DATU PIANG
Book Reference
Malcolm, George A. (1951). First Malayan Republic: The Story of the Philippines. Boston. The Cristopher
Publishing House.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, Tan Toy (Toya), an Amoy Chinese, wandered into Dulawan in
Northern Mindanao. To the Chinaman and a Moro woman of the vicinity six sons were born. Piang was the youngest. After
the death of his father, and despite his youth, he took upon himself the family responsibilities. His Chinese blood
contributed the sagacity and industry that brought him wealth and influence, and his Moro blood made him a
Mohammedan, to which faith he was loyal to the last. (Page 52)
Datu Piang died in 1933 at about ninety years of age. He now rests in eternal sleep near the remains of his
Chinese father in Cotabato. Over the grave his children and grandchildren have placed a
Cross Reference:
2. He was born in Andavit, Datu Piang in 1846. The town was formerly called Dulawan and, prior to that,
Buayan.
8. According to the hagiographic biography of Piang contained in the 1952
Cotabato Guidebook
(Millan
1952), he was born circa 1850, the son of a Chinese trader from Amoy named Tuya Tan and a Maguindanaon mother ...
Datu Uto gave one of the concubines to Tan and called a pandita (religious practitioner) to marry them. The
girl became pregnant but Tan went off trading and never returned.
10. Dato Piang is from the people, the son of an itinerant Chinese merchant and a Moro woman of no
particular standing, both dead ...
11. Piang is the most powerful datto in the province. He is the son of a Chinese carpenter and a common
Moro woman ...
13. He had been captured on a Chinese junk as a boy, had been the slave and armorer of Ali's uncle,
Datto Uto.
14. Piang was once a slave of the most important hereditary chief of the Cotabato River Valley, Datu Uto,
later becoming his master's protege and emerging as successor, acquiring Utu's power and influence.
16. The American-Filipino peace package had the great Maguindanao-Chinese leader Tan Pi Ang (the
prudent son of a princess from the Kabuntalan sultanate) ...
18. Kabuntalan, Philippines - A sultanate created c1750, located in the southern Mindanao, from the
division of the Sultanate of Maguindanao into 4 sultanates: Maguindanao, Buayan, Kabuntalan and Ganassi, by a scion of
the family of the Sultans of Maguindanao. Today a municipality in the Province of Maguindanao.
19. Datto Piang was known as the "Grand Old Man of Cotabato", and son of a Chinese and Arab Sultan.
2. National Historical Institute (1994). Filipinos in History. Vol. IV. Page 221.
8. McKenna, Thomas M. (1952). Muslim Rulers and Rebels. Page 91.
10. ___ (1902). Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1902. Volume IX.
Page 528.
11. Taft, Mrs. William Howard (1914). Recollection of Full Years. Page 173.
13. Hagedorn, Leonard (1931). Leonard Wood: A Biography. Page 19.
14. ___ (1980). Darangen: Epic of History. Page 70.
16. Maulana, Nash B. (May 2, 2004). Muslim politicians: Then and now. Website: Inq7.net
18. Website: Almanach De Bruxelles
19. Website: phil-am-war.org
lantaka,
a gift from the Spaniards
to the Moro leader. It will be a long time before Mindanao has another figure as colorful and powerful as Datu Piang.
(Page 53)
Lucman, Norodin Alonto (2000). Moro Archives: A History of Armed Conflicts in Mindanao and East Asia.
Quezon City. FLC Press, Inc.
The
Indios,
sensing the twilight of Spain's imperial domination as a result of the Spanish -American War
which ended in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, surrendering their Caribbean colonies (Cuba and Puerto Rico) to the Americans
for $20 million US dollars, deserted their colonial masters and declared their
Maniolo identity
and emancipation from
their Spanish masters. Nowhere in their
manifestos
and
proclamations
would suggest a
perpetuation
of their Filipino
identity. How can the Bangsa Moro people, knowing their history, bring themselves to being called
Filipinos?
(Page 219)
Datu Piang of Maguindanao declared: "When Spaniards
'discovered'
these islands (Mindanao, Sulu and
Palawan) they found that a civilisation had already been established here, the religion and civilisation of Islam. It was a
good religion and a real civilisation. You may remember, too, or have read, that in all the years Spain was here
she never
really conquered the Moros.
Therefore, at the Treaty of Paris, after the Spanish -American War
Spain had no right to give
the Moro country to the United States,
neither rights of discovery or conquest.
This is what we Moros think."
- Interview with Datu Piang, Bently Historical Library, University of Michigan, no date. (Page 288)
Cross Reference:
1. Piang also quickly allied himself with Spain and sought the goodwill of Spanish authorities, His turugan
(place or stronghold; literally "sleeping place") was a short distance from the new Spanish fort at Reina Regente (just south
of present-day Datu Piang). The fort provided him a shield from his Magindanaon enemies while he supplied its garrison
with foodstuffs in exchange for cash (Ileto 1971; Beckett 1982).
2. The Spanish government welcomed the opportunity to control the Cotabato Chinese as well as a vast
number of Maguindanaos through their friend Datu Piang. And a loyal friend he seemed to be, for, when he and Dalgan
were in Manila at the time of the Tagalog uprising, they voiced their opposition to the revolutionaries, declaring themselves
true subjects of Spain.
3. Rising from the role of understudy to the strongest
orang besar
during the late Spanish colonial period,
Datu Piang eventually, in turn, became the most powerful strongman of Cotabato, controlling both the internal and port
trade of this region. His Chinese
mestizo
origins gave him access to the local Chinese trading groups who became his
business partners. He formed alliances through intermarriages and negotiations with fellow datus and even the Spanish.
