From war dance to theater of war moro moro performances in the philippines 2

31

Chapter 2:

The Centrality of the War Dance:
Etymology and History of the Moro-Moro




Off Southern Mindanao, April 1, 1901

As soon as luncheon was over we were escorted to the plaza where brilliant
awnings had been spread to protect us from the heat. We waited some time for the
show to begin, but the natives were gathering in crowds and it was interesting to
watch them, as it was probably amusing to them to observe our strange attire and
pale faces. Finally the Commissioners appeared with a train of gorgeously arrayed
Dattos with their slaves… The first number on the programme was a dance by two
little Moro girls… When they had finished there were dances by women from the
mountains, wearing heavy brass rings on their ankles and bracelets from their
wrists to their elbows… After the women, men with spears and shields appeared
and a repetition of the Jolo war dance was given. Yet the last two dances were
quite different from any we had seen, for they were dramatic in character. One
represented a battle between Moros and Christians. As the participants carried long
naked swords and sharp spears the fighting was rather a series of poses than
dancing. However, it was realistic enough to make one glad when the Christians
utterly vanquished the Moros and stood, each one triumphant, over the prostrate
body of a foe…
1

Excerpts from Mrs. Edith Moses’
Unofficial Letters of an Official’s Wife


The above account, as observed and recorded by the wife of an American
official traveling with the Philippine Commission in 1901, paints a rather puzzling
scenario. It takes place in Cotabato, which was then a Muslim stronghold and a
center of power of the Magindanao Sultanate. Two years before, the Philippine
Islands was ceded to the United States and the Spanish withdrew from Cotabato,
leaving behind an outbreak of violence among the Christian Filipinos, Chinese, and
Moros. With the Spanish retreat, the “pent-up wrath of the Magindanaos against the
Christian colonizers reached a peak of expression” as churches and convents were
sacked, the Christian population fled to the hills, and Christian Filipino leaders were

1
Edith Moses. Unofficial Letters of an Official's Wife. New York: D. Appleton and
Company, 1908. pp. 105-107.

32
publicly executed.
2
The Chinese-Moro mestizo, Datto Piang, with his Chinese and
Moro allies, had risen to power, as the Christian Filipino governor was overthrown.
That a dance drama depicting Christian victory over Muslims was performed in
Piang’s Cotabato, and to an audience which included “gorgeously arrayed dattos” at
that, defies conventional logic. For while dance-dramas depicting Christian victory
over Muslims are common features of festivities in Christianized parts of the
Philippines, its appearance in a Muslim area where Christians form a small minority
is virtually unthinkable.

Equally interesting is the fact that had Mrs. Moses asked around for the names
of the war dances she witnessed, she would have found out that both the Muslim
“Jolo war dance”, and the dramatic “battle between Moros and Christians”, which she
described as “quite different”, actually shared the same name in colonial writing:
moro-moro.
In Spanish and American colonial writing, the word moro-moro was used in
two different contexts - one referred to a "war dance" performed by natives, and the
other was a "theater of war", that is a dramatic presentation portraying battles between
Christians and Moros. In common usage today, the definition of moro-moro as
"theater" is privileged and the other earlier meaning of "war dance" tends to be
forgotten. This chapter recovers this earlier meaning to highlight the centrality of the
war dance in this theatric genre. It is not merely an attempt to investigate the
etymology of the term moro-moro, but rather, it is novel line of inquiry into the
genre's nature and history. The moro-moro is often associated only as a tradition of
Christianized Filipinos, but in a significant way, it is linked to Muslim war dances.


2
Reynaldo Ileto. Magindanao 1860-1888: The Career of Satu Utto of Buayan. Pasig, Philippines: Anvil
Publishing, 2007. p. 110-111.

33
From War Dance to Theater of War
Spanish explorers who visited Mindanao in the latter half of the 19
th
century
used the word moro-moro as a blanket term to refer to war dances they observed
among different tribes in various parts of the island.
3
Spanish priests who continued

with their missionary work in Mindanao after the end of Spanish colonial rule in the
first decades of the 20
th
century would write in their reports how they converted
Moros, and how the baptism rites would always be accompanied by feasting on a
roasted pig (lechon), and dancing of the moro-moro by the new converts.
4

So how is the moro-moro war dance linked to native theater? Vicente
Barrantes, in his 1878 work Guerras Piraticas, relates how in 1750 a celebration was
held in Paniqui in honor of Sultan Ali Mudin's recent conversion to Christianity.
Barrantes describes in detail a war dance performed by Muslim men who
accompanied the Sultan. Twelve years later, Barrantes published another book
entitled El Teatro Tagalo, in which he proposes that the dance performed in 1750 was
"without a doubt the origin of the moro-moro, a dance or warlike pantomime" which
has since become "an integral part of Tagalog spectacles".
5

Wenceslao Retana, writing in 1909, takes issue with Barrantes' claims,
arguing that “the war dance in Tagalog theater is as old as the theater itself” and not

3
The term “Moro-Moro” is used to describe war dances in Joaquin Rajal y Larre’s writing on Davao
(1891), Miguel Espina on Jolo (1888), Jose de Lacalle on Zamboanga and Cotabato (1886), and Jose
Nieto Aguilar on Mindanao’s History and Geography (1894). It is doubtful, however, if it was the term
commonly used by Mindanao natives themselves. A Tiruray-Spanish dictionary from 1892 for
example, has an entry for a dance that the Tiruray called “Sayau” which was defined in Spanish as “a
war dance commonly called moromoro. The 19
th
century Moro-Maguindanao-Spanish dictionary has

no entry for the word moro-moro even as the Spanish writer Lacalle states in his book that “the moro-
moro is their favorite dance”, in reference to the people of the area.
4
Take for example the letters written by Padre Tomas Andueza, on the missionary activities in Iligan,
written on February, 1914 found in Cartas Edificantes de la Provincia de Aragon. Año 1914, Numero
1. Manresa: Imprenta y Encuadernacion de San Jose 1915. pp. 142-147. Another example is taken
from the letters of Padre Tomas Barber, on the missionary activities in Davao in October, 1916 found
in Cartas Edificantes. Año 1916. pp. 60.
5
Vicente Barrantes. El Teatro Tagalo. Madrid: Tip. de Manuel Gines Hernandez, 1890. pp. 33-35.

