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| Lapulapu | |
|---|---|
 Imaginary posthumous portrait of Lapulapu in his elder years, by Carlo Caacbay for theNational Historical Commission of the Philippines, 2019 | |
| Raja (Datu) ofMactan | |
| Predecessor | Rajah Mangal |
| Successor | Rajah Mangubat[1] |
Lapulapu[2][3][4] (fl. 1521)Lapu-lapu, orLapu-Lapu, whose name was first recorded asÇilapulapu,[5] was aRaja[6] (Datu) ofMactan, an island now part of thePhilippines.
Lapulapu is known for the 1521Battle of Mactan, where he and his men defeated Spanish forces led by Portuguese explorerFerdinand Magellan and his native alliesRajah Humabon and Datu Zula. The battle was incited by Lapulapu's refusal to kiss the hand of Humabon, whom some sources claim to be the brother-in-law of Lapulapu.[7][8] Magellan's death in the hands of Lapulapu's men from a bamboo lance ended hisvoyage of circumnavigation and delayed the Spanish occupation of the islands by over forty years[9] until the expedition ofMiguel López de Legazpi which reached the archipelago in 1565.
Modern Philippine society regards him as the first Filipino hero because of his resistance toSpanish colonization. Monuments of Lapulapu have been built all over the Philippines to honor Lapulapu's bravery against theSpaniards. ThePhilippine National Police and theBureau of Fire Protection use his image as part of their official seals.
Besides being a rival ofRajah Humabon of neighboringCebu, very little is reliably known about the life of Lapulapu. The only existing primary source mentioning him by name is the account ofAntonio Pigafetta, and according to historianResil B. Mojares, no European who left a primary record of Magellan's voyage/vessel "knew what he looked like, heard him speak (his recorded words of defiance and pride are all indirect), or mentioned that he was present in the battle of Mactan that made him famous."[10] His name, origins, religion, and fate are still a matter of controversy.
The earliest record of his name comes from Venetian diaristAntonio Pigafetta who accompanied Magellan's expedition. Pigafetta noted the names of two Rajas of the island ofMatan (Mactan), the chiefsZula andÇilapulapu.[5][2] Pigafetta's account of Magellan's voyage, which contains the only mention of Lapulapu by name in an undisputed primary source, exists in several variant manuscripts and print editions, the earliest dating to around 1524.
In an annotation for his 1890 edition ofAntonio de Morga's 1609Sucesos de las islas Filipinas,José Rizal spells the name asSi Lapulapu. This supplements a passage where Morga mentions Magellan's death in Mactan, but does not mention the Mactan leader by name.[11] InPhilippine languages,si (pluralsiná) is anarticle used to indicate personal names. ThusSi Lapulapu, as rendered by Rizal, was subsequently interpreted by others to mean this way (though Rizal never explicitly asserts this himself) and theSi was dropped, eventually cementing the Mactan leader's name in Filipino culture asLapulapu,Lapu-lapu, orLapu-Lapu (e.g.Siya si Lapulapu "He is Lapulapu" vs.Siya si Si Lapulapu "He is Si Lapulapu"). However, this meaning forSi orÇi in Lapulapu's recorded name is doubtful because not all names recorded by Pigafetta contain it, as would be the case if it were. In an annotation of his 1800 edition of Pigafetta's account,Carlo Amoretti surmised that theSi orÇi found in several native names recorded by Pigafetta was anhonorific title.[5] E. P. Patanñe (1999) thus proposes that this usage ofSi was derived from a corruption of theSanskrit titleSri.[12]
In 1604, Fr.Prudencio de Sandoval in hisHistoria de la Vida y Hechos del Emperador Carlos V spelled the name asCalipulapo, perhaps through transposing the first A and I and misreading theÇ.[13] This further becameCali Pulaco in the 1614 poemQue Dios le perdone (May God Forgive Him) bymestizo de sangley poetCarlos Calao.[14] This rendition, spelled asKalipulako, was later adopted as one of thepseudonyms of the Philippine heroMariano Ponce during thePropaganda Movement.[15] The 1898Philippine Declaration of Independence ofCavite II el Viejo, also mentions Lapulapu under the nameRey Kalipulako de Manktan [sic] (King Kalipulako of Mactan).[16][17] This name variation has further led to claims that Lapulapu was aCaliph and thus Muslim, whereas Pigafetta notes that the region was not Islamized.
