Insurgency: Armed Men Attack Military Camp

Last week eight rebels were killed in two clashes in Northern Samar. Three of them were key leaders among the remnants.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1255741

Top leaders of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Eastern Visayas are among those killed in recent clashes between government troops and rebels in Las Navas, Northern Samar, the Philippine Army (PA) said on Monday.

Former rebels have identified seven out of the eight rebels killed during two clashes in the mountains of San Isidro village on July 31.

The slain NPA members were Richard Jumadiao (alias Joban), leader of sub-regional guerilla unit Laysan of the NPA Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee (EVRPC); Edgar Baselga (alias Ali), squad 1 leader of the regional guerilla unit (RGU); alias Berbon, vice squad leader; and Jinky Senobio (alias Sinag); Marciano Pecayo (alias Lakay); alias Desoy; and alias Rico, all members of the RGU under EVRPC.

The PA said multiple cases of atrocities in Northern Samar have been linked to Jumadiao and his group, including a series of ambuscades, extortion, radicalization of civilians, and jeopardizing government projects and initiatives to bring peace and sustainable development in the region.

“While these individuals chose to take up arms and engage in acts of terror, we continue to uphold our duty to treat the dead with dignity. We are working closely with the local government units to locate and inform the families of the deceased, ensuring they are properly notified and allowed to claim the remains,” Maj. Gen. Adonis Ariel Orio, commander of the PA 8th Infantry Division, said.

Soldiers launched the operation following the information given by a concerned civilian that a group of armed men was conducting extortion activities and threatening farmers in the area, a known NPA lair.

After the clashes, soldiers recovered five M16 rifles, two R4 rifles, an M203 grenade launcher, a K3 light machine gun and an M16 rifle.

Brig. Gen. Carmelito Pangatungan, commander of the PA 803rd Infantry Brigade, lauded Northern Samar residents for supporting the government's anti-insurgency efforts by reporting about the presence of the armed men.

“The recent armed encounters in Barangay San Isidro, Las Navas, are a clear demonstration of our resolve to protect Northern Samar from communist NPA terrorists who continue to threaten and extort our farmers,” Pangatungan said in a separate statement.

This is proof that the AFP's claim the NPA is leaderless is baseless. No doubt there are more leaders to eliminate.

Samar's amnesty board has approved the application of 14 ex-rebels. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1255839

The Local Amnesty Board (LAB) of Catbalogan City, Samar has approved an additional 14 amnesty applications from former rebels during its latest case conference.

The approved applications will be forwarded to the Office of the President, the only one authorized to grant or deny amnesty.

Golda Meir Tabao, head of the Samar Provincial Information Office who represented Governor Sharee Ann Tan during the LAB meeting on Monday, said LAB Catbalogan has already recommended 93 amnesty applications for approval of the President.

“The 14 approved amnesty applications comply with the guidelines of Amnesty Proclamation 404 signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in 2023 that grants amnesty to former members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) who have committed crimes punishable under the Revised Penal Code and the Special Penal Law in furtherance of their political beliefs,” Tabao said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Former CPP-NPA-NDF members qualified to apply for amnesty are those who are facing charges for their political beliefs, such as rebellion, inciting rebellion, sedition and illegal assembly.

Not eligible are those facing cases such as murder, kidnapping for ransom, massacre, rape, terrorism, illegal cases, drug-related crimes, enforced crimes against humanity, enforced torture, torture, etc., disappearance, and human rights violations.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Samar district office has expressed its willingness to collaborate with LAB Catbalogan in implementing the National Amnesty Program.

In a letter-invitation to LAB Catbalogan, NBI Samar head Gil Mendoza requested an amnesty orientation for its staff to familiarize them with the program's key guidelines, implementing rules and regulations, and rules of procedure.

Mendoza emphasized the crucial role of the NBI in verifying applicant information and ensuring that they meet the requirements for amnesty.

He also said the NBI’s support is vital in facilitating the amnesty process and promoting peace and reconciliation in the country.

Former and current communist insurgents have until March 14, 2026 to submit their applications.

That effectively absolves them of all crimes committed during the rebellion. The same can't  be said for the following two NPA rebels who were recenlty arrested. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1255919

Bicol police arrested the No. 1 most wanted person in the region, known as “Jake,” a member of the New People's Army (NPA) operating in Masbate, the Police Regional Office in Bicol (PRO-5) said Wednesday.

PRO-5 director Brig. Gen. Nestor Babagay Jr. reported that the 35-year-old suspect, a resident of Masbate City, is associated with the Komiteng Larangang Gerilya (KLG) North, which is part of the Sub-Regional Committee 4 (SRC4) of the Bicol Regional Party Committee (BRPC).

