# Weapons Ban - A MYTH???



## Sun_Helmet (Jul 16, 2003)

I don't have the magazine in front of me, but it may have been a recent IKF (or BB?) which lists the top ten common myths in Martial Arts. 

One of them was that the Spanish never prohibited the Filipinos from carrying weapons.

I don't know where they got this from, but Spanish records contradict this.

Here is a list of weapon bans repeatedly issued by the Spanish government upon the Filipinos. They were called superior bandos.

December 29, 1763
February 9, 1764
August 3, 1765
January 19, 1771
February 1778
February 1783
October 1812
June 11, 1829

In detail is the Proclamation of 21, May 1844 issued in Cavite during the Tulisanes raids, which banned Filipinos and mestizos from carrying all kinds of weapons. Arms licenses was granted only to persons duly authorized by the provincial Spanish governor. The law applied to the use of guns, spears, swords and long daggers. However, no special permit was necessary for the use of spears measuring 5 varas with bamboo shafts utilized for hunting animals. Same applied to BLUNTED Bolos and pick axes. Penalty for carrying arms without a license was 6 months heavy labor.
Cavite Before the Revolution, page 92 Medina.

Being caught by the Spanish authorities carrying weapons can also lead them to suspect you as being a Tulisanes. In places like Imus, Cavite Spanish authorities under the supervision of friars would decapitate a Tulisanes and publicly display their heads in a cage at Imus plaza. Their bodies were also quartered prior to the beheading.

Some Tulisanes evaded prosecution by leaving Cavite and heading to the southern regions like Negros or to Basilan Island. One Tulisanes named Pedro Cuevas became a Datu (Datu Kalun) of the Yakans in Basilan.

By the 19th century, Cavite's disatisfaction with the repressive Spanish authorities had transformed the tulisan activity (once deemed as fearsome night time raiders) into a more focused form of peasant movement. In the end it would culminate into the Katipunan movement which spawned the Filipino Revolution of 1896.

--Rafael Kayanan--
Sayoc Kali

-------
--------
---------


----------



## Black Grass (Jul 16, 2003)

I remember reading this but the author escapes me. Who wrote it ?

Vince
aka Black Grass


----------

