nga ginikanan
Ako lcanimo karon ang magsubay
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Ni Pasing ako gipangabubho-an
Hangtud karon wa ako'y kalipay.
Kanang iya kanakong gipasangil,
Wa siya'y mga kamatuoran;
Ug makatupad ako ug babaye,
Iya dayon akong kasab-an.
AMAHAN: Dili ba kana tinuod
Nga imo nga nabuhat?
Itug-an ayaw paglimodlimod,
Aron sa dautan dili kamo modangat.
Kini kay inyo mang gituyo-an,
Inyo larnang nga antuson,
Mao gayud ang magpuyo sa kalibutan,
Ang kalipay ug kasubo atong pas-anon.
INAHAN : Ang maayo karon ninyong buhaton,
Sa ingon kaninyong nanagpuyo;
Ang dautan dili na lung patulinon,
Aron sa kaayohan kamo mosangko.
Kon kanunay kini ninyong hisgutan,
Mao kana'y mahsamok;
Maayo pang inyong hingkalimtan,
Aron sa dautan kamo malimot.
AMAHAN: Biya-i ninyo ang mga dautan,
Hingpita ang duha ninyo ka kinabuhi,
Batoni ang imomg gipaaumpa
Aron kamo adunay kapwtli.
ASAWA : Dili gayud mahimo,
Buhaton ko gayud ang dautan;
Kay kining akcrng sentimiento,
Hangtud sa akong lubnganan.
Kining akong mga panurnpa,
Wa nu ako kaniya'y pagbati;
Magdapat ang langit ug yuta,
Nga dili ako kaniya makig-uli.
84 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
ANIAHAN: Wa ako'y lain nga ikasulti kaninyo
Mahitungod sa inyong kaminyo-on;
Nga inyong biya-an ang panagbingkil
Ug magpuyo kamong malinawon.
The Translatio+Parents Advising Their
Married Children
MOTHER : What is wrong between you two?
We are quite astonished and would like to know.
Although you have lived together quite long,
We sense that there must be something wrong.
HUSBAND: Since you are our parents:
I will tell you everything then;
That Pasing has accused me of infidelity,
That is why I am not happy.
What she has accused me of,
She does not have the least proof;
Even if I could only sit beside a girl,
She would at once scold me for it.
FATHER : So it is not true,
That you have done what you are accused of?
Now without faltering tell the truth,
So that nothing disgraceful would befall you.
Since you entered into this state of life,
You have to bear the brunt of it;
For to live in this world of strife,
We must share in the happiness and sorrows of it.
MOTHER : The best thing for you to do,
Who a.re starting life anew;
Is to give the devil no headway,
So that in virtue and goodness you stay.
If you would oftentimes make mention of your
bickerings,
It would be the very source of trouble;
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 85
It would be much better to forget them,
So of unpleasant things you will not be reminded.
FATHER : Leave out the bad things behind,
Hold dear and fast your two lives;
Be faithful and true to your promises,
So that you may live pure and virtuous lives.
WIFE : No! that will never do,
For I will do what is baleful;
For this grief that I bear
Will lead me on to my grave.
This pledge which I have made,
That I have no more love for him;
Heaven and earth may meet,
But never will I reconcile with him.
FATHER : This is my last advice to you,
Regarding your married state of life;
That you bury your dissensions and enmities,
So that you will live in harmony and peace.
IV. Visayan Attitude and Ideals as
Reflected in the Balitao
In the balitao we find a spontaneous and informal expression
of the Visayans' real nature and spirit. In it are embodied the
sentiments, attitudes, and ideals of a happy but slightly fatalistic
people, especially of those living in primitive abodes where
endemic peculiarities have not been rubbed off by civilizing
forces. The Visayans' cheerful acceptance of life has always
been tinged with a spirit of fatalism handed down to him from
his ancestors who were probably descendants of the earliest immigrants
from Cambodia, Indo-China, Java and India.20 Born
a stoic, he believes in the basic idea that "destiny wills it" which
gives not only the Visayans, but the Filipinos in general, the
20) Gregorio Zaide, The Philippines Since Pre-Spanish Times
(Manila: R. P. Garcia Publishing Co., 1949), pp. 52-56.
86 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
ability to accept sorrow and pain, toil and trouble with fortitude.
This social outlook on life runs through many instances in the
alternating songs that will follow.
The religious beliefs and the social relationships of the early
Visayans also find expression in the balitao. In fact Blair and
Robertson quotes: "All their religion is based on tradition and
custom and is handed down in songs."21
Towards hardships in marriage. The early Visayans were
always conscious of the fact that married life is fraught with
difficulties, troubles and sorrows; yet they also upheld that marriage
is indissoluble, so the couple must resolve to overcome
these obstacles with determination and optimism as the following
alternative song shows:
Balitao Sa Kapait Sa Kaminyoon
LALAKE: Kining ako karong pagtindug,
Wala ko dad-a ang kasina;
Maayong gabi-i mga higala,
Kaninyong tanan nga ania.
BABAYE: Dason sa kang Antonio
Maayong gabi-i kaninyo
Ug kami karon magayubit
Sa among mga kasakit.
LALAKE: Ug kon dapit man kini ugaling,
Sa kasakit ang atong pinuy-anan;
Tug-anan ta sa mga salingsing,
Aron nzasayud ang kalibutan.
Ayao lung kahadlok sa pagtug-an,
Sa mga kasakit nga atong gibati;
Kay maoy balaold sa kinaiyahan,
Ang pagluban sa atong mga mithi.
21) Blair and Robertson, op. cit., p. 21.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
BABAYE: Ning rnga kaguol dili ako manumbaling,
Ang kalisdunan asdangon sa dakung kasibut;
Kay kon kawad-an sa kaisug ang kasing-kasing
Mapukan sa bung-aw sa rnga kadaut.
Ang rnga mata itutok sa unahan,
Dili palinga nianang rnga kalingawan;
Ang balad mopahiyum ug kita dun-agan,
Sa himaya ug kabuhong sa rnga kakulian.
LALAKE: Pasagdi nga mokatawa ang rnga tawo,
Aron lung pagsulay sa atong rnga kasakit;
Ang taw0 nga kanato nag ga-o ga-o,
Karon nag antus usab sa dakung kangitngit.
Ang kalibutan atong pabation,
Sa bulawanong damgo ug rnga mithi;
Sa dughan tang subo padila-abon,
Ang kainit sa tinguha nga atong gipili.
BABAYE: Ang taw0 gibahin sa duha ka pundok,
Maayo ug dautan ma0 ang rnga latid;
Kon sa rnga kalisdanan kita dili mahadlok,
Ato ang kadaugan kon makatkat ang bakilid.
LALAKE: Duha ka matang ang taw0 ning kalibutan,
Bahandianon. nga tugob sa kalipayan;
Dunay timawa ug kabus nga dili samahan,
Sa kapalaran sila gigantihan.
BABAYE: Mao kana ang balaod sa kinaiyahan,
Kon kita molihok, sa kabuhian hatagan,
Kay kon ma-antus ta ang kasakitan,
Kang Bathala kita pagatabangan.
Ingon niini ang kalibutan,
Dili magsalig sa karon nga madawat;
Kon dili ta manlimbasug sa kalisdanan,
Ang kabulahanan dili kanato modangat.
LALAKE: Ug kon buot kita magmalampuson,
Sa kaayohan ug tingusbawan;
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Ang managyamid dili maka bangon,
Ug maulaw magsud-ong sa kalibutan.
BABAYE: Ang unahan lamang lantawa,
Ug ang kahimtang ta usab sud-onga;
Human sa atong mga kasakitan,
Maangkon ta usab ang tumang kahimaya-an.
The Translation-Visayan Attitude
Towards Hardship in Marriclge
MAN : As I stand here in your presence,
I do not have the least shadow of malice;
Good evening to you all, my friends,
And to evenj one who is here present.
WOMAN: in compliment to Antonio's
Good evening to all of you;
'We will now lay bare before you,
Our many troubles and cares.
MAN : If inevitably, this be a counterpart,
Of the vale of tears where we are living;
Let us share each other's petty cares,
So that the world would come to be aware.
Fear not to reveal everything,
The many vicissitudes we encounter;
For it is but a part of the natural law,
To stand for and safeguard our virtues.
WOMAN: I will not succumb to these afflictions,
I would even meet difficulties with zeal;
For if the heart be drained of courage,
It naturally falls into the pit of evil.
