Chapter 48 : Is Juan Macapagal a Descendant of Lakan Bunao Dula of Tondo or only of a certain Carlos Lacandola of Lubao

Don Juan Macapagal, Datu of Arayat, was the great-grandson of the last ruling Lakan (King) of Tondo, Lakan Carlos Dula or Lakan Bunao Dula (non - Christian name)[1]. Lakan Dula was the most prolific of Luzon's ancient rulers. His descendants are spread out all across the Kapampangan Region during the Spanish colonial era.^[3] He fathered at least seven children, namely, the eldest son Batang Dula; the brave Magat Salamat, the Datu of Tondo; the priest Martin Lakan Dula; the childless Don Dionisio Capulong, the Datu of Candaba; Don Phelipe Salonga, the Datu of Pulu; the pretty Maria Poloin, and the mysterious Luis Taclocmao . Batang Dula has three children: David, Daba and Dola. They were hidden in different places within sea routes and given vast tract of lands, farm workers, and armed followers. The plantation given to David was named Kandawid, the one given to Daba was now known as Kandaba and that of Dola is known as Kandola in San Luis Pampanga.Kan is an ancient tagalog word for owned. The well-known descendants of Dola are the Macapagal of Lubao through Carlos Lacandola. The descendants of Daba are the Capulong of Candaba and their relatives are the Gatbontons. The descendants of David Dula y Goiti are the Dulay of Candawid, Isla de Batang, Laoang, Northern Samar, and in Samara, Aringay in La Union. There are other descendants of Lakan Dula such as those who descended from his other children. It is still a historical mystery why only the eldest son, and another child carried the regnal royal surname Dula. The rest adopted a different native sounding surnames (Carating, 2014, p.36).

The eldest son of Lakan Dula is Batang Dula who was married to the relative of the de Goiti, the founder of Manila. The marriage gave birth to three children, the eldest is David de Goiti Dula, next is Daba de Goiti Dula and the youngest is Dola de Goiti Dula. The Lacandola of Arayat came from one of the grandchildren of Lakan Dula of Tondo named Dola, who is from San Luis, Pampanga. When Dola married, she insisted to use the surname Lacandola for her children to maintain connection with his grandfather from Tondo and partly, to hide from Spanish authorities. On her old age, Dola had been arrested for giving medical assistance to the local rebels. Some old natives of Candola, San Luis, Pampanga are saying that Dola was actually executed by the Spaniards.She has nine children and one of them married a Spanish mestizo surnamed Reyes.Eventually, the Reyes - Lacandola was married into a Macapagal and one of their children is a brave boy named Juan. Don Juan Macapagal was given the title Maestre de Campo General of the natives Arayat, Candaba and Apalit for his aid in suppressing the Kapampangan Revolt of 1660.[1] He further aided the Spanish crown in suppressing the Pangasinan Revolt of Don Andres Malong in the same year, and the Ilocano Revolt of 1661. Don Juan Macapagal died in 1683. Don Juan Macapagal is a direct ancestor of Philippine Revolutionary General, Lazaro Macapagal and two former Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal and his daughter, former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (World Public Library).

Civilian life

Don Juan Macapagal occupied the post of juez de sementeras of the town Arayat twice before becoming its governor five times in a row. He was also commissioned by the Spanish crown to conduct the supply of silver from Pangasinan through Zambales.^[1]

Military career

Don Juan Macapagal started out as a corporal of a squad of native soldiers. He later rose to the rank of sargento capitan of the infantry. Fighting under Spanish captain Sebastian Castelu, Macapagal help pacify the northern frontiers of the province of Pampanga, which then extends all the way up north toCagayan Valley. He was wounded during the suppression of the Chinese uprising in 1639 and in suppressing a minor Kapampangan uprising in 1641. In 1660, he was given the title Maestre de Campo General of the natives Arayat, Candaba and Apalit for his aid in suppressing the Kapampangan Revolt of 1660.^[1]

Don Juan Macapagal was also one of the few natives of the Philippines to become an encomendero or a feudal lord under the Spanish crown.^[1] In order to gain his support suppressing the Ilocano Revolt of 1661, the Spanish crown awarded him an encomienda or a fief that once belonged to ex-Governor General Don Diego Fajardo y Chacon. The fief was worth 500 ducados of tributes of Negritos from the province of Zambales. After the collapse of the Ilocano Revolt and the execution of 133 of its leaders, Macapagal further received the honor of becoming the Maestre de Campo of the Kapampangan Regiment that guarded Fort Santiago.

