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Here’s why:

1. It is the most polluted river in the Region;
2. It is biologically dead;
3. Government lukewarm response is behind failure of efforts to save it;
4. NGOS, schools, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Japanese organizations KITA and AEON Foundation have joined all-out efforts to revive the river, but all have been failures;
5. Main culprits for the river’s demise: commercial, industrial, residential waste waters;
6. Tree planting projects along its banks have been off-and-on and virtually useless;
7. The river stinks to high heavens!

If you think I’m talking of Agusan River or Masao River, both in Butuan City in Mindanao, I’m not.

Butuanon River is in Cebu, its 7-km. length traverses both cities of Mandaue and Cebu and discharges its water in Magellan Bay. Its source is in Talamban Mountain. The river provides the water for both cities’ aquifer.

But to residents of Butuan City it does sound as if I’m talking of Masao, a terribly polluted river. And not too far away into the future, Agusan River.

Now, let me explore another tack, and intriguing question, why is the river named “Butuanon”?

“About 20 leagues away lies a big island where the King,
who is my kin, would give you what you need.” –
raia Siaiu, king of Mazaua to Magellan

Perhaps the answer lies in this testimony of Gines de Mafra, the only seaman in Magellan’s fleet to have visited the island-port of Mazaua twice, first in 1521, and in 1543 as pilot in the Villalobos expedition. Here is what de Mafra said, “Because of the gift Magellan had given to the chief [raia Siaiu] of this island which is called Macagua, he [Magellan] gained so much affection in return that he was accompanied to another very large island called Cubu, where the chief was his relative…” [Gines de Mafra, Libro que trata del descubrimiento y principio del Estrecho que se llama de Magallanes, Chap. XII, Page 199, translation by Raymond John Howgego, author of the massive work, Encyclopedia of Exploration].

De Mafra’s testimony is powerfully corroborated by Antonio de Herrera’s account, Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierrafirme del Mar Oceano, Tomo VI. Here is what de Herrera wrote, “Pregunto Magallanes as Rey [raia Siaiu, king of Mazaua], si habria alguna parte adonde se pudiese proveer de la vitualla que habia menester. Dixo: Que a 20 leguas estaba una gran isla, adonde habia un Rey su pariente que le daria cuanta quisiese.” [Magellan asked the King if there was some place where they could dock. He said: “About 20 leagues away lies a big island where the King, who is my kin, would give you what you need.” Translation by Roger C. Birosel] De Herrera’s authority were the papers of Andres de San Martin, fleet chief pilot-astrologer, which were entrusted to de Mafra at Cebu before the May 1, 1521 massacre where San Martin died. These papers were confiscated from de Mafra when he reached Lisbon in 1526 and deposited in a Portuguese archive and transferred to Spain during the union of the two Iberian nations in 1580 with the Spanish crown holding the reins of government of both kingdoms. (These papers were ultimately lost and their existence are attested to only through fragmentary citations by contemporary historians.)

(Click the photo below to view pop-in large version. Click again to retain original size).

If King Humabon of Cebu, King Siaiu of Mazaua, and King Colambu of Butuan were blood kins, we do not know if they’re first cousins, who was their common ancestry. Was their ancestor from Butuan? Or, conversely, from Cebu?

We can only speculate, which is no longer in the realm of historiography but rather fiction. Still it’s tantalizing to dwell on possibilities by asking questions such as:

1. If their common progenitor was from Cebu, could this explain why the 145-word Butuanon-Cebuano vocabulary gathered by Antonio Pigafetta are even, today, the same words for both languages? Pigafetta entitled the vocabulary “Some Words of the Aforesaid Heathen Peoples.” Many scholars, who have superficial knowledge of Pigafetta, erroneously say it was titled “Cebuano vocabulary.” Pigafetta wrote he started building up this vocabulary on Friday, March 29, 1521 at Mazaua. “There I wrote down several things as they call them in their language. And when the king and the others saw me writing, and I told them their way of speaking, all were astonished.” [Page 68, R.A. Skelton English edition of the Nancy-Libri-Phillipps-Beinecke-Yale codex, one of three extant codices in French];

2. If the common ancestor was from Butuan, was this during the time when Butuan was a thalassic power which was trading with Champa and China–assuming William H. Scott’s hypothesis that “Pu’ duan” in Chinese Song Shi (Sung History) refers to Butuan [Filipinos in China before 1500 by William Henry Scott, Manila: 1989] (Scott never did get to resolve why Pu’duan was always referred to as being part of Champa and sailing directions to Pu’duan do not point to Butuan in Mindanao).

There are an infinite number of possibilities and they all fall under the rubric of logical fallacy of the possible proof. Only authentic records can resolve this intriguing puzzle.

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Vicente Calibo de Jesús has specialized in Renaissance navigation history particularly on Mazaua historiography. He is the only Asian who joined the Hakluyt Society and The Society for the History of Discoveries. He is also the only Asian member of the Discovery Exploration elist forum whose members are largely from the above two societies.

He moderates a webpage, MagellansPortMazaua@yahoogroups.com, devoted to an earnest search for solution to the Mazaua puzzle. The site has the most comprehensive resource on the issue that can be found on the Net or in print. (Anyone interested to join can just subscribe.) On October 13, 2000 he brought before the attention of the world’s leading experts on navigation, exploration, cartographic, geographic history the problem of Mazaua at an international gathering held at the U.S. Library of Congress. He has written several articles at Wikipedia among these on Ginés de Mafra, Carlo Amoretti, Jacques N. Bellin, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, Gatighan, Ceilon/Seilani which have been published on at least 90-110 sites on the web.

De Jesus was national coordinator of the media-education campaign behind the Philippine government’s food production efforts in the 70s and 80s for which he received one of the highest decorations of the Republic, the Presidential Golden Plow Award. He took up A.B. Pol. Sci. at the University of the Philippines. He is from Butuan City.

His debut post:
Humabon not Sikatuna signed first Peace Treaty

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