Thousands had gathered in Vancouver this weekend to mark Lapu Lapu Day, a celebration of a Filipino national hero who fought against Spanish colonisation, when a car-ramming attack killed at least 11 and injured dozens more.
Datu Lapulapu, the chief of Mactan, an island now part of the central Visayas region of the Philippines, orchestrated a defeat of Spanish forces led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Primary accounts of that day are limited, but Lapulapu’s victory has become a symbol of bravery and resistance to colonial rule.
