[1] She was named after the native Filipino Kandarapa bird (known as the Philippine nightjar), a lark that frequently stayed amongst the rice padies, whose songs she imitated with her beautiful voice.
[1] Her uncle, the king, resisted conversion to Islam and remained to his native Filipino (Hindu-Malay) religion of his forebears and although Tondo was an older kingdom, it ceded power to Manila which was established as a satellite state subservient to the Sultanate of Brunei after a Bruneian settlement of Luzon.
[3] When Kandarapa was bathing in the Pasig River with a retinue of her servant-maidens was when she encountered the Mexican-born Spanish soldier Juan de Salcedo.
While the rest of her entourage fled in fear of the man, she froze there staring at the erstwhile Spaniard, while the conquistador, in kind, stood there too, "appreciating' her feminine figure, after briefly beholding her, he politely excused himself to do an errand.
According to Philippine historical documents and a written account by Don Felipe Cepeda, Salcedo's aide,[4] who returned to Acapulco, recount that after the Spanish conquest of Luzon with Mexican and Visayan assistance, and their consequent takeover of the Pasig River delta polity of Hindu Tondo, which was the previous preeminent state in Luzon before the Brunei Sultanate established their puppet-kingdom, Islamic Manila, to supplant Tondo, Juan de Salcedo, then about 22 years old, fell in love with the 18-year-old "Dayang-dayang" (a native Filipino word for "Princess") Kandarapa, so named after the lark of the rice fields, whose song she imitated by her beautiful singing voice,[1] was said to be the niece of Rajah Lakandula, Tondo's Lakan ("Paramount ruler").
López de Legazpi imprisoned Lakandula after he returned to Tondo without authorization despite his eloquence in persuading the other datus (chieftains) to join the Spaniards.
[7] However, princess Kandarapa mistakenly thought that Salcedo had been unfaithful to her as a result of the disapproving of López de Legazpi sending his grandson on far flung expeditions to deter his love for Kandarapa because he wanted Juan to marry a pure Spanish woman, and even lying that his grandson had married the daughter of the Rajah of Kaog, Santa Lucia.