UNANG

MISA SA
PILIPINAS
(DEBATE)

MEMBERS:

 Manahan, Ritchelle Lou L.

 De Luna, Bianca C.
 Mendoza, Francis L.
 Mari, Horeb Enrik C.
 Asi, Janeth G.
 Sacdalan, Jens France L.
 Tobias, Jimar M.
 Basol, John Kenneth A.
 Garcia, Rovie B.
 Megellan Reach the Philippines

On March 16, 1521, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan,

attempting to sail around the world for Spain, reached the
Philippine archipelago. Magellan and his expedition were the
first Europeans to reach the Philippines, a stop on the first
circumnavigation of the globe, though Magellan’s portion of that
journey would soon end.

As the ships continued sailing west, supplies dwindled,

the crew was forced to eat leather and drink a mixture of salt
and freshwater, and men began dying of scurvy. Fortified by
provisions secured at island stops along the way, the ships
reached the Philippines in March 1521. Magellan spent more than
a month in the area, trading with local leaders and trying to
convert them to Christianity. He grew angry at one chief who
refused to cooperate, however, and ordered an attack on his
village. Wounded in the fighting, Magellan bravely held his
ground while the rest of his men escaped back to the ship, but
then received more wounds and died on the beach.

 Introduction of Christianity in the Philippines

In 1500, almost nothing was known of the Philippines, and

so our sources of information about pre-Hispanic societies in
the country date from the early period of Spanish contact. Most
Philippine communities, with the exception of the Muslim
sultanates in the Sulu archipelago and Mindanao, were fairly
small without a great deal of centralized authority. Authority
was wielded by a variety of individuals, including 1) headmen,
or datu; 2) warriors of great military prowess; and 3)
individuals who possessed spiritual power or magical healing
abilities.

The absence of centralized power meant that a small number

of Spaniards were able to convert a large number of Filipinos
living in politically autonomous units more easily than they
could have, say, converted people living in large, organized,
complex kingdoms such as those Hinduized or (later) Theravada
Buddhist-influenced kingdoms in mainland Southeast Asia and on
the island of Java in Indonesia. The Spanish were unsuccessful
in converting Muslim Sultanates to Christianity, and in fact
warred with Muslim Filipinos throughout their 300 year colonial
rule from 1521 - 1898. Nor did they successfully conquer certain
highland areas, such the Luzon highlands, where a diverse array
of ethno-linguistic groups used their remote, difficult
mountainous terrain to successfully avoid colonization.
 Magellan's arrival in Cebu represents the first attempt by
Spain to convert Filipinos to Roman Catholicism. The story goes
that Magellan met with Chief Humabon of the island of Cebu, who
had an ill grandson. Magellan (or one of his men) was able to
cure or help this young boy, and in gratitude Chief Humabon
allowed 800 of his followers to be 'baptized' Christian in a
mass baptism. Later, Chief Lapu Lapu of Mactan Island killed
Magellan and routed the ill-fated Spanish expedition. This
resistance to Western intrusion makes this story an important
part of the nationalist history of the Philippines. Many
historians have claimed that the Philippines peacefully
'accepted' Spanish rule; the reality is that many insurgencies
and rebellions continued on small scales in different places
through the Hispanic colonial period.

After Magellan, the Spanish later sent the explorer Legaspi

to the Philippines, and he conquered a Muslim Filipino
settlement in Manila in 1570. Islam had been present in the
southern Philippines since sometime between the 10th and 12th
century. It slowly spread north throughout the archipelago,
particularly in coastal areas. Had it not been for Spanish
intervention, the Philippines would likely have been a mostly
Muslim area.

 REPUBLIC ACT NO. 2733

AN ACT TO DECLARE THE SITE IN MAGALLANES, LIMASAWA ISLAND
IN THE PROVINCE OF LEYTE, WHERE THE FIRST MASS IN THE PHILIPPINES
WAS HELD AS A NATIONAL SHRINE, TO PROVIDE FOR THE PRESERVATION
OF HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND LANDMARKS THEREAT, AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES
Section 1. The site in Magallanes, Limasawa Island in the
Province of Leyte, where the first Mass in the Philippines was
held is hereby declared a national shrine to commemorate the
birth of Christianity in the Philippines.
Section 2. All historical monuments and landmarks in said site
shall be preserved and/or reconstructed whenever necessary as
much as possible in their original form and are hereby declared
national historical monuments and landmarks.
Section 3. The National Planning Commission shall exercise
supervision and control over the reconstruction and/or
preservation of the aforesaid site and monuments, and shall
issue rules and regulations to effectuate the preceding sections
of this Act.
Section 4. Necessary funds for the purposes of this Act shall
be provided for in the annual appropriations for public works
and disbursements shall be made by the National Planning
Commission under such rules and regulations as the Auditor
General may prescribe.
Section 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
Enacted, without Executive Approval, June 19, 1960.

