1.

Jose Marco was considered the most successful conman in Philippine history because, in his 50-
years career, he was able to make almost everyone believe in his frauds during that time. Even if most of
them are kind of fictitious, many people still believed him and some of his works even made it into
school textbooks. It took them a long time to finally question the authenticity and credibility of his
works. One of his greatest hoaxes is the Code of Kalantiaw, a written script of rules wrote by “Datu
Kalantiaw” for the people of Negros, Aklan. After years, it was questioned by William Henry Scott
because of its consistency, way of writing, and possible anachronistic events. Another of Marco’s hoax is
the “La Loba Negra,” which according to him was written by Padre Jose Burgos. From this another
fictitious work, it was believed that Gov. Bustamante’s wife turns into a black she-wolf at night. This was
debunked because of the differences in the signature, handwriting, and some details of events. Though
a fraud, some people see Jose Marco as a “trickster hero.” Maybe because through his works, people
during that time were able to find the soul of our nation like where and how we started. We were
always trying to search for our true identities as Filipinos and so he gave us something to think of.
Marco’s hoaxes made us wonder, “What were we like before our colonizers came or what could we
have been if they didn’t?“

2.

One of the hoaxes during Ferdinand Marcos’ administration is his identity as a war hero. Many
citizens believed in him during that time because he had almost 30 medals, which according to him were
mostly gained from the 2nd World War. He even said he was Guerrilla Leader of the Maharlika Group.
Later on, the US military denied this as there were no records of Marcos’ participation in World War II.
Former Kernel Bonifacio Gillego also proved that there were no existing records of awards Marcos had.
The purpose of this hoax was mostly for propaganda, which was achieved as he became president of the
country last 1965.

Another hoax during his time was about the Tribe of Tasaday in South Cotobato, discovered last
1971 by Manuel Elizalde. It was believed that they were a group of people whose way of life was
preserved from the Stone-Age period. The loopholes of this discovery were exposed when Marcos’
regime came to an end. He disappeared and so did Elizalde together with the development funds for the
said tribe. It was later found out that the tribe was just an act wherein Elizalde and his men gathered an
Ethic group and made them live like in the Stone-Age.

The kinds of criticism historians used to uncover these hoaxes were both external and internal
criticism. They determined the dates when the medals were given to see if they were anachronistic.
There were also no witnesses to prove Marcos’ claims. They also searched for the provenance or place
of origin of these medals/awards. Those who were believed to award the medals to Marcos were also
identified and verified if they really gave it to him. With regards to the Tasaday Tribe, the historians also
searched for their origin, if they were a group from the stone-age or a separate group of an existing
tribe. They also got testimonies from local tribesmen that they were pretending to be Tasaday to gain
funds and other items. When Elizalde left the country, no record were also seen about the Tasaday
Tribe.

3.
 This documentary of Howie Severino on the Philippines Greatest Hoaxes opens our eyes to be
skeptical and avoid being ignorant of the issues around us. We must not just continuously accept
information knowing some of them couldn’t be right, especially today, where fake news is everywhere
even on the online platforms we use. These fake news may only cause misunderstanding and chaos.
Learning to question things and verifying their authenticity and credibility is a must to ensure that what
we know is true. Criticizing our information before sharing it with others should also be kept in mind for
fake news to be avoided. We must also give those people who question an idea, the chance to be able
to express their thoughts. This documentary also shows that learning from history and these hoaxes, we
can know what happened in the past, where we failed, and what we should not repeat in order to have
a better future ahead of us.