Southeast Asian countries share views of PH Quincentennial

 By Myra Cel L. Espinosa

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Oct 21 (PIA) – The inaugural session of the Philippine International Quincentennial Conference provides varying views on 'Southeast Asian of the Quincentennial'. 

As the Philippines commemorates the 500^th anniversary of the Filipinos' first contact with the Spanish in 1521 from a Filipino-centric point of view in 2021, the countries of Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia also shared the stopover of the Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation in their countries. 

The National Quincentennial Committee (NQC) of the Philippines aims to share an informed perspective of history to all Filipinos and highlight the 500th anniversary of the Victory at Mactan, which commemorates the victory of Lapu-Lapu in the Battle of Mactan. 

The NQC recognizes Lapu-Lapu and his contemporaries' ideals, sacrifices, struggles and hold them as source of inspiration from the history.

One of the speaker during the inaugural session, Dato Seri Dr. Md Salleh Yaapar from Universiti Sains Malays, Malaysia, emphasized that the real hero after the unfolding events around Cebu and Mactan was Datu Lapu-Lapu, first to vanquish a European conqueror or colonizer. 

“It is right for the Philippines to retroactively honor Lapu-Lapu as the first Philippine National Hero to resist foreign invasion,” he said.

The inaugural session of International Quincentennial Conference kicked-off on October 20-22, 2021 and will continue to discuss the First Circumnavigation of the World and the commemoration of the Quincentennial views from Latin American countries. (RVC/EDT/MLE/PIA9-Zamboanga City)