That’s unique of that guy on attached video when he scripted and I quote, “Para sa ika 109 na kaarawan ng kalayan ng Pilipinas mula sa pananakop ng Espanya, aking inaawit ang pambansang awit ng Pilipinas. --MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS--”

Come Tuesday, June 12, Filipinos all over the world will be one in celebrating the 109th Independence Day. However, there are Filipinos who do not claim that the Philippines is really that liberated. The questions are, “As to what extent are we independent?” and “How does independence affect every Filipino today?”

Being independent takes definitively many sides to intensify its meaning. Independence for one may mean being free as a nation from all colonial interventions; it may also mean being free as a person to do exactly as what pleases him.


An Independent Nation

‘Asia’s first independent nation’ is never a good enlacement to our country’s name. Philippines is independent yet it is still dependent on other nations economically. In a liquid economy like ours, we can’t see the stability of our fiscal performance. Think of it, peso is strengthening its value but jobs are also losing its gain because export companies have been on the downside suffering from competitiveness. Diaspora is always an issue of economy. OFWs play a very important role in the economic struggle of a country like ours. Leaving a country is not mainstreaming a silver lining as what Filipinos are thinking back home. Leaving is a matter of forced choice. Admittedly, the big bulk of remittances made by these OFWs helps a lot; however, these remittances create strong dependency among home workers thus undermining the strength local workers have shared to the national treasury. Filipinos back home also take advantage of spending remittances for consumer goods (e.g., cell phones, cars, other extravagances) rather than investing into a more supplemental venture like having a small business that can lead to preparing the family’s future.

We have our Constitution which embodies our fundamentals but it does not grant every Filipino his justified end because of the abuse of power by many leaders and the toted idea that one can be above the law. Suppression has always been a grief to the general public breaking the valued freedom. Politically, the Philippines is toothless. Dependence of power from other allies is much a perennial exit mechanism when destabilizations occur.

We are not freed from our regionalistic mindset. A Manileño would say that Manila is more than a busy metro than Cebu, and Tagalog should be superior than Cebuano (the language). A Cebuano (the person) would say that Cebu is not that better but Cebuanos speak better English. Think of the idea of independence. Boholanos word it as “Ija ija, aho aho.” or "What's mine is mine, what's yours is yours."


An Independent Self

The essence of Independence 100 years back is not the same today. Its essentiality is lost after we embark into global imperialism. This means that Filipinos find liberation in self on a much cosmopolitan way incorporating the Westside idealisms that seem to be a negative use of freedom as doing all things freely and claiming all things as if they are for free or within reach. This afternoon gave me a buzz of who the 20th century Filipinos are. I had my lunch in a simple resto where ordinary salesgirls also took theirs. All I know is that salesgirls are paid a minimum wage and most of them are not college degree holders. Right at the corner were two girls taking their siesta. One girl was busy tinkling here iPod which seemed to be an imitation while the other girl was busy getting pictures using her phone camera. Good for those girls they still managed to buy those stuffs beyond enervated work with a low salary. While taking a multicab I happened also to sit beside a woman who I presumed to be on her 65th in her maladroit condition holding a cellophane on one hand and a cell phone wound with a masking tape on the other hand. Beyond her status she still owned a high tech stuff. In another story, I had attempted to listen to two workmates three days ago being screwed up on arguing something and ended up still insisting that one's idea is correct and the other is not and vice versa. Situations like these always happen at any rate and time. I come into a final notion that Filipinos are supercilious and pigheaded. Filipinos are supercilious because we boast of things which are beyond our reach and condition, that beyond complexities and crises we still manage to spend things which are costing more than what we earn thinking that we are free to do what we want. Filipinos are pigheaded too because we tend to believe that our own idea and agenda are better than others that we end up thinking we are always right and we depend only on our own knowledge. The truth behind liberation for Filipinos today does not go hand in hand with those of our celebrated national heroes’ realism fighting for our democracy. Ours is a selfish independence promoting self interest.

Randy David in his book Public Lives (1998) amplifies what Palestinian scholar Edward Said wrote in his Culture and Imperialism (1994). David inscribed saying that “Said reminds us of colonialism that it does not only take over a people’s land; it also erases its history, redraws the boundary of the land, renames everything, and revises the landscape so that it will no longer look strange to the occupying power.” That sentiment has placed the many instances of Filipinos’ life polarized into the global mechanization of our identity. We lost our independent identity of good cause because we seem to colonize our own mentality that instead of working singly for the general public’s sake we work on our own for our ambitious desire.

Independence still remains to be a thing in the past. We are held contemptible of every action we do and the past is always a nightmare for us as every Filipino still finds no liberation whether as a nation or as an individual member of this nation. I always hope for that day in our lives seeing and hearing all Filipinos singing with gusto the Philippine national anthem without prejudice. But when? #