Our
descendants are among the third wave of races that inhabited the Philippine
Islands. The Katalbas Clan came along with the ten Malay chieftains or
“datus” who abandoned their Sultan in fear that their entire kinfolk will be
slaughtered. They migrated to the islands through their balangay, a huge boat
that may consist of several families that in one settlement may compose from
thirty to forty families. They came in peace and live with the people who are
already living in the islands rather than appropriating new domains in the name
of their Sultan.
An
old story among the Katalbas clan has passed on about their ancient ancestors
that one of the ten chieftains named Datű Paiburong had a very captivating wife
in such that the Sultan of Borneo wanted her to be one of his concubines in the
palace. Datű Paiburong learned about the Sultan’s wish that he declined and
without further indecisiveness immediately gathered his relatives to escape
Borneo. The Katalbas clan is under the lineage of Datu Paiburong and is likewise
related to all the Bornean chieftains that came to the Philippines. They first
sailed to Mindanao particularly in Sultan Kudarat, then to the Visayas (Panay)
and lastly to Luzon. . Being warriors and hunters among the tribe leaders, they
pursued to go with Datu Paiburong and Datu Putî as means of reinforcement
during their period of exploration. It was the period when the two Bornean
chieftains bartered Panay with the Aetas. Around the 12th Century AD, the
Katalbas clan started to generate in Panay.
When Datű Putî and Datű Paiburong came to Panay, there were
already aetas occupying the coast line. The Bornean chieftains were diplomatic
kind that they decided to negotiate with the Aetas instead of engaging in battle
for their settlement in the coast line. A good reason to be merciful as the
natives were little people and less precarious in combat. They are an Australo-
Melanesian people with dark skin and tight, curly brown hair. They are also
distinctively small and of short stature. As the Pygmies in the equatorial
forests of Africa, the Aetas are believed to have adapted locally to the
tropical jungles long before the Bornean chieftains came to the Philippines
islands. It was believed that some 30,000 years ago they were the earliest
inhabitants that arrived from the Asian mainland, perhaps over land bridges
built during the ice ages.
When the chieftains arrived in Panay, it was Datű Putî who
bartered with the Aeta’s tribal leader “Marikudo.” The bargain was to
occupy the entire coastal area of Panay for the golden salakot, a basin, a kris
and some gifts. Upon a successful accord, a feast was celebrated between them,
wherein the Borneans painted themselves with black residues from their pots to
imitate the black colored skin of the Aetas as way of showing their unification.
A feast that through the years of commemoration became a festival known as the
“Ati-atihan” in Panay and some parts of the country. After the celebration
of the two races, Marikudo and his wife gave Datű Paiburong’s wife a necklace
to adorn her beauty, a treasured necklace from the Aetas’ tribe. On the
following day, his entire people moved to the mountains for their new
settlement.
Most
of the ten datus persevered to stay until they spawned almost every coastal
part of the Philippine islands. After several years, Datű Putî having placed
his entire clan well settled in Panay decided to go back to Borneo together with
his men to reclaim whatever properties may have left them. When the news reached
the Sultan that a datű from the
Philippines came to his kingdom, he commanded his men to go after that
tribal leader. Datu Putî and his warriors
fought furiously in battle, however they were outnumbered that it led to his
capture. The valiant leader was later
decapitated in front of the Sultan.
Spanish
Colonization (15th -18th
Century AD)
In 1521, Ferdinand
Magellan claimed the land for Spain and he named the islands Philippines after
the name of Spain's King Phillip II. On further settlements, they came with some
missionaries that introduced Christianity and attempted to unify the many
peoples and islands under a central government.
During
this colonization period, the Katalbas clan was divided through the Spanish
Individualism. In the course of the Spanish census to the Filipinos, some of the
Katalbas have been affected through the spelling of their family name. It was a
drastic drive of the Spaniards among the Filipinos pressuring them to be
registered as the rumors of a revolt against them were escalating. In order to
isolate the rebels among the Filipino people, they implemented this military
strategy. To resolve the original spelling of the Katalbas, there has been no
records that link to the original representation but to the ancient Filipino
scripts, the Katalbas is spelled as letter “K” by the ancient script. This
original script used only 17
basic symbols, three of which were the vowels a, i, and u. Each basic
consonantal symbol had the inherent a sound: ka, ga, nga, ta, da, na, pa, ba,
ma, ya, la, wa, sa, and ha. When
some members of the clan registered to the Spanish authorities, the Katalbas was
initially spelled “CATALBAS,” as there was no letter “K” in contrast to
the early Spanish Alphabet. Those who did not register remained in the ancient
Filipino script as Katalbas and were branded by the Spanish authorities as the
rebels or have joined the Katipunan movement and the Freemasons. This is the
reason why there are two spellings in the Katalbas Clan, the “C” and the
“K.” However, being a “Catalbas” does not mean that one
didn’t sympathize during the revolt of the Filipinos against the
Spanish colonizers.
