Lapulapu, truly the country’s first chief of police

In the aftermath of the Battle of Mat-an (translated into “with eyes”, meaning vigilant and not easy to beguile, later named as Mactan), Lapulapu, the Chief of Mat-an, acting as chief of police of Visayas and Mindanao, did the following:

The defense of the islands: “King Lapulapu directed his men to help the rest of the people of the Bisayan regions as most of the people might be overrun by undesirable foreigners again. The trusted men of King Lapulapu spread out in the Bisayas in order to help the men who were in need of assistance. Some of the natives of Sugbu settled in Leyte especially in Baibai and Cabalian, in Bohol in Panay and in the land inhabited by the black people called Panilonga, now Negros. When Legaspi came, the Bisayans knew that the natives at the port were not the only ones to fight against bad foreigners.”

Lapulapu’s personal life: “Lapulapu was married to a fair lady named Bulacna who was the daughter of a chief of a small balangay, Rajah Cusgan, in the island of Olanggoh, now called Santa Rosa. He was a contented married man and was the head of a happy family and people. The royal couple had three children whose descendants lost identity as time went by.”

After the Three Day Battle of Mat-an, King Lapulapu celebrated their victory. Prof. Lina Quimat, in her book “Glimpses in History of Early Cebu” published in 1980 continued the narration: “As was the custom, the natives buried their dead in their graves and while the white men were buried where they fell as most of them were already decomposed. It was also the custom of the natives, the dead were respected and this was true even to their enemies.”

The Battle of Mat-an was preceded by a fight when Lapulapu was still young:

Years before the Battle of Mactan (April 27, 1521) Lapulapu defeated the attack of a Chinese pirate on the island of Mactan. According to Quimat’s book, the first Filipino hero was born sometime in 1484 in Mat-an (now known as Mactan), Sugbu, the elder of two boys, sons of Hari Mangal and Rani or Hara Bauga. Lapulapu was the elder brother, his younger brother was named Malingin.

Lapulapu was a squire to the knights of Hari Mangal named Bali-alho, Sagpu-baha, and Bugto-pasan (an earlier chronicler, Manuel Enriquez dela Calzada also narrated the story of Bali-alho). They were experts in arnis also called eskrima. Everyday these knights trained the young Lapulapu.

Then in 1496, a Chinese pirate by the name of Chiong Li launched the first attack but was totally repulsed by the young Lapulapu. A small band of Chinese bandits went to Sugbu in the balangay of Opong which was located in the island of Mat-an. The pirates made a mistake because they landed on the shores where Lapulapu, who was only 12 year old, had his daily training exercise in eskrima with the knights. Instead of running home to tell his father, Lapulapu and his instructors fought and all the bandits were killed. Since then the Chinese bandits never sent anyone to Sugbu.