 Log-Book of Francisco Alvo

On the 16th (March) we saw land, and went towards it to
the N.W., and we saw that the land trended north, and that
there were many shoals near it, and we took another tack to
the south, and we fell in with another small island, and there
we anchored: and this was the same day, and this island is
called Suluano, and the first one is named Yunuguan; and here
we saw some canoes, and we went to them, and they fled; and
this island is in 9⅔°N. latitude and in 189° longitude from
the meridian. To these first islands, from the archipelago of
St. Lazarus.
Ytem. From the Strait of All Saints and Cape Fermoso to
these two islands, there will be 106° 30' longitude, which
strait is with these islands in a straight course W.N.W. and
E.S.E., which brings you straight to them. From here we went
on our course.
Leaving these islands, we sailed W., and fell in with the
island of Gada, which is uninhabited, and there we provided
ourselves with water and wood. This island is very free from
shoals.
From here we departed and sailed W., and fell in with a
large island called Seilani, which is inhabited, and contains
gold; we coasted it, and went to W.S.W., to a small inhabited
island called Mazaba. The people are very good, and there we
placed a cross upon a mountain; and from thence they showed
us three islands in the W.S.W. direction, and they say there
is much gold there, and they showed us how they gather it,
and they found small pieces like beans and like lentils; and
this island is in 9⅓° N. latitude.
We departed from Mazaba and went N., making for the island
of Seilani, and afterwards coasted the said island to the
N.W. as far as 10°, and there we saw three islets; and we
went to the W., a matter of 10 leagues, and then we fell in
with two islets, and at night we stopped; and on the morrow
we went S.W, and ¼S., a matter of 12 leagues, as far as lO⅓°,
and there we entered a channel between two islands, one called
Matan, and the other Subo; and Subo, with the isle of Mazaba
and Suluan, are E.W. ¼ N.W.S.E.; and between Subo and Seilani
we saw a very high land to the north, which is called Baibai,
and they say that there is in it much gold and provisions,
and much extent of land, that the end of it is not known.
 From Mazaba and Seilani and Subo, by the course which we
came, towards the south part, take care; for there are many
shoals, and they are very bad; for this a canoe would not
stop which met us in this course.
From the mouth of the channel of Subo and Matan we went
west in mid-channel, and met with the town of Subu, at which
we anchored, and made peace, and there they gave us rice and
millet and flesh; and we remained there many days; and the
king and the queen, with many people, became Christians of
their free will.
We sailed from Subu, and went S.W. till 9¾° between the
head of Subu and an island called Bohol; and on the W. side
of the head of Subu there is another, which is named
Panilongo, and it belongs to black men; and this island and
Subu contain much gold and much ginger, and it is in 9⅓°, and
Subu in 10⅓°; and so we came out of the channel, and came ten
leagues to the S., and anchored off the island of Bohol, and
there of the three ships we made two, and burned the other,
not having crews enough; and this island is in 9½°.
We sailed from Bohol to Quipit to the S.W., and came to
anchor at the same anchorage to the right of a river; and in
the offing to the N.W. part there are two islets, which are
in 8½°, and there we could not get provisions, for there were
none, but we made peace with them; and this island of Quipit
has much gold, ginger, and cinnamon, and so we decided on
going to seek provisions; and from this head of Quipit to the
first islands there will be a course of 112 leagues; it lies
with them E.W.¼N.E. S.W., and this island lies due East and
West.
From thence we sailed and went to W.S.W., and to S.W. and
W., until we fell in with an island in which there were very
few people, and it was named Cuagayan; and here we anchored
on the N. side of it, and we asked where the island of Poluan
was, to get provisions of rice, for there is much of it in
that island, and they load many ships for other parts; and so
they showed us where it was, and so we went to the W.N.W.,
and fell in with the head of the island of Poluan. Then we
went to N.¼N.E., coasting along it until the town Saocao, and
there we made peace, and they were Moors; and we went to
another town, which is of Cafres; and there we bought much
rice, and so we provisioned ourselves very well; and this
coast runs N.E.S.W., and the cape of the N.E. part is in 9⅓°,
and the part of S.W. is in 8⅓°; and so we returned to S.W. as
far as the head of this island, and there we found an island,
and near it there is a shoal, and in this course, and along
Poluan, there are many shoals, and this head lies E.W. with
Quipit, and N.W.S.E.¼E.W. with Cuagayan.
From Poluan we sailed for Borney, and we coasted the above-
named island, and went to its S.W. head, and near there found
an island which has a shoal on the E.; and in 7½° we had to
