Palasig by Francisco Coching

"Palasig" A sultan, on a pleasure trip, came to Manila where he meets a pretty girl whom he falls in love. They become engaged and they are making preparation for marriage when the Sultan is called by an urgent business to sail abroad. The girl who is left behind, thinking that he would not come back and fearing that she would be the object of sneers in the social group to which she belongs, marries another before the child she carries in her womb would begin to show. After a time, however, the Sultan comes back, makes discreet inquiries and finds out what happened to his former sweetheart. Believing that the child is really his, he orders his aide, Dampilan, to kidnap the child which Dampilan does while the parents are away from home. The Sultan comes back to his sultanate, but keeps the presence of the child a secret to his people, until one day he decides tolet them know about it. The revelation is not welcome by his people, especially by Datu Balawis, his brother, who is now deprived of his succession right to the Sultanate by virtue of the presence of the child-heir who is named Palasig (Cesar Ramirez). Balawis plots to kill Palasig, but the child is ably defended by Dampilan, a loyal follower of the Sultan. But in one of his attempts to overthrow the Sultan, the latter is killed. Through the intervention of Dampilan, however, the child assumes the throne of his father.