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The Inaccuracies, Half-truths, Lies and Hoaxes in the "Filipino Trivia" Internet Article

By Roberto Reyes Mercado

An article called the "Filipino Trivia" has been circulating on the Internet. It supposedly tells of so many historical achievements for the Filipinos and Filipino Americans. It carries, however, a lot of inaccurate, fictionalized half-truths, lies and historical hoaxes.

My friends at the Philippine History Group of Los Angeles and I have been trying to tell people not to be boastful of many historical firsts for the Philippines when historical evidence and documentary proofs say otherwise. To do so will only make our people the laughing stock of world-class historians. We Filipinos and Americans of Filipino ancestry should not be proud of the ignorance of the author of this list of Filipino historical trivia. Yes, it's more of trivial nonsense and less of factual history. So will Filipinos and Filipino Americans now stop forwarding to their cyber friends the "Filipino Trivia" article? And what is sad is that some supposedly Filipino-American history "experts" are repeating these half-truths, lies and hoaxes in their lectures in American colleges and universities.

"Subject: Filipino Trivia" (By an anonymous author, who refuses to divulge his/her identity for unknown reasons.)

"1. In the Philippines, Filipinos were introduced to the English language in 1762 by British invaders, not Americans."

The truth: Yes, the British occupied the Walled City of Manila from 1762-1764. The British also sent troops and Indian mercenaries to some towns in Laguna like Pila. But the British never even organized a single grammar school to teach English. Yes, the English language could have been introduced by the British to a few of the Ilustrados (rich intelligentsia) but not to many natives during their short-lived occupation of Manila and some surrounding towns.

The purpose of this historical hoax is to stress that like the Americans, Filipinos learned also how to speak English from the British. And belittle the efforts of the American Thomasite teachers in the Philippines at the turn of the 20^th century. But this line of arrogant argument is pointless, as the "Filipino Trivia" author forgot that the initial Caucasian settlers in what became the United States were English-speaking Anglo-Saxon immigrants.

"2. What is the world's 3rd largest English-speaking nation, next to the USA and the UK? The Philippines."

The truth: The Philippines used to be the third largest English-speaking country, when English was taught even to the elementary pupils. Since the Philippine National Language Institute and the Department of Education adopted in the 1960s the vernacular as the method of grade-school instruction, nowadays even Filipino high-school graduates can hardly speak English. Why, even the Filipino president can barely speak grammatically-correct English?

Right now, there are more Asian Indians who speak English than there are Filipinos. India used to be a British colony, right? It will be another case if one argues on a per-capita basis. The Philippines (with a population of 75 million) has probably more English-speaking people (in spite of Erap and Company) than there are Indians (as India has a population of more than 550 million). In this manner perhaps we can say that the Philippines is still the third largest English-speaking country in the world. But on a pure number of English-speaking Asians, India tops the Philippines. And the Japanese, Koreans and Chinese are all learning English while the Imperial Manila Establishment is forcing even the non-Tagalog-speaking Filipinos to learn the Tagalog language.

"4. The Filipino-American Independence War from 1898 to 1902 ensued, killing 4,234 Americans and how many Filipinos? 16,000 were killed in action and 200,000 died from famine and pestilence. (The Philippines lost and was colonized until 1946.)"

The truth: Stanley Karnow in his book, "In Our Image," said, "the U.S. forces, by their own account, killed some 20,000 native soldiers." Both the military and the civilian casualties could be higher than 20,000 and 200,000, respectively. Why? Even Karnow did not mention that the Filipino-American War consisted of two conflicts: 1.) The Christian-Filipino War with America (from Feb. 4, 1899, to April 1, 1901, when General Aguinaldo issued a proclamation accepting the sovereignty of the United States). 2.) The Muslim-Filipino War with America (from 1899 to 1913 and even longer). Even Gen. John (Black Jack) J. Pershing, who became the American hero in World War I in 1918 in Europe, could not defeat the Muslim-Filipino rebels in 1913 in Sulu.

"5. Los Angeles, California was co-founded in 1781 by a Filipino named Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, along with 43 Latinos from Mexico sent by the Spanish government."

The truth: Antonio Miranda Rodriguez is not in the list of the Mexicans and Spaniards who founded the City of Los Angeles. There is a marker in the Mexican Village near the Los Angeles City Hall that enumerates the list of LA's founders and Antonio Miranda Rodriguez is not one of them. Miranda is said to be buried in Santa Barbara, California. He was a blacksmith. Hector Santos, the founding chairman of the Philippine History Group of Los Angeles, California, was the first historian to point out in 1998 this lie being peddled as a historical truth.

