The God Culture: Ancient Greek Armor Found In Mindanao

Timothy Jay Schwab of The God Culture bolsters his claims that the Philippines is the ancient source of Greek gold, as if there were no gold mines in ancient Greece, by claiming that ancient Greek armor has been found in Mindanao.

https://youtu.be/kWjFtcV_6Nc

Beginning at 5:27 Timothy Schwab says:

"When we visited Butuan, Philippines in May we were actually able to see this Greek armor which was found in 2018 in the Philippines. The thing is these are indisputably Greek from the symbols and the structure and they are dated all the way back to 800 B.C. up to about 480 B.C. "

Now that is indeed rather interesting don't you think? Ancient Greek armor was found in Mindanao and dated between 800 and 480 B.C.? That would be a huge archaeological discovery seeing as Alexander did not even reach India until 326 B.C.! It would mean Greek soldiers marched or sailed to the Philippines BEFORE the Peloponnesian War. What can one do in the face of such overwhelming evidence that the Greeks were in the Philippines possibly only 300 years after the Trojan War? Question it and tear it apart of course.

I don't doubt that Timothy saw this armor. It obviously exists. Just look at the pictures. But where did he see it? A museum? Somewhere else? A search for news about this discovery leads to one and only one source which is a Youtube video posted by Kasaysayan Hunters on April 30th 2019.

As to the provenance of this discovery I think you will not be shocked to hear that these artifacts appeared suddenly out of nowhere.  From the video:

"In 2018 locals in Mindanao were surprised to find armor of a type they have never seen before complete with helmets and weapons, soon sold in the Philippine antiquities market. We were fortunate enough to track down two sets of these amours which may give us important insight into our ancient past." 

That is some stunning documentation right there. Unnamed locals found armor of a kind they had never seen before at an undisclosed location and quickly sold it on the Philippine antiquities market. What is this Philippine antiquities market anyway? Sounds like there is a thriving trade in antiquities on the black market in the Philippines.

The video offers no clue as to the origin of the armor. Rather than question its authenticity the narrator assumes it as a fact and goes on to describe all the details like the lions heads and anemones and gorgon heads carved into the armor as being genuinely Greek. They even expect us to believe that ancient Greeks wore helmets decorated with tokay geckos which are native to the Philippines and not Greece! Did the Greeks manufacture these helmets while in the Philippines?

The axe decorated with a lion's head we are told is a battle axe. Because when you want to kill someone in battle you definitely don't want an gigantic axe with a huge smooth, sharp edged double head.  You want a short and stylish decorative piece.

Here is a picture of the set in full.

Lots of questions need answering.

Where and how was this armor found?

How many more sets were found and where are they now?

What other artifacts were found in the vicinity?

Did any archaeologists visit the site where this armor was found?

Why is the armor in relatively good condition?

Who dated the armor to between 800 - 400 B.C. and what method did they use?
Has Greece been notified of this discovery?

Have any experts in Greek antiquities examined these artifacts?
What kind of tests have been run on this armor?  Metallurgical?

Where are these artifacts now and why does it look they are sitting on a house porch?

Is this the "Philippine antiquities market?"

Safe at home on the porch?

As Indiana Jones would say:

Apparently Tim and the God Culture did not think to ask any of these questions but accept these pieces as genuine ancient Greek armor with zero proof except that they look like Greek armor. One thing to note is that the pieces lying on the table are of a darker color than in the photo showing the full set.  That brings up a few more questions.

Where these pieces cleaned?
What were they cleaned with?
Were any kind of tests run on this armor before they were cleaned?

An image search for "Greek muscle cuirass" and "ancient Greek battle axe" gives results that look nothing like the armor above. There is armor with fake abs but not with lion heads and celestial wheels for nipples. Maybe such did exist but they are not coming up in any search online. And believe it or not those Greek battle axes have more of a Tibetan design than Grecian.

It's obvious that Tim does not believe these artifacts are genuine ancient Greek armor because they have been rigorously and thoroughly tested by experts and found to be so. He believes because it confirms his thesis that the Philippines is the ancient land of Ophir. He ignores what is so obviously gives away the fraud which is the tokay gecko on the helmet! But this would not be the first fact that Tim ignores.

To prove that the Greeks visited the Philippines Time produces a map, made in 1898 mind you, and points to two little islands labelled Chryse and Argyre and says this is Luzon and Mindanao!  Pray tell what happened to the Visayas?  You know, Negros, Iloilo, Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, and all the rest which lie in between Luzon and Mindanao! His map and his assertions cannot account for them. Here is the map he shows.

What is the source of this map anyway? Well if you're not paying attention you will miss the reference which is in VERY TINY PRINT in the bottom left corner.  Let me show you.

Contrary to what the God Culture has claimed that is NOT 30 point font!

He even claims our sources are in very tiny print yet there are a 30 point font thus rather disingenuous as we have come to expect from this communist-style agitator. If you are viewing it on a cell phone screen perhaps it is small but plenty big when we create our slides and all right there to review which this writer has done with their confirmation bias.

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-god-culture-100-clues-philippines.html?showComment=1580698889368#c5406023618075777202

I am viewing this on a 13-inch Macbook Pro and it's barely legible!! You have to zoom in to read it properly. It also doesn't help that there is a God Culture watermark superimposed over the map which they took from another source!! The source is atlantisjavasea.com. Specifically it is this page: https://atlantisjavasea.com/2015/09/26/taprobana-is-not-sri-lanka-nor-sumatera-but-kalimantan/. This is a web page dedicated to proving that Atlantis was located in Southeast Asia. Goodness knows how Tim ended up on this page but it should be noted that the map is an 1898 reconstruction of Mela by Konrad Miller. Mela himself never drew a map!

It should also be noted that Tim ignores all the scholarship regarding the identification of Chryse, Argyre, and the Golden Chersonesus which he encounters. In the book by Thomas Suarez which he cites the islands are identified as Malaya and Burma while the Golden Chersonesus is identified as the Malaya Peninsula. Has he read this book by Paul Wheatley?

https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/v692t6367

While the book is not available online the table of contents are and there is no hint of the Philippines. The subtitle also gives the game away.  "Studies in the Historical Geography of the Malay Peninsula before A.D. 1500."

There is simply no credible evidence that the Philippines are the islands Tim says they are or that the Greeks were ever here. However there is an article that makes this assertion which Tim has likely come across.

The Visayan Islands had earlier encounter with the Greek traders in 21 A.D. 2  (Felix Regalado and Quentin  B. Franco, History of Panay  (Ilo-ilo City  Central Philippines University , 1973) ed.,  Eliza B. Grimo, p. 78.)

http://cebu-online.com/swum/html/exhibits.html

Over at a message board about history this question of Greek traders in the Philippines was raised and the book cited as the source of this information, History of Panay, was located and the appropriate section quoted.

Professor Austin Craig, eminent student of Philippine history, said that the ancient traders of the Philippines exported sinamay cloth to Greece in A.D. 21 and Strabo, a Roman geographer of the First Century, referred to the commodity as "Ta see sika", or 'flex combed from the trees'. Manila hemp was well known to the Caesars of Rome, and sinamay cloth was once sold to the museum of Dresden, Germany for its antiquity.

https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/46708/did-greek-traders-visit-the-philippines-in-the-1st-century-ad

If you cross check the reference from Professor Austin Craig which is found in "A Thousand Years of Philippine History Before the Arrival of the Spanish" you find this subject of ancient Greek contact with the Philippines on the very first page.

