Last Updated on 06/18/2019

The Philippines is known for its pristine beaches, beautiful women, Jose Rizal, and
Manny Pacquiao.

But hiding beneath its surface are lesser-known facts and trivia even Filipinos may not
be aware of.

In this updated and comprehensive list, we’ll rediscover some of the most amazing trivia
and facts about the Philippines that will make you realize this country paradise is more
than meets the eye.

1. Juan Luna’s dark side.

In 1892, Juan Luna, famous Filipino painter of 400 masterpieces, was involved in a
bloody murder at their Paris home.

The victims: his wife, Paz Pardo de Tavera, and his mother-in-law. It is said that extreme
jealousy forced Luna to pull the trigger. He was later acquitted of the crime.
Read more about Juan Luna and this story here:

The 6 Most Tragic Love Stories in Philippine History

The Mystery Woman in Juan Luna’s Famous Paintings

Juan Luna: Was The Legendary Painter Murdered?

2. Cory Aquino’s real favorite color.

The late President Corazon Aquino, as well as the EDSA People Power Revolution, are
best remembered through the iconic ‘yellow ribbon.’
However, she once admitted that RED was actually her first favorite. Her association
with the yellow color started when some friends suggested the song “Tie A Yellow
Ribbon” for Ninoy’s homecoming.

Cory continued to use her yellow trademark after her husband’s death.

Related articles:

9 Things You May Not Know About Corazon Aquino

13 Curious Facts About Ninoy Aquino

3. The Pepsi number fever fiasco of 1992.

Dubbed as the “Number Fever,” the promo offered by Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines
promised to give away 1 million pesos to whoever would get a bottle cap with the
numbers “349” printed on it.

As it turned out, there was a technical glitch: Pepsi accidentally printed 800,000 caps
with the winning numbers.

In the end, the company spent more than 200 million pesos to pay up to 500,000 disappointed
claimants. The case of the infamous “Pepsi 349” fiasco was finally closed in 2006.
Related articles:
11 Controversial and Banned Filipino Advertisements

The Life and Curious Death of Pepsi Paloma

4. A former military captain in the Philippines who

died in the sinking of Titanic.
A former journalist, Archibald Willingham Butt was a well-known military aide and
adviser to US presidents William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. He joined the
army who fought during the Spanish-American War.

After the war ended, he was assigned to the Philippines as a volunteer and later
promoted to Assistant Quartermaster with the rank of Captain. He stayed in Manila until
July 1903.

In 1912, after a short trip to Europe, Butt embarked on the Titanic to return to the US.
Sadly, he was one of the victims who perished when the ship sank. His body was never
recovered.

Related article:

20 Haunting Last Pictures Taken in Philippine History

5. Jaz Cola, a cola brand specifically made for the

Visayas.
Jaz Cola is a brand of cola produced by Coca-Cola Company exclusively for the
Philippine market.

The beverage is only available in the Philippines and made for an even more specific
market: people in the Visayas which is a group of islands in the middle of the
Philippines.

As a result, Jaz Cola has reportedly “fueled Visayan pride among its teen consumers.”

Related article:
10 Amazing Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Cebu

6. The bridge that took almost four decades to

complete.

After 35 years and 6 presidents, the Aluling Bridge was finally completed on March 25,
2013.
Its construction first started in 1978 but due to a host of factors such as unpredictable
weather and difficulty of navigating the river, the completion was delayed for more than
3 decades.

Aluling Bridge connects the provinces of Ilocos Sur and the Mountain Province.

Related article:

6 Scary Bridges in the Philippines You’ll Have To See To Believe

7. A shark named after Gollum and Philippines’

Sulu Sea.
Discovered off Palawan island in the western sector of the Sulu Sea basin, this
harmless shark stands out because of its scientific name.

Gollum suluensis was named after the Philippine sea where it was discovered and
Gollum, the famous fictional character from the Lord of the Rings.

Compared to its cousin, the New Zealand gollumshark (G. attenuatus), the Sulu
gollumshark has a “darker, plainer and less contrasted coloration, softer body, shorter
and broader snout, smaller spiracle, larger pectoral fin, wider head, as well as larger
proportions of the nostril, mouth and interorbital space.”
Related articles:

Top 10 Weirdest Philippine Animals

8. The first same-sex marriage in the Philippines.

In February 2005, Ka Andres and Ka Jose, two members of the NPA (New People’s
Army), exchanged vows in a symbolic ceremony held in the Compostela Valley province
in Mindanao.
In addition to a choir which serenaded the two with revolutionary love songs, the event
was also participated by their comrades and few close friends.

During the wedding, the two held each other’s hand while keeping a bullet in the other
to represent their commitment to the armed struggle.

Related article: 10 Amazing Pinoy LGBTs Who Broke Barriers And Made History

9. The hero dog of the 1957 Magsaysay plane

crash.
Originally known as “Serging,” the dog was later renamed “Avante” to avoid
offending Sergio Osmeña Jr. who was a Cebu mayor at that time.

“Avante,” along with his owner Marcelino Nuya, helped save Nestor Mata, the only
survivor of the plane crash that killed the late President Ramon Magsaysay.

For their heroic roles in the tragedy, the two received gold medals from the Philippine
Constabulary (PC) and various government officials. Avante also received recognition
from an animal rights group.

