SONS OF DATU PIANG
DATU SINSUAT
Glang, Alunan C. (1969). Muslim Secession or Integretion? Quezon City. R. P. Garcia Publishing Co.
By adoption in the Islamic way, the late Datu Sinsuat was also Datu Piang's son.
Born sometime in the year 1864 was Datu Sinsuat Balabaran at Taviran, Dinaig, Cotabato. Datu Sinsuat
was the second child of Datu Balabaran and Bai Pinadtaya. Datu Sinsuat begot twenty four children.
Datu Sinsuat was one of the senators appointed to represent the Moros in the early part of the American
regime. Datu Sinsuat during his time was recognized leader of Lower Cotabato. The Americans found the services of Datu
Sinsuat indispensable in their pacification campaigns. The more notable sons of Datu Sinsuat are: Mayor Odin Sinsuat;
former Congressman Blah Sinsuat; former General Services Secretary Duma Sinsuat and former Mayor Mando Sinsuat of
Cotabato City. (Page 47-48)
Mckenna, Thomas M. (1952). Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the
Southern Philippines. University of California Press.
Datu Sinsuat was born in 1864 and his political career spanned the entire American colonial period. His
official biography states that as a young boy he was adopted by Datu Piang and that as a young man he served as "a
delegado of the Spanish Military Governor" (Millan 1952, 296). In 1916 he was appointed municipal district president of
Dinaig, his home territory. Between 1923 and 1931 he served as special adviser to the governor of Cotabato Province.
Datu Sinsuat was the first of the colonial datus to develop considerable political connections at the national
level. In 1934 he was appointed to the Philippine Senate.
Datu Sinsuat, in his political career, pursued a strategy that resembled that of his uncle Ayunan, who
consolidated a strong traditional following and local base before moving on to expand his political power "within the
framework of submission to the colonial master" (Ileto 1971, 92). However, Sinsuat far surpassed Ayunan in his success
at advancing the myth directed at both Cotabato Muslims and Christians as well as at the colonial rulers. We find evidence
for it in an excerpt, entitled "A Man of Royalty," from a ceremonial volume presented to Elpidio Quirino, the second
president of the Philippine republic, shortly after Datu Sinsuat's death in 1949:
The name Sinsuat in Cotabato and for that matter the whole length and breadth of Mindanao is more than
the mere inference of a family name ... For the fact that the brand Sinsuat is a family dynasty that conjures in the trained
mind a nobility, a well-guarded family tradition encased in honor and fame, imbedded in illustrious and amazing
achievements, silkened in the tender and luminous carpet of distinction and treasured by the glorious and exemplary
exhilarating breeze and potency of fame and honour ... And the history of this family name is as old as the history of
Mindanao itself. To speak of a Sinsuat is almost a temptation to call it Mindanao in rabid generalization.
Beneath the breathless hyperbole may be found an unmistakable instance of nobility by assertion, a modern
variant of what Beckett has described for the precolonial period as the
"post hoc
ennoblement of the powerful"
( 1982, 398). (Page 100-101)
DATU UGALINGAN PIANG
Tan, Samuel K. (1977). The Filipino Muslim Armed Struggle, 1900 -1972. Filipinas Foundation, Inc.
In 1926, Datu Maulana of Jolo also expressed opposition to Christian rule and independence and declared
American rule as the only hope of Muslims for equality and justice. The Indanan School Press campaigned in 1926 for
funds to help finance a Moro Mission to the United States. The Mission, whose aim was to ask for American rule in Muslim
areas, was to be composed of Hadji Butu, Datus Ugalingon Piang, Ampatuan, and one datu from Lanao.
Muslim collaboration eventually broadened and included relationship with Christian Filipinos, and Muslim
attention was diverted from armed resistance to reforms. (Page 100)
___ (1980). Darangen: Epic of History. The Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation and
Development of Southern Philippines. Metro Manila.
In Cotabato, Datu Piang and his sons Abdula and Ugalingan were fighting for the Americanization of the
posts of responsibility, for the return of the military, and for the denial of the Philippines of its independence, or, if granted,
the separation of Mindanao and Sulu, "under the sovereignty of the United States." Ugalingan Piang was reportedly
planning to put up a newspaper to be published in Cotabato in English and the Muslim dialect for the advancement of their
proposals and ideals. (Page 83)
AND OTHERS WHOSE NAME OR
DEEDS WERE NOT RECORDED
Frothinglam, Robert. (1925). Around the World: A Friendly Guide for the World Traveler. Boston and New
York. Houghton Mifflin Company. The Riverside Press, Cambridge.
Old Piang was very proud of the fact that he had a son in the Constabulary, a handsome youngster of about
twenty-one who looked well in his khaki and puttees. (Page 169)
Page 2
Page 2
DATU PINDILILANG PIANG
" Datu Pindililang Piang, the Hero "
February 12, 1945. Letter of Captain Datu Gumbay Piang to General Douglas MacArthur.
Baclagon, Uldarico S. (Col. Infantry) (1988). Christian-Moslem Guerrillas of Mindanao. Manila. Lord Avenue
Printing Press.
The second group to answer the call for military duty was that under Lt. Pindililang Piang under whose
command, as Datu Pindililang, were 16,750 Moros from the Municipal Districts of Dulawan, Midsayap and Buluan.
(Page 52)
McGee, John Hugh (Brig. Gen. U.S. Army, Ret.) (nd 1962). Rice and Salt: A History of the Defense and
Occupation of Mindanao During World War II. Texas. The Naylor Company.
The Japanese change in operation at this time was also possibly influenced by the highly publicized
mobilization of Moros in the Cotabato-Davao Subsector. General Vachon directed the local radio station to make frequent
announcements that thousands of Moros in the provinces of Davao and Cotabato were being mobilized to protect their
homes and to oppose the Japanese invasion of the island. Actually, the Moros consisted of two forces operating on
opposite sides of the highway. The North Force, based in the vicinity of Goma, was led by Pindi Piang, whose famous
father I have previously mentioned. The South Force, based at Matinao, was led by Datto Utu. Each force had a liaison
officer at the Davao Subsector Command Post; a brother of Pindi represented the North Force, and the son-in-law of Datto
Utu, Lieutenant Pendatun, represented the South Force. The Moros, except for a few rifles, were armed with bolos and
heavy-bladed fighting knives. (Page 43-44)
Cross Reference:
1. However, they did not hold out long. They were largely handicapped by lack of arms, medicine, and other
supplies.
1. ___ (1980). Bagani, Man of Dignity. The Presidential Commission for the Rehabilitation and
Development of Southern Philippines, Metro Manila. Page 83.
SEPTEMBER 20, 1898 ~
