10.    According to Ernie Delfin, a Filipino-American Rotarian from Fountain Valley, California, “Many Filipino organizations belong to the NATO.” Yes, NATO, as in “No Action, Talk Only.”

9.     According to the book, “One Day in the Life of a Filipino Sonovabitch,” (Asiangeles Publishing, 1993), “. . . the Filipino is an enigma to a lot of Westerners. For a lot of Filipinos look like Chinese in facial features, but most of them have Spanish surnames.” By the way, Bobby Reyes, this website’s editor, wrote that political novel. The book’s title was actually inspired by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, (1962).”

8.     Aside from Spanish surnames, many Filipinos have European family names such as McCabenta, McQuindang, D’McCulangan, D’McKuha, McCapagal, etc.

7.     The Filipinos are the Irish of Asia. Why? As in Ireland, an overwhelming majority of Filipinos is Catholic and they drink a lot like the Irish. But unlike Ireland, the Philippines still has lots of snakes, many of which thrive in the Philippine Congress and even in Malacañang, the presidential palace.

6.     Of course as Bobby Reyes wrote, Filipinos Are Indeed the Italians of Asia (Part 8 of the "Filipino Psyche" Series) and according to Poet-pundit Fred Burce Bunao, there is even a Filipino indigenous tribe called the Aetalians (sic).

5.     There are more devotees in the Bicol Region of the Philippines of the Virgin of Peñafrancia than in Salamanca, Spain, where the original icon of the Blessed Mother was found in a mountainous area called the Peñafrancia.

4.     Speaking again of the “Be Cool,” oops, Bicol Region, a Bicolano allegedly “invented” the mayonnaise, which he named after Mayon Volcano in Albay Province. But he migrated to Mahón, a Spanish city on Minorca that was captured by Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788) in 1756. Later, the duke's chef is said to have introduced mayonnaise in honor of this victory – after he copied the recipe of the Bicolano “Oragon” settler.

3.     The Cebuanos started venerating the Child Jesus (Santo Niño) image from Prague (now Czech Republic) that was brought by Ferdinand Magellan after his expedition reached Cebu Island in April 1521. There is no truth to the rumor that Cebuanos allegedly named the Santo Niño devotees who were immigrants from China as “InCzech,” which is now spelled “Intsik.”

2.     The Filipino flag is actually copied in design and color from the Czech national banner. But nevertheless, the Philippine national government refuses to comply with the Czech-and-balance system of governance. And finally,

1.     Filipinos call the Philippine peso or even any money as “pera,” after they overheard their then-Spanish colonial masters refer to their queen’s image on a Spanish silver peseta coin as “perra” (female dog). Now many Filipinos call their female President as “mukhang perra,” oops, “pera.” # # #