LAKANATE OF TUNDUN: Tondo's Forgotten History (Last Part)
THE FALL OF THE DUMAGAT EMPIRE THE LAKANATE of Tundun was still in the process of regaining its lost territories in the North of Luzon and Ibalon (modern day Bicol Region) in 1560s when Spanish Conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, who just left Mexico with a retinue of Spanish and Mexican soldiers, was already searching for a more suitable place to establish the Spanish colonial capital in Las Islas Filipinas, having found Cebu and then Iloilo undesirable to be the capital city because of insufficient food supplies and its locations prone to attacks of Portugese pirates. FRIENDLY NEGOTIATIONS OF SPAIN WITH RAJAH MATANDA Legazpi was in Cebu when he heard about a flourishing settlement in the north - Maynila. He then immediately sent messages of friendship to its ruler Rajah Matanda whom he mistakenly addressed as "King of Luzon" (the real King of Luzon was Lakan Bunao Dula). Legazpi believed that Rajah Matanda's earlier affinity with the Spanish militia in 1521 would m...