34
some recent incorporation into native theater, as Barrantes claimed.
6
To back his
contention, Retana cites a passage from an earlier account, Father Colin's 1663 Labor
Evangelica, which describes in detail a "warlike and passionate" dance performed
with such "grace and elegance" that "they have not been judged unworthy to
accompany and solemnize Christian feasts". Retana claims that this warlike dance
described by Colin has "taken the name moro-moro".
7

From Spanish writings by Barrantes, Retana, and Pastells, published
missionary letters of the Jesuits, available travel accounts of Mindanao, and early
dictionaries produced for Muslim ethnolinguistic groups, we can surmise that for the
Spanish one of the meanings of the moro-moro was a dance, or specifically an
indigenous war dance. We also see that its use was not confined to ethno-linguistic
groupings but, rather, was a categorical designation that encompassed the various
native war dances found in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. From both Barrantes and
Retana we also get the idea that moro-moro war dances became a component part of

Tagalog spectacles.
The moro-moro war dances were incorporated into dramatic presentations, in
battle scenes depicting Christian and Moorish kingdoms at war. This incorporation of
moro-moro war dances into dramas depicting created a hybridized comedia, localized
to suit native tastes. The comedia was a dramatic genre from the Spanish Golden Age
which had made its journey to the Philippines in the 1600's and the plays performed
during the first two centuries of colonial rule were penned by the Spaniards in their
language. Crossing geographical boundaries, the early comedia retained much of its

6
“tal era el baile clasico por excelencia de los tagalogs” in Wenceslao Retana. Noticias Historico-
Bibliograficas: de el Teatro en Filipinas desde sus Origines hasta 1898. Madrid: Libreria General de
V. Suarez, 1909. p. 53-54.
7
The quotation used by Barrantes, however, was an observation made by the Jesuit priest Colin, not of
the Tagalogs, but of native dancers in the Visayas in the mid 1600s. When Blair and Robertson
released an English translation of Colin’s work, it included a footnote from Pablo Pastells, which
mentioned that “the dance here described by the author is that which is called in Filipinas moro-moro”.

35
original form and content. When native playwrights began to produce their own
dramas in the vernacular from the mid-eighteenth century, the comedia crossed not
only geographical but also cultural boundaries. The dramatic form was thus
appropriated, infused with moro-moro war dances, and soon came to be known as
moro-moro theater. Not a few Spanish scholars viewed the moro-moro as degenerate
and corrupt flawed versions of the original comedia from Spain leading them to
conclude that Filipinos had no legitimate drama of their own to speak of.
The moro-moro was found lacking from another angle. Even though indigenous
dances had been incorporated into the sphere of approved activities of the Catholic
Church, they were seen as remnants of pre-Hispanic practices. As Kramer explains,

“for centuries, Spanish writers had scrutinized the indio cultures through the lens of
conversion as vestiges of a pagan past to be collected for ridicule and eradicated for
the greater glory of Christendom.” The act of recording customs was used to
“establish authoritative colonial knowledge, indexing native incapacities in concrete,
empirical detail.”
8
The persistence of native practices is encoded as the inability to
learn the lessons in civilization that colonial masters have desperately tried to teach.
This view is articulated by Antonio Navarro in his book Siluetas y Matices:
Nothing enlivens this sorry lot more than the staging of the moro-moro in
open air!…There they often stray, they have arms for tilling the fields, but…
spend a great deal of time practicing for their parts for the moro-moro, in this
they never fail. Like little children, indios need a great number of hours of
play everyday….It takes little to satisfy their needs: thus, they do not work
nor worry about providing for themselves…Their dormant intelligence
renders them incapable of producing anything grand. The indio is happy
because he has not grown up, and infancy – unlike serious occupations –
requires much happiness and merrymaking.”
9


Navarro represents the dominant discourse which frames colonial subjects as
infantile, indolent, and savage. In colonial writing, this characterization explains, and

8
Paul Kramer. The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, The United States, and the Philippines.
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press. p. 64-65.
9
Antonio Chápuli Navarro. Siluetas y Matices Galería Filipina Madrid: Impr. De la Viuda de M.
Minuesa de los Ríos, 1894. p. 168-169.

