The Philippine Origin

How many of us have had the experience of being with the Aytas? There are probably only a few. But we know them from rote memory because it's more likely our teachers told us that Aytas/ Negritos were the first people to inhabit the Philippines.

But did you ever ask yourself if this is factual? To children, it is not for them to ask why. I didn't when I was young. But now that I'm older and supposed to have become wiser, I asked why.

Teachers tell us that this is because the Negritos (which they also call Aytas) have dark skin, are short, flat-nosed and have kinky hair and thick lips. But think again. Is there a connection between these characteristics and being the first Philippine inhabitants, especially considering the time gap?

Our teachers argument probably goes this way. There are Aytas today. Aytas look this particular way. Aytas have somehow retained their culture. Early History books say so. Therefore the first inhabitants in the Philippines are the Aytas.

Perhaps. But let me use the argument on characteristics and let me pose some questions again.

If Aytas have kinky hair today, could kinky hairs have been unearthed millions of years ago in the Philippines? If the early Filipinos have been flat-nosed, could anthropologists have found flat noses in middens in Palawan? If the Aytas today are dark-skinned, could the first Tabon cave people's skins (which must be dark) have been fossilized in stones and were found as evidences? And if the early Philippine inhabitants were short, could they have found bones, that time, which are short?

Except for the hair and bones which could be preserved and survive all these years no flat nose, dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair have been dug, as yet. Perhaps now that the Arctic ice is fast receding into the sea, we may find these. But for now, we don't have hard facts.

In fact historians note that some Tabon persons found then were 5'10'' in height! And mind you, there are Aytas today who are this tall.

My exposure to their communities, not history books, taught me that Aytas may still be classified into 7 subgroups. I remember 6 of them: Mag-anchi, Magbeken, Mag-indi, Talimaren, Abellen and Ambala. And they all don't look the same. Some are fair-skinned. Some have straight hair and noses like Michael Jordan. I'm sure Manny Pacquiao would want a nose lift now that he can very well afford a nose lift.

Times change and Filipinos will always have their origin. But to say that the first Philippine inhabitants can't be categorically be proven as Aytas is not excuse for some of us to treat them the way some of us, or many of us, still call them - minorities.

In an article published by the Tebtebba Foundation, it wrote that "indigenous peoples (Aytas included) are the sole guardians of vast habitats critical to modern societies for regulating water cycles, maintaining the stability of the climate, and providing valuable plants, animals, and genes. " We depend on them for about 50% of the world's medicine and around 80% of the world's food.

So keep on remembering every month of October, which is Indigenous Peoples month, that there can't be us without them, whether Aytas be our forefathers or foremothers.