The Palawan, or Pala’wan, are one of the three groups of people who have always lived on the main island with the same name. There are about 50,000 of them. The Tagbanwa live in the central and northern parts of the Cuyo archipelago, and the Batak are a group of nomadic Aeta people who live in the forest between Puerto Princesa and Roxas.

The Palawan live in the south, from the break in the mountain range between Quezon and Abo-Abo to the end of the island. They call themselves Palawan or Pala’wan, depending on how their language is spoken in different parts of the country. They are called Palawanos by the Christian settlers who came from Spain. Palawan people who have converted to Islam and live on the islets and shoreline of the West Philippine Sea are called Palawanun.

Palawan Island has plains, cliffs, and primary rainforests, as well as mountain ranges and peaks. It sits on the Sunda Shelf, which is a bridge between Borneo and the Calamianes. So, the unique plants and animals of the southern part of Palawan’s main island are similar to those of Borneo and the other islands in the Philippines. The masek (Malay civet), manturong (bear cat), and pilanduk are some of these animals (mouse deer). Mount Mantaling (or Mantalingajan or Mantalingahan), which is 2,085 meters high, is at the top of a mountain chain in the middle of Palawan Island. On the east coast, steep slopes look out over a narrow coastal plain along the Sulu Sea. On the west coast, facing the West Philippine Sea, there are hills with many limestone caves and a large forest. In 1991, Palawan was named a “Reserve of the Biosphere” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Based on where they live, there are two main Palawan groups: the Palawan-at-bukid or Palawan-at-daja in the highlands and the Palawan-at-napan in the lowlands. The Palawan-at-bukid are groups of people who live in the Mantaling and Gantong mountain ranges’ deep forests. These groups on Palawan are mostly cut off from the rest of the world, so they have kept their self-sufficient ways of life and a culture that depends on their natural surroundings. In the same way, the people who lived in Catelegyan, which is near the top of Mount Gantong, had a pretty good life. Unregistered Palawan communities live about 500 meters above sea level near Brooke’s Point in Besey-Besey (formerly Bunbun). All of these upland communities have chosen to live alone, relying on the forest for everything and rarely going to the coast. On the other hand, the Palawan-at-napan are people who live with migrant communities. They no longer do swidden agriculture and have adapted to the cash economy. The Palawan also live in the southernmost part of the island, which is between the Bulanjao Range and the ocean. The highest point of the Bulanjao Range is 1,036 meters. The whole area is in the municipalities of Bataraza and Rizal, which have both primary and secondary forests as well as mangrove areas.

The Palawan language is one of the central Philippine languages from the Visayas group. It is part of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. There are three main languages spoken on Palawan. The first is Brooke’s Point Palawan, which in 2000 was spoken by about 14,400 people who live along upland rivers and the coast in the southeast of Palawan Island, from south of Abo-Abo to Bataraza. The second is Central Palawano, which is also called Quezon Palawano. In 1981, 12,000 people spoke this language. In 1990, there were 40,500 Palawano people. They live in the southwest part of Palawan Island, along rivers and the coast, from north of Quezon to north of Rizal and east of Abo-Abo. Southwest Palawano is the third language. About 12,000 people spoke it in 2005. They live along upland rivers and some live along the coast from north of Rizal to the southernmost tip of Palawan island, on the east side from south Bataraza. But the Palawan languages include at least 12 dialects, such as Palawan Penimusan or Islamized Palawan, which is spoken by people who live along the coasts of the southwest part of Palawan Island and by the Tau’t Bato subgroup in Ransang, Rizal. As of July 2005, there were 286 people living in Tau’t Bato, which was made up of 66 households.

Since the American colonial era, resettlement policies have brought in people from all over the country. This has made the population multilingual, with people who also speak Ilocano, Cebuano, Ilonggo, Aklanon, and Masbateo. Filipino, on the other hand, is the common language in markets. It is also the language taught in schools and is the official language of government offices.

Palawan Economy

Palawan’s economy is based on two types of work: gathering, hunting, and fishing, on the one hand, and growing rice in the uma or kaingin (swidden farm), on the other. There is a division of labor based on a person’s gender, but it’s not set in stone and can’t be broken. Women do most of the work in agriculture, like clearing land, pulling weeds, and harvesting rice. They also gather edible plants and mushrooms from the forest and grow grains and tubers. They use a hook and line or a hand net to catch fish. They cook the food, take care of the kids, and make baskets. Men cut down trees to make a space for the uma. They may also help with farming tasks like planting and pulling weeds. Their favorite things to do were hunting with a blowgun or with dogs and spears, and fishing with a trap or with goggles and a spear gun. These things aren’t done as often as they used to be. They also build the banwa, which are the houses, and the lagkaw, which are the rice granaries.

