Philippine Merchant Marine Academy

College of Marine Transportation

San Narciso, Zambales

Badjao: An Indigenous Group Living in

Tawi-Tawi, Southwest Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Course Philippine History

Submitted by:
AGNES, JOHN WENDELL N.

CONDIZA, PRINCESS MAY D.

DACUMOS, EIN ZHYANDRAE S.

MELARPES, JORGE MICHAEL F.

RAQUION, JARVIE JOHN G.

Africa Section

Submitted to:
DR. ANALIZA TABERDO

19 JANUARY 2021
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
College of Marine Transportation
San Narciso, Zambales

Abstract

This study will find out the Badjao’s culture, beliefs, traditions, ways of life, what they
eat and how they survive each day. This will help us know the condition of Badjao’s and how
they struggle for their foods, needs and home in their everyday living.

On the other hand, this historical research will serve as the insight for the government
that they need to pay attention for the Badjao’s due to the lack of education which they can’t
afford, lack of food that’s why they struggle in their everyday living, unemployment and lack of
experience.

In addition, this will help the people to understand them. In relation, it will also correct
the misconceptions stereotyping the minds of the people. The society will also give the more
positive regard as the government will hopefully make interventions.

The study can also be beneficial for the reason that the ideas presented may be used as
reference data in conducting new researches or in testing validity of other related findings. This
study will also serve as their cross-reference that will give them a background or an overview
regarding the situation of the Badjao’s culture, traditions and how they survive in their everyday
living.
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
College of Marine Transportation
San Narciso, Zambales

I. INTRODUCTION
The Philippines is a country with a distinct culture. It has an estimated 14 – 17
million Indigenous People (IPS) belonging to 110 ethno-linguistic groups. Badjaos
are widely known as the “Sea Gypsies” of the Sulu and Celebes Seas, the Badjao are
scattered along the coastal areas of Tawi Tawi, Busilan, Sulu and some coastal
municipalities of Zamboanga Del Sur in the ARMM. Amongst themselves, they’re
known as the Sama Laus (Sea Sama) and are found living on houseboats where they
make their livelihood solely on the sea as expert fishermen, deep sea divers, and
navigators. (Ethnic Group of the Philippines 2018).

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter, the researcher will make a short review of the research work that
other scientists have made about Badjao, as well as other groups of sea people who
live in a similar situation, and link it to this present essay on pearl vending.

Foreign Literature

Compared to other groups of sea nomads, as for example Moken in the south-
western coast of Burma and Thailand, little research have been done about Badjao.
Actually little is known about Badjao’s history before the beginning of the 20th
century. However, their neighbours have always known them as boat dwellers and
they have been living on boats for as long as they can remember (Sopher 1977,
Stacey 2007).
Clifford Sather at the University of Malaysia is one of the few social anthropologists
who have made research about Badjao. He has conducted fieldwork among Badjao in
north-eastern Borneo and studied their relationship to land-based communities. He
has discovered that Badjao are facing fierce discrimination from neighboring tribes,
even from other Sama groups. In Sather (1995) he states that: Relations between
Badjao and more powerful populations ashore (such as the Tausug and Maguindanao
in the Southern Philippines) have seldom been founded on mutual respect, and
everywhere the Badjao, as a sea people, have tended to be marginalized, excluded
from positions of power, despised, and confined to the lowest rungs of the social
ladder. (Sather 1995: vi) However, Clifford Sather has not been studying any Badjao
group living in an urban environment, and pearl vending has not been in existence in
the areas where he has conducted fieldwork. The anthropologist Harry Nimmo at
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
College of Marine Transportation
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California State University has also studied about Badjao over a longer period of
time. He began his studies in Sulu Sea in the early 1960s and he has made more than
five fieldtrips over a period of 40 years. In the most recent book Magosaha (Nimmo
2006), Nimmo describes the changes that have occurred during the last 40 years in
the Sulu Sea. Magosaha is a description of the traditional culture Nimmo encountered
when he began his research in the early 1960s and how the civil unrest has changed
their way of living.
Historically, they were a highly mobile people that lead a nomadic lifestyle which
depended upon the bounty of the ocean and the use of key resources on land in order
to survive (Nimmo. 2006: 21-25). In the end of the book Nimmo concludes that the
boat-dwelling culture he met in the middle of the 2000th century no longer exists in
the Philippines – due to significant changes caused by the ongoing civil unrest in the
Sulu Sea (Nimmo 2006).
Another well-known researcher is Kemp Pallesen, a linguist from SIL
International (Summer Institute of Linguistics), who also has been studying about the
Badjao since 1960’s. He is one of few researchers who have been able to study
Badjao in the heart of the Sulu Sea and he did so before the conflicts escalated in the
1970’s (Pallesen 1985). Today it is more or less impossible to stay in the region for
most outsiders (even for most Philippine citizens), due to the instable security
situation (Nimmo 2006). Also Pallesen has been documenting the racism which
Badjao is facing. “It was sad to see how bad Badjao were treated among other tribes
in the Sulu Sea, as for example the Tausug and Marano”, he told me in an interview
in Davao City in 2011, “but they sometimes fought back with their spear-guns”.
Pallesen has not made any research about Badjao’s pearl vending either, as he has
been focusing more on their language, religion, society and fishing techniques
(Pallesen 1972, Pallesen 1985).
The Swedish anthropologist Lotta Granbom has been studying about the sea
nomads Urak Lawoi (a sub-group to Orang Laut) and their relationship to tourists in
southern Thailand. Granbom has conducted several fieldworks on the popular tourist
island Ko Lanta, where tourism has had a great impact on the local economy as well
as on the sea nomads. “The study shows what happens to them when they are being
deprived of their territory and are being forced to abandon their culture, lifestyle and
traditional economic subsistence” (Granbom 2005:1). On Ko Lanta, most Urak Lawoi
have lost their traditional land and boats and have therefore found difficulties to
maintain their culture. Some of the Urak Lawoi villages in the region have turned into
tourist attractions. For example you can read signs as “Sea Gypsy Village” (Hope
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
College of Marine Transportation
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2001) and tourist companies advertise the region as a “pristine paradise” where you
can get a change to explore the culture of sea gypsies (Granbom 2005: 10-13). These
cases shows what can happen if the influence from tourism and the state gets too big.
In southern Philippines, however, were my fieldwork has been conducted the
international tourism have not yet grown this big - because of the instable security
situation.
Cynthia Chou at Copenhagen University has also studied about Orang Laut. She
has focused on the interrelations between Orang Laut, the state and local people in
Riau in western Indonesia. She writes that Orang Laut are recognized as “backward
people” by the Indonesian government and local Indonesians, and that they are seen
as “alien and dangerous” (Chou 2009). In particular, the Orang Laut interfere with the
Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle which aims to promote economic
development in the area – making the Indonesian Government eager to displace
people who are living in lucrative areas (Chou 2009). Similar relationships are being
highlighted in the Philippines, where Badjao are seen as alien to modernity and
pushed away. However, in Riau there has not been any pearl vending in existence
among Orang Laut.

