Juramentado is a Spanish term for "someone who has taken the oath." During the Spanish Period, it became popular as a derogatory term for Muslim warriors in Mindanao who made a vow to fight to death.
From the point of view of the Spaniards, the juramentados were fanatics used by their religious leaders to terrorize non-Muslims and foreigners. The usual description by Europeans gave the impression that the juramentados were maladjusted and descriptive individuals, who could not pay off their debts and thus swore to kill as many Christians as possible, or who turned fanatic to atone for their crimes.
Some accounts, however, point to their heroism in the Filipino fight for freedom. For example, in Datu Uto's campaign against the Spanish conquest, the juramentados were military assets. In 1874, forty of them fell upon the Spanish force that invaded Bakat. Another juramentado defended the mausoleum of the Nauyan ruling family when the Spaniards tried to raze it in 1886. Another group attacked Cotabato and Tamontaka, burning barracks and Jesuit houses.
A juramentado must first undergo rigorous training under a pandita or religious leader. He begins with fasting, prayers, courses in the forest, and then listens to the lengthy sermons on the joys of Paradise after death in the name of Allah. As one historian said, the juramentados' "movements toward their sure death were movements in the direction of Paradise; the more Christians they killed, the closer they came to fulfillment."