Bio

Sinasa was a small, remote village in the mountains of Davao City. It lay about 25 miles from the city center. The people who lived there were part of the Ata tribe. Around 1985, about 200 Ata tribesmen lived in the mountainous villages near Davao. They hunted with bows and arrows, grew root vegetables, and wore loincloth garments.

Mangayanon Butaog was the leader of the village. He served as a tribal priest and shaman. He once cut down a tree and told his followers that the dry leaves would turn into money. When the leaves did not turn into money, some followers began to question his claimed powers.

A short time later, Butaog went on an expedition to the top of the nearest mountain. When he returned, he said he had met the highest of gods at the mountain’s peak.

Sources do not provide details about his birth, childhood, or family before he became the village leader.

Murder Story

On September 9, 1985, in Sinasa, a village in Davao City, Mangayanon 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. Many people ate the gruel. Sixty-four people died from eating the poisoned gruel. Five people survived by spitting out the gruel and later pretending to be dead. Four people died from stab wounds. In all, 68 people died, including Butaog.

According to survivors, not every villager knew the meal was poisoned. After everyone finished eating, they returned to their homes and went to bed. Many died in their sleep. When Butaog’s wife and two children refused to eat, he murdered them with a machete. He then stabbed himself in the abdomen and died.

After the survivors alerted local authorities, nine people hiked to the village on September 16, 1985. They stopped about 300 yards from the village because of the odor. Three militiamen went farther, counted the bodies quickly, and left. Soldiers later made a more thorough search. The corpses were found in a bunkhouse and in four huts near a creek. By then, some bodies had been partially eaten by wild animals.

Sinasa was a remote, mountainous village about 25 miles from the Davao city center. Its inhabitants were part of the Ata tribe. The massacre has often been compared to the Jonestown massacre, where 909 people died after being forced to ingest poison in Guyana by leader Jim Jones.