Let us fix our gaze ahead,
Let us not be tempted by worldly pleasures;
Fortune will smile and heap on us,
Joys and contentment by every circumstances.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
MAN : Heed not the ridicules of the people,
For they are made to try men's souls;
The men who have mocked and despised us,
Are themselves suffering from want of enlightenment.
Let us make the world feel,
The golden dreams and aspirations;
Let us set our sad hearts ablaze,
With the fervor of our chosen desires.
WOMAN: Mankind is roughly divided into two groups
One group is good and the other evil.
If by trials and hardships we are not afraid,
Victory is ours if the heights are scaled.
MAN : In this world there are two classes of people;
The rich who have all the pleasures they want
And there are those who are poor and unfortunate;
Who are not blessed by Fortune's rich gifts.
WOMAN: Such is the natural law
That if we work, we will surely live;
For if we can all the hardships bear,
God will to us His blessings give.
This is the way of the world,
We should not depend entirely on present earnings;
For if we do not strive to overcome obstacles,
Hardly would Fortune and Luck be nigh.
MAN : If we wish to be successful,
In righteousness and prosperity;
Revilers and slanderers shall not more rise,
But in shame they shall look at the world.
WOMAN: Let us then look forward into the future,
But forget not to keep an eye on our present;
For after the surging tempest of difficulties,
Greatest joys and blessings could be ours.
Towards a virtuous life. The following song gives us an
idea of the early Cebuano's attitude towards a hard but virtuous
90 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
life in preference to a l i f e o f dishonorable ease. The song further
embodies the Cebuanos' hatred towards the wealthy and therefore
powerful few who try to muffle the rights of the less
privileged people. Of course nothing can be done further than
imploring the Almighty to awaken i n t h e m Christian charity so
they could extend social justice to all.
Balitao Sa Mga Mithi Nga Gimanggad
Sa Mga Sugbuanon
LALAKE: Ang pagpuyo ta niining kalibutan,
Ang kaligdong ato gayung pagamatngonan;
Walay sapayan ug magsukarap sa kangitngitan,
Basta bahandianon ang atong kadungganan.
BABAYE: Ang kamapaubsanon ug pagka mabination,
Mao kanunay atong pagasapnayon;
Ang panagtinahuray ug ang panag-angay,
Haduol da kanato ang mga kalipay.
LALAKE: Ang kalo-oy maoy hiyas nga langitnon,
Ang kalomo maoy labing bililhon;
Kon kining tanan atong maangkon,
Ihatag usab kanato ang grasyang Diyosnon.
BABAYE: Maoy matam-is sa kinabuhi,
Kon malinis lung ang kadungganan;
Mao kini ang atong bahandi,
Nga dili guyud paghingkalimtan.
Ang taw0 hino-ong maantuson,
Malagmit gayud ang kaayohan;
Sa kalipay kanunay'ng hadla-on,
Aron pagdimdim sa katam-isan.
LALAKE: Matam-is usab nga tagamtamon,
Kon ang kalinaw maoy paharion;
Bathala sa gugma Niyang Eangitnon,
Makahupay sa dugh,an tang masulob-on.
Si Bathala mao ang maglilipay,
Siya ang mohatag sa hingpit nga kahusay,
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Ang kahilayan Iyang pagasilhigan,
Kay siya mao may labing gamhanan.
The Translation-Virtues Held
Dear by Cebuanos
MAN : In this way of life in this world,
Honor must be highly esteemed and safeguarded;
Never mind if we grope our way in the dark,
Provided that we are rich in honor.
WOMAN: To be humble and to be charitable,
Are two virtues worth holding dear,
To respect each other and to get along together,
Keeps happiness always and forever near.
MAN : Charity is a virtue heaven-sent,
Mercy is a quality treasured dear,
If we could on all these lay claim,
God will His abundant graces shower.
WOMAN: The sweetest thing in life,
Is when our honor is pure and untarnished,
For this constitutes a priceless wealth,
Which could never be relinquished.
A man who knows how to bear sufferings,
Is most likely to meet with success;
Happiness constantly tickles him
To make him drink from the cup of sweetness.
MAN : It is also sweet to live,
If peace reigns supreme;
God will with His heavenly love,
Soothe the overburdened heart.
God is our sole Comforter,
The Giver of everlasting peace;
He sweeps the world of evils,
For He is All-knowing and Omnipotent.
92 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Towards the proud and haughty. The Visayan by nature
is courteous and respectful especially to his superiors. He is
extremely sensible to kind treatment but is also feelingly alive
to injustice or contempt. He hates the proud and the haughty,
but since he can not do anything about it he only implores Divine
Providence to make them conscious that they are but dust and
therefore to dust they will return. This attitude is embodied
in the song that follows:
Balitao-Ang Tawong Mapahitas-on
Ug Mapalcbilabihon
LALAKE: Kon ang tanlag harian sa damgong mahakugon,
Dili mobati ug kalo-oy sa mga mahisukamod;
Ug alang sa mga tawong maghimo sa ingon,
Sa kaparotan usab sila inud-nud.
BABAYE: Kawang lamang ang pagpalabilabi,
Ning silong sa langit nga atong gipuy-an;
Kay wala'y mogamot nato ning kalibutan,
Kabus ug adunahan sa yuta pagatabunan.
Sa kalibutan walay butang dumalayon,
Ang tanan pauli sa dakung kangitngit;
Ug kon dunay dili rnahiagum sa kamatayon,
Mao da ang kahayag nga makita sa langit.
LALAKE: Hinaut nga ang mapahitas-on lamdagan,
Nga magma-aghup ang ilang balatian;
Ang pagpanlupig unta hing kalimtan,
Kay ang kinabuhi ta ato man lung inuslan.
BABAYE: Bisan unsa usab nato kabahandianon,
Kon anaa kanato ang ka madaug-daugon,
Wala gihapoy bili ug kapuslanan,
Sa kahitas-an usab kita pagasilotan.
Pagkanindot unta nga tan-awon,
Kon ang katawhan usab manag-angay;
Wala madaug-daugon ug mulupigon,
Kita tugob sa tumang mga kalipay.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
The Translation-Attitude Towards
The Proud and Haughty
MAN : If selfish dreams shall overpower conscience,
There will be no more feeling of mercy for the
fallen;
And for those people who would practice such,
In utter misfortune they would be dashed against.
WOMAN: To be proud and haughty is but in vain,
Under these skies in which we live;
For nobody will stay in this world immortal,
Rich and poor alike will return to dust.
In this world nothing stays everlasting,
Everything returns to nothingness;
If ever there's one who knows no death,
'Tis only the light that one beholds in the sky.
MAN : We hope that the proud and haughty will realize,
That they may become more tender in feelings
That they may forget to take advantage of others,
For this life of ours is only borrowed from Him.
WOMAN: Even though how wealthy we may be,
If we are unkind and have no charity;
Everything will just go to naught,
For He up above gives the judgment.
How beautiful it would be to see!
If all the people live in concord and harmony,
There would be no corruption and tyranny,
And happiness would fill the hearts of men.
Towards love of money. The ancient Visayans were not as
materialistic as we are today. To them greed and covetousness
for gold and riches especially if they are done the illegitimate
way are shameful and blameworthy. They believed that love
for material wealth should be transient and secondary. We read
this attitude in the stanzas of the balitao that follows:
94 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Balitao sa Hang01 Ug Bulawan
BABAYE: Kaulit ug kahangol sa bulawan,
Kinalimtan ang dungog nga giampingan,
Bisan mhulog sa bung-aw sa kaulawan,
Dili sapayan basta ang tanan matuman.
Apan ang salapi baya ug bulawan,
Sa takulahaw lamang mawagtang,
Sama nga ang kahumot sa bulak mahanaw,
Mangalarag gayud sa kainit sa adlaw.
LALAKE: Unsaon man nato ang bulawan,
Kon nagkalapok ang iyang kagikan;
Mao lamang unyay pagahisgutan,
Ang kaagi sa atong kaliwatan.
Wala nu untay matahum nga handumanan
Dinhi sa ibabaw sa kalibutan
Kon sa kadungganun lamang mag-amping,
Ang maayong buhat magpabilin sa kasing-kasing.
BABAYE: Ang taw0 pagatahuron diay lamang,
Kon siya usa ka adunahan;
Apan kon usa intawon ka alaut,
Siya mapuno sa panghimaraut.
LALAKE: Ang tawo bisan walay kaalam,
Basta siya usa ka adunahan;
Himbaw-an nu nimong daan,
Siya inila gayud sa katilingban.
