1. EARLY TRADE CONTACTS OF
THE PHILIPPINES IN
ANCIENT TIMES
Prepared by:
JEAN CHRISTINE A. RAMOS
BSTM 2Y2-3

2. THE ANCIENT FILIPINOS: the pre-
colonial period
• Long before the coming of the Spaniards, our Filipino ancestors had their
own culture consisting of customs, social
life, government, laws, writing, language, literature, music, religion, supers
tition and sciences.
• In 1891, Jose Rizal wrote the “Annotation of Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas
Filipina”. The book included the original writings of Antonio de Morga, a
17th century historian and officer of Spain, and commentaries of Rizal on
the author’s historical accounts. Rizal regarded Morga as the most credible
historian of his time since his accounts include the earliest Spanish records
on the Philippine islands. These were the records of Antonio Pigaffeta, the
chronicler of Magellan, and Gaspar de San Agustin of the Legazpi
expedition. Their accounts would give light to what culture the Filipinos
had before colonization. A bold venture by Rizal to expose to the 19th
century Filipinos that long before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Filipino
ethnic culture had already existed. Some of the annotations of Rizal
included Chinese accounts on the islands written from the 12th to the 16th
century as part of the maritime records of their empire.

3. These following are some of the areas in Filipino ethnic culture
that existed long before Spanish arrival: