Product Code Database
Lapulapu (floruit 1521) or Lapu-Lapu, whose name was first recorded as Çilapulapu, was a datu (chief) of Mactan, an island now part of the Philippines. Lapulapu is known for the 1521 Battle of Mactan, where he and his men defeated Spanish forces led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his native allies Rajah Humabon and Datu Zula. Magellan's death in battle ended his voyage of circumnavigation and delayed the Spanish occupation of the islands by over forty years until the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi which reached the archipelago in 1565.
Modern Philippine society regards him as the first Filipino hero because of his resistance to Spanish Empire. Monuments of Lapulapu have been built all over the Philippines to honor Lapulapu's bravery against the Spaniards. The Philippine National Police and the Bureau of Fire Protection use his image as part of their official seals.
Besides being a rival of Rajah Humabon of neighboring Cebu, very little is reliably known about the life of Lapulapu. The only existing primary source mentioning him by name is the account of Antonio Pigafetta, and according to historian Resil 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." His name, origins, religion, and fate are still a matter of controversy.
In an annotation for his 1890 edition of Antonio de Morga's 1609 Sucesos de las islas Filipinas, José Rizal spells the name as Si Lapulapu. This supplements a passage where Morga mentions Magellan's death in Mactan, but does not mention the Mactan leader by name. In Philippine languages, si (plural siná) is an article used to indicate personal names. Thus Si Lapulapu, as rendered by Rizal, was subsequently interpreted by others to mean this way (though Rizal never explicitly asserts this himself) and the Si was dropped, eventually cementing the Mactan leader's name in Filipino culture as Lapulapu or Lapu-Lapu (e.g. Siya si Lapulapu "He is Lapulapu" vs. Siya si Si Lapulapu "He is Si Lapulapu"). However, this meaning for Si or Çi 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 the Si or Çi found in several native names recorded by Pigafetta was an honorific title. E. P. Patanñe (1999) thus proposes that this usage of Si was derived from a corruption of the Sanskrit title Sri.
In 1604, Fr. Prudencio de Sandoval in his Historia de la Vida y Hechos del Emperador Carlos V spelled the name as Calipulapo, perhaps through transposing the first A and I and misreading the Ç. This further became Cali Pulaco in the 1614 poem Que Dios le perdone (May God Forgive Him) by mestizo de sangley poet Carlos Calao. This rendition, spelled as Kalipulako, was later adopted as one of the of the Philippine hero Mariano Ponce during the Propaganda Movement. The 1898 Philippine Declaration of Independence of Kawit, also mentions Lapulapu under the name Rey Kalipulako de Manktan (King Kalipulako of Mactan). Acta de la proclamación de la independencia del pueblo Filipino (in and Spanish) from Wikisource. (1977). 9780379007954, Oceana Publications. ISBN 9780379007954 This name variation has further led to claims that Lapulapu was a Caliph and thus Muslim, whereas Pigafetta notes that the region was not Islamized.
In 2019, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines' National Quincentennial Committee, tasked with handling preparations for the 500th anniversary commemoration of Magellan's arrival, stated that Lapulapu without the hyphen is the correct spelling of the Mactan ruler's name, being based on Pigafetta's original spelling, which they took to be Çilapulapu (approximately rendered as "Silapulapu", not "Kilapulapu", in equivalent Philippine orthography). The committee agreed with previous scholarship that the Si in his name reported by Pigafetta probably was an indigenous form of the Hindu honorific Shri, so Lapulapu would probably have been called Si Lapulapu.
The Aginid chronicle, whose historicity is disputed, calls him Lapulapu Dimantag, for di-mataga ("cannot be hacked"), which is also the surname of a prominent family in Mactan.
In 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive 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. This executive order now requires government and non-government entities to adopt the name "Lapulapu" in all references pertaining to him.
Another is from the book Aginid, 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 of Cebu by Sri Lumay (also known as Rajamuda Lumaya), who was a half-Tamils and half-Malay from Sumatra. 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 of the lady"). Sri Lumay was known for his strict policies in defending against Moro Pirates from Mindanao. His use of scorched 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"). Upon his death in a battle against the raiders, Sri Lumay was succeeded by his youngest son, Sri Bantug, who ruled from the region of Singhapala (literally "lion city"), now Mabolo in modern Cebu 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). During Humabon's reign, the region had become an important trading center. The harbors of Sugbo became known colloquially as sinibuayng hingpit ("the place for trading"), shortened to sibu or sibo ("to trade"), from which the modern name "Cebu" originates.
According to the Aginid, 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 (now Mandaue), 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. 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".
Magellan repeated his offer not to attack them if Lapulapu swore fealty to Rajah Humabon, obeyed the Spanish king, and paid tribute, 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 with , swords, crossbows, and ) 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 a poisoned 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. The historian William 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 the in Mindanao, the Visayas societies were structured along a loose federation of (more accurately, a chiefdom). 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.
