Cool change

No, this is not about the iconic Little River Band song although the meaning will be, in more ways than one, just about the same, as what the title of both the song and this piece suggests. This is about change that is good, fitting, and beneficial. It is not about change that requires dragging people into accepting.

This change is about the proposed renaming of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport and the authority that runs it into the Lapu-Lapu Cebu International Airport and Lapu-Lapu Cebu International Airport Authority. The proposal is contained in House Bill 8170 filed by Cebu City Representative Raul del Mar.

It is only appropriate that it be del Mar who should initiate the change in name of both the airport and the authority that runs it. After all, del Mar is regarded as the father of the MCIAA, having been the principal author of Republic Act 6958 that created the airport authority in 1990.

The change is cool, to use the terminology of the young, in several ways. The airport has just opened a brand new terminal building for international flights. A new name will make the addition even more refreshing and appropriate to the world-class aviation facility that it has become.

But the most important consequence the proposed change will introduce is the fitting recognition it will accord the local chieftain Lapu-Lapu, the recognition he deserves for being the first recorded native leader to successfully repel a foreign incursion. Lapu-Lapu, as history tells us, defeated a Spanish force led by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521.

The only two things of note that have been named after Lapu-Lapu is a fish, and the city where that historic battle took place and where the airport now stands. In fact, there is something about the fish that deserves further study. As the fish, originally named Pugapo, obviously predates the chieftain Lapu-Lapu, it may well be that it was he who was named after the fish.

But that is another story. Let it just be said that, centuries late though it may be, it is never too late to give credit where credit is due. And Lapu-Lapu, given credit in world history books, ought to finally be given credit and recognition by the very people he shares his history with, in the very land that gave him birth.

Indeed, I truly do not understand why Lapu-Lapu is not regarded way up there in the short list of Filipino national heroes. He certainly emerged much earlier in our national history. And his feat was far more precise, not subject to interpretation, with consequences far more globally significant. Maybe the authors of our history books just saw more of his Cebuano roots.

‘Centuries late though it may be, it is never too late to give

credit where credit is due.’