The Philippine History of which one is apt to think when that subject is mentioned covers hardly a fourth of the Islands' book-recorded history.  

These records are not the romantic dream of a Paterno that under the name Ophir the Philippines with their gold enriched Solomon (l0th century B. C). They are solider ground than any plausible explanations that Manila hemp (abaka) was Strabo's (A. D. 21) "ta seerika," the cloth made of "a kind of flax combed from certain barks of trees." The shadowy identification of the Manilas with Ptolemy's Maniolas (c. A. D. 130) is not in their class. Nor, to accept them, is recourse needed to farfetched deductions like Zuniga's that the American Continent received Israel's ten lost tribes, and thence, through Easter Island, Magellan's archipelago was peopled. Their existence saves us from having to accept such references as how Sinbad the sailorman (Burton: The Arabian Nights, Night 538 et seq.) evidently made some of his voyages in this region, though it would not be uninteresting to note that the great Roc is a bird used in Moro ornament, the “ghoul" of the Thousand and One Nights is the Filipino Asuang and that the palm-covered island which was believed to be a colossal tortoise because it shook might well have been located where the Philippine maps indicate that earthquakes are most frequent.  

The records herein after to be cited are for the most part of the prosaic kind, all the more reliable and valuable because they are inclined to be dry and matter-of-fact. They make no such demand upon imagination as Europe’s pioneer traveller's tales, for instance the- sixteenth century chart which depicted America as inhabited by headless people with eyes, nose and mouth located in the chest. 

https://archive.org/stream/thousandyearsofp00crairich#page/n7/mode/2up

Read that carefully and see that the authors of the "History of Panay" misrepresent what Austin Craig writes.

Professor Austin Craig rejects the "romantic dream" of the Philippines being Ophir and Greeks trading in these islands. Instead He focuses his scholarship on written records and calls them "more reliable and valuable."  On the other end of the spectrum Timothy Jay Schwab and the God Culture latch on to every kind of myth and legend and reject what scholars have to say in order to promulgate their doctrine. Men like Professor Austin Craig and Thomas Suarez do history while Tim and his bunch engage in pseudo-history.

Let's say these are real ancient Greek artifacts and not just fakes manufactured by locals in Mindanao. That would change so much of what we know about history. It would mean that the Greeks were either sailing around Africa long before Bartolomeu Dias did in 1488 or marching overland to the East hundreds of years before Alexander. In short it would be a groundbreaking archeological discovery and the area where the armor was found would certainly be excavated for more artifacts. But since the source of our knowledge of these antiques is only one Youtube video and there are no scholarly references to this find in reputable journals and no news reports either it is a safe bet that this ancient Greek armor is a modern-day fraud. The Philippines may be the ancient land of Gold according to The God Culture but today it is most certainly the land of frauds, cheats, and thieves.

The God Culture: 100 Clues the Philippines is the Ancient Land of Gold Known as Ophir

"Welcome to 100 Clues the Philippines is the Ancient Land of Gold known as Ophir!"  So begins the first video in The God Culture's video series, "100 Clues the Philippines is the Ancient Land of Gold known as Ophir."

Thankfully these videos are short and to the point. They can be watched while eating a breakfast of rice and eggs or a lunch of rice and lechon or a dinner of rice and lumpia. That's a lot of rice! Rice for every meal! Is the abundance of rice in the Philippines one of the "100 Clues the Philippines is the Ancient Land of Gold known as Ophir?" Read on dear readers. If you have not read my previous exposé of The God Culture be sure to check it out.

Before we get to the clues we must take into account what Timothy Jay Schwab, CEO of Ocean Life Agency and head researcher at the God Culture, has to say about the purpose of these videos. 

"Welcome to 100 Clues the Philippines is the Ancient Land of Gold known as Ophir in the Bible and history. No, it's no fable and this has already been proven in full in The God Culture's Solomon's Gold series in such a definitive way that no historian, scholar, theologian has been able to disprove their findings in over two years. The few that have tried to debate have failed. 

"We've pulled out 100 clues from this research in which we will highlight briefs of the most compelling points and yes there are over 100! These videos are for those who have not had the time to watch Solomon's Gold series and a five minute or so video cannot replace that entire 50 video in-depth series nor prove the way that it does. But this will still be very effective nonetheless. So go there for full evidence but now our series 100 Clues the Philippines is Ophir...one clue at a time."

https://youtu.be/7vDhLkHrrLc

These 100 videos, only 50 as of this writing, are distillations of the much longer series Solomon's Gold.  While these videos are not a substitute for that in-depth series they serve as an effective means of getting the main message, that the Philippines is the land of Ophir, across to an audience who does not have time to watch the longer series. It's the Cliff Notes version if you will.

If you want to watch this series here is the playlist which is thankfully not a total mess like the Solomon's Gold series playlist. Tim should clean up his Youtube channel and only have the relevant videos in each playlist. The Solomon's Gold playlist has videos which do not belong in it.

On with the clues which I hope to sum up in a sentence or two. 

Clue #1

The Philippines is the number one land of gold in all of history. There is a lot of gold which has been mined over thousands of years and much more remains to be mined. This video was published on August 15, 2019 which means Tim was not aware of the approval of golden rice!  That's right golden rice! 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2228793-gm-golden-rice-gets-landmark-safety-approval-in-the-philippines/

The Philippines has become the first country with a serious vitamin A deficiency problem to approve golden rice – which is genetically modified to prevent the deficiency – as safe for humans and animals to eat. According to a government report, it is as safe as conventional rice varieties. 

“This is a victory for science, agriculture and all Filipinos,” member of congress Sharon Garin said in a statement. 

Golden rice has been altered produce the orange pigment beta-carotene, which the body can turn into vitamin A. Because rice is a major part of the diet in the Philippines, if children eat golden rice instead of normal rice, it should substantially reduce vitamin A deficiency.

Wow!! Truly the Philippines is the land of gold and rice and now golden rice!

Clue #2

The Philippines is the ancient source of Greek gold. The Greeks mention an island of gold known as Chryse and an island of silver known as Argyre. These islands are located east of the Ganges River. That means....the Philippines! Tim identifies Chryse as Luzon and Argyre as Mindanao. Who knew the Greeks circumnavigated Africa on a regular basis just to visit the Philippines!? Tim gets his information from a book titled "Early Mapping of Southeast Asia" by Thomas Suarez.

Mr. Suarez is an expert in interpreting early cartography. He knows all there is to know about maps and geography from ancient times.

Thomas Suarez is a well-known authority on early maps whose previous books include Early Mapping of Southeast Asia (Periplus, 2000), which has become a standard work in the field. He has served as curator and advisor for collections and exhibitions dealing with the history of cartography, and has been an important source for early maps for the past twenty-five years.

About the Author

The book Tim quotes "has become a standard work in the field." That means what it says has authority.  Let us quote at length from the section of Suarez's book to which Timothy jay Schwab refers.

