The Sinasa massacre was a mass poisoning and stabbing carried out by religious leader Mangayanon Butaog on in Sinasa, a village in

Davao City Davao City, officially the City of Davao, is a City of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of , making it the List of Philippine cities and municipalities ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. A total of 68 people died including Butaog; 64 from eating poisoned

gruel Gruel is a food consisting of some type of cereal—such as ground oats, wheat, rye, or rice—heated or boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk rather than eaten. Historically, gruel has been a ...

, and four from stab wounds. Five people survived by spitting out the gruel and pretending to be dead. Butaog decided to commit the massacre after failing to turn dry leaves from a tree into money, leading some of his followers to lose faith in him.

Background

Sinasa was a village in a remote, mountainous area of Davao City, around 25 miles from city center. The inhabitants of the village – men, women, and children – were part of the Ata tribe. An estimated 200 Ata tribesmen lived in the mountainous villages near Davao in 1985. Their lifestyle typically consisted of hunting animals with bows and arrows, growing

root vegetable Root vegetables are underground plant parts eaten by humans or animals as food. In agricultural and culinary terminology, the term applies to true roots, such as taproots and root tubers, as well as non-roots such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and ...

s, and wearing

loincloth A loincloth is a one-piece garment, either wrapped around itself or kept in place by a belt. It covers the genitals and sometimes the buttocks. Loincloths which are held up by belts or strings are specifically known as breechcloth or breechclo ...

garments. The leader of the village was Mangayanon Butaog, a tribal priest and

shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

. Butaog once cut down a tree, promising his followers that its dry leaves would turn into money, which they could use to make transactions. After this failed, many of his followers began to question his self-proclaimed powers. A short time later, he went on an expedition to the top of the closest mountain. When he returned to the village, Butaog said that he met with the highest of gods when he reached the mountain's peak.

Massacre

On September 9, 1985, Butaog prepared gruel laced with insecticide. He told his followers that after eating the meal, they would go to sleep and wake up as gods. Five people survived by spitting out gruel when Butaog was not looking, and later pretended to be dead in their homes. According to the survivors, not every villager was aware that their meals were poisoned. After everyone finished eating, they all returned to their homes and went to bed, dying in their sleep. When Butaog's wife and two children refused to eat the gruel, he murdered them with a machete before fatally stabbing himself in the abdomen with a knife.

Aftermath

After the survivors of the massacre alerted local authorities, nine people, including an officer and militia members, hiked to the village on September 16, 1985. When they reached 300 yards from the village, they stopped due to the odor. Three militiamen progressed further and hastily counted the bodies and left. A more thorough search was later conducted by soldiers. The corpses were located in a bunkhouse and four huts adjacent to a creek. By the time they were discovered, the bodies had already been partially eaten by wild animals. The massacre has often been compared to the

Jonestown The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American religious movement under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became in ...

massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

, an incident where 909 people died after being forced to ingest poison in

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

by their leader,

Jim Jones James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, preacher and mass murderer who founded and led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrat ...

References

{{coord missing, Philippines Mass poisoning Massacres in 1985 Massacres in the Philippines Murder–suicides in Asia Deaths by stabbing in the Philippines 1985 murders in the Philippines History of Davao City September 1985 in Asia Mass stabbings in Asia 20th-century mass murder in the Philippines Millenarianism Religion and suicide