Mentrida records the  Visayan term for “fierro” or iron as PUTHAO or its variant spelling POTHAO. He specifies that this is “fierro por labran” or iron for working.  Some  scholars have pointed out the Chinese origin of this native term. Mentrida also includes the use of the term for “soil with iron content” as in “puthaonon na duta.” Other uses of the word in Mentrida’s lexicon seem more metaphorical –  for example that of a  person with iron content (puthaonon nga tao). Aside from Puthao, there are various terms recorded for bladed weapons that would have had some iron content. CAMPILAN for example is  recorded as a term already in use in the Visayas from the time Mentrida assembled  the lexicon. ( ca 1628)

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In this video, Marian Pastor Roces looks at early  archival records that point to the manufacture and use of iron in 17th century Visayas. 

Marian Pastor Roces is an independent curator and critic working from her base in Manila, Philippines, from where she takes up global art and culture circuits as a critic of institutions. Published internationally — notably, her critique of the global biennales, published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (2000) and by Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2006)— she enjoys an engaged global readership. In 1995, Pastor Roces founded TAO INC, the Philippines’ pioneering and only museum and exhibition development corporation. TAO INC curated the establishment of many of the Philippines’ significant museums over the past two decades, including the Yuchengco Museum, Museo Marino to the Filipino seafarer, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) of the College of St. Benilde.