Highest Award. The Order of Sikatuna is the highest award the Philippine Republic can give to a foreign dignitary as originally conceived by Pres. Elpidio Quirino when he created it on 27th of February 1953. It is now being given to any individual, foreign or native, of exceptional accomplishment in forging close friendship and amity with the rest of the world.

Recently, Pres. Arroyo renovated and added more ranking: Grand Collar (Raja) – Conferred upon a former or incumbent head of State and/or of government; Grand Cross (Datu) – The Grand Cross shall have two (2) distinctions: (i) Gold (Katangiang Ginto) and (ii) Silver (Katangiang Pilak). The Grand Cross may be conferred upon a Crown Prince, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House, Chief Justice or the equivalent, foreign minister or other official of cabinet rank, Ambassador, Undersecretary, Assistant Secretary, or other person of a rank similar or equivalent to the foregoing; Grand Officer (Maringal na Lakan) – Conferred upon a Charge d’affaires, e.p., Minister, Minister Counselor, Consul General heading a consular post, Executive Director, or other person of a rank similar or equivalent to the foregoing; Commander (Lakan) – Conferred upon a Charge d’affaires a.i., Counselor, First Secretary, Consul General in the consular section of an Embassy, Consular officer with a personal rank higher than Second Secretary, Director, or other person of a rank similar or equivalent to the foregoing; Officer (Maginoo) – Conferred upon a Second Secretary, Consul, Assistant Director, or other person of a rank similar or equivalent to the foregoing; Member (Maharlika) – Conferred upon a Third Secretary, Vice Consul, Attaché, Principal Assistant, or other person of a rank similar or equivalent to the foregoing.

Recipients. It has been given to heads of state, e.g., Tunku Abdul Rahman of Malaysia; a U.S. legislator, Speaker Carl Albert; to a Filipino diplomat, ASEAN Sec. Gen. Rodolfo C. Severino Jr.; to a prince of the Church, Cardinal Jaime Sin; to an outgoing Asian Dev. Bank president, Tadao Chino. Usually every outgoing foreign ambassador gets it. The last recipient was retiring Japanese Ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki who received the award on September 12, 2007.

Military’s Own Sikatuna. The military establishment, separate from Malacanang, gives the Order of Sikatuna and it had more ranks before the recent changes by Pres. Arroyo. While the President then only gave two ranks, Raja, the highest, and Datu, the Armed Forces of the Philippines has 5 ranks, namely, Raja-Commander Laureate, Datu-Commander 1st Class, Lakan-Commander, Maginoo-Officer, and Maharlika-Member. The military gave even to a martial arts expert.

Ancient Order. It is normally referred to as Order of Sikatuna, but in press releases it raises the award’s worth and eminence by calling it the Ancient Order of Sikatuna. This the Malacanang Press Office did in the case of M. Morshed Khan, MP, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh. Is 1565 ancient? The word “ancient” is supposed to be found in Quirino’s EO; I have reread it several times, the word is non-existent. Shades of fabrication and exaggeration.

Raja. The rank of “Raja” (also spelled “Rajah” depending on the mood or state of inSpiritedness of the Malacanang Press Office writer) is given only to heads of state. But Pres. GMA got so taken with Ambassador Severino, she completely disregarded that minutiae and gave that rank to Severino.

Luna Painting. The driving force behind the award is the painting by Juan Luna y Novicio, dated 1885, considered the “first real historical painting” of the Philippines. It shows the Bohol Datu Sikatuna and Captain General Miguel Lopez de Legazpi raising glass mugs containing their combined blood mixed with wine which they are about to drink in consummation of sandugo or blood compact.

Art vs. Historical Truth. There is a bit of artistic license in this Luna painting. Sikatuna was not the only datu to enter the blood compact. Another Bohol datu, Sigala, participated in this solemn rite.

Ignorant of Pigafetta. There is, however, a large amount of ignorance on the part of Luna of the Magellan-Siaiu blood compact. The Filipino intellectual circle in Europe had not known of the Antonio Pigafetta account until Jose Rizal had seen in 1889 a copy of the Carlo Amoretti edition in Italian at the British Museum which was published in 1800. (See Miguel Bernad, “Butuan or Limasawa?” In: Kinaadman, Xavier U: Cag. de Oro, p. 13-14).

First Treaty of Peace. Whoever provided Pres. Quirino the historical basis for the Order of Sikatuna had not studied Pigafetta’s relation. He would have read there that the first treaty ever held in the archipelago was between raia Humabon of Cebu and Ferdinand Magellan. This was concluded in Cebu on Tuesday, April 9, 1521. The actual negotiations were done by Magellan and in behalf of Humabon was an unnamed nephew, a prince, and witnessed by raia Siaiu, the Mazaua king, a trader from Ciam (probably Thailand) who was a Muslim, the governor of Cebu, the chief constable, and eight of the chief men of Cebu.

First Blood Compact. Donald F. Lach pointed out in Asia in the Making of Europe, the Philippines’ first recorded blood compact, the casi casi, was between Fernao de Magalhaes and Raia Siaiu. Casi Casi is Malayan term meaning to be “one and the same” or to be one blood as are brothers. Our term today is sandugo.

Precision is Truth. Can this be corrected? Can we be precise in our historical thinking? Is precision (which is just another name for truth) important? C. Simmons speaks to this issue when he wrote, “Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty.”

Government Inaction. The Office of the President, the National Historical Institute, and the National Commission for Culture and Arts have been apprised of the above facts. Then Cong. Leovigildo Banaag, Agusan Norte, 1st District, wrote on 10 July 2006 NHI Chair Ambeth Ocampo urging the Order be changed to “Order of Raias Siaiu-Humabon.” I wrote President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on April 10, 2005 urging the same. I sent carbon copies of the letter to NHI Chair Ocampo and Mrs. Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, executive director of the National Commission on Culture and Arts. I never got the courtesy of an acknowledgement letter from any.

Wikipedia to the Rescue. I have opened a discussion on the above matters at Wikipedia to bring the issue to the attention of the world. Perhaps something will happen if our officials are made aware the world is watching. There are 5,000,000 visitors to Wikipedia each week, perchance one of these will be a past recipient of the Order of Sikatuna. A query from this person asking if the award is based on a hoax will surely make Malacanang act!

Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Order_of_Sikatuna to enter the discussion.

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Vicente Calibo de Jesus is a forefront authority on the dazzling, albeit continuing Mazaua controversy. Mazaua is “the island-port where Ferdinand Magellan’s Armada de Molucca was anchored on March 28 to April 4, 1521.” This grave error on historiography was concocted by one Carlo Amoretti, in his baseless proof of pointing out Gatighan as the waystation of Magellan’s Armada into the isle named Limasawa (another invented word by Fr. Francisco Combés, S.J., a 1667 Jesuit historian).

Vicente Calibo de Jesus is the author of Mazaua: Magellan’s Lost Harbor — the only forefront authoritative source “that has been submitted for peer review to the world’s leading minds on navigation and geographical history.”

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