Lapu-Lapu will always be our hero!

One “injustice”’ that presumptive President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte has promised to correct with our Philippine history with regard how Filipinos treat and see Lapu-Lapu… where some Filipinos say he wasn’t a Filipino hero because when he supposedly killed Ferdinand Magellan that Portuguese explorer in the employ of the King of Spain during the famous Battle of Mactan, the Philippines was not yet a country. I have personally encountered this type of attitude by a few Filipinos in the past.

Fifteen years ago, I joined then Senate President Marcelo “Noy Celing” Fernan on a trip to the island of Corregidor in order to install a monument for Pres. Sergio Osmeña Sr. In Corregidor, they have a Heroes Monument and I asked then the Island’s curator, Alfred Xerez Burgos why there was no statue of Lapu-Lapu and he immediately remarked that Lapu-Lapu was not a Filipino hero because the Philippines did not yet exist in the Year 1521. This was always the thinking of some Filipinos who refuse to recognize the exploits of Lapu-Lapu.

Well during the reign of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, then Tourism Secretary and now comebacking Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon installed a huge statue of Lapu-Lapu in the Teodoro F. Valencia Circle (a.k.a. Agrifina Circle) in what ultra nationalists dubbed as sacred ground in Rizal Park. The Lapu-Lapu statue was a donation from the Korean Freedom League as a gift to the Filipino nation much like what the French gifted the United States of America with the Statue of Liberty in New York City.

Back then; Tourism Secretary Dick Gordon gave tribute to Lapu-Lapu saying, “Lapu-Lapu is one of the greatest Filipino heroes who ever lived. His bravery and role in repulsing the Spanish invaders long ago dramatized the capability of the Filipino to rise above adversity and believe in themselves.” But the ultra-nationalists did not take this sitting down and even as late as a few years ago, there was an effort to remove the offending Lapu-Lapu statue and send it to the City of Lapu-Lapu (there was a letter sent to Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza urging her to accept the statue) and I suspect that this had the blessings of the Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez. I hope for his sake… he would rethink his position on Lapu-Lapu.

Well with Sen. Dick Gordon back in the Senate and Pres. Duterte already making an announcement that he would declare Lapu-Lapu as a national hero, saying, “Lapu-Lapu should be given the country’s highest honor.” During our Annual Convention of the Federation of Motorcycle Clubs, then candidate Mayor Duterte bewailed the fact that a true Filipino hero was named after a fish and he wasn’t joking when he said that he would correct this mistake of our history.

Let me point out clearly that Mayor Duterte isn’t trying to change history here…but rather he wants Filipinos to change their attitude against Lapu-Lapu and learn to honor his heroism. I’d like to hear those ultra-nationalists say their piece on this issue. They’ve got a month more to think this through and I’m sure we could debate on this.  Just you wait when a President Duterte will declare Cebuano as one of the national languages in the Philippines… then all hell would break loose! We can debate on this issue during the constitutional convention that Mayor Duterte would call in order to install a federal form of governance.

*      *      *

What’s happening inside Malacañang these days? I read that news report from Rappler.com that certain Malacañang staffers are deeply disturbed by a recent “verbal” order to department heads under the Office of the President to shred certain sensitive documents and memos signed by Pres. Aquino and his Cabinet secretaries. This is life at the end of Daang Matuwid? So where’s all that transparency b_llshit?

This scenario reminds me of the final days of Adolf Hitler and the ignoble end his Thousand Year Reich. Hitler was a lover of the work of Richard Wagner and his climatic opera Gotterdammerung (in German mythology, the destruction of the Gods) whose music was played over the radio while allied bombs were exploding in Berlin while Russian tanks circled the Reichstag. I don’t know what’s going on inside Malacañang these days, but if they are burning or shredding documents and memos, it means that they are hiding something. For me, this should trigger an investigation… in order for us to find out what P-Noy is hiding from the Filipino people whom he fondly calls “His Boss!”

I understand that all documents and public records are protected under Republic Act No. 9470 regarding laws and regulations governing public records, which is protected by the 1987 Constitution on the Right to Information. If this report can be verified… I reckon that someone inside Malacañang just violated the Constitution in ordering the shredding of documents.

*      *      *

E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected].