EDITORIAL - Stuck with "Kadaugan sa Mactan"

Today will be reenacted once more the April 27, 1521 clash that saw the death of Ferdinand Magellan in the hands of Mactan natives led by Lapu-Lapu. The reenactment, called the “Kadaugan sa Mactan,” has become a popular attraction for locals and tourists.

The “battle” is a high point in Philippine history because it marks the first recorded incident in which Filipinos successfully repulsed foreign elements. The reenactment precisely serves to underscore the intense national pride Filipinos draw from the incident.

But today’s reenactment assumes greater significance in light of current events in which the Philippines is being confronted by the aggressive posturings of another foreign element and thus threaten our position as a sovereign nation.

The Philippines is locked in a “standoff” with China over the Scarborough Shoal, a small rocky outcrop ringing a lagoon west of the Philippines. Except for potential rich deposits of oil and natural gas and fishing purposes, the main thing at stake there is national pride.

International laws and conventions clearly place the Scarborough Shoal well within the territory of the Philippines. Far away from China, the only working claim the Chinese have is anchored on old historical maps and folklore.

But what international laws and conventions cannot provide China, it has more than made up and compensated for with military and economic might. And while it has not reached that point, it might as well be figuratively said of us that we are now staring at the barrel of a gun.

Conditions obtaining at the moment are far removed from those on April 27, 1521 between Lapu-Lapu and Magellan. What differences existed between them in balance of power cannot be described today between China and the Philippines as a mere tilting in one direction.

With almost no military comparison between China and Philippines, it makes little or no sense to project a future that will spawn some festival of the likes of “Kadaugan sa Mactan” out of the Scarborough episode. Let us treasure “Kadaugan sa Mactan.” It is the only one we have.