Chryse and Argyre 

Gold and silver, in fact, characterize the earliest extant specific Western Reference to Southeast Asia. Pomponius Mela (37 - 43 A.D.), a Roman geographer and native os Southern Spain, largely carried on the Greek tradition about the East, perpetuating stories about Amazons, people without heads, griffins, and other such characters, but adds two lands which lay to the east of India. One was Chryse, said to boast soil of gold, the other, Argyre, said to have soil of silver: 

In the vicinity of Tamus is the island of Chryse, in the vicinity of the Ganges that of Argyre, According to olden writers, the soil of the former consists of gold, that of the latter is of silver and it seems very probable that either the name arises from this fact or the legend derives from the name.

Mela was quoting earlier, unknown sources and he goes on to vaguely mention the possibility of a Southeast Asian peninsula: 

Between Colis [southeastern tip of Asia] and Tamus [China?] the coast runs straight. It is inhabited by retiring peoples who garner rich harvests from the sea. 

Pliny also alludes to a Southeast Asian peninsula. Noting that the Seres [Chinese] wait for trade to come to them, he lists three rivers of China, which are followed by “the promontory of Chryse” and then a bay. Elsewhere in his Natural history, however, Pliny refers to Chryse as an island. This discrepancy probably results from his having compiled news of the “land of gold” from contact via land (peninsula) and sea (island). It was more often mapped as an island in medieval mappaemundi. 

Chryse most likely represented Malaya, while Argyre was probably Burma, perhaps Arakan. Both are seen as islands in the world map after Mela, Chryse being the island off to the east Asian coast, and Argyre the island at the Ganges delta next to Taprobana. On the twelfth-century “Turin” world map they appear as a single island in the easternmost ocean sea, the right-hand isle of the two immediately above Adam and Eve (the left-hand isle is simply designated isult and this may have been for either Chryse or Argyre). 

Mention of Chryse is also made in the Periplus of the Erythean Sea, which describes Chryse as “the last part of the inhabited world toward the east, under the rising sun itself,”a land from which comes “the best tortoise-shell of all the places on the Erythean Sea.” The work’s anonymous author then described the land of This (China)  and Thinae, from which raw silk, silk yarn, and silk cloth, acquired through silent barter, were brought overland to India. Isidorus Hispalensis (Isidore of Seville, ca. 560-636 A.D.), in his Etymologiae, one of the most popular cosmographies of the Middle Ages, also placed the lands of Chryse and Argyre in the southeastern extreme of the world, along with the Taprobana and Tyle (Tile, an island near India.) 

Interestingly, Chryse and Argyre are reminiscent of some aspects of Buddhist cosmology where the waters that pour forth from Sumeru flow into four canals separated by four mountains, of which one is gold, another silver, and the other two, precious stones and crystal. The image of four canals separating four landmasses, can also be compared with a view of the Arctic region found in a medieval European text and used in later world maps by Renaissance cartographers Ruysch, Fine, and Mercator.

The search for gold also promoted intra-Asian maritime trade in the Indian Ocean during the first century A.D. As a result of the disruption by internal disorders of the traditional route through the steps of Central Asia to Siberian gold reserves, new sources for the metal, a medium of exchange between various Asian peoples, were sought. Rome decreased the gold content of its coins and introduces measures to halt their exportation. At the same time, new ocean-going vessels and navigational techniques made it more feasible for Indian merchants to pursue the “Islands of Gold” to their east.

The association of Southeast Asia with gold was so strong that Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews (second half of the first century), wrote that Ophir, the land fro which King Solomon had fetched gold, is now known as Aurea Chersoneus (Golden Peninsula, i.e. Malaya.) Josephus thus began the recurring idea that the Ophir of the Bible was in Southeast Asia, a belief that can be found in earnest through the latter nineteenth century. Various places were believed to have been the site of Ophir, from Malaya to Indochina, Sumatra, and the Pacific Ocean.

Early Mapping of Southeast Asia: The Epic Story of Seafarers, Adventurers, and Cartographers Who First Mapped the Regions between China and India, Thomas Suarez, Pg 62-63

Mr. Schwab is fond of quoting Wikipedia. He even says in this video at 15:16:

"Greek history confirms exactly what Wikipedia had confirmed and so does Josephus. They don't speculate as to a possible location of Chryse/Ophir but they give exact directions and they map it. That map did not lead to Ethiopia did it? Nor Yemen, nor India. It leads to the Philippines." 

Actually Wikipedia says the opposite of what Timothy Jay Schwab is spouting and identifies the Aurea Chersoneus as the Malay peninsula.

The Golden Chersonese or Golden Khersonese (Ancient Greek: Χρυσῆ Χερσόνησος, Chrysḗ Chersónēsos; Latin: Chersonesus Aurea), meaning the Golden Peninsula, was the name used for the Malay Peninsula by Greek and Roman geographers in classical antiquity, most famously in Claudius Ptolemy's 2nd-century Geography.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Chersonese

The Wikipedia entry on Chryse and Argyre says nothing about the Philippines and relegates these two islands to legend.

Chryse and Argyre were a pair of legendary islands, located in the Indian Ocean and said to be made of gold (chrysos in Greek) and silver (argyros).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chryse_and_Argyre

What you have here is a classic case of confirmation bias. Rather than taking the source he quotes by Mr. Suarez in full and at face value, Tim picks and chooses what he will and then interprets that data in a manner that is totally opposite to the way it is presented in the book he references. At no time does Mr. Suarez hint that the islands of Chryse and Argyre could be the Philippines. Wikipedia also disagrees with Tim's conclusions as to the identity of the Aurea Chersonesus. Tim has messed up majorly by being dishonest with his sources. Cleary Tim has an agenda and the facts be damned! All the scholars are wrong and Tim, a man who studied business, marketing, and media and not languages or history, is right. The only real interesting thing in this video is that Tim tells us ancient Greek armor was found in Mindanao in 2018 but that deserves its own blog post. Let us press on.

Clue #3

Philippine gold has been found in first century Egypt. How did it get there? The Philippines ruled the seas and brought their gold all over the world in their junks and other large ships. The Philippines is the ancient land of gold exporters.  Allow me to point out that while he does list his sources they are all on the bottom of the screen in VERY TINY PRINT! He also does not show you the pages he is quoting from. That is bad form especially as many of these sources are not easily available. I wonder if he has actually read these sources or is quoting them secondhand. Let's find out.

This slide is the only time Philippine gold found in Egypt is mentioned. Tim neither shows us pictures of the gold nor tells us where the gold was found or anything else about the gold. In fact this video is about the ancient Philippine flotilla and not Philippine gold being found in first century Egypt. It's the ol' bait and switch! His sources are as follows:

1. Laszlo Legeza, "Tantric Elements in pre-Hispanic Philippines Gold Art," Arts of Asia, July-Aug, 1988, pp 129-136 

2. J.T. Peralta, "Prehistoric gold ornaments from the Central Bank of the Philippines," Arts of Asia 1981, no.4, p 54 

3. Ramon N. Villegas, "Ginto: History Wrought in Gold", Manila: Bangko Central ng Pilipinas", 2004

Tim tells his listeners to prove and test all things.

"This is from three very credible sources. You'll note the sources on every slide all the way through this series making it easier for you to confirm. So go ahead prove all things, confirm everything we say. We hope that you will."

