Historic Butuan

 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CITY

Butuan City was originally located in Pinamanculan by the banks of Masao River, about a kilometer from the barrio of Libertad.  Finding the site less than ideal because of the floods, the people moved to Baog, now the Municipality of Magallanes, at the mouth of Agusan River.  Later they again transferred to Lapaca, now known as Linungsuran in Banza, about five kilometers inland of Agusan River.  Still troubled by floods, the people once more settled some 80 years ago this time permanently, in a higher place called Agao, which is the present site of the city proper.Description of Butuan is not complete without infusing it with the significance of the Agusan River. It is the Agusan River and its tributaries that provide the valley with rich soil from periodic floods and its serpentine route through the length of the province provided people with easy means of transportation for trade and commerce and encouraged settlements along its banks.  The Agusan River greatly helped the booming logging industry and made Butuan the “Timber City of the South”.Butuan City sprawls across the Agusan River nine (9) kilometers inland south of the mouth of the river.  Towards this mouth, to the north and seaward, run fertile ricelands.  Halfway round of the city of the Southwest, roll of gently sloping hills, over which Mt. Mayapay looms.  To the east the majectic Ilong-ilong and Diwata mountain ranges protect the entire valley from fierce Pacific storms.It is very difficult to pinpoint the exact time when the name Butuan first emerged.  Certainly the name Agusan came into being upon the creation of the province in 1914.  Before this, the entire area had been known as Butuan and had always been known as such as can be borne out by old historical records.Much controversy and debate have been generated on whether the first mass was held in Limasawa, Leyte or in Masao, Butuan City that it would be superfluous to go into the arguments in the space allotted here.  Definitelt however, Ferdinand Magellan did drop anchor by the mouth of Agusan River in 1521 and held mass to commemorate the event.  This is held out by a monument erected at the site in 1982, by then Spanish District Governor, Don Jose Marie Carvallo to honor Ferdinand Magellan.A chieftain known to have ruled Butuan during the pre-Spanish period was Rajah Siaui or Siagu.  He was followed by more datus most known is Datu Silongan.  He was the ruling chieftain by the time the Spaniards sometime came after the death of Magellan.  He returned to Butuan in full force and succeeded in converting Silongan into Christianity and baptized as Felipe.  He along with his brother, Macara-ay came to this place in Jolo, which explains the similarity in the dialects of the regions.  The conversion of the native in larger scale into Christianity started sometime in 1875 by Father Saturnino Urios, a Jesuit who was known as the “Apostle of Agusan”.  The Butuan Parochial School now called Father Saturnino Urios University, was named after him.  Among the Spanish navigators who visited Butuan were Francisco de Castro, Villalobos and Legaspi.  The latter was said to have been well received by Datu Magbuaya, chieftain of Butuan.  When Agusan fell into the hands of the revolutionary government of Aguinaldo in 1889, the first guerilla groups were organized, by Gomercindo Flores in Butuan and Andres Atega in Cabadbaran, to fight American invaders. [source: http://www.butuan.gov.ph]

March 29, 1521, the Portuguese-born, Spanish-commissioned Magellan and the two Butuanon brother kings Siagu and Colombu made the first recorded blood compact. Over a long period of sedimentation, Mazzaua, Ambangan and Suatan Islands fused however with the mainland. The Magellan’s Anchorage is located in the present-day Barangay Masao

 One of the old poblacions of the ancient kingdom was located in Barangay Banza, along the banks of Agusan River. Existed for more than 200 years until it was transferred to the present-day downstream town of Magallanes, Agusan del Norte, it was here where the Augustinian Recollects built a church in 1625 but was later reduced into a heap of ruins by Moro pirates in 1753. What has left of the Banza Church Ruins is the bell tower now enveloped by a banyan tree (balete). Butuan was actually the launching pad of the formal evangelization in the island that started in 1596. Then on September 8, 1597, the Jesuits built the first Catholic church in Mindanao.

In front of Guingona Park is the St. Joseph Cathedral, considered to be the mother church of the Catholic Diocese of Butuan.

Elsewhere in the city are other interesting destinations and historical landmarks. Built in the early 1950's, the steel Magsaysay Bridge is the  first to have connected the east and west banks of Agusan, thus making land trips to the rest of the Caraga Region possible. It was inaugurated by President Carlos P. Garcia on May 19, 1953.

The longest suspension bridge in Mindanao at 882 meters in length, the President Diosdado Macapagal Bridge is an alternative route that links Butuanons to the island of Mindanao. Located three kilometers upstream of the Agusan River from Magsaysay Bridge, the scenic bridge connects the Butuan Bypass Road with the Surigao-Butuan-Davao Road and the Butuan-Cagayan-Iligan Road.