Why Andres Bonifacio is not our National Hero

        Andres Bonifacio fell asleep prior to The Cry of Pugad Lawin.

    If you ever wondered why the revolutionary Bonifacio is not our national hero, then wonder no more.

     The so-called Cry of Balintawak was renamed in 1968 to the Cry of Pugad Lawin solely because Andres Bonifacio screwed up, big time. According to multiple members in the Katipunan during the early 1900s, that fateful night in August 26, 1896 in Balintawak was usurped three days earlier in Pugad Lawin because Andres Bonifacio mistook the dry run in the latter as the actual event, depleting the numbers once the former finally happened.

      This was because a weary Bonifacio, exhausted from planning and mapping out the revolution, ended up falling asleep during the dry run of the revolution in Pugad Lawin, and woke up thinking it was already the real thing. Because Bonifacio’s actions were so convincing, in no small part due to

Ninoy and FM

       Marcos was protecting Ninoy.

    Everyone knows that Ninoy Aquino and Ferdinand Marcos were rivals, a competition that culminated in the assassination of the former and the deposition of the latter. Yet research by the managing editor of Filipinas magazine Gemma Nemenzo asserts that the two politicians were actually close friends.

     Ninoy in fact benefited from Marcos’ protection, and was only killed when he came home because Marcos’ ill-health and consequential inability to control his people weakened this benefit.

Macapagal's Autobiography Prediction

       Diosdado Macapagal’s autobiography predicted his daughter’s rise to power.

    Diosdado Macapagal was known for bringing land reform to the Philippines, and for pursuing anti-graft and-corruption reforms that were rendered useless by a non-cooperative congress. His daughter Gloria however doesn’t enjoy the same kind of reputation. Interestingly, the senior Macapagal did predict that Gloria would also become president many decades later. In his autobiography, which was also a criticism of Marcos’

20 Peso Bill's Secret

        The person on the old 20peso bill is not Manual Quezon.

       Take a look at historical photos of the second Philippine President, and you’ll see that he doesn’t exactly look like the person on the old 1993 20 Philippine Peso bill. Very odd, when you consider that the portrait on older (and the newest) 20 Peso bills look more similar to the famous historical figure. Why? If you look closer at the eyes and eyebrows, you’ll see that they’re exact copies of each other, except flipped. Any portrait artist will tell you that no one has exactly the same eye shape for both sides. Turns out while the master printing plate was being built, the artist was too busy and decided to duplicate the left eye

Our National Hero's Real Final Words

      Jose Rizal’s real final words.

     Everyone knows Rizal took a page from Jesus Christ, saying as his last words “consummatum est” (“It is finished” in Latin). Yet that’s not the whole story. The British author of Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr Austin Coates wrote: “With a normal pulse, Rizal quietly uttered ‘Consummatum est, o tempora o mores! Quo usque tandem abutere, cives, patientia nostra!’”. In other words, Rizal also quoted the famous orator Cicero: “It is finished. O the times, o the morals! How long shall you abuse our patience, citizens!” Coates later commented that the complete final words of Jose Rizal signalled his despair over how his fellow Filipinos lacked passion for the revolutionary cause.

Reference:

http://8list.ph/site/articles/8-things-about-philippine-history-you-may-not-know-189 

Lapu-lapu and Foreigners

      Lapu-lapu defeated Magellan with foreign help.

    Everyone knows about the Mactan ruler defeating the Spanish explorer despite the superior technology of the Europeans. Lost in history is the contribution of visiting Chinese, as recorded by Antonio Pigafetta, who chronicled the Magellan expedition’s circumnavigation of the world:

“When we reached land, [the natives] had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred persons. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries… The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly. We were told that

The World Famous Filipino Dwarf

      A Filipino dwarf became a famous figure in 19th-century Britain.

    Don Santiago de los Santos, a Filipino dwarf, became part of a traveling show in England between the late 1820s and the early 1830s. He was, indeed, a local celebrity in that part of the world. So, how did he end up in England?

     Popular journals from the late Georgian and Victorian eras had documented his story, although they might have exaggerated some of the details to sell more copies. Anyways, the existing documents suggest that Don Santiago de los Santos was born in 1786 to poor parents. The 1836 edition of the Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction (Volume 28) went on to say that he is “….a native of the Spanish settlement of Manila; in one of the forests of which, it seems, he was exposed to death in his infancy, on account of his diminutive size. He, was, however, miraculously saved by the Viceroy, who, happening to be hunting in that quarter, humanely ordered him to be t

The Belgian Buyer

        A Belgian king almost bought the Philippines from Spain.

    King Leopold II of Belgium was passionate about geography and everything that had something to do with maps. He also loved to travel, and it was during one of his trips when he realized that he could turn Belgium into one of the world’s richest countries.