How is one supposed to do that when these sources are unavailable to check so easily? Let's take the first source.  It's only available on backorder from Arts of Asia. For $15 they will airmail you a photocopy of the article.

https://www.artsofasianet.com/back_issues/back_issue.php?issue_code=1988_jul_aug

If you search the internet for this source you will come across many instances of this exact citation: 

"Legeza, Laszlo. "Tantric Elements in pre-Hispanic Philippines Gold Art," Arts of Asia, July-Aug. 1988, pp.129-136. (Mentions gold jewelry of Philippine origin in first century CE Egypt)" 

For example the book "Quests of the Dragon Clan and Bird Clan" has this citation. No publication with this citation actually quotes the relevant material but only asserts that this article mentions Philippine gold has been found in Egypt. Tim removes the part in parentheses but appeals to the article as being credible without telling us anything about what the article actually says about Philippine gold being found in Egypt.

Now let's look at the second source.  

J.T. Peralta, "Prehistoric gold ornaments from the Central Bank of the Philippines," Arts of Asia 1981, no. 4, p. 54 

A Google search will pull up many hits for that EXACT citation. Quests of the Dragon Clan and Bird Clan cites it. But every one of those citations is WRONG! This article does in fact exist but not in Arts of Asia 1981, no. 4, p. 54 but rather in Arts of Asia 1983, no. 4 p. 51! This article can also be ordered for $15.

https://www.artsofasianet.com/back_issues/back_issue.php?issue_code=1983_jul_aug

The fact that Timothy Jay Schwab  did not properly cite Peralta is a huge clue that he did not read the three sources he quotes. He doesn't even show us the sources themselves. That is because he is quoting them secondhand from people who are simply copy-pasting what everyone else has posted without checking the sources to read what they say. In fact these three sources in this same order are quoted on other pages discussing the Philippines as Ophir such as the following:

http://ancientphilippines.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-lost-tribe-of-israel-is-found.html 

https://mythworld.fandom.com/wiki/Chryse 

https://sightedmoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-Philippines-is-the-ancient-Ophir.pdf 

http://moments-salamera.blogspot.com/2013/02/philippines-old-name-is-it-ophir.html

Even Wikipedia has been bamboozled into accepting them, along with the erroneous citation of Peralta, as legitimate!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chryse_(placename)

Is it merely a coincidence that Tim and these other pages quote these same three sources in the same order including the erroneous citation of Peralta? A more likely explanation is that all these writers are copy-pasting from each other and ultimately have their origin in one corrupt source.

Tim tells us to confirm everything he says and I have just confirmed to you in Clues #2 and #3 that Timothy Jay Schwab is a liar who misrepresents his sources and sometimes does not even read them! He can prove me wrong by showing the relevant pages from each of the three sources he has cited about Philippine gold being found in first century Egypt.

Clue #4

The Boxer Codex. It is in the University of Indiana and is essentially buried because SOMEONE does not want us to know this history! The Philippines is the ancient land of gold and this fact began to "truly get suppressed on a massive scale" in 1891. The Boxer Codex shows Pinoys decked out in bling! Tim also quotes Guido de Lavezaris as saying:

"There are so many of these chiefs [decked out in gold] that they are innumerable."

Tim comments on this by saying:

"There are so many of these chiefs that they are innumerable!!  They cannot be numbered! Really? That's many thousands! So what is he describing here? The ancient form of government of the Philippines was the barangay system of many thousands of leaders which sound an awful lot like the very same system instituted by Moses in the Bible." 

Who knew that Moses set up the Philippine form of tribal government back at Mt. Sinai! Wow! But did Tim also realize that the manna which fell from heaven was white and rice, the staple of the Filipino diet, is also white? Coincidence!?

Clue #5

More of the Boxer Codex.  Pinoys wearing heavy gold chains.

Clue #6

The land of Ophir is critical to end time prophecy! King Solomon and Ophir are really real. This block with Hebrew writing proves it!

To his critics Timothy Jay Schwab says:

"For those of you who say "Why don't you focus on salvation!?" Well there's an entire Bible out there and we aim to know it especially early Genesis. That is our calling and that is what we will focus on and that is what the Holy Spirit has had us do. Don't tell us otherwise." 

The fact that Tim does not prioritize salvation but compartmentalizes it to a side issue makes me wonder if he is a heretic. And I mean a real actual heretic who denies certain doctrines about Jesus Christ and not just that we don't agree on some points. Just what does he believe and teach about Jesus Christ? Tim says "the bible teaches relationship not religion" which is a hallmark of modern day emergent church gobbledygook. Fact is it teaches both.

That he separates history and salvation is very troubling. All the lost tribes talk I have ever listened to has focused on God directing history in order to preserve and save His people. Though they may be lost to history they are not lost to Him. Even in the Old Testament the history of Israel is part of the drama of salvation. That is the point of all the festivals like Passover and Tabernacles. For Tim to separate history and salvation makes his message meaningless. What is the point of the Philippines being Ophir or Filipinos being members of the lost tribes apart from their salvation? There is none! It becomes merely a neat historical fact and nothing more.

This blog post is already very long so I will stop here. There really is no reason to continue anyway.  Timothy misrepresents his sources, has not read some of them, and he does not have any theological grounding for his assertions about history. He misuses the Bible and other texts to confirm what he already believes about the Philippines. While many Lost Tribes proponents will talk about God's sovereignty and how history is controlled by Him we are six videos into this series and Tim has not mentioned God or His plan of salvation for His people once and in fact discounts any such talk saying the Holy Spirit has not called him to do so! Maybe Tim does not realize that the Bible, while replete with history, is not a history book but a religious text which deals primarily with the salvation of man and the Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus not the location of the land of Ophir.

Sadly enough two filmmakers have been duped by this shoddy "research" to the point that Tim and his wife have both signed a deal with them to work on a film about the Philippines being the land of Ophir.

https://www.facebook.com/ophirthelosttribe/posts/breaking-newsthree-years-ago-two-dedicated-researchers-timothy-schwab-and-his-wi/1138587833015269/

Three years ago, two dedicated researchers, Timothy Schwab and his wife, Anna Rose Zamoranos, released a very successful series entitled "The God Culture". This series currently appears on YouTube with over approximately 40 videos of content regarding the accurate locations of Ophir, Sheba, Tarshish, the Garden of Eden, Rivers from Eden, Land of Creation, and the Lost Tribes of Israel - which The God Culture traces to the Philippines.  

On June 12, 2019 (Independence Day), they signed a deal to work with the Ophir and The Lost Tribe Movie creators, Virgilio Abes Bote and award-winning Director Will Harper to give accurate accounts stated in the Bible about Ophir.  

We are excited and honored to have them on our team in making the Philippines and its people proud. The movie will be released internationally, stay tuned!!!!!!

Dedicated researchers!? What a joke! Neither Tim nor his wife even picked up on the fact that they have erroneously cited Peralta! That is some real lazy research!

Since there are 100 Clues maybe I will pick this back up in the future. But for now I think this is enough to show how ridiculous The God Culture and Timothy Jay Schwab are. I can just hear Tim now excoriating me for watching only 6 videos in the 100 Clues series rather then the whole Solomon's Gold series and saying I am uninformed, a hack, and a fraud. Such would be pure deflection on Tim's part as I have already demonstrated his research is incredibly biased, faulty, and downright dishonest. If he cannot deal honestly with his sources here he won't be dealing honestly with them there either.

