#lapulapu

PINTADO X ULUPONG by Gerilya

Yes, I recognized this outfit as one of the legendary datu who slayed Magellan back in 1521: Lapu-Lapu. Dagon, but LapuLapu style...😁

Credits to @BlueShirrez

Here's Lapu-lapu and the gang 😁

A Legend of Lapu-lapu

Mactan Island

This is the story of Lapulapu and his rivals and enemies battling at Mactan.

“A favorite legend about Lapulapu among rural folk on Mactan Island tells of the hero's love for Princess Bulakna. She was the lovely daughter of Rajah Kusgano, king of Ulangga Island near Mactan. Lapulapu had several rivals. Bitadlok was Lapulapu's most aggressive rival. Like Lapulapu, Bitadlok was noted far and wide for his great courage and prowess. 

It was a time-honored custom among the pre-Spanish Filipinos that a young blade should win a woman's hand not only with sweet nothings but with a display of courage and prowess in a duel with his rival. 

So it was ceremoniously announced to all and sundry in the island kingdom of Ulangga by the village criers of Rajah Kusgano that on a certain day after the dapdap trees had flowered, Lapulapu and Bitadlok would fight it out for the hand and heart of his beauteous daughter and heiress, Bulakna.

Lapulapu's other rivals, apparently believing that discretion was the better part of valor, had decided against participating in the contest. Many people, coming from as far as Bohol and Leyte, journeyed to Ulangga Island in their outriggers to witness "the battle of the century." Even the rajahs and lakans of Butuan and Sikijod (Siquijor) eagerly came to Ulangga to see Lapulapu in action. They also came to see and admire the well-known beauty of Bulakna.

But shortly before the eagerly-awaited joust, word came to Lapulapu, the ruler of Mactan, that to Cebu - the kingdom of Rajah Humabon - had come “white people'' whom his Cebuano adversary welcomed and befriended. And to add insult to injury, another of Lapulapu’s arch-enemies, Zula, came from Humabon to demand tribute for Magellan in the name of the King of Spain. Lapulapu’s blood boiled. He turned down the demand for tribute and challenged the "intruders" to physical combat. 

The bloody battle of Mactan followed, resulting in the defeat of the Spaniards and the death of their brave leader, Magellan. Bitadlok sided with Lapulapu and was in the thick of the fight—to impress Bulakna and her father. Lapulapu did not know about his rival's gallantry until much later. "But Magellan immediately killed him with the same bamboo spear which the latter had hurled mightily at the captain, leaving the deadly lance in the Indian's body,” Pigafetta wrote in his account of the battle of Mactan. The "Indian" was Bitadlok.

When he saw that Magellan had killed his rival, Lapulapu was furious. He rushed toward the wounded Magellan and finished him off with a pestle. Incidentally, before Pearl Harbor, the people of Mactan erected an awe-inspiring monument to Lapulapu at the Open City park, showing the Malayan warrior holding a pestle. 

After the bloody encounter with the Spaniard, the legend concludes, the inhabitants of Mactan Ulangga, Santa Rosa, and other neighboring islands, held a double celebration: Magellan's defeat and death, and the royal wedding of Lapulapu and Bulakna in the richly-decorated panting or palace of Rajah Kusgano.”