Filipino legend celebrated in tragic Vancouver block party: Who is Lapu-Lapu?

Several people were killed on April 27 after a driver ploughed into a crowd attending a street festival in Vancouver, Canada, meant to commemorate Lapu-Lapu, a 16th-century tribal chieftain in the Philippines known to have slain the famed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

Who is Lapu-Lapu, and why is he being celebrated by Filipino migrants in Vancouver?

The common portrayal of Lapu-Lapu is of a young, virile, muscular datu – or tribal chieftain in Tagalog – of the small island of Mactan who in 1521 successfully rolled back the first Spanish incursion into an archipelago that later became the Philippines.

Lapu-Lapu met Magellan on the beaches of Mactan on April 27, 1521.

His warriors – numbering about 1,000 – routed Magellan’s crew of about 50 soldiers with wooden shields and spears, overcoming Spanish steel, cannons and muskets.

A common image of Lapu-Lapu has him standing tall, holding his kris – a native sword – over his head and ready to strike the fatal blow on Magellan, who had fallen to his knees in the shallows.

Historians generally agree that this account of Lapu-Lapu’s role in the battle has been stylised to create a myth worth emulating.

Author and historian Danilo Gerona said all factual accounts, though varying in details, agree on one thing: Lapu-Lapu did not kill Magellan.

The chieftain would have already been in his 70s, and probably watched from a distance as the battle of Mactan unfolded.

The chronicler Antonio Pigafetta, who was actually there at the battle, wrote in his diary that a poisoned arrow hit Magellan in the leg.

Magellan was again hit in the arm by a bamboo spear, and then a native warrior sliced his leg with his sword.

Magellan fell, and Lapu-Lapu’s men swarmed him.

Fact vs fiction

Apart from Pigafetta’s account of the battle, there has been very little written about Lapu-Lapu.

“Nobody knows what happened to him (before and after the battle of Mactan),” said archaeologist Jose Eleazar Bersales.

This has given room to myth-making.

There is the tale, for instance, that Lapu-Lapu did not die but turned into stone that is now guarding the waters off Mactan. Fishermen throw coins at the man-shaped stone to seek indulgence for calm waters and a rich harvest.

The significance of Lapu-Lapu and the battle of Mactan have also been exaggerated.

In truth, the battle was merely a sideshow to a tribal skirmish. It did little to unite tribes and islands into a cohesive opposition to Spain.

Spain eventually sent more ships and men to the islands, claimed the archipelago in the name of King Philip II, and ruled over the Philippines for more than 300 years.

Yet, Lapu-Lapu and the battle of Mactan are often hailed by many Filipinos as something more.

In this framing, the battle was the first successful resistance to colonial rule, making Lapu-Lapu the first Philippine national hero.

For this, Mactan’s main city and a variant of the grouper fish have been named after Lapu-Lapu.

The block party in Vancouver was first organised in 2024 to remind Filipino migrants in Canada of their roots.

But the festival on April 26 was tragically cut short by

a 30-year-old man using a van as a murder weapon.

Vancouver police have ruled out terrorism as a motive.