Code of Kalantiaw

The Code of Kalantiaw was a mythical legal code in the epic story Maragtas. It said to be written in 1433 by Datu Kalantiaw, a chief on the island of Negros in the Philippines. It was written in 1913 by Jose E. Marco as a part of 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 Jose Maria Pavon.

In 1917, the historian Josue Soncuya wrote about the Code of Kalantiaw in his book Historia Prehispana de Filipinas (Prehispanic History of the Philippines) where he moved the location of the Code's origin from Negros to the Panay province of Aklan because he found out that it may be related to the Ati-atihan festival.

You shall not kill, neither shall you steal, neither shall you do harm to the aged, lest you incur the danger of death. All those who infringe this order shall be condemned to death by being drowned in the river, or in boiling water.

Note: Actually 3 laws - for killing, stealing & elder abuse. Beware. If you break this law you may "incur the danger of death" before you are actually killed.

Those who do not cause these rules to be obeyed: if they are headmen, they shall be put to death by being stoned and crushed; and if they are agorangs they shall be placed in rivers to be eaten by sharks and caymans.

The fingers shall be cut-off: of all those who break anitos of wood and clay in their alangans and temples; of those who destroy the daggers of the catalonans(priest/priestess), or break the drinking jars of the latter.