IN my column last week (“Humabon: Quintessential Filipino pulitiko,” May 8, 2021), I wrote that Rajah Colambu was the King of Mazawa. This might confuse some readers because in some history books, this king who figured prominently in the Philippine part in the story of the first circumnavigation of the world in 1521 was identified as the King of Butuan-Calaghan and not of Mazawa.
What I failed to write in my column, since it was not about the Butuan issue anyway, was that there is still confusion about which king was which. Although my column usually avoids trivialities and only wants to find meaning in history, in the interest of readers, I will go at some length to explain why there is such a confusion and to illustrate how wrong it is to think that deciphering history from primary sources if you are a nonspecialist is easy, especially if they were written in the days of old.
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