The animate object is generally marked with con. When the animate object is not human, there is variation in the use of con. Mardikas were local Christians from the island of Ternate in the Moluccas who accompanied the Spanish to Manila in the seventeenth century and later founded the village of Ternate. The etymological meaning of the name is “free people” (Blair & Robertson 1909 vol. 36: 237, de la Concepción 1788–1792: 102–103).