       To make this possible, he first need a colony. His focus then shifted to Asia, specifically the islands considered to be the gateway to other nearby countries: the Philippines.

       According to historian Ambeth Ocampo, most of the details of King Leopold’s quest to make Philippines a Belgian colony can be found in the 1962 book entitled A La Recherde d’un Etat Independent: Leopold II et les Philippines 1869-1875. 

       In 1866, a year after his accession to the throne, King Leopold II asked his ambassador in Madrid to negotiate with the Queen of Spain about the possibility of ceding the Philippines to Belgium.

The lost Silver Coins

        In 1942, almost 16 million pieces of silver coins were dumped near Corregidor. Some of it remains unretrieved.

    After the Fall of Manila in 1942, Filipino and American officials were thinking of ways to keep the Philippine National Treasury out of the enemy’s hands. At that time, the treasury was brimming with 70 million pesos in paper bills, 269 pieces of gold bars, and 16, 422, 000 pesos in silver coins.

        They’re running out of time so they had to move fast. After recording the serial numbers, a total of 20 million in 500-peso bills was burned from January 19 to 20, 1942. When the submarine U.S.S. Trout arrived in Corregidor in February 3, workers loaded it with 2 million dollars in gold bars and $360, 000 in silver which were eventually shipped to San Francisco. With no more time left, high court government officials decided to just dump the remaining 15, 792, 000 pesos in silver coins to Caballo Bay, a deep and rough location just off Corregidor.

Elpidio Quirino and the "White Russians".

       President Elpidio Quirino helped save the lives of almost 6,000 “White Russians.”

     President Elpidio Quirino (left) and photos showing Russian children (upper right) and a Russian wedding (lower right) in the refugee camp in Tubahao, Eastern Samar. Sources: “Tubabao Island 1948-1951: The last refuge of the Russian Far East emigration”.

     If President Quezon was the savior of the Holocaust Jews, President Quirino should be the unsung hero of “White Russians.” In 1948, China was on the brink of a total invasion by the Communists led by Mao-Tse-Tung. For this reason, Russian emigrants living in Peking, Hankow, Tiensin, and other nearby cities in northern China were forced to evacuate to

Colgante Bridge Tragedy

       Before martial law, there was the Colgante Bridge Tragedy.

       On September 16, 1972, a few days before the declaration of martial law, the Colgante bridge in Naga City collapsed, killing 114 Roman Catholic pilgrims who were celebrating the feast of their patroness, Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia.

     Most of the victims were either drowned or crushed to death on boats beneath. The tragic incident happened when 1,000 faithfuls rushed to the 15-year-old bailey bridge to watch with

Leper Community

       Philippines’ leper colony had their own “Leper Money. “

    Leprosy is a communicable bacterial disease characterized by skin lesions and numbness. In 1633, it is said that a Japanese Emperor  sent a ship loaded with lepers to the Spanish missionaries based in the Philippines. He also instructed the ship’s captain to drown the lepers in case no one would receive them. Fortunately, the missionaries kindly welcomed the patients with open arms and even established the San Lazaro Hospital to take care of them. At that time, people had very little knowledge about the disease so it didn’t take long before leprosy started to afflict the Filipino populace.

      In 1906, Dr. Heiser, Director of Health for the Philippines, opened a leper colony in Culion, an island located north of Palawan. Lest they might continue spreading the disease, a unique monetary system separate from the rest of the country was established. These leper coins were only allowed within the colony and those who would leave the place had to convert the leper money into “government money.”

First American Hero in the Philippines

       The first American hero of World War II was killed in combat in the Philippines.

    A graduate of West Point, 25-year-old Capt. Colin P. Kelly Jr. became the first American hero of World War II when he bombed a Japanese cruiser three days after the attacks in Pearl Harbor.

        On December 10, 1941, Kelly and his crew were ordered to fly out of Clark Air Field and attack targets on Formosa (now Taiwan). He was forced to take off the B-17 with only three 600-pound bombs on board and with the plane partly fueled. On the way to Formosa, they saw a huge Japanese landing party with accompanying destroyers. Kelly ordered the attack on the Japanese fleet despite receiving no clear permission from base to engage the enemy.

       The crew dropped the bombs from 20, 000 feet. One bomb directly hit the target while the other two impacted the flank. With no bombs left, Kelly maneuvered the plane to go back to Clark Air Field.

Three Other Martyrs

        There were three other martyr priests aside from “Gomburza.”

    Mention the words “martyr priests” and most Filipinos will remember “Gomburza,” the three Filipino priests who were executed for their  alleged involvement in the 1872 Cavite Mutiny.But several years after their deaths, another three martyr priests would again shed their blood in Bagumbayan. Their names are much more obscure though, mainly because they were part of a group of Bicolano martyrs collectively known as Los Quince Martires.

