00:00 [Music]
00:02 In a house in Eastern Samar, there is a septic tank that is being used.
00:08 It is said that there are rich people who have new ideas about our history.
00:17 What are these?
00:19 While they are using the septic tank to make black holes in the town of Giwan in Eastern Samar,
00:27 the forms of septic tank, which are made of noidjud and fluoro, were hit by an ancient flood.
00:36 It was 15 cm high.
00:38 The flood was the one that hit it.
00:40 It was about two and a half blocks high.
00:42 They carefully took it.
00:45 We didn't lift it up. We just laid it on the ground.
00:48 Then we removed the ground.
00:50 But the flood suddenly broke.
00:57 And their eyes got bigger when the flood hit.
01:00 There was something hard.
01:03 We saw the human bones there.
01:05 We were shocked.
01:07 And they were exposed to other things.
01:11 When we were removing the bones, we saw two skulls.
01:16 It was like gold.
01:18 It was just a skull.
01:20 It was inside a big river.
01:21 The small river was full of sand because there was no cover.
01:24 The river had a side tree.
01:26 It was like a house.
01:27 It was like antique.
01:29 What will these rich people say about our history?
01:35 The rich people who were shocked
01:43 immediately informed the landowner, Rika Mel.
01:49 I was scared because the landslide was real.
01:52 I thought that it was a burial ground.
01:56 Rika Mel cleaned the bones
01:59 until the design of the bones came out.
02:03 It was brown with waves.
02:05 It was also colorful.
02:07 It had flowers.
02:09 It had a Chinese character.
02:13 Rika Mel remembered that in the 80s,
02:17 she hired treasure hunters
02:20 to dig for the buried rich people.
02:25 I thought that it might have historical value.
02:28 This street, when I was in elementary school,
02:31 there were antique diggers here.
02:34 The diggers were in front of our house.
02:37 There were plates, plates, and spoons.
02:40 Sometimes, they would dig for gold.
02:42 The tools that were used to dig in Bayanang Giwan
02:45 were believed to be from the Portuguese.
02:49 Like the explorer, Magellan,
02:52 in the island of Homonhon,
02:54 which was also part of Bayanang Giwan in 1521.
02:58 We will know that there were civilizations.
03:00 They had boats and different social classes.
03:04 They had boats.
03:06 They traded with China and several other places.
03:10 One of the oldest settlements in Giwan
03:14 is Butak,
03:16 which means "crack".
03:20 It was the center of the people's residence.
03:24 That's where the missionaries went.
03:26 That's where they built the church.
03:28 That's where the dead people were buried.
03:32 Butak is now the residence of Barangay 12,
03:36 where the remains of the people who were under the care of Rika Mel are now buried.
03:41 One of the people who used to dig in Butak
03:44 was resident Judy.
03:46 I joined the digging because I was small.
03:49 I could climb up to the bottom.
03:51 I saw different kinds of jar lids,
03:54 porcelain, and glass.
03:56 Elena was blessed by her grandmother with the tools.
04:00 She was also blessed with a lot of tools from their barangay.
04:03 One bandehado, two platitos,
04:06 and a book that reads "China" on the back.
04:10 It's been more than 100 years.
04:14 I'm 62 years old.
04:15 They told me to be careful because I can't find such things anymore.
04:19 These tools are expensive.
04:21 No one reported it.
04:22 Now, with the age of information,
04:25 with social media,
04:26 with mainstream media,
04:27 people know that physical evidence is important
04:31 to build the story of the country.
04:33 Meanwhile, our team learned that
04:36 the land that Rika Mel now owns
04:39 is just a few of the places that were not moved
04:42 by the treasure hunters in the 1980s.
04:45 This is the land that is not yet dug
04:48 because someone lived here.
04:50 He didn't agree.
04:51 His house will be separated if he digs.
04:54 The former landowner, Salvador,
04:57 was very happy about it.
04:59 I was there for 8 or 7 years.
05:01 They built something there.
05:03 My brother said that he remembered that there was a cave.
05:06 There were a lot of caves there.
05:08 They remember that there is a kind of monument
05:12 that was built on the land.
05:14 This monument is the only possible wood
05:19 that was dug in the land of Rika Mel.
05:21 But where did the wealth of the people
05:25 who were digging the black hole or septic tank come from?
05:29 The news that there are people who have dug
05:33 and wasted their tools
05:35 reached the local government of Giwan.