Forgotten History: The 1820 Massacre of Europeans in Manila

Historian and professor Ambeth Ocampo recently published a column about the cholera epidemic and subsequent massacre of foreigners in Manila in 1820. His intent was to draw parallels between the misguided and irrational fear of foreigners and diseases in the past with the fear of the Chinese and the coronavirus today. I think he fails miserably but the story he brings up is rather interesting. It is noteworthy that Ocampo wrote about this same incident from a different perspective in 2005. He quotes a few eyewitnesses but gives no sources which is terrible. However if you are studying the history of the Philippines there is no better place to look than The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898.

All 55 volumes can be found online at the University of Michigan. The 1820 Manila massacre is recorded in volume 51.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898

First a general telling of the tale.

In October of the year 1820, Manila was ravaged by a terrible epidemic of smallpox, which was especially fatal in the villages along the Pasig River; the corregidor of Tondo therefore issued an edict prohibiting the use of the river water. A public relief committee was organized to give the sick medical treatment and to furnish food to the poor; and the friars and the private citizens vied with the authorities in ministering to the victims of the pest. The medical men belonging to the ships anchored in the bay came to the city, and did all in their power to aid these benevolent efforts; but all these things only confirmed in the ignorant natives the fatal idea, already spread among them, that the disease was caused by the foreigners having poisoned the waters and used to this end the specimens of insects and other creatures which they had collected for scientific purposes. A crowd of armed Indians therefore gathered in the square of Binondo on October 9, attacked the houses of the foreigners, and murdered twenty-seven persons—among whom was not one Spaniard; nor did they, in plundering the houses, rob any Spaniard. The governor sent out some troops, but they accomplished nothing in checking the riot, which ended only at nightfall; and he did nothing to prevent further crimes of this sort, so that the mob renewed their acts of violence the next day, plundering and killing many Chinese of the suburbs. This aroused Folgueras to activity, and he sent out a large force of soldiers to pursue the assassins; but the latter at once dispersed. A council of the authorities was called, but there were discordant opinions among them, and they seem to have taken no definite action. The municipal council of Manila called upon the governor for the proper legal proceedings in regard to this scandalous and lawless uprising; and for this purpose he appointed a commission.

Vol 51, pg 39-45

This account mentions smallpox but elsewhere we read only of a cholera epidemic.  The above account also gives no inkling of where the notion originated that foreigners poisoned the waters. Note carefully that no Spaniards were harmed and the governor did nothing to stop the riot or prevent further killings. That is important because one eyewitness, who's testimony is appended as a footnote, declared it was the Spaniard's jealously of foreigners establishing economic enterprises in the country and becoming wealthy which caused them to spread the rumor of foreigners poisoning the water. This man's name is Peter Dobell. He was an Irish born American businessman and the first envoy from Russia to the Philippines.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100723134209/https://philippines.mid.ru/relations.html

An interesting account of this event is furnished in a letter by Peter Dobell, then Russian consul in the Philippines, which is preserved in the New York Public Library; it is printed in the Bulletin of that institution for June, 1903, at pp. 198–200. Dobell went to Macao for medical treatment in July, 1820, and this letter was written from that city, on November 28 of that year. 

He thus writes: “I arrived with my wife and daughter at Manilla last March, was received with great apparent attention, politeness & hospitality. After living there a couple of months, however, I perceived that there existed a vast deal of jealousy and envy, against all strangers, and particularly those who resided or intended to form establishments in the country. Those ignorant people could not divest themselves of this feeling, even toward those, whose capitals, talents and industry, were directed to the most laudable pursuits, and promised to produce great public as well as private advantages to the colony. 

At this crisis several french ships were in the port, one or two Americans and a English ship from Bengal. In the French ships, had arrived a naturalist sent out by the government to make collections, and some persons, who intended to remain in the Philippines to cultivate sugar, cotton &c. &c. In the month of July last, I discovered that I had in my travels, contracted a disease, called by the Doctor^r Hydrocele and becoming very troublesome to me, I determined as there are no good surgeons in Manilla to pay a short visit to Macao with my family & return to my post, as soon as circumstances would permit, after the operation. This I found, I could do the more conveniently, as my Nephew, a fine young Man of 23 years, had joined me at my arrival and I left him, in full charge of my office &c and departed. 

This envious disposition, on the part of the Spaniards, increased daily, against the Strangers, until an opportunity presented itself of gratifying their malignant hatred, in the most cruel & bloody manner & without themselves appearing to have any thing to do in the business. It is necessary first to tell you, that the new constitution, had been received during the prevalence of this feeling, giving extensive privileges & liberal encouragement to foreigners, who might think proper to settle in the Philippines & rendering the natives as free & equal, in rights, etc. as their former masters. This certainly made them a little unruly, but, if not secretly instigated, it would never have induced them to commit a crime, that makes humanity shudder. 

The ship from Bengal, was the Merope Captain Nichols and it was supposed she had brought into the colony the epidemic, that has ravaged all India, this year, under the name of the ‘Cholera Morbus.’ It made its appearance, in the beginning of October last, carrying off great numbers of the Indians every day. 

The humane French & other Strangers, who beheld these miserable wretches, dying around them without any medical aid, freely administered what medicines they had, and were actively & daily employed, in endeavoring to alleviate; the distress & cure the complaints of all those, who lived within the sphere of their exertions. This also became, a cause of jealousy and hatred and the villains, began immediately to exasperate the Indians by saying, ‘this poisonous disease, was introduced by the French & the other strangers, they have poisoned even the waters, and they administer poison to the sick, purposely to exterpate the whole race of Tagalians.’ 

The ferocious Indians wanted nothing farther to excite them to deeds of blood & plunder. On the 9th of October about 10 or 11 in the morning they collected, to the number of about 3,000 Men armed with pikes knives and bludgeons and proceeded coolly and deliberately to plunder and Massacre all the Strangers on whom they could lay their hands! 

I have not time to give you the details of this shocking business, but you will certainly read them in the gazettes as I have sent both to England and Russia very full accounts for publication. Suffice it now to say that the Governor & the authorities were vainly implored for assistance. They came, it is true, with the troops, but it was only to behold with sang froid the horrid spectacle. Not a musket was fired to save the lives of those unfortunate and defenceless strangers, who to the number of 39 were plundered & cruelly massacred; some of them were so cut up & mangled it was impossible to recognize them. 

As the most of them were Roman Catholics, they were all collected and thrown into a hole together without the shadow of a ceremony or a stone to mark their graves! What is worse, the last accountts from there down to the 9^th of November mention that not a Spanish life was lost, nor has a single native as yet suffered punishment for this most atrocious & horrible deed. My house was attacked & pillaged, my Nephew & a Mr Prince of Boston, who lived with him, made prisoners, and, after being near two days in the hands of the Indians, suffering the most abominable treatment, they luckily escaped Death. Eighty five Chinese & 11 English seamen were also plundered & assassinated. 