    After the discovery of Katipunan in September, 1896, the Spanish government immediately ordered mass arrests of those who were connected to the secret organization. The wrath of Spaniards eventually reached Bicol and arrests were made between September and October in 1896.A total of 15 men were arrested, tortured, and sentenced to death. Out of these 15, three were secular priests from Nueva Caceres (now Naga City), namely: Fr. Severino Diaz, Fr. Inocencio Herrera, and Fr. Gabriel Prieto.

A Statue for Kamikaze pilots of WWII

        A statue in Pampanga was built to honor the first Japanese kamikaze pilots of World War II.

    The life-size statue, cast and paid for in Japan, was erected at Mabalacat next to the former Clark Air Base. It shows Lt Yukio Seki, considered as the world’s first official human bomb who led the first kamikaze raid in October 1944. The fiberglass statue represents thousands of Japanese suicide pilots who damaged or sunk Allied ships from October 1944 to August 1945.

UST is older than Calculus!

    University of Santo Tomas was established before calculus was invented.

    We all know UST is old but only few realize just how ‘old’ it is. Established on April 28, 1611 by Manila’s third Archbishop, Msgr. Miguel de Benavides, O.P., the University of Santo Tomas predates America’s Harvard University and even the calculus. In fact, both Harvard and UST were not teaching calculus during their first few years because calculus at that time wasn’t invented yet.

President Marco's Double

      A Ferdinand Marcos look-alike doubled for the late president during many occasions.

   Jesus Quevenco, a native of Negros, first met Ferdinand Marcos when his friend, Silay Mayor Romulo Golez, accompanied him to the late dictator’s house in the 1960s. During that time, then Senator Marcos just made his bid for the presidency.

       While he was waiting at the living room, Quevenco met NP delegates from Mindanao who would later shake his hands, thinking that he was the real Marcos. It was the start of Quevenco’s part-time job as a Marcos double. He would take the place of Ferdinand to meet with people, accompany the First Lady Imelda Marcos, and attend events in times when the late president was either too busy or tired.

Nuclear Bomb in the Philippines

       In 1965, a nuclear bomb fell into the Philippine sea. It’s still missing.

    On December 5, 1965, a month after the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga‘s departure from a U.S. naval base in Subic Bay, a Broken Arrow incident (i.e. an accident involving a nuclear weapon) occurred.

       The attack jet United States Navy Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, manned by American pilot Lieutenant Douglas M. Webster, accidentally fell off the carrier while being rolled from the level 2 hangar to the level 2 elevator. Unfortunately, the Skyhawk was carrying a nuclear weapon at that time, specifically the Mk. 43 free-fall bomb which contains at least a megaton’s worth of nuclear explosive. The accident happened just 80 miles from Okinawa. The pilot as well as the aircraft and the nuclear bomb were never recovered, and it’s not until the 1980s that the Pentagon revealed the loss of such weapon.

Reference:
http://www.filipiknow.net/

An Unexpected Ally during the Philippine-American War

      A black American fought for the Filipinos during the Philippine-American War.

    His name is Corporal David Fagen, one of the 7,000 black soldiers who were sent to the country during the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902.

        He was supposed to fight against Filipino Insurrectos but conflicts between him and his superiors as well as the racism shown by Americans against Filipino soldiers pushed Fagen to finally abandon his group on November 17, 1899.

The 22.6-foot Terror of Luzon

      In the 1970s, a 22.6-foot reticulated phyton terrorized Luzon and swallowed an Agta Negrito.

   The 22.6-foot reticulated python, shot by Kekek Aduanan on June 9, 1970. Agta Negritos are indigenous people in Luzon who, in the 1970s, competed with a reticulated phyton for their main sources of food namely Philippine deer, Philippine warty pigs and long-tailed macaques.

      Thomas N. Headland, an anthropologist who lived with and studied the group, later found out that 15 of 58 men and 1 of 62 women were attacked by the giant snake. Worse, 6 of them were killed, one of whom was discovered within the snake’s belly after butchering.

Reference:

http://www.filipiknow.net/

Avante the Hero

       A dog named “Serging” (alias “Avante”) received numerous awards in 1957 for his heroic act during the Magsaysay plane crash.

        Originally known as “Serging”, the dog was later renamed “Avante” to avoid offending Sergio Osmeña Jr. who was a Cebu mayor at that time. “Avante”, along with his owner Marcelino Nuya, helped save Nestor Mata, the only survivor of the plane crash that killed the late President Ramon Magsaysay.

For their heroic roles in the tragedy, the two received gold medals from the Philippine Constabulary (PC) and various government officials. Avante also received recognition from an animal rights group. 

