EATING pawikan or a marine turtle is not a new in Cebu.
Patronizing what has become an endangered species dates back even before the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century.
Cebu-based historian Trizer Dale Mansueto cited an old, written narration of Antonio Pigafetta, the chronicler of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, to prove that pawikan was among the dishes of the Cebu natives centuries ago.
“Turtles have always been a delicacy, not only for its eggs but also for its meat. When the Spaniards visited Rajah Humabon, they saw him eating turtle eggs in 1521,” Mansueto told Cebu Daily News.
He said Pigafetta accompanied Magellan to Cebu’s Rajah Humabon upon their arrival in the island.
Pigafetta wrote that “when they arrived in Humabon’s palace, they saw him with all his tattoos. He was sitting down, eating turtle eggs which were placed on a porcelain…”
Mansueto said Pigaffeta’s accounts can be found in the book Primo Viaggio Intorno Al Mondo (First Voyage Around the World).
In the 17th century, Jesuit priest Francisco Ignacio Alcina also noticed that people in the Visayas ate pawikans. “Eating turtle meat is not new. Years ago, people were already eating these sea animals. Turtles or pawikans were abundant before,” Mansueto said.
“Alcina said people wait for sea turtles to lay their eggs on the shore before they would catch them. They will flip the turtles upside down. Alcina said people called eggs of pawikans which were still inside the stomach of the animal as boringa. When the eggs were already out of its mother’s body, they called it dahikan,” Mansueto said. Alcina’s narration is compiled in a book entitled “History of the Visayas Islands.”
Mansueto said selling of pawikan dishes was also widespread in Bantayan Islands, north Cebu in 1990s.
“Pawikan is really a delicacy here in Bantayan. I even ate it 20 years ago,” said Mansueto, a resident of Bantayan Islands.
He said people in Bantayan cooked the pawikan with a local plant named “soro-soro” to apply a sour taste to the dish.
“Vendors cooked tinola using pawikan. There were also times when they stew the sea turtles,” he said.
Mansueto said selling of pawikan dishes is still existing in Bantayan although the native delicacy has been hidden by vendors since it was declared unlawful./ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL reporter