He reportedly operates under the command of Luding Tolingin, also known as “Daddy” or “Herman”.

“Jake has been the subject of multiple arrest warrants issued by various Regional Trial Courts (RTC) in Masbate City. The warrants stem from his alleged involvement in serious crimes, including one count of frustrated murder, four counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two violations of international humanitarian law," the report said.

The warrants were mostly issued between February 2021 and February 2022, highlighting the long-standing pursuit of the suspect due to the severity and number of crimes he allegedly committed.

Following his arrest, Jake was taken to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Masbate.

This guy has been on the run for the past four years but justice finally caught up with him. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1256062

An active Milisya ng Bayan member of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) was arrested by personnel from the Butuan City Police Office in Barangay Anticala here on Thursday morning.

In a report, Lt. Col. Randie Azote, commander of the Butuan City Mobile Force Company (BCMPC), identified the rebel as alias Wowong, 44, a resident of the village.

The suspect is connected to the Sub-Regional Sentro De Grabidad Westland of the NPA North Eastern Mindanao Regional Committee.

“Wowong is wanted for the crimes of murder and multiple attempted murder with arrest warrants issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 7 in Bayugan City,” Azote said.

The suspect is currently in BCMPC custody for proper disposition.

Azote recognized the coordination between the unit and community leaders that resulted in the arrest of the suspect.

It is not clear how long Wowong has been on the run but he will certainly not be receiving amnesty.

Not long ago the AFP declared Basilan Abu Sayyaf free. Yet, a military camp was recently attacked by several armed men. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2092712/3-soldiers-hurt-after-armed-men-attack-military-camp-in-basilan

Three soldiers were wounded after unidentified armed men strafed the headquarters of the Army’s 18th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Campo Uno, Lamitan City, Basilan province on Wednesday evening.

The attack triggered a 20-minute gunfight between the soldiers and the armed men.

The wounded soldiers were rushed to a nearby hospital for immediate treatment and were reported to be in stable condition as of Thursday noon.

Col. Frederick Sales, acting commanding officer of the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade, confirmed the attack, saying the deliberate act of aggression against the military troops “is a clear affront to the stability and peace we have collectively worked hard to achieve in Basilan.”

“Such violence threatens the hard-won peace and progress we have made, and the perpetrators of this attack will be relentlessly pursued and held accountable,” he added.

Sales said the military assures the public that all necessary measures are being undertaken to ensure the safety of communities and track down those responsible for the attack.

The security measures in the island province was heightened and military troops remain on full alert, he pointed out.

“The attack, though alarming, only strengthens our resolve and determination to protect the gains of peace and development in Basilan,” Sales added.

Whether Abu Sayyaf or not it just goes to show the peace is fragile and largely illusory in Basilan. 

Filipino Funeral Homes: Where The Dead Go To Die

Dying in the Philippines can be horrible but what happens after you die can be even worse. No, I'm not talking about being sent to hell for your sins, though that is very bad. I'm talking about the desecration of your corpse but hose entrusted to care for it. In Santa Cruz, Manila a funeral parlor was recently closed after a pile of decomposing bodies was found. 

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/metro/954299/manila-funeral-parlor-closed-due-to-pile-of-decomposing-bodies/story/

A funeral parlor in Santa Cruz, Manila was shut down on Wednesday after authorities found piles of decomposing cadavers inside its premises.  

According to Mark Salazar’s exclusive report in “24 Oras”, the Manila Sanitary Department and the Manila North Cemetery found that Body and Life Funeral Services does not have the necessary documentation to operate, including a sanitary permit. 

"They don’t have permits such as a sanitary permit or even an office permit," said Daniel Tan of Manila North Cemetery. 

Video from the Manila Sanitary Department showed that the small office of the funeral parlor also serves as the living room of the owner’s family. Just a few steps from the kitchen and dining space is the morgue where stacks of bodies were found piled at a corner. 

Footage showed a new cadaver that was about to be embalmed was just lying on a bed instead of being secured in a cold storage. 

"This is a health hazard because they are embalming the bodies inside. The space must be ventilated, the tiles are clean, there should be no foul odor, and bodies must be placed in a stainless steel container. That’s the proper way. The cadavers must also be inside a refrigerator," said Manila City District Sanitary Inspector Gilbert de Guzman. 

As a a result, authorities confiscated the 10 cadavers from the said funeral parlor and transferred them to other morgues. Personnel retrieving the bodies had to endure the foul smell while bringing out the remains, according to the report. 

However, the owner of the funeral parlor said they were never bothered by the smell coming from the bodies stacked inside their house. 