Ang makapahimong taw0 ning kinabuhi,
Kon kita adunay bahandi;
Apan kon kita walay salapi,
Wala gayud kanatoy mollingi.
BABAYE: Angay man gani untang tabangan,
Ang manag-antus sa mga kupaitan;
Apan inay malooy ang adunahan,
Ila hinoong inudnud sa kadautan.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
LALAKE: Mao kana ang matang sa katawhan,
Nga karon atong rnakita;
Abi anaa man sila sa maayong kahimtang,
Gipakaingon ug sila nalay Bathala.
BABAYE: Kay unsaon man nato ang bahandi,
Dayandayan man lan ning kinabuhi;
Kay didto unya sa laing kalibutan,
Ang tanan magsama man ang kahimtang.
The Translation-Visayan Attitude
Towards Love of Money
WOMAN: Greed and selfishness for gold and riches!
Forgetting and casting aside honor which had been
valued!
Though he falls into the pit of shame,
It doesn't matter provided his cravings are fulfilled.
But bear in mind, that money and gold,
By the wink of an eye, maybe lost;
Like unto the fragrance of the flower gone,
Welts and falls because of the heat of the sun.
MAN : Then of what use is gold to us,
If it has been from the mire of dishonor taken?
It would just be a good subject for gossip,
And the infamous history of our lineage.
There is nothing fonder for recollection,
In this beautiful world of ours;
That to value and treasure one's honor,
For only the good deeds remain with the heart
forever.
WOMAN: So a person is respected only,
If he has much property and money;
But if he be a miserable one,
He would just be full of reproof and censure.
96 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
MAN : A man though unlettered and uncultured,
Provided he has wealth to squander;
(Oh! you know it already.)
That he is known and popular in society.
So that which makes a man in this life,
Is wealth in money or property to spare;
But if we do not have a penny to spend,
Nobody would ever cast a glance at us.
WOMAN: It would have been more praiseworthy to help,
Those that are suffering the bitterness of life;
But instead of extending mercy to the poor,
The rich usually pin them down to misery, the
more.
MAN : These are the kinds of people
That nowadays we find,
Thinking that they are already on top,
They presume that they have become our God.
WOMAN: For what is wealth after all,
But an ornament in this life?
When in the next world where we all go,
Everybody is levelled to the same conditions.
The envious neighbor. The Visayan does not like an envious
neighbor. To him, he who looks through the green or yellow
veil of jealousy, does not have any peace of mind and worst still
is that he looks with no merit at the actions of his fellowmen.
He condemns such kinds of people in this alternating song that
follows:
Balitao-Ang Masinahon Ug Mayubiton
LALAKE: Ang mga tunob sa mga malampuson,
Maoy salamin nga ila kanatong gibilin;
Ayaw panumbalinga'ng buhat mo tamayon,
Sa rnga tawong masinahon ug wa'y kasingsing.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 97
BABAYE: Ang mga mayubiton pasaylo-a ug hingkalimti,
Pagkasayop, kinaiya; pagpasaylo maoy kaaghop;
Kay kining mga butanga dili ug dili magbali,
Kaligdong ang molungtad, magdayon ug mosantop.
LALAKE: Ang tawo nga magbaton ug kasina,
Walay kahusay ang kaisipan;
Sa dughan mawala ang psghigugma,
Ug sa kasilag gayud pagahulipan.
Diha sa kasina anha magasugod,
Ang kahanawan sa panagdait;
Ang taw0 mahimong walay puangod,
Kon sa kasilng makiglambigit.
BABAYE: Bisan pag maligdong ang mga buhat,
Sa taw0 nga buot nila kasilagan;
Kon ang kasina nu gani ang moaghat,
Ang katarung lamang hingkalimtan.
Kay ang kasina igso-on sa kasilag,
Maoy sakit nga minugna sa kaligutgot;
Sila sa kalinaw maoy magbungkag,
Kon kasinahan sa higalang sandurot.
The Translation-Attitude Towards the
Envious and Jealous Neighbor
MAN : Footprints of great and successful men,
Are examples that they have left for us to follow;
So heed not those who despise your work,
For they are envious and heartless fellows.
WOMAN: Forgive and forget those jealous gossipers
To sin is human; to forgive divine;
This two should never be interchanged,
To make righteousness triumph and prosper in the
end.
MAN : A man who harbors the feeling of envy,
Has no peace of mind, no not any;
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
From the heart all loving thought would disappear,
And is replaced by hatred and jealous anger.
From out of envy would commence,
The disappearance of peace and understanding,
And man would be no better than a brute,
If with jealousy he aligns himself.
WOMAN: Though the work done by a person,
Whom they have an envious eye for is admirable;
If it is jealousy that forces and compels,
What is rightful and true is just forgotten.
For jealousy is the twin sister of envy,
They are maladies born out of hate;
They break up whatever peace there is,
Especially when a friend is envied even by a close
friend.
On the dignity of labor. The Visayans uphold the nobleness
there is in work. To them, work is God-given and therefore
should be embraced with the spirit of calm reservation and
dignity as the following song portrays:
Balitao-Ang Pagkugi Ug Pagmahal Sa Buhat
LALAKE: Ang kinabuhi pun0 gayud sa pagtulon-an
Dili sama sa panganod nga ipadpad;
Kay kon ang tawo magkugi lamang,
Ni Bathala siya pagatabangan.
Kita gipakatawo aron mabuhi,
Aron pagsunod sa tanang pagtulon-an,
Kon wala kitay hiyas sa pagbati,
Masagubang ta ang mga kasakitan.
BABAYE: Kinahanglan molihok ug manlimbasug
Sa pagbating maligdong magpaabut
Mag-antus, mag-pailub sa kaaghop,
Isalikway ang katalaw ug kataspok.
Ang pakigbugno sa kalisdanan sa kinabuhi,
Dili gamiton ang mga paaging tinalaw;
Mobarog aron pagdaug sa mga mithi,
Dili sa usa ka paaging tinaphaw.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
LALAKE: Ang buhat bisan unsa ka talamayon,
Hinono-a makapahimo natong dungganan,
Labi na ug magbaton sa dakung kaligdong
Mao kanay puhonan sa atong kaugmaon.
The Translation-Attitude on the Dignity of Labor
MAN : Life is indeed full of lessons,
Unlike the fleecy clouds that are drifted by;
For if man would only labor industriously,
God would help him in his endeavors.
We were born in order to live,
To serve God and obey His teachings,
But if we lack the blessed gift of love,
We would likely encounter hardships and troubles.
WOMAN: It is necessary that we work and strive,
For a love of the true and virtuous we must await;
Be patient in suffering and humble in clemency,
Disregard cowardice and indolent spirit.
In our daily encounters with the difficulties in
this life,
Let us not use the cowardly way;
Be firm so that the virtues would triumph,
Not in the hypocritical and pretentious way.
MAN : Work, though how base and lowly it is
Maketh a man respectable and dignified,
Most especially if he maintains his uprightness.
That would be laying for himself treasures for
the coming days.
V. Occupational Activities of the Early Cebuanos
in the Balitao
The balitao of the early Cebuanos reflects to an amazing
degree the simple activities of their daily lives. Many of these
songs are closely linked with the agricultural life of the people.
The other occupations of the people also found expression in
100 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
the balitao. The hardship of labor and the difficulties of their.
various tasks were often in their minds. Apparently, a certain
amount of relief was afforded them by singing of the things that
they had to do.
Farming. Many of the songs that a Visayan sings is closely
linked with his agricultural life; this being the typical life most
Visayan live. The Visayan feels that his life is directly dependent
upon the gifts of nature so he sings of his crops and'also his
joys and pains in this life activity as this song shows:
Balitao sa Mag-ooma
LALAKE: Kita ang magtiayon nga kabus,
Sa kalisud naga antus,
Gipapasan sa krus,
Ang kinabuhi nagbubaliktos.
BABAYE: Mao gayud ang mag-o-oma
Sa baol maglibot-libot,
Matapus nu lamang ang semana,
Sa pagbugwal sa mga sagbut.
Apan ayaw baya pagmahay,
Kay sa oma anak ta maka estudyo;
Sa dili karon madugay,
May anak nu kitang abogado.
LALAKE: Tuod no, nailhan na man,
Kitang tanan dinhi sa Sugbo,
Tungod kay ang atong mga anak,
Nalcabaton ug grado sa atong pug-agak.