In 2019, theNational Historical Commission of the Philippines'National Quincentennial Committee, tasked with handling preparations for the 500th anniversary commemoration of Magellan's arrival, stated thatLapulapu without thehyphen is the correct spelling of the Mactan ruler's name, being based on Pigafetta's original spelling, which they took to beÇilapulapu (approximately rendered as "Silapulapu", not "Kilapulapu", in equivalentPhilippine orthography). The committee agreed with previous scholarship that theSi in his name reported by Pigafetta probably was an indigenous form of the Hindu honorificSri, so Lapulapu would probably have been calledSi Lapulapu.[2]
TheAginid chronicle, whose historicity is disputed, calls himLapulapu Dimantag, fordi-mataga ("cannot be hacked"), which is also the surname of a prominent family in Mactan.[18][19]
In 2021, PresidentRodrigo Duterte signedExecutive Order No. 152, officially calling to change the rendering of the Filipino hero's name from "Lapu-Lapu" to "Lapulapu", to conform with earlier references.[20] This executive order now requires government and non-government entities to adopt the name "Lapulapu" in all references pertaining to him.[20]
There had been many folk accounts surrounding Lapulapu's origin. Oneoral tradition is that theSugbuanons ofOpong was once ruled by a Raja (Datu) named Mangal and later succeeded by his son named Lapulapu.[21]
Another is from the bookAginid, Bayok sa Atong Tawarik ("Glide on, Odes to Our History") published in 1952 by Jovito Abellana, which supposedly records the oral chronicles from the reign of the last king of Cebu,Rajah Tupas (d. 1565). However, its historicity is disputed. The chronicle records the founding of the kingdom ofCebu bySri Lumay (also known as Rajamuda Lumaya), who was a half-Tamil and half-Malay fromSumatra. His sons, Sri Alho and Sri Ukob, ruled the neighboring communities of Sialo and Nahalin, respectively. The islands they were in were collectively known as Pulua Kang Dayang or Kangdaya (literally "[the islands] of the lady"). Sri Lumay was known for his strict policies in defending againstMoro raiders and slavers fromMindanao. His use ofscorched earth tactics to repel invaders gave rise to the name Kang Sri Lumayng Sugbo (literally "that of Sri Lumay's great fire") to the town, which was later shortened to Sugbo ("conflagration").[19] Upon his death in a battle against the raiders, Sri Lumay was succeeded by his youngest son, Sri Bantug, who ruled from the region ofSinghapala (literally "lion city"), now Mabolo in modernCebu City. Sri Bantug died of a disease during an epidemic and was succeeded by his son Rajah Humabon (also known as Sri Humabon or Rajah Humabara).[19] During Humabon's reign, the region had become an important trading center. The harbors of Sugbo became known colloquially assinibuayng hingpit ("the place for trading"), shortened tosibu orsibo ("to trade"), from which the modern name "Cebu" originates.[19]
According to theAginid, this was the period in which Lapulapu (as Lapulapu Dimantag) was first recorded as arriving from "Borneo" (Sabah). He asked Humabon for a place to settle, and the king offered him the region of Mandawili (nowMandaue), including the island known as Opong (or Opon), hoping that Lapulapu's people would cultivate the land. They were successful in this, and the influx of farm produce from Mandawili enriched the trade port of Sugbo further.[19] The relationship between Lapulapu and Humabon later deteriorated when Lapulapu turned to piracy. He began raiding merchant ships passing the island of Opong, affecting trade in Sugbo. The island thus earned the name Mangatang ("those who lie in wait"), later evolving to "Mactan".[19]
Lapulapu was one of the two Rajas of Mactan before the Spanish arrived in the archipelago, the other being Zula, both of whom belong to theMaginoo class. WhenPortugueseexplorerFerdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippines in the service ofSpain, Zula was one of those who gave tribute to the Spanish king while Lapulapu refused.[22]In the midnight of April 27, 1521, Magellan led a force of around 60 Spaniards and 20 to 30 war boats (karakoa) of Humabon's warriors from Cebu. They arrived in Mactan three hours before dawn. However, because of the presence of rock outcroppings and coral reefs, Magellan's ships could not land on the shores of Mactan. Their ships were forced to anchor "twocrossbow flights" away from the beach. According toAntonio Pigafetta, they faced around 1,500 warriors of Lapulapu armed with large cutlass iron swords called "Kampilan (Scimitar)" and large shields,[note 1] bows, and "bamboo" spears.[note 2]
Magellan repeated his offer not to attack them if Lapulapu sworefealty to Rajah Humabon, obeyed theSpanish king, and paidtribute, which Lapulapu again rejected. At the taunting request of Lapulapu, the battle did not begin until morning. Magellan, perhaps hoping to impress Humabon's warriors with the superiority of European armor and weapons, told Humabon's warriors to remain in their ships. Magellan and 49 of the heavily armored Spaniards (armed withlances, swords, crossbows, andmuskets) waded ashore to meet Lapulapu's forces. They set fire to a few houses on the shore in an attempt to scare them. Instead, Lapulapu's warriors became infuriated and charged. Two Spaniards were killed immediately in the fighting, and Magellan was wounded in the leg with apoisoned arrow. He ordered a retreat, which most of his men followed except for a few who remained to protect him. However, he was recognized as the captain by the natives, whereupon he became the focus of the attack. Outnumbered and encumbered by their armor, Magellan's forces were quickly overwhelmed. Magellan and several of his men were killed, and the rest escaped to the waiting ships.[22][23]