"I don’t think we smelled anything bad here. It didn’t reach where we were staying," said business owner Anjanette Bascuguin. 

Further, two of the 10 cadavers have already decomposed in formalin solution as they have been unrefrigerated since April, the report added. 

"We want to identify these bodies so we can reach out to their families. We also want to give them a proper burial. The City of Manila will shoulder whatever they need from burial, caskets, we will provide everything," said Tan. 

For her part, the owner of the funeral parlor admitted having problems with their permits. 

"The problem is the permit, especially for work," said Bascuguin. 

Funeral parlors can seek the pauper’s burial assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development for unclaimed bodies, the report said.  But the Manila North Cemetery warned that such action could be an example of sketchy operations of fly-by-night funeral parlors. 

"They don’t have the necessary permits. What we do so as not to inconvenience the families, was to allow them to view the body. But after the burial, we will hold the hearse until they provide the necessary documents. If they cannot provide the needed papers, they have to leave the hearse with us," said Tan. 

However, the funeral parlor denied that it was trying to avail of the DSWD’s burial assistance for the unclaimed bodies. 

The 10 bodies will be buried in the Manila North Cemetery, the report said.

No permits? How were they allowed to operate for so long without being noticed? One body has been rotting since April, 2025. Did the family not care enough to raise a complaint? There are a lot of questions here. However, what's not in question is that this is not the first time nor will it be the last time a Philippine funeral home has been shut down because of rotting corpses and lack of permits.

Here are just two instances, both from Quezon City.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/metro/537901/qc-shuts-down-5-funeral-homes-over-violations-in-sanitation-rules/story/

The Quezon City government has shut down five funeral homes for alleged violations of sanitation rules and regulations and operating without the necessary permits, a report on "24 Oras" said Tuesday.

The report said inspectors from the city health office found internal organs, buckets of bloods and even a fetus inside a jar in the embalming and dressing rooms of the funeral parlors.

Ordered closed were Urban, Cinco, RPL, Grace, and Villamor funeral homes over alleged violations of Presidential Decree 856 or The Code on Sanitation of the Philippines.

Chapter 21 of the decree states that embalmers must "ensure that no parts of the remains shall be removed during embalming," a rule the five funeral homes reportedly violated.

"Any part of the body ay hindi dapat nakatago [o] nasa kaldero. Dapat, inililibing 'yan," Dir. Ramon Matabang of the QC Civil Registrar Office said.

The five funeral homes also allegedly violated regulations on drainage and waste disposal, and disregarded the safety of its workers by allowing them to work without protective gear.

All of the funeral homes were also found operating without renewed business permits, the report said.

"It's difficult to rehabilitate a place without stopping operations first, especially with that kind of structural repair. There's really a lot more that needs to be fixed," Sanitation Chief Dr. Roell Romulo said.

Urban Funeral Homes' manager, Susan Cariño, denied the allegations, saying they have the  necessary permits to operate

"I really don't know about what they saw because I'm not the one who takes care of the dead,"

 Cariño said.

The five funeral homes barely passed any of the requirements for operation during their last inspection in February, the "24 Oras" report said.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/827764/qc-funeral-home-stink-more-corpses-questions

More bodies were found on Wednesday at a funeral home in Quezon City which authorities permanently shut down after residents complained of the foul stench coming from the establishment.

During a surprise inspection the other day, city health officials discovered around 120 rotting corpses stockpiled in body bags at Henry Memorial Services on A. Bonifacio Avenue in La Loma.

When a team sent by the health department returned to the funeral home yesterday to take the bodies and bring them to a cemetery for burial, they found more corpses in body bags in the other rooms. Like the ones earlier discovered, these were in varying stages of decomposition, enveloping the establishment in an overpowering stench.

The discoveries, however, did not end there. More corpses submerged in fluid were found in a well outside the funeral home.

In the end, the team loaded nearly 200 bodies into two dump trucks and brought them to Novaliches Public Cemetery, where they were buried in a rectangular pit nearly seven feet deep and measuring 230 meters by 250 meters. The bodies from the well were not included and would be retrieved today.

Verdades Linga, city health department officer, said that Wednesday’s burial was the biggest mass interment sponsored by the city government so far.

At press time, Henry Memorial Services owner Oscar Parales and manager Severino Mancia have yet to come forward and explain how so many bodies ended up rotting in the establishment, which was not equipped with proper freezers or a sewage treatment system.

The identities of the deceased and the manner of their death also remained a mystery. There were no death certificates or medico-legal documents recovered from the funeral home. The bags had no tags or labels.

“Public health is a graver concern that the death certificates,” Linga said.  “Which is more important, the death certificates or the lives of those still living in the neighborhood?”

