Monday, October 4, 2010

rp history gaps

Last week was Portuguese Week in Cebu and the Embassy of Portugal in the Philippines, led by his Excellency João Caetano da Silva, held a lecture and the launching of the book, "The Portuguese Maritime Power, Rights and Enclaves in Asia; The Philippine  Connection," by Prof. Ivo Carnerio de Sousa at the CAFA Theater of the University of San Carlos' Talamban campus attended by many academics, including famous Cebuano historians Dr. Resil Mojares and Dionisio Sy.
What Prof. De Sousa told his audience virtually opened us to a new reality that Portugal was doing its own exploration around these
islands even before — and a lot more after — Magellan came to Cebu.  Prof. De Sousa's book is a must-read for all Filipino historians
because he tells us something that we've never heard or read before. No, sir, he is not trying to rewrite history, rather he is filling
many blanks in Philippine history that we've not encountered in the history books in our schools. What a great revelation!
For instance, the Treaty of Tordesillas on June 7, 1494 virtually divided the unknown world between Spain and Portugal with the
approval of the Holy See. Did you know that Magellan, in a previous expedition, had already come to the Moluccas, just south of Mindanao? In those days, Portugal had something that the Spanish didn't have: cartographic maps of the so-called Spice Islands. Therefore, since he was a Portuguese, it is safe to assume that Magellan used Portuguese cartographic maps during his historic expedition that brought him to Cebu on March 16, 1521.
With the Treaty of Tordesillas, Prof. De Sousa said the Philippine archipelago fell under the jurisdiction of Portugal… but Magellan
made his claim for the King of Spain who paid for his expedition. Thus, in 1750, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Madrid whereby the Portuguese exchanged the Philippines for the South Frontier of Brazil, which gave Portugal control of Rio de la Plata. Again this is something we've never read in our history books. History tells us that Spain sold the Philippines to the United States for a measly sum of $20 million, but we never knew about this exchange deal between Spain and Portugal for Brazil!
Talking about rewriting history, we all know about the claim made by some Butuanons that a place called Mazaua was allegedly the site of the first Holy Mass instead of Limasawa Island off Southern Leyte. Well, Prof. De Sousa has another insight on this, which I'm sure puts an end to this endless debate and enrich our pre-Spanish history. It turned out that the ill-fated Magellan expedition ended Spanish exploration of these islands. But Portuguese navigators like João de Barros, Gaspar Correia, Diogo do Couto, Francisco de Castro and Antonio Galvão have been exploring Mindanao from 1520 to 1565 until the Spaniards resumed its conquest of the Philippines through another expedition led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.
Even as early as June 1970, Cebuano historian Dionisio A. Sy already wrote a book entitled "Butuan through the ages" where he already disproved that Mazau or Mazawa was the site of the first Mass because the naval latitude coordinates that Pigafetta used almost matched that of Limasawa in Leyte. Therefore, if Magellan never went to Butuan… who did?
Any of these Portuguese explorers I mentioned went to Mindanao, but the best bet is Antonio Galvao who circumnavigated the whole island. In fact, one Portuguese captain named João de Canha Pinto (who is also mistaken as João de Caminha) went to the island of Sirigao, which could very well be Siargao today, and had a blood compact with the King there.
Ambassador Da Silva gave me two books, "As Filipinas Na Historiograficda Portuguesa Do Seculo XVI" or Philippines in
Portuguese XVIth Century Histobiography, and Discussing the First Portuguese Maps with the Philippines by Ivo Carnerio de Sousa and Jose Manuel Garcia, and in a map made between 1535 and 1538, Butuan is named Butan or Butuão. I'll elaborate on this in our future columns. Spain didn't even know Butuan existed!
Portuguese Week ended with the unveiling of the newly renovated Magellan's Cross, which was a project funded by the Portuguese
Embassy through the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in coordination of the Cebu Parks and Playgrounds and the Cebu City Historical and Cultural Commission. Mrs. Therese Gonzalez led the project. It was more than just as simple celebration of Portuguese Week; it was a rekindling of friendship between the two nations as Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Vice Mayor Michael Rama both stressed.
More importantly, this week filled the gaps of our history, which was long denied to Filipinos; after all, we were under Spanish rule for more than 400 years. We shall be writing about this in future columns with the hope that the National Historical Institute would put it in our history books.
INSIDE CEBU By Bobit S. Avila
The Philippine Star 06/12/2006

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