Jufran and UFC Banana Ketchup brands, once banned, will soon be sold in American Asian grocery stores again. Not long ago, these two and other Pinoy products like Mang Tomas Lechon Sauce were prohibited from being sold in the US for containing additives deemed unsafe by America’s Food and Drug Administration. 

NutriAsia, the Philippine-based food and beverage company, which produces and distributes Jufran and UFC Banana Ketchup and Mang Tomas Lechon Sauce, has since reformulated their products “in keeping with the new US FDA.” This is certainly good news for Filipino-Americans who have had to go without their favorite condiments. 

Reports of Fil-Ams buying out Banana Ketchup (and lechon sauce) leaving empty grocery shelves after the ban was announced filled the news. After all, banana ketchup and lechon sauce have cultural significance, a source of cultural pride and identity for Filipinos here and abroad. Both are homegrown condiments.

Although roasting a whole pig is found in various parts of the world, such as in Spain (cochinillo), Cuba (lechon asado), Mexico (chochinita pibil), Indonesia (babi guling), China (Cantonese style roasted pig), Hawaii (kalua pig), Germany (Spanferkel), Italy (porceddu from Sardinia), sarsa ng lechon or lechon gravy, the perfect accompaniment to lechon, is said to have originated in the Philippines. The brand Mang Tomas is credited for commercializing the lechon sauce in the Philippines and beyond.

Banana ketchup, on the other hand, can trace its roots to its inventor Maria Y. Orosa (1893-1945), a Filipina trained in America as a food technologist. She became well known for creating alternatives to the expensive American products, like Spam and Ovaltine, Filipinos during the American colonial period were growing accustomed to. Tomato ketchup is an acquired taste in the Philippines, but since tomatoes were not commonly grown in the country, Orosa “mashed together saba bananas, brown sugar, vinegar, and spices,” which would become the world-renowned banana ketchup from the Philippines. Orosa ended up concocting 700 recipes “emphasizing frugality and minimizing waste.” Her recipes included turning “flour from casava, green bananas, and coconuts; fermented wine using native fruits and nuts; coaxed vinegar from pineapples; and transformed seaweed into agar.” In addition, in desperate economic times, Orosa was instrumental in helping the Filipinos survive not only by showing them the way to make use of local products but by providing its people a means of generating income from locally made products sold for export.

Orosa was indeed a remarkable woman. After training in the US, where she was offered a position at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she earned both her undergrad and Master’s degrees, she decided to return to the Philippines in 1922 to help her countrymen.

During the war, Orosa was an officer of the Marking Guerillas, “a Filipino guerilla army that took part in anti-Japanese resistance during World War II.” The guerilla group was led by its president Colonel Marcos “Marking” V. Agustin. The Marking Guerillas was known for its capture of Emilio Aguinaldo, who allegedly collaborated with the Japanese, and for its role in winning the Battle of Ipo Dam. A daunting task, both the Filipino revolutionaries and the American military were tasked to secure the water source of Manila against the 30,000-strong Japanese force in 1945. During the Japanese Occupation, Orosa’s soyalac, a protein-rich powder made from soybean, was smuggled into prison camps helping thousands of prisoners of war.

I was reminded of Maria Orosa while on a walking tour of Malate not so long ago. She and 400 others perished when a bomb fell on Remedios Hospital in Malate during the Battle of Manila, from Feb. 3 to March 3, in 1945. I was reminded of her again, during the banana ketchup and lechon sauce ban in the US. I wish Filipino accomplishments could be highlighted more so they would be entrenched in our collective memory, hard to forget. 

My cousin, Imee Marcos, and I were talking about the achievements of her mother, Imelda Romualdez Marcos. The senator pointed out that there are so many Filipinas whose contributions to society have gone unnoticed among their kababayans. Senator Imee was serious when she said, “Truly, for the laughable amounts dedicated for women’s health.” PhilHealth’s maternity package of ₱6,700, for example, compared to a paternity package of about ₱8,000, is pathetically condescending, to think that, as Imee pointed out, “most of our health workers, ironically, are female.  So many of our health workers continue to be unpaid and largely unrecognized despite their excellence.”

Only a few of the Filipino public, according to the senator, would know who Anastacia Giron Pupas or Josefa Llanes Escoda were. “Pupas was the very first Filipina nurse who established the Philippine Nursing Association, which brought about the entire nursing industry in the Philippines,” said Imee. “Escoda, on the other hand, is touted as the ‘Florence Nightingale of the Philippines,’ healing the sick in the midst of World War 2.” Both, she reiterated, should be given enough recognition in our textbooks.

Imee also cited a not-so-publicized feat of a Filipina in the field of science—NASA scientist Angelita Castro-Kelly, the first female Mission Operations Manager. “May rebulto ba sa kanya (Do we have a monument in her honor)?” challenged Imee, adding that Castro-Kelly, a pack rat, also established Seattle and Space Lab and Data Processing for the space program of America. 

Among the other Filipinas who need to be recognized are etomologist Dr. Clare Baltazar, chemists Dr. Clara Sylianco and Dr. Lourdes Cruz, and Dr. Fe del Mundo, the first National Scientist of the Philippines.

“Filipino women have always been in the mainstream of Philippine history,” said Imee’s dad, former President Ferdinand E. Marcos (FEM). “They have contributed their share in the most challenging tasks of nation-building. He acknowledged their contribution to every aspect of society, such as legend and history, arts and culture, law, politics, government, business, science and technology, community service, education, and the workforce. 

If you recall, 1975 was declared International Women’s Year. In that year, Imee recalls a very heated debate between PFEM and Imelda when she proposed an agency for women’s affairs.

PFEM cried, “But why? Women are included in everything we do.”

“But women have different concerns,” argued Imelda.

“Sige,” said PFEM. “let’s create the National Commission for Women.” 

 “But what for?”

Imee, who was then a feminist, still in school in the US, butted in, “for the equality of women” 

Imelda objected, “Ay, ayaw ko niyan (I don’t like it)! Why equal, when I know between a man and a woman, someone is superior—me!”

Mic drop.

Postscript: The National Commission for Women of the Philippines was established by PFEM on Jan. 7, 1975 with the aim of promoting women’s rights.  In 1986, the commission redirected its focus on “women’s concerns on policy making in government.”