History of Physical Education in the Philippines: Spanish Era

SPEAR 201 Historical and Philosophical
Background of Physical Education
Prepared by: Noralie B. Morales
HISTORY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
IN THE PHILIPPINES
SPANISH ERA
(1521 - 1898)

SPANISH ERA (1521 - 1898)
Philosophy: Physical and material well-being was
subordinated to a wholesome spiritual life that
looked to Heaven for a reward.
In this kind of philosophy, physical
education had no place.
Play was regarded as a sign of laziness and
was therefore not only discouraged, but
even suppressed to a certain extent.

The people indulged only in the activities
and amusements approved and tolerated by
the church.
The only physical activities allowed the
people were those connected in some way
with church affairs.

Santa Cruz de Mayo
- to commemorate the finding of the
Holy Cross in 324 by Empress Helena
and re-enacted her search and
pilgrimage to Jerusalem
Activities:

Santa Cruz de Mayo
- when the religious ceremony was over,
all the children went to the pabiten
which was hung at a certain height and
lowered now and then
Activities:

Santa Cruz de Mayo
- as the pabiten was lowered, the
children shouted and jumped as high as
they could, trying their best to grab the
choicest as well as the biggest number
of items
Activities:

The feast of the Immaculate Conception
- a celebration in honor of the Virgin Mary
- an elaborate affair climaxed by a long
procession where Filipino dancers dressed
as a cardinal, canon, or pastor accompanied
the saints on the floats and danced with
timbrels in their hands
Activities:

Fertility Dance
- performed by barren women before the
image of the Virgin in Obando, Bulacan
and the Nuestra Señora de Talarin in Paco,
Manila
Activities:

Dinulog or Pit Señor Santo Niño dance
-performed in Cebu by the participants who
sought favors from the Child Jesus
Activities:

Turumba
- held in Pakil
- dedicated to the Virgin Dolores
- characterized by street dancing
Activities:

Easter
-after the mass and sermon, the townspeople
danced and made merry in the churchyard
Activities:

Moro-Moro
-an adaptation of Spanish plays and was
interspersed with many dances and quaint
gesticulations
Activities:

Moro-Moro
-the characters were Moors and Christians,
the offering being a carry-over of the
constant struggle for supremacy between
Mohammedanism and Christianity
Activities:

Moro-Moro
-the Moors and Christians
engage in swordplay as
they fight each other (in
pairs, trios, and small
armies)
Activities:

Moro-Moro
-the princess is a graceful figure as she
dances back and forth on the stage singing
her lines
Activities:

Moro-Moro
-the hero shifts himself around the stage
lightly and dodgingly in his encounters
with lions, bears, and robbers, much like a
modern boxer does
Activities:

Moro-Moro
-with bamboo or wooden swords and lances,
little children would rush back and forth
playing soldier
Activities:

Comintang
-as the musician played and sang, a boy and a
girl pantomimed the words of the song
Activities (Dances):

Comintang
-the boy performs amorous movements with
his arms and body as he expressed his love
to his lady fair

Comintang
-his gestures were an unfailing source of
great satisfaction to the spectators

Comintang
-when rejected by the girl, the boy feigned
illness and collapsed into a chair
-the girl, frightened at the turn of events,
would rush to his aid

Comintang
-when the girl approached him, he
immediately rose again, apparently cured,
and resumed dancing happily around her

Pampango
-a dance wherein the woman skillfully
moves her hips about to the accompaniment
of loud clapping

Bagay
-performed to melancholy and languorous
melody
-characterized by graceful arm movements

Pabayo Dance
-performed by young men on moonlight
nights in front of the house of a dalaga
-they loaded mortars with pinawa or half-
cleaned rice and proceeded to pound the
rice, three or four pestles to a mortar

Pabayo Dance
-this they did in quick but measured cadence
till the grains were completely cleaned

Hinal-o
-took its name from the word hal-o meaning
pestle
-men hopped, skipped, and jumped
skillfully between large and small pestles
arranged in rectangular form

The Filipinos eagerly watched the dances
brought over by the Peninsulars from the Old
World, imitated them, and gradually
incorporated the steps, moods, and styles into
their own dances.

