Duterte to raise Lapu-Lapu as national hero_REFERENCE

image credit: annoyz view.wordpress.com Duterte to raise Lapu-Lapu as national hero  Friday, May 20, 2016  By  DARYL D. ANUNCIADO NOW that the country's presumptive president is a Bisaya, Lapu-Lapu, a "Bisaya" hero who fought the Spanish forces who landed on the island of Mactan over 300 years ago, will be included in the list of national heroes. Presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte, in an interview with Sun.Star Media Group on Wednesday dawn, May 18, said he will raise Lapu-Lapu as a national hero. "I will raise Lapu-Lapu as a national hero... He was the first guy to resist imperialism. He not only resisted imperialists, he killed imperialists," Duterte said. During his campaign speeches, Duterte reminded the crowd about how Lapu-Lapu fought Spanish colonizers who landed in Mactan Island in 1521. Lapu-Lapu, who was one of the datus or ruler in Mactan Island, eventually killed Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who led the Spanish expedition to the East Indies in search of the Spice Island. Though Lapu-Lapu is regarded as the first Filipino hero as he was the first native to resist Spanish colonization, he is not included in the list of national heroes recommended by the National Heroes Committee (NHC). On March 28, 1993, then President Fidel V. Ramos issued Executive Order 75 entitled “Creating the National Heroes Committee Under the Office of the President,” according to the National Commission for Culture and the Arts' (NCCA) website at ncca.gov.ph. On November 15, 1995, the NHC, based on its criteria, selected nine Filipino historical figures to be recommended as national heroes. The committee listed Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, Apolinario Mabini, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat, Juan Luna, Melchora Aquino, and Gabriela Silang as national heroes. "What the Manila people did was, instead of raising him (Lapu-Lapu) to the level and dignity of a hero, pu--ng-ina, he was demoted. Isda na lang, escabeche (They named a grouper fish after him)," Duterte told Sun.Star on Wednesday. "I will assign this to the proper office. I will issue a decree that Lapu-Lapu should be included in the listings of the national heroes," Duterte added. (Sunnex) shared from