I have been obliged to represent this affair in its full suit of Black to my Government and have at the same time declared my intention of going back to Siberia, next April, where I shall await the orders of His Imperial Majesty …. I leave the place & those miscreants to themselves, from the conviction, that its commerce is ruined forever. In the first place they held their productions too high & paid too low for European commodities, so that, when the allowance of the half duties granted to the importers of sugars shall cease, no french ships will visit the Philippines to pay from 7 to 9 Dollars a pecul for Sugars. The Cadmus, you say will make money. If she does, she will I fancy be the only American ship that profits by its trade to Manilla. All those, who came out last year lost money on the sales of their cargoes, &, from what we hear of prices in America, and on the Continent, they must lose by the returns. 

But what will give the death blow to the prosperity of the Philippines, is the late horrible massacre. All those french and other foreigners, who were anxious to have established themselves in commerce or on estates in the country, are now frightened off and certainly no one will find himself, confident enough to trust to a Government, which could permit such a massacre to take place, immediately under its eyes, when it had 5,000 men in arms, ready at a minutes notice to disperse the Mob. 

Thus situated, Manilla offers no chance of profit or Speculation; and I confess, however my hopes and wishes may have been disappointed, I turn from them with disgust & horror, better pleased to be ordered to live, in some remote corner of Siberia, on black bread & salt, than roll in wealth, amidst such an inhuman, illiberal and unchristianlike race of Men …. I must close my letter by informing you that the Captain General has refused all the applications for indemnification, from those who have been plundered; so that as yet, neither the punishment due to the assassins has been inflicted, nor redress made to the unfortunate people who were robbed.”

Vol 51, pg 40-43

Russian ambassador Peter Dobell says with no compunction the Spanish spread a false rumor about foreigners and gleefully looked on as the natives, Indians he calls them, massacred and plundered them. A second footnote from this section tell us just how the natives substantiated this rumor.

By the kindness of James A. LeRoy, the Editors have in their hands a copy (furnished by Dr. Pardo de Tavera from the original in his possession) of a decree issued by Governor Folgueras (dated at Manila, October 20, 1820), addressed “to the natives of the Filipinas Islands, and especially to those of the district of Tondo,” in which he rebukes them severely for thus violating the law of nations, under the influence of “a general frenzy,” and “led astray and infuriated by certain malicious persons.” He characterizes their belief that the strangers had poisoned the waters as a foolish and absurd notion, which “the mountain Negritos or the Moros of Joló and Mindanao would be ashamed to entertain;” and reminds them that the strangers whom they have plundered and slain were not only friends and brethren, but the very persons on whom the prosperity of the islands must depend, since they supplied a market for the produce of the country. 

He then presents the report which has been made by an official whom the governor had specially appointed (October 13) to investigate this idea of the foreigners’ crime, which is to the following effect: “As the evidence of guilt [cuerpo de delito, the same as the Latin corpus delicti] in the poisoning which is charged, the Indians have brought to us, among the spoils which they plundered from the houses of the Frenchmen, various animals of different forms, and among them a serpent, of quite the usual size, one of those which they call ‘house-snakes,’ in a dissected state; others, with some little shellfish, preserved in spirits of wine, in a crystal flask; in another, two granos of muriatic baryte; a quantity of Peruvian bark, which in my opinion would weigh about an arroba and a half; and a box of sheet-tin about a vara long, one-fourth as wide, and six dedos thick, in which also was found a mass of insects, but already decaying; and finally, in the house of a woman who had been accused of being an agent of the French for the alleged poisoning, a little package of some black powders in China paper [i.e., rice paper].” The official states that these animal specimens have evidently “no other object than to enrich cabinets of natural history,” and could not in any way have been used for injuring human beings. The muriatic baryte was for use in analyzing mineral waters, and was, moreover, useful in various diseases. The Peruvian bark was, as all might know, a useful medicine and had often been helpful in checking the cholera itself. The black powders, it was also decided, were also of medicinal value; and the entire story is characterized as a fiction and delusion. The official regrets that it was believed by so many persons who should have known better than to accept so gross an error; “but it is certain that they did, and, among them, many of the clergy; and with this the delusion attained such power that it has caused the very scandalous deeds which all good persons lament; for it is certain that there is no better way of propagating an error than for persons of authority to adopt it. 

There is no doubt, it appears, that this foolish idea of poisoning had its origin in the ignorance of the Indians; but there is as little doubt that malicious persons, imposing upon this folly and lack of knowledge in the Indians, incited them to perpetrate the assassinations and robberies of the disastrous days, October 9 and 10.” He adds that one of the books brought to him by the Indians, which they had taken from the house of the French naturalist, was filled with sketches of fishes, mollusks, and birds peculiar to the country, which plainly showed that he was only making zoological observations. In view of all these things, Folgueras calls upon the natives to repent of their sin, to surrender to the authorities the instigators of the tumult, to restore to the plundered foreigners what had been stolen from them, and to denounce the authors of the murders, that justice might be done to these evil persons. These exhortations are especially addressed to the inhabitants of Binondo, “which has been the theatre of the most horrible tragedy, and has covered itself with blood and ignominy.” This decree is published by Dr. Pardo de Tavera, from the original printed edition, in his Biblioteca filipina, pp. 45–47.

Vol. 51, pg 43-45

Native Filipinos pointed to items they plundered from naturalists as evidence that the water had been poisoned. Likely these same kind of items, various flora and fauna, were used by them to cast spells against their enemies so they figured foreigners would use them likewise. Cholera, however, is not the result of magic spells or poisoning. It is the result of unsanitary living conditions. From the Facebook page "Ka Totoy Talastas Philippines & World History Tell" we read the following.

It would seem that cholera also be attributed to the unsanitary conditions in Manila and the communities that surrounds it. The Pasig River which is the source of potable water and is used in the daily activities of the suburbs is also the place where garbages, human waste and other trash are dumped. In addition, Manila and its suburbs during this time do not have any systematic collection of garbages. It would therefore safe to argue that these unsanitary conditions existing in Manila aggravated or worsened the cholera.

https://www.facebook.com/katotoytalastas/photos/philippinescholera-epidemic-and-the-massacre-of-foreignersthe-cholera-epidemic-o/2207307312639761/

Still water is also a major breeding ground for Cholera and we read this description of the streets of Manila from an Englishman.

The streets of the city are narrow and dirty; and the middle being a hollow, in rainy weather forms a continued puddle. They are paved at the sides with granite from China, the stone in the immediate neighbourhood of Manila being too soft. The pavement is not in good repair, and in some streets only occupies one side; the other, which is generally occupied by a large house, or the wall of a convent, being heaped up with dirt, rendered solid by long accumulation, and forming a hill against the wall, the receptacle of …. This is not confined to bye-lanes, but is most common in the great square (Plaza Constitucional) in front of the cathedral!

Vol. 51, pg 167-168

Muddy streets with pools of still water as well as garbage all over the place do not make for disease-free conditions. This same Englishman laments that the authorities allowed the natives to massacre foreigners freely and opined that it will one day be the undoing of the Spanish.

