About Lapu Lapu Day
About Lapu Lapu Day
In 2021, President Duterte issued Proclamation No. 200 declaring April 27 of every year as Lapulapu Day to remember his legacy. Republic Act No. 11040 declaring April 27th as a special working public holiday throughout the country and a special non-working holiday in Lapulapu City, Cebu.
The holiday was declared in commemoration of the victory of Lapu-Lapu and his men against foreign invaders led by Ferdinand Magellan on April 27th 1521.
It was on this fateful day, that Lapu Lapu and his constituents repelled an invading force of 49 Spaniards led by Ferdinand Magellan who was killed in this historic event which became known as the Battle of Mactan.
Lapu-Lapu was a native Muslim of Mactan and the earliest known indigenous Visayan Muslim chieftain on the island of Mactan.
Despite Magellan's death, Spain later sent three more expeditions to the archipelago. It was the last one, led by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, which established Spain’s colonization of the islands. Legaspi first landed in Gamay, a village in Samar, in March 1561. The colony was named the Philippines in honour of King Philip II of Spain.
