Monday, January 4, 2021

The God Culture: "The Search for King Solomon's Treasure" Book Review

For centuries the notion that the Philippines is Ophir has been the province of wistful explorers, inquisitive Jesuits, cranks, and iconoclastic revisionist historians. Now Timothy Jay Schwab and his band of merry men known as The God Culture, who embody all four of the aforementioned categories especially the last one, are attempting to bring this same idea into the mainstream. Tim and his group have published a book that they claim proves indisputably beyond any contradiction that the Philippines is indeed Ophir, the land from whence King Solomon procured his fabulous wealth and the ancient Greeks' source of gold. On the back cover they proudly declare that this book is a "great revelation amending modern scholarship."

This book is the end result of The God Culture's hundreds of Youtube videos and it reads just the way Tim talks in those videos. That is quite a problem because the first thing to notice about this book, aside from the fact that a few pages came loose indicating the binding is bad, is its shrill, antagonistic, defensive, and prideful tone. On nearly every single page from the beginning to the end The God Culture wants the reader to know they are right, scholars are wrong, they have vetted and tested everything, scholars have overlooked everything, and no one can disprove their four years of research especially not any scholar who has devoted a lifetime of study to the topics The God Culture covers. They accuse some of those scholars as being liars and propagandists. With a variant of that hubris glaring angrily back at the reader on nearly every page the book becomes rather burdensome to read. It's obvious they are carrying a huge chip on their shoulder.

The grammar is also strained and cumbersome in many places. Take a look at these phrases:
"This is why we demand they prosecute the sweeping conclusions...."  pg. 23

"We are haggard of this generation..." pg. 23
"Let's firm this up with girth." pg.46

"If not, they are worship."  pg.258
I think that last one might be half a sentence Tim forgot to finish. There's also a bizarre harangue against Oprah on page 57 and Tim actually accuses Mark Zuckerberg of censoring his group's Facebook page and of being a Rothschild on page 215. The God Culture thinks the founder of Facebook is part of the same family of Jewish financiers they claim paid Samuel Purchas to write up a fake location of Ophir.

Purchas was a Rothschild puppet paid to propagate the opposition to the Philippines as Ophir. That's called propaganda. Imagine even today, the founder of Facebook who has even at one time shut down our page and continues to attempt censorship at times, also happens to be a Rothschild family descendant.
This is wrong in so many ways and I have written before how Purchas was not paid by the East India Company to write his multivolume series. Purchas wrote in the 1600's and the Rothschilds did not come on the scene until the Napoleonic wars 200 years later. That's called poisoning the well and bad research. There is a lot of that kind of bad research in this book and I'm not going to be able to cover it all. In fact only the first 15 chapters have anything to do with history and proving the Philippines is Ophir. Chapters 16-21 are all prophetic and religious or a ridiculous geology lesson which purports to find the rivers of Eden. Spoiler alert: they are not actually rivers but huge ocean trenches. On page 259 of the accompanying Sourcebook we read that this theory only works on a flat earth model:

In ancient times, the world generally especially the writers of the Bible believed the earth a flat round disc essentially. This is the perspective from which this is written not the modern sphere. We do not enter such debate but when one follows the actual orientation of the time, they will find it revealing. Anyone claiming the ancients believed in a sphere failed to pay attention in science class and are no scholars on the topic.

Don't expect real geology or geography from a man who believes the earth is flat!

Where to begin? This book is overwhelming and the breadth of sheer nonsense contained within its pages is so deep and wide that I'm only going to hit a few high points. The question I will be considering here is not "is the Philippines Ophir" but "has Tim proven his case beyond any reasonable doubt." I do not believe he has.

The first point to go over is Tim's etymology of the word Ophir. In the book he gives two differing definitions for this word. Definition one is "gold" and definition two is "mouth of light." You can tell right away those definitions do not jibe. 

According to Tim's own Sourcebook Ophir does not mean gold but "characteristic of fine gold" and that is a big difference. 


Definition C says "Characteristic of fine gold." But in his book Tim excises the word "characteristic" and claims that Ophir means "fine gold."


Hebrew: Owphiyr: reducing to ashes, fine gold.
Why would he do that? It's disingenuous and dishonest. "Characteristic of fine gold" is not the same as "fine gold." As far as I can tell there are actually three words for gold used in the scriptures: kethem, zahab, and paz. Ophir is not one of those words.

Tim next attempts to find a secret meaning in the spelling of the word itself. Having falsely claimed that Ophir means gold the word Ophir, through a sort of gematria, now becomes a mystical cipher for gold and is no longer the name of a person or place. Tim says Ophir should be spelt AUPYR, AUPIR, or AUPHYR. AU is the chemical symbol for gold thus gold is contained symbolically within the word. In fact Tim claims that the word Ophir is the origin of the chemical symbol for gold.

pg. 24
The origin of the chemical symbol for gold, AU, is said to be the Latin Aurum or Aurea which we will determine in the next chapter is the equivalent of Ophir. The is the kingdom of gold for the Greeks which carried over uno Latin but AUPYR is the origin of that reference as you will find this the true origin of the symbol for gold - AU.
Nothing in that paragraph is true. AU are Latin characters and not Hebrew characters. Each of Tim's three alternate spellings are merely transliterations into English. He is projecting and transposing the Latin onto the Hebrew in order to get at this supposed hidden meaning. If you take a look at the Latin Vulgate, translated by Jerome from the Hebrew, you will see that he always translates Owphyir as Ophir and not as AUPYR or any of Tim's transliterations and certainly not as Aurea or Aurum.

https://vulgate.org/ot/1kings_9.htm

Interestingly in Job 28:16 of Jerome's translation, Ophir becomes India.

https://vulgate.org/ot/job_28.htm

This all comes into play later when Tim discusses Josephus and the Golden Chersoneses. In book 8 sec 6.4 of the Antiquities Jospehus writes:
....to whom Solomon gave this command, that they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophirbut now the Aurea Chersonesus: which belongs to India: to fetch him gold.
Commenting on this passage Tim writes:
Aurea in Latin is Chryse in Greek which is Ophir in Hebrew. He also ties this to the Indian land of golden antiquity and remember, India was vast in interpretation in those days from Afghanistan to the Indies including the Philippines.
p.34
We have already seen that Aurea is not Ophir via the Latin Vulgate. Aurea and chryse both mean gold but Ophir does not.

India being "vast in interpretation" to include the Indies and the Philippines (what are the Indies??) is wrong. The fact is the Indian subcontinent was the farthest known inhabited land to the east and I will discuss that more below. Neither the Greeks nor the Romans knew of the Philippines as their maps and descriptions of the world make perfectly clear. 

A little further on when Tim is discussing the mythical island of Chryse he writes:

The island of Chryse which Josephus has told us is Biblical Ophir....


p.43

Josephus never wrote that. Do you see the sleight of hand? Josephus wrote that Solomon sent ships to Ophir which is the Aurea Chersonesus which means golden peninsula. He calls that peninsula Ophir and says nothing about an island. Furthermore Josephus says it belongs to India. 


Tim is able to make this sleight of hand because of his false etymology of "Aurea in Latin is Chryse in Greek which is Ophir in Hebrew." He is again transposing words, this time Aurea and Chryse. In Tim's mind the Aurea Chersonesus becomes Chryse Chersonesus and thus the island of Chryse. But chersonesus means peninsula not island. Tim ignores that word dropping it completely and makes a huge geographic blunder misinterpreting and misrepresenting what Josephus actually wrote. On page 34 Tim even admits chersonesus means peninsula.

He (Jospehus) renders it in Latin Aurea Chersonesus in which Aurea or Aururm is the origin of the chemical symbol "AU" for gold and Chersonesus is the word for peninsula. It is an island.

Despite this admission Tim insists it is is an island. He totally ignores what Josephus wrote and gives no reason for it.


In the century following Josephus Ptolemy wrote about the Aurea Chersonesus in his Geography. He is clear that the place is a peninsula, not an island, and he actually lists names of towns and rivers which flow in the region. Ptolemy's description of the Aurea Chersonesus is very detailed. However Tim does not think Ptolemy is credible at all.

Pliny never alludes to Chryse as a peninsula. He firmly identifies it as an island several times and to claim this noted geographer was confused about the difference is illogical. Ptolemy makes that error but his map is no where near credible regarding Southeast Asian geography which is practically non-existent. 

pg. 34

If Tim thinks the Aurea Chersonesus is actually the singular island Chryse and thus the archipelago known as the Philippines then he should have discussed Ptolemy's description of the place and told us why it is not credible but he does not. He ignores it altogether by dismissing it out of hand as not being credible. Paul Wheatley has not ignored it. He wrote a whole book about the subject and a 21 page paper about Ptolemy's description can be read at JSTOR.


https://www.jstor.org/stable/621273?seq=1

But Tim does not care what Wheatley has to say on the matter as he considers him to be an academic fraud. On page 30 of the sourcebook which accompanies "Solomon's Treasure" Tim writes the following:

Wheatley quotes these directions and then ignores them to attempt to lead to the Malay Peninsula which was proven false as Ophir especially by the Portuguese who first occupied the area yet continued searching for Ophir elsewhere. Magellan specifically identified the Philippines as Ophir/Chryse and Tarshish/Argyre. So many authors on this topic continue to ignore the Philippines exists yet these directions are obvious. In fact, just about every reference including Ptolemy rule out the Malay Peninsula as it is not and island and this was well known even by him, Josephus and others. The did not know the isles of the Philippines yet before the Common Era but they would. To go backwards is progressing though and pull out places already eliminated is backwards reasoning. No actual modern scholarship could possibly lead to the Malay Peninsula which was proven not to be Ophir despite the British attempt at academic fraud continue to propagate a dead claim. The Beatus Map further ties Ophir/Chryse to the Garden of Eden which we see often. Obviously, the Rivers of Paradise cannot be such modern rivers as the originate in precipitation and Gen. 2:5 says there was no rain before the Flood this they did not exist. Also, it fails to recognize the largest river, the River From Eden itself a most so-called theories do. The Garden of Eden was located when Ophir was found.

The directions referred to is the description of Chryse given by Dionysius Periegetes. The level of ignorance in this note is rather astounding. To write that Ptolemy does not describe the Malay Peninsula is to be ignorant of his detailed description of towns and rivers and the geography in general. No matter how you slice it Ptolemy is describing a peninsula and not an island. It appears that Tim has not read Ptolemy at all or else has read him very selectively. Tim is also once again conflating the mythical island of Chryse with the very real Aurea Chersonesus. Even the Behaim map of 1492, which Tim extols as a major proof for his theories, designates the Aurea Chersonesus as a peninsula while the island of Chryse is placed elsewhere.


https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-god-culture-finding-chryse-dont.html


The second definition Tim gives for Ophir is "mouth of light." With this definition Ophir now becomes a compound word and all connections to gold have vanished. We are given no coherent justification for this transformation and it makes no sense either. On pages 24-25 Tim simply makes a huge leap from talking about gold to talking about light and claims that the Hebrew word for light is the origin of the word Ophir.  The explanation is forced and comes out of nowhere. A word cannot both be and not be a compound word. With a bit more gematria Tim has now bestowed an esoteric and an exoteric meaning upon the word Ophir. 
This verse (Isiah 24:15) even identifies the isles of the sea which we will later prove is Ophir even tying Ophir to this same word for light which is it's true origin etymologically. AUR is "light" and insert PY for AUPYR and it renders "Mouth of Light."
pg.25
Does Tim not realize that AURPY is not AUPYR? Tim gives no reason for this etymology except for the similar sound between the words.

This linguistic method shows up in chapter 14 where Tim attempts to break down Tagalog words as being residual Hebrew compound words. In that chapter familiar Filipino place names are bequeathed nonsensical and unfamiliar meanings. Take his interpretation of Samar on page 188 for instance.

https://www.pealim.com/dict/1380-lismor/

Samar Island
:
Hebrew name: סָמַר he/it bristled. Past Tense 
Bristled in English: 
1 (of hair or fur) stand upright away from the skin, as a sign of anger or fear. 2 react angrily or defensively. 3 (bristle with) be covered with or abundant in 
Our Interpretation: Standing Upright in Righteous Anger in Abundance
Look at how in Tim's hand the simple word "bristled" has transformed into an ungainly phrase. He does not justify this convoluted interpretation. We are simply supposed to take it as it is. Most place names have to do with topography or climate or tribe. Why would anyone name their island "standing upright in righteous anger in abundance?" He does not say. Tim cites Wikipedia authoritatively in his book so let's see Wikipedia has to say about the etymology of Samar:
Samar is said to be derived from Samad, the Visayan word for "wound" or "cut", describing the rough physical features of the land which is rugged and deeply dissected by streams.
Whether that etymology is true or not it is true that every single place name that Tim divides into Hebrew compound words has an alternate explanation as to its origin which he does not discuss. To drive the point home further that these etymologies are false Tim writes:
...Samar likely named for Samaria.

p.189
He just got done telling us that Samar Island is derived from a Hebrew word which means "bristled" which means "Standing Upright in Righteous Anger in Abundance." Now he says it is named after Samaria. Samaria derives from a very different word and has a totally different meaning than Samar.

Meaning
Shemer's Place, Place Of Watch Keeping
Etymology
From the verb שמר (shamar), to keep or guard.
Tim writes again and again that Hebrew scholars have overlooked many things. How could Tim overlook this?  How could he make this mistake if the Hebrew he is using is genuine? Because he is not being genuine with his usage of Hebrew.  He is looking at similarity of sound. If a word sounds Hebrew then to him it is Hebrew. 

In his sources Tim cites a Hebrew teacher who says there are similarities between the construction of Tagalog and Hebrew. That is a far cry from saying Tagalog is derived from Hebrew. This same teacher says there are similarities in construction between Tagalog and native Mexican languages as well as between English and Chinese. Applying Tim's logic English would be derived from Chinese or vice versa.

Did he say Biblical Hebrew? The Spanish certainly relabeled portions of the Philippines but not all and not all of their names cemented either.
pg. 178
Tim excitedly makes a big leap from "Tagalog is constructed like Hebrew" to "Tagalog is derived from Hebrew." He then proceeds to give alleged Hebrew etymologies for various place names in the Philippines. He even claims Pilipinas is a Hebrew compound word! What nonsense. It is derived from  King Philip II of Spain whom these islands are named after. Or was the Philippines known as the Philippines before it was actually named the Philippines?  

The second point I want to discuss, and which I have discussed at length elsewhere, is the island of Chryse. Tim has a whole chapter devoted to Chryse. He calls it the ancient Greek's source of gold and identifies it with the Aurea Chersonesus of Josephus and thus Ophir. Not once in this "monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove" does he discuss the supposed Greek mining or trade operations in the Philippines or Ophir or why such operations began and then ceased. He never tells us why the Greeks sailed half way around the world for gold when it is to be found in their backyard in abundance as the vast wealth of Croesus attests. He merely states it as a fact and moves on. His assumptions about the Greeks sailing to the Philippines for gold appear to be entirely based on the alleged existence of the fabled island of gold named Chryse which shows up on only a few maps while the sister island of silver, Argyre, shows up on only one map. He is making the assumption that "islands of gold and silver on a Greek map = the Greek's source of gold and silver" without proving it.

On page 125 Tim writes the following about the Greeks allegedly inheriting the shipping route to the Philippines from the Phoenicians:
Rome did not benefit from this knowledge so easily as this was established by Israel with Phoenicia managing the route. Greece inherited this and, as they represent Tarshish's family. That makes sense.
pg. 125
"That makes sense."  What kind of conclusion is that? He is making another huge assumption with no proof or discussion of the matter. Where is the proof that the Phoenicians gave the Greeks the route map to Ophir? Why would they give the Greeks this information? Like much of the argumentation in this book it is either non-existent or logically fallacious.  In this case it is either post hoc, ad hoc, begging the question, or affirming the consequent. Maybe all four! No one who wants to be taken seriously as a researcher would write in such a sloppy and illogical manner. 

There is more that Tim lazily refuses to discuss. On page 44 he writes:
Throughout history, the Philippines was recorded as the Land of Gold by other nations. The Greeks named it Chryse, "The Golden One." Indian history called it Suvarnadwipa or "Island of Gold" as the Periplus is the record of those directions. The Chinese log the Philippines as Lusong Dao "Isles of Gold" in 200 A.D. Buddhist i-Tsing named it Chin-Chou "Isle of Gold" and Chin-Lin, "Golden Neighbor" in 671 A.D. which is Suvarnadwipa. Finally the Chinese characterize the Philippines as Chin-San, "Mountain of Gold. [See Sourcebook]
pg. 44
Rather than discuss anything in that paragraph he directs the reader to the Sourcebook. I suppose it's too much to expect Tim to explain to us why he thinks those names refer to the Philippines. This is supposed to be a presentation of "the monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove."  He should be presenting a thorough case which examines all the evidence and not directing his readers elsewhere. Each one of those names deserves its own chapter.

The Sourcebook is not helpful because there is no real discussion of the names and why they refer to the Philippines but only screenshots of Wikipedia, brief notes which are full of baseless assertions, and links to sources which contradict Tim's narrative. Let's take a look at Source 28 which I could not find bracketed in this paragraph or anywhere else in the book.


This is an article on Cornell's website titled "Suvarnadvipa and the Chryse Chersonesos." Tim has highlighted a paragraph on page 3 which discusses the content of the Periplus of the Erythean Sea.

During the reign of Augustus, an increasing number of Greeks were trading with the west coast of India. They reached the east coast, probably over land, around the middle of the first century. One of their pilots, who collected his information in the second half of the first century, but whose personal experience did not reach beyond the west coast, wrote a detailed guide for voyages around the Indian Ocean, the Periplous. His account of the exploration of the mouth of the Ganges and beyond is therefore probably based on information which he gathered in ports along the northwest coast of India. This information contained only vague indications about the exact location of the places mentioned. The writer was told about a mainland region called "Golden," the most eastern continent toward the orient, situated around, above, beyond (he peri auten) the Ganges mouth. Downwards from, opposite to or near the same river (kat’auton de ton potamon) ,however, and also an extreme eastern part of the inhabited world, lying exactly towards sunrise (hup'auton aneohonta ton he'lion), i.e., due east, lay an oceanic island of the same name.

pg.3
I do not know why Tim highlights this paragraph or what he thinks it proves because he does not discuss it.  However on the very next page this author upends Tim's thesis about the Indians and the Buddhist i-Tsing labelling the Philippines as a land of gold by naming Sumatra as the fabled island of Chryse and Suvarnadvipa.

If Suvarnadvipa (or whatever a Gold Island was called in the language they used) for the pilots of the first century was an island in the strict sense of the word and a particular one, from the end of the seventh century onward there is no doubt at all that this island was Sumatra. The connection is accepted by I-tsing, by the Ndlanda inscription and by Nepalese and Arab sources as self-evident.


This name for Sumatra was well founded on its rich deposits of gold and silver.

pg.4
If Tim was really interested in making a "monumental case for the Philippines no one can disprove" then why does he neglect to discuss this proof for Sumatra? Why not discuss ALL the information relevant to his topic? Why include in his Sourcebook a source which contradicts him and not even bother to refute it? It's more poor research and weak argumentation on his part.

As far as Tim is concerned Sumatra, which is part of Indonesia, cannot be Ophir or the land of gold or Chryse for one simple reason.
....West Sumatra, Indonesia which is actually in Ham's territory not even Shem's.

pg. 222
Let's back up a bit here. Timothy Schwab believes that the Book of Jubilees is actual history and not simply a 2nd temple apology for the law written for the express purpose of extolling it as God's supreme revelation. 
Obviously, the chief object of the work is to exalt the Law (and Hasidæan practise) as divinely ordained and fixed from eternityto extol the institutions of the Sabbath and circumcision as heavenly signs distinguishing Israel from the rest of the nations, and, finally, to draw the sharpest possible lines of demarcation between Israel and the Gentiles—in striking contrast to the practise of the Hellenist party.
If Tim really believed the Gospel he would rightly reject The Book of Jubilees as pseudepigraphal Jewish rubbish.
Galatians 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
But Tim, like the author of Jubilees, who is not Moses by the way, believes the law is an eternal revelation from God to which we are bound even at this day. He is fully convinced that The Book of Jubilees is scripture. That means he takes the narrative of Noah dividing the earth among his three sons to be Gospel truth. According to Tim's interpretation when this division is mapped out, on a false flat earth model no less according to page 259 of the Sourcebook, Indonesia is part of the territory given to Ham and the Philippines is part of the territory given to Shem. Ophir is a descendant of Shem which means Ophir the place, which is the homeland of Ophir the man, can NEVER be located in Ham's territory.

Because Tim limits himself to looking for Ophir in what he believes is Shem's territory he has disabled himself and set a boundary to his inquiry. Understand then that Tim's research is no free inquiry asking bold questions but has self-imposed geographical strictures placed around it by which he shall not pass. This is the same thing he does when he declares there is no archaeology like temples or buildings to be found in Ophir and to look for such is a false paradigm.
Many seek this architecture in demand to prove this narrative and they are stuck in a false paradigm. There is none to be expected nor has any other nation on earth produced such nor will they.

Ancient Ophir is never described as having temples at all whether alone ones of gold, it is never recored to have great infrastructure in any sense just a mega-abundance of resources. The humble lifestyle of the Filipino even fits the oath of a Rechabite as Farrisol said.
pg. 128-129
The humble lifestyle of the Filipino? Tim shows us pictures from the Boxer Codex of men and women decked out in fine clothing and lots of gold jewelry. Is that humble? Of course not and this nonsense about Filipinos taking the Rechabite oath is also contradicted when Tim mentions Sugarcane wine on page 127. Rechabites don't drink wine!

To which description of Ophir is Tim referring? The Bible does not describe Ophir at all! It only tells us what was brought back from the place. We sure don't read that Ophirians lived in nipa huts or anything like that though Tim talks about them on page 242. His claim that Ophir never had temples or infrastructure is baseless. It is his own assumption which serves to excuse him from having to do any archaeological work to actually prove his thesis. Perhaps he does not realize it but an absence of any architecture or other kind of remains with inscriptions indicating, whether obliquely or directly, "this is Ophir" is fatal to his case. With no solid rock on which to rest, the whole "monumental case for the Philippines" being Ophir is built entirely upon the sinking sand of Tim's own opinions, assumptions, and interpretations of Wikipedia articles. This is quite ironic seeing as how he begins the book proving Ophir existed by showing an inscription on ancient pottery unearthed in Israel.

pg.20
This attested fragment confirms the existence of the land of gold from which King Solomon's navy imported resources. It also demonstrates Ophir is a legitimate, physical land of Gold and no legend.
Likewise his claim that Ophir must have more gold than any nation in the world ever is also a baseless assumption. It could be that all the gold in Ophir was mined and the land is now depleted of resources. Tim does not explore that possibility but assumes that if one "tests the resources" we find Ophir and according to him only the Philippines passes the test. Let's look at one of those resources, ivory.
Many have attempted to debate that the Philippines does not have elephants and look around today and this is a true point but not in antiquity.
pg. 98 
Here you have Tim admitting that resources have been depleted over time. How does he prove that elephants and thus ivory was once abundant in the Philippines during the time of Solomon? Through archaeology, he says. After quoting several articles including Wikipedia and an opinion piece from the Philippine Daily Inquirer Tim writes:
However, one must overlook tons of archaeology in order to conclude elephants were not native to the Philippines including the very latin identification of species which is specific to the Philippines such as Rhinoceros philippinensis unearthed in Fort Bonaficio along with Stegedon luzonensis, Bubalus cebuensis, a dwarf buffalo found in Cebu and Elephas Beyeri named after anthropologist H. Ottley Beyer who found these bones on Cabarruyan Island In Luzon.
pg.100
Actually what Tim is describing is not archaeology but paleontology and there are not tons of it but merely a few prehistoric fossils. Instead of proving to the reader how the existence of the fossils of a prehistoric rhinoceros, stegedon, dwarf buffalo, and dwarf elephant proves that the Philippines was teeming with elephants and was a major source for ivory during the time of Solomon, Tim merely states it as a fact and claims he could write a whole book about the subject. He then goes on to record the testimony of Jesuits who wrote of the existence of elephants in the Philippines. But Tim already admitted those elephants were imported to the Philippines by the Sultanate of Sulu from Java in the 1300's which is long after Solomon.