36
is simultaneously explained by, the natives’ love for the moro-moro – both the war
dance performed by Moros, and the war dance within theater performed by
Christianized natives. Within the framework of a mind/body dichotomy, the moro-
moro is appraised as the type of theater that privileged the body more than the mind -
appealing more to the senses than to the intellect - and for this it was shunned by the
"more enlightened" among both the Spanish and native elite.
In the late 19
th
century, Spanish scholars Barrantes and Retana attacked the
moro-moro and used it as proof of the "indio's intellectual ineptness and penchant for
lower-order mimicry". Filipino ilustrados Rizal and Isabelo de los Reyes, on the other
hand, staunchly defended the native drama. In his recent study on de los Reyes, Resil
Mojares provides an account and analysis of the heated debate, explaining how the
Filipino intellectuals' characteristic response to Spanish criticism was to engage in
two discursive moves: One was to point out the colonizer's deficiency in "world
knowledge" (or knowledge of Asian forms of theater), and the second was to point
out their deficiency in "local" knowledge".
De los Reyes, for example, argued that the komedya had been indigenized and
was comparable with great literatures of the world. He identified certain traits it had
in common with the Mahabharata, for instance. He pointed out how the play's kings
and princes were portrayed as valiantly as the Manobos of Mindanao, and how the
marches could be compared to how Igorots walk, reflecting local customs and local
sensibilities, and evoking an experience among its local audiences that foreigners
could not access.
10

The ilustrados, however, were sensitive to the negative connotations in the
term moro-moro itself. De los Reyes proposed that the word comedia be used instead

10
Resil Mojares. 2006. Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los
Reyes and the Production of Modern Knowledge. 356-359.

37
of moro-moro because it was a Tagalog art and not to be confused with the cultural
practices of the Muslims of Mindanao.
11
Hermenegildo Cruz, in a study published in
1906, explained that he opted to use the term komedya "out of respect for the many
people here who use the name komedya for their moro-moro compositions", even as
he acknowledged that this word may not be suitable, as native drama (moro-moro)
may not meet literary standards associated with the comedia.
12

In common usage today, the words comedia, komedya, and moro-moro are
used interchangeably to refer to a native dramatic genre in the Philippines. Many
writings on the subject treat these terms as synonymous with one another. However,
there are nuances in their meaning that make them interchangeable only in a limited
sense. On literary grounds, there was a degree of respectability associated with the
term comedia/komedya that is denied moro-moro, in fact the latter was used rather
condescendingly to refer to a "low-brow" form of drama. Because of the broader
scope covered by the term comedia, it was not as readily associated with native
theater alone, and was thus not used as a pejorative term in the way the moro-moro
was. Another association triggered by the term moro-moro but not by terms
comedia/komedya was the Muslim connection. If the opinion of Isabelo de los Reyes
is any indication, the word "Moro" in "moro-moro" evokes an immediate association
with Muslims, and in the context of Philippine history, where Christian and Muslim
populations have been at war for centuries, that posed certain problems. It is perhaps

this Muslim connection that caused a certain degree of ambivalence among scholars
in the usage of the term moro-moro and in current discourse, other terminologies,
such as comedia and komedya have come to be favored. These terms, though used

11
Mojares. Brains of a Nation…, p. 336.
12
Hermenegildo Cruz. 1906. Kung Sino ang Kumatha ng "Florante" (Kasaysayan ng Buhay ni
Francisco Baltazar at Pag-uulat nang Kanyang Karununga't Kadakilaan). Santa Cruz, Manila:
Libreria Manila Filatelico. p. 179.

38
interchangeably, are not quite the same in meaning and practice, as the succeeding
section will show.

On Terminology: The Comedia, Komedya, and Moro-Moro examined
The Comedia was the most popular form of theater of the Golden Age in
Spain. A textbook definition of the Spanish comedia describes the genre as a full-
length play written in three acts, which were episodic in form and did not follow
neoclassical rules, and largely ignored the unities of time, place, and action. The
comedia was similar in form to Elizabethan drama, but differed from it in terms of
subject. For while Shakespearean drama produced tragedies like King Lear and light
comedies like Twelfth Night, the comedia was not strictly a comedy but in fact a
distinct genre that “liberally combined elements of the serious and the comic in
narrating conflicts of love and honor, daring adventures, melodramatic
confrontations, and rescues.”
13

There were two major types of comedia: The first was called capa y espada
(cape and sword) after the costumes of the nobility being portrayed on stage. This

type of comedia featured the adventures of noblemen in romantic quests of love and
honor. The second type of comedia dealt with the lives of saints, rulers, historical
figures, and heroes from folk myths and legends. Called by various names, like
cuerpo, teatro, and ruido, these plays were set in distant periods and places, far
removed from contemporary Spain. The performances of comedias were preceded by
a prologue, or a monologue, and in between acts, intermissions featured farces or
short sketches called entremeses and sainetes.

13
Edwin Wilson and Alvin Goldfarb. 2000. Living Theater: A History. Boston: McGraw Hill Higher
Education. p. 214

39
The komedya as it developed in the Philippines carries over some features of
the Spanish comedia on which it is modeled. In terms of form, the komedya inherited
the three-part structure, the episodic form, the use of verse, the use of loas or
prologues before the play, and the performance of entremeses and sainetes in between
acts. It also bore similar features of the playing space, such as the teatro-corral
layout, and the stage with two permanent doors and two levels.
14

Nicanor Tiongson identifies three types of komedya: The first (and rarest)
variety dramatizes real events. An example of this is the Gran comedia de la toma del
pueblo de Corralat y la conquista del cerro (Grand Play on the Capture of the Town
of Corralat and the Taking of the Hill), written in 1637 to celebrate the triumph of
Governor-General Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera over the Maguindanao chieftain,
Sultan Kudarat. The second type deals with religious themes such as the lives of
Saints or episodes in the Bible, a well-known example being the Comedia de la venta
de Joseph (Play on the Sale of Joseph). The third and most popular type mentioned by
Tiongson deals with the conflict of Moors and Christian medieval kingdoms, and

chivalric quests for love and honor borrowing plots from the tales of Charlemagne,
King Arthur, and other Spanish ballads.
15
The term moro-moro came to be associated
with this third type of komedya.
The moro-moro we are familiar with today stems from a variant of the
komedya that emerged sometime in the eighteenth century. This was distinct from the
earlier types of komedya introduced by the Spanish not only in terms of thematic
content but more importantly, in terms of orchestration. Tiongson notes that by the
nineteenth century, a clearly defined set of conventions for this type of drama had
emerged. These include the use of comic interludes; the sing-song delivery of verses

14
Tiongson, p. 2.; A loa is a eulogizing poem recited before a play in honor of the dignitaries present.
An entremes
15
Tiongson, 1999…, p. 1-3.

