Code of Kalantiaw

The Code of Kalantiaw is a legend which originally came from the region of present-day province of Negros Occidental and is about a law book that was originally embedded in the Maragtas legend. Legend has it that the Datu Kalantiaw should have written a law book with 18 articles about the year 1433. The Legend of the Code of Kalantiaw was written down in a two-volume manuscript of the priest José María Pavón first and to date from 1838 and 1839. It bears the name Las leyendes antigua de la Isla de Negros ( German: The ancient legends of the island of Negros ). The actual original story should come from Don Marcelio Orfila of Zaragoza from 1614, he is said to have received from a Datu of Panay Island.

Controversy

The originality of the Code of Kalantiaw is highly controversial, since the written by Don Marcelio Orfila of Zaragoza manuscript can not be found and also the person in the Spanish archives can not be detected. The first writing print dates from 1913 under the title Civilización prehispana published in Renacimiento Filipino. 16 items will be noted in it and it is reported that King had Kalantiaw build a ruined fort in Gagalangin again, namely in the year 435 after Cristus. In many cases, the authenticity of the legend is doubted because only 16, 17 and later are now 18 articles in the Code. Also hiked the places the story of the south of Panay by the Negros Island and later to the northern tip of Panay Island, the present province of Aklan, is said to have where located after the official Philippine version of the seat of government of Datu Kalantiaw in the municipality of Banga.

As the story of the legend of the Code of Kalantiaw was published only in 1913, it is believed by modern historians, that the legend is to the statute book in the context of the young Filipino nation to give a pre-colonial history. Was taken to the extreme, the legend of Filipino historians and the ex-dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who publicly proclaimed the Code of Kalantiaw as an award for the Philippines, as a historic country of law and order on January 24, 1973. He then signed the Presidential Decree No. 103 and built the Kalantiaw memorial. This was also true in the context of the movement Bagong Lipunan ( German: New Society ), which was initiated by Marcos. As with the Maharlikas also a national myth was woven around the Code of Kalantiaw.