Because of his outstanding career in the service of the Spanish crown, quite rare for a native of the Philippines during that era, the Spanish authorities decided to revive the special rights and privileges offered by the Spanish crown to Don Carlos Lacandola and all his descendants throughout the province of Pampanga.^[1]

Descendants

Don Juan Macapagal is a direct paternal ancestor of former Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal the 9th president of the republic and his daughter, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.^[1]

See also

· Lakandula

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h "The Houses of Lakandula, Matanda, and Soliman (1571-1898): Genealogy and Group Identity". Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 18. 1990.

2. Carating, R. R., Galanta, R.G., Bacatio, C.D.(2014). The Soils of the Philippines. New York City: Springer Science and Business

3. World Public Library. http://newspaperslibrary.org/articles/eng/Don_Juan_Macapagal. Retrieved on December 9, 2017. Sourced from World Heritage Encyclopedia™ licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002. Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.

But despite of the above refutable scholarly articles from peer reviewed sources, questions still arise on whether the Macapagal is really descendant of Lakan Bunao Dula of Tondo or a certain Carlos Lacandola of Lubao because the two are different because of the fact that they have different set of children, and one is a Lakan (paramount ruler) while the other is a commoner. Also, if you are a Lakan (King), you wont allow yourself to be dethroned through simple baptism. The following discussions among the descendants of Lakan Dula shows the confusions:

As one of the requirements of the Spanish detachment in Lubao when he asked for more privileges to be given to his family, Juan Macapagal had to show some proofs of descent from the old Lord of Tondo to the doubting Spaniards. Juan Macapagal alleged that his parents were Capitan Don Gonzalo Capulong and Dona Maria Bina; Daba Capulong and Gonzalo Capulong were adopted children of the childless Don Dionisio Capulong, the eldest son of Don Carlos Lacandola of Lubao.

There was no historical records in Lubao if the allegations of Juan Macapagal were honored by the local Spanish detachment in the absence of a birth or baptismal certificate, or if he was recognized as a son by Dionisio Capulong, or if it was discovered as a hoax by the local Spanish detachment and he was arrested. Juan Macapagal had at least 3 brothers and a sister: Don Juan de Guevarra, Don Miguel Alfonso de Lapira, Don Nicolas Lacandola, and Dona Cathalina Bina. He himself had 5 children, who were Dona Maria Macapagal, Don Francisco Macapagal, Don Pablo Macapagal, Don Salvador Macapagal, and Don Piotenciano Macapagal (Source: Santiago, R.B. The Royal Houses of Ancient Manila, NHI Publications, 1965. P.79)

Descendants of Lakan Dula of Tondo FB Group has this to say:

I am a great grandson of Juan Macapagal.The eldest son of Lakan Dula is Batang Dula who was married to the relative of the de Goiti, the founder of Manila. The marriage gave birth to three children, the eldest is David de Goiti Dula, next is Daba de Goiti Dula and the youngest is Dola de Goiti Dula. The Lacandola of Arayat came from one of the grandchildren of Lakan Dula of Tondo named Dola, who is from San Luis, Pampanga. When she married, she insisted to use the surname Lacandola for her children to maintain connection with his grandfather from Tondo and partly, to hide from Spanish authorities. She has nine children and one of them married a Spanish mestizo surnamed Reyes. My grandfather used to tell me that we are the descendants of Dola, the grand daughter of Lakan Dula of Tondo. By the way, Dola, according to my grandfather, was jailed by the Spanish authority in her old age allegedly for helping wounded revolutionaries.Dola adopted the surname Lacandola, Daba adopted the surname Capulong in honor of the family who took care of her when she escaped the bloody Spanish prosecution in Tondo and Intramuros and David adopted the surname Dulay to hide from Spanish prosecution and establish connection with his their British roots.

Don Juan Macapagal, Datu of Arayat, was the great-grandson of the last ruling Lakan Dula (King) of Tondo, Don Carlos.[1] He was given the title Maestre de Campo General of the natives Arayat, Candaba and Apalit for his aid in suppressing the Kapampangan Revolt of 1660.[1] He further aided the Spanish crown in suppressing the Pangasinan Revolt of Don Andres Malong in the same year, and the Ilocano Revolt of 1661. Don Juan Macapagal died in 1683. Don Juan Macapagal is a direct ancestor of Philippine Revolutionary General, Lazaro Macapagal and two former Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal and his daughter, former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Don Juan Macapagal occupied the post of juez de sementeras of the town Arayat twice before becoming its governor five times in a row. He was also commissioned by the Spanish crown to conduct the supply of silver from Pangasinan through Zambales.

