Talk:Reyna Mercado/@comment-32443598-20180211141931

Based on Royal Decree of 1849 published on November 21, 1849 by Governor-General Narciso Claveria that the people of the Spanish East Indies (present-day Philippines, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and Guam (US) ) will adopt Spanish surnames for census and tax purposes (maybe it's voluntary because few million Filipinos didn't possess any Spanish surnames) that's why some people think that Filipinos are Hispanic even though there are only a quarter to a third of the population of the Philippines that possess at least some Spanish ancestry.