Thus Magellan believed that since Rajah Humabon was the king of Cebu, he was the king of Mactan 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".
The Aginid 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 the Aginid, this was because they had started raping the local women. It was also possibly to aid Magellan's Ethnic Malays Slavery 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. A discourse by Giovanni 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. Enrique stayed in Cebu with Humabon while the Spanish escaped to Bohol.
The battle left the expedition with too few men to crew three ships, so they abandoned the Concepción. The remaining ships – the Trinidad and the Victoria – sailed to the Maluku Islands in present-day Indonesia. From there, the expedition split into two groups. The Trinidad, commanded by Gonzalo Gómez de Espinoza tried to sail eastward across the Pacific Ocean to the Isthmus of Panama. Disease and shipwreck disrupted Espinoza's voyage and most of the crew died. Survivors of the Trinidad returned to the Spice Islands, where the Portuguese imprisoned them. The Victoria continued sailing westward, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, and managed to return to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain in 1522. In 1529, King Charles I of Spain relinquished all claim over the Maluku Islands to Portugal in the treaty of Zaragoza. However, the treaty did not stop the colonization of the Philippine archipelago from New Spain.
According to Aginid, 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.
After Magellan's voyage, subsequent expeditions were dispatched to the islands. Five expeditions were sent: Loaisa (1525), Cabot (1526), Saavedra (1527), Villalobos (1542), and Legazpi (1564).. The Legazpi expedition was the most successful, resulting in the colonization of the islands.
Cebuanos were predominantly animist at the time of the arrival of the Spanish. Visayans were noted for their widespread practice of ; hence, Spaniards referred to them as the Pintados. 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, as well as the common custom of Genital piercing ( tugbuk or sakra). Tattooing, body modification, pork, dog meat, and alcohol are all haram (forbidden) in Islam.
The supreme deity of the Visayans, as explicitly recorded by contemporary historians, was identified as Abba by Pigafetta and Kan-Laon (also spelled Laon) by the Jesuit historian Pedro Chirino in 1604, comparable to the Tagalog people "Bathala". There is no mention of Islam. 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 them Moros after the Muslim Moors of medieval Spain and northern Africa, to distinguish them from the polytheistic "Paganism". In fact, during the mass baptism of the Cebuanos to Christianity, he clearly identifies them as "heathens," not Moros:
A more dubious claim from the Aginid is that Lapulapu may have been from Borneo. The Aginid calls him an orang laut ("man of the sea") and an outsider who settled in Cebu from Borneo. The Mactan-Cebuano people oral tradition effectively disputes this claim, saying his father was Datu Mangal of Mactan, indicating that Lapulapu a native of Mactan."In the nearby satellite island of Opong, Datu Mangal ruled the Sibuanons there and later his son succeeded him, rising in power and popularity. This legendary successor to Mangal was Lapu-lapu. There had been many versions, even myths surrounding Lapu-lapu’s origin. One account tells that many years before Magellan’s arrival, a man called Dimantag traveling from Borneo reached to shores of Sibu. He asked Rajah Humabon for a place to settle. The wanderer was given the nearby Opong island, though Dimantag primarily preferred to settle in Mandawili (modern-day Mandaue). Ages passed, Dimantag rose to power in Opong and became known by Sibuanons as Sri Lapu-lapu (Çilapulapu by the Spaniards). Farther south in Mindanao, the annals of Moro history made Lapu-lapu a Muslim. He was said to have an allegiance with the Sultan of Sulu. However, direct evidence such as accounts of Pigafetta and the ancient Sugbuanon oral tradition did not indicate Lapu-lapu as a Muslim but a Visayan animist." John Kingsley Pangan, Church of the Far East (Makati: St. Pauls, 2016), 68.
On April 27, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte declared April 27 (the date when the Battle of Mactan happened) as Lapu-Lapu Day for honoring as the first hero in the country who defeated foreign rule. Duterte also signed Executive Order No. 17 creating the Order of Lapu-Lapu which recognizes the services of government workers and private citizens in relation to the campaigns and advocacies of the President. During the First Regular Season of the 14th Congress of the Philippines, Senator Richard Gordon introduced a bill proposing to declare April 27 as an official Philippine national holiday to be known as Adlaw ni Lapu-Lapu, (Cebuano language, "Day of Lapu-Lapu").
The government of British Columbia, Canada, officially recognised April 27 as Lapu-Lapu Day in 2023, acknowledging the cultural contributions of the Filipino Canadians, one of the largest immigrant groups in the province. Each year, Lapu-Lapu Day is celebrated by Filipino Canadians in Vancouver.
In the United States, a street in South of Market, San Francisco is named after Lapulapu. 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.
On January 18, 2021, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, in cooperation with the Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines, launches the 5,000-Piso commemorative non-circulating banknote, in honor of his heroism.
|
|