Let us return to Sumatra and the rest of Indonesia. Tim once again gives wrong directions from the Periplus and Dionysius and Mela in attempting to prove that the mythical Chryse is the Philippines. I'm not interested in retreading that ground but Tim makes two mistakes that are so egregiously wrong I cannot pass them by without notice.  First he interprets the directions from Dionysius Periegetes on a flat earth model falsely claiming that the Greeks of the first century believed in a flat earth. On page 33 of the Sourcebook Tim writes:

NOTE: Taprobane is not South of the Philippines in reality but in the perspective of the flat earth maps of the first century, it most certainly was. In 124 B.C., that was still the thinking and one must reconcile the meaning from the author’s mindset. Also, note the use of Taprobana in that period remains a question as to whether the inference is Sri Lanka or Sumatra. That debate was not settled until the 17th century. No one knows to which Dionysius was actually referring in 124 A.D. but such debate is unnecessary to settle in order to locate Chryse by all the markers present which are very obvious.
This is so unbelievably false that reading it is enough to let one know Tim has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to ancient Greece let alone their mindset. The Greeks knew the earth was round. That is an indisputable fact of history.
The earliest documented mention of the spherical Earth concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it was mentioned by ancient Greek philosophersIn the 3rd century BC, Hellenistic astronomy established the roughly spherical shape of the Earth as a physical fact and calculated the Earth's circumference.
It also appears that 124 BC should actually be 124 AD. Tim writes that no one knew if Taprobana referred to Sri Lanka or Sumatra! How can he be this obtuse!? Did he forget that EVERY SINGLE ancient Greek map and description of the earth OMITS Sumatra and all of Indonesia? He even notes that fact on this particular map in the sourcebook. It is this omission which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that no ancient Greeks ever sailed to the Philippines. But more on that below.

Second of all Tim flubs Mela's directions by confusing China with India.  From the Sourcebook on page 28 we see this map:


Their source for Mela is Frank Romer's translation as found here: https://topostext.org/work/145. Tim starts at book 3.67 but he would have done well to start further back at 3.59 which is where the section about India and the Far East begins. Mela, much like Dionysius, is taking a route that goes around the world through the arctic. That alone should give one pause as to the authenticity of this description because no one sailed that route until modern times. In 3.60 he mentions the Seres or Silk People.  This is an obvious reference to the Chinese and Romer acknowledges this in his footnote which is found in his book but not at the website.

Romer Pg. 118

At 3.62 we read this fantastic description of India:

§ 3.62  Moreover, it is fertile and teems with a different type of human being and other animals. It sustains ants that are no smaller than the biggest dogs, ants that reportedly guard, like griffins, gold that is mined from deep within the earth, and that pose the greatest threat to anyone who touches it. India also sustains monstrous snakes that with their bite and the winding constriction of their bodies can stop an elephant in its tracks. It is so rich in some places and has such productive soil that in this country honey drips from the leaves, trees bear wool, and rafts of split bamboo even convey, like ships, two persons at a time, some even conveying three at a time.

Does Tim believe that in India there are ants as big as dogs who guard caches of gold? Regardless if he does or does not notice that we have dropped down from China to India in this section. China is done. The tour is over. We are now in India. Tim begins his interpretation of these directions at 3.67 which is a description of the coastline of India and reads as follows:

§ 3.67  The Palibothri hold the coastline from Point Tamus to the Ganges. From the Ganges to Point Colis, except where it is too hot to be inhabited, are found black peoples, Aethiopians so to speak. From Point Colis to the Indus the shores are straight, and peoples live there who are timorous and quite prosperous because of the sea's riches.

Chryse and Argyre are mentioned three paragraphs later and are located next to Point Tamus.

§ 3.70  Alongside Point Tamus is the island of Chryse, beside the Ganges the island of Argyre. The first has golden soil — so the old writers have handed down — the other has silver soil. Moreover, as seems to be the case really, either the name comes from the fact, or the legend comes from the designation. Taprobane is said to be either a very large island or the first part of the second world, but because it is inhabited, and because no one reportedly has circumnavigated it, the latter interpretation is as good as true.

Tim messes up big time by identifying Point Tamus as China. 


It is not China. China is not a point on the coast, it's a huge nation! Here is what Romer has to say in his footnotes:


He identifies Point Tamus with Cape Negrais in Myanmar. Because Tim misidentifies this locale as China he gets his directions all wrong. The Philippines is nowhere near the Ganges yet he wants us to believe that Mela is describing the 7,000 island archipelago which is the Philippines when he mentions TWO islands off the coast of India. Tim also never explains why Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula are missing from this map when in order to sail to the Philippines one must pass by those places.  Tim's notes on Mela are on page 19 of the sourcebook.

Moving on let's cut the Gordian knot and be done with misidentifying Chryse as the Philippines. First of all on no Greek map do we find Indonesia and to get to the Philippines you HAVE TO sail past Indonesia. It looks like this:


The absence of Indonesia on all of the ancient Greek maps Tim utilizes obliterates his claim that the Greeks sailed past India to the Philippines and he cannot account for its absence. But Herodotus can. From Book 3.106 of The History of Herodotus:

India is the most distant of inhabited lands towards the East

Herodotus is the strongest proof against everything Tim is claiming. For instance he claims that Greeks were trading with the Philippines and vice versa by 800 B.C. and that they were taking the long way around Africa.

Even after Solomon, King Jehoshaphat attempted to rebuild and re-establish trade with Ophir yet the ships were destroyed by Yahuah (1 Ki. 22-48). Understand that this is very close to the era in which the Northern Kingdom was about to be taken captive in to the very land Jonah was preaching repentance and salvation. Therefore Ophir had to bring goods to Israel instead which we see in Jonah's story. The ships of Tarshish were certainly trading in Israel again traveling the long way around Africa to the port at Joppa (Jn. 1:1-13) as did the Three Kings after Messiah's birth in about 6 B.C. or so.

pg. 136

Tim does not explicitly write that the Greeks were sailing "the long way around Africa" to the Philippines but that is implied when he writes:

The Greeks traded with the Philippines for gold and silver roughly around 800-150 B.C. and Mela retained this from the "olden writers" of Greece.

p.43

Funny that Mela nowhere indicates the islands of Indonesia in his description of the world despite getting his information from "olden writers." Did they not know about Sumatra, Java, and Borneo? In the map above Tim has the Malay Peninsula blocked out with the caption reading:

This area missing from most first century maps. Most cartographers and historians melt India bleeding into China. Indochina and Malaysia are not even there. This must be taken into account in order to interpret

This note does not explain anything. It does not answer the big question of why they aren't there if the Greeks sailed right past them to get to the Philippines and thus necessarily knew of their existence! The answer is simple, no ancient Greeks ever sailed to the Philippines. 

