M
Metta2
Guest
Sir Mets,
I’ve heard several times that water story of the Greater Pampanga(urban legend for now) from the stories of some old folks since I was a kid, but the more realistic story that are more substantial is the fact that people at that part of Luzon including Bulacan, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Ilocandia are the melting pots of different nations from the Chinese, Japanese, Indians who somehow married the locals and settled there then came the western colonizers from Spain, Britain, Germans, Dutch and lastly the Americans. Those conquistadores was assembled/composed by a large number of hot blooded foot soldiers and it’s a war, everything goes, it’s free for all and every man for themselves with many mixed natives all around during those heydays even though it’s not fully detailed in our history books, we are not hypocrite on many things.
But overall, the strong DNA of the diminutive/short Malay tribes are really kicking in the bloodline of majority of the modern day Filipinos thus only a handful of Filipino lineage benefits the vertical attributes of the western and those are the Pangasinenses, kapampangans and Manilenyos(but unfortunately majority of them was obliterated when the Americans bombarded Manila during WW II)
You're right, Pampanga being an ancient city (in Philippine terms) might have something to do with it. Different races definitely have been in contact with Kapampangans for centuries now. Similar to Cebu, who is the other area that has been producing very tall prospects.
Another factor is also our relatively increasing prosperity. Just like other countries that economically grow, the height of the citizens also grow. The dutch average height used to be 5'5" (just like Philippines currently) in the mid-1850s and grew up to over 6'. It's a combination of better nutrition, healthcare and quality of life.
In the last decade, we've regularly been having kids 6'7+ which used to be so rare in decades past. And it only looks like it's increasing.
Now we just have to improve on the early training and development part.