EDITORIAL - We should not make Lapu-Lapu a second-rate hero

Tomorrow will mark another anniversary of the Battle of Mactan, the famous event in the country’s history that highlighted the bravery of the Filipino people. For it was on that day when the local settlers on the island we used to call Opon successfully repulsed the invading foreign invaders.    

In the morning of April 27, 1521, a great battle erupted between the army of Datu Lapu-Lapu and a band of Spanish colonizers led by Ferdinand Magellan. It was indeed a historic battle that defined the gallantry of the Filipino race against any foreign domination.     

Far more superior in weaponry, the Spanish conquistadores must have thought that Lapu-Lapu and his men were the usual kind of enemies they encountered while navigating across the world from Europe that need to be repelled.

However, the Spanish colonizers were overwhelmed by the fighting ability of Lapu-Lapu and his men. 

For centuries, the Filipino people come to know Lapu-Lapu as the first native ever to have resisted Spanish colonization, a distinction that had made his fellow Cebuanos proud.

But through the years, Filipinos seem to have forgotten a feat that made Lapu-Lapu the country’s first war hero. He seemed to be sidelined to a corner of the Philippine history only as conqueror of Magellan, a feat that some opted to rate below the exploits of Rizal and Bonifacio.

It is sad to note that the celebrations of Lapu-Lapu’s heroic acts have been only confined to that nearby small island. Lapu-Lapu’s acts had hugely influenced the Filipino’s identity and they should be celebrated across the archipelago.

Years ago, Senator Richard Gordon had filed a bill making April 27 as Lapu-Lapu Day. Sadly, his peers at the Senate seem to have little interest in the bill as it never reached the first base.

We should not make Lapu-Lapu a second-rate hero. We should make April 27, the day the Battle of Mactan took place, truly a national holiday.