According to Linga, the establishment violated Presidential Decree No. 856 or the sanitation code which requires corpses that are not embalmed to be buried within 48 hours.

Linga also noted that Henry Memorial Services did not have a special permit for a sewage treatment plant for the proper disposal of embalming fluids. “So the fluids would just go straight to the normal drain and can mix with the water used in the residential area,” she said.

She also observed that some of the bodies appear to have been dissected, raising suspicions that these were used in medical schools.

The funeral home operated without a business permit in violation of the local government code, said Garry Domingo, chief of the city’s business permits and licensing office. Mounting complaints from residents led to the issuance of a cease and desist order in September but this was ignored by the business owner, he added.

Records showed that Henry Memorial Services’s last business permit was approved in June 2015, when it was able to secure the other required licenses, like those for sanitation, fire safety and plumbing.

“For a city with over 70,000 business establishments, one or two can evade compliance,” Domingo told the Inquirer. “It is not an excuse, but it can happen.”

Despite yearly routine inspections, not all businesses in the city can be checked, he said. “Rest assured, the city will not stop addressing these concerns,” Domingo said as he warned other funeral parlors in the city.

Civil registrar Ramon Matabang said there were reports that the bodies were entrusted to Henry Memorial Services by other funeral homes which failed to claim them due to mounting fees.

“We have reports that they collect the bodies and offer storage and services but charge exorbitant fees,” he told the Inquirer.

According to him, some representatives from other establishments came yesterday to collect the bodies they had entrusted to the funeral home.

One of them, Jonathan Arceo of Everlasting Funeral Services, arrived as some of the bodies were being taken to the dump trucks.

Arceo wanted to retrieve the body of a 66-year-old Japanese national who died on Oct. 4. He presented a death certificate and said his company had paid P2,000 for storage and embalming services.

City officials, however, refused to let him retrieve the body.  “We don’t know how we will explain this to his relatives,” Arceo said.

The QCPD-La Loma station chief investigator, SPO2 Ramwil Relox, said that without death certificates it would be hard to determine whether the bodies died within Quezon City or were brought in from other funeral homes in Manila or other areas.

“We still have no idea where these bodies came from,” Relox told the Inquirer.

No business permits, bodies and organs everywhere, embalming and other fluids being run off into the drinking water. It's disgusting. More than that it's disrespectful to the dead and to their families. Living a good life entails dying a good death. These morticians rob people of that right. It goes to show the trope about Filipinos being so loving and caring and friendly is a thin veneer that hides a lot of rot.

The God Culture: Romeo and Juliet is the Story of Adam and Eve

Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has found a new champion in David Whited of Flyover Conservatives. David is so enamored with Tim that he calls him "a phenomenal teacher, a kind of a renaissance man, a biblical scholar, a researcher, an entrepreneur" which is all quite hilarious. Tim is first and foremost an adman who graduated with a marketing degree and is far from being a Bible scholar. If you have read this series about The God Culture you know it is abundantly evident that Tim is no researcher as he fudges some information and ignores other information detrimental to his cause. It goes without saying that "a phenomenal teacher" does not shut down discussion by calling people names, blocking them, and ignoring criticism. 

In this second interview with David Whited Tim gives his same presentation stating the same ridiculous lies as are contained in his videos and books. However, he says two things that are interesting. First he gives his opinion about Shakespeare claiming he lifted Romeo and Juliet from the Bible. 

https://flyover.live/e/shocking-facts-about-the-largest-structure-ever-built-by-man-ep-40

8:21 And, you know, even Shakespeare, he borrowed from Adam and Eve. What's Romeo and Juliet? It's the story of Adam and Eve. In the physical, of course, they died spiritually, but still, at the same point, you know, they both ate of the fruit and they both died, tragedy, you know, in that sense. So, yeah.

Historically this is totally wrong. While Shakespeare liberally borrowed from many sources for his plays Romeo and Juliet is NOT an adaptation of the story of Adam and Eve. 

Romeo and Juliet borrows from a tradition of tragic love stories dating back to antiquity. One of these is Pyramus and Thisbe, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, which contains parallels to Shakespeare's story: the lovers' parents despise each other, and Pyramus falsely believes his lover Thisbe is dead. The Ephesiaca of Xenophon of Ephesus, written in the 3rd century, also contains several similarities to the play, including the separation of the lovers, and a potion that induces a deathlike sleep.

The earliest known version of the Romeo and Juliet tale akin to Shakespeare's play is the story of Mariotto and Ganozza by Masuccio Salernitano, in the 33rd novel of his Il Novellino published in 1476. Salernitano sets the story in Siena and insists its events took place in his own lifetime. His version of the story includes the secret marriage, the colluding friar, the fray where a prominent citizen is killed, Mariotto's exile, Ganozza's forced marriage, the potion plot, and the crucial message that goes astray. In this version, Mariotto is caught and beheaded and Ganozza dies of grief. 

