Manobo Population

I’ve got here for you the population data of the Dulangan Manobo. The photos below show the results of the census taken by the Indigenous Peoples Ministry of the Archdiocese of Cotabato in November 1999 to February 2000.

Unfortunately, this is the latest and most reliable study I could get my hands on. As far as I know, the ministry has not conducted a follow-up study since then. I’m not also sure if other NGOs or a government agency has a Manobo population data of its own. For the meantime, let’s be thankful for this document, which is an appendix to the dissertation submitted by Fr. Francis Efren Zabala, OMI, to the Catholic Theological Union at Chicago.

The ministry recorded a total of 37,139 Dulangan Manobo living in eight municipalities. Six of the municipalities are in Sultan Kudarat Province, while two (Ampatuan and South Upi) are in Maguindanao. A note in the bottom of the document states that Sharif Aguak Municipality was excluded, probably because of the peace and order situation at the time the census was taken. It’s not likely, though, that there is a significant number of Dulangan Manobo living in Sharif Aguak. I think most of the indigenous people who live there are Teduray.

Note also that the study was conducted only in the parishes under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Cotabato. Some Dulangan Manobo live in the provinces of South Cotabato and Sarangani, which are part of the Archdiocese of Marbel. Therefore, there might have been several hundred or a few thousand Dulangan Manobo who weren’t counted. The total population of the Dulangan Manobo in 2000 might be more than forty thousand.

In the document, the population of the Dulangan Manobo is at the lower part of the right column. Beside it is the population of the Lambangian, who seem to be a group of people who have a mix Teduray and Manobo blood. It’s my first time to learn of these people, and I’ll keep in mind to research more about them. They numbered 4,276 in year 2000.

Another surprising info for me from this list is the existence of a Manobo tribe in the province of Cotabato (old yet more popular name: North Cotabato). In 2000, seven towns in the province were home to 7,329 Aromanon Manobo. This means that using the term Cotabato Manobo for the Dulangan Manobo may be confusing to some people. I should avoid doing this from now on. Note that the papers written by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, listed in this blog’s bibliography, use Cotabato Manobo and refer only to the Manobo living in and near Kulaman Plateau, in Sultan Kudarat Province.