Tim writes on page 130 that the Phoenicians were careful sailors who hugged the coasts and did not stray into the open ocean. 
The Phoenician merchants were very conservative which is why they were the best in their era. They did not wreck often because they hugged the coasts and only sailed in the daytime avoiding obstacles hard to see at night. 
pg.130
He also claims that the Greeks inherited their maritime routes and knowledge from the Phoenicians. If that is the case and they sailed to the Philippines hugging the coasts along the way then there should be ancient maps and directions showing and describing the Strait of Malacca, the Malay Peninsula, and Indonesia. Are we really to believe that sailors such as the Phoenicians and Greeks failed to notice those places? Such maps do not exist because, as Herodotus notes, the known extent of the world to the east was India.

The sentence from page 43 implies the Greeks circumnavigated Africa because, as Tim mentions in the paragraph from page 136, the Red Sea port was broken. Even if it weren't broken the Greeks did not control that territory so it would have been impossible for them to sail out of that port.  


But the fact is NO ONE was making that journey. No one was circumnavigating Africa on a regular basis. Just because Herodotus records the Phonecians doing it once at the command of Pharaoh does not prove it was a regular shipping route. Read "The Circumnavigation of Africa" by Ciaran Branigan for more information. It is only 5 pages long because that's how little history there is of ancient mariners making that trip. 

When The God Culture was asked if they would "direct me to more information about the Filipinos and Greeks trading with each other by sailing around Africa" I was given the terse reply:

We will not be expanding a chapter of our book just released now in email form. Yah Bless.

I  am supposed to trust these guys to interpret a vast amount of information concerning the ancient Greeks yet they can't even understand my brief email. I did not ask them to expand on a chapter. All I wanted was a few links and to be pointed somewhere for more information but they refused to provide anything which would back up their claims. That's because they do not have such information as it does not exist. Their claim that Greeks and Filipinos were circumnavigating Africa for trade is a lie. 


Herodotus indicates Ethiopia is the furthest land south anyone knew. From Book 3.114 of The History of Herodotus:

As one passes beyond the place of the midday, the Ethiopian land is that which extends furthest of all inhabited lands towards the sunset. This produces both gold in abundance and huge elephants and trees of all kinds growing wild and ebony, and men who are of all men the tallest, the most beautiful and the most long-lived.

He mentions no lands farther south than Ethiopia because the Greeks did not know of them. He does not even believe there is an ocean which encircles the earth! From Book 4.8 of The History of Herodotus:

Thus say the Scythians about themselves and about the region above them; but the Hellenes who dwell about the Pontus say as follows:—Heracles driving the cattle of Geryones came to this land, then desert, which the Scythians now inhabit; and Geryones, says the tale, dwelt away from the region of the Pontus, living in the island called by the Hellenes Erytheia, near Gadeira which is outside the Pillars of Heracles by the Ocean.—As to the Ocean, they say indeed that it flows round the whole earth beginning from the place of the sunrising, but they do not prove this by facts.

If the Greeks were circumnavigating Africa for trade with the Philippines one would think Herodotus would be well-informed about the existence of a worldwide ocean. After all he did take note of the best Grecian sailors, the Phocaians. From the Histories Book 1.163:

Now these Phocaians were the first of the Hellenes who made long voyages, and these are they who discovered the Adriatic and Tyrsenia and Iberia and Tartessos: and they made voyages not in round ships, but in vessels of fifty oars.

If the Phocaians were the first to make long voyages and Herodotus did not believe in the existence of a worldwide ocean then it stands to reason that no Greeks were rowing their boats the long distance from Greece to the Philippines. If they were Herodotus would certainly have known of such voyages and the existence of the worldwide ocean.


"The Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World" illustrates what Herodotus means by India being the furthest land known to the east.

The territories spanned by Map 5 experienced only limited contacts with the classical world, and represent the easternmost reaches of reliable Greek and Roman geographical knowledge. Until the first century A.D., they were known almost exclusively through the account of Megasthenes, a Seleucid envoy to the Mauryan imperial court. Even at the peak of commercial contacts with the West, they showed few traces of Greek or Roman settlement, and– with the exception of Menander’s brief foray into the Ganges Valley c. 175 B.C.–none of conquest. Moreover, by the second century A.D. Western knowledge of their geography reached its zenith, since later works neither added new information nor even reproduced more than a fraction of the knowledge previously accumulated. By the third century, to judge by this trend as well as by the pattern of coin finds, contacts were declining in step with the fortunes of the Roman empire; by the fourth century, contact appears to have been confined largely to Sri Lanka.

pg.58

The Greeks never went to the Philippines. They never traded with the Philippines. It is impossible that they ever did because their knowledge of the East did not extend past India. That is a fact of history. The maps Tim uses to say otherwise reveal this fact in stark detail as there is no Indonesia. 

If Tim wants to prove the Greeks were regularly rowing their Triremes to the Philippines around Africa engaged in a bustling trade in gold and silver he's going to have to actually prove it and not just assert it by saying "that makes sense" and giving wrong directions to a mythical island of gold based on Greek maps as if that surmounts any of the problems he is facing regarding the Greek's lack of knowledge of Indonesia. There is too much he passes by without discussing and that is very problematic. For his case to be "monumental" it should also be thorough. As it stands there is much information Tim does not care to sift through and discuss.

However he is eager to bring up superfluous information like the Behaim Globe of 1492 which contains mythical locales like St. Brendan's Isle and the Dragon's Tail. Tim believes that the Greeks lost the exact location of Chryse and that the thinking of where this island lay progressed over time. We see this on Behaim's Globe where Chryse and Argyre have been placed in the vicinity of the Philippines. This leads Tim to utter absurdity as he really thinks Behaim has found and mapped out the Philippines.

An actual map of the Philippines vs The God Culture's map of the Philippines

NOTE: Not only is Chryse beginning to take the geographic form of Luzon in 1492 on maps especially at the top but Argyre appears in the shape of Mindanao. Both are Northeast of Malaysia. That's called Philippines. SW of Luzon appears as Iloilo in shape The writing to the right under Japa by a red island similar in shape of Negros or Leyte is identified as an isle of Gold and Spices. Thilis, the famed Isle of Pearl is above Luzon likely inappropriately as it is more likely Palawan where the largest pearls are found. It was never Bahrain. SW of Argyre/Mindana the German text identifies the Magnetic Islands of Maniola. Ptolemy propagated a legend that one could not travel with lead near these magnetic isles. Far more likely, this is a reference to Manila and the many shipwrecks on the dangerous shoals in the South China Sea on the way there. Behaim did not know where everything was but he knew Chryse and Argyre were in the S. Chine Sea NOT Malaysia. Behaim corrects all of Ptolemy's guesses in geogprahy further to the East because they were not Malaysia as knowledge increased. Magellan, Pinto, Barbosa and the Portuguese especially knew better.