Related article:
6 Reasons Why Ramon Magsaysay Was The Best President Ever

10. The terrifying giant reticulated phyton of

Luzon.

Agta Negritos are indigenous people in Luzon who, in the 1970s, competed with a
reticulated phyton for their main sources of food namely Philippine deer, Philippine
warty pigs, and long-tailed macaques.
Thomas N. Headland, an anthropologist who lived with and studied the group, later
found out that 15 of 58 men and 1 of 62 women were attacked by the giant snake.

Worse, 6 of them were killed, one of whom was discovered within the snake’s belly.

Related article:

These Century-Old Photos from National Geographic Bring The History of Filipino
Tribes To Life

11. President Ramon Magsaysay’s burial place.

Magsaysay was the third president to be buried in the Manila North Cemetery.
Interestingly, he’s the one who renamed the Republic Memorial Cemetery into the
present-day “Libingan ng mga Bayani” in 1954.

Lesson learned? A person’s legacy is far greater than his burial place. A noble president
and a hero can be buried anywhere.

12. Winter in the Philippines? Try Batanes.

Yes, there’s such a thing as Ivatan “winter”–minus the snow, of course.

According to anthropologist Francisco A. Datar of U.P. Diliman, Batanes “is classified as

having Type A climate, a pleasant semi-temperate climate.”

The Ivatans recognize two seasons: rayun (summer), which lasts from March to May,
and amian (winter) from November to February. Kachachimuyen is the rainy months
throughout the rest of the year, interrupted by a brief spell of warm weather (dekey a
rayun) in the two weeks between September and October.
The “winter,” as most Ivatans would like to call it, can have temperatures as low as 7
°Celsius!

Read more about Batanes here:

9 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know About Batanes

13. The Boy Scout hero of Iloilo.

In 2012, a 4-feet tall statue of the boy was unveiled at Estancia Central Elementary
School to honor the 12-year-old Grade 6 pupil who sacrificed his life to save others.

Related article:

5 Young Pinoy Heroes Who Did Amazing Things Nobody Talks About

14. The Filipino doctor who helped discover

erythromycin.
 Read the full story: The Filipino Doctor Who Helped Discover Erythromycin (But
Never Got Paid For It)

15. The inseparable Philippine presidents.

Learn more about these two Philippine presidents in these articles:

15 Mesmerizing Facts About President Manuel Quezon

Pinoy “Schindler’s List”: How President Quezon Saved Over A Thousand
Holocaust Jews

Sergio Osmeña was an illegitimate child.

16. What the old Boracay looked like.

Learn more about Philippine tourist spots here:

8 Hidden Paradises in the Philippines That Will Take Your Breath Away
7 Pinoy Look-Alikes of World-Famous Tourist Spots

17. Why most Filipinos lack discipline in their own

country.

In the Inquirer article “The roots of Filipino indiscipline,” UST sociologist Crescencio
Doma Jr. said that a lot of Filipinos in the Philippines tend to break laws because they
don’t consider certain offenses as “serious” whereas, in other countries, clear
punishments are given to offenses, regardless if they’re “small” or “large.”
He also said that our society lacks a “strong sense of role modeling” which means
public officials and law enforcers have the penchant for breaking the rules themselves.

Learn more about the dark sides of Filipino culture in these articles:

12 Annoying Attitudes of Filipinos We Need To Get Rid Of

10 Things Filipino Politicians Must Stop Doing

18. The Skype precursor invented by a Filipino

engineer.
As early as 1954, Filipino engineer and physicist Gregorio Y. Zara (March 8, 1902 –
October 15, 1978) produced a two-way TV-telephone, which can be considered as an
improved version of earlier “videophones.”

This invention, patented as “photo phone signal separator network,” enabled callers to
see each other on screen while talking, just like how Skype or FaceTime works today.

Note, however, that “video telephone” per se is not 100% original Filipino creation. Its
precursors included a “one-way videophone,” demonstrated publicly in 1927 between
the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover in Washington D.C. and AT&T officials
in New York City. An experimental “two-way videophone,” meanwhile, was already
being tested as early as 1930, between AT&T’s Bell Laboratories and its corporate
headquarters, both in New York City.

Zara also has other equally impressive and energy-efficient innovations under his name.
These included an alcohol-fueled airplane, wooden microscope, and solar energy
absorber, among others.

For his outstanding contributions, he received a Presidential Diploma of Merit and

Distinguished Service Medal in 1959; Presidential Gold Medal and Diploma of Honor for
Science and Research in 1966; and Cultural Heritage award for Science Education and
Aero Engineering, 1966.

Related article:

5 Coolest Pinoy Inventions You Haven’t Heard Of

19. President Elpidio Quirino’s riveting story of

forgiveness.
In a speech in February 1953 before the delegates of the Philippines-Japan Youth
Conference, Quirino said: “Personally, were I to consider that my wife and my three
children were all killed by Japanese machine guns, I would swallow the Japanese allies
now; but I am not living in the world alone.”

“I have my remaining children and their children to follow. I am not going to allow them
to inherit feelings of revenge,” he added.

Read more about President Quirino:

President Quirino’s last known photograph

President Quirino and Filipino time

20. The great Filipino one-man army.