Ápung Moises, whose Philippine legal name was José Bautista, and who at 96 years old in 2008, was the oldest person we interviewed in the Kapampángan enclave of Mabatang in the town of Abucay in the province of Bataan. As the only resident dramatist, writer and playwright, he also became the resident local historian and storyteller, gathering the oral histories from the different families, including their folklore and traditions. He did his best to put all of this into his memory, weaving some of them into his writings, as well as passing these down as oral history.
According to Ápung Moises, the province of Bataan was once under the jurisdiction of Lubao and that they used to bring their litigation to Lubao. Those who make a living catching Krill called Alamang (cetes sibogae) trace their ancestry to the island of Bátang Matua in Sasmuan, to which they also sell their catch. The people of Sasmuan turned the Alamang into Baguk (salt fermented shrimp psste) and Éko (shrimp sauce).
Then and even now, it was faster to travel to Sasmuan and Wáwâ (Guagua) from Mabátang by boat than by land. Ápung Moises said that Mabátang was never isolated. They have regular contacts with the Kapampángan people in the nearby province of Pampanga. Those who can afford it even went to college in Guagua. Many even found wives in Pampanga or even go there to look for work.
The leading citizens of Mabátang like Ápung Moises himself, trace their roots to the Macabebe soldiers who garrisoned Abucay during the Spanish era. The Bautistas were originally from Macabébé and Masantol. Ápung Moises claim that Mabatang’s most exemplary citizen in Philippine History was none other than the first printer in the archipelago, Tomas Pinpin, who once had a monument near the local visitas.
Sadly, our hopes to find written specimens of the distinct Mabatang dialect, a relic area of the Kapampángan Language, were dashed when we discovered that the literary works of Ápung Moises were all in Tagalog!
Ápung Moises, despite being a native Kapampángan speaker, wrote all of his works in Tagalog rather than Kapampángan. Ápung Moises claimed that writing in Kapampángan is difficult and reserved exclusively for the Catholic Church and the Kapampángan upper class. He said that despite his respected status within the community, he does not belong to the upper class. Ápung Moises said that Tagalog was easier to write and does not require formal training in spelling and grammar.