"Hello, everyone, I'm Philippines, Phili for short. I'm going to teach you all about the country I represent," Philippines said as she waved at the camera. "You're not alone, Ate Phili," a younger boy said as he tugged Phili's shirt. "Oh yeah, my brothers are going to join us in this lesson," Phili said. The eldest one was Visayas, and he is the good mannered guy of the trio. The 2nd one is Luzon, he loves breaking the rules. And the youngest one is Mindanao who is very gullible and is easily scared but he mostly depends on Luzon's and Visayas' defence when a foreigner comes.
"Okay, the society back then was quite different from now. There are only 3 positions back then," Phili said as she let her brothers explain each. "The first one is called Maharlika, the royal family back then in their tribe or whatever they call it. The king of the village or whatever is the datu. If he rules over so many, he might be a soldier. The maharlika back then is like the rich people right now," Luzon explained. "The second ones are the Timawa or also called Malaya. The people who are free but don't have the privileges of the mahalika are part of this," Visayas explained. "Umm… The lowest level of people back then is the 'alipin' or slaves. In a Europeans point of view back then, they don't look like slaves, they are only people who depend on their so called god. There are two kinds of slaves," Mindanao said, shy of the camera.
"Don't be shy, Minda! The first kind is the housing slave (aliping namamahay, I don't know how to translate this XD) that has his own belongings, but he needs to give the datu half of the harvest or serve the datu every 4 harvests. They can be part of the awesomely free people," Luzon said, patting Mindanao's back. "Geez, Luzon… The 'aliping sagigilid' (Can't translate! ) is usually the civilian in the battles, can't pay their debts and a slave since he was born. There is nothing that is actually theirs and their marriage need to have the permission of their god or master," Visayas explained.
"The next one is all about the exchanging of products between countries that are near to us!" Phili introduced the next segment. "Even before Filipinos exchanged products with other countries, they exchanged with their fellow Filipinos from other isles," Phili added. "When the Age of Metal came, the boats and it became for useful to trading. The Filipinos started trading products with people from South East Asia to East Asia," Luzon explained, having a wide grin on his face.
"India has been trading with me since uhh… the Madjapahit Empire was establish… Calculating that, hmm… Since 1100-1500 CE. A big portion of West and Southeast Asia was invaded using the empire I just said that is hard to pronounce," Phili said. "The Hindus came to this country for trading with their golden products. Most of the trade happened in Sulu, right, Minda?" Luzon said. "Ah, yes Kuya Luzon," Mindanao nodded timidly. "Sulu was really popular back then because of the pearls. Many foreigners from far countries come to Sulu because of this, like North Borneo, Bandjarmasin, and Brunei," Mindanao added. "I'm bored with this, let's skip," Phili said. "ou didn't even let me talk, Ate Phili," Visayas pouted. "Haha, you are not important, Visayas!" Luzon cheered.