The historianWilliam Henry Scott believes that Lapulapu's hostility may have been the result of a mistaken assumption by Magellan. Magellan assumed that ancient Filipino society was structured in the same way as European society (i.e. with royalty ruling over a region). While this may have been true in theIslamicsultanates inMindanao, theVisayan societies were structured along a loosefederation ofcity-states (more accurately, achiefdom). The most powerful datu in such a federation has limited power over another member datu, but no direct control over the subjects or lands of the other datu.[24]
Thus Magellan believed that since Rajah Humabon was the king ofCebu, he was the king ofMactan as well. But the island of Mactan, the dominion of Lapulapu and Zula, was in a location that enabled them to intercept trade ships entering the harbor of Cebu, Humabon's domain. Thus, it was more likely that Lapulapu was actually more powerful than Humabon, or at least was the undisputed ruler of Mactan. Humabon was married to Lapulapu's niece. When Magellan demanded that Lapulapu submit as his King Humabon had done, Lapulapu purportedly replied that: "he was unwilling to come and do reverence to one whom he had been commanding for so long a time".[24]
TheAginid chronicle also records that Humabon had actually purposefully goaded the Spaniards into fighting Lapulapu, who was his enemy at that time. However, the men of Humabon who accompanied Magellan did not engage in battle with Lapulapu, though they helped with recovering the wounded Spaniards. Humabon later poisoned and killed 27 Spanish sailors during a feast. According to theAginid, this was because they had started raping the local women. It was also possibly to aid Magellan'sMalayslave interpreter,Enrique of Malacca, in gaining his freedom. The Spanish were refusing to release him, even though Magellan explicitly willed that he be set free upon his death.[19][22] A discourse byGiovanni Battista Ramusio also claims that Enrique warned the Chief of "Subuth" that the Spaniards were plotting to capture the king and that this led to the murder of the Spaniards at the banquet.[25] Enrique stayed in Cebu with Humabon while the Spanish escaped toBohol.[19][22]
The battle left the expedition with too few men to crew three ships, so they abandoned theConcepción. The remaining ships – theTrinidad and theVictoria – sailed to theSpice Islands in present-day Indonesia. From there, the expedition split into two groups. TheTrinidad, commanded byGonzalo Gómez de Espinoza tried to sail eastward across the Pacific Ocean to theIsthmus of Panama. Disease and shipwreck disrupted Espinoza's voyage and most of the crew died. Survivors of theTrinidad returned to the Spice Islands, where the Portuguese imprisoned them. TheVictoria continued sailing westward, commanded byJuan Sebastián Elcano, and managed to return toSanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain in 1522. In 1529,King Charles I of Spain relinquished all claim over theSpice Islands toPortugal in thetreaty of Zaragoza. However, the treaty did not stop the colonization of the Philippine archipelago fromNew Spain.[26]
According toAginid, Lapulapu and Humabon restored friendly relations after the Battle of Mactan. Lapulapu later decided to return to Borneo with his family and 17 of his men. Nothing more is known of him after this.[19]
After Magellan's voyage, subsequent expeditions were dispatched to the islands. Five expeditions were sent:Loaisa (1525),Cabot (1526),Saavedra (1527),Villalobos (1542), andLegazpi (1564).[27] The Legazpi expedition was the most successful, resulting in thecolonization of the islands.[28][29][30]
Lapulapu's religious beliefs are another subject of debate but it is strongly suggested that he was an adherent of the indigenousanimisticanito beliefs. The inhabitants of theSulu Archipelago believe thatQadi Lapulapu was aMuslim belonging to theTausūg or theSama-Bajau people ofMindanao,[31][32] a claim made by the now dissolvedSultanate of Sulu that many historians negate.[33][34] Moreover, prominent CebuanoanthropologistJosé Eleazar Bersales says that Cebu was neverislamized,[35] referenced from an excavation in Boljoon in southern Cebu. Direct evidences such as accounts of Pigafetta and the native oral tradition did not indicate Lapulapu as a Muslim but a Visayan animist and a Sugbuanon native.[36]
Cebuanos were predominantly animist at the time of the arrival of the Spanish.[37][38][39] Visayans were noted for their widespread practice oftattooing; hence, Spaniards referred to them as thePintados.[40] Pigafetta, who recorded Magellan's encounter with the Cebuanos, explicitly described Rajah Humabon as tattooed. He also records the consumption of pork,dog meat, and palm wine (arak) by the Cebuanos,[22][41] as well as thecommon custom ofpenile piercings (tugbuk orsakra).[22][42] Tattooing, body modification, pork, dog meat, and alcohol are allḥarām (forbidden) in Islam.[43]
The supreme deity of the Visayans, as explicitly recorded by contemporary historians, was identified asAbba by Pigafetta andKan-Laon (also spelledLaon) by the Jesuit historianPedro Chirino in 1604, comparable to theTagalog "Bathala". There is no mention of Islam.[44] This is in contrast to the other locations visited by the Magellan expedition where Pigafetta readily identifies the Muslims whom they encountered; he would call themMoros after the MuslimMoors of medieval Spain and northern Africa, to distinguish them from thepolytheistic "heathens".[22][37][45] In fact, during the mass baptism of the Cebuanos to Christianity, he clearly identifies them as "heathens," not Moros:[22][38]
We set up the cross there for those people were heathen. Had they been Moros, we would have erected a column there as a token of greater hardness, for the Moros are much harder to convert than the heathen.
