The 113th Philippines Independence Day

I was battling with myself a while ago whether to write this post in Tagalog—the widely used means of communication here—or in English. But since most of my visitors are from outside the country, I decided to go with the English language.

This year commemorates the 113th independence day of the Philippines. But how FREE are we, really? Does the absence of colonizers truly prove that we are free?

Independence Day is supposed to be celebrated by everyone. But I don’t see the need to celebrate since IMHO, freedom was never present in this country, not ever. Technically we are free. But how do you define the need for the government to kiss ass to other powerful countries, say, US or China; or to rely on how big of a favor a certain country would give? I’m not being so proud to not accept to myself that we need them but I would say that sometimes the government is forgetting that their loyalty should be to the Filipino first and not to some race that has little care to our children’s future. 

I’m not saying that it doesn’t need to be celebrated but how about Filipinos who are busy looking for food on other people’s garbage bags? I would sometimes think that this whole Independence thing is a celebration intended to those who can afford it, that this is something that we should be thankful for to our ancestors but not to be celebrated.

We were never free. Not even to our own countrymen. When colonizers came, it’s as if some Filipinos were trying to follow their footsteps. They steal and lie to their fellow men. Some get wealthy and some continues to scathe their lives, blaming everyone on how their children died out of starvation. And I ask myself, does this poverty would be around here for like 100 years or more because if so, I’m just going to find another home and raise my children to a decent country. But my hopes are still…well, there. That someday, Filipinos would change.