Filipinos and Filipinas: Biscuits with Holes and Domestic Helpers?

My nimble fingers typed in the word “Filipinos” on Google’s search box one day because I was looking for great and appropriate (i.e., non-porn related) images of my countrymen for a presentation deck I was preparing for my boss. Any stupid Filipino idiot would imagine that the ideal picture would be of a caramel-coloured Malay-descended doe-eyed raven-haired person with a toothy grin and flat nose. And, for sure, there are those pictures available on the Net (albeit ugly ones), but then here’s one that almost made me laugh (or gag, I couldn’t decide). A Filipino eating a Filipino… [now, there’s a sentence I never thought I’d be writing in a non-sexual way (no matter how hard I wish I did though).] Literally, a Filipino-looking man is shown holding some sort of food branded “Filipino.” Apparently, it’s a popular snack – or more specifically, a mass-produced biscuit – made and sold in Spain and Portugal. I would suppose it’s also sold in other parts of Europe, too, but obviously it’s not very popular here in the Philippines, since I’ve just about interviewed every Filipino I know who lives here in Manila about this, and not one said they’ve actually seen or tasted “Filipino.”


Of course, I wanted to find out more about this Filipino biscuit – so, I asked the only Española I was not shy to ask stupid questions to about the snack. She laughed at first and then recounted to me that when her own friends in San Sebastian (Basque Country in Spain) found out that she
was coming over to the Philippines, they gave her package after package of Filipinos. After claiming that the biscuits were über delicious (harrumph! I would have been highly insulted if
she said that Filipinos tasted nasty!), she mentioned that the
manufacturers of Filipinos have cashed in on the little piece of dough they used to poke out of the biscuit – they’ve turned them into “Mini Filipinos.” Imagine that… Mini Filipinos – the weirdest oxymoron I’ve ever heard thus far. My follow-up question to her was if Filipinos were developed and made by Filipinos living in Spain. Funny thing is, she doesn’t know.


So, I went on to the Net and searched for the official Filipinos’ website but there was no mention of who the owners of the Filipinos brand are. Very curious (i.e., suspect) indeed. In a food blog by someone named Steve, though, it said that Filipinos are sold by a company called United Biscuits, a UK company. I checked out the company’s official website, but Filipinos is not listed as one of its brands. Curioser and curioser… Then I found this article entitled “Kraft Foods Extends Leadership in Biscuits Through United Biscuits Acquisition in Iberia; Reclaims Rights to Nabisco Trademarks in Major Markets.” Aha! So, Kraft is the ultimate cu
lprit behind this controversial biscuit. A data point that needs digesting (no pun intended) and analysis, indeed.

With the weird result I received after searching for “Filipinos,” I then googled for the definition of the word “Filipina” that same day. Why? One, because I can; and, two, because I’d heard that in some quarters of the world, “Filipina” is synonymous to “maid.” Lo and behold – there it is… in 1998, news articles about Manila being hurt by the Greeks defining the “filipina” as a “domestic helper” were being distributed in the international market. Ayayay! Another controversy on our hands.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I certainly don’t think there’s anything derogatory or wrong about a woman working as a maid (cue in an image of Jennifer Lopez in that movie with Ralph Fiennes, “Maid in Manhattan”) If one is good at being a maid, that’s definitely something to be proud of, noh! A Filipina-Italian actress, named Alessandra de Rossi, was even able to penetrate a small portion of the international film market by starring in a 2005 horror movie directed by Singaporean Kelvin Tong, entitled… uhm… “The Maid”

(insert ‘roll of eyes’ gesture here). However, there are other nations that export their human resources to work in jobs as domestic helpers and such. Indonesia, for example, is a major competitor of the Philippines in this particular area of HR export and trade.

Being a Filipina, I find myself cringing at the thought of being defined as a “domestic helper.” There are Filipina CEOs, Managers, Presidents, Housewives, Employees, Teachers, Assitants, MBA Students, Actresses, Philanthropists, IT Experts, Engineers, Architects, Designers, Athletes, Entrepreneurs, Chairmen of the Board, etc. Didn’t the Greeks know this???

I presume there are going to be endless debates about these two topics. Regarding “Filipinos,” some say, “Boycott Kraft! Boycott United Biscuits!” while others exclaim, “Filipinos taste good. What’s the problem? I’d only be insulted if they taste like shit.” Anent to “Filipinas,” some say, “I refuse to be defined as a maid!” while others go, “Well, honey, the truth does hurt.” The bottom line for me, though, is this: I haven’t eaten any Filipinos yet (literally and figuratively), and I haven’t met any Greeks either. But this fun and funny blog entry sure took a looooong time to write – something I haven’t been able to do for quite some time. Therefore, I’ll hold back judgement of the “Filipinos” and “Filipinas” controversies for another lazy day.

What do you think, though?