written by Bob Burgee

On July 6, 2008 the eldest member of the Sayoc tribe was honored with the title Manong. This was a beautiful event and was witnessed by his wife Kamilah and the rest of the Sayoc extended family. The warriors danced around the fire as they meditated, gave thanks, and tuned in to something larger than themselves. As Pamana Tuhon says “Honoring our elders is one of our primary protocols”. Manong Muhammad was honored on this night and was gracious as always. We honor you Manong Muhammad for your many years of support for Sayoc, the community, and the students. Thank you for being one of our honored elders.

(Pamana Tuhon) “Tonight, Sayaw 2008, we pay our respects to the dead. We pay our respects to the living. We pay our respects to our elders. This year we will call our first elder with the title of Manong. That elder will be Guro Muhammad. Guro Muhammad is our most senior member, and just with that power, his time, his skills, his wisdom, and his experience, we are proclaiming him Manong Muhammad. That will be his new title. Manong meaning Revered Elder of the Sayoc tribe. Welcome Manong Muhammad!”

(Manong Muhammad) “I want to thank Tuhon for this high honor. At this stage in my life I don’t think that there could be any higher honor than the one that has just been bestowed upon me. Along with that, there is no higher honor than to have it presented to me among my friends, my students, and my scholars. With that I want to say thank you and in rememberance of those who came before me, before all of us, who passed these legends down to us. In my particular case, the great Grandmaster Remy Presas was my first instructor, my beloved instructor. I loved him like family, I cried tears at his memorial, I think of him often, and I hope that he continues to look down upon me with a smile from the heavens. Someday maybe my grandchildren and maybe some of your grandchildren will do the same for me. Thank you sir.”

(Pamana Tuhon) “With that title of Manong, Mrs. Muhammad is now called Manang Muhammad”.

(Manang Muhammad) “Thank you for this honor. I’m surprised, I’m shocked, I don’t even know what it means, but I’m glad to be a part of this family and this organization and I know that we will do our best to keep in good faith with everybody and everything that is going on.”

Mabuhay!

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from Wikipedia

Manong (Mah-nung) is a Filipino term principally given to the first-born male in a Filipino nuclear family. However, it can also be used to title an older brother, older male cousin, or older male relative in an extended family. The feminine “manang” is a term given to an older sister. It is a term of respect, similar but secondary to Dad or Mom, but not comparable to Mister or Ma’am, which expresses no elevated affection. A hierarchal marker, it is used to refer to any male who is older than the speaker within his or her family but it could also be used for men outside the family to convey respect.

Additionally, the male partner of an older sibling may be referred to as a manong irrespective of the speaker’s age relative to the partner (i.e., a male younger than the speaker may be called manong by virtue of status and not by age difference) although this is not always necessary.

In traditional Filipino families, the manong acts as a third “parent” in the nuclear family and as one of the leaders in the extended family.

Manong/manang is arguably the derivative of the Spanish word for brother/sister – “hermano” and “hermana”. The addition of “ng” and loss of “her” could have been for a variety of reasons such as regional slang.

The Tagalog equivalents are the masculine kuya (koo-yah) and the feminine ate (ah-teh).

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