Ethnic Groups

Ethnic groups in the Philippines

1. The Aeta or Agta, are an indigenous people who live in scattered, isolated mountainous parts of Luzon,Philippines. They are considered to be Negritos, who are dark to very dark brown-skinned and tend to have features such as a small stature, small frame, curly to kinky afro-like textured hair with a higher frequency of naturally lighter hair color (blondism) relative to the general population, small nose, and dark brown eyes. They are thought to be among the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines, preceding the Austronesian migrations.

2. Igorot is the collective name of several Austronesian ethnic groups in The Philippines from the Cordillera Administrative Region of Luzon. They inhabit the six province of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Kalinga, Ifugao, and Mountain Province, as well as Baguio City.

3. The Ivatans are a Filipino ethnolinguistic group predominant in the Batanes Islands of the Philippines. The origins of the Ivatans remained untraced among scholars, although evidences suggest that they are Christians who lived in the islands between northern Luzon and Taiwan. Ivatans were free before they were colonized by the Spaniards.

4. The Ibanags are an ethnolinguistic minority numbering a little more than half a million people, who inhabit the provinces ofCagayan, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya. They are one of the largest ethnolinguistic minorities in the Philippines. Ibanags speak the same language under the same name. However, due to the Philippine government's attempts at displacing minority languages and imposing Filipino as a lingua franca, the use of Ibanag language has now diminished but remain strong with Ibanags living overseas. Thus while there may still be Ibanags around, the language is slowly being displaced. In addition to this, many if not most Ibanags speak Ilocano, which has over the years, supplanted Ibanag as the more dominant language in the region.

5. The term Bangsamoro refers to a people who are natives of the Sulu archipelago, parts of Mindanao, and parts of Palawan in the Philippines, and parts of Sabah in neighboring Malaysia at the time of conquest or colonization. It comes from the Malay word bangsa, meaning nation or people, and the Spanish word moro, from the Spanish word for Moor, the Reconquista-period term used for Muslims.

6. The Bajau are an indigenous ethnic group ofMaritime Southeast Asia. Bajau continue to live a seaborne lifestyle, making use of small wooden sailing vessels (such as the perahu and vinta). They are also known as Sama or Samal.

7. Yakan refers to the majority Muslim group in Basilan, an island just south of Zamboanga province in Mindanao. The Spaniards called them Sameacas and considered them an aloof and sometimes hostile hill people (Wulff 1978:149; Haylaya 1980:13).

8. The Sambal are a Filipino ethnolinguistic group living primarily in the province ofZambales and the Pangasinense municipalities of Bolinao and Anda. The term may also refer to the general inhabitants of Zambales.