ELABORATE

Table 2. Arguments in favor of Butuan as the Site of the First Philippine Mass

1. Nowhere in Pigafetta and Albo‘s accounts was there any mention of the word “Limasawa,”
Amalla pointed out. “Instead,” he said, “what the primary sources recorded was that the first Mass
was held in a place called Mazaua. The exact words were ’e se chiama Mazaua‘ (and is called
Mazaua).”
2. Using an interdisciplinary approach in his historical investigation, Amalla said,―Alone among
the different Philippine languages, only Butuanon and its derivative language, Tausug, has the
word masawa, which means bright light.”It was the island‘s bright light the night before that
prompted Magellan to land in Mazaua.”
3. The Asean experts concluded that the graben or fissure indicated that there were islands that
existed many years ago in the said location and they have clumped up and have fused themselves
beside the Mindanao mainland due tosiltation, erosion and seismic action. When the graben was
filled up and the islands in the area have fused together, nobody had documented them and no
naked eye of today can see the islands at the mouth of where the Agusan River flows today.
4. Pigafetta wrote that two kings attended the Mass: “His island was called Butuan and Calaghan.
And that island is called Mazaua… Of these kings, the aforesaid painted one is named Raia
Colambu and the other Raia Siaui. “They areButuanon brother-kings,” Amalla claimed.
5. Greg Hontiveros, contended that the Masao estuary in today‘s Butuan “was once the site of the
ancient trading harbor and well-respected kingdom of Butuan.” In its embankments were found
the balanghai, the largest, oldest and sturdiest seafaring vessels in Southeast Asia·
6. Fr. Amalla read almost all manuscripts of Antonio Pigafetta and Fransisco Albo's accounts and
stated that he had not seen any word Limasawa. However, the primary sources have shown that
the first mass happened in Mazaua, not Limasawa.
7. In line with Amalla, only Butuan and its ancestral language, Tausug, among the Philippines'
various languages, has the word masawa, which implies bright light. It was the island's bright
light the night before that prompted Magellan to land in Mazaua.In the northern shores of today's
Butuan is a barangay called Masao.
8. After Amalla saw and investigated the original copy of the Anales Ecclesiasticus de Philipinas
1574-1683, he claimed that the said document stated that the Chaplain of Magellan in Butuan is
where the Easter Sunday Mass in 1521 celebrated.
9. “But the data in the firsthand sources negate this,” said Amalla. “The distances and time and
directions travelled by Magellan do not point to Limasawa at all. Besides, Limasawa has a rocky
shoreline which cannot be a natural harbor as mentioned in the journals. And it is too small and
rough to have rice fields which would take two days to harvest. And it has no gold mines, no
kingdoms, no oral tradition documenting such an encounter - unlike in Butuan.”