The word “Blaan” may have come from the words “bila,” which means “house,” and “an,” which means “people,” so the word could be taken to mean “people who live in houses.” It could also be a different spelling of the name of Lake Buluan, where the Blaan used to live. Other names that have been used to refer to this group are Bilaan, Bira-an, Bara-an, Bilan, Vilanes, or Bilanes. Some Blaan groups live in places with names like Tagalagad (those who live on the side of a mountain), Tagakogon (those who live in areas with pigs), and Buluan (those who live around Lake Buluan).

The Blaan inhabit the southern part of South Cotabato and the southeastern part of Davao del Sur as well as the areas around Buluan Lake in North Cotabato. Some Blaan live on Sarangani Island, which is near Davao del Sur. They are called Sarangani Manobo, even though they are Blaan. On this island, other Blaan groups have been called Balud or Tumanao. Today, they may also be found in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, and Cape San Agustin in Davao Oriental. The Blaan can be divided into three groups: those from the highlands are called To Lagad, those from the plains are called To Gutna or To Datal, and those from the coast are called To Baba (lower areas or coasts).

In 1910, there were about 10,000 Blaans, and about 1,500 of them lived on Sarangani Island. In 1988, the Blaan numbered some 250,000. In 1998, it was thought that there were between 75,000 and 100,000 Sarangani Blaan. As of 2014, there were at least 55,000 Blaan in Davao, about 118,000 in Koronadal, and at least 122,000 in Sarangani.

Blaan History

There are different ideas about how the Blaan came to be. One idea is that the Blaan are related to the first group of people from Indonesia who moved to the Philippines around 5,000 BC. The Mamalo-Tabunaway theory is a second one. The story says that two brothers named Mamalo and Tabunaway used to live at the mouth of the Rio Grande de Mindanao, but when Islamic missionaries came, they were split up. Mamalo didn’t want to become a Muslim, so he ran away to the highlands and became the ancestor of all the lumad groups. The Blaan at the foot of Mount Matutum have oral narratives that trace their origins to an ancestor named F’lasab and his sister Fo Bli. According to other stories, F’lasab is the sister and Bli is the brother. People think that the Blaan are related to the brother because the sister married an Arab missionary and had the Maguindanaon line.

Because the Blaan lived in a mountainous area, there was almost no local group organization. Houses were spread out over long distances. Whenever there was a neighborhood, the number of houses was small. Because the Blaan didn’t have a strong social structure, the Maguindanaon would often take slaves from them, and the Sangil would rule over them. Allegedly, during the Spanish colonial period, the Tausug and Maguindanaon exchanged Tiruray and Blaan slaves to quell Spanish advances.

Although Jesuit missionaries have described the Blaan as “kindly,” some Blaan groups were more defiant. The Blaan of Balut looked like they could protect themselves with weapons that they probably bought through trade with other places. This could be why there were no slaves from the Blaan on Balut Island. Some Blaan used to fight in wars, but that was a long time ago. Along with the Manobo, Mandaya, Bagobo, and Tagacaolo, they had at one time or another reduced their neighbors in southwestern Mindanao to the status of tribute-paying “colonies.”

During the time of the American Commonwealth, Christian missionaries started to travel along the coasts. As time went on, they slowly moved inland. In 1913, under the American land settlement program, the first waves of Christian settlers from Luzon and the Visayas arrived at the same time. They lived in the coastal plains and foothills on the west side of the Davao Gulf, which had always been Blaan land. The Blaan were pushed deeper and deeper into the mountains over time. So, the lumad groups started to move and change their culture in a planned way. In the years that followed, more settlers forced the Blaan and other native groups to leave their ancestral lands. In the 1970s, when martial law was in place, President Ferdinand Marcos was able to give tribal lands to investors in forestry, mining, and livestock breeding in exchange for concessions.

The lumad and the settlers have had a lot of fights and misunderstandings because they have met each other. Some settlers have treated Blaan people badly because they think they are stupid and call them “squatters” on their own land. Some Blaan communities have had to ask the armed Islamist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for help to get back their ancestral lands. These alliances have led to armed clashes with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, who see the MILF and anyone else who works with them as enemies. Even though the government set up the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, these conflicts have made the Blaan less trusting of the government.

The Blaan have been left behind in economic and cultural growth because of the many years of conflict. They lack access to basic government services like water and electricity, and this means the lack of facilities for education as well. On the other hand, relying too much on Christian schools has led to a loss of culture, even in schools that try to be culturally sensitive with policies like Blaan Day, when students can wear their traditional clothes for one day a week.