Ako ay Pilipino

As I journey through life, weaving in and out of several paths untaken and unknown, I have come to the realization that as a person of Filipino heritage I know near nothing about the culture of which I come from. I am of a generation of Filipinos who have internalized the stigmas attached to the title and thus have done my best to avoid walking down a path that would associate myself with my own people. However, as the years pile up and my thirst for self discovery grows stronger I find that I am at a position in which the only thing that can quench my parched soul is the rediscovery of ‘me’ within the context of my ethnicity. I am Filipino and I should be proud to be Filipino, however this has never been the case for the entirety of my existence. This situation needs to be reversed.

I met a young man from Mexico who taught me that true nationalism for one's country can only exist in one's heart. If my heart rejects the idea of being of Filipino descent, then so does my mind. A branch of racism begins here and it is the worst kind of racism as it is one that is completely and utterly self-loathing. I know that I am not alone as the majority of Filipinos, who I have had the pleasure to meet, rarely identify themselves with their country. Usually, those who are born abroad adopt the nation they were born into as their heritage while those who were born in the Philippines and have migrated to other lands identify only partially to their heritage through the system of "dashed ethnicity" (e.g. Filipino-Canadian). It is curious to think that there are other ethnicities out there that do not use this dashed ethnicity system unless they are of mixed ethnicity (mestizo). In other words, if you observe the responses derived from Europeans, Latin Americans, Middle Easterners, Africans or other Asians to the question of 'where are you from?' or ‘what is your background?' their response usually contains one ethnicity--not dashed, only one. Perhaps this only applies to Filipinos living in North America, mainly United States and Canada, but this is a problem that needs to be looked at seriously by Filipino people. I may be too liberal with generalizing this point so much, but from my observations this has been mostly the case. How does one solve this problem? How does one provide ample content to one's mind and soul that a person who is self-loathing of their heritage finds pride in where they originated?

I was bored one day sitting alone at my desk doing nothing particularly significant to the development of mankind, just thinking and being alone, when I decided that perhaps I would browse YouTube for some serious entertainment. I came across a short two minute video of a news broadcast discussing a lecture in Vienna concerning Philippine History. The lecturer was Dr. Ambeth Ocampo and he was discussing the reason why the Philippines is in such a bad state. His discussion concluded that the reason for this is because there is no complete Filipino history that is accessible to people to learn fully. In other words, the history of the Philippines has many holes that cannot be filled because the resources to fill these holes do not exist, even in Manila. I agree with Dr. Ambeth Ocampo that without a complete history, a people cannot truly unite as one, and without this unity the state of a nation is at a huge disadvantage. If the nation is unstable the sentimental bond of a people to their homeland will also be weak and will not be able to get stronger. Furthermore, with the large amount of people who emigrate out of such a country, it is not surprising to see that it is more difficult for those emigrating to continually have feelings of loyalty to a nation that is in such rough shape. The key to this seems to lie in a country's history.

History is so important to a country and its people as it allows a glance at the progression the country and its people have undergone in order to be at the position they are in presently. Whether it is good or bad, it is something people need to learn in order to begin feeling a sense of nationalism towards the country they call their home. With this in mind, I tried to think of as much Filipino history that I knew and came up with one simple sentence: The Philippines has been in a perpetual position of being conquered. I thought to myself, “if this is what the Philippines is about, then it is no wonder that no one can proudly stand up and say I am Filipino.” However, this idea of Filipino history, though accurate to some degree, has many holes that need to be filled. For this reason I began researching the history of the Philippines from Colonial Philippines (La Isla de Filipinas) to the present state of the Philippines under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. What I realized as a recurring theme was although the Filipinos continually were conquered by foreign people, their resilience as a united front always brought them out of being the conquered.

It began with the book Noli Me Tangere written by Jose Rizal that brought us unity and lead us to revolt against the Spaniards (with the pseudo help of the Americans) on June 12, 1898. After chasing away the Spaniards we were immediately plunged into a four year war against the Americans who betrayed us and colonized us through the brutal force of genocide. To the Americans, they owned the Philippines after purchasing it from the Spaniards for 20 million dollars during the Treaty of Paris. After the four years of war the Filipinos had no choice but to surrender to the conquering nation. Under the title of an American territory, we were put in danger during World War II when the Japanese attacked Manila and began an occupation in the Philippines. Although during this time the Americans declared war on the Japanese, we continued to fight not because we were commanded to, but because we wanted to for the sake of our country. Several Filipino soldiers and civilians lost their lives again under the hands of the Japanese, but eventually the Japanese left. Throughout all of this we maintained the sentiment of one day realizing true independence and on July 4, 1946 the Americans shut down their last military base and finally gave us what we had been hoping for: our independence. This, however, did not last long, because shortly after the dictator Ferdinand Marcos rose to power. With his wife Imelda Marcos (and her shoes) he declared martial law on the whole of our country. This lasted 21 years, but in 1986 Marcos fled as a result of the People Power Revolution: a miraculous and amazing revolution that involved no violence, just the people of the Philippines standing together singing songs and holding hands while placing flowers in the barrel of defending soldiers’ guns. Everyone came together: peasants, workers, clergymen, nuns, students, fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. Even the military that was protecting the Marcos family in Malacanang Palace turned their backs on the dictator until he fled to Honolulu, forever exiled from the Philippines. Ferdinand Marcos' fleeing put another hold over the country in that he took with him somewhere between four to ten billion dollars from the nation's treasury. Not only that, he left the Philippines in a state of great debt to the World Bank in figures with just as many zeros as he took with him. He was named the world's greatest larcenist by the Guinness Book of World Records. With such a shock to our economy, what once was the second most prosperous country in Asia (a country that was lined up to be one of the Asian superpowers 60 years ago) was now in a worse economic state than some of the poorest nations in Asia. Slowly, however, our country's economy began improving but was hit (not as badly as other countries, but hit nonetheless) by the Asian Financial Crisis which originated in Thailand in 1997 due to the financial collapse of Thai Baht. In 1998 actor Joseph "Erap" Estrada was voted into the office of the President where he served until 2001. He was impeached from office for corruption charges made against him in 2000 by Luis Sinsong, governer of Ilocanos Sur. This impeachment was no ordinary impeachment as the allegations made against Estrada caused an uproar within the Philippines resulting in the second People Power Revolution. He was succeeded by his Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who still is in office today. Estrada, however, accused Arroyo of putting a dent on Filipino democracy and apparently the people today agree. They agree so much that she was voted to be the most corrupt president that has ever held office in the Philippines, even placing higher than Ferdinand Marcos.

With this history in mind it is easy now for me to stand up and say I am Filipino and not be hounded internally with the stigmas that have been attached to that title. After-all if an American can say that he is American and proud, even after all the sins the U.S. have committed towards other nations, then why must I live with the stigmas that have been fabricated about my people when clearly it is better to be Filipino and proud rather than American and proud (ethically speaking)? I think that more Filipinos need a dose of this history lesson so that they can stand together in harmony with what they as a people...what WE as a people have accomplished and once again become that strong united front that has been hidden behind present day stigmas, collecting dust as our history is slowly forgotten. The moment we are proud of what we are and where we come from is the moment that we can develop even more as a nation and correct the things that need to be corrected (such as our corrupt government). It is in this moment that the children born abroad will want to learn Tagalog (or whichever dialect your mother tongue maybe) and will want to celebrate Freedom Day with the homeland. It is in this moment that we again will be one.

Isang tibuk, isang Puso! Lahat tayo magkaparehong dugo! Mabuhay Pilipinas!