This passage speaks for itself as to its complete ridiculousness. How anyone could think that jumble of random shapes resembles the Philippines is beyond me.

Even though Tim haughtily looks downs his nose with contempt and disdain upon scholars and academicians all throughout this book, he still seeks their validation.

It is time for this to be taken seriously by those in authority, those in academia and those in the church.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=690346041525416&id=376627072897316

If Tim wants to be taken seriously then he needs to act seriously. He needs stronger arguments and a more irenic tone towards those who have gone before him. You can't despise scholars calling them liars and propagandists all the while using their research, say no one can disprove your own research, arrogantly proclaim that your book is a "great revelation amending modern scholarship", and expect to be taken seriously.

This is the end of my review of The God Culture's book "The Search for King Solomon's Treasure." There is a lot of information in this book I did not touch on as it's a matter of space and strength of argument. The issues of etymologies and Chryse are the strongest arguments against Tim's theory. In summation this book is wanting and is by no means a "monumental case no one can disprove." The claim that Greeks and Filipinos circumnavigated Africa to trade with one another is certainly disprovable as it is an outright lie. But perhaps such historical inaccuracies ought to be overlooked as Tim has told us elsewhere in his videos that he is not proving an historical case.

"Remember one thing though. We are not proving an historical case here. That is not what this is. That is not what we ever claimed it to be. We are proving a multi-disciplined position with strong pose across-the-board. The reason our foundation is incredibly strong is because we set it in scripture and that is solid rock." 

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-god-culture-finding-chryse-dont.html

The rest of the book from chapters 16 to 21 are all mostly religious in nature. We are greeted with puerile prophetic interpretations such as the Philippines being mentioned in Isaiah because Filipinos love to sing.

This next prophecy is a Filipino prophecy to the core. Singing is not just something many enjoy, it is in their prophetic DNA. How did Isaiah know this?

Isaiah 42:10 KJV

Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

Isaiah is speaking to the Philippines who love to sing and most do not know why. It is because singing is in their very prophetic DNA as a commonality. This is not one group but "the inhabitants thereof..." "all that is therein the isles." The Philippines will sing a new song from the throne room of Yahuah and it will not be karaoke. This is their calling. They are the isles who sing His praise at the ends of the Earth. 

pg, 249

I have not come across any bible prophecy interpretation this dumb since I reviewed The God Culture's Revelation 12 series. What is prophetic DNA? Is that kind of like midi-chlorians?

The best part of the book is the conclusion, chapter 21. In this chapter Tim wonderfully brings it all together and conjures up a fantastical view of history that is rather well-written compared to the rest of the book. However in the end his interpretation of the history of the Philippines as Ophir rests on the anti-Christian proposition that God's law will be restored in toto in the Philippines. Remember Timothy Jay Schwab and The God Culture are not only anti-trinitarian heretics but also teach the blasphemous and anti-Christian doctrine that faith in Christ is not enough, "the law is what redeems us." Tim is not as explicit here on this subject as he is elsewhere in his videos. Perhaps he is saving it for another book.

Friday, January 1, 2021

Retards in the Government 187

 It's your weekly compendium of foolishness and corruption in the Philippine government.


https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1375925/2-qc-cops-demoted-for-unlawful-arrest-searching-without-warrants

Two police officers were demoted over a grave misconduct case, which stemmed from complaints of unlawful arrest and conduct of search without proper warrants, the city government said on Friday.

In a statement, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said Patrolmen Zaldy Mejos Jr. and Julie Boison received a penalty of one-rank demotion based on a decision of the People’s Law Enforcement Board (PLEB) District 1 of Quezon City.

The policemen were demoted after they received the complaint of a certain Marissa Torres, who accused that the two policemen searched her house and arrested her without proper warrants issued by the court on January 19, 2019.

The policemen denied the charges, saying they were on foot patrol when they received a report that Torres was carrying a firearm.

Boison said he found a nozzle of a suspected firearm inside the sling bag at Torres’ sari-sari store. This prompted the police officers to search inside Torres’ residence.

Police officers then arrested Torres after they discovered a firearm and suspected narcotics inside the victim’s house. Torres, however, said the gun and illegal drugs were planted evidence.

Under the QC PLEB decision, police conducted the warrantless arrest. It also said the search and seizure done by the respondent policemen “cannot be justified under the plain view doctrine.”

There must be a lot more to this case. What happened to Torres? Did they really plant evidence? If the cops saw a gun nozzle sucking out of a bag then how was that not a justified search? 


https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1375994/sc-fines-cabanatuan-judge-in-baguio-traffic-feud

A judge in Cabanatuan City was found guilty of simple misconduct by the Supreme Court when he charged traffic enforcers here with indirect contempt after they cited him for parking violations last year.

Judge Nelson Largo of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 3 in Cabanatuan was also directed by the high court’s first division to pay P11,000 in fine. The Supreme Court acted on a complaint filed by Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, after Largo subpoenaed enforcer Bernard Batnag and the police officers for giving him a ticket for illegal parking at the city market and for removing his license plates on Oct. 25 last year.

Last year a judge had his plates removed after being cited for traffic violations and he in turn subpoenaed the enforcers.  Now the SC has handed down their judgment by fining him.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1376001/palawan-town-residents-want-mayor-7-councilors-out-due-to-loss-of-confidence
A group of residents of Narra town in Palawan province has filed a recall petition against sitting Mayor Crispin Lumba Jr. and seven municipal councilors, citing “loss of confidence” due to poor public service.

Guillermo Aficial, president of the Sulong sa Pagbabago Bangon Narra and supporters of suspended Mayor Gerandy Danao, said they had so far gathered 28,495 signatures to back their petition for a recall election against Lumba and the seven Sangguniang Bayan members. “We lost our trust in them,” said Aficial in a phone interview, pointing out instances of unmet social welfare needs by those severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

“During the pandemic, [Danao] climbed mountains to distribute food aids. Unlike now, [with Lumba], everything is self-serving,” Aficial claimed.

