Bisayanization; Communal Ownership of Land and the Origin of Agrarian Problems

Scholars have identified the so-called "Bisayanization" of Mindanao, which is the same in Northern Luzon with the "Ilocanization" because of the migration and settlement of Ilocanos in any corner of Amianan.

Due to the slave raiding practices of the Sulu Sultanate, people from the different parts of the archipelago were captured and became slaves. With due respect to our Bisayan brothers, the term Bisaya denoted chattel slaves along with the words banyaga, ipun and ammas.

Bisayanization is continuing process as noted by Maria Mangahas on the Samal people of the island south of Davao which means loss of identity and integration into mainstream society. Yengoyan (1966) coined the term to describe the taking up of Bisayan identity by the Mandayas of Eastern Mindanao through baptism.

Regarding land ownership, prehispanic Filipinos did not know the concept of private property until the introduction of torrens title system by the Spaniards. Anyone has the right to till the land and get whatever from it, called usufruct, but the forest and other lands were considered communal. The basis of wealth during those days was not the land, it was the ownership of slaves, porcelain and jewelry. It was useless to own large tracts of land if one could not employ farm hands to cultivate them.

It is because of the introduction of private ownership of land that led to the dispossession of lands from the indigenous peoples ofMindanao. The influx of migrants from the north to Mindanao, already accustomed to the idea of private property as regards land, created complications as the communal ownership of land was not yet understood. Today, how many people in Mindanao owned lands previously "owned" or shall we say considered as communal property by the lumads and the Moros? The same question could be posed regarding the Cordilleras, Mindoro and Palawan.