Muslim leader Butu was a senator for the department of Mindanao and Sulu from 1916 to 1931. Hadji Butu is well remembered not only as a diplomat, legislator and administrator, but also as a religious leader: he was ordained a bishop, the highest ecclesiastical position to which the people in Islam can aspire. Twice, Hadji Butu succeeded in negotiating treaties of peace. He was only 12 when he drafted and signed on behalf of his people the treaty with the Spaniards in 1877. When the Americans decided to bring the natives of the Sulu archipelago under their sovereignty, Hadji Butu negotiated ably with Gen. John C. Bates a treaty which he signed for Sultan Jamalul Kiram II of Sulu on Aug. 20, 1899. This pact established amicable relations between the two peoples and converted the Sulu Sultanate into an American protectorate. Largely through his efforts the military rule in Jolo was cut short. Unfortunately, although President McKinley approved the treaty, Congress abrogated it in 1904. Thrice, Hadji Butu served as the prime minister of Sulu sultans. At 15 he was elevated to this position by Sultan Badarudin (1881-1884). When Jamalul Kiram was the reigning sultan, Butu was, also the acting secretary of war and the generallissimo of the sultanate. When Kiram lost to Datu Haron, Butu agreed to continue in the ministry provided that the war between Haron and Kiram be ended. With the reinstatement of Kiram later, he served him for the second time. Butu was in the Philippine Senate of the fourth legislature (1916-1919) and again from the sixth to the eight legislature, serving continuously from 1922 to 1931. As one of the two senators from the 12 senatorial district comprising Baguio, Nueva Viscaya, Mountain Province, Agusan, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Davao, Lanao, Sulu and Zamboanga. A descendant of Mantiri Asip, prime minister of Raja Baginda, Butu was born in Jolo, Sulu in 1865. At six he mastered the Koran while he learned the Arabic language in four years. Butu joined the government service in 1904 as the assistant ot governor of the new Moro province, which having been established by the Philippine Commission on June 1, 1903, embraced the five subprovinces of Sulu, Lanao, Cotabato, Davao and Zamboanga. In 1913, he was the district governor of Sulu and two years later he was named the assistant to the provincial governor. A year before his death on Feb. 21, 1938, caused by kidney complications, Butu was appointed a member of the board of national language representing Mindanao and Sulu.

Hadji Butu, as he appeared while senator for the Department of Mindanao and Sulu.Caption Note)