change the course to W., until running 15 leagues; after that
we ran S.W., coasting the island of Bornei until the city
itself; and you must know that it is necessary to go close to
land, because outside there are many shoals, and it is
necessary to go with the sounding lead in your hand, because
it is a very vile coast, and Bornei is a large city, and has
a very large bay, and inside it and without it there are many
shoals; it is, therefore, necessary to have a pilot of the
country. So we remained here several days, and began to trade,
and we made good agreements of peace; and after that they
armed many canoes to take us, which were 260 in number, and
they were coming to us, and as we saw them we sailed in great
haste, and we went outside and we saw some junks coming, and
we went to them, and we captured one, in which was a son of
the King of Luzon, which is a very large island, and also the
captain let him go without the counsel of anyone.
Borney is a large island, and there is also in it cinnamon,
mirabolams, and camphor, which is worth much in these
countries; and they say that when they die they embalm
themselves with it. Borney is in 5° 25' latitude—that is, the
port itself—and 201° 5' of longitude from the line of
demarcation, and from here we sailed and returned by the same
road; and this port of Borney lies E.N.E. W.S.W. with the
isle of Mazaba, and in this course there are many islands;
and from the cape at the N.E. of Bornei to Quipit is E.W.¼N.E.
S.W.
We sailed from Borney, and returned by the same course
which we had come, and so we passed between the head of the
isle of Bornei and Poluan; and we went to the W. to fall in
with the isle of Cuagayan; and so we went by the same course
to make for the island of Quipit on the S. side, and in this
course, between Quipit and Cuagayan, we saw to the S. an
island which they call Solo, in which there are many pearls,
very large—they say that the king of this island has a pearl
like an egg. This island is in 6° latitude; and so, going on
this course, we fell in with three small islands; and further
on we met with an island named Tagima, and they say there are
many pearls there; and this island lies with Solo N.E.
S.W.¼E.W., and Tagima is in 6⅚°. It is opposite the Cape of
Quipit, and the said cape is in 7¼°, and lies with Paluan
E.S.E. W.N.W.
From here we coasted the island of Quipit on the south
side, and we went to E.¼S.E. as far as some islets; and along
the coast there are many villages, and there is much good
cinnamon in this island, and we bought some of it; and there
is much ginger on this coast; and so we went to E.N.E., until
we saw a gulf; then we went to S.E. until we saw a large
island, and thence to the cape at the east of the island of
 Quipit, and at the cape of this island there is a very large
village, which collects much gold from a very large river,
and this cape is 191½° of the meridian.
We sailed from Quipit to go to Maluco, and went to S.E.,
sighting an island called Sibuco; after that we went to
S.S.E., and saw another island, called Virano Batolague; and
we went by the same course as far as the cape of this island,
and after that we saw another, which they call Candicar; and
we went to the E. between the two, until we went ahead of it;
and there we entered a channel between Candicar and another,
which they call Sarangani; and at this island we anchored and
took a pilot for Maluco; and these two islands are in 4⅔°,
and the cape of Quipit in 7¼°, and the Cape of Sibuco, on the
south side, is in 6°, and the Cape of Viranu Batologue in 5°,
and from the Cape of Quipit and Candicar the run is from
N.N.W. to S.S.E., without touching any cape.
We sailed from Sarangani, and went S.¼S.E., until we came
opposite an island called Sanguin, and between the two are
many islets, and they are on the West side, and this island
is in 3⅔°. From Sangui we went S.¼S.E. to an island called
Sian; between them there are many islets, and this island is
in just 3°. From Sian we went to S¼S.W., as far as an island
called Paginsara, it is in 1⅙°; and from this island to
Sarangani the run is N.S¼N.E. S.W. in sight of all these
islands.
From Paginsara we went to S.¼S.E., until we came between
two islets, which lie together, N.E. and S.W., and that one
to the N.E. is named Suar, and the other is named Atean, and
one is in 1° 45', and the other in 1½°.
From Atean we went S.S.E. until we sighted the Molucos,
and then we went to East, and entered between Mare and Tedori,
at which we anchored, and there we were very well received,
and made very good arrangements for peace, and made a house
on shore for trading with the people, and so we remained many
days, until we had taken in cargo.
The islands of the Malucos are these: Terrenate, Tidori,
Mare, Motil, Maquian, Bachian, and Gilolo, these are all those
which contain cloves and nutmeg; and there are also several
others among them, the names of which I will mention, and in
what altitude they are, and the first is Terrenate, which is
on the side of the equinoctial line.

