BUTAUAN OR LIMAZAWA?

• Butuan or Limasawa


  Blair and Roberston “The Philippine Islands” from 1903 to 1909”

  • Butuan had been known as the home of the first Catholic Mass in our country. In fact, in 1872 there erected a monument near the Agusan River which celebrates Magellan‟s arrival and first Catholic Mass in the country on April 8, 1521
• Butuan or Limasawa

  • Mazaua led them to the coordinate near Leyte and Panaon while Butuan is situated in Mindanao
  • Pigafetta clearly stated that the mass was held at “Mazaua”
  • The little island south of Leyte called Limasawa
  • “Butuan tradition” depended on oral traditions and chronicles, with the absence of primary documents about Magellan‟s voyage
• Butuan or Limasawa

  In 1906, James Alexander Robertson provided an English translation in which the second group of historians relied “heavily and almost exclusively on.”

  The origin of Limasawa‟s claim

  “It (Mazaua) is now called the island of Limasawa, and has an area of about 10 and 1/2 square miles.”

  “Arbitrarily and without explanation” identified Mazaua with the island of Limasawa.
• The Butuan Tradition

  • Celedonio Resurrecion‟s findings as reflected on his work: “The Rules of Evidence to the True Identity of Pigafetta‟s Mazaua,” published in 1990.
  • He pointed that scholars like Schumacher, Bernad, and Scott were “uncritical historians” who tried to discredit the “Butuan historiographic tradition” with Robertson‟s translation as the standpoint.
  • “Where was Mazaua?” In doing so, he applied the rules of evidenced emanating in the Rules of Court of the Philippines.
• HIS INDIRECT PIECES OF EVIDENCE

  • Strong oral tradition, called as the Oral Mazaua (Masao) Tradition, which tells that Magellan went in the Islet of Masao, a delta located at the mouth of the Agusan River.
  • Gold was abundant in Mazaua and Butuan
  • The Map of Mindanao, as presented in Volume 33 of Blair and Robertson‟s, exhibits the regions of Beaniam, Calagan, Butuan, Maguindanao, and Chipp. Mazaua was not indicated.
  • The abundance of anime trees in Mazaua, Butuan.
  • The abundance of sago palm in Mazaua, Butuan, which is endemic in Mindanao
• The Claim of Limasawa

  Miguel Bernad‟s article in 1981 entitled “Butuan or Limasawa? The Site of the First Mass in the Philippines: A Reexamination of Evidence.”
• SEVERAL PIECES OF EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT LIMASAWA‟S CLAIM

  • According to Albo, their expedition entered south of the Samar Island and dropped their anchor at Homonhon where they stayed for seven days.
• SEVERAL PIECES OF EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT LIMASAWA‟S CLAIM

  • The Legazpi Expedition of in 1565 was added as “confirmatory evidence.” Accordingly, they were anxious to visit Mazaua, and so they asked for directions from the natives Cabalian. They anchored off Mazaua. But, the natives were hostile so they went to Camiguing, still visible from Mazaua.
• SEVERAL PIECES OF EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT LIMASAWA‟S CLAIM

  • Bernad evaluated that: “As pilots of the Legazpi expedition understood it, Mazaua was an island near Leyte and Panaon; Butuan was on the island of Mindanao. The two were entirely different places and in no wise identical.”
  • The geographical situation of Limasawa Island fits Pigafetta‟s description: the island‟s tadpole shape running from north to south. Magellan‟s ships would find themselves to Limasawa if they sail west or southwest.
• SEVERAL PIECES OF EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT LIMASAWA‟S CLAIM

  • Albo‟s account, in his logbook, as a pilot or “contra-maestre” in one of Magellan‟s flagship, Trinidad. Based on his careful analysis of Albo and Pigafetta‟s accounts, Bernad arrived.
• THE VERDICT: LIMASAWA OR BUTUAN?

  • On August 19, 2020 after decades-long debate, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines sustained its findings that Limasawa in Southern Leyte is the home of the first Catholic Mass in the country dated way back March 31, 1521.
  • “The Final Report of the Mojares Panel on the Butuan-Limasawa Controversy on the Location of the 1521 First Easter Sunday Mass in the Philippines”