‘Unfreedoms’

On our 125th Independence Day, job fairs were held across the country. Many were for local jobs. One, organized by the Department of Migrant Workers, was packed with applicants. It was meant to assist prospective overseas Filipino workers.

The OFW phenomenon is a stark manifestation of Filipinos’ lack of opportunities in their own land. Truly, we give the world our best. What would the founders of our nation think of this?

Jose Rizal might have understood the need to breathe freer air outside one’s own country. It’s amazing, and a source of patriotic pride, to see the recognition accorded to Rizal by the European countries where he spent several years of his life. But Rizal eventually returned to his homeland, where he faced a Spanish firing squad.

The OFW phenomenon began during the regime of the elder Ferdinand Marcos, with the Middle East as the first destination. It should give you a hint of the economic situation during this “golden age” in Philippine history.

Ferdinand Junior at least seems aware of the serious problems faced by the nation, 125 years after the revolutionary government, riven by deadly power struggles, declared independence from Spain.

In a speech at the Independence Day rites, BBM lamented that national development is hindered by poverty, inadequate economic opportunities, inequality and disabling living conditions. You name it, we still got it, over a century after the revolution.

At least we’re no longer under colonial rule. BBM also promised in his speech that the Philippines will never again be subservient to another country.

The statement was seen by some quarters as a reaction to criticism that his administration is turning the country into a vassal of Uncle Sam. But BBM is simply pursuing alliances that he deems to be in the best interest of a nation that has yet to develop credible self-defense capability, 125 years since declaring independence.

It doesn’t mean turning his back on the world’s second largest economy, China, with which many Filipinos (myself included) have ancestral ties. Even the US takes the same pragmatic approach, while protecting itself from foreign security threats amid its growing geopolitical rivalry with China.

*      *      *

Instead of commissioning surveys about the likely next president with the general elections still five years away (with the fees involved, pollsters I guess will only happily oblige), those who have money to throw away should consider commissioning studies on what national independence, patriotism and democracy mean to ordinary Filipinos, especially among Classes C to E, which constitute the largest voting segment of the population.

The significance of Independence Day in this country is lost to the majority of the citizenry, especially since there’s also a segment that believes actual independence came only on July 4, 1946, when America handed over the reins of government to the Philippines.

A smaller segment believes independence came with the shutdown of the US bases in the Philippines. An even smaller fringe – the one most vocal in opposing the expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement and setting up of more EDCA sites – believes genuine independence will come only if the country scraps its Mutual Defense Treaty with the US.

Millions of Filipinos can’t care less if the country forges a security alliance with the US or China. For them, Independence Day is just another one of the long list of non-working holidays.

Rizal, who preferred autonomy to full independence, believing Filipinos were not yet ready at the time to fully cut ties with Spain, refused to endorse an armed revolution and instead espoused better education for his compatriots.

Over a century after his execution, Rizal would be dismayed to find out that 10-year-old Filipino students are faring badly in reading comprehension, and ranking low in mathematics and science.

*      *      *

The Philippine Declaration of Independence states that the decree was signed by “the Egregious Dictator Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy… under the protection of the Powerful and Humanitarian Nation, the United States of America.”

No wonder Dictator Aguinaldo’s independence aspiration ended up the way it did.

Aguinaldo is not exactly a revered figure in history, having ordered his rival for the revolutionary leadership, the upstart Tondo laborer Andres Bonifacio (plus brother Procopio) executed in the boondocks of Cavite. There’s a Bonifacio Shrine at the site of his execution that requires some effort for tourists to reach.

Before that, Aguinaldo’s security forces also assassinated Gen. Antonio Luna in Nueva Ecija (Aguinaldo’s descendants claim he did not order the hit).

Scouts recruited from Macabebe in Pampanga later helped Americans capture president-turned-“rebel” fugitive Aguinaldo.

These aren’t chapters in revolutionary history that would make Filipinos proud. The deadly infighting probably helped in making Filipinos welcome the new foreign occupation forces after the Spaniards sold the Philippines to the US for $20 million.

Spanish colonial rule was replaced by what we like to describe as 50 years of Hollywood. (Today South Koreans rule the world; we’re mesmerized by Hallyuwood).

Apart from independence from Spain, the revolution also sought to liberate Filipinos from poverty, injustice and poor education.

It says a lot about the state of the nation that 125 years since independence was declared, the President of the republic says he is striving to “remove the unfreedoms… to feed the hungry, free the bound, and banish poverty.”