Local Literature

Actually, there are few studies available on Badjao living in an urban

environment. One good example, though, is the sociologist Regina Estorba
Macalandag’s study from 2009, which focused on the relationship between Badjao
and the authorities in the city of Tagbilaran in central Philippines – where pearl
vending is existing (Macalandag 2009). Macalandag presented some political
proposals that had been given by Philippine politicians in Tagbilaran in order to get
rid of the disturbing elements of Badjao’s begging and vending practises in the
region. One of these proposals were to exclude Badjao from the public space, and
another idea was to transform the Badjao community in Tagbilaran into a tourist
attraction, in order to make the attraction more controlled (Macalandag 2009: 26-33).
In her work, Macalandag discusses the tensions between Badjao and the state, but she
is not focusing on Badjao’s relationship to the tourists and the local people in
Tagbilaran.
There are no studies available on Badjao’s pearl vending in Philippines and their
relationship to the tourists that surround them. Therefore, this study on pearl vending
can give a good contribution to the understanding of the relationship between Badjao
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
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San Narciso, Zambales

and the surrounding people in an urban environment, and it can help us to understand
how Badjao manage to hold on to their culture in an urban environment.

III. ARGUMENT
Statement of the Problems:
1. What is the reason why they live in the City?
2. What are their ways of life in terms of;
a) Diet
b) Belief
c) Tradition
d) How they survive each day
e) Mode of dressing
f) Language they use

IV. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD

As for the case of Badjao living in the city, this historical research will have an in
depth explanation regarding their identity, society and culture. To supply the data
needed in this research, the researchers had used online sources especially articles
that has been published mainly by sites and numerous newspapers which are also
used for educational purposes.

V. DATA

Definition of Terms
In order to have an easy and better understanding for the reader. The research
define the following terminologies:

Badjao- Are an academic fisher-folk who have been using sustainable fishing
methods for over 1500 years. In the past 50 years however, the Philippines
experienced in a surge in population that has severely depleted fish populations,
leaving Badjao without anything to sustain their livelihood.
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
College of Marine Transportation
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Culture- Is a word for the ‘way life” of groups of people, meaning the way they do
things. A Culture is passed on the next generation by learning, whereas genetics are
passed on by heredity.

Identity – Is the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and or expressions that make a
person (self-identity) or group (particular social category or social group),in
psychology.

Ethnic Group- A community or population made up of people who share a common

cultural background or descent.

Sea gypsies- Sama-Badjau have sometimes been called the “Sea Gypsies” or “Sea
Nomads”.