Busa, maayo diay ang mag-o-oma,
Kay bisan ug magkalisud-lisud,
Apan daghan diay ug kuarta,
Sama sa mosuhot sa bungsod.
BABAYE: Nakasabut kana ba, Indong,
Niining atong kahimtang,
Puriso ayaw nu pangita ug lain,
Kay ang oma dili ta gayud biyaan.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
An Alternating Song of A Farmer's Life
MAN : We are a poor couple
Enduring the hardships of life,
Made to bear our daily crosses
And grappling with life's forces.
WOMAN: So this is the life of a farmer,
By and about our field we move;
Week in and week out we find ourselves,
Tilling the soil and weeding our field.
But let us not regret our choice,
For by our field we have educated our children;
It will not be long from now,
When we shall have a full-fledged lawyer.
MAN : In fact we have been known,
By many here in our town;
Because our children have all been educated,
Through our painstaking guidance.
Therefore it is blessed to be a farmer,
For even if he appears hard-up,
The truth is that he has much cash,
Corning in like fish into the corral.
WOMAN: Now do you understand, Pedro
About this blessed state of ours;
Therefore waste no time seeking another job,
For we will never abandon this-our farm.
Tuba gathering. Another activity commonly indulged in
by a Visayan is tuba-gathering. This is typically Visayan as
people in Luzon do not practice such an occupation. Tuba is a
native Visayan drink obtained from the sap of a coconut bud
mixed with a certain tan bark. The tuba gatherer climbs the
coconut tree once in the morning and another time in the afternoon
to collect the gathered sap. While he is up in the tree he
sings of his work, his joys as well as his troubles as the balitao
that follows shows:
102 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Balitao Sa Manananggot
LALAKE: Ako ang manananggot,
Sa lubi kanunay'ng nagsaka;
Giyamiran sa mga babaye,
Kay pulos ako kono mansa.
Kubalon ako'g samput,
Adlaw ug gabi-i sa lubi nagsaka,
Apan hinlo nga walay sagbut
Kining ako Inday nga gugma.
BABAYE: Walay sagbut nga makita,
Kanang imong gugma,
Tungod sa kamansahon mo'g pangita,
Wala ka gihapo'y asawa.
Molikay kami kanimo
Kay mahadlok ug hitakdan
Kay nabulit man sa mansa
Ang imong kalawasan.
LALAKE: Ug dili diay ako mobiya
Niining pangitaa,
Biscm tabunan ako sa yuta,
Dili makatilaw ug asawa.
Apan lisud tingaling biya-an
Kining pangita naku,
Kay pagbuot man sa kahitas-an,
Nga maoy ilang gitudlo.
An Alternating Song Of A Tuba-Gatherer's Life
MAN : I am a tuba gatherer,
Who climbs the coconut tree everyday;
Snobbed and shunned by the ladies
For I am dirty and full of stain, they say.
The skin around my loins have thickened,
For day and night I climb the coconut tree,
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
But pure, spotless and without blemish
Is my love for you, young lady.
WOMAN: Yes, no spot or blemish could I see,
In that love you profess for me;
But because of your stainful occupation,
Until now no wife have you for yourself won.
We run away from you
For fear that you would contaminzte us;
For you are all smeared with stain,
All round your bodily frame.
MAN : So if I do not change,
This my very occupation;
Though earth shall cover me then,
I can never a wife for me win.
But I think it is hard for me,
To leave this means of livelihood;
For it is to me Heaven sent,
And the very one for me meant.
Fishing. The Visayan Islands are spaciously separated from
each other by shallow shelves of gulfs, bays or seas which abound
in fishlife. Naturally fishinq is second only to farming as an
industry of Visayans. People along the coastal towns depend
for their livelihood on this occupation. Here in this song that
follows a fisherman lamentably sings of the hard life he lezds
at sea and yet what he gets for his catch is never enough even
for the bare necessities of life:
Balitao Sa Mananagat
LALAKE: Ako ang mangingisda,
Dagat ang akong pinuy-anan,
Mao ray akong pangita,
Sa adlaw ngatanan.
Ang akong makuha
Katambak ug tanguigui
Ug akong ibaligya
Mahalin dayon bisa'g pila'y bili.
104 MAR,IA COLINA GUTIERREZ
BABAYE: Mahalin dayon ang imong isda,
Apan igo rang irnong gastohon;
Wala kay kuarta'ng makita,
Kay dili man matigum.
Kay usikan ka man kaayo
Wa7ay kuarta nga matigum
Kanang pangita nimo
Igo ra sa imong pagkaon.
LALAKE: Tinuod bitao, ambut ug hain,
Nga igo ra mang magasto,
Makapangita tingali akdg lain,
Ug maminyo ako kanimo.
Giantus ko kining panagat,
Nga maoy akong pangita;
Kay wala pa may mosugat,
Sa akong makuha nga isda.
BABAYE: Kanang imong pangita,
Pangasawa usab ug manginginhas;
Aron wala kaninyo'y bintaha,
Ug ang inyong panghunahuna magkaparihas.
An Alternating Song of A Fisherman's Life
MAN : I am a fisherman,
The sea is my home,
'Tis my only occupation,
Day in and day out.
What I catch the oftener
Are Spanish mackerels and red snappersz2
22) Visayan term tanguigue is Spanish mackerel in Englishscientific
name Ranzaina makua; katambak is red snapper in English.
Lutianus sanguineus is its scientific name. Albert W. Herre and Agustin
Umali, English and Local Common Names of Philipppine Fishes, Circular
14, United States Department of Interior Fish and Wild Life Service,
p. 54.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
And if I would peddle these
They readily sell irrespective of the price.
WOMAN: Your fish could be sold at once,
But what you get is just enough to spend,
You have no money to save,
For it is difficult to accumulate.
For you are too much a spendthrift
So your money you can't accumulate
Besides your occupation brings in only
Enough money for your daily bread.
MAN : 'Tis true, and I don't know why
The money I earn is just enough to be spent,
I may perhaps land myself in another job,
If your hand you'd give to me in marriage.
I have borne the brunt of fishing,
Being the only occupation I have;
Since nobody is there to meet,
Whatever catch I may be able to have.
WOMAN: In that occupation of yours,
You should also marry a shell gatherer,
So that both of you would stand on the same level
And so would your thoughts also run parallel.
This chapter closes its expose on the different phases of
Visayan culture and folklife as are embodied in the balitao the
most representative of Cebuano folksongs. In it are mirrored
not only the activities, the feelings and reactions of the simple
folk to their environment, but also their loves, ideals and their
naive interpretations of the phenomenon of nature. As a matter
of fact it may be said that there was hardly an experience of
life or a factor in the environment that did not find expression
in this type of song.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
CHAPTER V
THE BALITAO IN CONTEMPORARY VISAYAN CULTURE
The balitao as an autochonously Visayan folksong has long
been submerged in obscurity due to the impact of Western influences
on culture, thought and entertainment. These Occidental
influences have not only transformed the native arts, but also
affected fundamental ideas, as well as the way of giving expression
to the feelings of the Visayan soul. The change had
been to such an extent that native songs were put aside and
native ways and ideas appeared as mere vague reminiscences
of a remote past.
The Japanese occupation. Some years before the Pearl
Harbor incident, the spirit of renaissance was just sweeping
along the Philippine shores and some enthusiastic scholars were
digging up the past to study Philippine culture and art in their
pristine forms. The work of these scholars was centered mostly
in Luzon for, unluckily enough, war broke out before the work
could be carried further to the Visayan Islands. Despite this,
the last carnage, World War 11, did some service to the native
arts and culture in so far as it weaned the Filipinos, especially
the Cebuanos (here in Cebu the army carried out its "scorchedearth
policy") for almost five years from everything Western
that they were used to, such as: foodstuff, clothing, forms of
entertainment, and luxury. The population in Cebu retreated
to the hills and the remotest barrios in order to escape from
Japanese tyranny, but more especially to avoid being marked
out by the guerrillas as collaborators of the then puppet government
in the Islands. So, rich and poor alike had to experience
living the life of the simple country folk, to share in their Sun
and forms of entertainment, to listen to their songs and folktales,
and to observe their superstitious and religious rites of
planting and harvesting. During this period the city populsce
who did not understand and some who even shunned the simple
ways and practices of the country folk realized that after all
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 107
these simple people were entitled to their naivete and simplicity.
