Chapter 6: Where Can You Find the Jewish Lequios (Waray hadlok) Tribe in the Philippines?

  Some historians  believe that the ancient Lakanate of Lawan is the oldest kingdom of the Philippines which existed at around 1,800 BC. According to Hebrew scholars like Dr. Narag, the original settlers of Lawan, the Lequios Waray Tribe, named the place after Awan or Aklia, the daughter of Adam. It also means in Hebrew as white beach which pointed to the golden white beach named Onay, in Lawan. In a note to the head of the Principalia Council, Dr. Narag said: "What I discovered is that Lawan is the center of Ophir." The indigenous inhabitants of the ancient Philippines are the Rhinoceros Man (709,000 years ago), Dawn Man (250,000 years ago), Callao Man (69,000 years ago) and Tabon Man (30,000 years ago). Their long years of inter breeding among themselves resulted into  a race called lumad. The first refugees to the ancient lumad population are the Samaritans whose ruling families were thrown  to what is now known in the Philippines as Samar, a Pacific Island and using the ancient Ophirian route... when Samaria in Israel was captured by invading forces. This start the history of hospitality among Filipinos to the Jewish race. (During WWll, Philippine President Quezon of Baler in the same Pacific area, saved the Jews from the gas chamber in Germany by accepting them into the Philippines.) The interbreeding of the Lumads and the Samaritans resulted into a prosperous tribe called Lequios or what they call themselves as "Waray hadlok" (no fear) because of their adventurous nature in resettling people and finding gold in the whole of the present Austronesian territories. The first ancient lumads to be invaded are the lumads in what is now known as the Muslim portions in Mindanao.  They are the first Filipinos to be invaded and up to now, they are still under the Muslim religion. They were not able to fight back and free themselves from the Muslim invaders while the rest of the lumad population has fought back and free themselves from the  Muslim, Spanish, American and Japanese invaders..the real heroic lumads..

    The Lequios is a group of ancient Hebrews who settled around Ophir, which the Spaniards considered the Philippine islands to be, before its colonization. The Portuguese were the first sailors to call these fair - skinned tribe scattered in the Pacific side of the Philippines as Lequios, the Spaniards actually called them Bisaya, to differentiate them from the pintados and the dark skinned Aetas. They call themselves in the ancient native name"waray hadlok" describing their adventurous and fearless nature in navigating the seas. Some historians are saying that the Samar Island of the Philippines could be the seat of the Ophir because the island was named after Samaria, the ancestral homeland of Datu Iberein of the Lakanate of Lawan. In Spain there is a 16th Century Book entitled "Coleccion General de Documentos Relativos a las Islas Filipinas." It is found in the Archivos de Indias de Sevilla. It was reprinted in 1920 in Barcelona, Spain by the Compania General de Tobaccos de Filipinas. Its Tomo III (1519-1522), pages 112-138, contains Document No. 98 describing how to locate the land of Ophir.This same volume also contains the official documents regarding the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan. It also contains the logbook of Francisco Albo, the chief pilot of the ship Victoria. This logbook is also one of the main references regarding the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan. Ophir was "…in front of China towards the sea, of many islands where the Moluccans, Chinese, and Lequios met to trade…"(findwords.info/term/lequios). 


Dayang Marikit , a Philippine History Professor, has this to say: 

"Antonio Pigafetta had a lengthy documentation of their travels.

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-are-three-observations-of-Antonio-Pigafetta-as-he-described-Filipinos-from-his-standpoint-or-in-European-perspective . Date retrieved June 11, 2023.

 The Aramaic term abba (אבא, Hebrew: אב (av), "father") appears in traditional Jewish liturgy and Jewish prayers to God, e.g. in the Kaddish (קדיש, Qaddish Aramaic, Hebrew: קדש (Qādash), "holy"). This somewhat triangulated the findings of some historians of the existence early Hebrew refugees to Ibabao (later changed to Samar in honor of their homeland Samaria), with their Aramaic language and religion.