40
(which has been described as monotonous and nasal); the marches to martial music
marking entrances and exits; the stylized acting; the use of artifices to produce
magical effects, the costumes which identify opposing camps; and "most important,
the moro-moro or choreographed fighting, which was now integrated into the battle
scenes and became so popular that the term moro-moro became synonymous with
komedya especially in the Tagalog areas". Needless to say, dialogues were rendered in
the vernacular, in folk quatrains delivered in a singsong manner.
The moro-moro, then, differed from comedia in offering a radically different
sensory experience for the audience, given their choreographic conventions,
spectacular fighting scenes, and much lengthier staging which could last for several
days. And unlike the 1637 play that re-enacted an actual war in Mindanao, these

newer comedias were fanciful portrayals of conquests in faraway kingdoms.
In different parts of the Philippines, various local names are used to refer to
this kind of komedya that features choreographed fighting: cumidya or curaldal in
Pampanga, linambay in the Visayas, estoke in Nueva Vizcaya, arakyo in Nueva Ecija,
hadi-hadi in Waray, bakal-bakal in Pangasinan, kuleleng in Isabela, yawa-yawa in
Iligan, moro-moro or coloquio in Catanduanes, and also moro-moro in Ilocos.
16

The defining features of the genre the sing-song delivery of dialogue and the
choreographed fighting made for invariably long performances full of pageantry
and spectacle. The moro-moro scenes or choreographed fights were just so popular
that a performance was liberally injected with a lot of such scenes, and the plot line
was often thinly stretched to accommodate many battles. The epic length and
pomposity of this type of komedya led a Spanish scholar to describe them as

16
Nicanor Tiongson. 1999. Komedya. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press. p. 6.

41
dramones tagalos or "monstrous dramas in Tagalog".
17
This derogatory term, of
course, does not refer to all the three types of komedya but is reserved for the third
variety: the blood-and-thunder melodrama most loved by natives, the moro-moro.
In the nineteenth century, the Spanish authorities who regulated theatric
activity distinguished legitimate Spanish comedia from other kinds of comedia, which
were subjected to different sets of fees and regulations. The various kinds of comedia
performed in nineteenth-century Manila's theater district were differentiated from
each other through the use of racial signifiers: comedia español (Spanish), comedia
chinica (Chinese), and comedia tagala (Tagalog).

There was quite a contrast between comedia español and comedia tagala. The
former, patronized by the elite and upper classes, were written in Spanish and staged
in the better theaters constructed of strong materials and more opulently decorated.
Comedia tagala, in contrast, tended to be staged in poorly constructed theaters made
of nipa and bamboo, which proliferated in the more populous districts of Manila.
Comedia chinica, patronized by the Chinese community, was considered by the
Spanish as "heathen", and full of superstitious content, and was a pretext for gambling
and other immoral acts, and therefore was the kind of theater subjected to the most
regulations and the highest fees.
18

The term comedia, then, as used in the Spanish period can refer to vastly
different kinds of plays, from opulent and compact Spanish productions, to makeshift
village productions which stretched for days. It can refer to plays with historical,
religious, or fantastic themes. “Comedia” was even used as a generic term for a play -
- all types of plays, in fact, including Chinese opera and so was not strictly limited

17
Atayde 21 August 1892 p. 306, quoted in Tiongson, p. 4.
18
Cristina Laconico Buenaventura. 1994. The Theater in Manila 1864-1946. Manila: De La Salle
University Press.

42
to the Spanish meaning of a "three-act play in verse". In the vernacular, comedia is
spelled komedya, and this term carries the same scope as its Spanish equivalent.
The term moro-moro however, has not gained the same currency, nor does it
enjoy the same breadth of applicability. For while all moro-moro plays can be called
comedia/ komedya, not all comedia/ komedya can be called moro-moro. To qualify as
a moro-moro, a komedya must have the choreographed fighting, the long drawn-out

battle scenes, and above all must have the moro-moro war dance.

The Moro-Moro in the American Colonial Period
When the Americans arrived, they adopted the Spanish usage of the term, and
applied it to both the war dances of the Moros in Mindanao and the native theater of
the Christians. In 1901, five thousand copies of an article entitled “People of the
Philippines” were printed for distribution to the US Congress and War Department.
Secretary of War Elihu Root wrote in the cover letter that the compilation of
“standard works and records” of the Division of Insular Affairs “together with the
data contained in the recent report of the Philippine Commission” would “supply the
increasing demand for information” on the inhabitants of the newly acquired
Philippines. The term moro-moro makes an appearance in the section on the
"Customs of the Moros":
They have a war dance called the moro-moro, which is performed by
their most skillful and agile swordsmen buckler on arm and campilan
in hand to the sound of martial music. It simulates a combat, and the
dancers spring sideways, backward, or forward, and cut, thrust, guard,
or feint with surprising dexterity.
19


A few years later, in 1904, the American public was given the opportunity to
witness this dance at the St. Louis World’s Fair, where it was one of the attractions at

19
“The People of the Philippines”. Letter from the Secretary of War transmitting an article on the
People of the Philippines Compiled in the Division of Insular Affairs of the War Department.
Document No. 218 of the 56
th
Congress, 2

nd
Session. February, 1901. p. 64

43
the Moro village within the Philippine Exposition. The Souvenir pamphlet informs us
that the Moros “divert themselves with dancing” and mentions the moro-moro as a
name of their dance.
20
(See Illustration 2)