Through this long contact with the rural folk, the city people
eventually came to understand and even learn the folkways of
the mountain people. From this understanding and knowledge
developed love and appreciation for the old folk traditions; for
after all, are these traditions not also theirs basically?
Though this period was marked by anxiety and fear of the
Japanese who might at any unguarded moment come up to the
hills to annihilate the guerrillas, still the mixed populace of
basically rural folk and the city evacuees found time to come
together for fiesta celebrations or harvest gatherings. The balitao
was often the highlight of the entertainment. A balitao couple
entertained the gathering with their witty exchange of verses
while they danced around to the tune of an old harp and the
click of the castanets. The barrio's crude string band entertained
the crowd occasionally with its plaintive and pastoral
balitao airs.
Even then the Cebuanos never forgot their favorite pastime.
In some out-of-the-way places the men came together to gamble
both time and money away. Cockfighting was enjoyed not only
by the male but also by the female species. Even in this infamous
assembly, the balitao was not a stranger. Usually in one or the
other corner a game of betting called dejado was going on. The
dejadista had to sing the balitao in order to attract players. She
sang while she manipulated her cards and dice. If any man in
the crowd knew the balitao, he would respond to the dejadista
and they sang alternatingly until one of them was exhausted.
Usually it was the man who gave up, for the dejadista is a veteran
in her trade. Sometimes unchallenged, the dejadista sang alone
addressing the onlookers and inviting them to bet on her art.
She sang as she moved about in her game while the players lost
their money to her. Dejado was a common game wherever a
crowd was assembled.
Those war years, indeed, brought the city folk to the rural
setting of whatever traditions their forebears had left behind.
There was no way out.. The balitao had completely won over
the esteem and love of the evacuees for the almost lost art of
the past.
The American liberation period. Post liberation days swept
the Visayan off his feet; for, what they had missed for some
years came back with the liberation forces. The American jazz
108 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
and boogie were everywhere around and even little children
whistled and sang them, so the sad and melancholic balitao was
relegated to the background once more.
However, after the American soldiers rolled up their last
tent to leave the Philippines to the Filipinos, the people woke
up from the dream of everything American or Occidental, snd
began to gather up what little fragments of things native were
left in the dust.
The drama-balitao. The balitao was picked up again but in
a modified form. Instead of just a couple dancing and singing
the balitao alternatingly, it graduated into a drama balitao, which
is. as the name suggests, a combination of a drama and a balitao.
Several innovations were introduced by the change. The
drama-balitao necessitated a stage with properties such as: a
backdrop, a drop curtain and room furnishings unlike the plain
balitao which could be danced anywhere. The cast was increased
to more than two although the balitao couple were still the chief
characters. A story had to be woven around a theme unlike the
plain balitao in which no story is told but only a theme is argued
about. The dramatic parts were acted and the words were spoken
while the lyrical parts were sung by the couple.
This new form of the balitao recaptured whatever waning
interest there was left among the people for the balitao. They
became interested anew in this aspect of the balitao so that it
again was a popular form of entertainment during social gatherings.
The same balitao dancers were the organizers of this
drama-balitao, and here and there during barrio or town fiestas,
they entertained the barrio or town people with their art. They
charged from fifty to a hundred pesos for a night's performance
depending upon the theme asked for, which also determined the
stage properties and number of characters needed. Transportation,
board and lodging were taken care of by the committee
in charge of social activities for that town or barrio inviting
them. The money paid out to the balitao troupe was taken from
a general contribution of the community for the fiesta expenses,
so everybody in the community saw the drama-balitao without
charge. It must be noted however, that the audience was composed
mostly of old people, and children for, as usual, the young
men and women preferred the dance to it.
Repeating the story of its predecessor, the drama-balitao
could not stay to hold the interest of the public. Its music was
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 109
monotonous, its themes ran practically along the same vein, the
movements of the dancers were stereotyped, and the story had
no variations, so that some of those in the audience would even
foretell what would happen next as the play moved on. So,
naturally the drama-bnlitao was consigned to the background
of the moving pictures and other forms of entertainment.
Radio programs sponsoring the balitao. In 1948, the radio
picked up the almost abandoned art, and watered the withering
interest there was left among the Visayans for the balitao. The
Philippine Manufacturing Company sponsored a thirty-minute
balitao program over station D.Y.R.C. in Cebu City every Saturday
evening at eight-thirty to nine o'clock. This program which
was started in February, 1948; was discontii?ued in June, 1950.
After a lapse of four years the San Miguel Brewery revived
the balitao in a program it sponsored called the Mid-Week Jamboree.
It was on the air every Wednesday from seven o'clock
to seven thirty in the evening. This radio program which started
on August 29, 1954, ended August 31, 1955, after a year's existence.
Thus as we have seen, the radio has done its share to keep
alive this priceless tradition and folksong of the Visayan people
lest it be buried in oblivion because of the many modern influences
bewildering the youth today coupled with the lamentable
fact that the younger generation considers the balitao naive and
artless.
Cebuano motion picture and the balitao. The Visayan motion
picture industry does its share too in bringing before the Visayan
people the beauty of their own traditions which they just take
for granted. In its infancy the Visayan motion picture industry
quarried much material from Cebuano folklife and Visayan
traditions in general.
To show his love and esteem for the balitao, Mr. Piux
Kabahar immortalized this old Cebuano tradition in his maiden
production "Rosas Pnngdan" which he produced in collaboration
with Tor Villarino. Rosas Pangdan was a mountain maiden who
lived a simple but virtuous life. She was so good at balitao singing
and dancing that she claimed it to be her chief attribute in
life. The name "Rosas Pangdan" is very closely associated with
balitao. The following song is pronounced by many as the oldest
balitao still extant. This was the theme song of the play.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Rosas Pangdan
Ani-a si Rosas Pangdan
Gikan pa intaon sa kabukiran
Kaninyo makig-uban-uban
Ning gisa-ulog ninyong kalingawan
Balitao day akong pultonan
Maoy kabilin sa akong ginikanan
Awit nga labing kara-an
Nga garbo sa atong kabungturan.
Dika-deng dika-deng aya'y sa utong balitao
Maanindot pa ug sayaw
Daw yamog nga mabugnaw
Dika-dong dika-dong intawon usab si Dodong
Nagtan-aw kang Inday
Nagtabisay ang laway.
Translation of the Song
Rosas Pangdan is here
I have just come from my mountain lair
With you wanting to share
The pleasures of your merry-making.
The balitao is my only attribute
Which is a legacy from my ancestors
It is the most ancient of songs
Which is the pride of our hills.
Dika-deng dika-deng ay! for our balitao
The dancing is very graceful
The music is as soothing as the dew
Dika-dong dika-dong, pity the young man
Who's looking at the young lady
Very tantalizingly but in vain.
The balitao in Cebuano-Visayan Literature. If literature "is
the expression of life in words of truth and beauty, the written
record of man's spirit, of his thoughts, emotions, aspirations; the
history and the only history of the human sou1,"l then Cebu
- -
1) William Long, English Literature (Boston: Ginn & Co., 19191,
p. 8.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 111
Visayan literature exists, no doubt about it, but in its unappreciated
and therefore neglected state. It is a shameful fact,
yet it is true, that a great many of the so-called "educated class"
of Visayans do not care for literary works written in the vernacular,
while they subscribe to all kinds of English publications
and books. In fact, popular vernacular literature which is found
in such weeklies as "The Bisaya," "The Alimyon," "The Saloma"
and some other booklets of stories or Visayan songs, is seldom
found in the library of the cultured Visayan.
Mrs. Catalina Bucad brings out much painful truth when
she wrote this paragraph in her thesis:
One thing wrong with the greater bulk of the educated class
of Visayans is that they take this native art for granted. They
display a condescending attitude toward native literature even to
the extent of regarding it as naive or artless for no reason at all
except that it is written in his own simple dialect. Many of the
supposedly educated mass do not even know how to read the
vernacular writings fluently and to write the dialect correctly. The
tendency of this class of persons to snob their own literature is a
manifestation of their own ignorance about it.2
It is also disheartening to note here that Cebuano-Visayan
literature is still in its scattered state; that no effort has ever
been exerted to collect and preserve it. Whatever literary works
were done by Cebuano writers are either in the possession of the
writer himself, if he is still living or in his relations' keeping,
or they may just be scattered about in publications to which
the author may have submitted them for printing.
The traditional balitao which is said to be the height of the
creative ingenuity of the Visayans unfortunately finds no outlet
in print. The writer has dug into piles of vernacular weeklies
only to find no trace of the antiphonal balitao ever printed.
