Cebu

Cebu is also a variant spelling of the cattle known as Zebu.

Cebu is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region. Its capital is Cebu City and is composed of Cebu Island plus 167 neighboring small islands, including Mactan, Bantayan, Daanbantayan, the Camotes Group, etc. Cebu is one of the most developed provinces in the country. The metropolitan area of Cebu City (which includes Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City) is second only to Metro Manila in population.

Cebu lies to the east of Negros Island; to the east is Leyte and to the southeast is Bohol province. It is flanked on both sides by the straits of Cebu and Tañon (between Cebu and Bohol).

Cebu is served by Mactan-Cebu International Airport, which is located in Lapu-Lapu City, some thirty minutes drive from downtown Cebu.

People and Culture

Cebu is the first and oldest city in the Philippines. It was the capital of the Philippines from 1565 to 1595, long before Manila fell into the hands of the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century. Cebu was already an established trading port, visited by many of its Asian neighbors. During the native rebellion against the Spaniards, the Conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi erected the stone fortress named Fort San Pedro, which became a military post for the Spaniards. The "seed" of Christianity in Asia was also planted here.

The people of Cebu are called Cebuanos and are descendants of Malay, Negritos, Spaniards, Mexicans and Chinese ancestries. Cebu is also home to a number of Spanish and Chinese communities who plays an important economic and marketing role in the Cebuano society. Visayan – Cebuano culture is laid back and easy going, the people are friendly and has preserved strong Spanish-oriented traditions in its cultural life to this very day.

Linguistically, Cebu is home to the country's second largest group. A derivative of Bisaya, the Visayan language, Cebuano was originally spoken only in the island of Cebu. However, it is now being spoken in many parts of Mindanao, the eastern part of Negros Island, the western and southern parts of Leyte, Bohol, and in Samar.

Politically, the province of Cebu has been an active player. In fact, Cebu is the home of the Philippine's second president, Sergio Osmeña Sr. who came into power after the demise of Manuel L. Quezon, known as the father of Filipino Language.

Strategically, due to its geographical location, Cebu is the alternate gateway to Manila. Many multinational companies have established their local headquarters in Cebu because of her central location. Cebu is a port of call for many international (and almost all domestic) shipping and air lines, making her virtually the capital of the Philippines.

Cebu also features Asia's oldest school. The University of San Carlos (USC) in Cebu City is considered the oldest school in the country and in Asia. Formerly known as the Colegio de San Ildefonso, it was founded by the Spanish Jesuits on August 1, 1595. This makes the Cebu-based university older than the University of Santo Tomas (1611) in Manila and Harvard University (1636) in the United States.

Economy

Geography

Political

Cebu is subdivided into 47 municipalities and 6 cities.

Cities

• Cebu City
• Danao City
• Lapu-Lapu City
• Mandaue City
• Talisay City
• Toledo City

Municipalities

Physical

History

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Cebu, then known as Zugbo, was a thriving fishing village and a busy trading post, with trade routes to China, Siam, Arabia as well as the nearby Malay islands.

The Magellan Expedition

On April 7, 1521, the great Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan landed on Cebu island. He was on expedition under the command of the Spanish king whose goal was to search for the fabled island of Moluccas and to see about expanding the Spanish territory to the Orient.

The natives of Cebu, under the leadership of the chieftain, Rajah Humabon, were a friendly people and allowed the foreigners to their land. It was not long before the Spanish friars who came with Magellan started preaching Christianity to the pagan natives. In reverence to the Christian God, Magellan planted a large wooden cross and the first Holy Mass held on Philippine soil took place on the shores of Limasawa. It was also during this time that the Rajah, accompanied by some 400 natives, were converted into Christianity.

The First Filipino Christian

To honor the Spanish king, the chieftain of Cebu and his wife were renamed Carlos and Juana, after Juan Carlos I of Spain. As a gesture of goodwill, the Spaniards gave Reina Juana an image of the child Jesus, the Santo Niño, which became the island's patron saint. After becoming an ally of Humabon, Magellan attempted to win over nearby Mactan Island, but Lapu-Lapu, unlike his cousin Humabon, did not take well to the Spaniards. The Battle of Mactan erupted and Magellan was killed on the shores of the island, leaving his second-in-command, Sebastian del Cano to take the remainder of his ship and crew back to Spain. It became known as the First Circumnavigation of the World and Ferdinand Magellan, as the commander of the expedition, the First Man to Circumnavigate the World.

The Spanish Conquest

Forty-four years later, in 1565, conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and his 400 arm soldiers together with several Augustinian and Franciscan Friars arrived in Cebu and declared that the Spanish crown succeeded in colonizing the islands. Legazpi and men marched through Zugbo and bombarded the palisades of chieftain Rajah Tupas and destroyed the village. He later rebuilt it and called it Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesús (Village of the Most Holy Name of Jesus). Thus, in 1569, it became the first Spanish city established by the Spanish Cortes in the Philippines.

On August 141571, Cebu (Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesús) was detached from the Catholic diocese of Manila and became a diocese of its own. With Legazpi's departure to Manila, he did not abandoned Cebu instead he employed a state governor to look after it and so half of Legaspi's soldiers remained in Cebu after 1571. Three centuries later, in April 1898 marked the end of the Spanish era and the onset of the American regime. In 1901, Cebu became a municipality and on February 24, 1937 became a chartered city.

World War II

Cebu, being the most densely populated island in the country, served as a vital Japanese base during the Japanese occupation in World War II which began with the landing of the Japanese Imperial Army on April 1942. Three years later on March 1945, an American force landed and liberated the city from the Japanese.

External links

• Official Website of the Provincial Government of Cebu
• Official Website of the City Government of Cebu City
• Sun.Star Cebu Online
• Dazzling Cebu – What it is now
• K.I. Marine Sports Center