Don Juan Macapagal started out as a corporal of a squad of native soldiers. He later rose to the rank of sargento capitan of the infantry. Fighting under Spanish captain Sebastian Castelu, Macapagal help pacify the northern frontiers of the province of Pampanga, which then extends all the way up north to Cagayan Valley. He was wounded during the suppression of the Chinese uprising in 1639 and in suppressing a minor Kapampangan uprising in 1641. In 1660, he was given the title Maestre de Campo General of the natives Arayat, Candaba and Apalit for his aid in suppressing the Kapampangan Revolt of 1660.

Don Juan Macapagal was also one of the few natives of the Philippines to become an encomendero or a feudal lord under the Spanish crown.[1] In order to gain his support suppressing the Ilocano Revolt of 1661, the Spanish crown awarded him an encomienda or a fief that once belonged to ex-Governor General Don Diego Fajardo y Chacon. The fief was worth 500 ducados of tributes of Negritos from the province of Zambales. After the collapse of the Ilocano Revolt and the execution of 133 of its leaders, Macapagal further received the honor of becoming the Maestre de Campo of the Kapampangan Regiment that guarded Fort Santiago.

Because of his outstanding career in the service of the Spanish crown, quite rare for a native of the Philippines during that era, the Spanish authorities decided to revive the special rights and privileges offered by the Spanish crown to Don Carlos Lacandola and all his descendants throughout the province of Pampanga.

Don Juan Macapagal is a direct paternal ancestor of former Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal the 9th president of the republic and his daughter, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The Real Macapagal - July 28th, 2009 -

"The Reign of the First Born Sons" is not only a tradition of the Lakan Dula heritage. It is a universal method of determining the succession of the titular kingship based on bloodline.

The surname MACAPAGAL has been mentioned as one of those who descended from Lakan Dula. But, who is really the titular head of the Macapagal based on the concept of "the reign of the first born sons".

Who is the first Macapagal who has a blood connection with Lakan Dula of Tondo (not with Candola of Lubao please, they are different)?

Then, who is the eldest son of that First Macapagal..then the eldest son of the eldest son..then the eldest son of the eldest son of the eldest son..and so on and so forth.

I bet you, the present "reign of the eldest sons" will not be the family of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo..for obvious reason.

So, who is really the real leader of the Macapagal Clan?

Good Macapagal Versus Bad Macapagal

Juan Capulong - August 5th, 2009 -

I read in one of the websites that the surname Macapagal is one of the several native sounding surnames that is related to Lakan Dula of Tondo. The word "pagal' means tired in ancient Tagalog dialect which seems to suggest that the Macapagals are the loyal servants of the Lakan Dula household. Due to the intense Spanish persecutions, we settled in nearby Candaba.Candaba came from an ancient Tagalog word which means "Kay Daba" or "owned by Daba". Daba could have been the leader of the settlement of the Lakan Dula desecendants in the area. The surname of Daba could be Capulong ("Ka Pulong" or belongs to the council), or Macapagal (industrious), history will prove it later.

The Macapagal of Candaba fought the Spaniards to the end, the Macapagal of San Luis and Lubao collaborated with the Spaniards against the natives. Some of them whom the "traitor Macapagal" rat are even recognized as Philippine heroes, like Maniago. So, the Macapagal of San Luis/Lubao rat on the Philippine heroes and sided with the murdering Spaniards. In todays farlance, we can call them "makapili"...or "taksil sa inang bayan".

The Macapagal of Candaba are the patriots. The Macapagal of San Luis and Lubao are the traitors. We are not related to each other by blood and by patriotism.Maybe they just used our surname. Well, we are not proud of what they did.

Now, as to the issue of who between the Macapagal of Candaba and the Macapagal of San Luis/Lubao has the bloodline for the "reign of the first born sons" in the Macapagal Clan within the Lakan Dula heritage, we think that the Macapagal of Candaba has the bloodline, firstly, we are nearer to Tondo and therefore, we are more original. Secondly, we can not accept the fact that the heriditary titular leader of the Macapagal Clan will come from the side of the "Traitor Macapagal" and not from the "Patriotic Macapagal".

Anyway, this is strictly family matter that we Filipinos with Macapagal surname should settle among ourselves. But my bet is that we the Macapagal from Candaba stands on more moral ground than the Macapagal of San Luis/Lubao.

We need more research to identify the line of succession of the "reign of the first born sons" of the Macapagal Clan dating back from the first Macapagal in the Lakan Dula household that settled in Kan Daba. Please give us time.

Magdiwang - February 24th, 2010 -

I agree. I've also met a family with the surname Macapagal and they swear they are not related to Gloria Macaraheg-Macapagal of Lubao, Pampanga.