However, the wri.ter has come across two printed booklets containing
alternating balitao quatrains. One, "Matahum Basahon
sa Kulilisi3 ug Balituo" (A Beautiful Book On the Kulilisi and
2) Catalina Manlosa-Bucad, "The Elements of Joy and Melancholy
in Cebu Visayan Literature," unpublished thesis, University of San
Carlos, Cebu City, p. 2.
3) The kulilisi is a game played during the nine-day prayer for
the repose of the dead. It consists of selecting a judge who presides
over the assembly of young men and women who take turns flinging
112 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
the Balitao) printed by Bacalso Press of Basak, Pardo, Cebu
City, unfortunately bears no copyright date. It is a small booklet
seven inches long by five inches wide containing thirty pages
of balitao and kulilisi verses. The other booklet is such an old
one that it has lost its cover and therefore the writer could not
ascertain its name since it could nowhere be found in the contents.
It is a booklet of fifty-one pages embodying the works
of Fernando Buyser, a noted Visayar, poet. The booklet is divided
into "Poems of Old," "Songs of the Mountains-the Balitao,"
"Serenades" and "Songs" which he calls "Saloma."
The balitao romansacla, however, here and there graces the
"Poetry or Song" sections of our vernacular magazines. They
even find their place in song compilations called "Popular Songs"
or "Song Hits."
As has been traced, we see the Cebuano balitao silently and
imperturbably struggling with foreign influences which are quite
strong here especially in this our time, but aespite this, plus the
younger generation's cold shoulder to it, the balitao has securely
asserted itself as a living tradition, the Cebuano ought to be
proud of. Time can never dislodge it. Though never written
down yet, it is not forgotten for it is so deeply ingrained in the
Visayan soul that it awaits only the chance to unfold itself anew
to charw the people with its wise homespun philosophy and its
antiquity.
verses at each other,. One party parries a riddle or puzzle and the
other sex answers. Whoever is defeated is punished by the judge by
making him or her sing or recite verses. Like the balitao, the kulilisi
makes a play or contest of wit, but while the balitao verses are sung
those of the kulilisi are merely recited.
,THE CEBUANO BALITAO
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
"The balitao was a popular dance-song of the Visayans. It
had a rhythm of a melodious and spiritual waltz and is like the
jota of Spain, the tarentella of Italy and the auvergnat of
France."' Thus has Mr. Alip, noted Philippilie historian, very
aptly described this famous song-dance of the Visayans. The
balitao is more played than danced. While a man and a woman
stand vis-avis they responsively or alternately sing a love ditty.
The girl pretends to refuse the pleading of love. Further explanation
follows in a poetic dialog as they dance with each other
keeping time with the music until the love of the man is accepted.
(Pictures found in the Appendix of this work show this position.)
The balitao is a truly ancient native art and a complicated
art at that. How the balitao couple could think out witty,
humorous, or even at times satirical ideas and express them in
rhymed verse set to music, while they execute bodily dance
movements to the rhythm of the accompaniment could only
baffle a modern. The balitao unquestionably antedated the coming
of the Spaniards.
The early balitao, called ayayi, although in it scrude form,
embodied the emotions and ideals as well as the daily activities
of the simple folks. Then the advent of Spanish domination
brought about influences which worked themselves into the
balitao. The greatest influence was the Christianization of whatever
pagan elements the balitao had. The naive subject matter
of the early balitao was polished and enriched and its simple
diction was improved by the assimilation of Spanish words and
phrases into it. The balitao in its impromptu setting reached its
highest development during the Spanish times. The balitao at
1) E. Alip, Philippine Civilization (Before Spanish Times) (U.S.T.,
Press, Manila, 1936), p. 42.
114 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
this stage since it was spontaneously sung was richly and truly
reflective of the Visayan people in its representation of their
emotion and varied activities in life. Here in these songs Visayan
love and jest piped their tune, Visayan anger and enmities
drummed their beat and Visayan ideals and morals found their
pulpit.
The coming of the more democratic and liberal rule of the
Americans found this song-dance gradually leaving the sphere
of impromptu folk entertainment and entering upon a field of
specialization, in which people gifted with a lot of witty common
sense and possessed of the poetic ability train themselves well
on it and made it their serious occupation. Every barrio had
at least its one or two balitao couples, although there were some
barrios which were more popular than tlie others regarding the
fame of their bali,tao dancers. The ability of each balitao singer
was tested and tried, when during fiestas and other merry-making
assemblies, one balitao singer challenged another of the opposite
sex to a debate in song over a theme just decided during their
meeting. Whoever was defeated was replaced by another who
tapped him on the shoulders to give way to him. The love debate
continued until the unvanquished singer became very tired.
Along this line Colasing of San Nicolas had very well proved
herself to the Visayan balitao audience as queen of the balitao.
Even Pedro Alfafara the acknowledged "king of the balitaoJJ
attested to the fact that Colasing was really difficult to outwit
in this art. Loeb in his article "Courtship and Love Songs" made
the same findings when he wrote, "The women are said to be
especially proficient in this art."2
In some Eastern countries the youth are not only trained to
make rimes but they are also encouraged to be proficient at it
through contests held between the sexes, as these quotations
state:
In Japan from the fifth to the seventh century A.D. the people
had a form of pantum which they used in courting. These were
called kagai. They were alternate songs improvised by youths and
maidens. . . . Likewise in Tibet men and women stand in alternate
lines advancing and retreating an3 answering each other in verse.
This festival is held in the spring.
2) E. M. Loeb, "Courtship and the Love Song," Anthropos
(Fribourg, Switzerland: St. Paul, 1950), Vol. XLV, p. 831.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 115
In Annam peasant feasts of alternate chanting take place in
both the spring and fall although they are much more common in
the fall. The songs are composed by boys and girls who answer
one another in verse. The contests consi4t In seeing where the boys
or the girls can sing the longer.
In contests near Hal-Phong, a port of Tonkin, special rules are
observed. If a boy is defeated in a contest the girl has the right to
seize his hat and the boy must tell her his name and age. If, however,
it is the girl who is defeated the boy has the right to marry
her. In case the girl refuses to marry her conqueror, the notables
can exile her from the village; her family considers her an ingrate
and often disinherits her.
In Sumatra, among the Toba Batak intercourse between the
sexes is especially free and the youths and girls often have a form
of competition in which four-line rimed couplets are exchanged. Whoever
loses has to pay a forfeit: the boy gives a piece of his clothing,
a knife or some other trinket, the girl gives herself.3
In Annam the ability to compose verses is considered so
important that it is taught in the schools.
Rimes are considered so important today that they are taught
in the schools and much of the success that a man may have in life
may depend on his skill as a rimester. It is even said that a bride
may bar her husband from her nuptial couch and divorce him as
if impotent if he fails properly to respond to her first line on the
night of the wedding.4
In view of the foregoing facts, the writer wishes to insinuate
that if those neighboring countries could give that much importance
to antiphonal riming or singing, why can not we here
follow such a lead?
The writer closes this work with high hopes that the balitao
will find its place in every Visayan heart. The prospects are
bright for despite our modern youth's passivity toward it, this
song-dance of our forefathers is not completely lost. It is still
in the air proudly struggling to compete with the onrush of
modern foreign airs. The competition is very keen especially
that by nature the Filipino is more inclined to appreciate that
which is not his own, but in spite of this the balitao has assuredly
3) E. M. Loeb, "Courtship and the Love Song," Anthropos
(Fribourg, Switzerland: Imprimbrie St. Paul, 1950), Vol. XLV, pp. 832-
835.
4) Loc. cit., p. 833.
116 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
asserted itself in Visayan culture and folklife. The Visayan
people too despite the strong influence of Occidental culture
which is deeply rooted in their ways and customs have to a
little extent preserved with endearing loyalty the few remnants
of their old truly Oriental culture, so that though they are
thrown into a maze of new modalities attractive and enchanting,
there still remains in them the ear for truly Philippine music.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
B I B L I O G R A P H Y
A. BOOKS
Alip, Eufronio, Political and Cultural History of the Philippines. Manila:
Alip and Brion Publications, Inc., 1948. 206 pp.
A general history of the Philippines with emphasis on the political
and cultural aspects of the past.
Beyer, Otley and Jaime de Veyra, The Philippine Saga. Manila: Published
by the Evening News, 1947, 1952 pp.
A pictorial portrayal of the significant events in the making of
the Filipino nation.
