Deuterium – The Hoax That Will Not Die – Part One

After a short hiatus, a 40-year old fraud has recently resurfaced. It claims, without evidence that it is supported by the Philippines current president, Rodrigo Duterte, and, with evidence, that of Ferdinand Marcos Junior, known as Bong Bong. It is a fabulous tale of riches that will propel the Philippines into superpower status when deposits of an isotope of hydrogen, called deuterium, is mined from ‘pools’ at the bottom of the Philippine Trench.

It is a tale of pseudoscience, greed and gullibility supported by blatant fabrication that has lasted since the 1980s and continues today.

What seems to have begun as a scheme to scam overseas Filipino workers appears to have changed tack to become a scheme to scam government funds. And no we can name names.

Join us for the next episode, coming soon. 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Tallano Gold Fraud

As we have seen, not a single document supports the Tallano claims which underpin its claims to own the Philippines, except the Marcos-ruled parts. Each one has proven a deliberate and anachronistic fraud, or simply does not support the Tallano claims in any way. So far this is simply a real estate scam which the Tallanos used to get money out of people for property they did not own. More recently, the Tallanos have used their fraudulent documents to ‘explain’documents to support their contention that Ferdinand Marcos made his vast fortunes from a gold deal between the Tallanos and the Vatican rather than from thieving the national treasury of the Philippines and, in doing so, destroying the nation’s economy.

Tallano proponents have carefully avoided validating their documents through a forensic document examiner nor a historian familiar with the period. Until they choose to submit their documents to such examination there is no cause to accept their presentations related to the Vatican borrowing money as any more truthful than any other document they have presented.

So, all that is left is to establish whether it is reasonable that the Tallanos possessed 720,000 tonnes of gold, of which they loaned 640,000 tonnes to the Vatican so that Hitler could finance World War 2. They do not explain why the Vatican should borrow the gold, how the gold was transported, nor any rational reason why Hitler should have been given anything by the Vatican.

To understand the enormity of this amount of gold, consider the vaults of the Bank of England, which contain about 20 percent of the world’s gold bullion on behalf of several governments, some 5,000 tonnes worth in the region of $250 billion. Is it reasonable that the Tallanos possess 140 times the gold in the Bank of England, 28 times more gold than held in bullion worldwide?

The second issue is the pure weight of the gold. Where in the Philippines could such an amount be stored? Manila’s soggy substrate is unlikely to be able to handle that concentration of weight in a small space.

A third issue is that tranferring that amount of gold would have taken a fleet of the largest cargo vessels of the largest capacity of the time, under massive armed guard, to the other side of the world, without anyone noticing.

Fifth, the gold would only have been helpful if Hitler could monetise it so he could actually spend the money. Something he could hardly have done with no-one knowing.

So how did Hitler’s Germany finance its war. Well, by a build, build, build policy based on borrowing and by coincidence, launched a war when the loans became due which enabled it to expropriate the infrastructure. Hitler also co-opted the wealthy elite and made them even richer. He did not need to borrow from the Vatican or anyone else.

So, is it likely that Marcos made his fortune by being the go-between in a deal that involved non-existent gold in a non-existent deal using non-existent gold owned by a non-existent Philippine monarchy?

It is clearly drivel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rare Photo – LM Johnson’s Daughter

Marcella Carmencita Johnson, daughter of the American ho fought the Spanish with Aguinaldo.

Thanks to Derek Auringer, her grandson, I can share this photo of Marcella Carmencita Johnson, daughter of Lewis Johnson who is said to have signed the Philippine Declaration of Independence. She was born in Manila, her mother was Marcella ne Olsen, on 10 April 1898 and was evacuated to Shanghai after Dewey sank the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.

She served as a nurse in WW1 where she met and later married Harold Auringer.

The Rizal Photo Fraud That Wasn’t – introduction

The execution of Jose Rizal – Manuel Arias Rodriguez.

