<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> <P> Beyer's theory, while still popular among lay Filipinos, has been generally been disputed by anthropologists and historians . Reasons for doubting it are founded on Beyer's use of 19th century scientific methods of progressive evolution and migratory diffusion as the basis for his hypothesis . These methods have since been proven to be too simple and unreliable to explain the prehistoric peopling of the Philippines . </P>

Present various theories concerning the peopling of the philippines in early times