In the lowlands, rice is the main food, but the amount of rice grown in the highlands varies. In contrast to the fertile soil in the hilly area of Punang, which used to be a rice granary, the landscape of the Makagwa and Tamlang valleys is abrupt, their upland fields are smaller, and the soil is not as fertile. For swidden farming to work, there needs to be a small population so that fields can be left empty and secondary forests can grow. This makes sure that the land is used in the right way during each planting cycle. Rice is grown in the uma, along with other grains like millet, sorghum, and corn, and tubers like taro, yam, and cassava.

The Palawan way of thinking and their social and moral values have nothing to do with private ownership of land. New Christian settlers brought the idea of land ownership, but the highlanders still think of themselves as the heirs and guardians of the land where their ancestors lived and grew up rice, planted fruit trees, and collected almaciga resin. So, they feel like they belong to the land where their ancestors lived. Bagtik, the resin from huge almaciga trees, used to be the main way people in the highlands made money. It is turned into a substance called copal, which is used to make lacquer. But the Palawan people don’t get much out of this market. Gathering bagtik takes hard work and transportation from the forests in the highlands to the concessions in the foothills. This has brought the national currency into the economy of Palawan. But it’s still a very small way to make money, and with the new economic policies, it’s now in danger. Concession holders from outside the country, like Christians and Muslims, get more out of it.

The Palawan may cross the mountain range in search of medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products like honey, rattan, beeswax, edible nests, and palm tree products. They traded their rice and these forest products for the seafarers’ gongs, jars, plates, celadons, blades, and brassware from ancient times until World War II. It was done quietly, and neither side talked to the other because they left their trade goods on the beach.

Today, the Palawan’s land has been cut down by a lot along the coast and in the foothills. Also, it is threatened by companies like MacroAsia and Ipilan Nickel Corporation, which mine nickel for a living, as well as by oil palm, cacao, and rubber plantations. Monocultures have spread from the lowlands to the edges and even into some of the core zones of the forested areas in the highlands, such as Mount Gabantong and Mount Mantaling.

The oil palm plantations have had terrible effects on the people of Palawan in the municipality of Espaola. Chemicals have killed off a lot of plants and animals, which has led to fewer birds and freshwater animals and a big drop in non-timber forest products. In Palawan, oil palm plantations have been rid of a type of beetle that isn’t allowed in the US by using chemicals like Furadan, which is banned in the US. This has only made the insect move to the coconut trees on Palawan, killing off most of them. Elders in Palawan are worried about the future of their ethnobotanical heritage, especially their medicinal herbs, which, if they die out, will mean the end of the Palawan people as well.

The Palawan people were promised jobs in agricultural plantations like oil palm farms. But in Iraray, only 25 people were working on every 150 hectares. This was a very low rate of employment compared to the rosy picture that palm plantation supporters painted. Also, the oppressive working conditions include working too many hours, not keeping track of working days correctly, being exposed to dangerous things, and not getting enough benefits. On the other hand, people who leased their lots for as little as 5,000 pesos a year can’t get them back without paying 3,000,000 pesos, which is supposed to cover the cost of development. One Palawan tried to get back his 25-hectare lot in this way.

The MMPL is an important piece of law that helps protect the environment of Palawan. It is thought to be worth at least $5.5 billion US dollars and provides basic ecological services like water, flood control, soil fertility, and products that aren’t made from wood. Mount Mantaling is now a protected area, which means that kaingin farming and hunting and gathering of endangered plants and animals are not allowed there. The upland Palawan, on the other hand, are allowed to keep doing what they’ve always done, which is to go down to the shore to get food from the mangroves and reefs and sell non-timber forest products to the lowlanders.

On the other hand, people who live in the lowlands of Palawan are part of the market economy and live with settlers and families who moved there. They have found ways to make money, like making copra, growing wet rice, raising animals, and selling cassava flour. Because of this, mining, oil palm plantations, and climate change don’t hurt them as much.

Ecotourism gives the people of Palawan other ways to make a living. The Singnapan Valley is now a place where people go to visit. Members of the Tau’t Bato and other subgroups from Palawan go to school to learn how to be trekking guides and porters. The local knowledge of Palawan guides is very important, especially for mountain climbers going to Mount Mantalingahan via the Ransang trail, because the trek takes at least three days and every stopover must have a source of potable water.

Government agencies like the Department of Trade and Industry, fair trade groups like the Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme, and small businesses like Asiano Arts and Crafts help people find other ways to make a living by selling handicrafts like baskets and sculptures made in Palawan.

System of Government in Palawan

The Palawan way of life is based on three values: adat at pagbagi (the custom of sharing), ganti (equal exchange), and tabang (mutual help) between sisters, husbands and wives, and older and younger people.

