| General Note |
- General note - Strategically situated in the center of what is literally an enlarged coral polyp and hemmed in on all sides by low-lying mountains so that it is protected most of the year from harsh winds and heavy rains. Cebu City has been called the Queen City of the south. The capital of the province of Cebu, it has an area of 33,039 hectares, including 169 hectares reclaimed from the sea at the initiative of Sen. Sergio Osmeña, Jr. By March 16, 1521, the date Magellan landed in the Philippines, Zebu or Zsubu, or Cubu, was a thriving port where Portuguese navigator found "vessels of several nations at anchor, and the king of that place demanding duties for merchandise and anchorage." There was brisk trading in silk, pottery, jewelry, grains and spices. Here Magellan got entangled in Cebuano tribal wars and was killed in Mactan Island by Lapulapu. Legaspi made Cebu the first capital of the Philippines on April 27, 1565. It was called "La Ciudad del Santissimo Nombre de Jesus" because one of the men in the Legaspi-Urdaneta expedition found in one of the huts the image of the Child Jesus that had been left by Magellan. From 1565 to 1571 it was the capital of the colony and was converted into a diocese on August 14, 1595 by Pope Clement VIII. Up to 1759, it continued to have a municipal government, which was abolished and then restored in 1890. Within the three decades, it had become a commercial metropolis and the Visayan port was equal in rank with Manila, with the same theoretical right to send galleons to Acapulco. There were, however, constant raids by the Muslims from the south.
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