Lakandula

It has been established that Lakandula was king of northern Manila or Tundu by 1558. By the 1570s his brother, Rajah Ache, ceded his throne to their nephew Rajah Sulayman, king of the southern Muslim Maynila. Another source mentioned that the three kings of Manila traced their roots to the Royal Family of Brunei. Lakandula and Rajah Ache’s mother, they said, was the daughter of a sultan.

Not much else is said of Lakandula before the first governor-general of the Philippines, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, arrived and conquered Manila in 1571. Actually, Manila wasn’t conquered per se ; it was slowly occupied via a peace pact that allied Legazpi and the three kings Lakandula, Rajah Ache and Rajah Sulayman.

Enter Guido de Lavezaris, former royal treasurer of the 1540’s Villalobos Expedition and the new governor-general of the Philippines by order of Philip II of Spain. Unlike Legazpi, the new man on the block was ruthless in his command and dispatched his soldiers farther north and east to conquer more land. Within two years of his reign, he was able to conquer and establish settlements in Ilocos and Camarines.

Lakandula remained faithful to Spain despite the change in leadership, though nothing was said of the relationship between the king and the new governor-general in historical records. He later even helped Lavezaris stop Chinese warlord Limahong from successfully invading Manila.

But the trouble began when Lavezaris’ encomienda system (or the parcelling off of lands and residents native to Spanish soldiers and officials as reward for their work) started to affect more of Lakandula and Sulayman’s people. Contrary to a pact the kings made with Legazpi, Lavezaris stripped Lakandula, Sulayman and their people of their lands and were forced to pay tribute.