Rajah Humabon

Rajah Humabon, baptized as Carlos, was a Filipino ruler who was one of the recorded chiefs in the historic polity of Cebu who encountered Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Humabon, his wife whose original name is unknown but was baptized as Juana, and his subjects were the first known Christian converts in the Philippines. Humabon is also considered the "first Filipino traitor" due to his politicking to force Magellan to subdue neighboring Mactan chief Lapulapu, and Humabon's subsequent massacre of the surviving Spaniards and crewmen.

There is no official record of Humabon's existence before the Spanish contact. The existing information was written by Magellan's Italian voyage chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta on Humabon and the indigenous Philippine peoples that existed prior to Spanish colonization. Rajah Humabon is cited as the reason for why Magellan fought in the Battle of Mactan, as the latter wanted to earn the trust of Humabon by helping him subdue his opponent Lapulapu, one of the oldest of four chiefs (or datus) of Mactan. Despite being referred to as "king" in the journal of Antonio Pigafetta, he was not one in the manner of a monarch in centralized societies. It is plausible that the title was mistakenly applied, as according to succeeding chroniclers, there were no kingdoms in the pre-colonial Philippines.