Cebu City mulls Rajah Humabon Day

CEBU CITY—This city’s Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission (CHAC) plans to recommend to the city council to honor Rajah Humabon every April 7, the day when the Cebuano chieftain made a blood compact with Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan as a symbol of their friendship. Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who chairs CHAC, said Humabon played a very significant role in the natives’ acceptance of Christianity, as he was the first Filipino to accept the faith. Humabon, his wife Humamay and around 800 natives were baptized by Fr. Pedro Valderrama, the chaplain of the Magellan expedition, on April 14, 1521. Rama, speaking at the sideline of the wreath-laying ceremony at Rajah Humabon Monument in Plaza Hamabar here on Wednesday, noted that several streets in the city were named after non-Cebuanos and yet none was named after Cebu’s chieftain. —NESTLE SEMILLA