POLITICS is the biggest bane in the Philippines. It has become the poison of our very existence rather than the cure, as many traditional politicians purport it to be. The same politics almost caused our national identity five centuries ago to appear like a blur in the universe. With natives warring against each other and not standing in unity against a perceived threat. It would have been sorely uneventful in 1521, had one native of an island in this present-day Philippines not stood up and refused to recognize the Spanish crown. There would have been no history to tell our children, there would not have even been probably a Philippines – except a collection of islands across the Pacific Ocean (as named by the great explorer Ferdinand Magellan for its tranquil waters).
The Philippines could have faded silently into the background of history as simply among the “island stops” of a very long first voyage to circumnavigate the globe to rest and to gather food, water and resources. I am always in awe of the Spanish expedition, much more the vision and tenacity of Magellan and the navigational skills of Juan Sebastian Elcano, who finished the mission. Of a fleet of five ships, only one, Victoria, aptly named, returned to Spain in September 1522.
But it took the pride of one native, whose identity to this day, has not been well-chronicled except for that fateful day, April 2, 1521. Fortunately, that day will forever be etched, not only in Philippine history but in world history. Today as we Filipinos face an almost insurmountable challenge of fighting corrupt, traditional and patronage politics anchored on money, election fraud, political deceptions and all devices that create an illusion in the minds of many Filipinos – the strategy of Lapulapu is worthy of consideration. Thanks to Italian scholar and explorer, Antonio Pigafetta, who joined the expedition of Magellan and gave a full account of the day.
On a Friday, the 26th of April 1521, Zula, one of chiefs of the island of Matan (now Mactan), sent to Magellan his son with two goats as a present. He told Magellan that he could not fulfill his promise because another chief named Silapulapu (Lapulapu) “would not in any way obey the King of Spain and had prevented him from doing so.” Zula asked Magellan to send him one boat full of men to give him assistance so he could fight and subdue his rival, Lapulapu. However, Magellan decided to go himself with three boats. That decision to interfere in the local political dynamics cost Magellan his life.
Magellan set out from Zubu at midnight with sixty men armed with corselets and helmets and the natives on their side divided among twenty or thirty balangai (native boats). They arrived at Matan three hours before daylight. He wanted to attempt gentle means and sent on shore someone to tell those islanders “that if they would recognize the Christian king as their sovereign, and obey the King of Spain, and pay them the tribute which had been asked”, he would become their friend, otherwise they would prove how their lances would wound.
Pigafetta writes, “the islanders were not terrified, they replied that if we had lances, so also had they, although only of reeds, and wood hardened with fire. They asked however that we should not attack them by night, but wait for daylight, because they were expecting reinforcements, and would be in greater numbers. This they said with cunning, to excite us to attack them by night, supposing that we were ready, but they wished this because they had dug ditches between their houses and the beach, and they hoped that we should fall into them.”
Magellan’s men waited for daylight and then leaped into the water up to their thighs. Since the water level was low, the rocks prevented their boats from coming closer to the beach. They had to cross two good crossbow shots through the water before reaching it. If a good crossbow shot is 500 yards that would be a walk of about one kilometer from their ships to reach land. Forty-nine men went to battle, with the other eleven remaining in charge of the boats.
They “found the islanders fifteen hundred in number, drawn up in three squadrons. They came down upon us with terrible shouts, two squadrons attacking us on the flanks, and the third in front. The captain then divided his men into two bands.” Magellan’s musketeers and crossbowmen fired for half an hour from a distance, but the bullets and arrows passed through the shields made of thin wood, and just wounded the natives but did not stop them.
Instead of retreating, the islanders seeing that the guns did them little or no harm, shouted more loudly and springing from one side to the other to avoid the shots, they drew nearer to the enemies, “throwing arrows, javelins, spears hardened in fire, stones, and even mud, so that we could hardly defend ourselves. Some of them cast lances pointed with iron at the captain general.”
Magellan, “in order to disperse the multitude and to terrify them, sent some of our men to set fire to their houses, but this rendered them more ferocious. Some of them ran to the fire, which consumed twenty or thirty houses and there killed two of our men. The rest came down upon us with greater fury. They perceived that our bodies were defended, but that the legs were exposed, and they aimed at them principally.”
Magellan’s right leg was pierced by a poisoned arrow, after which he gave orders to retreat only a few steps, however almost all of his men already took flight, so that only six or eight remained.
Pigafetta writes “we were oppressed by the lances and stones which the enemy hurled at us, and we could make no more resistance. The bombards which we had in the boats were of no assistance to us, for the shoal water kept them too far from the beach. We went through, retreating little by little, and still fighting.” Even when they were already a few hundred meters in the water, the islanders followed the remaining men with their spears. Eventually, the spears knocked Magellan’s helmet, and his right arm, until he was unable to draw his sword and was surrounded by the natives.
Pigafetta writes, “one of them with a great sword, like a great scimatar gave him a great blow on the left leg, which brought the captain down on his face, then the Indians threw themselves upon him, and ran him through with lances and scimitars, and all the other arms which they had, so that they deprived of life our mirror, light, comfort, and true guide.”
This fatal battle was fought on the 27th of April of 1521, on a Saturday. It is time we fight with strategy, compassion and the seal to protect our nation from tyranny, and cruel, scheming, self-serving politics just like how Lapulapu fought for his territory five centuries ago.