Lapu-Lapu

Named after the hero, Lapu-Lapu is also the name of the grouper fish in the Philippines. Lapu-Lapu (Kaliph Pulaka) (born 1491, died 1542) is the earliest known Muslim Chieftain of Mactan in the Philippines. Known as the first native of the archipelago to have resisted Spanish colonization, he is now regarded as the first National hero of the Philippines.

On the morning of April 27, 1521, Lapu-Lapu and the men of Mactan, armed with spears and kampilan, faced 49 Spanish soldiers led by Portuguese captain Ferdinand Magellan. In what would later be known as the Battle of Mactan, Magellan and several of his men were killed.

In his honor, the Cebuano people have erected a statue and church in Mactan Island and also renamed the town of Opon in Cebu to Lapu-Lapu City.

Timeline

April 13,1521 - Rajah Humabon, his family, and 800 Sugboanons (people from Cebu) be-friended Magellan and converted to Roman Catholicism. Magellan declared the people of Cebu a servant of God and Spain, while the pagan inhabitants of Mactan island became the "enemies of the Church".

April 27, 1521 - Magellan, with forty-eight armored men, ploughed ashore Mactan island and fought Lapu-Lapu and his warriors. The encounter is known in Philippine history as the Battle of Mactan. The Spaniards and Portuguese were driven off the island in a terrible defeat.

June 9, 1522 - Juan Sebastian Elcano, navigating Magellan´s only remaining vessel La Victoria with eighteen men and 533-hundredweight-cloves on board, successfully returned to Sevilla in Spain via the Tidorein Maluka (present-day Moluccas); Juan Sebastian Elcano was assigned in world history as the first man to have ever completed the circumnavigation of the globe.

External links

Lapu-Lapu (Photo and Article)

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Lapu-Lapu

Timeline

See also

External links