05:38 We conducted documentation.
05:42 These kinds of artifacts are physical evidences
05:46 that can give us a deeper story
05:49 about our country
05:51 and not just our country, but the whole Philippines.
05:54 The artifacts in Rika Mel's land
05:57 are considered valuable finds
06:00 because the dug-up river is a glazed burial jar
06:04 dating back to the 1200s or Yuan era.
06:08 But it was built only during the Spanish
06:11 or after 1521.
06:15 It is covered with rivers that were displayed then.
06:18 in the Samar Archaeological Museum.
06:21 This is the oldest artifacts of the Hokkai in Samar.
06:26 It could be dated to the 1590s
06:29 when Christianity adopted the land of Butak.
06:33 The Spanish were making jars for looting.
06:38 They were taking the jars where people were being locked up.
06:42 The owners of the jars were being locked up.
06:45 The safest place for them was a cemetery burial.
06:49 There is also a "Gintong Hikaw"
06:52 It's part of our belief system
06:54 that if you die, your soul needs to bring gold.
06:59 In the other world,
07:01 the San Pedro,
07:03 you are not allowed to cross the sea or river
07:06 to go to the promised land if you don't have gold.
07:09 Aside from the old artifacts,
07:11 this also includes human bones.
07:15 Our ancestors had this what we call
07:18 secondary burial practice.
07:20 After 5 years,
07:21 the bones were retrieved from the graves
07:24 and placed in jars.
07:26 The bones were placed
07:28 and then they were tied in some sacred caves for them.
07:32 The bones were possibly taken from the body of a child.
07:37 It was small,
07:38 it was a child.
07:40 The bones were tied to the ribs and the feet.
07:44 Inside the big jar,
07:46 there was a smaller jar
07:48 that we call "Celadon Jarlet"
07:51 that was believed to be the place of the bones.
07:55 Throughout the history of the burial jars,
07:58 or the burial of our country's bones,
08:01 they believed that a person has a spirit when he dies
08:07 and there is life after death.
08:09 Then they pray.
08:11 And a burial jar includes the remains
08:16 because it is believed that when you die,
08:19 there is afterlife,
08:21 you will be alive again.
08:22 You will use all of these.
08:25 The bones, along with the bones and wood,
08:29 were brought to Giwan Museum.
08:31 I also talked to the family.
08:33 I explained to the family
08:34 what the significance of the artifacts is
08:37 and why we need to bring it to the museum for safeguarding.
08:41 Giwan Museum is not yet open
08:44 because we are still fixing the exhibition area.
08:46 Although the space is secured,
08:48 it is closed.
08:49 And then we make sure that they are placed in proper containers.
08:53 While the Celadon Jarlet and Gold Hoops,
08:58 were left to Rica Mel.
09:00 I want to display it here at home.
09:02 We don't have a plan to sell it.
09:04 According to RA 10066,
09:07 or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009,
09:10 if we find such cultural properties or archaeological finds,
09:17 especially if we see that it came from the pre-colonial period,
09:22 we will report it to the authority.
09:25 The local government of Giwan
09:27 also submitted a report to the National Museum
09:30 and to the NCCA or the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
09:35 We tried to get them a statement,
09:38 but they did not respond.
09:40 And this Wednesday,
09:42 Rica Mel received a message.
09:44 We received an email from NCCA
09:47 to surrender the artifacts that were stolen
09:51 and the ones that were left.
09:53 We considered if we will receive credits or incentives
09:59 from the NCCA or the LGU.
10:02 We will not coordinate.
10:04 According to RA 10066,
10:06 there are incentives that the state can give to the finders.
10:12 The National Museum is authorized to talk to the finders
10:17 about the incentives.
10:19 When it comes to excavations,
10:21 the National Museum is the only one allowed to conduct.
10:24 The request of the local government unit of Giwan
10:28 is to conduct an IEC or Information and Education Campaign
10:33 for the residents of Giwan
10:35 about the law
10:37 to avoid what happened in the 1980s
10:40 when treasure hunting was rampant.
10:43 Because when these artifacts are sold to private collectors,
10:47 we are stealing the opportunity to study our own history.
10:52 Under our soil, how many more riches of our history
10:58 are waiting to be discovered?
11:01 I hope that the next generations will be able to see it.
11:07 Thank you for watching, Kapuso!
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