I thought it would be good to post again this essay I wrote one year ago today, and subject it to some perusal if the assertions made herein are still valid. Or perhaps, make it some kind of guideposts in our reflections on the wondrous significance of this big big day of our so called – our so called . . . our so called. . . Independence Day.
Philippine Independence Day used to be celebrated on the Fourth of July, on the same day the United States of America celebrates its own Freedom Day.
On this day, in my land, Freedom Day was always held with rejoicing and fanfare. The general public, in towns and cities all over the archipelago, join in the so-called civic parade where floats of different forms and shapes and blinding colors filled the parks, plazas and streets. Flaglets of varying sizes adorned the houses, buildings, vehicles, lampposts and trees that lined the streets. And brass bands continuously played martial tunes hours before the culminating literary-musical program started in the public plaza close to the monument of Dr. Jose Rizal.
And everyone — from the super-rich millionaires to the doubly poor slum dwellers — oh, how gloriously they cheered and waved their flaglets with wide grins on their faces while their hearts throbbed loud as they sang the national anthem in English.
Pupils in the elementary schools and students in high school and college were made to contribute to the fanfare: folk dances and boy scout fancy drills by the elementary grade-schoolers, choral singing and declamation and oratorical pieces by high-schoolers, and Gala Parade by ROTC cadets. A well-known soprano in the town or city usually rendered a solo in the middle of the program.
And not so far away in the residential houses, dogs barked in synchronous cadence with the festive noise in the air. And soon a leading politico — the city or town mayor —likewise barked with profuse rhetorics of Freedom bubbling in his lips.
The chief executive of the nation, in the immediate space of his domain, delivered his address, again in English, in copious words of adulation to the war heroes of the Second World War. Not to be forgotten would be the American soldiers — the GI Joes! And they were very much around on Philippine soil in the US military bases.
This was year after year after Philippine Independence was proclaimed in 1946. And after Manuel A Roxas, first Philippine President, conceded the patrimony of the nation to the American imperialists by appending the Parity Amendment to the Philippine Constitution which entitled American citizens the privilege of utilization, exploitation and development of our natural resources for a period of fifty years.
Thirty years later, President Diosdado Macapagal moved the Freedom Day celebration to June 12. At this time, the upsurge of nationalist sentiments among the Filipino people was a phenomenon which could not be ignored. Certainly, it factored in this move of President Macapagal to alter the date of Freedom Day. Just the date!
Could it have been a little substantial?
The President must have thought it substantial enough, or he was just spitting out his words to the sky and they fell back flat on his face. But the ruling elite in Philippine society couldn’t have done better. In fact, its shameless gestures of puppetry would have preferred a more extravagant display of canine devotion to American imperialism rather than a show of defiance to what it may have deemed historically established.
Another four decades elapsed and the Freedom Day celebration has been reduced to a mere wreath laying ceremony at some historical site in the country. It seems everyone is aware of the bare facts. Or the naked truth!
National freedom and or national independence exists only as echoes of words issued by the vocal chords of the people residing in Malakanyang and those who frequent the halls of Congress and the Courts of Justice. In short, it is a mere lip service and nothing more.
The bare facts are disclosed in the realities of life and social conditions experienced first hand by the masses of the people. And what are these realities?
POVERTY is a wide chasm that separates the less than ten percent affluent from the 90 percent impoverished. It is the Mother of all Unfreedoms endured by the masses since time immemorial until the present.
Where Poverty deprives the masses of enough food to eat everyday in their lives — there is NO FREEDOM FROM HUNGER AND WANT. We thrive in the sarcasm of our country being blest with vast tracts of agricultural lands and we suffer from insufficiency of rice, the chief staple food of our people.
Where Poverty deprives the great masses of the right to proper nutrition and health care as well as the right and privilege to avail of medical and other health services, then — there is NO FREEDOM FROM DISEASE AND OTHER HEALTH RISKS AND HAZARDS.
Where Poverty forbids many to own houses or lots whereon to erect dwellings, then — there is NO FREEDOM OF DOMICILE OR THE RIGHT TO HAVE SHELTER OR HOME. As a matter of fact the great many of our people are concentrated in slums where they dwell in the ironic reality of being “squatters in their own country.” A good many lie starry-eyed in the night with the sky for their roof and the breeze and the winds for their walls, in public plazas and parks and boulevards and other city streets.
