Sunday, June 8, 2014

Retracing the Past in Rajah Humabon Park and Dining at the Rodeo Grill (Cebu City)


I chanced upon this mostly ignored little park after visiting Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, just across the Cebu Diocese residence. It's really just a small slice of forgotten history etched on a parcel of land not usually mentioned in travel books. But it might as well be.


Rajah Humabon was the first chieftain to embrace Christianity. When Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan landed here on a Sunday, April 7, 1521, Humabon was regarded as the bravest and wisest man of the island. As a symbol of their newfound friendship, the rajah sealed his friendship with Magellan with a Blood Compact. Soon thereafter, the chieftain was captured by Christianity's noble teachings and henceforth converted.

On a Sunday morning, exactly a week after Magellan's arrival, Rajah Humabon and his wife, Queen Humamal were baptized along with 800 Cebuanos. The Rajah was baptized as Carlos, in honor of King Charles V of Spain. His wife was baptized Queen Juana after the Spanish King's mother. As a remembrance to this occasion, Magellan gave Queen Juana an image of the Child Jesus as a gift, while a large cross was erected to mark the baptismal site. In this simple tale of baptism lies the advent of Christianity and Catholicism in the Philippines, Southeast Asia's predominantly Catholic nation.

Origin of the Names: Cebu, Mandaue, Mactan
It was during Humabon's reign that the region became an important trading center. The harbors of Sugbo became known colloquially as sinibuayng hingpit ("the place for trading"), shortened to sibu or sibo ("to trade"), from which the modern name "Cebu" originates.
In the same period, Lapulapu Dimantag arrived from Borneo. He sought the help of Humabon for a place to settle. He was offered the region of Mandawili (now Mandaue City), including the island known as Opong (or Opon), hoping that Lapu-Lapu's people will cultivate the land. Lapu-Lapu succeeded in doing so, and the influx of farm produce from Mandawili enriched the trade port of Sugbo further.
The relationship between Lapu-Lapu and Humabon deteriorated later on when Lapu-Lapu turned to piracy. He started raiding merchant ships passing by the island of Opong, affecting trade in Sugbo. The island thus earned the name Mangatang (literally "bandit" or "those who lie in ambush"), later evolving to "Mactan".
Now consider if Rajah Humabon did not welcome Magellan and his galleon ships? Would there be Mactan or Mandaue? We would probably be a nation of Muslims like the rest of Southeast Asia.


In the vicinity of Humabon Park, I found Patria de Cebu which is said to accept indigent people seeking affordable accommodations. I even heard that a small room could be had for PhP250 for a month's stay. Now that's budget housing, isn't it? Also in the vicinity, aside from the Cebu Cathedral, is Cebu Eastern College which looks like it's seen better days.

Later that day, I checked out "Rodeo Grill Restaurant", the only stand-alone restaurant (i.e. not a part of a guesthouse or a hotel) along Archbishop Reyes Street in Cebu's Ayala Center. Before the advent of Tune Hotel's 7-11, Rodeo Grill was the only restaurant one could find along this row of hotels.

Rodeo Grill specializes in barbecues and grills and their fast food entrees are labelled "Cowboy Meals". I picked the very tasty lonestar fish at PhP119. Rodeo Grill has this rustic, southern atmosphere. It's located near Hotel Elizabeth and set back to a quiet side street from Archbishop Reyes's occasionally congested road.

This is the Eye in the Sky!




Patria de Cebu

Cebu Eastern College



My tasty lonestar fish at the Rodeo Grill Restaurant.








5 comments:

usman said...

yes, I have been in that little parcel of land where rajah humabon's statue is located.

I wonder why it seemed abandoned. No one even come to visit it purposely.

why? Did the cebuanos, the filipinos forget our forefathers?

Ishmael F. Ahab said...

Hello.

Stumbled your blog once again!

I have a new blog post about Rajah Humabon and this post helped me lot. Thank you very much. :-)

Anonymous said...

We were not all Muslims here. We practiced a combination of animism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. We had gods and goddesses and deities. Kaptan, Magwayan, Likalibutan, Lihangin, Lidagat, etc. That's not Islam. Islam worships Allah. Note that the sultans and the moros were only mostly from Mindanao.

And yes, without the Spaniards, Mandaue and Mactan HAVE ALREADY EXISTED. You just pointed that out in the previous paragraph. Mactan was Opong then renamed Mangatang, and Mandaue was Mandawili. Spaniards only hispanized the spellings of the original names.

eye in the sky said...

THANK YOU FOR YOUR EMPHATIC CLARIFICATION!

eye in the sky said...

@Ishmael:

Hey, man. Sorry for a severely delayed response but I have rarely blogged these days, though I will try to put some content here a bit more often. Saw your post about the park. Great work. Keep it up.