Tallano gold refers to a set of interrelated

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

and internet scams which claim that before Spain colonized the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, the archipelago and surrounding territories were ruled by a certain Tagean Tallano family, that the family owned a vast amount of gold, and that former president

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...

obtained his family's unexplained wealth by receiving some of the Tallano gold as payment for the legal services he allegedly provided to the Tallano family. Offshoots of the conspiracy theories include tales that the country's national hero

José Rizal José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (, ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is popularly considered a na ...

survived his execution, that the gold reserves were used to fund the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

, or that the gold was instrumental in starting the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. A related conspiracy theory is that the Tallano clan has provided of gold as commission to former President Ferdinand Marcos who became the "sole owner" of such. The gold bars supposedly fell under the custody of the

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (; commonly abbreviated as BSP in both Filipino and English) is the central bank of the Philippines. It was established on January 3, 1949, and then re-established on July 3, 1993 pursuant to the provision of Re ...

(BSP), the country's

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

. During the

2022 Philippine presidential election Presidential elections in the Philippines were held on May 9, 2022, as part of the 2022 Philippine general election, 2022 general election. This was the 17th direct presidential election and 15th vice presidential election in the country since 19 ...

, the myth of the Tallano gold was circulated by social media pages supporting

Bongbong Marcos Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez Marcos Jr. (, , ; born September 13, 1957), commonly referred to by the initials BBM or PBBM, is a Filipino politician who has served as the 17th president of the Philippines since 2022. He is the second child ...

, son of Ferdinand. In his

presidential campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

, the younger Marcos shrugged off such claims, remarking in an interview held on March 15, 2022, with One News, that he has not seen a single gold bar in "his entire life." The BSP also released a statement that it has no record of it keeping such Tallano gold bars.

References

{{Conspiracy theories Conspiracy theories in the Philippines Hoaxes in the Philippines

See also

References