The evil-minds, self indulgence and immorality of the family of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is so infuriating and sickening, that the other clan with same surname are revolting against this species of Macapagal.

jjamacam - May 31st, 2011 -

I was so enlightened by your message posted. Gloria Macapagal has been aiming at our Gatbonton Clan to be able to gain axis to the family of the Lakan Dula. My name is Jun Macam,

grand son of Feliza Gatbonton Corrales daughter of Simeona

Gatbonton, pobably one the Grand children from the clan of Pampalung Gatbonton and Gatbalete: Pamapalung is the son of Gatbonton I and Macayabong Dili, Gatbonton I, the daughter of Dayang Lahat sister of Lakan Dula married to Mutya

and bore four children namely:

1. Batang Dula maried to a spanish woman named de Goiti

children:1. David Dulay of Candawid, Samar

2.Dawa of Candaba, Pamapanga

3. Dula jr? Destination un known

2. Dionisio Capulong

3. Filipe Salonga

4. Magat Salamat

until the Rahjanate was crushed....

jmacam - May 31st, 2011 -

I was so enlightend by your message posted. Gloria Macapagal has been aiming at our gatbonton Clan to be able to gain axis to the family of the Lakan Dulas. my name is jun macam,

grand son of feliza Gatbonton Corrales daughter of Simeona

Gatbonton pobably one the Grand children from the clan of Pampalung Gatbonton and Gatbalete: Pamapalung Gatbonton is the son of Gatbonton I and Macayabong Dili, Gatbonton I, the daughter of Dayang Lahat sister of Lakan Dula married to Mutya

and bore four children namely:

1. Batang Dula maried to a spanish Woman named de Goiti.

children: (A). David Dulay of Candawid, Samar, (B). Dawa of Candaba, Pampanga, (c). Dula II? Destination un known

2. Dionisio Capulong

3. Filipe Salonga

4. Magat Salamat- the last of our clan to give the crown to the spaniards.

Until the Rahjanate was crushed....

therefore the full name of Dawa or (Daba) is:

Dawa De Goiti Dula and not Capulong or Macapagal. Daba or dawa is a nephew of Dionesio Capulong. Sir I can send you the family tree if u want to see it. I have also a plate my lola had given to us while she was alive... and tatay keeps it somewhere I dont know where.

Revolt of the Kapampangans

By Robby Tantingco

Peanut Gallery at

http://forum.philboxing.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=162712

Retrieved Monday, February 22, 2010

ONE way of celebrating the anniversary of the 1986 EDSA People Power this week is to ask ourselves why we are no longer able to mount a similar revolt, no matter how we try and no matter how much the situation warrants it.

What has happened in the last two decades that Filipinos today not only can’t produce another People Power, but also in fact don’t want to anymore?

For updates from around the country, follow Sun.Star on Twitter

Removing a president by People Power is, we now say, undemocratic, forgetting that People Power was precisely what made us the darling of the democratic world in 1986. People Power was the “handog ng Pilipino sa mundo” because it spawned similar movements in South Africa, South Korea, China and most significantly, Eastern Europe, where the unarmed uprising started a chain of events that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

If only Filipinos today were like they had been in 1986, I don’t think President Arroyo would have lasted another day in Malacañang. The fertilizer scam, the ZTE deal, the Garci tapes, the mutiny at Oakwood and again at the Manila Pen, the Marines’ standoff at Fort Bonifacio—any one of these could have led to her ouster had the crowds come to back up the military, like what happened at EDSA.

But they didn’t, and the few people who showed up didn’t stay, too. What happened?

Malls — that’s what happened.

In 1986, we had no choice but to face the tanks all day and man the barricades all night, because going home meant going back to our dreary lives made even drearier by the dictatorship.

Today, we join the rallies all right but at the slightest hint of dehydration we head for the nearest mall. With iPods plugged firmly in both ears, there’s no way we’ll hear the clarion call of patriotism, and with so many channels to surf on cable TV, we’ll never stay glued to any live coverage of a developing political story.

This apathy and short attention span of our youth has given this government a field day raiding the national treasury and corrupting everyone with impunity—from lawmakers to generals to justices to religious leaders.

How did we do it in 1986 and why can’t we do it again today? What combination of factors or confluence of events happened then that are no longer present now? What last straw are we still waiting for before the camel’s back breaks?

Here in Pampanga, will the crowds protesting Among Ed Panlilio’s loss in the election recount swell and snowball into People Power big enough to protect him from an inevitable political fate?

