22. It Was All a Huge Hoax
When professional anthropologists sought to study the Tasaday, they and their region were abruptly declared off-limits by Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos. It was only after his overthrow in 1986 that the truth came out, and it was revealed that the whole thing had been a huge hoax. Once journalists and anthropologists gained access to the Tasaday, they discovered that, far from being primitive stone agers, they lived like modern people, not in caves, but in houses. They did not run around naked and barefoot but wore shirts, jeans, flip flops and shoes.
Investigations revealed that Elizalde had pressured the Tasaday into pretending to be stone-age primitives. As to Elizalde? He had set up a charitable foundation which raised millions of dollars to protect the Tasaday, their “way of life”, and their jungle habitat from encroachment by the outside world. In 1983, he fled the Philippines, absconding with millions from the foundation.