BUILDER'S JOURNAL: Walking around the Historic City of Cebu

February 22-26, 2019

Mabuhay!

This is a photo and video journal of our travel to the historic city of Cebu featuring our walk around some of the most famous tourist attractions in the vicinity.

Walking around the area

Upon our arrival coming from the magnificent province of Bohol in Pier 3 Cebu port around 8am, we walked around the nearby vicinity and discovered some awesome historic sites that boost our knowledge of Cebu and its immense contribution to Philippines history.

This is the trail of our walk in the nearby vicinity before heading to the airport.

Plaza Independencia

This place is a cluster of places and monuments that has an impact on Philippine history most of it from the Spanish era.

A guard outpost

The gazebo in the public park

The directional map

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Miguel Lopez de Legazpi Monument

Miguel López de Legazpi (1502 – 20 August 1572), also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo (The Elder), was a Spanish navigator and governor who established the first Spanish settlement in the East Indies when his expedition crossed the Pacific Ocean from the Viceroyalty of New Spain in modern-day Mexico, arriving in Cebu in the Philippine Islands in 1565. He was the first Governor-General of the Spanish East Indies, which was governed and mainly located in the Philippines. It also encompassed other Pacific islands namely Guam and the Mariana Islands. After obtaining peace with various indigenous nations and kingdoms, he made Cebu City the capital of the Spanish East Indies in 1565 and later transferred to Manila in 1571. The capital city of the province of Albay bears his name.

Excerpt from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_L%C3%B3pez_de_Legazpi

Ramon Magsaysay Monument

Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Sr. (August 31, 1907 – March 17, 1957) was a Filipino statesman who served as the seventh president of the Philippines, from December 30, 1953, until his death in an aircraft disaster. An automobile mechanic by profession, Magsaysay was appointed military governor of Zambales after his outstanding service as a guerrilla leader during the Pacific War. He then served two terms as Liberal Party congressman for Zambales's at-large district before being appointed Secretary of National Defense by President Elpidio Quirino. He was elected president under the banner of the Nacionalista Party. He was the first Philippine president born in the 20th century and the first to be born after the Spanish colonial era.

Excerpt from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Magsaysay

Cebu Veterans Memorial

This monument is dedicated to the Cebu war veterans of world war 2.

The faded brass sign reads:

"CEBU VETERANS MEMORIAL

This monument, an eloquent oblation like hands reaching for heaven, soulful in supplication stands for the noble living and the noble dead whose dreams and hopes shall in the end hopefully find rewards at enduring freedom from all kinds of tyrannies, suppressions, fear and want.

Prof. Julian N. Jumalon"

Prof. Julian Jumalon establishes the oldest and biggest butterfly sanctuary in Cebu, Philippines.

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Malacanan Sa Sugbo (Malacanan in Cebu)

Fort of San Pedro

Fuerte de San Pedro is a military defense structure in Cebu (Philippines), built by the Spanish under the command of Miguel López de Legazpi, the first governor of the Captaincy General of the Philippines. It is located in the area now called Plaza Independencia, in the pier area of the city. The original fort was made of wood and built after the arrival of Legazpi and his expedition. In the early 17th century a stone fort was built to repel Muslim raiders. Today's structure dates from 1738 and is the oldest triangular bastion fort in the country. It served as the nucleus of the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines. During the Philippine Revolution at the end of the 19th century, it was attacked and taken by Filipino revolutionaries, who used it as a stronghold.

Excerpt from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_San_Pedro

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Registration at the entrance counter

Emmanuel F. Panares - the Cebuano artist whose artworks are on display in the museum gallery inside Fort San Pedro. He has given life to some of the important personalities that have a significant impact on Philippine history most notable in Cebu.

LAPU-LAPU- THE FIRST FILIPINO HERO
Very little is known of him but traditions declare that he came from Borneo before settling to Sugbo now Cebu Island of the Philippines. The only written evidence of his existence is the journal of Antonio Pigafetta who document the voyage of Magellan. He wrote in his journal the name of the two chiefs of Mactan who are Zulu who embraced the Christian religion and Cilapu-Lapu who refused to recognized the authority of Rajah Humabon, the king of Cebu.

