Short answers, pulled from the story.
Tubâ is a traditional Filipino palm wine made from the naturally fermented sap of various palm species. Collectors tap the growing tip of the palm tree twice daily, gathering the sap in bamboo canes, and allow it to ferment naturally.
Tubâ was first recorded in European records by Antonio Pigafetta of the Magellan expedition around 1521. He called it uraca and mistakenly believed it was distilled rather than fermented.
From around 1569, Filipino immigrants introduced tubâ and Filipino-style distillation stills to Nueva Galicia, the region now covering Colima, Jalisco, and Nayarit. After colonial authorities banned vino de coco production, indigenous peoples adopted the Filipino stills to distill other drinks, leading to the development of mezcal and tequila.
In 1619, Captain Sebastian de Piñeda warned King Philip III that Filipino settlers were producing palm spirits strong enough to undercut Spanish wine imports. Colonial authorities and the Royal Audience in Spain banned production and ordered coconut plantations destroyed to protect Spanish commercial interests. By the mid-1700s, vino de coco production in Mexico had ceased.
Filipino immigrant workers arrived in the Torres Strait Islands in the mid-19th century to work in the pearling industry as divers and overseers. By 1884, the Filipino community numbered around 500 across Horn Island, Thursday Island, and Hammond Island, and they transmitted tubâ production to the native Torres Strait Islanders.
Tagayan is a social drinking custom in which one person, called the tanggero, fills a single shared cup with a serving of drink called a tagay and passes it around a group one person at a time. The ritual was recorded as early as 1630 in the Bocabulario Tagalog by Fray Miguel Ruiz and remains largely unchanged today.