 LIMASAWA’s CLAIM
 Pablo Pastells wrote: “Magellan did not go to Butuan.
Rather, from the island of Limasawa, he proceeded directly
to Cebu.”
  Among the Philippine scholars of the early 20th century
who rejected the Butuan tradition in favor of Limasawa was
Jayme de Veyra.
 Blame was at first laid on the Americans Emma Blair and
James Alexander Robertson, who authored the 55-volume
collection of documents on the Philippines Island that was
published in Cleveland from 1903 to 1909.
 The cause of the shift in opinion was the publication in
1894 of Pigafetta’s account, as contained in the Ambrosian
Codex.
 Pigafetta was the chronicler of the Magellan expedition in
1521 that brought Europeans for the first time to the
archipelago.
 Pigafetta’s narrative was reproduced with English
translation, notes, bibliography and index in Blair and
Robertson’s The Philippine Islands, volumes 33 and 34.
 Following the publication of the Pigafetta text in 1894,
two Philippine scholars called attention to the fact that
the Butuan tradition had been a mistake. One of the
scholars was Trinidad H. Pardo de Tavera. The other was
the Spanish Jesuit missionary, Pablo Pastells, S.J.
 Fr. Pastells prepared a new edition of Fr Colin’s Labor
Evangelica, which was published in 1902, and which
contained a correction about the first mass.
 Pastells‘ shift in opinion from Butuan to Limasawa was due
to a rediscovery and a more attentive study of the primary
sources on the subject:
 Pigafetta’s account and Francisco Albo’s log of the
expedition. Pigafetta and Albo were eyewitnesses.
 Historian Pablo Pastells stating by the footnote to
Francisco Colin’s Labor Evangelica that Magellan did not
go to Butuan but form Limasawa to Cebu.
 Francisco Albo ( pilot of Magellan’s flagship does not
mention the first mass but he writes that they erected a
cross on a mountain which overlooked three islands the west
and the southwest. *James Robertson agreed with Pastells
in a footnote that “Mazua” was actually Limasawa in the
authentic account of Pigafetta, the port was not in Butuan
but an island named Mazua ( Masawa)
 Father Bernard studied all the Pigafetta’s maps, which
place in Mazau off the southern tip of the larger island
of Leyte., a check with the modern maps will show that this
jibes with Limasawa and not Masao or Butuan

 BUTUAN’s CLAIM
 Fr. Bernad’s presentation of the historical records and
his assessment of the arguments speak eloquently for
 itself. He backs up each finding with generous citations
in his notes and a bibliography.
 Fr. Bernad‘s report that the Butuan claim has been the more
ascendant and persistent, reigning over public opinion for
some three centuries, the 17th, the 18th and the 19th
century.
 On the strength of this tradition, a monument was erected
in 1872 at the mouth of the Agusan River. The monument was
erected apparently at the instigation of the parish priest
of Butuan, who at the time was a Spanish friar of the Order
of Augustinian Recollects. The date given for the first
Mass was April 8, 1521, an obvious error that may have been
due to an anachronistic attempt to translate the original
date in the Gregorian calendar.
 The monument is a testimonial to the Butuan tradition that
remained vigorous until the end of the 19th century, which
held that Magellan and his expedition landed in Butuan,
and celebrated there the first mass on Philippine soil.
 Because the Butuan tradition had already been established
by the middle of the 17h century, it was accepted without
question by two Jesuit historians who got misled by their
facts.
 On historian was Fr. Francisco Colin, S.J. (1592-1660),
whose Labor Evangelica was first published in Madrid in
1663, three years after his death. He provided in the book
an account of Magellan’s arrival and the first mass.
 The other Jesuit writer of the mid-17th century was
Francisco Combes S.J. (1620-1665), who had lived and worked
as a missionary in the Philippines. His Historia de
Mindanao y Jolo was printed in Madrid in 1667, four years
after Colin’s work was published.
 Colin and Combes gave different accounts of the route taken
by Magellan. But they asserted that Magellan landed in
Butuan and there planted the cross in a solemn ceremony.
 Both Colin and Combes pictured Magellan as visiting both
Butuan and Limasawa.
 Both Colin and Combes agree that it was from Limasawa and
with the help of Limasawa’s chieftain that the Magellan
expedition went to Cebu. Magellan arrived in Cebu on April
7, 1521, one week after the first mass.
 In the 19th century, the Butuan tradition was taken for
granted and it is mentioned by writer after writer, each
copying from the previous one, and being in turn copied by
those who came after.
 The accumulated errors of three centuries are found in the
work of Dominican friar, Valentin Morales y Marin, whose
two-volume treatise on the friars was published in Santo
Tomas in Manila in 1901.
  As late as the 1920s, the Philippine history textbook used
at the Ateneo de Manila used the Butuan tradition.

