Time to lose that hyphen, says Lapu-Lapu City mayor

CEBU CITY—High time they lost the hyphen.

The mayor of Lapu-Lapu in Cebu province now wants the punctuation removed from the name of his city after President Duterte issued an executive order that settles once and for all how the name of the famous 16th Century chieftain of Mactan Island should be spelled.

The Duterte executive order said it should be “Lapulapu.”

“There should no longer be a hyphen,” said Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan, whose city honors the chieftain who came to be celebrated in Philippine history as the first inhabitant of the archipelago to repulse a foreign force, in a battle that killed Ferdinand Magellan in 1521.

Statute

Chan wants the city councilors to recommend to the House of Representatives an amendment to Lapu-Lapu City’s Charter, also known as Republic Act No. 3134, which was enacted in 1961.

However, the text of Mr. Duterte’s Executive Order No. 152 still spells Lapu-Lapu City with a hyphen.

Signed on Dec. 6 and taking effect the next day after being published in the Official Gazette, it said “official names of places such as Lapu-Lapu City, having been established by statute, shall continue to be respected.”

But it directed all national government agencies, including local government units, to already use “Lapulapu” in any written material referring to “the first Filipino hero.”

Earliest writings

The executive order noted that “the earliest rendering in the Latin alphabet of the name of the hero of Mactan is ‘Cilapulapu,’ with ‘Ci’ apparently being an honorific title, from which our founding heroes Jose Rizal and Juan Luna derived their own references to him as ‘Si Lapulapu.’”

The honor granted by Malacañang to outstanding public servants or dignitaries shall also be written as “The Order of Lapulapu,” according to the order.

“Adopting a common rendering of the name of Lapulapu, so as to conform to earlier references, will aid in the education of our youth about Philippine history which is foundational to the formation of national identity,” the executive order said.

However, the order is silent about the fish.

Unless also changed by the state, most website entries—like most wet market stalls across the country—still put the grouper’s local name as “lapu-lapu.’’