Luigi da Porto (1485–1529) adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti (A Newly-Discovered History of two Noble Lovers), written in 1524 and published posthumously in 1531 in Venice.

In his 1562 narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, Arthur Brooke translated Boaistuau faithfully but adjusted it to reflect parts of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. There was a trend among writers and playwrights to publish works based on Italian novelle—Italian tales were very popular among theatre-goers—and Shakespeare may well have been familiar with William Painter's 1567 collection of Italian tales titled Palace of Pleasure. This collection included a version in prose of the Romeo and Juliet story named "The goodly History of the true and constant love of Romeo and Juliett". Shakespeare took advantage of this popularity: The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Romeo and Juliet are all from Italian novelle. Romeo and Juliet is a dramatization of Brooke's translation, and Shakespeare follows the poem closely but adds detail to several major and minor characters (the Nurse and Mercutio in particular).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet#Sources

It is not surprising that Tim is ignorant of Shakepseaere's sources for Romeo and Juliet. His remarks about Dante's Divine Comedy being a mockery of the Book of Enoch shows that he is not familiar with literature.

"And Dante creates a fictional version of himself." Who, who's he copying here? Think about it."Who travels through the furthest reaches of hell ,inferno, purgatory, purgatorio and paradise, paradiso. Uh, what is Dante doing? Well he's replacing and mocking Enoch's journey with his own. What an idiot. And the church bought it because they prefer the occult view over that of the Bible. That's fact. Dante did not make up anything really though. He just replaced Enoch with an occult view of himself of course, uh, and that's really it. I mean the guy's an idiot. He, he didn't do anything, okay? Maybe his poem, you know, maybe it rhymes well. I don't know but whatever it does or doesn't do, whether it is a masterpiece of sort, what makes it of such importance is it's a linchpin in time in infusing the occult into the church. Oh, good job there buddy.

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-god-culture-big-mistakes-where-do.html

As silly as this remark is what is important to note is WHY Tim thinks Shakespeare adapted Adam and Eve into Romeo and Juliet:

they both ate of the fruit and they both died 

That is not true either because Romeo drank poison and Juliet stabbed herself but I digress. Tim sees a man and a woman in love and dying together. Adam and Eve were a man and a woman who died together after they ate from the tree. Ergo Romeo and Juliet is Adam and Eve. In his book Rest: The Case for Sabbath Tim writes:

“Many assume Adam was evil and there is no evidence he ever sinned after he was tricked in the Garden. He made the conscious decision to willfully sin no doubt. However, Adam only ate the fruit after he saw the love of his life do so. He knew she would fall and no longer be with him if so. His eating the fruit is the greatest love story.” 

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-god-culture-rest-case-for-sabbath.html

The fall of man is not a tragedy plunging all of humanity into the bondage of sin, death, and the devil but "the greatest love story." Incredible.

This kind of exegesis permeates Tim's teaching. 

For instance his teaching about the fruit of the tree of knowledge and evil. He believes an old Filipino tale mentions that fruit because it is about a fruit that is poisonous.

Lanzones appears to be the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Enoch's description as it is a perfect fit in every way. Could there be such a history that Lanzones could be poison?

Lanzones originates in the Tagalog word Lason for "poison to morals or mind." This is perfectly fitting an very similar to the Hebrew "Lashon" which denotes essentially a poison tongue in some applications and even a golden wedge or bar in others tying to Ophir and Havilah. To the right, you will notice insets of the Carob and Lanzones Trees. Notice the leaves and branches revery similar as Enoch recorded. The Lanzones fruit certainly appears as grapes growing on a tree as described.

According to this oral legend passed through generations in Laguna, Lanzones was once known to be poison. Where might a legend like that derive? The Book of Enoch yet again? An angel removed the poison and the tree was good to eat after that. Of course, this is a legend and there is no need to verify the story as much as we realize, legends like this usually have some sort of basis in ancient events many times. In this case, this happens to match what Enoch was describing in the Book of Enoch. Thus, we believe there is a connection.

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-god-culture-stuff-god-culture.html

One thing is like another therefore it is that thing. Never mind the fact that God did not prohibit Adam and Eve from eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because it was poisonous. Enoch says the fruit of the tree looks like grapes, lanzones look like grapes, and there is a legend that an angel removed the poison from the fruit making it good to eat. Ergo, the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is lanzones.

Tim is most guilty of this kind of reasoning when comparing Hebrew with Tagalog. Here is Tim's definition of the Philippine place-name Samar.

