Davao City – Vigilance by residents, the police, the local government in Maitum, Sarangani and the provincial government has paid off: five of the 22 sacks of cultural artifacts seized by the police last month have been transported to the National Museum as initial inspection by archaeologist Dr. Eusebio Dizon showed the shards from anthropomorphic burial jars are different from the now-famous “faces from Maitum.”
“They`re a different people. They`re a bit different from the Maitum collection that`s why it`s good to know how different they really are,” Dizon said when he passéd by the provincial police headquarters in Alabel, Sarangani from Balut Island on September 11, on his way to Manila, to check on the artifacts as directed by the National Museum.
The Maitum anthropomorphic secondary burial jars are about 2,000 years old.
The seized artifacts were apparently sorted already as one plastic bag, for instance, contained shards of faces and ears, eyes and mouth while another plastic bag yielded shards of hands and elbows.
“They`re really different,” Dizon said, of the seized artifacts, adding that the faces are different and the fingers on the hands of the Maitum jars are just lines, unlike the seized artifacts, whose fingers are separate.
“The more important thing is to find out the location, the origin of these shards,” Dizon said.
Dizon said the artifacts had obviously been dug up for years already because “the lime deposits have been washed out.” This means these have been excavated a couple of years ago.
Dizon said glue markings are also evident as some people apparently tried to put the pieces together.
Dug up years ago
He reckons the shards were dug after the book, “Faces from Maitum” came out in 1996.
“I think…. they waited for the book to come because the book became a reference.”
“Faces from Maitum” is a book written by Dizon and Rey Santiago on the archaeological excavation of Ayub Cave or Pinol Cave in Maitum, Sarangani from November 1991 to May 1992 and January 17 to February 15, 2005.
Several ritual jars and pots were also among the seized sacks but Dizon said these were likely ritual jars and not for cooking.
Dizon described the Maitum find in the early 1990s as “unparalleled in Southeast Asia.
The jars, bearing radiocarbon dates of "1930 plus or minus 50 BP (calibrated date of 5 BC to AD 225) and 1830 plus or minus 60 BP (calibrated date of AD 70 to 370)," are unique in that "they are like portraits of distinct individuals, of specific dead persons whose remains they guard," Dizon and Santiago said in their book.
The discovery of the burial jars, they said, is “very important in our study of Philippine prehistory” as it can provide “significant clues and material evidences for the determination of the Maguindanao prehistory.”
Dizon told Sarangani Governor Rene Miguel Dominguez and Maitum Mayor Elsie Lucille Perrett that he studied the Makar wharf and airport prior to their construction and found many sites there had decorated potteries.
”I think Maitum was a burial site and maybe General Santos was the habitation? Where the people were living or staying then, I`d like to find out,” Dizon said.
He told Dominguez and Perrett that there was a forest growth in the General Santos area 7,000 years ago. “It disappeared 5,000 years ago when Parker and Matutum erupted and that covered the whole area but there were no people during that time.”
“The earliest so far of human occupation for Mindanao is Maitum,” he said. “That`s why Maitum is significant.”
He said the seized artifacts are “good materials, good for Mindanao, good for the entire country
Seized
Twenty-two bags of shards similar to artifacts from the Metal Age anthropomorphic secondary burial jars discovered in Maitum, Sarangani in 1991 were seized by the Maitum police on August 19.
The bags, seven of them sacks and 15 plastic, were loaded on a tricycle at Barangay Kawa, a coastal area, from a banca allegedly from Maguid in neighboring Palembang, Sultan Kudarat province.
But Mayor Perrett told MindaNews on September 2 that the area in Palembang where the artifacts were supposed to have been taken, “has no cave.”
The shards were apparently sorted already as one plastic bag, for instance, contained shards of faces and ears, eyes and mouth. Another plastic bag yielded shards of hands and elbows.
SPO2 Reginald Delfin, one of the policemen who intercepted the cargo, told MindaNews a resident who was apparently aware of the priceless value of the cultural artifacts phoned the police about the “suspicious-looking” cargo.
An expired permit and a retroactive permit
Delfin said they were told the cargo was to be used as “dekorasyon sa bahay” (house decoration) by the owner. The police was shown a “permit to transport” number 00003803 from the National Museum authorizing “the bearer, Mr. Jimmy Tan,” proprietor/owner of JM Antiques at 115 CM Recto Avenue in Sta. Cruz, Manila, “to transport assorted pieces of cultural properties from General Santos City to the City of Manila for the purpose of authentication and registration with the National Museum from July 16 to August 16, 2008.”
