THE scant historical data about Lapulapu did not stop the government from making the 500th anniversary of the Victory of Mactan the main event of the 2021 Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines.
Dr. Rene R. Escalante, executive director of the National Quincentennial Committee (NQC), admitted to the little information on Lapulapu’s personal life.
Escalante said there had been no reliable information about when and where he was born, his parents, and whether he had a wife and children.
There was no documentation on what happened to Lapulapu after the Battle of Mactan and his death.
Escalante said the account of Antonio Pigafetta, the Italian scholar who joined explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, is also silent as to Lapulapu’s actual participation in the battle of Mactan.
Pigafetta and other survivors did not categorically state that Lapulapu personally participated in the battle as a combatant. There is also no first-hand account stating it was Lapulapu who delivered the fatal blow that ended Magellan’s life.
Escalante said because of the lack of reliable data about Lapulapu, his photos, his statue at the Liberty Shrine in Lapu-Lapu City and Luneta Park in Manila as well as the commemorative P5,000 bank notes are all artists’ renditions.