The supporters of Danao filed the recall petition against the suspended mayor’s political detractors, who were behind the administrative raps that resulted in Danao’s 20-month suspension after the Provincial Board pronounced him guilty of various counts of grave misconduct, gross negligence, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.

The complaints were filed by Lumba and majority of the Narra SB members. An appeal to reconsider Danao’s suspension is now pending before the Office of the President.

The residents of a town want to recall the acting mayor but the mayor he replaced is suspended. This article is bit confusing and it appears the names are switched.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1376700/cop-shot-dead-in-cagayan-de-oro-city

A 42-year-old policeman was shot dead by unidentified gunmen past 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 26, in Barangay Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro City.

Police Captain Julius Saluta, chief of the Agora police station in Cagayan de Oro City, said Patrolman Roy Aguas just left his boarding house in Lapasan village on a motorcycle when he was shot by the gunmen who were aboard a motorcycle as he approached a vulcanizing shop.

“He was about to park near a vulcanizing shop when men riding in tandem suddenly appeared and shot him,” Saluta said.

Aguas died after being shot five times to the head, police said.

Another cop assassinated by unknown gunmen.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1376763/p2-7b-in-sea-games-funds-still-unexplained

“[Financial assistance] released to Phisgoc and POC in 2019 in the total amount of P1,815,169,762.67 [and] P535,413,045.56, respectively … remained unliquidated as of year-end despite completion of the intended purpose,” the Commission on Audit (COA) said in a report.

In addition, the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) also “granted additional [assistance] to Phisgoc from Jan. 29, 2020, to June 19, 2020, in the total amount of P417,546,728.08 despite nonliquidation of previous assistance, thus further increasing Phisgoc’s unliquidated accounts to P2,232,716,490.75.”

But when the PSC demanded that the two groups submit liquidation reports, Phisgoc replied on June 25 that the PSC should first remit unreleased monies to Phisgoc so that it could settle balances with contractors and suppliers before they submit their fund utilization report.

The COA replied: “It is expected that related expenses were already paid/settled by Phisgoc and POC. As such, there is no reason to wait for the remaining support from the PSC because the same are intended for other purposes.”

State auditors also said they were unable to establish the financial stability of Phisgoc to handle the SEA Games because Phisgoc was only incorporated on July 2, 2018, as a nonstock profit corporation.

In its audit, the COA noted that of the P305,117,477.56 in financial assistance released to 51 different national sports associations (NSAs), P256,968,475.84 remain unliquidated as of July 31.

But the NSAs, in their replies to demand letters, cited difficulties in complying with the requirements due to lockdown measures, while 18 NSAs did not even bother to reply to the demand letters.

Billions of pesos remain unliquidated and unremitted to the government. Some agencies the COA sent letters to said the lockdown measures have hampered efforts to liquidate the money and some did not even respond!

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1377055/duterte-names-lawmakers-allegedly-linked-to-corruption

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday bared the names of lawmakers included in the list made by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission’s (PACC) of government officials allegedly involved in corruption.

Before reading their names, the President noted that inclusion in the list does not mean there is hard evidence against them.

“The public should be aware that there is no hard evidence, that it cannot be translated by just reading the names that they are already guilty because presumption of innocence would like all throughout until conviction or acquittal,” Duterte said in a pre-recorded speech.

“I just want to assure everybody that yung pagbasa sa pangalan ninyo is a condemnation or indictment that you are guilty of something. In the same manner that I would tell people, do not take it as gospel truth na totoo talaga ito,” he went on.

Despite acknowledging that there is no hard evidence and that there is a presumption of innocence Duterte went and ahead and read the names of 9 Congressmen who he claims are linked to corruption. Of course the solon's named denied involvement in corruption and the Palace justified reading the names. But it's too late.  The president has smeared these people's good names. In addition to this he fired several DPWH workers connected to these Congressmen over alleged corruption.

After mentioning their names, Duterte said: “You are relieved tomorrow…By noontime, you should be talking with your boss.”

Nevertheless, the chief executive said that he was presuming the innocence of the district engineers he mentioned in his speech.

“These engineers that I mentioned, I do not condemn you, I give you the presumption of innocence just like the congressmen. It just so happens that your name cropped up in the investigation,” Duterte said.

He added that he would order the reorganization of the assignments of district engineers.

Just like the solons he named Duterte says these engineers are presumed innocent. So why publicly name them and fire them?

https://www.philstar.com/nation/2020/12/30/2067037/cop-shot-dead-cavite

A police officer was gunned down in Dasmariñas City, Cavite on Monday afternoon.

S/Sgt. Roseman Batao was fixing his Toyota Hi-Ace in front of his house in Barangay Datu Esmael at around 2:20 p.m. when three men arrived in a car and shot the victim several times, according to a report of the Cavite police.

Another cop assassinated by unknown gunmen.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1125933

A police officer assigned in Central Visayas is now in hot water after he tested positive for shabu during a random drug test, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Gen. Debold Sinas said Tuesday.

Sinas said Corporal Manuel Alconten Paez will undergo investigation and administrative proceedings by the PNP Internal Affairs Service.

Paez, 42, assigned at the Regional Police Recruitment Unit-7 under the Police Recruitment Service (PRS), turned out positive for shabu during mandatory drug testing by the Regional Crime Laboratory 7 in Cebu City on December 17.

Another cop fails his drug test.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/770010/dilg-issues-show-cause-order-vs-laoag-city-mayor-over-alleged-istmas-gathering/story/

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Thursday issued a show cause order against Laoag City Mayor Michael Keon over a Christmas gathering that he supposedly organized.

In a statement, DILG said the photos of the Christmas gathering, which is prohibited amid the threat of COVID-19, have circulated in social media.

“We received reports that a Christmas party was organized by the mayor together with other government and barangay officials,” DILG Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said.

“Acting on these reports, the Secretary has directed the issuance of the SCO for the mayor to explain if he should be held administratively liable for violating health protocols,” he said.

According to Malaya, DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año has directed the issuance of the order against Keon for alleged violation of the prohibition against mass gathering and of minimum health standards during a pandemic.

Another LGU accused of violating health protocols by throwing a party.