The Sama-badjau tribes came from south-western Mindanao and are known
differently among Filipinos as sea-dwellers. They live in the sea, and their houses are
built within the waters. They are used to earning a living from the water as most
heads of the families are fishermen and pearl finders/hunters while Badjao mothers
are mostly pearl and fruit vendors (Ibid)). These “sea gypsies” known as Badjao,
were among those who are displaced and forced into destitution following the armed
confrontation between government forces and rebels from the Moro National
Liberation Front in September 2013 at Zamboanga City. “That violence killed nearly
200 people, displaced more than 100,000 residents, and destroyed thousands of
homes.” The city’s ethnic minorities, including the Badjao, were particularly
vulnerable to displacement and forced relocation following the fighting. With such
flight, these Badjao families have gone exploring in different places from Mindanao
to various cities and provinces including Manila, Batangas and in Nueva Ecija. The
new environment of these people had also made changes in their lives and in their
routines since they are used to what is brought by the sea waters and not by the land
(Dator et al., (2018).
Extreme poverty has forced many of them to resort to begging as a means of
survival. Whenever they live, they are considered citizens of the lowest class:
ignorant, dirty, stench-smelling and deprived and most people have very low regard
for them. In different parts of Mindanao their situation is a picture of complete
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
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neglect that has driven whole families to flock to the big cities of Metro Manila,
Cebu, and Davao to beg in the streets.
In the Philippines most refugees live in stilt houses in urban areas of Mindanao,
Cebu, Bohol and Luzon; only a few remain nomadic (Nimmo, 2006 and Shoup,
2008). Some ended up in Zambales. During a short period of time many Badjao have
transferred from being dwelling sea nomads to an urban minority, with limited
knowledge about city life. According to Abrahamsson (2011), a big majority have
never been to school, they can seldom read or write, they have no legal papers, and
they have no experience of administration and governmental rule. Their Philippine
neighbors view them as uncivilized, lazy and dirty. For example, Badjao face
discrimination when entering shopping malls and restaurants, their children are being
teased in school and they can hardly find a job (Blust 2007). They are darker in the
skin than the majority population; they have bleached hair which they get because of
the salt water and the sun; and they wear colourful clothes, which make them
stigmatized. Their situation is very much similar to the situation of Roma in Europe.
Actually they have traditionally been referred to as “sea gypsies” (Pallesen 1985,
Blust 2005).
Despite the move of the government to assist these families, many have not
stopped working in the streets to beg, allowing children to stay on the roads with the
risks of running for jeepers. Children of the Badjao community are mostly with other
children begging for coins, giving letters of solicitation in white envelopes and
folders and singing in exchange of coins or any amount. Some children are carried by
their mothers, including infants, while seeking for compassion. They became the
common site in the Transport Terminal or near malls and bus stop. They became
seeming street dwellers for those who do not know that houses are built and awarded
for them and their families. Lives of these children became a risk as they became
prone to street accidents and physical diseases which may be caught due to the
changes in the weather and the environment. The Badjaos are at the receiving end of
all the consequences of the systemic on-going insecurities and violence beyond reach
of government services.
The researchers of this case study aims to gain more knowledge about the ways of
life, identity, society and culture of an ethnic group, specifically the Badjao.

VI. CONCLUSION
 Philippine Merchant Marine Academy
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Based on the data gathered, the Badjao people are mainly concern of their daily
earnings in order to feed their family. Since they are away from their original
community which is the sea, they are not used to working on the land. This means
that they have limited idea as to what works would suit them in their new community.
This had been the reason why they spend their days begging in the streets. This
culture was adapted by the Badjao Street children. They value earning money more
than schooling because this is what they see from their parents. They need to make
every day fruitful by earning money by their own selves. At an early age, they were
oriented to the household needs, from the domestic chores to the means of finding
meals for the family. This reflects the common Filipino values in their culture which
is the “family first” principle. Additionally, it can be concluded that if the
Government would be able to provide programs which will orient the Badjao men
and women on works which will make them progressive in the land, they will leave
the streets. Some may think that Badjaos beg because they do not want to work, but
the real thing is Badjao regard begging as work, the easiest and the simplest work
they know. This is so because they are not aware of other possible means to earn
money for the daily meals. With these thoughts, interventions from the government in
terms of livelihood trainings will be a great help in changing their lives and making
their children schooled. However, this study must be supported by future studies since
it only has ten participants and the locales are limited to Santiago City selected area.
There were other cities in Isabela were Badjao people lives. A replication of this
study will greatly support and enhance the findings and intervention program which
may be served and utilized by the government.It will make the result stronger and
more reliable. Still with the conclusions and limitations, the researcher is highly
recommending that the Intervention Program which is the output of this study be
utilized.

VII. REFERENCES
http://www.ethnicgroupsphilippines.com/people/ethnic-groups-in-the-
philippines/badjao/
https://www.badjaobridge.org/sea-tribes
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_(social_science)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sama-Bajau