AN OLD joke says that Lapu-Lapu killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, and the Mactan chieftain’s assassin is a cook—an obvious reference to the fish, the hero’s namesake, that could be grilled, steamed or cooked in linarang fashion.
However, the local hero’s name is a serious matter for Lapu-Lapu City Rep. Paz Radaza, who now wants to wipe out the “Lapu-Lapu” tag from the fish called pugapo, or grouper.
The first-time legislator has cooked up her own bill, calling it “An Act Rectifying the Dishonorable Use of a Great Filipino Name Lapu-Lapu to a Fish Species ‘Plectropomus leopardus.’”
Pugapo must be cooked as a pugapo, not as Lapu-Lapu, according to Radaza’s camp.
“Lapu-Lapu who resisted and defeated the Spaniards in the Battle of Mactan, should always be accorded and honored befitting of a patriot, great ruler and a hero. As it is a defilement that his name is being used to call a fish, Plectropomus leopardus, continuance of calling the species as Lapu-Lapu or Lapulapu shall be prohibited. Instead, the species shall be called and restored to its original name ‘Pugapo,’” read the first two sections of House Bill (HB) 2223.
If the bill becomes a law, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of the Department of Agriculture would be the lead agencies in the law’s full implementation.
HB 2223 is among the three bills—the two others being HB 2221 and HB 2222—that Radaza filed.
HB 2221 wants the “Kadaugan sa (Victory in) Mactan” commemoration, which is observed every April 27, to be a national regular holiday as “Lapu-Lapu Day.”
On April 27, 1521, Lapu-Lapu defeated Magellan in a skirmish labeled by historians as the “Battle of Mactan.” Republic Act 11040, enacted in 2018, declares the April 27 celebration as a special non-working holiday in Lapu-Lapu City only.
HB 2222 seeks the renaming of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport into the Lapu-Lapu International Airport. The name of the airport’s management remains as the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority.
As to the Pugapo bill, it tasks the Philippine Information Agency to launch an information campaign if it ever becomes a law. The local government units’ role is to “help in the implementation by passing their local ordinances and disseminating information within their areas of jurisdiction” that pugapo should not be called Lapu-Lapu.
“For Plectropomus leopardus to be known, named and promoted as a delicious delicacy, let us encourage our countrymen to call it “Pugapo” through this bill,” Radaza said in the bill’s explanatory note. (from GCM of Superbalita Cebu/KAL)