When 17th-century Spanish missionary Francisco Colin came to the Philippines, he mentioned that “there are no kings or rulers worthy of mention” in the islands. He made a common mistake among European observers at the time in searching for evidence of early wealth and power in authoritative law codes, centralized government, and temple complexes, which the Philippines then lacked. They were surprised, however, when they discovered that Filipinos, commoners and nobility alike, wore gold jewelry or clothing as everyday accessories. Historian William Henry Scott describes the regality of a certain Datu Iberein of the Lequios Tribe, and his entourage in 1543. Upon seeing a Spanish vessel anchored off the coast of Samar, the datu wearing golden earrings and chains rowed to the Spanish boat. His oarsmen wore gold necklaces. Iberein is merely an example of some of the wealthy and influential rulers of the Philippines in pre-colonial times. Among the most wealthy and powerful were Rajah Sulayman and Lakan Dula of Manila (circa 1570), and Sultan Kudarat of Maguindanao (circa 1619 to 1671). (www.esquiremag.ph )  

    Henry Scott describes the house of the ruling datu: the largest house in the community and it was not only his dwelling, workplace, and storehouse but also served as the community center for civic and religious affairs, with a kind of public lounging platform below or in front. Wooden partitions carved with foliage in high relief provided separate chambers for him and his wife, family, binokot. daughters, concubines, and the houses for slaves. Partial flooring laid over the tie beams made a kind of loft or attic. Similar grandeur was forbidden in other datus: to construct a house large enough to entertain the whole community was in itself a form of competition. Women of the Lakanate of Lawan, a kingdom populated by the Lequios Tribe, are known from far away lands as pretty and faithful. This long generations of pretty ladies are instrumental in the growing prosperity and influence of the Lequios Tribe’s Lakanate of Lawan among far away settlements -- in Albay, indianized settlement of Datu Buntuan, gold - rich settlement of the Kalagan people, civilized settlement of Mulanay, battle - tested settlement of Mangatang and even settlement in Tundok. There are even historical research which suggests that the Otley Beyer

Theory of the Philippine Migration towards the direction of the pacific oceans's Lakanate of Lawan which attracted settlers, merchants and adventurists from as far as Judea, India, China, Muslim settlements in Asia, and lately, Spain -- is primarilly driven by these romanticized legends and seafarer stories of gold, spices, prosperous life and beautiful women. These inter migration from elsewhere in the direction towards the Lakanate of Lawan ended, in most of them, in other places like Panay, Mindoro, Sulu -- which started new settlements in those areas, in addition of the settlements all over the archipelago initiated by the seafaring Lequios Tribe of  the Lakanate of Lawan in their search for precious gold to be traded in their ancient homeland in Samaria. With the recent French discovery of the 700,00o - year - old rhinoceros man in the Philippines, the findings that the ancient alphabet of the Philippines called Baybayin came from a settlement in the Lakanate of Lawan called even today as Baybay, and the Australian study which says that the Philippines is the homeland of the Polynesians, including, recent findings that the Samar island in the Philippines could be the seat of the biblical Ophir, the Lequios Tribe (now called in vernacular as Waray) could have sparked the golden age of the Philippine ancient history.     To paint a picture this golden age, an account of Fr. Alcina, as written by Henry Scott, talked about a pretty princess named Bingi of Lawan. There lived in this place a chief called Karagrag, who was its lord and ruler. He was married to a lady of his rank called Bingi, a name which had been bestowed on her because of her chastity, as we shall see. (I was not able to find out if she came from the same town; most probably she was from upstream on the Catubig River, where she was the daughter of the chief there.) This lady, according to what they recount, was endowed with many fine virtues and ready celebrated for her beauty among these natives, so much so that, moved by the fame of her beauty, the Datu, or ruler, of Albay got ready a hundred ships. This chief was called Dumaraug, which means the victor, and with all those ships he weighed anchor in his land, and within a short time came in view of the [Lawan Island] town of Makarato. His unexpected arrival excited the town, but since it was well-fortified by its natural location and it was the season of the Vendavales (the best time for going there from Albay) when the force of the sea and its waves were strong and turbulent, he did not venture to go straight in but took shelter instead near the beach which Rawis Point makes with very fine sand and free of shoals, where, became of an islet across the entrance from the sea, the surf is less obstructive and the sea milder and calm. From there he sent a small boat with a sign of peace to announce the purpose of his coming, which was simply to carry Bingi away as his wife, the fame of whose beauty alone had left him love struck. Datu Dumaraog went back to Albay, failing to win the heart of Princess Bingi of the Lequios Tribe. (archive.org / stream/ BarangaySixteenth CenturyPhilippine) 

References: 

1. https://findwords.info/term/lequios retrieved on April 24, 2020 

2. https://www.esquiremag.ph/the-good-life/pursuits/datus-rajahs-and-sultans-ho w-wealthy-and-powerful-were-the-pre-colonial-filipino-nobility-a1957-20190121 -lfrm retrieved March 2, 2020 

3. https://archive.org/stream/BarangaySixteenthCenturyPhilippineCultureAndSoci ety/Barangay+-+Sixteenth+Century+Philippine+Culture+and+Society_djvu.txt retrieved January 5, 2020