Rajah Humabon

Rajah Humabon, baptized as Carlos, was a Filipino ruler who was one of the recorded chiefs in the historic polity of Cebu who encountered Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Humabon, his wife whose original name is unknown but was baptized as Juana, and his subjects were the first known Christian converts in the Philippines. Humabon is also considered the "first Filipino traitor" due to his politicking to force Magellan to subdue neighboring Mactan chief Lapulapu, and Humabon's subsequent massacre of the surviving Spaniards and crewmen.

There is no official record of Humabon's existence before the Spanish contact. The existing information was written by Magellan's Italian voyage chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta on Humabon and the indigenous Philippine peoples that existed prior to Spanish colonization. Rajah Humabon is cited as the reason for why Magellan fought in the Battle of Mactan, as the latter wanted to earn the trust of Humabon by helping him subdue his opponent Lapulapu, one of the oldest of four chiefs (or datus) of Mactan. Despite being referred to as "king" in the journal of Antonio Pigafetta, he was not one in the manner of a monarch in centralized societies. It is plausible that the title was mistakenly applied, as according to succeeding chroniclers, there were no kingdoms in the pre-colonial Philippines.

Name variation According to the book "Visayas en la Época de la Conquista" ("Visayas at the Time of Conquest") published in 1889 by Isabelo de los Reyes, his name was also pronounced as Hamabao which contains the Cebuano word, mabaw, "shallow" and the prefix ha-, which is added to adjectives referring to degree, or in poetic usage, gives formal flavor to the style. This is possible as it is common in Philippine languages wherein the sounds of /d/, tapped /ɾ/, and /l/ are sometimes identical to one another, case in point danaw and lanaw ("lake") as in Maguindanao, Maranao, and Lanao Sri Alho ruled a land known as Sialo which included the present-day towns of Carcar and Santander in the southern region of Cebu. Sri Ukob ruled a kingdom known as Nahalin in the north which included the present-day towns of Consolación, Liloan, Compostela, Danao, Carmen and Bantayan. He died in battle, fighting with the tribal group known as magalos from Mindanao. A third brother was Sri Parang the Limp, but could not rule because of his physical infirmity. Sri Bantug, the youngest, ruled a kingdom known as Singhapala (a variation of the Sanskrit Singha-Pura, "City of the Lion", which is also the root of Singapore), in a region which is now part of Cebu City, who later died of disease and was succeeded by his son Sri Hamabar, also known as Rajah Humabon. Because of his infirmity, Sri Parang handed Bantug's throne to Bantug's son Humabon as regent, and Humabon became the rajah (king) of Cebu. When Sri Bantug died, Sri Parang became his successor, but due to his limp he passed the throne to Humabon.

Historical commemoration The Rajah Humabon monument is located at Burgos Street in Cebu City.