Battle of Mactan

Ferdinand Magellan made friends with the local chieftains Rajah Kolambu and Rajah Siagu, king of Limawasa, who guided him to Sugbu now Cebu. Cebu was ruled by Rajah Humabon, who with his wife, embraced Christianity introduced by Magellan and were later baptized. Magellan planted a wooden cross in Cebu which is a very popular landmark for local and foreign tourists until today.
Rajah Humabon ordered the local chiefs of the island to convert to Christianity and provide food supplies to the ships. This command was met with opposition by the chieftain of Mactan, Lapu-Lapu who refused to recognize the authority of Humabon.
Rajah Humabon persuaded Magellan to crash the resistance. Magellan with 49 armies armed with guns was met by Lapu-Lapu with 1500 armies.

Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521)

On March 16, 1521, Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer who was commissioned by King Charles I of Spain, unintentionally landed in Homonhon Island now Samar of the Philippines in search of the Spice Island or the Moluccas in modern Indonesia. He is the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean. Leaving Spain in command of 270 crews and 5 ships: the Trinidad being the lead ship, the San Antonio, the Conception, the Victoria and the Santiago. After 3 years, only the Victoria ship with 18 crews returned to Spain under the command of Juan Sebastian Elcano, who is the first man to circumnavigate the world.

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Rajah Sikatuna

Datu Sikatuna (or Catunao) was a Datu or chieftain of the Bool Kingdom (or Kedatuan of Dapitan) in the island of Bohol in the Philippines. He made a blood compact (sanduguan) and alliance with the Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi on March 25, 1565 at Hinawanan Bay, barangay Hinawanan, Loay. Their blood compact is the first Treaty of Friendship between Spain and the Philippines. The previous site of the pact was at barangay Bool, Tagbilaran City but later concluded the event actually happened at barangay Hinawanan, Loay, Bohol through Resolution No. 4, issued by the National Historical Institute in 2005.

Excerpt from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datu_Sikatuna

Antonio Figafetta

Antonio Pigafetta (Italian: c. 1491 – c. 1531) was an Italian scholar and explorer. He joined the expedition to the Spice Islands led by explorer Ferdinand Magellan under the flag of the emperor Charles V and after Magellan's death in the Philippine Islands, the subsequent voyage around the world. During the expedition, he served as Magellan's assistant and kept an accurate journal, which later assisted him in translating the Cebuano language. It is the first recorded document concerning the language.

Pigafetta was one of the 18 men who made the complete trip, returning to Spain in 1522, under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano, out of the approximately 240 who set out three years earlier. These men completed the first circumnavigation of the world. Others mutinied and returned in the first year. Pigafetta's surviving journal is the source for much of what is known about Magellan and Elcano's voyage.

Enrique of Malacca was a Malay member of the Magellan–Elcano expedition that completed the first circumnavigation of the world in 1519–1522. He was acquired as a slave by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1511 at the age of 14 years, probably in the early stages of the Siege of Malacca (1511). Although Magellan's will calls him "a native of Malacca", Antonio Pigafetta states that he was a native of Sumatra. Magellan later took him to Europe, where he accompanied the circumnavigation expedition in 1519. According to many historians, there is a possibility that he is the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

As was the native custom at that time, Legaspi and Sikatuna sealed their friendship through a blood compact wherein both draw two or three of blood in their arms into a cup of wine, then the blood wine mixture was divided equally between the two which both drank up to the last drop. Thus the blood compact was sealed on March 16, 1565

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The Magellan's Cross Pavilion which houses the tindalo cross was built sometime in the 1800s. The structure is an octagonal kiosk made of coral stone.

The pavilion and the tindalo cross itself sustained cracks due to the 2013 Bohol earthquake. The original cross was also found to have deteriorated due to termites in 2015. The pavilion was closed for renovations and was reopened in March 2016.

On the ceiling of the pavilion's interior, is a mural depicting the baptism of Rajah Humabon and his household by Fr. Pedro Valderrama and the planting of a wooden cross by Ferdinand Magellan. The artwork was done by Jess Roa and Serry M. Josol.