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<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-15/datu-silonga-sm.webp" alt="Rajah Silonga" loading="lazy" />
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(An artist imaginative depiction of Datus)
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Silonga traced his lineage to a pre-Islamic ancestor, Mamu, the first datu of Buayan. Mamu's grandson by Budtul, Pulwa, married Putri Mamur, a daughter of Sarip Kabungsuwan (he introduced Islam in Mindanao). Thus, he became the first Moslem datu of Buayan. Silonga was begotten from this marriage and declared his superiority by assuming the Hindu title rajah, becoming the first rajah of Buayan.


The powerful people of Buayan, at the time of the arrival of Kabungsuwan, controlled the upper Pulangi territory, exerting strong influence northwards to the watershed of the Cagayan River and eastwards as far as Mount Apo.


The rule of this expanse must have been handed down to Silonga with his seat of government at Buayan near the present town of Dulawan in Cotabato.


During his reign, Silonga was the most powerful chief of the Pulangis and also the head of the Magindanao confederacy composed of Buayan, Maguindanao and Tamontaka. The Spanish governor general, Pedro Bravo de Acuña, perceiving Silonga's leadership and superiority in the Magindanao world over the other chieftains, especially in military affairs, entered into a peace treaty with him. He was the first Magindanao ruler to deal with the Spaniards.


Silonga could muster a great fighting force. With Buisan, the admiral of the Magindanao fleet and a subordinate of Silonga for many years, he gathered "great fleets" of caracoas (rowing barges) and jungas, sometimes numbering over 100 and even 150 vessels and armed them with "several large guns, many culverins, a large number of arquebuses and muskets and many other arms; and manning them so heavily, that they could land six to eight thousand soldiers."

In 1596, a large force under the command of Captain Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroas was sent, under contract, to colonize Magindanao. It was the first serious effort of the Spaniards to conquer it. At Buayan, he was struck fatally on the head with a campilan by a brother of Silonga named Ubal.



When the Spaniards succeeded in establishing a fort in Tampakan between the Magindanao and Buayan settlements, Silonga and other Buayans sent a chieftain to Ternate for help to dislodge the Spaniards. In spite of the Buayan-Ternate alliance, the Spaniards gained victory, but problems of logistics forced them to withdraw to La Caldera at the southern tip of the Zamboanga peninsula.



In 1599, two years after the withdrawal of the Spanish contingent from La Caldera, Silonga and Sali, the "pilots of the Mindanao River," with 50 vessels and 3,000 warriors attacked the coastal towns of Panay, Negros and Cebu carrying back with them about 800 Visayan captives. This attack started the period of Moslem raids on the Visayas which was interpreted as the Moslem offensive against the Spanish presence in the Philippines. In 1602, Silonga and Rajah Muda raided Calamianes and gathered about 700 captives.



The next year, Magindanao prince Buisan attacked Leyte and captured the Jesuit Melchor Hurtado. This priest was brought to Silonga in his Buayan court where at that time were gathered the datus of the Pulangi, the ambassadors from the Sultan of Brunei and the young heir of the Rajah of Sulu. Silonga retained Hurtado for a year in Buayan and treated him with utmost cordiality. He provided him and the other Spanish captives their own separate lodging and slaves for their service. He sent them food from his own table, but since he ate no pork and drank no wine, according to Moslem custom, he arranged that they should be provided with these things.



Silonga, who was steeped in Islamic law and was curious about Christianity, often sent for the Jesuit for discussions about religious matters. Although some Visayan Christians had become Moslem in his territory, he did not force them to do so. Before Hurtado's release in 1604, Silonga presented him with a complete new suit of clothes.

The story of Datu Silonga, the first Rajah of Buayan