RELATIVES OF DATU PIANG

BAI BAGUNGAN INOK

___ (1902). Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1902. Volume IX.

Report of the Lieutenant-General Commanding the Army and Department Commanders. Washington,

Goverment Printing Office.

Forbes, W. Cameron (1928). The Philippine Islands. Vol. I (In Two Vol.). Boston and New York. Houghton

Mifflin Company. The Riverside Press, Cambridge.

Another Moro woman of the Maguindanao tribal group, and perhaps of greater personal abilities than the

Rajah Putri, was the wife of Inok, a war leader of the somewhat famous Datu Piang and a staunch partisan of Americans

in the upper Cotabato Valley.

Mckenna, Thomas M. (1952). Muslim Rulers and Rebels: Everyday Politics and Armed Separatism in the

Southern Philippines. University of California Press.

In 1918, Piang's niece, Bai Bagungan of Buluan, became the first female municipal district president (a

colonial-era post comparable to mayor) in the Philippines. Though her late husband preceded her in the post, she did not

automatically succeed him. Shortly after her husband's death she married a younger man of much lower status who had

served in his household. Datu Piang was furious that he had not been consulted in the matter and ordered the couple

confined in the provincial jail to force Bagungan to change her mind. She remained steadfast and Piang eventually gave

way and sanctioned the marriage. When the datu appointed by Piang to fill the municipal post resigned, Bai Bagungan

was appointed municipal district president after receiving an overwhelming vote of confidence from the male electors of

the district. Bai Bagungan was an active official who, in the words of Philippine Governor General Cameron Forbes,

"became a vigorous partisan of public schools, especially for girls, and in other ways a valuable influence in the extension

of American administration in Mindanao" (Forbes 1928). (Page 96-97)

Russell, Charles Edward (1922). The Outlook for the Philippines. New York. The Century Co.

She was born in 1877, the youngest daughter of a Moro planter of cocoanuts and rice in the interior of the

island. Her mother was the sister of a native chief, the Datu Piang; her father died two months before she was born. She

was reared a Mohammedan and a Moro among the wildest Moros. Her mother, as is often the case with Moro women,

revealed the possession of great capacity, managed the plantation, reared her children in some comfort and the

beginnings of culture, and was accounted well-to-do. But there were many brothers and sisters, and when the mother died

little was left for the youngest daughter.

Just when the Americans came, and the Moros revolted against the new dispensation. Once more this

woman found herself and her husband on opposing sides. He joined the Americans; she preferred to fight them.

(Page 144)

The Americans restored order and set up a government. In recognition of his services, Inuk was made

Deputy Governor of the province. He and his wife were reconciled. General Wood came, chose a site for a new town and

started naming it, naming it Buluan. It prospered and grew. There Deputy Governor Inuk, and his wife, made his home

until his death. With other Moros, Mrs. Inuk had become interested in the American experiments, as soon as she

recovered from belief that aliens could have only malignant intentions. A public school was established at Buluan. She, a

Mohammedan, became one of its strongest champions. The town had been organized as a municipality, with a former

Datu and wild man of the woods as its president. His term was about to expire; it was necessary to choose a successor,

and the people turned to Mrs. Inuk.

She took office on September 15 and proved a most active and energetic commander. She enforced the

laws, purged her district of criminals, improved the health conditions of the town and was so zealous in securing

attendance at the schools that she may be said to have introduced, on her own responsibility, compulsary education. The

first year she was in the office she nearly doubled the school enrolment. The next year she built a dormitory for girls coming

from a distance to attend school; and the next year she added to the number of pupils one hundred and ten girls and thirty

boys. In the midst of which employments she conducted her own household with what seems to have been a truly

distinguished success, since she was accounted the best cook in the province, and whatever a great festival was held she

was asked to take charge of the commissary. (Page 145-146)

CATOK

Catok, the cousin of Piang, is a half Chinese, and lives in Cotabato and is always looked to as representing

his race in the town; was chief of the Moro police under the Americans up to the fall of 1901, when the body was

disbanded. He is intelligent, speaks Spanish, and can be relied on in cases not clashing with Piang's interests or those of

his own factions. He is none too popular with the Maguindanaos. (Page 529)

Dato Piang then apparently took possession of the district, as in a number of papers (deeds to confiscate

property) he designated himself "chief of the district of Cotabato."

Alejandro Dorotheo was appointed president to represent the Filipino population, Celestino Alonso for the

Chinese, and Catoc (a first cousin of Dato Piang) for the Moros, Ignacio Ortuosto for Tamontaka and Rimigio Silva for

Polloc. (Page 523)