The "ghosts of World War II" continue to haunt the Philippines because of the difficulty in tracing native Manileños genetic ancestry caused by the massive destruction of the city in 1945, the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) said.
"Since 1996, researchers from the University of the Philippines - Diliman College of Science (UPD-CS) Natural Sciences Research Institute’s (NSRI’s) DNA Analysis Laboratory have been surveying the genetic ancestry of Filipinos across the country," said UPD.
Its project called Filipino Genomes Research Program (FGRP) has been aiming to trace, document, and understand the Filipino's diverse genetic heritage and once completed, UPD noted, will be highly beneficial for forensics, medicine, history, anthropology, and other fields.
Participating, or being a partner-volunteer, in the FGRP requires simple qualifications: “to become a representative of a particular Filipino group from a particular Filipino region, you as well as your parents and grandparents on both sides should also be from the same place," said UPD.
Identifying the genetic ancestry of large homogenous ethnic groups such as those in the Cordilleras and Mindanao is not a problem, UPD added, it is in Manila where FGRP researchers are having a hard time obtaining samples "despite repeated efforts.”
FGRP researcher Noriel Estaban said that they have even already lowered the criteria for inclusion in the capital city to have at least both parents born in Metro Manila.
"Yet even despite these adjustments to the eligibility criteria, Esteban said that out of over 40 potential partner-volunteers from the NCR, only 17 were able to be accepted into the study," UPD stated.
Genetic "ghost" brought by WW2
UPD said that the loss of genetic traces of native Manileños was likely due to the "more than one in ten civilians" killed from the one million population of the city during the Battle of Manila towards the end of WW2 in 1945.
The Manileños' population which "never completely recovered" was the reason for the near absence of its native's genetic ancestry today, UPD stated.
"Catastrophic events can severely reduce the population size, with locals either killed or forced to leave. This can result in the reduction of genetic diversity in an area. It takes a very long time for local populations to recover, if at all," evolutionary geneticist and FGRP Program Leader Frederick Delfin said.
"In a way, we can think of the lost genetic variation as the ghosts of the people we lost," he added.
Call for FGRP partner-volunteers
UPD’s FGRP is calling for partner-volunteers for its nationwide genetic ancestry sampling.
"With COVID-19 pandemic restrictions easing up, the FGRP’s nationwide sampling is proceeding at a steady pace as the team is focused on acquiring permission from, as well as explaining the project’s objectives and potential impact to, the country’s various indigenous peoples," UPD said.
"To learn more about the FGRP and to inquire about becoming a partner-volunteer, please contact Frederick Delfin at [email protected]. You may also visit their Facebook page for ongoing and future recruitment postings at https://www.facebook.com/DNAForensicAndEthnicity/," it added.