They injected local leitmotifs to the dances or
substituted native props, like bamboo and
coconut for the Spanish castanets.

The stamping of the feet replaced the
Zapateado while the rigid posture and fixed
arm and foot positions gave way to flowing,
smooth movement.

Dances learned from the Spaniards:
Activities:
• Waltz
• Gallop
• English Contradance
• German Redowa
• French Rigaudon
• Fandango
• Jarabe
• Habanera
• Cachucha
• Jota

The Filipinos were not deterred from playing
games and engaged in their own native
sports. Some were forms of amusement, as
pastimes, for self-defense and others were
even in a form of gambling. These
undesirable activities were not suppressed by
the Spanish government for they helped
increase the revenue of the Crown.

Traditional Game:
Sipa (meaning to kick)
-played in three ways:
*lambatan or by net
*bilangan or by points
*mudansa or fancy kicking exhibition
- the game was played as singles or doubles,
and by four or eight players on one team

Traditional Game:
Sipa
-a native ball made of a hollow sphere of
rattan was kicked back and forth but it was
not supposed to touch the ground
-highly-skilled players could deftly kick the
ball over their heads or about their sides
while directing it to a definite player

Sports activities designed to teach self-defense:
Arnis or native fencing
-two men each held a wooden bolo or saber
about thirty inches long and two inches
wide and engaged each other in a duel
-only the hardest native wood was used in
carving the bolos which were later seasoned
in fire

-experts in arnis mastered the technique of
protecting themselves and disarming
anyone who attacked them with bolos
-since firearms were rare at the time, actual
bolo duels were common

-among the skills involved were:
*taga – hitting with a club or bolo
*sangga – parrying
*buno – throwing down

• buhat araw
• aldabis sa itaas
• tabas talahib
• tagang alanganin
• saboy
• aldabis sa ilalim
• saksak
• bartikal
-the fundamental hits were called:

-there were at least four parries:
o sanggang papalis
o sanggang harang
o sanggang taga
o sanggang palipad

-among the great Filipinos who mastered the
art of the arnis were:
o Jose Rizal
o Andres Bonifacio
o Gregorio del Pilar
o Antonio Luna

Dumog - native form of wrestling
Sumping – finger wrestling
Sanggol – arm wrestling

Recreational Games:
Sintak, Siklot, and Chongka
-favorite games of Filipino girls
-tests of individual skill and
were played with shells, seeds,
pebbles, or marbles
-usually played with sigays or
little shells

Recreational Games:
Tubigan
-a tag game usually played on moonlight nights
Piko-piko
-a form of hopscotch
Luksong tinik
- meaning jumping over thorns, the latter hurdle
being a bridge improvised by the fingers of the
players

Recreational Games:
Lanse
-a puzzle made of a flat piece of bamboo
thirteen and one-half inches long with two
cords tied to it
Takip-silim
- a blindfolded player tried to catch the rest of
his playmates who were in circle formation

Recreational Games:
Buwan-buwan
-a form of dodge game
Taguan
-hide and seek
Luksong lubid
- jumping rope
Bato-bato
- stone passing

Recreational Games:
Lubi-lubi
-two teams jumped forward or backward
depending on who guessed correctly where the
pebble was
Luksong alon
-rope swinging clockwise by two teams
Luksong palia
- alternate jumping to a designated area by two
teams

Recreational Games:
Paligsahang kalabao
-carabao race
Paluan ng palayok
- hitting a pot containing water and money
Tarumpo
- top spinning

Recreational Games:
Buchay
-tossing pebbles or corn kernels into the air
and catching the same with the back of the
hand
Kalahoyo
- directing stones into a hole by using a flat
pebble

Spanish-influenced Games:
• cara-cabesa
• juego de anillo
• a la viva
• corocochillo
• santito
• bulong pare
• pasa en orden
• juego de prenda
• vivora de amor
• Bordon de los
bordones
• Presohan
• bola-boaya
• banda
• palmo
• Biola
• San Miguel
Arcangel
• San Pedro
• San Juan

Card games, game of chance, and other
amusements with the element of gambling:
Trucos
-a game resembling billiard played by
soldiers, priests and government officials
Briscas
- won upon gaining thirty-one points
Duplo
- consists of arithmetical combinations
Dice

