Opon - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

OPON, a town of the province of Cebu, Philippine Islands, on the small island of Mactan (area about 45 sq. m.), which is separated from the island of Cebu by a channel only about ? m. wide. Pop (1903), after the annexation of Cordova and Santa Rosa, 20,166. There are forty-four barrios, or villages, in the town, and three of these had in 1903 more than 1000 inhabitants each. The language is Visayan. Opon is a shipping and commercial suburb of Cebu city, the harbour of which is sheltered by Mactan Island. The town has large groves of coco-nut trees, and its principal industries are the cultivation of Indian corn and maguey and fishing. In the N.E. part of the town is a monument to Magellan, who discovered the Philippines in March 1521, and was slain here by the natives late in the following month.