Or will it be Lilia Pineda’s turn to summon People Power to seize what the Comelec says is rightfully hers?

Kapampangans should be the last to lose faith in the power of the people to unseat a President outside an election, because the last beneficiary was a Kapampangan (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2001).

In 2007, Kapampangans came together to protect Among Ed’s ballots—that was People Power, too, although its objective was to install, not unseat, someone. But it showed that when Kapampangans put their heads together and close ranks, change does happen.

Flashback to 1660, the year Kapampangans revolted against Spain.

That’s right, despite our reputation (or notoriety) for blind loyalty to the Spaniards, we did blow our fuse and fought back.

It started when the Spaniards imposed the system of “vandala” which forced Kapampangans to sell all their harvests to the colonial government in Manila. This meant Kapampangans had to work longer hours on their farms so that they could produce rice for themselves, too.

But Manila did not pay the right amount, incurring a debt that amounted to P200,000.00 (huge money at the time). Worse, Kapampangan men were hauled off to the mountains to cut timber for the shipyards in Cavite, leaving their farmlands untilled for months, which caused famine across Pampanga.

The colonial government was actually never in a financial position to pay a just wage to the laborers it drafted or a just price for the goods it bought. Being forced to sell your produce was injury enough, but not being paid for it and then being forced to leave your farm to work elsewhere and not paid again—that's an insult added to the injury, and Kapampangans could take anything but an insult.

And so one night in October 1660, the Kapampangans revolted.

Led by Francisco Maniago of Mexico town, the rebels pitched tent in Bacolor, barricaded the river in Sasmuan to halt commerce between Manila and Pampanga, and sent word to their compatriots in Pangasinan and Ilocos to urge them to join the fight (Maniago’s emissary to these provinces was Agustin Pamintuan of Macabebe, nephew of Phelipe Sonsong, whose cause for beatification is being advanced today).

It was the revolt that the Spaniards had feared the most because it was led by the same Kapampangans they had trained in the royal army (Maniago himself was a former master-of-camp at Fort Bonifacio). And with the participation of Pangasinan and Ilocos, it threatened to become a multi-region conflagration—a national revolution 200 years ahead of schedule.

Unfortunately, a Kapampangan village chief in Arayat named Juan Macapagal (yes, a direct ancestor of you-know-who) sided with the Spaniards and barricaded the only road connecting Manila and Northern Luzon, thus preventing augmentation troops from Pangasinan from joining Kapampangans and then proceeding to Manila.

The revolt fizzled out and Maniago (as well as the leader of the revolt in Pangasinan, Andres Malong) were executed.

This year, 2010, is the 350th anniversary of The Kapampangan Revolt, an event where the best traits of Kapampangans clashed with the worst in them. One lesson to be learned is that injury is not enough to start a revolution; it takes an insult to make people snap. Another lesson is that one man’s betrayal is enough to sabotage an entire people’s yearning for greatness.

May the unfolding political scenario in Pampanga today bring out only the best in us.

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The Descendants of Lakan Dula of Tondo are united, their unassuming secretive patriarch does not rule, he reigns privately

A circle of advocates on specialized fields were involved in the projects: Pastor Jay Enage, founder of Baybayin Buhayin, Inc., Samuel Bambit Dulay for arnis, Arjhay Laurea for Kundiman and the family of the late national artist Lang Dulay for tinalak. The leader of the descendants of Lakan Dula had been interviewed by bloggers, I - Juander of GMA, different students and I -Witness of GMA; and the House of Dulay Mendoza has been a favorite venue for films and documentaries. One of those who took notice of the activities of the descendants of Lakan Dula was a Fil American from New York representing the Wangdom of Ma-I in Bulalacao Mindoro. He wrote a letter to the head of the House of Dula and an informal alliance between the Lakanate of Tondo and Wangdom of Ma-I was discussed in principle to support the existing projects and advocacies. The alliance embarked on a US Mission to Recover Doctrina Cristiana now kept by the US Library of Congress which was coordinated with the Office of the President, National Historical Commission and the Department of Foreign Affairs. The people behind the God's Culture in YouTube visited the House of Dula for a Dine with the Ancestors Ritual Havilah Version. A principalia who is a high ranking Filipino priest and papal official based in Vatican City in Rome later participated in the visioning of an organization of the principalia families in the Philippines which in essence became the foundation of the council. In a meeting between the patriarch of the House of Dula and the parish priest of the Sto. Nino de Tondo, a pilgrimage of Lakan Dula descendants to Tondo was discussed and the necessity of formalizing the Principalia Council was deemed as historical priority.