What is the Secret Link Between Lakan Dula and the British Aristocracy?

Answer 1

It was in Lakan Dula's era when Britain and Spain are fighting for world power. Britain's way is to gain the trust of native royalties all over the world by diplomacy or intermarriages and then group these royalties into federation under its leadership. Spain's way is through conquest and subjugation. Lakan Dula's tall and fair appearance came from his great grand father who has British blood, a Lord of Manor from Oxfordshire. Lakan Dula is the early attempt of the British to gain the trust of the native Manila aristocracy.

In 1587 Magat Salamat, one of the children of Rajah Lakan Dula, and Augustin de Legazpi, Rajah Lakan Dula's nephew, and the chieftains of modern Tondo, Pandacan, Marikina, Candaba, Navotas and Bulacan were executed for secretly conspiring to revolt against the Spanish settlements.

A mestizo by the name of David Dula y Goiti, a grandson of Rajah Lakan Dula with a Spanish mother escaped the persecution of the descendants of Lakan Dula by settling in Isla de Batag, Northern Samar and settled in the placed now called Candawid.[4]

Northern Samar is where the Sumuroy Rebellion of 1649-1650 led by the Waray hero Juan Ponce Sumuroy first began. One of the trusted co conspirators of Sumuroy, David Dula y Goiti, sustained the Filipino quest for motherland in a greater vigor.Due to his hatred for the Spaniards; he dropped the name Goiti in his surname and adopted a new name David Dulay.[5] He was however wounded in a battle, was captured and later was executed in Palapag, Northern Samar by the Spaniards together with his seven key lieutenants, one of who was the great grandfather of current Northern Samar Governor Raul Daza. They were accused of masterminding several attacks on Spanish detachments. The place where David came from was named later as Candawid (Kan David) in Isla De Batag, Laoang, Northern Samar. Some of David's descendants changed their surnames to Dulay to avoid Spanish prosecutions. Some maintained their surname Dula, which up to these days is the source of minor internal frictions among some descendants of David Dula y Goiti in Laoang, Northern Samar accusing each side as "sigbinan", a native waray folklore which originated in Isla de Batag, which connotes "a family secretly keeping bear-like creatures", which are being fed with all kinds of meat, sometimes, including flesh of dead Spanish Guardia Civil. Several famous Northern Samarenos are tracing their ancestry among the seven co conspirators executed with David Dula y Goiti in Palapag, Northern Samar.

Daniel Romualdez, former Speaker of the Philippine Congress was born in Tolosa, Leyte. His father, Miguel, once served as an Assemblyman for Leyte and Mayor of the City of Manila.[1] His great grandfather was involved in the Sumoroy Revolt but narrowly escaped the Spanish execution when he was allowed by David Dula to visit his ailing mother.Dula and his seven trusted men were later executed in Palapag, Northern Samar and were buried in unmarked graves without the Roman Catholic rites.[1]. Romualdez enrolled at the University of the Philippines College of Law and obtained his law degree in 1931.

The current David Dulay descendants are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the late Hilario and Eleuterio Dulay, Sr. of Laoang, N. Samar, and a mayor for more than 20 years during the Marcos Regime. The other descendants are those carrying the surname Dula related to Councilor Rufo Dula. Former Northern Samar Governor Madeilyn Mendoza Ong is also a descendant, from the lineage of Rufina Dulay of Candawid, Isla de Batag, Laoang, Northern Samar. Petre Dulay is the eldest brother of Rufina. Petre's eldest son, Doroteo; and Doroteo's eldest son, Elpidio - remained in Samar. Ceferino Dulay, Elpidio's eldest son, settled back to their ancestral land in Tondo, and eventually, in Marikina valley.

The present hereditary head of the Dulay Clan of Marikina Valley is the eldest son of Ceferino, Sofronio Dulay l. He will be succeeded by his eldest son, Sofronio Dulay ll. Sofronio ll is an honor student of an exclusive boy school, Marist, in Marikina Heights; a varsity player in Basketball; a member of San Roque Inter Barangay Basketball Team; and a Sacristan with a position of Superior in the Shrine of Our Lady of the Abandoned headed by Bishop Francis Reyes, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Antipolo

Br. Blas Dula Lagrimas of the Dula lineage among the present descendants of David Dulay visited the ancestral house of the hereditary leader of the Dulay Clan of Marikina Valley. They discussed over dinner the historical circumstances over Dula, Dulay of Isla de Batag, Dulay of Laoang and Dulay of Marikina Valley.From the historical accounts of the old folks of the clan, notably, the late Candawid Barangay Captain Macario Dulay; David Dulay has several wives and children. The children from the first wife carry the surname Dulay to hide them from the Spanish prosecutions. The children from the second wife used the surname Dula to reconnect to their Lakan Dula heritage. The children from his other wives used the surnames of their mothers. Some younger children from the first wife settled in Laoang and made good in arrastre business, but their eldest brother remained in Candawid running the coconut plantation with uniterrupted lineage of his first born descendants down to the generation of Petre and Elpidio, until Ceferino who surprisingly decided to go back to their ancestral land in Tondo and raised a big family. Later in his life, he uprooted his family in Tondo and together with some relatives, settled in Marikina Valley. They are now known as the Angkan ng Dulay sa Lambak ng Marikina.

The Dulay Clan of Marikina Valley is important to the unity of the lineage of David Dula y Goiti because its hereditary leader up to the present is the uninterrupted lineage of the "eldest son of the eldest son" of the Dulay Clan dating back from Petre Dulay of Candawid, Isla de Batag, Northern Samar. The Isla de Batag, where David Dula y Goiti raised his family, is a tropical paradise facing the Pacific Ocean, and where a lighthouse guiding the ships can still be found up to now. The home of the Sigben legend, Isla de Batag is in the direct route of Galleon Trade from Manila to Mexico. It is beside Palapag, the ship repair port during the Galleon Trade, and Catubig, the former capital of Samar.

Don Isabelo Mendoza, one of the earliest Mayor of Marikina. He is from the lineage of Don Benito Mendoza, the first governadorcillo of Marikina. Ceferino Dulay, a patriarch of the Dulay Clan was married to Juana Mendoza Cerbito. The street where the Dulay Ancestral House was found was renamed from Callejon to Isabelo Mendoza.