A small, innocent-looking object found in 1989 on the southeastern shore of Laguna

de Ba'y was such a find. It now threatens to upset our basic understanding of
Philippine history. The object is a thin copperplate measuring less than 8x12 inches
in size and is inscribed with small writing that had been hammered into its surface.
The black, rolled-up piece of metal was found by a man dredging for sand near the
mouth of the Lumbang River where it emptied into Laguna de Ba'y. The man could
just have easily thrown it away as just another piece of junk that tended to clog his
equipment as he tried to make a living. It was not porcelain, like those he found
before and was able to sell for good money to the antique dealers from Manila.
Those dealers have been frequenting the area because it was a rich source of
artifacts that were in demand among the rich in Manila. These artifacts provided
another welcome source of income for people like this man who struggled to
provide for his family.
Fortunately, the sand man decided to keep that piece of metal and take another
look. Upon unrolling, it turned out that there was some kind of writing on the
crumpled and blackened metal plate. He finally sold it to one of the dealers for
almost nothing for it was unlike anything every found before and nobody knew what
it was.
Because it was not a recognizable object the dealer could not find a private buyer
for it. In desperation, he offered it to the National Museum of the Philippines,
normally the buyer of last resort for unsold objects. The copper object is now called
"Laguna Copperplate Inscription" (LCI). It languished at the National Museum as
supposedly qualified scholars padded up the chance to evaluate the artifact. They
were either too busy or not interested but perhaps intimidated by the prospect of
working on something they had no knowledge of.
Fortunately, the ability and persistent effort of one man paid off in unlocking the
secrets of the LCI. Antoon Postma, a Dutch national who has lived most of his life
among the Mangyans in the Philippines and the director of the Mangyan Assistance
& Research Center in Panaytayan, Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, was able to translate
the writing. His effort is all the more remarkable when you consider that the text
was in a language similar to four languages (Sanskrit, Old Tagalog, Old Javanese,
and Old Malay) mixed together.
The text was written in Kavi, a mysterious script which does not look like the ancient
Tagalog scri’pt known as baybayin or alibata. Neither does it look similar to other
Philippine scripts still used today by isolated ethnic minorities like the Hanuoos and
the Buhids of Mindoro, and the Tagbanwas of Palawan. It is the first artifact of pre-
Hispanic origin found in the Philippines that had writing on copper material.
Indeed, artifacts of pre-Hispanic writing are so rare that only three had been
previously found and made available to researchers. They are the 14-15th century
Butuan silver strip, the 10th century Butuan ivory seal, and the 15th century
Calatagan jar. The writings on these three previous finds have eluded attempts to
decipher them so far.
Important date
Postma's translation provides a lot of exciting surprises. Like most other copperplate
documents, it gives a very precise date from the Sanskrit calendar which
corresponds to 900 A.D. in our system. It contains placements that still exist around
the Manila are today. It also lists the names of the chiefs of the places mentioned.
The date is important because a country's history is considered to begin with the
first dated document recorded in it. This newly found document pushed the
"starting point" of the Philippine history all the way back to 900 A.D., 621 years
earlier than the previously accepted date of 1521 when Antonio Pigafetta wrote his
observations during his voyage with Magellan.
Authenticity
The authenticity of the LCI was a prime concern to all from the very beginning.
Postma and the Philippine National Museum were aware of the many frauds that
had been perpetrated on Philippine historians in the past. Many of these fraudulent
historical documents have unfortunately gotten into Philippine history textbooks
which are still being used today. The most famous of these frauds is the Code of
Kalatiaw that every Filipino schoolboy knows. The supposed text of the code was
contained in the Pavón manuscript, one of the many fraudulent documents passed
on to the Philippine National Museum over many decades by Jose E. Marco, a known
philatelic forger. Damage caused by frauds like this is immeasurable.
More than a quarter century after the fraud was exposed in 1965, the average
Filipino still believes that the Code of Kalantiaw was real. This is not so much a
reflection on the average Filipino's interest in history as it is on the Philippine
government's failure to educate the public. As a matter of fact, President Marcos
was still inducting "deserving" justices into his Order of Kalantiaw in the 1970's.
(This was, perhaps, a fitting way for History to get back at those who wanted to
rewrite it.) Postma was acutely aware of what yet another phony document would
do to the community of Philippine historians. He sought and got advice from Dutch
and Indonesian experts on the LCI's authenticity. The experts concluded that the
specific script style used in LCI was consistent with its indicated date, and the
correctness of the languages and words used would have been very hard for a
forger to have contrived. Although there were some differences between the LCI
and the copperplates found in Indonesia, they were for legitimate reasons and their
consensus was that the LCI was authentic.
The text on Indonesian copperplates of the same era was mostly in Old Javanese
and as was customary at that time, mention the name of King Balintung (899-910
A.D.). Unlike its Indonesian cousins, the language of the LCI was not Old Javanese.
That the LCI did not mention the king's name was another clue that the LCI did not
come from Indonesia. However, the biggest difference was in the way the
copperplate was inscribed. Indonesian copperplates were prepared by heating them
until they became soft. Then a stylus was used to impress the letters on the soft
metal, creating smooth and continuous strokes. The Philippine copperplate, on the
other hand, was inscribed by hammering the letters onto the metal using a sharp
instrument. The letters show closely joined and overlapping dots from the
hammering.