Good if foreign dignitaries are about to be held in our country—such as the coming APEC Summit late in the year—and they are carted away to be hidden from the eyes of the visitors!
Where Poverty denies our people of the opportunities for employment and livelihood and have to seek for work in foreign lands as OFWs where they suffer from untold indignities and inhumanities by their employers but which they agonizingly endure just so their families survive and live decent lives, then – there is NO FREEDOM TO LIFE AND DECENT LIVELIHOOD.
Where Poverty deprives the majority of the people of meaningful education and the opportunities for the development of the people’s mental and intellectual faculties — there is NO FREEDOM FROM IGNORANCE AND OBSCURANTISM.
Where Poverty deprives the many of the significant knowledge and information about issues and concerns and other social problems because of lack of education, then — there is NO REAL FREEDOM OF INFORMATION.
And corollary to this lack of freedom of access to information, the masses are deprived of the channels to know the actuations of public officials and politicians such that during elections, they have no real basis for choice and are vulnerable to vote-buying, and thus — there is NO REAL FREEDOM TO VOTE OR RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.
And where Poverty denies the moneyless but qualified and principled people from running for public office, the line-up of candidates to an elective post are limited to the wealthy whose interests run counter to the welfare of the poor, compounded by the conduct of the electoral system that gives high premium to the role of money and gimmickry, then –there is NO REAL FREEDOM OF CHOICE.
Where Poverty begets and nurtures criminality and lawlessness — theft, robbery, rape, murder, etc. — there is NO FREEDOM FROM FEAR AND INSECURITY.
Where Poverty deprives the poor people of the capacity to hire lawyers to defend and protect their rights as complainants or as accused in the Courts of Justice, especially in cases that involve conflicts between the rich landlords and the poor farmworkers, or between management and employees in factories and business establishments, then — there is NO FREEDOM FROM WRONGS AND SOCIAL INJUSTICES.
Where Poverty prompts the poor masses to assemble and seek redress of grievances and their gathering is dispersed and their organization’s leaders are threatened and killed or summarily executed by the State security forces who roam the countryside in a policy of militarization meant to only to protect foreign capitalist interests such as mining, then — there is NO FREEDOM BUT STARK VIOLATIONS OF PEOPLOE’S HUMAN RIGHTS.
Where Poverty prohibits the moneyless from availing of costly transportation facility, and only moneyed people like Kris Aquino have the luxury of tours around scenic spots of our beautiful country,and the poor don’t even have the time and opportunity to move out within half a kilometer radius from their places of abode until their dying hours, then –there is NO FREEDOM TO TRAVEL OR THE RIGHT TO GO PLACES.
Finally, where the leaders who run the government are obeisant to foreign interests, mainly American imperialist interests, our national sovereignty is compromised, as in fact and in truth, our national leadership caters to the wishes and dictates of these foreign interests, making of our foreign policy a matter of ridiculous happenstance, then — there is NO REAL INDEPENDENCE AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY TO SPEAK OF IN OUR LANDS.
To sum it up, Poverty deprives the 90 percent of the Filipino people of their Human Rights as guaranteed in the Constitution, and this is tantamount to denying the great majority of the Filipino people of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Democracy, Freedom, National Independence, National Sovereignty are but hollow words and phrases that insult our intelligence and rational sensibility and stretch the elastic limits of our integrity as a people.
Addendum
As we seriously reflect on the meaningfulness of our so called Independence Day, an overwhelming stroke of sarcasm hits our heart like a Cupid’s arrow. Our President Noynoy, a veritable Fly –a table fly that can fly, yes!—sits prettily on the back of the Big USD mascot the look-alike of a Carabao—and flaps its wings, and thought he is now bigger than a Carabao he is sitting or standing on—and shouts. . .shouts almost angrily at China to let it stop doing what it is doing in the South China Sea! President Noynoy is practically teaching China some basic lessons on Sovereignty! But what it drives away by its left wing, it welcomes very sweetly by its right wing. His is a marvelous sarcasm that says:
“Get out of our sovereign territory, China! Come and build your Military Bases on our sovereign lands, America!”
