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Cebu, Cebu Island, Republic of the Philippines

Monday 21^st October 1996

     Cebu Island is long and narrow, stretching 122 miles from north to south, and 20 miles across at its widest point. It has narrow coastlines, limestone plateaus and coastal plains, with rolling hills and rugged mountain ranges traversing the northern and southern lengths of the island.  From the air it’s a beautiful place to behold.

     It’s also not that far southeast of Manila and the Island of Luzon, being a mere 305 NM (350.7 SM), which took 54 minutes to fly in the 737, on airway W-11 at a cruising altitude of either 29,000 or 33,000 feet.

      The city of Cebu is on the mid-eastern side of Cebu Island and was the first Spanish settlement founded in 1565, becoming the country's oldest city, and the first capital of the Philippines.    

     Upon arrival I uncovered a rather strange setup; although we were servicing the City of Cebu, the airport wasn’t situated there.  Instead it sat in the city of Lapu-Lapu, on the much smaller Mactan Island southeast of Cebu, connected to Cebu Island by two bridges.  Hence the airport was called Mactan International.

The Two Bridges connecting the islands.

     Here’s an interesting historical footnote, dear reader.

     Losing the favor of King Manuel 1st of Portugal for his plan of reaching the Spice Islands by sailing west from Europe, Magellan offered his services to King Charles 1st of Spain. 

     On 20th September 1519, Magellan led five ships with a total compliment 250 people from the Spanish fort of Sanlúcar de Barrameda en route to Southeast Asia via the Americas and Pacific Ocean. Only three ships reached the Philippines on 16th March 1521.  Rajah Kolambu the king of Mazaua told them to sail for Cebu, where they could trade and obtain provisions.

     Arriving in Cebu City, Magellan befriended Rajah Humabon, and persuaded the natives to ally themselves with King Charles 1st of Spain.  Humabon and his wife were given Christian names and baptized, then on 14th April 1521 Magellan erected a large wooden cross on the shores of Cebu, and roughly 700 islanders were subsequently baptized.

     Magellan soon heard of datu Lapu-Lapu, a native king on nearby Mactan Island, a rival of the Rajahs of Cebu. It was thought that Humabon and Lapu–Lapu had been fighting for control of the flourishing trade in the area. 

Datu Lapu-Lapu.

     On 27th April 1521 the Battle of Mactan occurred, where the Spaniards were defeated and Magellan was killed by the natives of Mactan Island.

   Magellan's body was never recovered despite efforts to trade for it with spices and jewels.  Magellan's second-in-command, Juan Sebastián Elcano, took his place as captain of the expedition and sailed the remainder of the fleet back to Spain, circumnavigating the world for the first time.

Victoria: The only surviving ship of Magellan’s fleet to complete circumnavigation of the world.

     And because Lapu-Lapu was the first resistance fighter against Spain, a city on Mactan Island is named after him, where the airport is located, and is technically labeled Mactan International, except everybody simply refers to it as “Cebu.”

     The single runway (040°/220° magnetic, NE/SW) at 9,091 feet in length, with a single ILS to Runway Four, was originally built by the U.S. Air Force in 1956 on the northeast coast of Mactan, as an emergency airport for Strategic Air Command bombers. It remained a Spartan outpost until the Vietnam War in the 1960s, when it became a base for a USAF C-130 unit.  Later the civilian airport was opened, which eventually shared the airport with the Philippine Air Force.

What the locals call Cebu.

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