Reaction Paper About Site of

the First Mass in the Philippines

The first Catholic mass in the Philippines happened on
March 31, 1521, just three days after Ferdinand Magellan
landed on Philippine shore. This event is seen to be the
birth of Roman Catholicism in the country.

The location of the mass was contentious. Originally it

was thought to be in the island of Limasawa, in Leyte, but
other historians argue that a mistranslation resulted to
that error, and that the place should be Butuan (the place
where the Golden Tara was also discovered).

That issue reached the Congress, which in 1996 directed

the National Historical Institute to recommend a
historical finding [1]. The panel was composed of several
historians, some of which became my professors in UP
Diliman Department of History. The panel and the NHI
reaffirmed in 1998 that the place is Limasawa, but the
controversy is still alive until today.
The painting above, First Mass at Limasawa, was painted
by National Artist Carlos “Botong” Francisco, in 1965 it is
now on display at the National Art Gallery of the National
Museum of the Philippines.
Analysis of Cry of Balintawak/
Pugad Lawin

The of the discovery of the Katipunan

spread throughout Manila and the suburbs ,
Bonifacio, informed of the discovery, secretly
instructed his runners to summon all the
leaders of the society to a general assembly to
be held on August 24. They were to meet at
Balintawak to discuss the steps to be taken to
meet the crisis. That same night of August 19,
Bonifacio , accompanied by his brother
Procopio, Emelio Jacinto, Teodoro Plata, and
Aguedo del Rosario, slipped through the cordon
of Spanish sentries and reached Balintawak
before midnight. Pio Valenzuela followed them
the next day. On the 21st, Bonifacio changed the
Katipunan code because the Spanished
authorities had already deciphered it. In the
afternoon of the same day, the rebels,
numbering about 500, left Balintawak for
Kangkong, where Apolonio Samson, a
Katipunero, gave them food and shelter. In the
afternoon of August 22,they proceeded to
Pugadlawin.
 Concept map of
retraction of Rizal

→ Calamba Laguna → Antipollution→ Manila

→Singapore → Colombo → Africa → Aden →
Suez → Europe → Barcelona → Madrid →Paris
→ Santo Thomas → Pakil → Spain → Germany
→ Berlin → Switzerland → Basel → Bern →
Lausanne → Madrid → Italy → Turin → Milan→
Rome→ Vatican → Hongkong → Macao →
Japan → United States → San Francisco →
London → Biarritz → Ghent → Dpitan → Cebu
→.