In the early accounts in English, a discussion of the moro-moro among the
Moros in Mindanao is often preceded by paragraphs on gambling (i.e., cockfights,
carabao races, card games), polygamy and slave raiding. Descriptions of the moro-
moro dances then appear under the heading “The Morals of the Moros”.
21
The war
dance performed during festivities is linked to gambling, vices, and promiscuity; the
vigorous movements of the body are encoded as an expression of the sensuous, wild,
and unbridled or immoral nature of the native. The displays of masculinity and

20
Souvenir of the Philippine Exposition. (Manila [s.n.], 1904), p. 63.
21
This ordering or “clustering” could be seen in Frederic Sawyer. The Inhabitants of the Philippines.
London: S. Low Marston and Co., 1900. p. 369; which reappears in the “People of the Philippines”
Document compiled by the Division of Insular Affairs of the Department of War distributed to
Congress in 1901. p. 64 ; and Samuel MacClintock’s The Philippines: A Geographic Reader. New
York: American Book Company, 1903 p. 82.

Illustration 2. Moro-Moro War Dance at the 1904
World's Fair or Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

44
warrior prowess in the war dance are manifestations of the savage, fierce, and violent
nature of Moros, which is then linked to slave-raiding. These depictions of immorality
could have found an audience among those with missionary inclinations, while
images of warriors and slave-raiding informed public debates on military activities in
the islands. The moro-moro war dance in reference to the Muslims is hence located
within a discernible “thought cluster”.
In American colonial writings, the Christian moro-moro theater is likewise
located within its own "thought cluster". Of course it is not associated with polygamy
and slave-raiding, for these are activities reserved for Moros. Descriptions of the
plays fall under topics like "economic conditions"
22
or "rural social problems"
23
. The
moro-moro is often lumped together with fiestas and gambling as manifestations of
the vicious and expensive forms of amusement enjoyed by rural folk. A different take

is provided by the Chief Clerk of the Philippine Constabulary, who blamed the moro-
moro, among other factors, for the rise of the Colorum peasant movement which was
apparently steeped in superstition.
24
The contrast in treatment between the moro-moro
dance and moro-moro theater reflects notions of religious as well as racial difference
and even hierarchy in a discourse that served to justify the American "civilizing"
intervention.
In the same year as the St. Louis Fair, Arthur Stanley Riggs published an article
for the Journal of American Folklore, entitled “The Drama of the Filipinos”. In it he
offers a four-period classification of Philippine drama: 1) Prehistoric until 1521; 2)
Religious from 1529 to present time; 3) Moro-Moro or Middle Period from 1750 to
1876, and to the present day; and 4) Seditious, or anti-American from 1898. Of these

22
Miller, Hugo Herman. 1920. Economic Conditions in the Philippines.
23
Macaraig, Serafin. 1929. Social Problems. Manila: The Educational Supply Co. p. 319.
24
See the article entitled "Origin of the Colorum" written by Robert G. Woods, Chief Clerk of the
Philippine Constabulary in Philippine Education Magazine, January 1930. P. 549.

45
four periods he proposes that “the third class, that of the moro-moro plays, affords the
most interesting study of the drama, and the character of the Filipino”. He goes on to
state that “the name indicates the nature of the pieces”, pointing out that the word
“Moro” refers to the Muslim natives, and the plays, “accordingly, recite the struggles
between these and the Christian tribes”.
25

Riggs’ classification is not an innocent undertaking. His desire to know “the
character of the Filipino” is motivated by colonial interests. Portraying a picture of
Muslim and Christian “tribes” at war, is in fact a recurrent theme in colonial writing,
which, taken collectively, contributes to justifying American intervention or
“pacification”. Of course, Riggs is mistaken to think that the "Moro" in the plays
refers to Muslim natives, and equally incorrect in assuming that the battles being
portrayed on stage depicted wars between the Muslim and Christian tribes. Riggs may
have overlooked the fact that one of the biggest criticisms levied against the moro-
moro was of course its penchant for depicting fictitious faraway kingdoms from a
bygone era, and its refusal to deal with real events.
In the 1920s and 30s, newspaper editorials began to make use of the moro-
moro as a metaphor for a certain kind of politics. It became an expression to describe
the hypocrisy of Filipino politicians in relation to their attempts to gain independence
for the country. Take the following news report from 1926 wherein the expression
"moro-moro" suggests a feigned opposition in the realm of electoral politics:
Senator Osmeña speaking at Cebu points out the disastrous effects
of a policy of non-cooperation, explaining that the Filipinos do not
necessarily abdicate their rights when they cooperate with the
American administration. He warns against "Barong Tagalog" and
"Moro-moro" tactics, and states that any unwise move on the
part of the Filipinos might have the same rapid result as the case of
Japan…
26


25
Arthur Stanley Riggs. “The Drama of the Filipinos”. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 17, No.
67 (Oct-Dec 1904), p. 281.
26
See Philippine Education Magazine, Sept. 1926 p. 222.

