<P> The first, and most widely known theory of the prehistoric peopling of the Philippines is that of H. Otley Beyer, founder of the Anthropology Department of the University of the Philippines . According to Dr. Beyer, the ancestors of the Filipinos came to the islands first via land bridges which would occur during times when the sea level was low, and then later in seagoing vessels such as the balangay . Thus he differentiated these ancestors as arriving in different "waves of migration", as follows: </P> <Dl> <Dd> <Ol> <Li> "Dawn Man", a cave - man type who was similar to Java man, Peking Man, and other Asian homo erectus of 250,000 years ago . </Li> <Li> The aboriginal pygmy group, the Negritos, who arrived between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago . </Li> <Li> The seafaring tool - using Indonesian group who arrived about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago and were the first immigrants to reach the Philippines by sea . </Li> <Li> The seafaring, more civilized Malays who brought the Iron age culture and were the real colonizers and dominant cultural group in the pre-Hispanic Philippines . </Li> </Ol> </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> <Ol> <Li> "Dawn Man", a cave - man type who was similar to Java man, Peking Man, and other Asian homo erectus of 250,000 years ago . </Li> <Li> The aboriginal pygmy group, the Negritos, who arrived between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago . </Li> <Li> The seafaring tool - using Indonesian group who arrived about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago and were the first immigrants to reach the Philippines by sea . </Li> <Li> The seafaring, more civilized Malays who brought the Iron age culture and were the real colonizers and dominant cultural group in the pre-Hispanic Philippines . </Li> </Ol> </Dd> <Ol> <Li> "Dawn Man", a cave - man type who was similar to Java man, Peking Man, and other Asian homo erectus of 250,000 years ago . </Li> <Li> The aboriginal pygmy group, the Negritos, who arrived between 25,000 and 30,000 years ago . </Li> <Li> The seafaring tool - using Indonesian group who arrived about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago and were the first immigrants to reach the Philippines by sea . </Li> <Li> The seafaring, more civilized Malays who brought the Iron age culture and were the real colonizers and dominant cultural group in the pre-Hispanic Philippines . </Li> </Ol>

They were the third group of migrants to the philippines