No, I'm British

No, I'm British, are the words that I have had to say so many times since my first visit to Manila in 1992. Since I started living in the Philippines in 1996 I have needed to say those words even more frequently.
Many Filipinos believe that all Caucasians are Americans or Amerikanos as they know them.

A little history will explain this quirk. In 1898 the Philippine rebel army, the katipuneros forced a declaration of independence by their leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, from the balcony of a house in Kawit, in the province of Cavite. In the same year Spain lost Cuba and Puerto Rico to the USA because of the Spanish-American War. Accordingly the Spanish government sold the Philippines to the US government for $20 million. After a mock battle in Manila Bay a squadron of the US Navy, commanded by Admiral Dewey, defeated a small Spanish fleet and America's rule of the Philippines began.

This rule lasted until 1946, with a few years of interruption by the invading Japanese. More history- Japanese aircraft bombed two airbases in the Philippines(Clarke and Nichols) on the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbour(December 7, 1941). When the Japanese Imperial Army landed in the Philippines Gen. Douglas Mcarthur decided to pull the American and Filipino troops out to the Bataan Peninsula. McArthur and Philippines President Osmeña, together with American and Filipino troops, evacuated to Corregidor and suffered from massive aerial and naval bombardments from the Japanese. President Roosevelt subsequently ordered McArthur to leave Corregidor for Australia to become Supreme Allied Commander, Pacific. On his arrival in Australia he said his famous words, "I shall return". Corregidor and Bataan finally fell to the Japanese and the troops on Bataan were forced to undertake the Death March to a Prisoner of War Camp in San Fernando. On the way, many died of exhaustion and beating and bayonetting by the Japanese soldiers.
On October 20, 1944 Gen McArthur finally kept his promise to return. US troops landed in great force at Leyte. There are bronze statues of McArthur and his group wading ashore at the landing point. He then broadcast a message "People of the Philippines, I have returned"

After the American military presence on Luzon became adequate, in February 1945 McArthur launched an attack on Manila to liberate the city from the Japanese. The Battle for Manila caused massive destruction of a once beautiful city, with street to street and house to house fighting. Civilian casualties were high, partly caused by the cruelty of the defending Japanese soldiers who even resorted to throwing babies in the air and spearing them with their bayonets as they fell. The estimated death toll in the battle was 100,000.
Thus the official language of the Philippines became English. In fact it is American English. The American influence on the Philippines is enormous. You can see it in the architecture, some of the street names, the Constitution, the Presidential style of government, the legal system , education, language and entertainment.
There are fast food places everywhere, many local but many American. MacDonald's, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises are all over the country. Most English language television programmes are American especially the films( alright movies then!). Then there is Disney whose programmes shock me. Disney has taken some of the best works of European literature and turned them into animated movies, I mean films; Kipling, Hugo, Dickens A.A Milne and many others. Winnie the Pooh and his friends have American accents, as do Noddy and Big Ears, Alice in Wonderland and more. Soon I shall be reading Winnie the Pooh in it's original version to my daughter and not from the poorly written books of the same name published in the US.

However the American presence in the Philippines modernised the country after the departure of the Spanish and introduced democracy.
The American and Filipino experience during the war was of death, pain, hunger and starvation, suffering, imprisonment and great courage knowing that their cause was just for which they are due great credit.

In a future post to this blogsite I will describe how I cope with American English and culture in the Philippines.
The Spanish influence on the Philippines is still very strong and I will blog that subject on another day.

Keep your cards and PINS safe

About a month ago I checked my Visa card statement on the UK issuing bank's website.
I was quite shocked to find some charges made to my account in countries that I have not visited for several years. Some had been done in Singapore where I have not been for 4 years and the rest in Abu Dhabi which I last visited in 1986 They totalled over $5000.

I called the bank immediately and advised them that these charges were made fraudulently. They cancelled the card and launched an investigation.

Before this incident occurred a Visa card had been mailed to me since my previous card had expired. After 3 weeks I advised the bank that it had not arrived. They then sent me a replacement, by courier, which , after a few days, arrived safely.

It seems that somebody had stolen the card that was mailed and then passed over the details to some people in Singapore and Abu Dhabi who made purchases, giving the credit card number over the telephone. Fortunately, this cannot be done in the Philippines.

Yesterday, however my worries increased.

I called the bank in the UK to arrange a transfer to my account in the Philippines. I was told that my account was subject to security review and therefore, I needed to answer a lot of questions to satisfy them that I was the account holder, which I did. I asked to be told the
reason for this review.

Twice in April a caller had tried to gain access to my account, through the telephone banking service, by quoting the number of that missing card. The calls failed because the person could not give the password I had supplied to the bank.

Becoming suspicious I asked if the bank could arrange for me, and my wife, to listen to the tapes of the call, to see if we could recognise the voice. We were concerned that one of our domestic helpers might have found enough information in the house to make an attempt to draw money from my account. I learnt a long time ago that some of these employees cannot be trusted. About 8 years ago I saw one of them taking money from my wallet. Needless to say she was fired on the spot, and banned from the Village by the security officer.

We listened to the tapes over the phone. It was a Filipino and we did not recognise the voice. He said he was calling from the Philippines but the bank could not trace the number

I was really shocked, however, when I heard him quoting the PIN of my ATM card, not the Visa card.

I still cannot work out how he managed to know that.

Fortunately the bank in the UK has excellent security procedures. Since he did not know the password he achieved nothing. Check that your bank in any country has the same tight controls.

We need to learn some lessons from this:-
never leave your wallet or your cards somewhere when you are not with them, e.g take them with you when you go to bed, out of the house or even into another room
check your accounts regularly. The bank's website is the quickest way. If you wait for paper statements you could be too late to stop fraud.
call the bank immediately if a card is missing or a new one does not arrive quickly
keep all PINs secret. Try to memorise them. As a back up you could put them on a computer file and then password protect it
lock all cheque books away when you do not need them. They carry your account numbers.
try to get all statements from the bank by e-mail or the website. If you must have paper from the bank, either lock it away or detroy it after you have studied it. Shredding is best or read and eat! Do not toss these papers in the waste bin.
Act as if all your banking information is TOP SECRET

This blog is intended to share my information so that you become more aware of the risks.
Fortunately I have not suffered any financial loss, because I acted quickly