The 9th of October, 1820, has given a fatal blow to the power of Spain in this country; for much as has been written and said on the subject, it is questionable whether there exists any country of black men, where the white is not looked upon as an intruder; and “the country belongs to the Indians,” “La tierra es de los Yndios,” is a common remark, even amongst the lower orders. Moral or political injustice seldom fails to recoil on the head of the oppressor; and when the government of Manila allowed an indiscriminate massacre and pillage of European foreigners by the mob, and by their shameful lenity gave a tacit sanction to it, they taught the Indian, that he might with equal impunity attack them. The plunder then obtained is a premium to future violence; and perhaps the day is not far distant, when they may bitterly repent the hour in which they allowed the Indian to feel his physical superiority.

Vol. 51, pg 179-180

Was the massacre of Manila a precursor to the revolutionary movement of the later 19th century? 

Let's distill this long story into a few major points and we can see that there are parallels though not the ones Professor Ocampo makes. Honestly the Philippines has a lot to fear from the Chinese from encroaching on territory in the WPS to importing criminality of all kinds via POGOs. How can Professor Ocampo not understand that?

1. Foreigners were being allowed to establish economic enterprises in the Philippines.

2. These foreigners were becoming wealthy.

3. The Spaniards became jealous. One has to wonder why they did not develop the country after 300 years. From the same Englishman we read the following analysis.

Their position, whether in a political or commercial point of view, is strikingly advantageous. With India and the Malay Archipelago on the west and south, the islands of the fertile Pacific and the rising empires of the new world on the east, the vast market of China at their doors, their insular position and numerous rivers affording a facility of communication and defence to every part of them, an active and industrious population, climates of almost all varieties, a soil so fertile in vegetable and mineral productions as almost to exceed credibility; the Phillippine Islands alone, in the hands of an industrious and commercial nation, and with a free and enlightened government, would have become a mighty empire:—they are—a waste! 

Vol. 51, pg 74-75

That this colony, the most favoured perhaps under heaven by nature, should have remained till the present day almost a forest, is a circumstance which has generally excited surprise in those who are acquainted with it, and has as generally been accounted for by attributing it to the laziness of the Spaniards and Indians.

Vol 51, pg 91

The Englishman then goes on to demonstrate that it is not the laziness of the Spaniards and Indians that kept prosperity at bay but that is for another time. However if you take the whole of the Spanish empire in the Americas and Philippines and contrast that with the United States which is a nation carved out of the wilderness you can see the difference. It's as if the Spanish did not take the time to develop those lands. No wonder they were jealous of successful foreigners! 

4. The ruling Spaniards utilized the ignorance of the natives for their own purpose.

5. The authorities looked on and did nothing while people were massacred.

We see a lot of the same things happening today. A need for foreign capital, jealousy on the part of the natives who make it almost impossible for foreigners to do business in the Philippines (think red tape and the 40/60 law which prevents foreigners from owning businesses), a mass of ignorant people manipulated by those in power to achieve their ends, and authorities who cannot or will not do their jobs.

The more things change the more they stay the same! 

Forgotten History: The Bangsamoro Once Petitioned to Be A Territory of The United States

Did you know the people of Sulu and the Bangsamoro once wanted to be part of the United States? As crazy as that sounds it is an actual fact. Yesterday's post about the ongoing insurgency in Mindanao ended with a story about USAID giving money to Maranaos. In the article cited US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires John C. Law noted that the US and Mindanao have a longstanding partnership. This partnership started with the US signing a treaty with the Sultanate of Sulu in 1842 which was a guarantee for the safety of American ships and sailors in case of shipwreck.

The next treaty to be signed between the US and the Sultanate of Sulu was the Kiram-Bates Treaty which

included the recognition of U.S. sovereignty over Sulu and its dependencies, mutual respect between the U.S. and the Sultanate of Sulu, Moro autonomy, non-interference with Moro religion and customs, and a pledge that the "U.S. will not sell the island of Jolo or any other island of the Sulu Archipelago to any foreign nation without the consent of the Sultan." Also, Sultan Jamal ul-Kiram and his datus (tribal chiefs) were to receive monthly payments in return for flying the American flag and for allowing the U.S. the right to occupy lands on the islands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiram-Bates_Treaty

The Sultan was not inclined to accept U.S. sovereignty over Sulu but was pressured into doing so by his Prime Minister.

Sultan Jamalul-Kiram II who signed the Kiram-Bates Treaty

The reason the Sultan did not wish to accept United States' sovereignty over Sulu is because Spain had never gained sovereignty over Sulu and thus they had no right to cede Sulu to the U.S. via the Treaty of Paris. Sulu had merely become a protectorate of Spain in 1878.

However, with a close reading of supporting documents from the Philippine Commission, Bates discovered that while Spain ceded their rights to the United States in the Treaty of Paris, the Spanish merely held suzerainty over the Sultanate of Sulu and not sovereignty. Suzerainty means a relationship between two sovereigns (yet unequal) states, where the lesser ("vassal") state cedes certain political controls (such as trade) to the more powerful state, usually in return for some consideration, such as protection. Sovereignty means complete power and authority of one state over another, having only the autonomy granted or permitted by the sovereign power. Otis overlooked this important memorandum which disproved that Spain had a valid basis in international law to include the Sulu archipelago in its cessation of the Philippines to the United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiram-Bates_Treaty

The Otis referred to is Gen. Ewell Otis who ordered Brig. Gen. John C. Bates to enter into an agreement with the Sultan of Sulu.

The Kiram-Bates Treaty did not last long and in fact was never meant to last according to Brig. Gen. John C. Bates himself.

In Sulu itself the US initially asserted its claim by making a treaty with the Sultan, the Bates treaty of August 1899. It provided for the recognition of US sovereignty, for respecting the rights and dignities of the Sultan and datus, for non-interference with Islam, for free trade with the Philippines and for co-operation against piracy, for monthly salaries. Much like the Spanish treaty of 1878, it was, as one observer put it, ‘as good and fair as was possible to get under the circumstances, the Americans at that time being anxious to avoid fighting the Sulus and Magindanaos, and everything having to be done in order to conciliate those Mahommedan tribes temporarily and prevent them from arising’. Once the ‘insurrection’ in the north had been suppressed, the Americans were free to deal with Sulu. ‘It was a critical time’, as Bates was to say later, ‘as all the troops were needed in Luzon. The treaty was made as a temporary expedient to avoid trouble.’ 

The Sultan, Foreman suggested, had signed the Bates treaty ‘in the spirit of Micawber’. For the Americans, he added, it was a wise move, since his inability to enforce it enabled them to set it aside.

Imperialism in Southeast Asia, Nicholas Tarling, pg. 193-194

To the cut to the chase here the Moro Rebellion broke out, the Moros were subdued, and the Philippines were soon on the path to independence. But the people of Sulu and indeed the Bangsamoro leaders were much against being made a part of an independent Philippines as they had never considered themselves to be a part of the Philippines.

When the United States government promised to grant independence to the Philippine Islands, the Bangsamoro leaders registered their strong objection to be part of the Philippine republic. In a petition to the U.S. president on June 9, 1921, the people of Sulu archipelago said that they would prefer being part of the United States rather than be included in an independent Philippine nation. 

