The success and continued interest in ‘Heneral
Luna’, the film produced by Articulo Uno refreshingly forced the public to
brush up on our history. In like Spielberg’s Lincoln, the buzz created so much
discussion that it gave life to its art. Despite the absence of big name stars,
except for a token cameo of a current heart throb, the film attracted attention
by appropriately melding entertainment and education; facts and opinion in a
coherent imagining of the struggle for Philippine independence from the experience
of the controversial military strategist. Never mind the young’s blatant
cluelessness about personalities that brought about the birth of the Republic
of the Philippines, what is important comes from their treading of the path
that leads to where we are today.
But then where are we today?
Mr. Cielito F. Habito, in the September 9 edition
of his column, ’No Free Lunch’ laments “…how our country has been held back by
a lack on ‘oneness’-a unity of purpose and mission that would have us merit the
word “nation”. He states he is ‘..unhappy with what our nation has become or
has failed to be”To these assessments, I must disagree as others, I hope do as
well.
The statement ‘failed to be’ I gather alludes to
the state of the economy. I don’t know much about that but our country recently did
get a lot of good press from premier economic watchers and should there be
blame; the failure squarely lands on the lap of the succession of political
leadership who read wrongly the situation. For example, let us take the policy
of incentives for automation in a labor surplus scenario. Obviously, that needs
revisiting. On the other hand, sound programs,
policies & guidelines that were instituted by different dispensations, failed
to take root, probably because of narrow parameters.
Yes, there is the Filipino nation, a group of
people calling this archipelago as home with a shared cultural heritage and a
vision for the future, despite differing creed, faith and dialect, faltering
and muddling through almost every turn but still standing as one. This becomes
highly evident in the aftermath of ‘Ondoy’ and ‘Yolanda’ when the out pouring
of aid from the different parts of the archipelago pooled together by the rich,
poor and everybody in-between was overwhelming, except that it was stumped by
the organized chaos in the delivery of service.
Still both calamities showed unity unobstructed by regional, religious
or political differences. This is power.
In terms of commitment, today’s stories abound with
heroism such as the quiet work of Tony Meloto’s ‘Gawad Kalinga’, the ‘in your
face’ activism of Gabriela and the DOJ Secretary’s uncompromising view of
justice. Rizal, Luna, Mabini, Aquinaldo of the 1898 revolution; Quezon of the
fight for independence in the aftermath of WWII; Ninoy, Jopson, MABINI and a
host of others who gave up their comforts and lives to shape a society free to
trace its future undeniably etched a shared vision.
We do have our problems but even the Americans had
their share of political development problems: the civil war, labor unrest,
terrorism and the depression.
The Philippines is a young republic prone to
mistakes some with resonating repercussions while the political development that
fostered feudalism, dynasties and corruption transformed democracy into a
loaded gun. An infant with a loaded gun is never a good combination. So we have
democramata, death by democracy, due to the pervasive poverty engulfing the
majority of the population caused by our penchant for electing the wrong
people. In 2016, we might just do it again, Magoo. If we do, the monumental
mistake would be our’s as a nation to suffer as we’ve always done.
But then we can always do something about it as we
had countless times for the citizenry is the power and not the bureaucracy that
governs. Sovereigns are called power when paralleled with another but sovereign
are mere abstractions. The people are the real power.
You don’t need contracts to prove membership in the
Filipino nation; we know each other because we are one family. If we all
discarded those credentials that inform of our nationality, like the tearing of
‘cedula’ in the days of the ‘Katipunan’, we would still be Filipinos:
the Muslims of the south, Christians, Ilocano, Visaya, Bicolanos and everybody
breathing the Filipino oxygen. I believe in the Filipino nation. I believe in
our cultural heritage that binds us all, shaped by these lands, nourished by
its bounties, absent anywhere else, despite the diaspora of over ten million of
our brothers working in foreign lands. I
believe in the shared pursuit of a future endowed with peace, justice and
prosperity in our own land. I believe in the Filipino struggle that strives to
attain that vision.
To my mind, most problems we are currently
encountering are of the management variety: finance, civil security, strategic
geographical concentration of resources among others. There may be wisdom in
the migration to Mindanao policy of the 1950’s but it lacked a land
distribution system that ultimately led to mayhem. Add to that the sinister,
covert operation to invade Sabah that malevolently twisted into the horror that
was the Jabidah massacre. The situation begs for a management solution. I
cannot see granting autonomy, a political solution as an answer.
Only by standing under one constitution, one law,
one flag can we keep forward towards our vision.
Do we need outsiders to chart our destiny?
Our history recounts colonizers and invaders who
tried to subdue the Filipino spirit but were ultimately rejected. One of our
own tried to make Filipinos into Singaporeans by doing a Lee Kwan Yew, which
became a Guinness record for kleptocracy. Spain turned the natives into zombie slaves
(planting poppy, I read somewhere along with Chinese workers), supposedly in
the name of Christianity; America bled our natural resources in the name of
free enterprise while Japan brought to these lands unimaginable cruelty for a
far reaching empire of the sun.
The good thing is that the different incursions produced
‘peninsulares’, ‘amboys’ and ‘japayukis’ which broadened the ethnicity, strengthening
the Filipino spirit. Everything else about these invasions were horrible so I
cannot see any reason why there should be a change in the constitution to
accord foreigners the freedom to do what they please ?
The argument for investment, enhanced tourism and a
multitude of economic benefits had been used in the position to retain the
American bases. Mr. Richard Gordon, foremost Amboy, ironically rolled out a
program that proved the pro American base proponents wrong. That is a fine
example of harnessing the power of the people correctly. It is unfortunate that
old Dick is not in the running, buried under much Poelitics, ‘pollutics’ and
poorlitics.
And as we look for investments to provide jobs, our
own businessmen who made it the list of Forbes’ riches placed most their money
in China installing new plants, malls and other edifices that run to billions
of dollars rivaling our national budget. Along with other greedy multi
nationals, they made China the super military power that it is today. The folly
crystalizes with hegemony upon us.
Today, the struggle has become fiercer. The power
that is the Filipino spirit is bogged down by a myriad of broad mosaic matters
interconnected but in parts are already overwhelming: dispensation of justice, poverty,
civil security, governance, corruption, globalization, terrorism, cross border
drug trade, natural calamities, superpower hegemony, regionalization, climate
change, exclusive growth and the diaspora.