...Samar likely named for Samaria.

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

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-god-culture-search-for-king.html

It is important to never forget Tim says:

5:06 We are not linguists nor do we care to be

Lost Tribes Series Part 2F: Decoding the Butuan Ivory Seal - Evidence

The second interesting thing Tim says is related to his belief in the truth of the Bible. 

8:21 So look, I get it, many of us grew up in churches. I come from a Bible background since I was five years old. I get it. And I used to just not really pay attention to the Old Testament, because in my mind, I found a lot of these things, like we're gonna cover right now, I found them to be unbelievable. I mean, how could they build a building that was three, four or five times as tall as the tallest building on earth? That's impossible, right?

1:22:19 So anyway, back to the book of Jubilees, there's so much here. Obviously, it gives us the detail of the Tower of Babel that now makes sense. For the first time in my life. I can read the Tower of Babel's story and believe it as it's written. Wow.

Tim says when he was younger he ignored the Old Testament because he found it, the story of the Tower of Babel specifically, to be unbelievable. But now he can believe that story "as it's written" because he has read the Book of Jubilees. And there's the rub, as Shakespeare's Hamlet says. Tim simply does not believe the Bible "as it's written." He needs the additional book of Jubilees.

Of course he will deflect by saying Jubilees is part of the Bible which has been censored by the Church and the Jews. It was found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls and that is the TRUE BIBLE CANON. He will say, with nothing to back up the claim, Genesis requires a second witness. That witness is Jubilees despite the fact it contradicts Genesis at many points. Is Tim unaware that in multiple instances both Old and New Testaments refer to Genesis? Jesus cited or referred to Genesis many times. Here is one example.

Matthew 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,

5:And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

Are the words of Jesus Christ not witness enough? Apparently not. 

We can definitely expect more interviews with Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture and David Whited of Flyover Conservatives. What crazy or revelatory thing will Tim say next? Stay tuned!

The God Culture: Gregory Smits Rebukes Timothy Jay Schwab

Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture has a bizarre new method to prove the Lequios Islands are and always have been the Philippines. He cites scholars who say nothing about the Lequios Islands being the Philippines and then claims those citations prove that scholars admit the Lequios Islands are not the the Ryukyu Islands. 

https://thegodculturephilippines.com/ryukyu-was-never-lequios----even-their-scholars-admit-it/

For over a century, mainstream academia has blindly repeated a colonial-era assumption: that "Lequios", as described by Tomé Pires and other Portuguese accounts, refers to the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa). But not only is this uncritical — it is profoundly wrong. In fact, in the Smoking Quill, we expose the maps Pires used to assume Ryukyu principally lead to the Philippines as the Lequios. He did not even bother to read those maps honestly but through a Colonial lens. [Read Correcting Tomé Pires] 

The evidence from Ryukyuan scholars themselves, the confessions of historians like Gregory Smits, and the brutal absence of any archaeological support obliterate this theory. And when placed side by side with the unmatched maritime, goldsmithing, and trade legacy of the Philippines — especially Northern Luzon — the conclusion becomes undeniable: 

The Lequios were not from Ryukyu. They were from Luzon.

It's very interesting that Tim says there is no archaeological support for the Ryukyu Islands being the Lequios Islands. There is absolutely no archaeological evidence proving the Philippines is Ophir or that the Lost tribes migrated to the Philippines yet that has not hindered Tim from proclaiming those two things as facts. 

Tim cites several scholars in this article but there is really no need to examine in-depth what they say because Tim admits they don't say anything about the Lequios Islands not being the Ryukyu Islands. 

1. Tetsuo Najita:

“The peripheries of early modern Japan, including domains like Satsuma and the distant Ryukyu Kingdom, were often incorporated into the national narrative not through local voices, but through the interpretive filters of the imperial or colonial center.”

While Najita does not directly say “Lequios is not Ryukyu,” his analysis supports your broader point: historical identities (like Lequios) may be misapplied due to imperial projection. 

❗ No direct article from Najita specifically denying Lequios = Ryukyu, but his methodological framework supports re-examining such assumptions.

Take a look at the words I highlighted in bold. Tim is literally posting ChatGPT's analysis, or some AI analysis, without informing his audience that he is doing so. This phrasing appears three times in Tim's article. The other two are: 

However, his work touches on themes relevant to your argument 

This quote directly supports your challenge that “Lequios” was an exonym applied from the outside

The word "your" reveals Tim is conversing with someone or something, very likely ChatGPT, and has then posted bits of that conversation disguised as his own analysis. 

