EXACTLY 500 years ago today, on April 27,1521, the warriors of Mactan Island fought and won a decisive victory over tall, huge and bulky European soldiers with their superior war technology and big, sturdy ships with cannons and mortars under the command of Fernando Magallanes (Ferdinand Magellan), a Portuguese navigator representing in that battle the great Spanish empire and the local ruler of Cebu, Rajah Humabon.
The courageous Mactan fighters were undaunted by the fire-breathing vessels, mortar blasts that barely reached the shore. The natives fought fiercely with iron and bamboo spears, bow and arrows, knives, javelins, stones and kampilans, with their chief Lapu-Lapu at the front line. They forced the heavily armored Magellan to his knees, literally kneeling on the sands of Mactan beach (he was hit by an arrow in the knee) prior to taking the deadly blows from local warriors defying the first foreign invasion on their shores.
Indeed, Lapu-Lapu is our first hero, his heroism displayed at a time when we were not yet a nation and the natives of these islands were able to smell and recognize foreign invaders even from miles away.
‘Most chiefs obeyed except for Lapu-Lapu, the chieftain of Mactan, who vehemently refused to be subjugated by the emerging alliance.’
It is relevant to remember the background of this historic battle. Magellan first dropped anchor in Samar on March 16, 1521 and befriended Rajah Kulambu and Rajah Siagu, the chieftain of Limasawa. These local leaders led him to Cebu, where Rajah Humabon welcomed the foreigners with a feast and an acquiescence to their Christian god. Humabon was dazzled by the Europeans’ modern ships and tools of war, and the stories of their voyage, and saw in Magellan an opportunity to expand his political clout.
The Humabon-Magellan combine issued an order to all nearby chiefs to provide food supplies for the Spanish ships and to convert to Christianity. Most chiefs obeyed except for Lapu-Lapu, the chieftain of Mactan, who vehemently refused to be subjugated by the emerging alliance.
Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan’s chronicler, wrote: “On Friday, April 26, Zula, the second chief of the island of Mactan, sent one of his sons to present two goats to the captain-general, and to say that he would send him all that he had promised, but that he had not been able to send it to him because of the other chief Lapu-Lapu, who refused to obey the king of Spain.”
The tribute of two skinny goats got the goat of the supercilious Magellan and he barely needed convincing from Humabon and Zula to force his subject Lapu-Lapu to comply with his demands. How dare that he, just a chieftain, reject the representative of King Carlos Primero?, the condescending Magallanes thought. So, the attack on Mactan island was mounted, starting with the burning of the Mactan village which greatly angered the natives. Magellan’s mortars in his boats were too far away to make a dent in a hand-to-hand combat of 50 Spanish seamen protected by head-and-body armor, metal helmets and breastplates, against 1,500 warriors with bamboo spears and arrows. Pigafetta’s account of the battle lives today in books and internet sources — describing in detail the folly of a scornfully arrogant, power-hungry European explorer who played god and lost in the shores of an nondescript Visayan island.
President Duterte is correct in insisting that the Republic of the Philippines honor Lapu-Lapu as our first hero, and celebrate the decisive victory in the Battle of Mactan half a century ago, instead of the quintecentennial anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the country. He is the first President of the nation to give the proper homage to Lapu-Lapu.
