3. Detail from a panoramic painting of the Battle of Mactan, in the Mactan Shrine in
Cebu.
4. . Mural showing the baptism of Rajah Humabon and his household by Fr. Pedro Valderrama (left) and the
erection of a wooden cross on the shores of Cebu, at a chapel housing Magellan’s Cross, a Christian cross
planted by Ferdinand Magellan upon arriving in Cebu on April 15, 1521, in Cebu City.
5. Magellan is known as a great
Spanish explorer, but he was
born Portuguese,
Fernão de Magalhães, into a
family of minor nobility. He
had a keen interest in sailing
and marine navigation. He
worked for years for the
Portuguese government in an
office that received and
archived reports from
Portuguese ships.
6. He went on several major voyages himself eventually becoming a captain. He enjoyed some
favor with the Portuguese monarch, Dom Manuel. But, Magellan fell out of favor with Manuel
primarily because of his own arrogance. When King Manuel denied his repeated demands for
an unprecedented increase in his salary and, instead, fired him, Magellan defected to
Portugal's arch-rival, Spain.
7. At the time, Spain and Portugal were
the world's two competing super-
powers.
In 1493, Pope Alexander VI decided
to settle the arguments between
them by once-and-for-all dividing the
world in half. By Papal authority, the
eastern half went to Portugal, and
the western half to Spain. It seems
like an equitable -- if arrogant --
solution.
But the Pope's decree didn't exactly
specify where the line between the
two was to be.
8. Magellan proposed to the Spanish king that he, Magellan, would be able to find the line
the Pope had described... and find it in such a way as to prove that the "Moluccas," the
coveted Spice Islands-- pretty much what we, today, call Indonesia – were within Spanish
territory. The king agreed to support Magellan's voyage. With five ships, San Antonio,
Santiago, Trinidad, Victoria, and Concepcion, and 280 men, Magellan's Armada de
Moluccas departed in September 1519.
9. Philippines before the coming of Spaniards
The people of the archipelago were perceived early enough as part of the great ethnic and
cultural continuum of Oceania and Malaysia.
According to Corpuz, the separateness of the settlements in the archipelago was also reflected,
in turn, in the hundreds of dialects spoken by the people, “all developed from a single mother
tongue.” – Malay as lingua franca
According to Salazar, “a great deal of what we now call our own has come from a common
source, a common civilization formerly shared with at least some of our fellow Asians
(particularly the Malays and Indonesians)—i.e. , from our Austronesians or Malayo-Polynesian
base-culture.”
When the Spaniards came to the Philippines, the local inhabitants had been exposed to foreign
affinities, from the Arabs to our Asian neighbors, who had influenced them in trading, culture
and religion.
10. About ten years after Magellan's birth
in Portugal, on the Philippine island of
Mactan, a fine boy was born and
named Kolipulako. Legend has it that
he was a skilled horseman by age six
and could read and write by age seven.
By age eighteen, he was a champion
swimmer and diver,
and a champion boxer and wrestler. By
the time Magellan set sail for the
Moluccas,Kolipolako
was known as Kaliph Pulaka or
Lapulapu. He had become the ruler or
king of his people,
one of several tribes peacefully sharing
the island of Mactan.
11. The son of Kusgano and
Inday Puti; and grandson
of a legendary powerful
barangay queen, Matang
Mantaunas, from which
the name of the island of
Mactan originated from.
Lapulapu’s wife Bulakana,
was a beautiful princess,
the daughter of Datu
Sabtano.
Their union produced a
son, Sawili.
12. On March 16, 1521, the fleet arrived at the island of Homonhon in the
Philippines where they met Rajah Kolambu of Limasawa. They stayed with
the Rajah for several weeks recovering from the voyage. During those few
weeks, the Rajah and all of his people pledged their allegiance to Spain and
converted to Christianity at Magellan's urging.
13. Magellan heard that the kings on the nearby island of Mactan had decided that they
would not acknowledge the King of Spain nor convert to Christianity.
So, Magellan and a small army of warriors from Cebu, who had traditional rivalries
with Mactan, headed to Mactan to teach the rebellious Mactans a lesson.
14. The only existing primary source that
mentioned Lapulapu by name was the account of
Italian nobleman Antonio Pigafetta, the
the Spanish expedition led by Portuguese
Ferdinand Magellan in 1521.
But Pigafetta’s accounts did not include details
about the chieftain of Mactan Island.
15. Pigafetta’s account, in the 1969 book, “Magellan’s Voyage: A Narrative Account of
the First Circumnavigation,” said warriors of Mactan rained arrows, iron-tipped
bamboo lances and stones on Magellan and his men, aiming at their legs since
only their heads and bodies were protected with metal helmets and breastplates.
Pigafetta wrote that Magellan had only 50 soldiers during the battle against
Lapulapu’s 1,500 warriors.
Cannons on the Spanish ships were rendered useless in the battle because these
were out of range.
Magellan, who was hit by a poisoned arrow in the leg, ordered a retreat. A bamboo
lance flew and wounded him in the arm, making it difficult for Magellan to draw his
sword from its scabbard. Then a large javelin was thrust into his left leg, making
him fall face down in the water, according to Pigafetta.
“On this, all at once rushed upon him with lances of iron and of bamboo and with
these javelins, so that they slew our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true
guide,” he said.
After Magellan died, the remaining soldiers rushed back to the ship and fled.
16. While Lapulapu was known to be the leader of the group of men who emerged
victorious in what is now called as the Battle of Mactan, writers and historians still
debated whether he was the one who actually killed Magellan.
According to Danilo Gerona, author of “Ferdinand Magellan: The Armada de
Maluco and the European Discovery of the Philippines,” a number of accounts have
slight varying details on Magellan’s death but all of them seem to agree on one
thing: Lapulapu did not kill Magellan.
Alex Manlapao, a professor of philosophy, ethics, humanities and the contemporary
world at Colegio San Agustin-Bacolod, said various testimonies of chroniclers and
eyewitness accounts described Lapulapu to be in his 70s who probably watched the
battle unfold from a safe distance.
Magellan, on the other hand, was in his prime—an armor-clad warrior in his 30s or
40s, said Manlapao.
17. The absence of a written account about Lapu Lapu has given rise to myths and tales
about him.
However…
18. “ The absence of evidence does
not mean the evidence of
absence.”
19. Though historians have differing views and have no exact
idea regarding the details of events when the Spaniards came
to the Philippines, we cannot deny the fact that
there was once a leader in the name of Lapu Lapu
who led the battle of Mactan which caused the
departure of the Spaniards from the archipelago
and delayed the colonization of the Philippines by
44 years.
20. History, as Renato Constantino have stated is
not merely a chronology of events nor is it just a
story of heroes and great men. History he said,
is “a recorded struggle of people for every
increasing FREEDOM and for newer and higher
realization of the human person.”
The struggle, he explained, is a “collective one” and as such “involves the
mass of human beings who are therefore the motivators of change and of
history.”
21. Lapulapu, being the first who defied
imperial Spanish colonization, is no doubt, was
one among the many who made us realize the
meaning and value of freedom, that is… to be
the subject and not an object; to be the master
of our own shadow; to reach our full potential,
to be conscious of ourselves, to bear the
responsibility for our choices and to have the
chance to be better.
Afterall, “Freedom cannot be bestowed — it
must be achieved.”