In each village, the panglima is either the father or uncle of a group of sisters and their first cousins. In order to keep society in balance and make sure that a moral code based on nonviolence, sharing, and helping each other is followed, the headmen know a lot about adat (custom law) and bisara (traditional law) (jural discussion). With such a role and duty, a headman is likely to have respect and some power, but not necessarily a higher economic status or more political power.

The ukum (judge) and the salab (mediators) make sure that the sara (law) is followed and respected. They also help settle fights and make sure there is no physical or verbal violence. The word “bisara” comes from the Sanskrit word “vi-cara,” which means “to think,” “argue,” or “make a decision.” This society is very peaceful, but conflict is always kept in check and under control by the mastery of “thinking and speaking,” which is where the word comes from. Bisara is a very structured way for experts to talk to each other in a calm and elegant way.

In their traditional way of life, or adat, the Palawan can’t defend themselves from violent outsiders because they don’t have any formal ways to organize violence. But they know how to avoid it by talking, and in this way, they are a great example, even though they are very weak. When a social contract or agreement needs to be made, when there is a disagreement or an open fight, the Palawan gather in the large keleng benwa (meeting house) to think and talk, deliberate and decide, make a ukuman (judgment), and agree on the punishment. By doing this, they hope to bring peace and harmony back to the area. The mamimisara, or “masters of discussing,” have been trained for a long time and have been exposed to this art of talking since they were young. As teenagers, they play roles with the help of the magurang (elders). Evenings are used for these kinds of meetings. As adults, they have to remember a lot of cases that were settled by their law.

Burak at baras, which means “flowers of speech,” is not only their art of speaking, but also their art of getting along with each other. They talk to each other openly and politely in a highly stylized way to try to solve problems and settle disagreements in the community. Palawan rhetorical devices and strategies include: (1) the paribasa, which is a stringing together of politeness devices, such as feigned surprise, feigned ignorance of an event, feigned anxiety, and allusion to a serious but made-up event; (2) the baliwat, which is an inversion device used to be polite, such as using a negative expression instead of an affirmative one (for example, blaming oneself when the other All of these figures of speech require a lot of thought and the ability to speak in an elegant way, which the Palawan love.

Each bisara is a way to argue and debate. It has a structure and uses figures of speech that relate to the different jural cases. Bisara is not a conversation in this way. There are proofs, appreciations, and evaluations that all come together to make a ukuman and an i’un (agreement). The judge ends the case by saying, “Pwas at sala-ya” (His or her mistake is over), which means that the goal is to restore harmony.

The shamans, or balyan, are very important to the Palawan because they are in charge of their spiritual lives. Pedjat, Nambun, and Tuking were well-known shamans who had a lot of power in the Kulbi-Kanipaan river basins and the areas around them. People went to them for healing, blessings, and spiritual advice.

During the time when the United States was still a colony, a shaman named Damar who lived in Abo-Abo was thought to have magical powers. He was arrested three times by the police for trying to get the Palawan people to take back and live in the forests. In the 1980s, the people of Palawan set up the Pinagsurotan Foundation in honor of Damar. Its goal was to secure land tenure through government lease agreements. Settlers were against the plan because they didn’t want the Palawan to get 25-year leases on certain pieces of land with the option to renew after the first 25 years were up.

Under martial law, the barangay was the system for local government. But this local government has always been run by settlers who see the ancestral domain of Palawan as land that can be sold. Instead of getting the Palawan, who were the first people to live in the area, to take part, the barangay system has made it legal for them to be kicked out (Lopez 1987, 243). The 1997 Indigenous People’s Rights Act is the most important law that gives the Palawan the right to rule themselves in their old lands (IPRA). With the help of civil society and international organizations, the Palawan have set up their own groups, such as the Bangsa Palawan Philippines, Inc., thanks to the IPRA (BPPI). In 2009, it was able to get the legal title to their ancestral domain, which included 69,735.23 hectares in the Rizal town barangays of Panalingaan, Taburi, Latud, and parts of Kanipaan and Calasian. The MMPL protected area, which was made official in 2009, includes part of Barangay Panalingaan.

The Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) principle in the IPRA gives IPs the right to say yes or no to projects and activities in their ancestral domain. So, all projects must go through an FPIC process of consulting with the Palawan council of elders and communities. But in 2011, when non-indigenous people cleared ancestral lands in Barangay Tagusao, Quezon, and Barangay Iraan, Rizal, for oil palm plantations, no FPIC process was done with the Palawan.

Even though the Palawan are usually peaceful and don’t like to fight, they have shown that they can work together. In 2014, the Coalition against Land Grabbing (CALG) was created to bring together over 4,000 IPs and non-IPs to fight against the expansion of oil palm plantations on Palawan Island.