Some years ago a writer called Pio Andrade proposed that the well-known photograph of Rizal’s execution was a fraud staged by the Americans or possibly a still from a long-lost 1912 film. He identified what he claimed were anomalies, one of which he claims surprised a professional photographer at MOWELFUND, the Philippines movieworkers welfare fund. He reproduced a number of images to support his claim but there was one image he had never seen:

An actual print of the Rizal execution photograph. A photograph which had been on display in Manila before he came up with his theory. A photograph absolutely essential for his to consider for his thesis. In fact the only photograph upon which he should have based his claim.

After the initial publication of his claim in the Philippine Inquirer newspaper, Andrade chose not to address the problems with his claims and did not respond to invitations to do so, including personal ones from me. Mr. Andrade is now dead but his legacy lingers on in the conspiracy theory end of Philippine historiography, with frequent outings on discussion fora and websites.

As we shall see, Mr. Andrade’s claims are the result of inadequate research with a heavy dose of confirmation bias. In other words, a good example of how not to research history. Mr. Andrade made statements and conclusions that were beyond his competency to make.

To be continued.

 

 

Mr. Taft’s Carabao

Most of us who delve into Philippine history are familiar with the 1914 photograph of William Howard Taft astride a carabao. The main thing to know about this photograph is that it is a hoax. Taft was never photographed on a carabao.

Yes, it is a fraud of a type as common then as Photoshopping is today.

Even Philippine historians have been fooled by it, and so was I until I came across a comparison and overlay of this photograph and another of Taft on a horse. Hence it earns its place in this selection of frauds and fallacies in Philippine history.

The Reel LM Johnson and Philippine Independence Part Eight: After The Ball

Manila Fire Department, 22 January 1909

After The Ball

Like tantalising glimpses of spoor through the foliage, documentary reports of Johnson appear and disappear over the next ten years, from late 1899 to 1909. He never returned to Hawaii. At some stage, his wife and daughter seem to have rejoined him from Shanghai, returning to the US after his death.

By 1901 he had a stake in the Alhambra saloon and theatre on the Escolta, and travelled as far away as Australia to look for acts to fill its stage, something similar to what he had done at the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai. At one stage the Alhambra was earning as much as $700 a night, a hefty sum for the times.

He did return to Canada with his wife to celebrate his parents Golden Wedding anniversary in 1908 at Lake Annis, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, still using his Philippine rank of Colonel.

Johnson was deputy fire-chief in the Manila Fire Department and his photograph appears in a 1909 souvenir program for a firemens’ relief brochure.

The Reel LM Johnson and Philippine Independence Part Seven

Hawaiian Gazette 1898 reports Johnson at the celebrations.

 Johnson: Smuggler or Spy?

There is no mention in Johnson’s account of the 12 June signing of the Declaration of Independence but his presence was reported by a San Francisco Chronicle correspondent, reprinted in a Hawaii newspaper”

“Leading natives made patriotic speeches, the Insurgent flag was cheered and Aguinaldo’s only regimental band played martial music. The reading of the proclamation declaring the Philippines to be free from Spanish tyranny was greeted with wild cheering. The strange battle-cry of the rebels rang out above the din and the truest enthusiasm was general.

The last speech of the day was made by Colonel L. M. Johnson, Chief of Ordnance on the staff of Agulnaldo, who is an American. He first declined to make a speech, but was carried to the platform. He likened the cause of the Filipinos to that of the American colonies in 1776, and said their liberation was as certain. When his stirring sentences were interpreted to the pleased crowd the cheering was louder than ever.”

Johnson’s service to Aguinaldo would explain why he was given the honour of being a signatory to the Declaration of Independence. By the time Johnson wrote his account the relations between Aguinaldo and the Americans was collapsing. Then, in early December, Johnson hit the Hawaii press headlines again, for a different reason:

His loyalty to the US, which formally annexed Hawaii during the Spanish-American War, was in question, and he had more to lose than his liberty.