46

As shown in the above quote, the word moro-moro began to connote how
leaders were merely putting on a show, delivering fiery speeches steeped in the
rhetoric of nationalism, while really collaborating with the American colonizers who
were also their political backers.
In the following humor-filled essay dating from 1935, “With Charity to All,”
which was intended as satire, we find an equally revealing example of the usage of
the word moro-moro as a political metaphor:
With a view to encouraging activities that entertain the public and
keep "our people's" minds harmlessly busy, we propose to establish a
Bureau of Moro-Moro Affairs. The Bureau shall take charge of the
large part of the activities of the Assembly, including the formation
and dissolution of "blocs" and their heads. It shall also arrange "splits"
and "coalitions" among political parties and their leaders. All "open
letters" and editorials "criticizing" persons in power on minor
innocuous matters shall pass through this Bureau to receive finishing
touches. The Honorable Mr. Opus, entirely unassisted, shall be in
charge of this Bureau.
27
(Emphasis mine)

We can discern from the above extract the contours of the “moro-moro politics”
metaphor, which would survive up to the present. To date, in fact, the word moro-
moro regularly appears in newspapers to refer to political deception, evidence of the
durability of moro-moro theater as metaphor for political hypocrisy in contexts where
opposition is feigned such as a bogus trial, or an electoral contest that has a pre-
arranged outcome.
In the course of the American colonial period, the moro-moro had become

associated not only with the hypocrisy of politicians but also with the masses,
perceived to be that segment of the population that could be fooled by such hypocrisy.
This can be gleaned for instance, from an editorial piece written in 1933 entitled "The
Moro-moro Performance":

27
By "Putakte and Bubuyog" (Pseudonyms which translate in English to Hornet, and Bee). "With
Charity to All" in Philippine Magazine, Vol. XXXII, No. 9, September 1935, p. 438.

47
Our political leaders whose power like that of politicians
elsewhere, depends on a large degree upon the following they are able
to obtain from a still principally ignorant electorate, must emotionalize
and dramatize every issue to make an impression on the people, or so,
at least, they appear to believe. And what standard and ensign can be
waved before the people with more instant effect than the banner of
immediate independence?

Thus it is that a political performance is being staged that
reminds the observer of the Moro-Moro shows in our villages, while
the players as well as the audience appear oblivious to the grim
realities which surround us."
28


The equivalence being suggested above between a "political performance" and a
"moro-moro show" is yet another example of the moro-moro metaphor at play.
Moving beyond metaphor, we can also discern a direct link between the moro-
moro and elections. Since moro-moro as a form of entertainment was very popular
among rural folk, politicians soon discovered its potential as a tool to gain access to

the "ignorant electorate." In the 1920's, when the country was just learning the ways
of popular elections, creative ways for gaining votes were devised and exploited.
Among them was the traditional balagtasan, which involved poetic exchanges or
verbal jousts in verse, among skilled orators. In time the most popular of these
declaimers were hired to represent electoral candidates. Abstract concepts like
constitutional principles and platforms of government could then be made accessible
to the ordinary voters; foreign ideas could be translated and conveyed through a
familiar idiom. Among the commonly-used practices were poem recitations, singing,
dancing, the handing out of souvenirs and the awarding of prizes to entice people to
listen to political speeches. All of these techniques proved to be effective to a greater

28
A.V.H. Hartendorp "The Moro-moro Performance" in Philippine Magazine, Vol. XXX, No. 5.
October, 1933. p. 195.

48
or lesser extent, but nothing could match the staging of a moro-moro play to draw the
crowds in.
29


The Moro-Moro and Christian Chauvinism
In his 1930 book, Tagalog Literature: A Historico-Critical Study, Eufronio
Alip explains how the native writers inherited the chauvinistic outlook against
Muslims from their Spanish colonizers. According to him, the "chivalric spirit of the
Spanish conquistadores, their legendary traditions at home, their missionary zeal, and
their glorious heritage of age-long struggle against the Moors” were valuable “assets”
to Spanish writers who wrote about their exploits in the Philippines in the light of the
Iberian Reconquista.
30

The successful grafting of a past experience to new setting
explains the ease with which the theme of Christian-Muslim struggle became the
essential feature of moro-moro plays:
Although the setting and personages of these plays are different,
their arguments are one and the same thing: the struggle between
the Mohammedans and the Christians, resulting invariably in the
triumphant victory of the latter and the humiliation and conversion
of the former.
31


A year later (1931), Ignacio Manlapaz shared his observation that the
principal attraction of the moro-moro were the Christian-versus-Muslim combats,
which he described as "a sanguinary confusion invariably ending in the Moslems
biting the dust to the holy delight of the Christian spectators". Manlapaz doubted that
the moro-moro would have survived without this "eminently edifying feature".
32

Writing in 1936, Leopoldo Yabes echoed Alip and Manlapaz in describing moro-

29
Clarita Carlos and Rommel Banlaoi. 1996. Elections in the Philippines: from Pre-colonial period to
the present. Makati: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. pp. 38, 39 and 46.
30
Eufronio M. Alip. Tagalog Literature: A Historic-Critical Study. 1930. p. 73.
31
Eufronio Alip. Tagalog Literature: A Historic-Critical Study. p. 38-39.
32
Ignacio Manlapaz. <Filipino Drama: A Sketch> in Philippine Magazine Vol. XXVIII, November
1931, No. 6. p. 260.