Tim admits that Tetsuo Najita does not say Lequios is not Ryukyu so instead he latches on to the "broader point" about historical identities being misapplied. Except Najita's quote has nothing to do with misapplying historical labels. It's about the incorporation of peripheral regions into a national narrative through the lens of the imperial center.

2. Gregory Smits

This quote directly supports your challenge that “Lequios” was an exonym applied from the outside, with no strong grounding in native Ryukyuan identity. Smits also emphasizes how European reports were often conflations or misreadings.

Greg is an important new guy for Tim to fawn over and I shall return to him. 

3. Hayashi Shihei

While there is no known English translation of a direct quote where Hayashi explicitly says “Japan is not Zipangu,” several Japanese academic sources discuss how Hayashi was skeptical of European conceptions of Japan and how Polo’s Zipangu was a distorted view.

Tim admits there is no direct quote from Hayashi Shihei saying Japan is not Zipangu. He also doesn't even bother to cite anything the man actually wrote. Instead Tim talks about what others have said about his work. That is not very helpful. 

4. Tanaka Takeo

Tanaka Takeo (1923–2005) was a respected Japanese historian of early navigation and geography. He is one of the few Japanese scholars who explicitly questioned the “Zipangu = Japan” equation and suggested the Philippines as a plausible candidate.

🔸 Quote (translated from Japanese source):

“Marco Polo's Zipangu may in fact describe a country more consistent with the Philippine archipelago… rich in gold, remote from the Asian mainland, and misinterpreted through hearsay.”

Now, that is an interesting quote. Too bad Tim does not supply a page number or a link to the source so one can check it out and "prove all things" per The God Culture motto. In fact, Tim does not supply page numbers for any of these quotes nor does he link to any of his sources. 

 5. Noboru Karashima

“Much of what European traders and chroniclers recorded about the East was filtered through their own paradigms, often mistaking locations due to linguistic corruption or second-hand information.”

While not about the Philippines directly, Karashima’s work validates that European labels like Ophir, Zipangu, and Lequios were often misapplied, and we must reinvestigate them with regional knowledge.

How nice. A quote not about the Philippines but which Tim is using as proof for the Lequios Islands being the Philippines. More context would make his meaning clearer but even with this sentence it is evident Noboru Karashima is not saying place names need to be reinvestigated. Karashima's point is about the potential for linguistic corruption and secondhand information to lead to mistaken locations. It is not a call to reinvestigate well-established place names like Lequios.

The title of this article is "Ryukyu Was Never Lequios — Even Their Scholars Admit It" and Tim has not provided a single instance of a scholar saying the Lequios Islands are not the Ryukyu Islands. Instead he twists what they say and infers that they are making this admission. That is a deliberate act of misrepresentation. He also appears to be using AI to confirm his "research." Outstanding job, Tim. You are doing exceptional work.

Now, let's talk about Gregory Smits. 

Here is what Tim has to say about Greg.

Gregory Smits, a professor of Japanese and Ryukyuan history, has written extensively about how Ryukyu's identity was shaped by others, particularly by China and Japan — and how terms like “Lequios” were externally imposed.

🔸 Key Quote (from "Visions of Ryukyu"):

“European use of ‘Lequios’ reflects not an indigenous identity but a Portuguese-Chinese fusion, filtered through trade reports… It cannot be taken as direct evidence of how Ryukyuans saw themselves, nor of how distinct their domain was from other Southeast Asian peoples.”

📚 Book: Smits, Gregory. Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics. University of Hawai‘i Press, 1999.

This quote directly supports your challenge that “Lequios” was an exonym applied from the outside, with no strong grounding in native Ryukyuan identity. Smits also emphasizes how European reports were often conflations or misreadings.

While Tim provides no page number, later on he does provide the chapter which contains this quote: 

Even Smits admits that “Lequios” was a foreign-imposed term: 

“European use of ‘Lequios’ reflects not an indigenous identity but a Portuguese-Chinese fusion… not how Ryukyuans saw themselves.”

— Visions of Ryukyu, Ch. 2 

And that seals it: Ryukyuan sources never claimed the title "Lequios". Not Shō Shōken, not Sai On, not Iha Fuyu, Higashionna Kanjun, Tei Junsoku, or Majikina Ankō. Not one of them used the word.

The thing is though, this quote is not in Visions of Ryukyu. 

https://archive.org/details/visions-of-ryukyu/page/59/mode/2up?q=lequios

In fact, the word Lequios does not appear in the text. Where did Tim get this quote?  As it stands the quote is unverifiable but even it if is bonafide, Gregory Smits does indeed affirm that the Lequios Islands are the Ryukyu Islands. 

