President Rodrigo Duterte, who was recently described as a “modern-day Lapulapu” by his spokesperson Harry Roque, repeated for at least the 20th time the unproven claim that the Mactan chieftain who led a 1,500-strong army to defeat Spanish-serving explorers in 1521 was a Tausug warrior.
STATEMENT
In a May 11 speech, Duterte reminded local officials, soldiers, and police officers in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao of his admiration for Lapulapu which, he said, he had shown by “elevating” the latter’s status as a hero:
“Kaya sino ang nag-elevate kay Lapu-Lapu, be? ‘Di ba sinabi ko noon nagpunta ako dito wala tayong national hero? … Sabi ko ‘pag napresidente ako, maggawa ako ng ating hero. And I raised Lapu-Lapu to the level and dignity of a true warrior, and he was Tausug, the settlement was Tausug.”
(Who elevated (the status of) Lapulapu? Didn’t I say when I came here that we didn’t have a national hero? … I said when I become president, I’ll make our hero. And I raised Lapulapu to the level and dignity of a true warrior, and he was Tausug, the settlement was Tausug.)
Source: RTVMalacanang, Meeting with BARMM, Local Government Officials, and AFP and PNP Area Commanders (Speech) 5/11/2021, May 11, 2021, watch from 21:08 to 21:37
The Mindanao-native president added:
“Hindi nila alam, those who are debating, ang mga Bisaya kung makinig lang sila nang mabuti, they can make out of what (sic) a Tausug is talking about. Ang pinakamalapit sa vernacular ano, sa Mindanao is ‘yong Cebuano pati — and Cebuano is a tribe also there thriving with Lapu-Lapu.”
(They don’t know, those who are debating, the Visayans, if they’ll keenly listen, they can make out what a Tausug is talking about. The closest in the vernacular, in Mindanao is Cebuano — and [the] Cebuano is a tribe [that was] also thriving with Lapulapu.)
Source: RTVMalacanang, Meeting with BARMM, Local Government Officials, and AFP and PNP Area Commanders (Speech) 5/11/2021, May 11, 2021, watch from 21:37 to 22:09
FACT
The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) has already clarified that the origin, including the ethnicity, of Lapulapu remains unknown due to the lack of “any credible eyewitness account or any form of document that may be considered primary source.”
In an April 30 statement, the agency said all available information about Lapulapu is based only on the accounts of some survivors, including Italian chronicler Antonio Pigafetta, among the Spanish-serving crew members of the Magellan-Elcano expedition that ended in 1522.
Thus, the NHCP — which is mandated by law to “resolve,” among others, “historical controversies or issues” — said it “considers all popular accounts and stories outside of these historical sources as speculative and folkloric and should not be regarded as established facts of history.”
Duterte had been describing Lapulapu in his speeches as a “Tausug” as early as October 2017, often citing during his visits in Mindanao provinces that the depiction of the precolonial hero wearing a “turban,” “headgear,” or “headband” resembles those worn by Tausugs. There were times Duterte referred to Lapulapu as a “Malay” or a “Muslim.”
However, in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, archaeologist Jose Eleazar Bersales, director of the University of San Carlos Museum in Cebu, challenged Duterte to “present a proof” that Lapulapu was a Tausug.
Bersales said historians “have nothing to prove,” citing that “historical records showed that Lapulapu was the chief of Mactan (Island).”
“I think it’s time for him (Duterte) to prove that the precolonial hero was a Tausug,” Bersales was quoted to have stated in a May 13 Inquirer report.
In late April, unproven claims about Lapulapu’s origin emerged after Duterte’s long-time personal aide-turned-senator Christopher “Bong” Go stated without any established evidence that Lapulapu was a Tausug warrior who originated from a certain East Kingdom of Sulu. (See VERA FILES FACT CHECK: Defending Sen. Bong Go, actor Robin Padilla insists on unproven claim on Lapulapu’s ethnicity)
After receiving backlash mainly from historians, Go apologized for bringing up the unproven story about Lapulapu in his speech at the event dedicated to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Mactan in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu on April 27. Portugese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and some of his Magellan-Elcano expedition crew members were killed in that battle against Lapulapu’s soldiers on April 27, 1521.
Go pointed to Duterte as one of his sources who claim that Lapulapu was a Tausug that they both idolize because they, too, are Visayans who live in Mindanao. He noted that the president even signed Executive Order No. 17, creating an award called “Order of Lapu-Lapu,” which is conferred on both private and government personnel, such as soldiers, who have shown “invaluable or extraordinary service in relation to the campaign or advocacy of the president.”
Despite Go’s apology, Muslim convert and actor Robin Padilla, a staunch Duterte supporter and a “friend” of the senator, still insists that the senator’s unproven claim has “historical fact” based on the “Muslim version” of the hero’s history.
Sources
RTVMalacanang, Meeting with BARMM, Local Government Officials, and AFP and PNP Area Commanders (Speech) 5/11/2021, May 11, 2021
Presidential Communications Operations Office, Press Briefing of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque – Presidential Communications Operations Office, april 27, 2021
National Historical Commission of the Philippines, Statement of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines on the Origin of Lapulapu and Other Details of His Personal Life, April 30, 2021
National Historical Commission of the Philippines, Mandate, Accessed May 13, 2021
Senate of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 10086
National Quincentennial Committee, Accounts of the Philippine voyage of the first circumnavigation of the planet by the Magellan-Elcano expedition …, May 26, 2020
Antonio Pigafetta’s chronicles
- Project Gutenberg, The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898 … 1519–1522, Accessed April 30, 2021
- University of Michigan, The Philippines of yesteryears; the dawn of history in the Philippines., Accessed April 30, 2021
Inquirer.net, Cebuano historian challenges Duterte: Prove Lapulapu was Tausug, May 13, 2021
Official Gazette, Executive Order No. 17
Go criticized for Lapulapu story
- The Philippine Star Life, Historians, scholars debunk Sen. Go’s claim that Lapulapu was a Tausug, April 28, 2021
- ABS-CBN News, Matters of Fact | ANC (30 April 2021), April 30, 2021
- Inquirer.net, Dubious claim, blooper mar Lapulapu tributes,
Christopher “Bong” Go official Facebook Page, Idol namin ni Pangulong Duterte si Lapu-Lapu., April 29, 2021
Duterte’s speeches about Lapulapu from the Presidential Communications Operations Office website, Compiled May 123 2021
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
