CEBU CITY

The country’s oldest settlement, it is also one of its most historic and
retains much of the flavour of its long Spanish heritage. A thriving port
occupied the site when Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese navigator
and explorer, landed there on April 7, 1521. He sealed a blood compact
with Humabon, the chief of Cebu, but was killed later by Chief
Lapulapu of nearby Mactan Island. On April 27, 1565, Miguel López de
Legazpi and the friar Andrés de Urdaneta arrived on Cebu and
founded the first Spanish settlement and Catholic mission in the
Philippine archipelago. For six years, until Legazpi’s removal
to Manila, Cebu was the Spanish colonial capital. It remained the
primary Spanish bastion in the southern part of the Philippines.

The cultural and commercial core of the central Visayan region, Cebu
was opened to foreign trade in 1860. It was chartered as a city in 1936.
Although it imports few foreign goods, it is the main collection centre
for such interisland commodities as copra, abaca, sugar, timber, and
fish. Cebu is a major point of passenger traffic by air and sea and is
served by an international airport across the harbour on Mactan
Island.