Topic III. Debunking the Code of Kalantiaw Flashcards
means to expose the untruthfulness or hollowness of an idea, belief, or myth.
Debunk
was a hoax (something established through fraud or deception [pangloloko/pamemeke) that was believed for a long time in the Philippines. It was supposed to have been the first set of laws in pre-colonial Philippines. Kalantiaw was even referred to as the first Filipino lawmaker.
The Code of Kalantiaw
Through the use of critical textual analysis, however, and other historical methods, the Code was
Debunked
(Date)Jose E. Marco donated five manuscripts to the Philippine Library and Museum, which includes the leyendes
1914
Date that the Historian William Henry Scott picked the Code of Kalantiaw as topic for his thesis; he went on to state that “there is no evidence that any Filipino ruler by the name of Kalantiaw ever existed…”
1965
Scott defended his research findings against a panel composed of famous Filipino historians. Not a single question was raised.
1968
Former President Ferdinand E Marcos instituted the Order of Kalantiaw, an award to be given to legal luminaries and justices
1971
the National Historical Institute finally declared that the Code of Kalantiaw was a hoax
2005
Now, keep in mind: the Code is officially a hoax. The whole thing truly started in
1913-14
There are many mistakes in the manuscript that point to it being a fake. These are the important ones, as pointed out by William Henry Scott:
The Mistakes in the Manuscript
Native Filipinos had no clocks or devices to accurately measure time in 1433, and yet, the Code of Kalantiaw contained laws where the punishment mentioned specific length of hours
There were anachronisms (a thing that belongs to a different time period). One document, supposedly written in 1489, mentions King Charles V of Spain, who was not born until 1500.
Remember that the Pavón manuscripts were supposedly written and dedicated to the King of Spain in 1839, however, Spain had no King during this time, instead, they were ruled by Queen Isabella II.
The word “microbe” was used, however, “microbe” was not coined until 1878. How can a document supposedly written in 1838 have a word that was not yet invented?
Occidental Negros was mentioned, too. But there was no province of Negros Occidental at the time yet. Negros was not divided until 1890.
The Code of Kalantiaw is a set of Penal Code supposedly written in the year by a local native ruler by the name of Datu Bondahara Kalantiaw.
1433
However, the Code mentioned above turned out to be a hoax actually written by:
Jose E. Marco
The creator of the hoax provided a manuscript supposedly written by a priest in the 1800’s by the name of:
Jose Maria Pavon
The year in which the manuscript written above was supposedly written is important to note What year was it supposed to have been written?
1838
One of the ways by which the Code was discovered to be a hoax was because the manuscript referring to it contained a word that was not yet in existence at the time. What word was this and what year was it coined?
Microbes; 1878
