1521: The start of a beautiful friendship
Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day (PSFD) is held every June 30. It commemorates the magnanimity of Emilio Aguinaldo toward Spanish soldiers who, unaware that the Spanish-Philippine war was over, had heroically resisted the siege by Filipino troops of the church of Baler where they had been holding out for almost a year.
The PSFD was established by Republic Act No. 9187, passed on July 22, 2002; it was authored by the late senator Edgardo Angara, who hailed from Baler. We, Spaniards in the Philippines, are very happy about the PSFD. We are very proud about the Baler heroes, and we admire General Aguinaldo who, instead of ordering the Spanish soldiers to be taken prisoners, ordered their release and their treatment as heroes.
The friendship was the result of the encounter that started on March 16, 1521. The expedition sent by King Charles to the Moluccas touched Philippine soil for the first time in the island of Homonhon, depopulated at that time. Eight islanders from the neighboring island of Suluan went to Homonhon to meet the Spanish fleet. According to Antonio Pigafetta, the unofficial chronicler of the expedition, the encounter was very friendly: The islanders went back to Homonhon three days later with food and fresh provisions, which they wanted to barter for mirrors and metal articles from the visitors.
Homonhon and Suluan islands are part today of the municipality of Guiuan in Eastern Samar. They deserve to play a role in the celebration of the PSFD. Incidentally, it is worth noting that Guiuan Church is a candidate for the Unesco World Heritage List. It has a unique façade clad with shells that was, however, destroyed by Typhoon “Yolanda.”
After Homonhon, the expedition landed in the island of Limasawa, where the first Mass was officiated by the only surviving priest, Pedro de Valderrama. According to Pigafetta, the people of Limasawa were very friendly and hospitable. The chieftain of the island, Colambu, sealed with Ferdinand Magellan the first sandugo, or blood compact. Magellan probably offered to Colambu what he later offered to Humabon: “to be the local sovereign to whom the other chiefs should submit,” in the words of Resil Mojares. However, the sensible Colambu advised Magellan to go to Cebu so he could meet Humabon, whom he said was the most powerful among the chieftains. He promised to accompany the fleet to Cebu, but only after they had finished harvesting rice. To hasten work on the harvest, Colambu asked Magellan for the help of some of the crew members, who went ashore and became the first Spanish cooperantes in the Philippines: The work was done in true bayanihan style.
Limasawan vessels accompanied the Magellan fleet to Cebu. Like the Suluans, the Limasawans were friendly: Even at that time, hospitality toward foreigners was an islander’s virtue. The same virtue was exhibited in Western Mindanao (Zamboanga del Norte), where Rajah Calanao made a blood compact with the Spaniards. Pigafetta said he was the only one who went ashore, and so he was pampered with hospitality. The place was probably Dapitan. Later, another friendly episode happened in Southern Palawan where a blood compact also took place.
Worth noting are “Cavit” and “Subanin” (in Southern Mindanao). There, Pigafetta said they stumbled upon “the best cinnamon to be found anywhere.” They loaded 17 pounds (eight kg) of the spice. Despite the small quantity, this would be the first documented trade between Europe and the Philippines. They probably took the small amount of cinnamon as a sample rather than as a commercial commodity. It was in Moluccas where they loaded tons of clove, the real luxury commodity in Europe.
Historians now question why the expedition tarried in the Philippine islands when its destination was the Moluccas. It seemed to have followed a blind itinerary, drifting around the archipelago before the tragedies in Cebu and Mactan forced it to finally sail for the Moluccas. Historians now raise the possibility that Magellan might have had a “private agenda.” But the long itinerary in the Philippines has left an imprint in history.
Historic itineraries have great tourism potential and can become important players in the development of regions and provinces. From Guiuan in Eastern Samar to Southern Palawan and further to Sarangani in Mindanao, a number of islands have become places of historic and even of global importance. They constitute the cultural itinerary of the first circumnavigation of the world in history, and the first chapters in the momentous encounter between Spain and the Philippines, between Europe and Asia, between the Old World and the New.
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Javier Galvan, Ph.D., an architect and historian, is director of the Instituto Cervantes de Manila.
