Fact #6: From Srivijayan to Majapahit, They Were Silent Assimilators of the Land of Ophir

6. The Srivijayan Empire was the later silent assimilator of this land of Ophir bringing with them their Hindu-Malayan culture. This leads to the gradual banishment of the remnants of the Maharlikan people (Ylayas) and their culture as they gradually were assimilated into the Hindu-Malayan culture. Those who maintained the Muian ways found the comfort of nature in the hinterlands. The indigenous people (in the Philippines) are now their living descendants.

Noted here that the Srivijayan Empire flourished more or less between 8th to 12th century CE (Common Era). Although it is not clear but most probably the root of the Srivijayan Empire might have started to flourish and gain notoriety as early as the 5th century around present-day Palembang, Sumatra. The land of Ophir on the other hand was a biblical name of that isles afar off mentioned in the Bible dating back to the time of King Solomon of Israel around 970 BC - 931 BC. Ophir was undisputedly rich of gold where the king of Israel obtained by the ships. Most of those who tried to locate the physical Ophir did find their ways all the way to the present day Philippine Archipelago. It has to be underlined therein that the biblical land of Ophir is the present day Philippine Islands rich of gold the Srivijayan Empire was so obsessed to have gained control of including its wealth and treasure.

Once again, bear in mind for a while that prior to the advent of the Hindu-Malayan culture of the Srivijayan-Majapahit Empire, the Ylayan civilization did flourish peacefully and abundantly in terms of mercantile with foreign traders, serene annual atmospheric condition, blissful health, great wealth, bountiful harvest and prosperity in their life in general. It was at this period when great volumes of gold and almaciga or almug (algum) tree (Scientific Name: Igathis philippinensis) were shipped out for the construction of King Solomon's temple. In short, it was their "golden age" as regarded by the forthcoming empire.

Moreover, the mere fact that I used the word "assimilator" in the heading is because there was no resistance from them as they have welcomed the new merchant-occupants (Srivijayan Empire) with open arms in the name of mutual respect and co-existence. Nevertheless, due to their contrasting cultural orientations, the atmosphere and the deep feeling of ethnocentrism forced the Ylayas to find comfort in the mountains and forests.

It might be unfair at this moment to purport that some of the indigenous people in the Philippines, who were fearsome warriors and practiced head-hunting, like the Kalingas of the Kalinga Province, did not evolve from the Ylayan blood but from the Srivijayan culture. This assessment finds reference to the existence of Kalinga Kingdom in ancient east India approximately 265 BCE. The region was scene of the bloody Kalinga War fought by Ashoka of the Maurya Empire.

Fact #5: The Kalantiaw Code Was a Later Version of an Oral Law Observed in the Land of Ophir

5. The Kalantiaw Code (be it a hoax or not) was a later version of a much older code observed during the times of Ophir.

Rajah Bendahara Kalantiaw popularly known as Datu Kalantiaw is a mythical Filipino character purported to have ruled the island Panay and gave its first written law known as the Kalantiaw Code on 1433. It is irrelevant at this moment to discuss whether the Code was a hoax or not. But prior to the emergence of such law, during the Ylaya’s time, in the land of Ophir, there was a much older version of oral laws prevailing drawn from the Muian civilization. The alleged Kalantiaw Code is most probably an attempt to codify such oral traditions for penalization and recording purposes.

It has to be emphasized here that those oral laws originally observed were meant only as sets of principles and guidelines for the perpetuation of moral standards and social orders. They have no central government who enforced those rules but governed by a group of elders who set up those principles and guidelines.  Like in the time of Moses in Mt. Sinai, the Ten Commandments were given to his people to follow and for them not to deviate away from the norms, practices, values and traditions the Jewish way in accordance to the will of their God Elohim. Notice that there was no mention of “penalty” in the Ten Commandments but purely instructions.

The codification of such laws, meaning their inscriptions or the act of putting them into writings is a mode or an attempt to interpret them and to systematize their implementations, to put them as set of legal standards with their prescribed penalty or punishment imposed if not observed accordingly. This is true to the Kalantiaw Code where each specific article or provision of the law has its appropriate penalty strictly imposed. The same is true to the Ten Commandments which later on were interpreted and expounded to become the Torah or commonly known as the Law of Moses.

Fact #4: The Filipino Race Descended from the Maharlikans Through the Ylayas

4. The later descendants of the Maharlikan race were those "Ylayas" (Isidro Escare Abeto, 1989) in a land called Ophir, from whom King Solomon obtained ships of gold. During that period the Ylayas have already well established their communities after the cataclysmic event that destroyed the Muian civilization.

The next 10,000 years, during and after the last ice age was a survival period for the Maharlikans in view of the last great upheaval they have undergone through, which was followed thereafter by the decrease of the Earth's temperature freezing most part of the hinterlands forcing them to thrive in the caves. It was during that period when waves of succeeding migrants begun to populate the land of Ophir.

It is interesting to acknowledge here the work of a world renowned American anthropologist in the person of Henry Otley Beyer, founder of the Anthropology Department of the University of the Philippines. Beyer proposed in his Migration Wave Theory that the peopling of the archipelago was a result of migrations in different time periods. The first group Beyer called the “Dawn Man” or cave men type of who, according to his theory, arrived around 250,000 years ago. Beyer was actually referring to the “escaped remnants” of Muian descendants (Maharlikans) who survived the last great upheaval and found refuge in the archipelago. They did not arrive as a result of unintentional wandering in search for food, as Beyer proposed, but rather already been here and aware of its existence as they used to visit the place during the Muian times. This fact supports the Core Population Theory of Felipe Landa Jocano, another known anthropologist of the University of the Philippines who refuted Beyer’s migration theory. Jocano instead did propose that the first people of Southeast Asia (including the Philippines) were products of a long process of evolution and migration. His research indicates that they shared more or less the same culture, beliefs, practices and even similar tools and implements.

The second wave of migrants in Beyer's theory were the so-called “Negritos” who, according to Beyer, came around or between 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. These group fused in their communities and culture with the already established Maharlikan settlements, socialized and intermarried with the Maharlikan people. These migrant people came from the neighboring islands in the south, from Indonesia and Malaysia through land bridges. From that point of origin being in the south, going to north (ilaya meaning "upper part" or "north") to the Maharlikan’s direction of location, the next migrating people (Third Wave A and B, between 6,000 to 500 years ago) did refer to them the ylayas, a term which became prevalent as being referred to the "people of the north".

It has to be noticed here that there was a reversed pattern of migrations, first, from the Maharlikan group going outside, and then from the outside coming to the Maharlikan territory. The explanation was that, these migrating people coming into the land of Maharlika (Ophir) were on the clandestine process of revisiting their true origin as told in their oral traditions. This was true to both the Indonesian's Srivijayan and Majapahit empires, respectively.

The advent and emergence of the Ylayan culture, which was an assimilation of the surviving Maharlikans and foreign migrants (second and third waves) paved way for the revival of the Muian ways through their system of governance, arts, belief, medicine, and in their knowledge of the supernatural. It has to be noted that the people of the Pre-European Philippines were mostly animist (who really did not worship the spirits of nature but rather honored them in a less elaborated rites) have records or books of mystical in nature. These knowledge or abilities traced back from the Muian period.

It should not also be confused that the term ilaya (ylaya) has no connection with the term Malaya, such that of the Malayan Peninsula or Malaysia, which refers to the land far south-west of the then land of Ophir.