49
moro plays as religious propaganda, a form of drama aimed at propagating
Christianity.
33

Just 20 years later, in the 1950's, what was once viewed and admitted as
religious propaganda began to be disowned by the Catholic Church hierarchy in the
newly-independent Philippines. Following the inclusion of Jose Rizal's novels in the
school curriculum and the ensuing emergence of anti-friar sentiments, the Church
tried to distance itself from association with Spanish friars and their legacy. Under
Spanish colonialism, the parish priest closely watched moro-moro/komedya
performances, censoring their content if necessary. Some priests even wrote plays
themselves, or commissioned playwrights to write stories of their choosing that
highlighted Christian themes. In the post-independence era, however, parish priests,
the vast majority of whom were now Filipinos, no longer played a central role in the
production of the plays. Some even opposed their continued staging.
Reverend Mariano A. Madriaga, Bishop of Lingayen, for instance, in a
Sunday sermon delivered in May 1953, branded the practices in connection with the
Santa Cruz de Mayo as celebrations smacking of vanity and paganism. He opined
how "May devotions are pretexts or occasions for more eating than praying, more
material enjoyment than spiritual upliftment, and for ostentation of the particular
queens".
34

It was not just the Catholic clergy, however, that were abandoning the moro-
moro in the postwar period. So too were audiences everywhere. In the 1960's, moro-
moro enthusiasts from Parañaque felt that they needed to update the moro-moro in
order to cater to the changing tastes of its audience. As the Catholic reforms of
Vatican II got underway and the spirit of ecumenism grew, local civic leaders in

33
Leopoldo Y. Yabes. A Brief Survey of Iloko Literature from the Beginnings to its Present
Development. 1936. p. 51.
34
Francisco G. Tonogbanua. A Survey of Philippine Literature. 1959. p. 82.

50
Parañaque endeavored to write a new moro-moro that would replace the culturally
offensive theme of Christian victory over Muslims with one of brotherhood. Thus the
play Prinsipe Rodante was created. The production featured innovations in theme and
incorporated elements of modern drama. The director of the play, Felicidad Mendoza,
was a drama coach at St. Paul College. She attempted to combine the traditional
aspects of the moro-moro with what she knew of modern drama. Mendoza was very
active in efforts to revive and popularize the moro-moro and infuse them with
messages of brotherhood and nationalism.
In the 1960s, the term "Moro" was considered a derogatory term, a
designation that was considered insulting by Muslims. As a sign of cultural
sensitivity, and perhaps as a reaction to the call made by the Muslim senator
Mamintal Tamano in 1967 to ban moro-moro performances because of their offensive
theme, Mendoza became a proponent of the name comedia. She argued that the term
moro-moro should be avoided "if only to prevent offending our minority brothers. . .
The original name of the drama is comedia and that should be the name used for this
ancient traditional drama form."
35

Mendoza was keen on displaying sensitivity to Muslims because at the time
that she was actively involved in the revival of the moro-moro in the late 1960's, news
broke out about the “Jabidah massacre” that involved the deaths of Muslim trainees
allegedly at the hands of the Philippine military. This event served to galvanize the

Muslim separatist movement and soon enough Muslim rebels were engaging the
Armed Forces of the Philippines in a bloody war which began in Mindanao in 1968
and raged through the 1970s and 1980's.

35
Felicidad Mendoza. 1976. The Comedia (Moro-Moro) Rediscovered. Makati: Society of St. Paul. p.
188.

51
The outbreak of hostilities and soaring activism among Muslims in the 1970's
saw again a shift in the meaning of the word "Moro". As mentioned previously, in the
Philippines the term "Moro," stemming from Spanish usage, traditionally carried a
negative connotation. But by the 1970’s the younger leaders of the Muslim
secessionist movement decided to embrace the term positively, reversing its age-old
connotation and making it evoke pride instead of shame.
In the 1970s appeared the Moro National Liberation Front and Moro Islamic
Liberation Front reflecting the conscious decision of the rebel leaders to appropriate
the term Moro. This would refer not only to themselves but even more importantly to
their envisioned union of various Muslim ethno-linguistic groups - Manobo,
Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausug, Badjao etc. - into a Bangsamoro or "Moro Nation".
The secessionist movement needed a name that could be embraced by different and
even competing groups, one that emphasize their shared religion.
An important shift in consciousness is registered by the appropriation of the
term Moro by the secessionist movement. As is stated ina a reader on Muslim
Separatism in the Philippines:
No longer would Moro be considered derogatory or insulting to
Muslims, as it used to be. In the new Moro the youth found symbolic
meaning that evoked shared historical memories of fearless and
successful resistance to colonial rule. Moro referred to a people who
were masters of their own destiny, who had cultural and economic

systems that projected presence throughout Southeast Asia… Moro
was equated with valor and resistance, and to be called one fueled
yearnings for a unique, historically-different nation all the more.
Thus, from the 1970s until today, 'Bangsamoro' has become an
inspiration, a word that names a people's shared identity and vision
for a new nation."
36



36
Gutierrez, Eric. "The Re-Imagination of the Bangsamoro" in Guiterrez, Eric et.al. 2000. Rebels,
Warriors, and Ulama: A Reader on Muslim Separatism and the War in the Southern Philippines.
Quezon City, Philippines: Institute for Popular Democracy. p. 312.

52
That the meaning of the word Moro has shifted from being a pejorative
terminology to a source of pride is manifested in this comment made by one Salah
Jubair who identifies himself as a Moro. Jubair states:
The pride in being a 'Moro' becomes even more pronounced when
this is distinguished from 'Filipino'. 'Moro' was a tag 'chosen for him
by his enemy and not himself, and was the result of animosity,
warfare and resistance to foreign pressure." "Filipino" on the other
hand, was initially the term applied for Spanish born in the
Philippines, and thus signified allegiance or subservience to Spain.
Filipino was the child of colonialism, Moro was the offspring of
anti-colonialism".
37

From the above quote, we can see the outlines of a nationalist history that is
rooted in a narrative of Muslim resistance to Spanish rule. Not only Moro separatists,
however, but also a particular segment of the Christian population creatively latched
on to this glorious image of Muslim resistance. This segment is the martial arts
community, which has produced a narrative of Philippine history that draw lines of
continuity between the stories of Moro's resistance and the Christianized indio's
conversion. In the following section, we look into still another variation in the
meaning of the terms Moro and moro-moro, which are found in the literature on the
national martial art called arnis.

