Lapu-Lapu killed Magellan

This particular hoax has been around since history was being taught in elementary school.
As its stated, the hoax suggests that Magellan was killed by Lapu-Lapu himself, after years and
years; and generation upon generations of students, most Filipinos today still believe this myth.
This is of course caused by large scale, mass misinformation of the public. It’s not that the
information given about Magellan in textbooks were wrong, its due to the fact that the information
was inadequate, lacking and often misleading. So all in all, there isn’t one specific person to blame
for this, it just turned out to be an impactful mistake on how the Philippine education system
accidentally misled its students.

So, if all that was just an error involving misinformation, then what did happen to
Magellan? According to History.com (2010), after travelling almost three quarters around the
globe Ferdinand Magellan was killed on Mactan Island due to the uproar Lapu-Lapu had brought,
in this particular skirmish, Magellan was shot by a random poisoned arrow that had left him unable
to retreat with the rest of his men, leaving him there to die, but it was not Lapu-Lapu’s arrow that
had hit him, the killer is to this day, still unknown. It is probably because of the killer’s lack of
identity that most Filipinos assume that Lapu-Lapu had killed Ferdinand himself, seeing as he was
the tribe’s chieftain that time.

The Serpent of Robinsons Malls

You may have heard about this rumor, a few years back; there are several versions of this
rumor, as stated by ABS-CBN News (2012), According to one version, the snake was supposedly
RLC tycoon John Gokongwei’s son, and the twin brother of Robina Gokongwei-Pe. As the story
goes, the snakeman had access to the mall’s CCTV cameras, and would spy on women in the
dressing rooms. If he was attracted by a woman, he would flip a switch and the woman would drop
through a hole in the floor, straight into his arms. ABS-CBN News (2012) also mentioned that
other versions of the story alleged that the snake was a female and laid golden eggs, the source of
the Gokongwei family’s wealth. To add to that; another version claimed that Gokongwei kept a
giant snake in the mall to ensure prosperity, and women in the dressing rooms would be chosen
for the reptile to eat.

Apparently, these rumors had been going on since 1985, when the sencond Robinsons
Department branch in Cebu. This rumor was addressed by Robina Gokongwei-Pe herself in 2008
at the University of the Philippines in a speech she gave at the School of Economics. Since then,
it has been disproven, due to the speech and the lack of evidence to support the claims; also it’s
basically impossible for the rumor to be true.
 Manny Villar Lived a Poor Life in the Slums of Tondo

If you know Manny Villar, then you must remember his 2010 presidential campaign and
how it appealed heavily towards the poor and the lower class, in his advertisments; were street
children singing about how Manny Villar knows what it’s like to be in piverty like them. During
that election campaign, Villar aggressively pushed the idea that they were practically dirt-poor and
had nothing while living in the slums of Tondo. Many people of course believed this, they even
voted for him, but as we all know he didn’t win. To add salt to the wound, these claims of poverty
were disproven by several sources.

According to Severino and Faustino (2010), researchers for GMANews.tv, Manuel Villar
Sr. was an official at the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resouces in 1961; he was said to
have earned five times the average monthly income of a person in the ‘60s. Manny’s mother,
Nanay Curing on the other hand, was a fish vendor who took home up to 600 pesos a day; now
that figure might be small today, but remember, it was the ‘60s. To add to that, Dr. Raecelis M.
(2010), an urban anthropologist who did poverty studies, also stated the fact that the Villars were
a double income family, which was rare at the time. Raecelis also added that the Villars owned
property that they were renting to other people at the time, in other words, they were tenants. And
the houses that they were renting off was described to be made of strong materials such as stone,
and steel. Dr. Raecelis concluded that the Villars could have never been poor, in fact at the time,
they were most likely un the upper 10% of Tondo.

Another sign that the Villars weren’t poor was that Manny villar studied in private schools
his whole life, the indigent kids would have to study in public schools, all that considering the fact
that there were 9 Villar children (Esposo W.M., 2010). As a last blow, Esposo W. M. (2010), also
mentioned that the Villar family had a private vehicle and that they lived in the wealthier part of
Tondo, instead of the slums.
Citations:

ABS-CBNnews.com (2012, October 25). Robinsons “Snake” Returns as New Malls Open.
Retrieved from

https://news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/10/25/12/robinsons-snake-returns-new-malls-open

History (2010, July 21). Navigator Ferdinand Magellan Killed in the Philippines.
Retrieved from

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/magellan-killed-in-the-philippines

Spot.ph (2010, April 27). GMANews.tv's Report: "Villars were not poor".

Retrieved from

https://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/42049/manny-villars-mom-confirms-that-they-were-
really-poor-gmanewstv-sources-say-they-were-middle-class

Esposo W.M. (2010, February 7). Was Manny Villar Really Ever Poor?.

Retrieved from

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2010/02/07/547068/was-manny-villar-really-ever-poor
 A Written Report:
Popular Philippine Hoaxes

Submitted by:
Kei Carlo M. Mayor
Daniel Fabiala

Submitted to:
Ms. Christine Joy Dael