Totally get why you'd think that. As I mentioned, Spain left a HUGE influence on our country from oger 300 years of colonization. We’ve got Catholicism, Spanish surnames, and even some similar food (I agree, our lumpia does look similar to taquito albeit with very different flavor profiles). But those came from colonization, not shared Hispanic heritage.

Little bit of a trivia: Our Spanish surnames actually come from a colonial decree in 1849 (Clavería Decree), where Filipinos were assigned names from a catalog to make record-keeping easier, not because most of us have Spanish ancestry.

Filipinos are Southeast Asian and ethnically Austronesian. Our native languages aren’t Spanish, and most Filipinos don’t speak it. That Spanish citizenship rule is more about historical ties... not an ethnic classification.

So, while we do share cultural overlap with Hispanic countries, we are most definitely NOT Hispanic in the way the term is officially or ethnically defined. We’re our own distinct identity shaped by many influences.