Kalantiaw

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Datu Kalantiaw (Rajah Bendahara Kalantiaw) (sometimes spelled Kalantiao) is a mythical Filipino character of the Maragtas Legend written in 1913 by Jose E. Marco in his historical fiction, Las antiguas leyendes de la isla de Negros (The Ancient Legends of the Island of Negros), which he attributed to a priest named José María Pavón. Kalantiaw was said to be a chief on the island of Negros who, in 1433, created the first legal code in the Philippines, known as the Code of Kalantiaw.

In 1917, the historian Josué Soncuya wrote about Kalantiaw in his book Historia prehispana de Filipinas (Prehispanic History of the Philippines) where he moved the location of the story from Negros to the Panay province of Aklan because he found out that it might be connected with the Binirayan festival .

Other authors throughout the 20th century, and up to the present day, further recognized the Kalantiaw story, but in 1968 the historian William Henry Scott called this a "hoax" in his book Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History.

Kalantiaw is no longer a part of the standard history texts in the Philippines, but the story is still believed by people in the central provinces. Although it might be based on actual facts.