The importance of being a Cebuano

Many of my friends from Luzon who attended the Sinulog asked me the same question: "Why are you very proud of being a Cebuano, more than you are proud of being a Filipino?" I answered them with a true story.

Just after the promulgation of the Labor Code in 1974, then Labor secretary Blas Ople recruited young and dynamic former student activists, challenging them to join the government of then president and martial law dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Ople challenged them to transform their idealism into concrete public service. I happened to be in the vicinity of DOLE Intramuros to get a copy of the new Labor Code before going home to Cebu after the 1974 Bar Exams. So, by coincidence, I found myself being interviewed a week later, by Ople, late father of current Secretary Susan "Toots" Ople.

I was expecting him to ask me about the Labor Code, which he himself authored. And so, I spent sleepless nights memorizing many of the over 300 articles of the seven books of the code. But do you know what he asked me: "What’s the difference between a Tagalog and a Cebuano?" Dumbfounded, I almost lost my bearing. But the Cebuano speed in thinking led me to answer: “Sir, we, Cebuanos, admire you, Tagalogs, for being the first among Asians to declare national independence. You did it in 1898 in Kawit, Cavite. But we, Cebuanos already killed the first foreign invader as early as 1521. We were ahead of you by 377 years.” I thought he would throw me out of his room, but he was truly a great man. He liked my irreverence and admired my guts.

Ople asked: "Can you expound on your answer?' And I told him: You have waited from 1565 when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi invaded Manila up to 1898 when Aguinaldo declared independence. You waited for 333 years before you asserted your independence. In Cebu, the moment Ferdinand Magellan waded ashore in Mactan, my great-great-grandfather, Datu Lapulapu hit him with a pestle made of molave and followed it with a spear, with poisoned point, and finished him even before the Spaniards could fire a single shot. Cebuanos have a sense of urgency. Whenever there are oppressors or tyrants, Cebuanos would finish them off without bureaucratic inanities.” Ople chuckled and told me to continue.

I told him Tagalogs did so many rituals, ceremonies, and red tape. They entered into the Pact of Biak-na-bato in Bulacan and declared a Barasoain Constitutional Convention in Malolos. They staged the Cry of Pugadlawin and conducted a highly-questionable election in the Tejeros Convention. Cebuanos only did one very crucial thing with a sense of lightning speed: Kill Magellan even before he could set foot on Mactan. All the heroes from Luzon were killed. Rizal was executed, fathers Gomez, Burgos and Zamora were guillotined, Andres Bonifacio was murdered, Antonio Luna was summarily executed, Gregorio del Pilar was killed by the Americans in the Tirad Pass. But our hero in Mactan, was the first and the only one who killed the enemy. Ople was a lover of history. He marveled at my own limited knowledge. I was correct. Many years later, Senator Dick Gordon as former Tourism secretary was correct in erecting a statue of Lapulapu in Luneta. Tagalogs didn’t want a monument of a man in a G-string because it was unbecoming. That is why Bonifacio's monument was relegated to the front of the Post Office Building. Bonifacio wasn’t in formal attire. Rizal is wearing a western suit and thus Tagalogs considered it incongruous to put Lapulapu and Bonifacio in the same park exclusively named for the ilustrado bourgeois Rizal. But, Gordon had his way.

Because of all I said, Ople hired me on the spot. He told his secretary: "Mila, let us immediately hire this guy. He will be very dangerous if he goes to the other side." He brought me to the Maharlika Hall and ordered me to take my oath before the father of BBM. A Cebuano found worthy by a Tagalog to swear before an Ilocano. And that started my 20-year career in DOLE.

I am always proud of being a Cebuano. When travelling abroad and people ask if I am a Filipino, I jokingly reply: I am a Cebuano. I would at times remind my Tagala wife from Nueva Ecija (with Ilocana blood) that I’m the grandson of Lapulapu. But she would retort that she’s also the granddaughter of both Gabriela Silang and Tandang Sora. Our marriage is now more than 45 years because we entered into a blood compact in Biak-na-bato.