Of CDO’s Lost Treasure

The column title “Cagayan De Oro’s Lost Treasure” of Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez’s brought memories of silly stories in my childhood. I did spent three years of my elementary there. I learned that Cagayan de Oro (CDO) literally means “river of gold”. Back then, I believed the story that CDO’s land mass is floating like a boat and that any time would sink in the bottom of the ocean. It had me worried for a time. I also believed that people of old could just pick gold in the riverbeds like pebbles. But this silly musings turned to sadness as I read the column further.

Quarrying had ruined fossils and artifacts dating back as far as 377 AD in Huluga open site. For someone like me who knows only a little of Philippines history during Spanish colonization, such fossils and artifacts means that Filipinos exist as far as that time. It’s a time when Rome ruled the world (when in doubt, google it). I can now say to myself that our ancestors existed (though primitively) when Constantine ruled Rome and in this very year Constantinople was (unsuccessfully) besieged by invading parties of Goths and Huns.

It is apparent that most Filipinos don’t really lack knowledge our rich cultural heritage. I count myself as one of those ignoramus. My only consolation is that I do love to learn how grand our history is but there is no enough resources posted in the net (or have not researched it just yet).

But to have deliberately chosen ignorance of history in favor of gold, how stupid could a politician like former CDO Mayor Vicente Emano get? The works of renowned anthropologist Dr. Erlinda Burton of Xavier University since the 1970s are all for naught.

As the Filipino saying goes “Hindi lahat na kumikinang ay ginto”. In this case, it is gold alright but it is not as precious as the archeological fossils and artifacts that should have been preserved.