A Story of Three (3) Brave Men

About ten years after Magellan's birth in Portugal, on the Philippine island of Mactan, a fine boy was born and named Kolipulako. Legend has it that he was a skilled horseman by age six

and could read and write by age seven. By age eighteen, he was a champion swimmer and diver, and a champion boxer and wrestler. By the time Magellan set sail for the Moluccas,Kolipolako

was known as Kaliph Pulaka or Lapulapu.He had become the ruler or king of his people, one of several tribes peacefully sharing the island of Mactan.

"He ordered us to withdraw slowly, but the men fled while six or eight of us remained with the captain. And these people shot at no other place but our legs, for the latter

were bare. Thus for the great number of lances and stones they threw and discharged at us we could not resist. Our large pieces of artillery that were in the ships

could not help us, because they were firing at too long range."

"But as a good captain and a knight, he still stood fast with some others, fighting thus for more than an hour. And as he refused to retire further, an Indian threw a bamboo lance in his face, and the captain immediately killed him with his lance, leaving it in his body. Then, trying to lay a hand on his sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because of a wound from a bamboo lance that he had in his arm. Which seeing, all those people threw themselves on him, and one of them with a large javelin thrust it into his left leg, whereby he fell face downward.

The Young GeneralIt was at the peak of the mountain pass in Northern Luzon that 60

Filipino soldiers carried out a heroic stand against American troops in

the morning of December 2, 1899, thus enabling President Emilio

Aguinaldo to flee towards the "wilds of Lepanto.“

The awesome story has been told and retold with epic grandeur, how

Del Pilar stood with his valiant soldiers on the steep and solitary

mountain Pass of Tirad, steadfast to repel the invader, or fight and die

like honorable men. American contemporary writers compared

Gregorio Del Pilar’s charge to that of Leonidas and his Spartans at

Thermopylae, and that of the embattled Afridis at Dargai Ridge. Even

now, we are thrilled with the account of their courage. Sadly, however,

52 of them including Del Pilar, then 24, perished in what an American

war correspondent dramatically termed as a "battle above the clouds."

Breakthrough Story

He had wished for it (death) when long before the battle of Tirad, he proposed to meet the pursuing enemy after the disaster at Caloocan. He felt its obsession when at midnight on the bank of Aringay River, he woke up his soldiers and pointedly asked them this question: ‘Brothers, which do you prefer, to die fighting or to flee like cowards?’

“The General [ Aguinaldo ] has given me the pick of all the men that can be spared and ordered me to defend the Pass. I realize

what a terrible task has been given me. And yet, I felt that

this is the most glorious moment of my life. What I do is

done for my beloved country. No sacrifice can be too great.”

--- found written on his diary when he was killed.

Carlos P. RomuloCarlos P. Romulo Recipient of Pulitzer prize for Journalism, 1942

Brigadier General (US Army), 1945; Veteran in Bataan

Signatory, United Nations Charter, 1945

Chairman, Freedom Information Conference, Geneva, 1948

President, United Nations General Assembly, 1949-50

Author of 16 books

“I am a Filipino - inheritor of a glorious past, hostage to the uncertain future. As such

I must prove equal to a two-fold task- the task of meeting my responsibility to the

past, and the task of performing my obligation to the future. I sprung from a hardy

race - child of many generations removed of ancient Malayan pioneers. Across the

centuries, the memory comes rushing back to me: of brown-skinned men putting out

to sea in ships that were as frail as their hearts were stout. Over the sea I see them

come, borne upon the billowing wave and the whistling wind, carried upon the

mighty swell of hope- hope in the free abundance of new land that was to be their

home and their children's forever.”

I am a FilipinoI am a Filipino

When the UN official seal, which depicts the world, was being selected,

Romy looked it over and demanded, “where is the Philippines?” “It’s too

small to include,” explained US Senator Warren Austin, who headed the

committee. “If we put in the Philippines it would be no more than a dot.”

“I want that dot!” Romy insisted. Today, if you look at the UN seal, you

will find a tiny dot between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.

Carlos P. RomuloCarlos P. Romulo