Casino, monte and panguinguia
Billar de barimbao
- similar to the European billiard game
Capona
- played by counting off small pebbles in
four and betting on the remainder

Tablita
- player threw a copper disk over a string
stretched across a wooden board
containing twenty-six squares
Cara-cruz and Birachapo
- heads-or-tails types of game
Prinola
- played with hexagonally-topped dice

Horse Racing
Ripa
- a lottery played with twenty cards
Chabaqui
- a form of lottery played with a wooden
tablet containing painted numbers from
one to twelve and a corresponding set of
numbered cards

Philosophy: Filipino intellectuals subscribed to
the classical idea that both the mind and body
must be equally developed.
La Independencia
 influential Filipino paper during Spanish
regime
 published a long editorial on March 29,
1898, which proposed a new curriculum for
the public elementary schools

La Independencia
 its most outstanding features were the
emphasis on physical education, absence of
Christian doctrine, and its stress that a
history of the Philippines written by a
Filipino be taught
 however, the authorities refused to include
physical education in the curriculum.

Teodoro Sandico and Graciano Reyes
 two licensed primary and secondary
instructors who applied for permission to
open night schools for adults of both sexes
with gymnastics as one of the subjects to be
taught
 the application was disapproved because it
would undermine Spanish authority.

Mariano Espiritu
 a teacher who taught the primary course and
the first two years of the secondary course in
La Union and Ilocos Norte
 he always encouraged his pupils to play sipa
and other games in order to develop
physical fitness among them

Ramon Tisay
 a teacher who taught in Silay, Negros
Occidental
 gave private lessons in fencing

SPANISH ERA (1521 - 1898): JOSE RIZAL
Philosophy: A sound mind could flourish best
in a sound body.
 the pioneer Filipino proponent of formal
physical education
 he proposed a modern school curriculum
and included instruction in gymnastics,
fencing, swimming, horsemanship, and
dancing
 when he was writing the Noli Me Tangere he
included this proposal

in a sound body.
 he brought home with him some
gymnasium equipment when he returned to
Calamba from his European studies and
then set up the gymnasium
 he taught his relatives and friends various
exercises on the apparatus
Activities:

in a sound body.
Early morning hike among the
townspeople of Calamba going to the
nearby hill called the Lecheria
Activities:

in a sound body.
Mountain climbing expedition to Mt. Makiling.
Activities:
His companions:
 Paciano Rizal
 Leandro Lopez
 Mariano Herbosa
 Lieutenant Jose Ataviel de Andrade

in a sound body.
Outdoor gymnasium with bodybuilding
paraphernalia composed of:
• parallel bars
• Roman rings
• Chinning bar
Activities under the physical fitness program he
conducted when he was exiled to Dapitan:

in a sound body.
• Pupils undergo rigid physical training.
• Judo
• Wrestling
• Spanish fencing
• American boxing
• Arnis
• Marksmanship

in a sound body.
Hagis
• a game played by Rizal and his pupils
• the object of this game was to throw
stones in such a way that they would hit
a piece of wood suspended from a branch
of a mango tree

in a sound body.
Hagis
• anyone hitting the wood five times in
succession was awarded a prize of
cartridges and the privilege of
participating in the hunting expeditions

in a sound body.
He decided to change the narrow concept
of education established by the Spaniards.
By tearing down that narrow concept, he
paved the way towards the development of
a well-balanced personality: a sound mind
in a sound body.

Jose Rizal (middle) with Juan Luna (left) and
Valentin Ventura (right)

Points to remember:
 A close study of the curriculum during the Spanish
regime shows that no provision was made for
physical education.
 In spite of the lack of incentive in the school system
for organized physical education and the opposition
of the priests to games, dances, and physical exercises
not connected with church activities, the Filipinos
still indulged in them in their private gatherings.
 Although the Filipinos were not given enough
incentive in physical education by the Spaniards,
they were aware of its importance.

SPANISH ERA
(1521 - 1898)
Reference: History of Physical Education in the
Philippines by Cecilia Bocobo-Olivar
HISTORY OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
IN THE PHILIPPINES

History of Physical Education in the Philippines: Spanish Era

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