Castillo, Teofilo del, A Brief History of Philippine Literature. Manila:
Progressive Schoolbooks, 1937. 467 pp.
A historical survey analysis of Philippine literature.
Fairchild, H. P., Dictionary of Sociology. New York City: Philosophical
Library, 1944. 342 pp.
This book gives a full and complete treatment of sociological
terms and expressions.
Long, William, English Literature. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1919.
636 pp.
A historical survey of English literature from Anglo-Saxon period
to modern times.
Sieber, S. A. & F. H. Mueller, The Social Life of Primitive Man.
Techny, Illinois: Mission Press. S.V.D., 1950. 566 pp.
A textbook on cultural anthropology. It gives a summary of
the salient facts of primitive social life and attempts to fit these
facts into the picture pre-historians have drawn for the earliest
stages of human development.
Webster's New International Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusetts,
Meriam Company, 1948. Second edition. 3210 pp.
A dictionary of the English language.
Zaide, Gregorio, The Philippines Since Pre-Spanish Times. Manila:
R. P. Garcia Publishing Company, 1949. 486 pp.
This book narrates the epic of the Filipino people from their
obscure beginning during pre-Spanlsh epochs to the colonial days
of the 18th century.
B. PARTS OF A SERIES
Blair, E. and J. Robertson, The Philippine Islands 1493-1898. Cleveland,
Ohio: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1903-1909. 55 volumes.
The series gives the most complete and detailed account of the
explorations by early navigators. Descriptions of the Islands and
118 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic Missions,
the political, economic, commercial, and religious conditions from
their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning
of the Nineteenth Century.
Census of the Philippine Islands: Talien under the direction of the
Philippine Commission in the year 1903. Vol. I. Washington:
United States Bureau of Census, 1905. 4 vols.
This is a general survey of the topography, population, commerce,
and industry and the cultural status of the Philippines
during the American occupation.
Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XLV. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1945. 24 volumes.
A general reference on whatever subjects there are in the English
language.
Galang & Osias, C. (eds.) Encyclopedia of the Philippines. Manila:
Vera & Sons Company, 1935. 10 volumes.
The series purports to give a comprehensive discussion of Philippine
traditions, culture, art and literary accomplishments.
McDonnal, A. H., Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. XVII. New York:
Americana Corporation, 1948. 30 vols.
A comprehensive treatment of subjects from an American point
of view.
C. PUBLICATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT,
LEARNED SOCIETIES, AND OTHER
ORGANIZATIONS
Alip, E., Philippine Civilization Before Spanish Times. Manila: University
of Santo Tomas Press, 1936.
This is a treatise on the civilization and culture of the early
Filipinos before the coming of the Spaniards.
Beyer, Otley H., "Philippine and East Asian Archaeology," National
Research Council of the Philippines, pp. 1-130, Quezon City:
University of the Philippines, December 1949, Bulletin 29.
This is a report on the archaeological studies of Professor Otley
Beyer on the Philippine and East Asian Islands.
Herre, Albert W. and Agustin Umali, "English and Local Common Names
of Philippine Fishes," Circular No. 14, United States Department
of the Interior, Fish and Wild Life Service.
This is a circular giving the local common names of fishes with
their English and scientific counterparts.
Kapili, Bernabe, "The Cebuano Balitao in Philippine Literature," Sands
and Corals. Dumaguete City, Phil.: Published by the Silliman
University, 1952, pp. 46-61.
A literary supplement to the "Sillimanian" it contains outstanding
works of qtudents and professors of the Silliman University,
and in the Biological, Physical, and Social Sciences publish by
the Silliman University under the auspices of the James W. Chapman
Research Foundation.
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 119
- "A Comparison Between the Cebuano Balitao and the English
Ballad," The Silliman Journal. Dumaguete City, Phil.: Silliman
University Press, Vol. I, No. 3, 1954, pp. 56-77.
Loeb, E. M., "Courtship and the Love Song," Anthropos. Fribourg,
Switzerland: ImprimCrie St. Paul, 1950. Vol. XLV, pp. 821-851.
A publication on the anthropological, ethnological and linguistic
fields.
Romualdez, Norberto, "Filipino Musical Instruments and Air of Long
Ago" A lecture delivered at the Conservatory of Music, University
of the Philippines on November 25, 1931.
An appraisal of Filipino musical instruments and folk-air of ancient
times.
Vanoverberg, Morice von, "The Isneg," a publication of the Catholic
Anthropological Conference. Washington, D.C.: 1932, pp. 386.
A very exhaustive study of a tribe of proto-Malays inhabiting
the mountains of Abra. Their whole life cycle from birth to
death is faithfully traced.
-, "Songs in Lepanto Igorot As It Is Spoken At Bauko." Vienna:
St. Gabriel's Mission Press, 1954, pp. 584-613.
A study of songs sung by the Lepanto Igorot, a tribe of the
Mountain Province of Luzon.
Wilson, Laurence L., "Some Folktales of Northern Luzon." Journal of
East Asiatic Studies. Manila: The University of Manila, July to
October 1954, Vol. 111, No. 4, pp. 420-426.
A collection of folktales prevalent among the Mountain tribes
of Northern Luzon.
D. NEWSPAPERS
"Kulokabildo ni Piux Kabahar Hari Sa Tistis Ug Ni Colasing Rayna's
Balitao." Ang Freeman (Cebu City) Daily, November 19, 1926,
pp. 13 & 14.
An article recording the interview between Piux Kabahar, Cebu's
comic king and Colasing, the queen of the balitao in a Cebuano
daily newspaper in the second and third decades of this century.
"Ramago Amahan Sa Balitaong Sugbuanon," Ang Bisaya. Manila:
Ramon Roces Publications Inc., August 1, 1948, pp. 14 and 38.
This article is about Rafael Gandiongro acclaimed as the father
of the Cebuano balitao romansada. The Bisaya is a semi-newspaper
magazine coming out weekly to date.
E. UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL
Bucad, Catalina M., "The Elements of Joy and Melancholy in Cebu
Visayan Literature." Unpublished Master's Thesis. The University
of San Carlos, Cebu City.
A part of this thesis treats of the balitao as Cebuano poetry and
folksong.
Musical compositions
ANTIPHONAL BALITAO -
ANCIENT TUNE IN THE MAJOR KEY
Day, gi-kan pria^-ko sa a-mo- Ka - ron pa ma-hi-an- hi
Wa - la a - ko ma-hi - la - bo - Ka-ni-mo di -ha ma% yong ga-bi - i
-- Ma-a-yong ga-bi-i --, Sa ga-may pa;-ko
-
- In-day nga ba-ta-Hang-tud ka- ron nga na-da - ku na KUron
nga na - da- ku na - Kay nag-pa - mi-lit-, Sa a- kong di-la-
- Ang pag- la - hud -- gi - da - la da - la--
- - ~i - ~ n pgag- fa-hud - gi-da - la da - la---
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
PATTERN FOR ANCIENT BALITAO IN THE MAJOR KEY
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
PATTERN FOR AN ANCIENT BALITAO
IN THE MINOR KEY
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
TRANSITION BALITAO - LATER SPANISH
TIME UP TO THE FIRST TWO DECADES
OF THIS CENTURY - IN THE MAJOR KEY
Day, nu-sa - y ud ka *zing la -pad tang ka - Ii - bu - tan--
, Ang ba - wod-mo - ha - wok sa bay - ba - yon----
w -, Maysi - len - ciesong ba-wod nga hi-nay ug li - nair-tan
- -. Ma-o kad-toy pan-num-pa-, nga i-irazu a-kong pang-ga-on---
CI di - nu-ga- ang Sa ka - i - nit sa ad - liw--
U- , May i - go pang ga - hum nga m e t u n - og sa ka- bun - ta - gonw
- Mo - tun- og sa ka-bun-la- gon--, Sak-si ka-nang bung-tuw
. ra Nga i-nzong nu-tan - aw-, Nga i-kaw- ray a- kong pa-nga- saw-
V on I-kaw-ray a- ko--, nga pa-nga-saw - on--.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
PATTERN FOR THE LATER BALITAO -
TRANSITION PERIOD
Moderately Slow
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
TRANSITION BALITAO IN THE MINOR KEY
V
Pag-ka-sa- kit sai kong ba-la- ti- an--;Nga ka- nu-nay Iang a- -
konggi-da-ugda-ug-,Maayopang ma-ha-naw- sa ka - li-- bu-tan--
-- Kay sa ka-ma-fa-yon- a-ko i-tuk-mud--, Ako-
i- tuk- mud--, Ma- a- yopang a- ko-- Ma- ma- fay sa dayon
A- ron di-li mag- an-tus ning ka-li--bu-tan-- Magan-
tus ning ka-li- bu-tan--, Ang ka-Pa- it A-
-kong pa-ga- tam-i- son_,Ma- na-ug--a_ ko sa a-kong lubnga-nan-
--- Sa ma - mi-ngaw kong lub-nga-nan---.
126 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
PATTERN FOR LATER BALITAO - MINOR KEY
Slow
THE CEBUANO BALITAO 127
MODERN VERSION OF THE BALITAO - TIRANA
A-kong a-wi-- ctan si Ti- ra- m-- Ti--
ra- na bi-taw'ng-- ma- ka- lo- - oy
Sa- ma sa is- da. nga bal - ye - na
Sa da-gat nga- nag- la-ngoy- la- ngoy---
da-gat in-lawon--- nag- la- ngoy-la-- ngoy
Kon ma--lo- oy ka- , a- ko hag- ki
Pa--ka-taw- a a- yaw pa- hi- la---- ka---.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
DALAGA SA BUKID (A MOUNTAIN MAID)
Balitao Romansada ni Rafael Gandionco
Maestoso
-
Ma-oy mut-ya sa bu-hut Angda-la- ga sa bu- kid Sa si -
ngot ma-ga pa-hid 3a mga mag-ba-ba- 01 Kan-sang
gi Ma-oy di-wa sa gug-ma Ma-oy Ma kay mang-gi-bu-ha- ton Wa
pangu - ga- li-ngon- Sa mag-da- YO mo da- sig Sa iy - ang pa-ray
- -ig-aha9 Ug sa pa-yag ma-ga a-wit Di-nu-yo-gun sa $a-
-
lad Ang ba-bay-ing bi-lil-hon kay man gi- bu- hon
-
Ma-noy,pa-u-li na, ma-ma-hu-lay nu ki-ta kay ga-bi- i na
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
SA KABUKIRAN (IN THE MOUNTAINS)
Balitao Romansada by Prof. Manuel Velez
Allegretto
U Sa ka-bu-ki-- ran La - yo ang ka-sa - kit- Ang ka-lung-ga -
. . . . 8 man ay-na-nag-a-
A . , wit sa ka- bu-k- Ma-oy ga-in-dig-
Oh! Ki-nu-bu- hi-- Ion-lon ka - li-- pay Sa ka-bu-ki -
u wit Ah! -ah ! ah! -ah !------
Sa- ka- bu- kiran-
ah! ay na-na-ga-wit-.
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
TEXT WITH TRANSLATION
I-Antiphonal Balitao-Ancient Tune in the Major Key-
Day, gikan pa ako sa amo
Karon pa mahi-u.nhi
Wala ako mahitabo
Kanimo diha maayong gabi-i
Maayong gabi-i
Trans. : Day, I've just come from home
It's only now that I've come here
Nothing has happened to me
To you there good evening
Good evening
Sa gamay pa ako
Inday nga bata
Hangtud karon nga nadaku nu
Karon nga nadaku nu
When I was still
a small child, Inday
Until now that I'm big
Now that I'm already big.
Kay nagpamilit
Sa akong dila
Ang pagtahud gidala-dala
Kining pagtahud gidala-dala
For it sticks
In my tongue
The courtesy that I'm bringing around
This courtesy that I'm bringing around
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
IV-Transition Balitao
Day, nasayud ka ning lapad tang kalibutan
Ang bawod mohawok sa baybayon
May silenciosong bawod nga hinay ug linaktan
Mao kadtoy panumpa, nga ikaw akong pangga-on
Nga akong pangga-on
Day, you know that in this wide world of ours
The waves will kiss the strand
A quiet wave whose pace is slow
That is what I promise-that I will marry you
That I'll marry you.
Samtang ang dinaga-ang
Sa ka-init sa adlaw
May ino pang gahum
Nga motun-og sa kabuntagon
Motun-og sa kabuntagon
As long as the warmth
Of the heat of the sun
Has still enough power
To cool the morning
To cool the morning
Saksi kanang bungtura
Nga imong natan-aw
Nga ikaw ray akong pangasaw-on
lkaw ray ako nga pangasaw-on
Those hills that you see
Will be witness for me
That it's you only that 1'11 marry
It's you only that I will marry
V-Transition Balitao in the minor key
Pagkasakit sa akong balatian
Nga kanunay lung akong gidaug-da-ug
132 MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
Ma-ayo pang mahanaw sa kalibutan
Kay sa kamatayon ako itukmud
Ako itukmud
How painful it is to my feelings
That I'm always made to suffer
'Tis better to be gone in this world
Than to be pushed into death
Me to be pushed into death
Maayo pang ako
Mamatay sa dayon
Aron dili mag-antus ning kalibutan
Mag-antus ning kalibutan
It would be much better for me
To die quickly and completely
So that I will not suffer in this world
Suffer in this world
Ang kapa-it
Akong pagatam-ison
Mana-ug ako sa akong lubnganan
Sa mamingaw kong lubnganan
Whatever bitterness there is
I'll gladly take them as sweet
I'll go down to my grave
My lonely grave
VIII-Modern Version-Tirana
Akong awitan si Tirana
Tirana bitaw'ng makalolo-oy
Sama sa isda nga balyena
Sa dagat nga naglangoy-langoy
Sama sa isda nga balyena
Sa dagat intawm naglangoy-langoy
I'll serenade you Tirana
Tirana, who's the unfortunate
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
Just like a certain kind of fish
Swimming around in the sea
Just like a fish called "balyena"
Swimming in the sea (poor fish)
Kon malo-oy ka ako hagki
Pangasaw-a ayaw biya-i
Pangga-a gyud ug amomaha
Pakataw-a ayaw pahilaka
If you pity me kiss me
Marry me and don't leave me
Love me truly and take care of me
Make me happy, don't make me cry.
IX-Dalaga sa Bukid (A Mountain Maid)
Ma-oy mutya sa buhat
Ang dalaga sa bukid
Sa singot magapahid
Sa mga magbabu-ol
She is a pearl when it comes to working
This maiden of the mountain
She wipes the sweat
Off the farmer's brow.
Kansang dagway larawan
Sa Pilipinhong mithi
Salamin sa kakugi
Ma-oy diwa sa gugma
On whose face is mirrored
A Filipino virtuous soul
She's an exemplar of industry
She's a goddess of love
Kay manggibuhaton
Walay pagpahulay
Sa gabi-ig sa adlaw
Sa buhat motubay
MARIA COLINA GUTIERREZ
For she's very industrious
She works without resting
At night and during the day
At work you'll find her stay
Bansalang malig-on
Sa pangugalingon
Sa magdadaro modasig
Sa iyang parayig ahay
She's a strong foundation
Of family life
She inspires the farmer
With her caresses-ahay
Ug sa payag maga-awit
Dinuyogan sa palad
Ang babaying bililhon
Manoy, pauli nu, mamahulay nu kita kay gabi-i nu
And in their hut she sings
With the tune of her fate
This maiden who is full of virtues
Brother, come home, let's rest for 'tis night time
now!
X-Sa Kabukiran (In the Mountains)
Sa kabukiran
Layo ang kasakit repeat
Ang kalanggaman ay nanag-awit
In the mountains
Suffering is unknown
The birds sing on all clay
Ma-oy ga-indig nga paghadla
Mga parayeg ay! mga hudyaka
Ang hinoyohoy naglanoy-lanoy
Sa kadahunan ug kabulakan
Sa kadahunan ug kabulakan
THE CEBUANO BALITAO
What are competing are joys
Soft caresses and laughter
The gentle breeze is afloat
On the leaves and the flowers
On the leaves and the flowers
0 Kinabuhi lonlon kalipay
Gawas hamili way ikag mahay
0 Kinabuhi lonlon kalipay
Gawas hamili way ikag mahay
Oh! life is all happiness
Not only respectable but also none to regret about
Oh! life is all happiness
Not only respectable but also none to regret about
Sa kabukiran layo ang kasakit
Ang kalanggaman ay nanag-awit
A h - a h - a h - - -
Sa kabukiran ah - ay nanag-awit
In the mountains suffering is unknown
The birds sing on all day
A h - a h - a h - - -
In the mountains ah - ay they are singing