A Questionable History

Below is the official brief history of the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino. I took it from the “2010 Socio-Economic Profile of Sultan Kudarat Province,” compiled by the Provincial Planning Development Office. The history was probably provided by my town.

I hate to help spread inaccurate information, so please be reminded to take the text below with a grain of salt. I’m reprinting it here as is. The point of view is poblacion-centric. The origin of the municipality is traced from the capital village when, in fact, Kulaman was just one of the villages that constituted Senator Ninoy Aquino when the municipality was created. My own village, Langgal, for example, has never been part of any territory named Kulaman. For my part, while I often say that “Kulaman Plateau” is my “hometown,” I’ve never said—or meant to say—that Kulaman is a municipality.

Another thing that I take issue is the part about the burial practices for Manobo sultans. The persons who wrote the “history” apparently let their imagination run away with them. If the Manobos indeed waited for seven years—from the death of the sultan to the time when his bones could be transferred to a burial jar—to “crown” a new sultan, who ruled them in those seven years? I also have doubts if the Manobos really had sultans the way the Maguindanaons had, but this is another discussion. Maybe I should write a more accurate brief history and give a copy to the municipal hall.

Before the advent of Christian settlers, Senator Ninoy Aquino (formerly Kulaman) was one of the mountainous areas that belonged to the territorial control of the municipality of Kalamansig. The place was inhabited by an ethnic group known as Manobo.

The name Kulaman is derived from the famous Sultan of the Valley during the seventeenth century. According to a legend, there was a time when famine came to the place and the Sultan who was a loving father to his family gathered “kayos”, a native food that substitutes cereals, for their consumption. The Sultan washed the kayos in the center of the river called Matiao. While he washed the kayos a swift current suddenly rushed and the Sultan was carried away by the current and was drowned. His body was later recovered two kilometers downriver from the place where he washed the kayos.

The natives then preserved the Sultans’ for seven years and transferred him to a burial to the burial jar [sic] and kept in a cave for the next century. After the Sultan was buried in the burial jar, a new Sultan was crowned to rule the place. This was their culture during that time.

The river Matiao from that time was renamed Kulaman, in memory of the drowned Sultan. From the death of Sultan Kulaman, the following were his successors: Sultan Jani, Sultan Ugis, Sultan Tilok, Sultan Kalolong and Sultan Dakias.

Sultan Tagenek Dakias was the first ethnic tribe (Manobo) elected as a Sangguniang Bayan member when Municipality of Kulaman was created.

On September 12, 1972, Kulaman became a barangay of the Municipality of Kalamansig and a mother barangay of Buenaflores, Bugso, Kadi, Malegdeg, Kiadsam and Sewod.

It was under Republic Act 6712 that Kulaman was created as a municipality on July 11, 1989 and was renamed Senator Ninoy Aquino, separating it from its mother municipality of Kalamansig. Two thirds of the area of the new barangay [sic] came from Kalamansig while one thirds is from Bagumbayan.

The first appointed and elected Mayor was Gelacio Defuntorum. At present the municipality has 20 existing barangays. The Poblacion retained the name Kulaman, while the municipality was named Senator Ninoy Aquino in honor of Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. who at that time became the modern hero of Filipinos when he became an instrument for the downfall of a dictatorial government.