 First Mass Controversy

Southern Leyteños and the rest of the Filipino people could
heave a sigh of relief over the controversy surrounding the
site of the First Mass which ushered in the Christianization
of the Philippines. The issue is resolved. The first ever
Christian Mass in the country on March 31, 1521 was celebrated
in the island of Limasawa, south of Leyte and not in Butuan
City, so declared the National Historical Institute.

The finding was reached by the Gancayco Commission--composed

of retired Supreme Court Justice Emilio A. Gancayco as chair,
lawyer Bartolome C. Fernandez and Dr. Maria Luisa T. Camagay-
-which was created in May 1996 by the NHI to ''resolve a very
sensitive historical issue facing our country and our
people.''

''It is the . . . view of the panel that, upon a preponderance

of evidence culled from the primary sources, the first ever
Christian Mass on Philippine soil on March 31, 1521 was
celebrated in the island of Limasawa south of Leyte,''
concluded the commission in its 24-page decision.

In its conclusion, the commission said ''the panel closes the

presentation confident that any and all lingering doubts
regarding such historical detail are now put to rest.
Paraphrasing what the Bible proclaims, the truth about a
bygone era in Philippine history shall set us free.''

The Gancayo Commission submitted its findings to Samuel K.

Tan, chair and executive director of the NHI on March 20,
1998. But this finding was only formally turned over to
Limasawa officials on March 31, during the 478th anniversary
of the First Mass. It was a poignant event for the spectators
of the celebration when Violeta Barcelon Omega, director of
the Don Jose Ecleo Memorial Foundation College of Science and
Technology in Surigao del Norte, handed over the original NHI
decision given to her by Tan to Limasawa Mayor Albert
Esclamado.

Tan also formally announces through a press statement that he

has adopted the finding reached by the Gancayo Commission, to
put to a close the Limasawa-Butuan controversy.
The commission concluded that the First Mass was held in
Limasawa after it found that:

The most complete and reliable account of the Magellan

expedition into Philippine shores in 1521 is that of Antonio
Pigafetta which is deemed as the only credible primary source
of reports on the celebration of the first Christian Mass on
Philippine soil.

James Robertson's English translation of the original

Italian manuscript of Pigaffeta's account is most reliable
for being ''faithful'' to the original text as duly certified
by the University of the Philippines' Department of European
Language.

Pigafetta's Mazaua, the site of the first Christian Mass held

on Philippine soil, is an island lying off the southwestern
tip of Leyte while Masao in Butuan is not an island but a
barangay of Butuan City located in a delta of the Agusan River
along the coast of Northern Mindanao. The position of Mazaua,
as plotted by Pigafetta, matched that of Limasawa.

The measurement of distances between Homonhon and Limasawa

between Limasawa and Cebu, as computed by the pro-Limasawa
group, matches or approximates the delineations made by
Pigafetta of the distances between Homonhon and Mazaua and
between Mazaua and Cebu. Magellan's fleet took a route from
Homonhon to Mazaua and from Mazaua to Cebu that did not at
any time touch Butuan or any other part of Mindanao. The
docking facilities at Limasawa did not pose any problem for
Magellan's fleet which anchored near or at some safe distance
from the island of the eastern shore. To the Gancayco
Commission, ''History is both a useful and fascinating
subject. As one travels through time, one is bound to find it
rich in stories. Every kind of testimony is drawn upon from
eyewitness accounts to statistical tables. Personal records,
such as diaries, can certainly tell more than the official
documents.

