About Lapu Lapu Fish

Lapu-Lapu is a Fish, Not the hero of the Philippines

When you google-up lapu-lapu, you'll end up in a site discussing about the brave hero of Mactan, Lapu-Lapu. At least you're a foot closer to finding out that the fish is named after him. Curious how did it become the namesake of the hero? Well here's the story behind all of this..

It started when Portuguese Magellan came to Sugbo AKA Cebu. He planned to conquer the Island Mactan, where Lapu-Lapu is the chief captain. Of course, Lapu-Lapu resisted and it ended up as one of the most historical battle in the Philippines, The Battle of Mactan.

A battle between Lapu-Lapu along with his men and the Spaniards led by Ferdinand Magellan. In the end, Magellan was killed by one of Lapu-Lapu's comrades.


While Magellan was lying dead on the shore of Maktan, Lapulapu saw Pigafetta aboard one of the Spain's expedition's ships. He was cursing Lapulapu for killing his boss. Of course, Lapu-Lapu got mad and he shouted  "Ikaw nagpakaaron-ingnon nga alagad ni Bathala. Apan wala kay kalainan sa inyong mga sundalo. Pareho ka sa isdang kugtong, gisubad nimo bisan ang among mga kababayen-an. Sukad karon dinhi sa akong gingharian ang kugtong tawgon na nga Pigafetta." in english [You're not a servant of God. You are no different from your soldiers, Like the fish "kugtong" devouring even our women.]

The scenario has been remembered as time passed. And since because pigafetta was hard for the Cebuano's tongue to pronounce, it evolved into pugapo.

On the other hand, In  Pigafetta's annals of the expedition, he did not mention the name of the chieftain who killed his boss. Instead he narrated: "In the kingdom of Humabon they prepare a tasty kinilaw from a fish. This fish is called lapulapu."

When the Spaniards moved  to Luzon, they conveniently forgot the name of the killer of their boss. They only remembered Pigafetta calling a tasty fish, Lapu-Lapu, which is the favorite fish of the locals.