According
to the succeeding generations of the clan in Old Sagay, the Katalbas who were
unaffected by the Spanish Individualization in fact joined the revolutionary
force of the Katipunan. To support this fact, it was a time when the Katalbas
Clan was discovered that they were among the Katipunan and one of which were the
forefathers of Pedro Villanueva Katalbas. Upon the discovery, all the Katalbas
and the Catalbas have been singled out. To
evade the entrapment of the Spanish authorities, they migrated to some other
places and one of which was the Negros island. Others moved to the mountains,
and some to the island of Guimarras, this is one reason that there were Catalbas
who have settled in this island too.
American
Regime (18th to 19th Century AD)
The
Katalbas remained a rebel force during the American Regime where they continued
to join with the Katipunan Movement. It was always there goal to liberate their
fellowmen from the hands of the
Americans during this era. After a long period of colonization, the Katipunan
was slowly disbanded in the Philippines. The clan was likewise gradually
dispersed among the different parts of the country where they never came back to
war.
The
Japanese Occupation (World War II, 1942-45)
However
during this period, the clan no longer joined the battle force. They give way to
the Japanese in their home town and
stayed peacefully during World War II. However, when the Japanese atrocities
escalated in Old Sagay, they were converted to join the war against the Japanese
force. Some of their younger generations joined the USAFE while some joined the
guerilla force. Our uncle Manuel S. Katalbas, Jr. was among the USAFE soldiers
during this era. It
was also a time where the records about births and origins were destroyed
especially in their home town.
Our
grandfather (Manuel T. Katalbas) and his children had a lucrative business by
making some laundry and bath soap through the use of sun dried coconut meat
known as “copras.” Our father being tired of
grinding the coconut manually invented a machine that could do the job.
According to our uncle (Dr. Lucifre S. Katalbas), our dad did a great innovation
by significantly increasing their productivity in making the soap. It was the
soap business that made them endured the living during the time of crisis
especially all through the war era. Today, my uncle is resurrecting the business
once again as he finally retired from his medical profession.
Our ancestry belongs
to the
provenance of
Pedro Villanueva Katalbas, a Malay descent. During his time, his families
were under the pursuit of the Spanish Guardia Civils
wherein to evade from being incarcerated they decided to transfer from
Panay to Negros. Kabangkalan
(southern part of Negros) was the most progressive town in Negros and it was
their main objective for relocation. On their route of travel to Kabangkalan,
a strong storm swatted them in the midst
of the sea where it persuaded them to the coast of Sagay
(northern part of Negros
Occidental). At their era of
migration (early 18 hundredths) , Old Sagay was initially called “Pueblo de
Arguilles.” Here the Katalbas
started to spawn in this town
where it became a heritage.
Pedro never had set his foot in school, he was uneducated. All
throughout the Spanish colonization, education was not fully introduced to the
far flung areas especially in
Pedro’s native province. It was the Catholic Religion that was always been
pushed from one island to the other. He earns his living through “bolanti,”
a transportable form of business wherein he goes from one town the other to sell
the hand woven blankets and clothes better known as “habol” in the Visayan
or Ilonggo dialect. To secure his thriving business, he hired his cousin Juan
Rivera in Iloilo who was an educated one. He
met his
spouse, Maria
Lacson-Ramos in Valladolid in one of his business trading.
Maria was a well educated woman and was very industrious. They had
sixteen children namely Castor,
Ricardo, Quintin, Enrique, Maria, Leon, Valentin, Juan, Miguel, Justino, Eusebio, Jose,
Conchita, Rosella, Pilar, and Pedro. However during their time,
their was a cholera outbreak that the rest died from such epidemic. Only
seven children survived namely Quintin, followed
by Enrique , then Leon , Conchita , Rosella , Pilar and their youngest
son, Pedro,II.
Finally after settling in Old Sagay (Pueblo de Arguilles), he
became a Capitan del Barrio in their home town where he earned his name as
“Cabeza Pedro.” Among his
children, the four Katalbas brothers (Quintin, Enrique, Leon, and
Pedro) were a heritage to the town as servants and protectors of the people. Our
family is under the lineage of Enrique Ramos Katalbas. He is our
great-grandfather to us as his eldest son Manuel Tuvilla-Katalbas is our
grandfather. Among our grandfather’s nine children,
our father Plaridel S. Katalbas is the second to the eldest.
Today the clan has almost spread enormously everywhere to the
extent that the younger generations among the Katalbas do not know of their
lineage. We hope that through the power of the internet, some of the past will
be reconstructed again through future worldwide web program on genealogy.
Created on December 4, 2000 by KGP Web
Administrator.
Revised:
23 Feb 2008 06:58:28 +0800
.