Lapu-Lapu (1491–1542) was the datu of Mactan, an island in the Visayas in the Philippines, who is known as the first native of the archipelago to have resisted Spanish colonization. He is now regarded as the first Filipino hero. On the morning of April 27, 1521, Lapu-Lapu led approximately 1,500 Mactan warriors armed with barong, spears, kampilan and kalasag, in a battle against 49 Christian soldiers led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. In what would later be known as the Battle of Mactan, Magellan and several of his men were killed. According to Sulu oral tradition, Lapu-Lapu was a Muslim chieftain, and was also known as “Kaliph Pu-laka”. Other Moros also recognize him as a Muslim and as a Tausūg. A variant of the name, as written by Car-los Calao, a 17th century Chinese-Spanish poet in his poem “Que Dios Le Perdone” (Spanish, “That God May Forgive Him”) is “Cali Pulacu”. In the 19th century, the propagandist Mariano Ponce used a variant name, “Kalipulako”, as one of his pseudonyms. The 1898 Philippine Declaration of Inde-pendence refers to Lapu-Lapu as “King Kalipulako de Maktan”.