Ferdinand Magellan In The Philippines

It began with the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan on 1521 in the Philippines that led the country to be under the colony of Spain for 300 years. His expedition began when royal officials gave him a command to sail to Maluku (the Spice Islands). By sailing westward, he finally arrived in Homonhon Island on March 17, 1521, a province of Eastern Samar, Philippines. On Easter Sunday of March 31, 1521, Magellan conducted the first Catholic mass at Limasawa Island in Southern Leyte that marked the birth of Roman Catholicism in the Philippines. He befriended some of the natives including Rajah Humabon and convinced them to convert to Catholicism. In Mactan, he was defeated and killed on April 27, 1521, because he got involved in political rivalries between Lapu-Lapu and Humabon, chieftains of Mactan Island and Cebu respectively. However, some of his men survived and left the Philippines by the order of the new commander of the expedition, Juan Sebastián Elcano. His fleet continued sailing westward and returned to Spain in 1522. Thus, completing the first circumnavigation of the world.

After several years, Spaniards continued to visit the islands of Samar and Leyte. Ruy López de Villalobos called them “Las Islas Filipinas”.

These taxes could be paid in cash or give special products that can only be found in that region. They also collect bandala, which is an annual forced sale and demands the use of goods that came from other countries. Also collected were Custom duties and income tax. By 1884, the tribute was replaced by the cedula. Taxpayers were now responsible to pay taxes to the Spanish authorities and were arrested if they failed to show a cedula receipt. Useless kinds of payment were made for the natives to suffer like paying ½ centavo (now ₱2,000) for every animal taken cared of and giving 10% of every animal butchered, farm products and fishes to the