Philippine connection
It was left for Postma to establish the LCI's Philippine connection. When he first saw
the LCI, he thought it may originally have come from Indonesia but made to appear
like it was found to the Philippines so that it could be sold as a valuable antique. The
text of the LCI convinced him of its Philippine provenance.
The LCI was an official document issued document issued to clear a person by the
name of Namwaran, this family, and all their descendants of a debt he had incurred.
In the old Philippines, an unpaid debt usually resulted in slavery not only for the
person concerned but also for his family and his descendants. The amount of debt
was 1 kate and 8 suwarnas of gold (865 g. or about $12,000 at today's prices), an
unusually large amount.
Placenames mentioned in the LCI
The placenames mentioned prove the Philippine connection of the LCI. The names
are still recognizable today although almost eleven centuries have passed since the
document was issued. The placenames are Pailah (Paila), Tundun (Tundo), Puliran
(Pulilan), Binwangan (Binwangan), Dewata (Diwata), and Medang (Medang). The
first four places are near Manila, but Dewata and Medang pose a problem. They
could have been personal names, but more likely "Dewata" was Diwata, a town near
Butuan, and "Medang," Medang in Old Java or Sumatra. Both these places must
have been connected politically to Tundun and the other settlements in 900 A.D.
Diwata is important because in addition to the silver strip mentioned earlier, there
are reportedly some other artifacts with undeciphered ancient inscriptions that have
been found in the Butuan area. Shamefully, like many other artifacts they are in
private hands and unavailable to scholars.
Since the LCI was found in Laguna de Ba'y, Postma first thought that Pailah was Pila,
Laguna and Pulilan was the southeastern area of the lake because that was what
the place was called in the old days. Pila was then a part of the area known as
Pulilan. However, he opted to take Pulilan and Paila both along the Angat River in
Bulacan as better candidates because the document clearly referred to two
separate places, not one inside a larger jurisdiction. A look at the map would show
that his choices are correct since they are more conveniently connected to each
other by the usual river and coastal travel routes than if he had picked the Laguna
area.
Another possible connection to this Bulacan riverine area is the village of Gatbuca
that exists today. Bukah, son of Namwran, is mentioned in the document. Gat was a
title used for important persons and has found its way into many contemporary
family names (e.g., Gatbonton, Gatmaitan, Gatdula, etc.). It is possible that the
town was named for Bukah when he rose in position later.

Significance
Just how significant is this incomplete document that ends in midsentence and
contains only ten lines?
It means, as we have discussed earlier, that the edge of history has been pushed
back 621 years, giving the Philippines a documented existence among the ancient
kingdoms of Southeast Asia like Shri-Vijaya (Sumatra), Angkor (Kampuchea),
Champa (Vietnam), Madjapahit (Java), and others that existed before the 10th
Century. The Tagalog script was so rudimentary that it cannot even completely
record the sounds of its own language. Three centuries before the Tagalog script's
emergence, the Manila area used a script so rich and sophisticated that great
empires were ruled through its use. How did this happen? How could a less
sophisticated script have supplanted a better one?
Many interesting scenarios can be created to explain some of the above puzzles.
During the era of the LCI it was not uncommon for settlements to disappear. They
flourished for some time, even for centuries, but things like natural catastrophes,
epidemics, emigration, pirate raids, war, etc. made them disappear. It is also known
that Muslim culture pushed Hindu influence in Indonesia out of most areas, leaving
Bali as the only place where Hindu culture has survived.

Any of these things could have caused the early settlements around Manila to
disappear. The disappearance of the earlier people who settled around Manila may
explain why the Kavi script was lost and a lesser one introduced later. But how did
the placenames remain? If a few people remained to maintain a continuity of their
settlements and placenames, how did they lose their knowledge of the Malay
language and the Kavi script? At this time, everything is conjecture.
Many more questions will be asked, answered, and refuted; other questions will be
asked again. Little by little, we will know more about the Philippines as it was before
the Spaniards came, thankst o a little piece of metal dredged from the sand.