Finally, he had an armed retinue of men who, once the Spanish left, helped him destroy both Muslim and Filipino rivals in
Cotabato.
4. Piang's loyalty to Spain lasted just as long as the physical presence of Spanish soldiers.
5. When told of the Spanish flag flying at the fort in Reina Regente, it was said that Datu Uto remarked,
"They may have taken my eye defending Pagalungan (1861), but they will not have Buayan. Datu Piang! Lead the men to
Reina Regente and get that flag!"
6. Piang and the sheriff took me to inspect the palace, strangely imposing. Antiquated brass guns and
some large steel cannon captured from the Spaniards were mounted on the verandah.
7. He, the Spanish colonel, says: 'He, Piang, ought not to have thrown the cross and band into the river,
because the American Government was just as bad as the Spanish Government,' and he, Piang, says: 'No, the American
Government, when they came here, have treated me like a brother,' and he, Piang, says: 'When the Spanish Government
came it raised hell and fight us all the time.'
1. McKenna, Thomas M. (1952). Muslim Rulers and Rebels. Page 92.
2. Ileto, Reynaldo C. (1971). Magindanao, 1860 - 1888: The Career of Datu Uto of Buayan. Page 64.
3. Trocki, Carl A. (1998). Gangsters, Democracy and the State in Southeast Asia. Page 85.
5. Piang, Putri Gonong Lidang Grace T. (2007). Once upon a time in Dulawan. Page 8-9.
4. McKenna, Thomas M. (1952). Muslim Rulers and Rebels. Page 93.
6. Landor, Arnold Henry Savage (1924). Everywhere: The Memoirs of an Explorer. Page 310.
7. Moses, Edith (1908). Unofficial Letters of an Official's Wife. Page 104.
7. In Uto's war of 1888 he was a simple follower - as he expresses it himself, "a private soldier" - of that
dato ...
7. ___ (1902). Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1902. Volume IX.
Page 528.
Page 1
Piang, who inherited his father's business and political acumen, took over where Tan had left off. He
established an alliance with Datu Ali of Kudarangan, a village located at the fork where Bakat River diverges from the
Pulangi and flows into Liguasan Lake. This was north of Piang's village, which was located where the Cotabato River flows
into Illana Bay. Together these two towns controlled the traffic in commodities and slaves between the hinterland and the
coast, placing Piang and Ali in an enviable position to profit from the trade. They cemented their relationship further through
marriage when Piang gave his favorite daughter, Minka, as wife to Ali. Both
datus
then sought to protect their fortunes by
joining the entourage of Datu Uto.
4. McCoy, Alfred W. (2000). Lives at the Margin. Page 200.
12. The son of a Chinese laborer and a Maguindanao slave girl ...
12. ___ (1905). The Forum. Page 144.
17. 20th century local Muslim ruler Piang Tan, known as Amai Mingka, son of a least-known princess of
Taiwan of Sultanate of Kabuntalan.
17. Website: sunstar.com.ph/zamboanga (October 2, 2005). Datu Puti: Youngest Armm guv.
3. His father's side gave him a line to the Cotabato Chinese, who controlled much of the local economy, and
also ingratiated him with the Spanish, who wrongly thought he could be used to deter further Chinese economic expansion
in Magindanao. He would, in turn, transform his cooperation with the Spaniards into another business arrangement
(Cabanero-Mapanao 1985, 21).
3. Abinales, Patricio N. (2000). Making Mindanao. Page 49.
15. Maguindanao's famous historical figure is Datu Piang (after whom a town is named). He was the son
of a Chinese trader (the Ang in his name) and a local Bai (princess).
15. Anwar, Dewi Fortuna (2005). Development, Migration, and Security in East Asia. Page 175.
20. He was a mestizo, the youngest of six children, whose father was one Tan Toy from Amoy, China and
whose mother, Tico, was a "Mora" from Sillik Cotabato.
20. Abinales, Patricio N. (2000). Making Mindanao. Page 49.
21. In Adong v. Cheong Seng Gee, the question presented was the validity of a Mohammedan marriage
between a Mora and a Chinese.
Notes:
Mora - indicates to be a term for a female Moro.
21. ___ (c 1914, 1950). Philippine Law Journal. Page 464.
6. Piang is immensely popular. He has a sort of joint arrangement with Ali, a neighboring Datto, under which
the two wield a very great influence and authority.
6. ___ (May 27, 1901). The New York Times Archives. The Taft Commission in Mindanao Island; Prevailing
Conditions Make Local Governments Impossible. Slavery Will Be Abolished, but Nothing Will Be Done
to Prohibit Polygamy. Page 2.
1. His name is Piang.
1. ___ (July 5, 1900). The Owingsville Outlook. The Library of Congress. Chronicling America.
4. His father died when Piang was only eleven, but he left the family well established in Maguindanao
society. Tan converted to Islam and became "minister of lands" and economic adviser to the most powerful Magindanao
orang besar
of that time, Datu Uto.
5. Orang can also mark purely social distinctions -
orang besar,
the big man of power; or
orang kaya,
the rich; or
orang kenamaan,
a notable.
5. Manning Nash (1989). The Cauldron of Ethnicity in the Modern World. Page 31-32.
Page 1
9. Whereas, 1900 death of Datu Utto, the latter's son in-law and chief Minister Datu Piang, married to Datu
Utto's daughter, reigned as Maguindanao Sultan with his seat in Dulawan - Cotabato, as the Datu Piang of Cotabato.
9. Royal Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo - Territories. Resolution of 2008. (5).
