Iloilo’s Panay Bukidnons

Does anyone have any idea regarding the group of 

people in the photo? If so, who are they? What do 

you know about them? If not, can anyone describe 

and associate where they may have seen what/who 

they have observed in the photo?

Guide Questions:

1. What have you learned about the Panay Bukidnon Indigenous Peoples?

2. What piqued your curiosity about the said Indigenous group? Why?

3. What have drawn you to learn more about the Iloilo Panay Bukidnons?

Panay Bukidnon Culture - YouTube

Video Notes:

1. The video is produced by Dr. Alicia Magos, who began researching about the Panay Bukidnons in 1988. Dr. Alicia P. Magos is an anthropologist and a professor emerita of University of the Philippines Visayas. She had extensive and published works on the Panay Bukidnons. She was a UNESCO 
International Literary Research Awardee and 1999 Metrobank Ten 

Outstanding Teacher.

2. Dr. Magos theorized that the Panay Bukidnons were once coastal people, and 

because of colonization, had to retreat to the mountains following two major rivers, Halawod and Pan-ay rivers. All Panay Bukidnons in the four provinces of Panay, namely Antique, Iloilo, Capiz, and Aklan have alternative group names, depending on where they get their sustenance.

3. A Panay Bukidnon house is usually a one-room affair, elevated from the ground, and made up of bamboo and nipa (or cogon). Kaingin farming, weaving, and root crop trade is a common activity.

4. The Panay Bukidnons strongly respect nature and are attached to the babaylanes (that offer cure) and the maaram (that provides advice). After a day’s work, Panay Bukidnons listen to sugidanon (epic-chanting).

5. Federico “Tuohan” Caballero was awarded the GAMABA (National Living Treasure) by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2000 for  epic literature (Caballero’s mastery of the 10 epics or suguidanon).