The Moro-Moro in the History of the Martial Art Arnis
Arnis has become the most popular Filipino martial art "export", and
numerous schools and clubs dedicated to the art of stick-fighting have been
established all over the USA, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. In writing about
the origins and development of this Filipino martial art form, Arnis practitioners
emphasize that the Spanish banned fighting arts but were unable to stamp it out
because the natives, through the moro-moro, were able to conceal and pass down

37
Ibid., p. 313

53
local martial arts styles from generation to generation, practicing and flaunting their
skills right in front of the colonizers.
The language and choreography of specific schools and styles of Arnis are
often traced to moro-moro performances of particular regions, with some schools
being named after the titles of actual moro-moro plays such as Doce Pares, a Filipino
take on the medieval romance, “Twelve Peers of France”. A certain style of fighting,
the Garimot system of arnis, has as part of its curriculum, modules called Moro-Moro
which makes use of thirty choreographic fighting sequences that have been passed

down through generations of moro-moro actors/combatants.
38

Arnis websites explain Philippine Martial Arts history with reference to the
moro-moro play as instrumental in the development of the modern martial art form.
As their version of Philippine history goes, in the Spanish times, the carrying of
blades and practicing of indigenous martial arts were outlawed, making it necessary
for martial artists to pass on skills in secret. The blade, for example, was replaced
with the inocuous wooden stick (either hardwood or rattan) as the central weapon of
the indigenous Kali fighting style. With the introduction of komedya or moro-moro
plays that required fight scenes between Christians and Moros, clever Filipinos
learned to appropriate the moro-moro as a means of practicing and displaying their
fighting art, incorporating this in the choreography of the moro-moro battles.
39

The origin of the term “Arnis” is attributed to poet/playwright Francisco
Balagtas, the Tagalog literary giant of his time. Epifanio de los Santos explains how
“arnés” was used by Balagtas instead of the Spanish word for fencing, esgrima,
originally de espada y daga (sword and dagger). And arnés was used not in its

38
See the Garimot Arnis Training Website [
39
History and Philosophy of Kuntaw Kali Kruzada [

54
Spanish sense as defensive armor
40
but as a sport. The fighting art is thus
immortalized in line 223 of Balagtas’s epic Florante at Laura which reads:

Larong buno't arnés na quinaquitaan
(tha game "buno" wrestling and "arnes" that he showed)

And in the following stanza, Balagtas describes the manner in which the
leading character Aladin fought and killed the lions:
cong ipamilantic ang canang pamatay,
at saca isalag ang pang-adyang camay

he thrust his right dagger
and blocked with his other hand

The term arnés coined by Balagtas has eventually become arnis, which is a
short version of “Arnis de Mano” (or harness of the hand).
41
Over time, arnis
incorporated Spanish fencing methods, which were blended with the native art.
42

Today the native fighting arts of the Philippines are grouped under the name arnis.
The National Arnis Association of the Philippines (Naraphil), a government-
supported organization, is attempting to unify the different native fighting arts and to
document the many styles that have been handed down from fathers to sons, and
generally confined within families. From this perspective, the choreography of long
battle scenes in the moro-moro play carries more significance than first meets the eye.
For each type of arnis handed down through different families and locales in the
Philippines is accompanied by its own account of the development of unique fighting
styles, combat sequences, and sets of skills, all of which contribute to the diverse
choreographies found in moro-moro.

40

Part of the costume of actors playing kinghts who used to wear defensive harnesses over their hands
and forearms during medieval times
41
Epifanio de los Santos. 1916. Florante : versión castellana del poema Tagalo con un ensayo crítico /
Manila : Philippine Review. p. 64.
42
This is mentioned in a majority of arnis websites, for an example see: “Arnis de Mano History”


55
Through the moro-moro, then, the locals were ingeniously able to establish a
space for their homegrown fighting arts to develop and be displayed. The moro-moro
offered a means for circumventing the prohibitions of the Spaniards under their very
noses and even with their blessing! As an American teacher, in narrating his travels in
the Philippines, noted:
Those who were to participate in the dramas began by studying their
lines and planning their costumes. Rehearsals took place daily in the
grass-grown streets, and might be witnessed by any who wished. Even
the moonlit nights were dedicated to practice in the wide street in front
of the presidencia.
43


The moro-moro is predominantly viewed as complicit in the colonial project,
as a tool wielded by the Spanish to impose the superiority of their race and religion.
From the angle of vision of arnis practitioners, however, the moro-moro is seen as a
site of resistance, and even as an activity that spawned uprisings against colonial
rulers. It is often mentioned in websites that the leaders of the Katipunan were adept
at native fighting arts, and were likewise professional moro-moro actors.
44

From this
view of history, moro-moro performances can be imagined as likely occasions for the
plotting of insurrections.
The version of Philippine history being repeated in arnis websites traces a line
of continuity between Muslim fighters who resisted the Spanish and those who
converted to Christianity but continued to practice the indigenous fighting style
despite Spanish prohibition, and who later, during the Philippine Revolution against
Spain, put the fighting skills they honed in secret to good use against the colonizers.
In this view, the history of conflict between Christian and Muslim Filipinos is

43
William Bowen Freer. 1906. The Philippine Experiences of an American Teacher; a narrative of
work and travel in the Philippine Islands. New York: C. Scribner’s sons. p. 74.
44
There are many arnis-related websites that mention these details. To name just a few: the Kuntaw
Kali Cruzada Martial Arts Website [ International Kali Arnis
Eskrima Federation website []; Balintawak Style Arnis
[ Sikaran Pilipinas
[