The Compton’s Encyclopedia Online has this to say: "Los Angeles was founded in 1781 by the Spanish governor of California, Felipe de Neve, near the site of the Indian village of Yang-na. It was named ‘El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles’ (The Town of the Queen of the Angels). The small community grew, and under later Mexican rule it alternated with Monterey as the capital of California. In 1846, during the Mexican War, the village was captured by Americans. In 1850 Los Angeles received a city charter." So how could the Spanish government send 43 Latinos from Mexico when there was already a Spanish governor of California in 1781? Spanish missionaries, who were accompanied by Spanish soldiers, founded the missions in California, starting in 1769. These missions were the most successful in New Spain (from South Florida to Texas to California). They provided the basis for settlement by colonists from Spain, and later from Mexico, who were given large land grants.

"8. The first ever international Grandmaster from Asia was Eugenio Torre who won at the Chess Olympiad in Nice, France, in 1974."

The truth: If Israel is part of Asia, and it participates in the Asian Games, then more Israeli grandmasters were ahead of Eugene Torre. If my memory serves me right, the Russians with their world champions won at the Nice Chess Olympiad. Eugene Torre, however, earned at this event, his grandmaster norm.

"12. Who invented the fluorescent lamp? Thomas Edison discovered the electric light and the fluorescent lighting was thought up by Nikola Tesla. But the fluorescent lamp we use today was invented by Agapito Flores (a Cebu man named Benigno Flores of Bantayan Island, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer), a Filipino scientist. Americans helped then-Philippine leader Ramon Magsaysay to develop it for worldwide commerce. (Yes! Many foreigners have noted that the Filipino population has Asia's highest rates of inventors and international beauty queens.)"

The truth: The US Patents Office (USPO) does not list any Benigno or Agapito Flores as the inventor of the fluorescent lamp. Even the Philippine Patents Office (PPO) does not list any Filipino inventor of any electric lamp or even a bulb. Both the PPO and the USPO belong to the International Patents' Agreement, and registration in either office is respected by all country signatories. Thomas Edison and his companies that sprung from his organization (like GE) still hold the patents to most electric lamps and lights. Magsaysay became Philippine president only in 1953 and the fluorescent lamp existed on a commercial scale (mostly used in industrial sites such as factories) long before that year. If indeed a Filipino invented the fluorescent lamp, then the Office of the Philippine President would have made sure that such an achievement would have been duly registered with the PPO and the USPO.

"22. Filipinos had their first taste of Mexican chili and corn during the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade (1564-1815). In return, Mexico's people had their initial taste of tamarind, Manila mango and a Filipino banana called racatan or lakatan."

The truth: The Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade started only in 1578, as Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and his forces landed only in Cebu in 1565. It was not until 1571 that Legazpi's expedition landed in Manila Bay. The Galleon Trade, by the way, ended in 1810, when Mexico became independent. Filipinos had much earlier tasted chili, spices and pepper not from the Spanish conquistadors but from Siamese (Thai) traders some 150 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. (Please see a Yimby.com article in its February 2000 issue on why Bicol is the only region in the Philippines that uses a lot of chili, spices and pepper.)

In regard to bananas, "lakatan" is the Cavendish variety introduced by the Del Monte and Dole fruit growers only during the American occupation of the Philippines. Of course the Philippines had bananas (other than the lakatan variety) even before the Spaniards came.

"23. Founded in 1595 by Spaniards, the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, Philippines is older than Harvard and is the oldest university in Asia. (The) University of Santo Tomas in Manila, established in 1611, is Asia's second oldest."

The truth: The comparison of the Philippine universities can only be made with the American institutions of learning. Both the San Carlos and Santo Tomas Universities in the Philippines are not Asia's oldest universities. China has a more ancient civilization and older universities that even Spain, England and all the European countries. Last Feb. 5, 2000, the Chinese calendar celebrated its 4,698th year (Year of the Dragon).

The other contents of the "Filipino Trivia" article are too inconsequential to merit comments from historical perspectives. Who cares if an American movie actor or a singer has Filipino blood, when that actor or singer does not even acknowledge his/her Filipino heritage? # # #