General Santos is 108 kilometers away from Maitum.
The permit was issued on July 15, 2008 by Angel Bautista, Curator I, OIC of the Cultural Properties Division.
The permit was no longer valid at the time the artifacts were seized. Also, the bearer of the permit was not Tan himself but one Dominador Berdin of Mandaluyong City, who identified himself as Tan`s representative.
On August 28, however, Berdin returned to the police station showing another “permit to transport” number 0003845 from the National Museum, valid allegedly from August 17 to September 17. But the date of issuance of the permit was “26 August 2008.”
The permit was issued by Cecilio G. Salcedo, Acting Director III.
The “permit to transport” this time included Berdin`s name but it was apparently prepared hastily as Berdin is not identified as Tan`s representative but also “owner.”
The permit says “This is to authorize the bearer (sic)Mr. Jimmy Tan and Mr. Dominador M. Berdin, Proprietor/owner (sic) of JM Antiques…”
The permit specified the number of bags to transport: “seven sacks and 10 plastic bags” and the “cultural properties” had now become “broken earthenware potteries from Sultan Kudarat.”
Mayor, Gov assert
On September 1, Mayor Perrett called National Museum Director Corazon Alvina, Director IV, and informed the latter that she will not release the artifacts because the representative of Tan could not present a permit to excavate or a deed of sale. Alvina told the mayor that she will investigate the permits issued.
On September 2, Berdin returned to the Maitum police to present a deed of sale dated September 2, that the “broken earthenware potteries” were purchased by Berdin in Maguid, Palembang, Sultan Kudarat for 30,000.
On September 6, Sarangani Governor Dominguez ordered the artifacts transferred from the Maitum police to the provincial police in Alabel, Sarangani following reports the artifacts might be forcibly taken from the police office.
On September 10, Dominguez phoned Alvina and demanded action from the previous requests of Mayor Perrett. By then, an employee of the mayor`s office had been harassed and threatened through text messages.
No bad faith
Bautista, who was dispatched by Alvina to Sarangani on September 12, carried with him an undated narrative report signed by Alvina on ordinary paper, not a National Museum letterhead.
Alvina`s report said she issued an order dated September 1, canceling the “permit to transport” issued by Salcedo.
Alvina mentioned no cancellation during her conversation with Mayor Perrett on September 1 when she promised the latter she would investigate the permits.
Alvina also did not mention the September 1 cancellation of the permit when Dominguez phoned him on September 10.
In her narrative, she said that “since the identity of the said cultural properties was not yet determined by an archeologist, the National Museum staff believes that these materials should be brought to the National Museum for authentication and registration in order to establish its provenance. Hence, the issuance of the permit to transport was procedural and done in good faith.”
The permit signed by Bautista and Salcedo clearly showed differences as “cultural artifacts” under the Bautista permit had become “broken earthenware potteries” under the Salcedo permit. The Salcedo permit was dated August 26 and its effectivity was, according to the permit, “August 17 to September 17.”
“Since the said cultural properties were intercepted in the province of Sarangani, the permit issued by Mr. Salcedo is therefore cancelled. The National Museum will conduct immediately a study on the aforementioned cultural properties to establish if these cultural properties are contemporaneous with the Maitum anthropomorphic jars,” she said.
“The inquiry has yielded no bad faith in Mr. Salcedo`s action,” Alvina said.
Alvina said that henceforth, applications for permit to transport “shall be supported by a written endorsement from the pertinent local government unit, apart from an absolute deed of sale, should the object be purchased or a permit to explore or excavate from the National Museum , should the object be retrieved from an excavation site, terrestrial or underwater. This also empowers the pertinent local government unit in proactively protecting their heritage, hence be participatory in the mandate of National Museum in the protection and preservation of cultural heritage.”
Alvina also said that apart from the approval of the OIC/Chief of the Cultural Properties Division, of the permit to transport, “the Director 1V will finally notate said permit, to make it valid and functional.”
The five sacks Dizon had pointed out on September 11 as good materials for study were transported to the National Museum on September 16 by Maitum councilor Jessie Bascuna. Carolyn O. Arguillas