— Antonio Pigafetta,Primo viaggio intorno al mondo (c. 1525)
A more dubious claim from theAginid is that Lapulapu may have been fromBorneo. TheAginid calls him anorang laut ("man of the sea") and an outsider who settled in Cebu from Borneo.[19][32] TheOponganon-Cebuano oral tradition effectively disputes this claim, saying his father was Datu Mangal of Mactan, indicating that Lapulapu a native ofOpong.[36][19]
Lapulapu is regarded, retroactively, as the firstFilipino hero.[46][47]
On April 27, 2017, PresidentRodrigo Duterte declared April 27 (the date when the Battle of Mactan happened) asLapu-Lapu Day for honoring as the first hero in the country who defeated foreign rule.[48][49] Duterte also signed Executive Order No. 17 creating theOrder of Lapu-Lapu which recognizes the services of government workers and private citizens in relation to the campaigns and advocacies of the President.[50] During the First Regular Season of the14th Congress of the Philippines, SenatorRichard Gordon introduced a bill proposing to declare April 27 as an official Philippine national holiday to be known asAdlaw ni Lapu-Lapu, (Cebuano, "Day of Lapu-Lapu").[51]
The government ofBritish Columbia, Canada, officially recognised April 27 as Lapu-Lapu Day in 2023, acknowledging the cultural contributions of theFilipino Canadians, one of the largest immigrant groups in the province.[52] Each year, Lapu-Lapu Day is celebrated by Filipino Canadians inVancouver.[53]
On April 27, 2024, "Lapulapu Day", 300 "eskrimadores," with "Lapu-Lapu Arnis de Abanico" performed ahistorical reenactment of "Kadaugan sa Mactan" atMactan Shrine as witnessed by MayorJunard Chan.[54]
The government erected a statue in his honor on Mactan Island and renamed the town of Opon in Cebu toLapu-Lapu City. A large statue of him, donated bySouth Korea, stands in the middle ofAgrifina Circle inRizal Park inManila, replacing a fountain and rollerskating rink. Lapulapu appears on the official seal of thePhilippine National Police.[55] His face was used as the main design on the 1-centavo coin that was circulated in the Philippines from 1967 to 1994.[56][failed verification]
In theUnited States, a street inSouth of Market, San Francisco is named after Lapulapu.[57] That street and others in the immediate neighborhood were renamed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with names derived from historical Filipino heroes on August 31, 1979.[58]
On January 18, 2021, theBangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, in cooperation with theQuincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines, launches the 5,000-Piso commemorative non-circulating banknote, in honor of his heroism.[59]
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According to local legend, Lapulapu never died but was turned into stone, and has since then been guarding the seas of Mactan. Fisherfolk in Mactan would throw coins at a stone shaped like a man as a means to "ask permission" from Lapulapu to fish "in his territory". Thus, thegrouper fish was named after Lapulapu.[60] Anotherurban legend concerns the statue of Lapulapu erected in 1933 at the center of the town plaza ofLapu-Lapu when the city was still a municipality with the name Opon. The statue faced the old town hall, where mayors used to hold office; Lapulapu was shown with a crossbow in the stance of shooting an enemy. Superstitious citizens proposed to replace this crossbow with a sword, after three consecutive mayors of Opon (Rito dela Serna, Gregorio dela Serna and Simeon Amodia) each died of heart attack. The statue was modified during the administration of Mayor Mariano Dimataga who took office in 1938.[61]
The Lapu-Lapu shrine is a 20 meters (66 ft)bronze statue in Punta Engaño,Lapu-Lapu, Cebu, Philippines.[71]
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