Reference:

http://www.filipiknow.net/

Untold First Same Sex Marriage in the Philippines

      The first same-sex marriage in the Philippines was between two NPA members.

       In February 2005, Ka Andres and Ka Jose, two members of the NPA (New People’s Army), exchanged vows in a symbolic ceremony held in the Compostela Valley province in Mindanao.

        In addition to a choir which serenaded the two with revolutionary love songs, the event was also participated by their comrades and few closed friends. During the wedding, the two held each other’s hand while keeping a bullet in the other to represent their commitment to the armed struggle.

Reference:

http://www.filipiknow.net/

Gollum Suluensis' Untold History

      Gollum suluensis is a shark named after Gollum of the movie “Lord of the Rings” and Philippines’ very own Sulu Sea.

      Discovered in Sulu, this New Zealand shark is one of the species of the genus Gollum. Compared to it’s cousin (G. attenuatus), this shark has a “darker, plainer and less contrasted coloration, softer body, shorter and broader snout, smaller spiracle, larger pectoral fin, wider head, as well as larger proportions of the nostril, mouth and interorbital space.”

Reference:

http://www.filipiknow.net/

Aluling Bridge's Untold History

        Aluling Bridge in Ilocos Sur took 35 years to complete.

        After 35 years and 6 presidents, the Aluling Bridge was finally completed on March 25 of this year. It’s construction first started in 1978 but due to a host of factors such as unpredictable weather and difficulty of navigating the river, the completion was delayed for more than 3 decades. Aluling Bridge connects the provinces of Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province.

Reference:

http://www.filipiknow.net/

Visayan People's Secret Beverage

     Jaz Cola, a beverage produced by The Coca Cola Company, was specifically made for the people in the Visayan Islands.

       Jaz Cola is a cola-flavored drink and just one of the many custom beverages made by Coca-Cola for the Philippine market. Originally created for consumers living in  the Visayan region, Jaz Cola has reportedly “fueled Visayan pride among its teen consumers.”

Reference:

http://www.filipiknow.net/

Major Archibald Untold Story

        Major Archibald Butt, former military captain in the Philippines, died in the sinking of Titanic in 1912.

        A former journalist, Butt was a well-known military aide and adviser to US presidents William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. He joined the army who fought during the Spanish-American War.

After the war ended, he was assigned to the Philippines as a volunteer and later promoted as Assistant Quartermaster with the rank of Captain. He stayed in Manila until July 1903.

        In 1912, after a short trip to Europe, Butt embarked Titanic to return to the US. Sadly, he was one of the victims who perished when the ship sank. His body was never recovered.

Reference:
http://www.filipiknow.net/

Pepsi's Untold Secret

        In 1992, Pepsi offered 1 million pesos to anyone who had a bottle cap with “349” printed on it. Turns out, half a million bottle caps got the winning number.

        Dubbed as the “Number Fever”, the promo was offered by Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines. On May 25, 1992, the winning numbers (i.e. 349) were finally released. Thousands claimed the prizes but Pepsi officials revealed that there was a technical glitch. In the end, the company spent more than 200 million pesos to pay up to 500, 000 disappointed claimants. The case of the infamous “Pepsi 349″ fiasco was finally closed in 2006.

Reference:

http://www.filipiknow.net/

Cory's Secret

       Cory Aquino’s Favorite Color .

        The late President Corazon Aquino as well as the EDSA People Power Revolution are best remembered through the iconic ‘yellow ribbon’. However, she once admitted that RED was actually her first favorite. The yellow color only came after some friends suggested the song “Tie A Yellow Ribbon” for Ninoy’s homecoming. Cory continued to use her yellow trademark after her husband’s death.

Reference:

http://www.filipiknow.net/

Juan Luna's Untold Story

       Juan Luna killed his wife and mother-in-law. 

      In 1892, Juan Luna, famous Filipino painter of 400 masterpieces, was involved in a bloody murder at their Paris home. The victims? His wife, Maria de la Paz Pardo de Tavera, and his mother-in-law. It is said that extreme jealousy forced Luna to pull the trigger. He was later acquitted in February 1893 after the court categorized the murder as a “crime of passion”.

Reference:

http://www.filipiknow.net/

Malacañan's Untold History

       Malacañang Palace

    Originally began construction 1750 by Don Luís Rocha as a summer house along the Pasig River. It was purchased by the state in 1825 as the summer residence for the Spanish Governor-General. After the June 3, 1863 earthquake destroyed the Palacio del Governador (Governor's Palace) in the walled city of Manila, it became the Governor-General's official residence. After sovereignty over the Islands was ceded to the United States of America in 1898, it became the residence of the American Governors, with Gen. Wesley Merritt being the first.