''One of the great delights of time travel is encountering

the unfamiliar for that is what brings history to life. We
use history, not to tell us what happened or to explain the
past, but make the past alive so that it can explain us and
make a future possible,'' the commission said, quoting from
Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind.

In writing and end to the controversy, the commission said it

proceeded with utmost care. It said that the conclusion was
made to enlighten the current generation and remove all
confusion about where the First Mass was held in the
Philippines. Paraphrasing Adlai Stevenson's, ''We can chart
our future clearly and wisely when we know the path that has
led to the present,'' the panel said: ''The path is now
conclusively established to have begun at the island of
Limasawa where the first ever Christian Mass on Philippine
soil was offered on March 31, 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan and
his men.

As recounted by Pigafetta in his chronicle of Magellan's

expedition to the Philippine islands starting March 16, 1521,
the first Christian Mass celebrated on Philippine soil was
made in an island which he called ''Mazaua.''

The precise identity and location of this venue of the First

Mass became the subject of writings of historians and scholars
whose differing interpretations of Pigafetta's account would
eventually spawn lead to a controversy. For three centuries,
it was the prevailing belief that Pigafetta's Mazaua was a
place called Masao near Butuan City in Northern Mindanao. The
Butuan belief persisted from the 17th to the 19th century.

Limasawa was identified as the most likely venue in 1894 with

the publication of a manuscript of Pigafetta's account of
Magellan's voyage--the Ambrosian codex in Milan--in its
Italian text. This work written by Pigafetta was made
available to scholars including American James Alexander
Robertson who translated into English the original text with
the help of Emma Blair. The translation was incorporated in
Robertson's ''The Philippine Islands.'' According to Fr.
Miguel A. Bernal, SJ, an author, the only versions of
Pigafetta's account available to previous scholars were
''summaries and garbled translations.'' To understand why
Pigafetta's original text was not available to past scholars,
Fr. Peter Schreurs, M.S.C., Ph.D., parish priest of
Magallanes town where Butuan's Mazaua is located, said the
manuscript given to Charles V was never published and was
considered lost.

Fr. Schreurs in his book ''The Search for Pigafetta's

Mazaua,'' said the other copy of the book was given to the
mother of the King of France. The said book was mentioned in
various reports between 1526 and 1534 when an abridged French
version was produced and translated into Italian. This was
later used by authors and cartographers. But the controversy
did not stop there. In 1995, the Masao group through Butuan
Rep. Charito Plaza, initiated the filing of a bill, to
''Declare the site of Masao, Butuan City, as the place where
the first Easter Mass in the Philippines was held.'' The bill
was not acted upon.

The Bill, which aggravated the controversy, was obviously an

attempt to repeal Republic Act 2733, a law enacted in 1960,
''declaring the site in Magallanes, Limasawa island in the
province of Leyte, where the First Mass in the Philippines
was held as a national shrine.'' It was in 1971 when residents
and visitors saw the grandeur of the First Mass celebration
prepared by former President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife,
Imelda, who is from Leyte. The celebration was the 450th
anniversary. Pedencio Olojan, 90, said he could not remember
any activities at all related to the First Mass.

But he recalled that when he was 18 years old he was digging

for treasure with several other treasure hunters. He failed
to find any treasure but a friend sold him an artifact for
P100. That was 81 years ago. Some of the treasures which his
friend dug up are now in a museum in Butuan City with the
warlthy plaza clan backing the Masao claim, Southern Leyte
could only answer with a deafening silence.

Lawyer Joaquin Chung Jr., whose research on the First Mass

brought him to Europe, blamed the past political leaders of
Southern Leyte for not taking up the cause of Limasawa while
Plaza lambasted the Limasawa claim in the halls of Congress.
Southern Leyte then belonged to Club 20, the term coined for
the country's 20 poorest provinces. But former Rep. Roger
Mercado and Gov. Oscar Tan stood up for Limasawa in 1996 when
they prepared a feast to mark the 475th anniversary of the
First Mass. Frantic preparations were made to usher in VIP
visitors and dignitaries who were expected to attend the
jubilee celebration.

In the end, it was only Rhett Pelaez, then presidential

assistant for the Visayas, who came. Pelaez then declared:
''It is immaterial whether the site of the First Mass was in
Masao or Limasawa, what matters is we are here celebrating.''