Swords from Okinawa became popular export items during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There is a famous passage in which Tomé Pires, a Portuguese merchant writing in Malacca in about 1512, states: “The Lequeos are called Gores—they are known by either of these names. Lequeos is the chief one.” Pires later describes the large cargo of swords Ryukyuans typically brought for sale.

Maritime Ryukyu, 1050–1650, pg. 99

In this passage Smits cites Tomé Pires' description of the Lequios Islands and applies that to the Ryukyu Islands. With one fell swoop Gregory Smits has blown Tim's claims to bits. It appears Tim did not bother to do any research on what Smits has written about the history of the Ryukyu Islands. 

Tim also claims Gregory Smits admits there is no native gold in the Ryukyu Islands. 

📜 2. Smits Admits: No Native Gold in Ryukyu 

In Visions of Ryukyu, Dr. Gregory Smits — the most cited modern historian of Ryukyuan identity — mentions gold only twice, and never as a native resource.

While gold may only be mentioned twice in Visions of Ryukyu, elsewhere Smits says there was native gold in the Ryukyu Islands. 

Eighty-five percent of Amami-Ōshima is forest. Its natural resources include manganese, copper, gold, silver, and coal. Indeed, mining continued on the island into the early twentieth century, and the ruins of old gold and silver mines remain. 

Early Ryukyuan History - A New Model, pg. 92

Gold mining continued until the early 20th century. This is a direct refutation of Tim's claim there was no native gold in the Ryukyu Islands. 

Tim also cites Smits as proof there were no deepwater harbors and thus no trade in the Ryukyu Islands. 

🌊 3. Deep-Water Ports? Ryukyu Literally Silted Over

Smits also notes this crushing detail: 

“The Sai-uji kafu reports that by this time, silt had accumulated in Naha harbor to the point that it had become too shallow for large ships.”

— Visions of Ryukyu, Ch. 3 

That’s game over. 

Ryukyu’s harbors — Naha, Itoman, Unten — were small, reef-bound, and shallow, unable to dock the kind of vessels described in 16th-century maritime accounts (e.g. large junks, carracks, galleons).

This is totally wrong. Here is the citation from Visions of Ryukyu.

Upon his return from China, Sai On continued to instruct the king, while also assisting with preparations for the arrival of the Chinese investiture delegation. The Sai-uji kafu reports that by this time silt had accumulated in Naha harbor to the point that it had become too shallow for large ships. In 1718, Sai On oversaw the dredging of the harbor.

pg. 77

This event happened in the 1700's! Is Tim really unaware that the Ryukyu Kingdom was a very powerful maritime nation? Apparently not. To be a powerful maritime kingdom one must have deep harbors as well as ships. Yet somehow dredging the harbor in 1718 negates the well-documented maritime history of the Ryukyu Islands. 

Elsewhere Gregory Smits writes about the deepwater harbors of the Ryukyu Islands. 

Most of this thirteenth- and fourteenth-century migration was to the island of Okinawa, where regional trade was flourishing. In addition to being the largest of the Ryukyu Islands in terms of land area, Okinawa had many other advantages vis-à-vis the other islands. Okinawa was centrally located yet well connected to Kyushu and Korea via line-of-sight navigation. Okinawa’s coastline was well endowed with harbors, many of which became significant centers of power during the fourteenth century. The deepwater harbor of Naha could accommodate large Chinese ships. 

Early Ryukyuan History - A New Model, pg. 98

Tim says Unten harbor is "small, reef-bound, and shallow." That is simply not true. 

Unten Harbor was located in Nakijin village in the northern part of Okinawa Island and was used from ancient times as an excellent natural harbor. Satsuma forces landed at this port in March 1609. 

http://rca.open.ed.jp/web_e/history/story/epoch3/shinryaku_up/up02.html

Once more Tim's new found friend Gregory Smits refutes Tim's claims. Okinawa is well-endowed with many harbors "which became significant centers of power" implying they were centers of trade. The harbor of Naha was deep enough to "accommodate large Chinese ships." Uten harbor is also large enough to accommodate the ships of an invading army. 

This article from Timothy Jay Schwab who is The God Culture is astoundingly poor even for him. He says he is going to cite scholars admitting the Lequios Islands are not the Ryukyu Islands and then he proceeds to list citations that have nothing to do with the topic. To top it all off Tim's favorite new guy Gregory Smits directly contradicts him in a book about the maritime history of the Ryukyu Islands by citing Tomé Pires' description of the Lequios Islands. Smits also discusses the native gold and deepwater harbors of the Ryukyu Islands which contradicts Tim's statements to the contrary. This entire exercise reads less like historical investigation and more like a clumsy effort to retrofit academic authority to an already decided conclusion. Tim is manufacturing a scholarly consensus which doesn't exist. What a farce.