The Plight of the Gypsies in Mindanao: The Badjao (Part 2)

The plight of the Badjao – the sea gypsies, the boat people from the Sulu archipelago, is probably the worst that has ever happened to a Lumad in recent times.

The Badjao are the counterpart of the nomadic Mamanwa in the forests of Surigao and Agusan provinces. They lived in boathouses that clustered and moored near an island of choice in any particular moment. A community of Badjao would consist of 15 to as many as 50 boathouses. They spent most of their times in the sea, fishing, gathering seashells or pearls in the wild. They would only set foot on dry land to sell their products, to buy panggi or pyoto – a grated unsweetened cassava cake, to fetch drinking water, to gather firewood, and to bury their dead. The Badjao practiced sustainable fishing, getting only what they needed for the day with hook and line, spear and traps. They never harvested for surplus to process in any way for the proverbial rainy days.

The Badjao were humble and peace-loving people. They avoided conflict of any kind. If provoked by land-dwelling people, they would just bow their head and move away from their tormentor. They would never fight back even if they were right. When threatened, they would simply pull their anchors and sail to another place. Their land-based Sama and Tausog neighbors gave them derogatory names, such as Samal Palau (outcast Samal) or lumaan (God-forsaken people). The Badjao preferred to call themselves Sama laos (Sama of the sea).

The Badjao used to settle along the shores of some islands in the Sulu archipelago; but many eventually retreated to the sea to escape the oppression of the islanders.

Conflict among neighbors in the Badjao community was accordingly resolved in an impromptu-like singing contest within the hearing distance of everybody. The conflicting parties would sing aloud their grievances, resentment and sentiments one after the other until everything in their heart had been aired out. After the singing marathon things would return to normal.

The Badjao practiced monogamy. It was one boat one wife one family. For them sex was a natural biological phenomenon. When a husband felt like doing it with his mate he would do it, all inside the boat, the children might be playing around, or even within the viewing distance of their neighbors. There was no need then to wait for the night to fall, for the kids to go to sleep, for the neighborhood to become still, because everybody knew anyway anytime they would do it as their boathouses were interconnected in a temporary mooring. The Badjao had no concept of privacy, or an idea of malice, given that almost everything in life was done in an open boat.

Such was the simple and unadulterated life of the Badjao. Some Muslim and Christian missionaries tried to change their way of life but were generally unsuccessful. Certainly, they had captured some few unfortunate souls and taught them the concepts of malice and sin. But the rest of the Badjao had remained free from the tyranny of organized beliefs.

Things changed tragically, however, when Martial Law was declared in the country. To counter the MNLF uprising, the Armed Forces of the Philippines stationed military units in almost every island in the Sulu Archipelago. Some rogue military men befriended the Badjao and taught them how to improve their daily fish catch through dynamite fishing. This altered the perspective and the sustainable life of the sea gypsies. They experienced a sudden boom in their fishing activity, so radical the change that they didn’t even know what to do entirely with their excessive harvest or their extra money. They still lived in their boathouses and they had not much need for anything. Of course, some of the men now stayed longer in dry land with their new found friends and learned to booze. It was not too long, however, when most of the fishing grounds of the gypsies were destroyed and soon became unproductive. Life started to become a daily ordeal to the once self-sufficient people.

Then some NGOs and government agencies came to the rescue. They taught the Badjao how to operate and maintain a seaweed farm. This intervention made a positive change in their sinking economic life. The men in the boat houses would again tarry in dry land after harvest time, eating, drinking and spending their dough in pubs and local entertainment houses. But the economic rise of the boat people ended dramatically when pirates robbed and divested them of their income every harvest time. The Badjao were scared to the bone and scampered to safety. There was no option but to move away from the Sulu seas.

So began the diaspora and exodus of the Badjao away from home. They hovered for sometime in Zamboanga City, and without employable skills they reduced themselves to begging just to survive. Zamboanga City very soon became too crowded for them, thus many ventured farther away into the different cities of Mindanao, then in Cebu and finally in MetroManila. In many occasions, the boat people were herded by authorities in MetroManila and forced back to Zamboanga City. But after saving for some fare money, they would make a comeback to the great metropolis, now improving and honing the art of begging.

Such is the tragic plight of the once free and meek people of the Sulu seas. They are now dispersed everywhere. In a generation or two, they would completely forget their origin, their history, culture and traditions. Except those who practice begging in seaports, many Badjao very soon may even forget how to swim, when not long time ago they were already swimming even before they started walking. The government wants them to go home, but I doubt if they can still go home, home to the place and time where and when they were free from the burdens and demands of our own civilization.