From the beginning of the 17th century to the end of the 19th, Zamboanga was the Spanish military base in the midst of Moslem territory, in the southern part of the Philippines. Being situated at the southern part of the country and having proved an unprofitable possession compared to the yield of the Spice Islands, the fort of Zamboanga was set up more for purposes of interdicting slaving raids and piratical attacks, which were common practice at the time. (Blair and Robertson 10:9)
When in 1636 Fort Pilar was built, it was garrisoned by three hundred Spandiards and one hundred 'Visayan' troops (de la Costa, 1961:325). However, with the withdrawal of the Spaniards from the Moluccas as mentioned earlier, the Zamboanga troops were likewise recalled to Manila for further security from threatened invasion of Koxinga.
It was not until 1718 that that abandoned fort was reestablished at the urging of the Jusuit missionaries. This time, the garrison was made up of Spanish officers and Mexican soldiers and reinforced by Tagalogs and Visayans. Such a common labor and work contact of people with no common language among them surely brought about the language situation of the people living within the garrison and facing one common enemy from the outside.
To date, no record has been found nor is there any tradition of native creole-speaking Márdikas who participiated in the resettlement of Zamboanga. Thus the Márdikas cannot be traced as responsible for a dialect of PCS in Southern Mindanao. Frake assumes that Zm represents an independent creolization of the same pidgin.
So far, the only reference found in historical materials written in Spanish with regard to what the people of Zamboanga spoke (mentioned by Frake, 1971; and by Forman, 1972) is a quotation from Montero y Vidal (1888: 37). "Los naturales de Zamboanga hablan todos, aunque imperfectamente español".
If MBS and SMC developed independently along parallel lines as data seem to point out, then the presence of similarities between the variants under study can be accounted for by one theory for another on the origin of pidgins and creoles.
One way of accounting for it is to say like Hall (In Todd, 1971: 31) that these language or dialects all derive from practically the same stock, that is from Spanish and from Philippine languages. On the other hand, it can also be accounted for by the possibility that there are universal patterns of linguistic behavior appropriate to contact situations (Todd 1971: 41).
Tr=Ternate Chabacano Cv=Cavite Chabacano Zm=Zamboanga Chabacano Ct=Cotabato Chabacano