Getting our Philippine history right after 500 years – Part 13

The first 12 parts of this chronological review looked into how 15th century history writers told from a European viewpoint how the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan's Expedition for the Spanish Crown stumbled on a cluster of islands in 1521 after crossing the Pacific Ocean westwards, found anchorage in an island called Mazaua, and there held the first Holy Mass that marked the birth of the Philippines as a Christian nation.

In the first 80 years after that landmark event, however, an unfortunate distortion of the authentic Mazaua narrative created a serious shroud of doubt about that island as the First Mass site on March 31, 1521.