In the Declaration of Rights and Purposes, the Bangsamoro leaders in a meeting in Zamboanga on February 1, 1924, proposed that the “Islands of Mindanao and Sulu, and the Island of Palawan be made an unorganized territory of the United States of America” in anticipation that in the event the U.S. would decolorize its colonies and other non-self governing territories the Bangsamoro homeland would be granted separate independence. Had it happened, the Bangsamoro people would have regained by now their independence under the UN declaration on decolonization. Their other proposal was that if independence to be granted would include the Bangsamoro territories, a plebiscite would be held in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan fifty years after the grant of independence to the Philippines to decide by vote whether the territory incorporated by the government of the Islands of Luzon and Visayas, would be a territory of the United States, or become independent. The fifty-year period ended in 1996, the same year the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Philippine government signed the Final Agreement on the Implementation of the Tripoli Agreement. The leaders warned that if no provision of retention under the United States would be made, they would declare an independent constitutional sultanate to be known as Moro Nation. 

In Lanao, the leaders who were gathered in Dansalan (now Marawi City) on March 18, 1935 appealed to the United States government and the American people not to include Mindanao and Sulu in the grant of independence to the Filipinos. 

Even after their territories were made part of the Philippine republic in 1946, the Bangsamoro people have continued to assert their right to independence. They consider the annexation of their homeland as illegal and immoral since it was done without their plebiscitary consent. Their assertions manifest in many forms.

The Moro Reader, pg. 100-101

The petition the people of Sulu submitted to the President is quite long so only a small part will be reproduced here.

Petition to the President of the United States of America from the People of the Sulu Archipelago 

PREAMBLE 

Whereas, the territory now inhabited by the Sulu people was never under the control of Spain, or a part of its dominion, and only upon the advent of the American Army in Sulu did the people of Sulu recognize sovereignty – that of the United States of America, and, 

Whereas, the government of Sulu people under the American Government, as administered by General Leonard Wood and Major Hugh L. Scott, and other American military governors following them was a just government, and, 

Whereas, the Filipino people in the northern provinces of the Philippine Islands has no right to force their government upon the inhabitants of these parts, inhabited from the time immemorial by our own people, and to include our territory in theirs, and, 

Whereas, it would be an act of great injustice to cast our people aside, turn our country over to the Filipino people in the North to be governed by them, without our consent, and the thrust upon us a government not of our own people, nor by our own people, nor for our own people, and therefore, 

We, the People of Sulu Archipelago, recognizing our right to petition the great and good Government of the United States of America and in order to form a more perfect understanding between the President of the United States of America, and the Congress of the United States of America, and ourselves, to establish justice in our courts, insure our own domestic tranquility, promote our general welfare, and redress the wrongs and outrages already committed on our people by the present government, do hereby make this our petition to the President of the United States of America, thru his Honorable Commission, General Leonard Wood, and the Honorable W. Cameron Forbes, to wit: 

Article I. 

Whether or not independence is granted by the Congress of the United States of America to the Northern Provinces of the Philippines, it is [the] desire of the people of Sulu that the Sulu Archipelago be made permanent American territory of the United States of America, and for the following reasons: 

1. The people of the Sulu Archipelago are loyal to the American Government, and have been greatly benefited by the said government, and desire to remain under said government. 

2. The people of Sulu will realize that if independence is granted to the Philippine Islands, and Sulu Islands are included, the taxes which would necessarily have to be lived upon the people would be too burdensome to endure without open revolt. That where we are paying one peso tax now, we would then be called upon to pay more than ten pesos in taxes. 

3. The Philippine Legislature has failed to legislate any laws for the benefit of the Moro people. The Special Form of Government which was inaugurated by General Wood, when Governor of the Moro Province, and which was very beneficial to us, has already been set aside by the past administration. 

The Philippine Legislature has failed to work for the benefit of our people. They have failed to recognize our religion. They have failed to pass any laws recognizing our marriages celebrated by our Mohammedan priests, and according to the present laws in force in the Philippine Islands, and also the decision of its courts, our wives are concubines, and our children illegitimate. The Philippine government can not protect our religious customs, nor our marriages, as they have no laws to guide them in these questions. 

4. The Philippine Legislature has failed to appropriate sufficient money for the maintenance and construction of roads, the preservation of our health, the maintenance of schools, although draining our treasury of the taxes paid by our people, and appropriating the money for their own purposes in the northern provinces. 

5. The Philippine Government has placed their Constabulary among us to preserve law and order. In this connection, they have utterly failed, year after year.

Article II. 

We, the people of Sulu ask that law and order be maintained by American troops, as they have in the past treated us justly, they do not steal our property, and they do not mix nor meddle with our women. 

Article III. 

We, the people of Sulu guarantee that we ourselves will maintain law and order in the event our territory is made a part of the American nation. We feel assured that the American Government at Washington will provide special laws for our people, protecting our religion and our customs, and that under the protecting arm of America we will have just courts, wherein we will receive justice. 

Jolo, Province of Sulu, P.I. 

June 9, 1921 

The Moro Reader, pg. 185-189

As can be plainly seen the people of Sulu and by extension the Bangsamoro do not see themselves as Filipinos.

Whereas, it would be an act of great injustice to cast our people aside, turn our country over to the Filipino people in the North to be governed by them, without our consent, and the thrust upon us a government not of our own people, nor by our own people, nor for our own people...

A great injustice to "turn our country over to the Filipino people." Can it get any more clearer? Remember when the BARMM was being debated in the Senate?  Remember what the contentious changes in the document were about?

“Most [of the original BBL provisions] were contentious,” said Sen. Ralph Recto who, along with Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, introduced most of the amendments. 

“[Its] framework to begin with is forming a state, which is unconstitutional, until we adopt a federal form of government,” Recto said. 

Drilon successfully moved for the inclusion of a provision reiterating “that the Bangsamoro people are citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.” Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, the bill sponsor, said this was opposed by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/996061/house-oks-bbl-bill-but-senate-introduces-contentious-changes

According to House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, the committee not only changed the name of the law but also edited its preamble. 

“We accepted mainly what they wanted, but we saw to it [that we retained the phrase] Filipino people’,” Fariñas said in ambush interview after the committee hearing. “The way they crafted it, it was like the Bangsamoro people were speaking of themselves.” 

“[So we put in there ‘Filipino people,’ in recognition of their aspirations of the Bangsamoro people and the other inhabitants of Muslim Mindanao,” he added.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1011819/farinas-explains-changes-in-approved-version-of-bangsamoro-measure#ixzz5Lg6ZiI7L 

"The way they crafted it, it was like the Bangsamoro people were speaking of themselves.”

That's exactly what it was! The Bangsamoro people do not consider themselves to be Filipinos and any agreement to limited autonomy is merely a calculated step toward the ultimate goal which is the secession of the whole of Mindanao as an independent Moro state. That is what Ancestral Domain is all about. Even MILF and BARMM leader Murad Ebrahim has said decommissioning is not surrender.

“I would like to emphasize that the decommissioning doesn’t mean we have given up on what we used to fight for,” Ebrahim emphasized.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1162067/milfs-murad-decommissioning-is-not-surrender

What was the MILF fighting for? An independent Mindanao! And Murad says they have not given up on that fight!!

One cannot understand the present without understanding the past and this forgotten incident of the people of Sulu and the Bangsamoro leaders petitioning to become a territory of the United States in a move calculated to grant them independence sheds much light on the issues today in Mindanao. Maybe the Senators who crafted the BARMM should have picked up a history book before thinking the BARMM would be a good idea.

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