One of the earliest heroes of the Philippines, in the words of Don Isabelo de los Reyes and Professor Austin Craig, was Magat Salamat, one of the chiefs of Tondo. Through the centuries his name has come to us in colors blurred and indistinct. Many are the legends and myths which were woven and rewoven around this hero of the sixteenth century, but most of them are nothing more than the fantasies of some hero-worshipper, which have proved brittle to the touch of reality. They make, therefore, no direct appeal to skeptical scholars, though they may fascinate fictionists and romancers. Unfortunately for the development of our historiography, there are but fragmentary references to throw light upon the life and fate of Magat Salamat. Our celebrated lay and clerical chroniclers of the past, such as Frays Gaspar de S. Agustin, O. S. A., Juan de Plasencia, O. S. F., Pedro Chirino, S. J., Juan de la Concepcion, A. R., Antonio Morga y Sanchez, senior auditor of the Royal Audiencia, and Miguel de Loarca, Spanish soldier-of-fortune, were surprisingly silent with regard to the career of this hero. Only fragile threads of narration can be picked out, here and there, in the thick tapestry woven about the miracles of the missionary-martyrs and the exploits of the intrepid conquistadores. The parentage, birthplace, and birthdate of this hero are shrouded in mystery. The few extant sources agree only on one point-that he had the blood of datos in his veins. In the parlance of those early days, he was noble-born. Retana wrote that Magat Salamat was the son of Raja Matanda, chief of Tondo. The Benitez brothers in their little book, Stories from Great Filipinos, maintain that he was the son of Soliman. But Don Isabelo de los Reyes disagrees, saying that Lakandula was the father of Salamat-the same Lakandula who welcomed the Adelantado, Legaspi, to Manila in 1572. According to him, Raja Matanda had no sons, while Lakandula had three. To add to the confusion, some authorities claim that Raja Matanda and Lakandula were one and the same person. In other words, Lakandula was Raja Matanda while Raja Soliman, king of Manila, was sometimes called Raja Bata or Mura, he being younger than the former. So hopelessly entangled and conflicting are our sources that the truth of Salamats parentage will probably never be known, much less his birthplace and birthdate.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 09:35:10 +0000
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