Remembering independence

Today marks the 114th Independence Day of the Republic of the Philippines. It has been 114 years after the cruel struggle under Spanish rule and 114 years after being taken away of identity. It was three centuries of living slavery’s life. That day was historic for the nation. It was when the flag was waved outside Aguinaldo’s home in Cavite. This picture is always present in Philippine history textbooks back when I was in my basic education.

But after the reign of the Spaniards, it never dawned on the Filipinos that we were never really independent. So much for celebration, we were still tied with shackles by two nationalities after that. When finally granted independence, we had to face the fact that we still weren’t ready.

Up to this day we still answer to another nation. Like it or not but we are under power that has been guiding us all through these years. I’d like to call our independence as pseudo, because it was never real to start with. Even the youth is entangled in a colonial mentality to the point of worshipping everything imported even if it is just made from a neighboring country. Old clothes from abroad sold here as ukay-ukay is flocked by both youngsters and those young at heart just to be able to wear something that’s imported. And it’s sad because we don’t patronize our own; we don’t love our own identity.

It may be Independence Day today but most of us choose to wallow in relaxation because it is a holiday.  There is no spirit of nationalism or patriotism brimming from within us. I can only remember a single time when my family chose to celebrate Independence Day complete with flags placed in our car, merchandise and a lot more. All those were during the centennial year celebration. But 14 years has passed since that big celebration and it seems that as the years go by, the festivity dies down. I cannot blame people for losing enthusiasm with this so-called independence.

PNoy has been calling on citizens to be “proactive” but who wants to? After Jessica Sanchez’ defeat followed by Pacquiao’s, there isn’t much to be active about. It does not even stop there. Every day we face the reality of oil price hikes, lack of classrooms and even tuition fee increases by state universities. I don’t know if it’s just me, but this may be the price of independence.

Or maybe not because of independence… It may be because of our nature of pulling each other down that we never progress. Our leaders are never role models to start with, much more being an inspiration to over 20 million youths who will be next in line. The political cycle goes on – running for office, losing the election, and taking revenge on who goes before you. If nobody dares to break this cycle of vengeance, then we are bound to be living in a chain, which we have made on our own. Therefore, we are robbing independence from ourselves.

There is not much to do today aside from enjoying it like a normal holiday. There isn’t much participation from ordinary citizens now that apathy has taken over. My only wish for the Filipino nation is that it may open its eyes to the reality of the bondage that we are in. I hope to still be alive when the day of our rising comes where we will once again become the great nation we once were. It will be the role of the next generation to do that and the work is a hundred fold. As of now, there is no limit to dreaming.

**Published in the Freeman newspaper on June 12, 2012

From sausages to salad (an experience reiterated)

Yesterday, Monday, may have been my first "inorganic" breakfast and my first morning of not waking up to seeing fellow youths all groggy yet fired with energy. After coming home from the 3 day trip to Bacolod, being in my own bed feels unusual.

True enough, I was back to having sausages and hotdogs; pure processed foods. Unlike what we used to have, salads and all the greens you could ever imagine of was the meal. It seemed like a big change for me, a huge shift.

Change may have been the ringing word all throughout - change of heart, change of attitude and more importantly a change of decision. The camp taught me how to live out of my comfort. Out of the luxury of my own room, electronic gadgets and the world that was hard for me to leave – the news world AKA current events.

If there were things that I was so grateful of during the camp, I’d narrow it down to three.

First, I’m thankful for the clay. If it weren’t for the clay, I would not have understood what it meant to be shaped. I have always thought of living my life as I wanted it to, making sure my days and months are structured as how I would want them to be. Yet, no this life is not my own.

Second, I’m thankful for the farm. Yes, the big BIGGGGGGGG farm or garden watchamacalit. My memories of planting little seedlings into their containers making sure they would not die are still very vivid to me. What about sandwiches?  It was truly fulfilling.

Lastly, thank you Lord for the salbabidas! Being afloat on such objects while gripping tight to the person next to you mirrored the exact role of the church. This deepened my understanding on how the church really works for a young person like me. I would love to narrate in detail what happened down the lazy river but my space is not luxurious enough. But out of the grueling 11 minutes of splashes and pushing and water balloons, the one thing I could say is that the world has “no mercy”.  You just have to keep fighting and paddling to the one thing that would take you out of the dark world – the church.

And so life has gone back to reality. For many of us its school and for some they go back to work. The three day experience may have ended a new life has just begun. My change of decision? To live a life that allows God to shine through it. Have a blessed day!

Are we ready?

It may have been just the second day of class but we are still getting the hang of it. For some schools, they have chosen to start class next week. But for public schools, the earlier the better. Even so, such schools are not exempted from the K-12 curriculum that the government has made to change the education system in our country. There are a lot who are nervous and excited at the same time. Yet, the most crucial question remains? Are we ready?

By “we” I mean the Philippine nation. It is very obvious where a huge bulk of the country’s budget goes to. If not to paying our international debt, it is being spent for military funds because we need defense; especially now that China has recently been on its toll on claiming an island of ours.

For those of you who are not familiar with K-12 (pronounced as “k” to twelve), it is the big move of the Department of Education to upgrade our education system so that we can be competitive with other countries. It has been found out that it is only us and another developing nation who has not adapted the 12 year scheme for the basic education curriculum. Instead of having only grade 6, there is an additional two more levels commonly known as middle school before reaching high school. They are foreseeing that towards the finish of the pioneering batch, they will be able to take subjects that are related to their course of choice for college.

According to the Department of Education there is an estimated backlog of 66,800 classrooms in public schools and 124,286 toilets for this school year. That is just for infrastructure. There are still more things to spend on such as textbooks and teachers’ compensation, which the government should also be responsible for. The number itself tells you that we are not ready. There is too much to change, too much to handle and this requires more spending. We all know we are low on provisions when it comes to the education sector.

However, there are regions in the country that are ready. With the help of the local government units (LGUs), they are able to manage. I can say with pride that region 7 is very ready especially with the bridge program where in the mother tongue is used in class. The Akademyang Binisaya has doubled their efforts in preparing their materials for this new curriculum. In a phone interview, Mayor Sitoy, who is one of the pillars of Akademyang Binisaya said that nothing beats learning with the language that you are most familiar with. Take learning Ilonggo without any help from a native and you’re bound to learn only the most common expression they have, bala haw.

In one way or another, this program would indeed help a lot when it comes to comprehension. Why do we even have to dwell on a foreign language when explaining Math even if we do not know the language ourselves? The learning is compromised. Some people argue that using the mother tongue would hinder the child in becoming English proficient. Don’t forget that we Filipinos are versatile; we can learn many dialects and languages at a time.

Going back to the question of being ready, I’d have to commend the Department of Education for organizing trainings for the whole summer. We saw teachers from different municipalities flock to the city just to attend such trainings.

Now that we are trying to bring our education system a notch higher, we can only cross our fingers if it would really be effective. We’ll have to see if K-12 would really improve education in our country. But as for now, welcome back students! Or shall I say, maayong pagbalik mga tinun-an!

**Published in the Freeman newspaper on May 5, 2012