Sharing this piece at a time when Filipinos are experiencing sadness, anxiety and shame for the Luneta massacre last Aug.23 that was broadcasted worlwide.

 

The Filipino Today

 

By Alex Lacson

 

After the August 23 hostage drama, there is just too much negativityabout and against the Filipino.

 

“It is difficult to be a Filipino these days”, says a friend who worksin Hongkong. “Nakakahiya tayo”, “Only in the Philippines” were some ofthe comments lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles received in her Facebook.There is this email supposedly written by a Dutch married to aFilipina, with 2 kids, making a litany of the supposed stupidity oridiocy of Filipinos in general.  There was also this statement byFermi Wong, founder of Unison HongKong, where she said – “Filipinomaids have a very low status in our city”. Then there is this articlefrom a certain Daniel Wagner of Huffington Post, wherein he said hesees nothing good in our country’s future.

 

Clearly, the hostage crisis has spawned another crisis – a crisis offaith in the Filipino, one that exists in the minds of a significantnumber of Filipinos and some quarters in the world.

 

It is important for us Filipinos to take stock of ourselves as apeople – of who we truly are as a people. It is important that weremind ourselves who the Filipino really is, before our young childrenbelieve all this negativity that they hear and read about theFilipino.

 

We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us.

 

The August 23 hostage fiasco is now part of us as Filipinos, it beingpart now of our country’s and world’s history. But that is not allthat there is to the Filipino. Yes, we accept it as a failure on ourpart, a disappointment to HongKong, China and to the whole world.

 

But there is so much more about the Filipino.

 

In 1945, at the end of World War II, Hitler and his Nazi had killed more than 6 million Jews in Europe. But in 1939, when the Jews andtheir families were fleeing Europe at a time when several countriesrefused to open their doors to them, our Philippines did the highly risky and the unlikely –thru President Manuel L Quezon, we opened ourcountry’s doors and our nation’s heart to the fleeing and persecuted Jews. Eventually, some 1,200 Jews and their families made it toManila. Last 21 June 2010, or 70 years later, the first ever monument honoring Quezon and the Filipino nation for this “open door policy”was inaugurated on Israeli soil, at the 65-hectare Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon Le Zion, Israel.

 

The Filipino heart is one of history’s biggest, one of the world’s rare jewels, and one of humanity’s greatest treasures.

 

In 2007, Baldomero M. Olivera, a Filipino, was chosen and awarded as the Scientist for the Year 2007 by Harvard University Foundation, for his work in neurotoxins which is produced by venomous cone snails commonly found in the tropical waters of Philippines. Olivera is a distinguished professor of biology at University of Utah, USA. The Scientist for the Year 2007 award was given to him in recognition to his outstanding contribution to science, particularly to molecular biology and groundbreaking work with conotoxins. The research conducted by Olivera’s group became the basis for the production of commercial drug called Prialt (generic name – Ziconotide), which is considered more effective than morphine and does not result in addiction.

 

The Filipino mind is one of the world’s best, one of humanity’s great assets.

 

The Filipino is capable of greatness, of making great sacrifices for the greater good of the least of our people. Josette Biyo is an example of this. Biyo has masteral and doctoral degress from one of the top universities in the Philippines – the De La Salle University(Taft, Manila) – where she used to teach rich college students and was paid well for it. But Dr Biyo left all that and all the glamour of Manila, and chose to teach in a far-away public school in a rural area in the province, receiving the salary of less than US$ 300 a month.When asked why she did that, she replied “but who will teach our children?” In recognition of the rarity of her kind, the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States honoured Dr Biyo a very rare honor – by naming a small and new-discovered planet in our galaxy as “Biyo”.

 

The Filipino is one of humanity’s best examples on the greatness of human spirit!

 

Efren Penaflorida was born to a father who worked as a tricycle driver and a mother who worked as laundrywoman. Through sheer determinationand the help of other people, Penaflorida finished college. In 1997, Penaflorida and his friends formed a group that made pushcarts(kariton) and loaded them with books, pens, crayons, blackboard, clothes, jugs of water, and a Philippine flag. Then he and his group would go to the public cemetery, market and garbage dump sites in Cavite City – to teach street children with reading, math, basic literacy skills and values, to save them from illegal drugs and prevent them from joining gangs. Penaflorida and his group have been doing this for more than a decade. Last year, Penaflorida was chosen and awarded as CNN Hero for 2009.

 

Efren Penaflorida is one of the great human beings alive today. And he is a Filipino!

 

Nestor Suplico is yet another example of the Filipino’s nobility of spirit. Suplico was a taxi driver In New York. On 17 July 2004, Suplico drove 43 miles from New York City to Connecticut, USA to return the US$80,000 worth of jewelry (rare black pearls) to his passenger who forgot it at the back seat of his taxi. When his passenger offered to give him a reward, Suplico even refused the reward. He just asked to be reimbursed for his taxi fuel for his travel to Connecticut. At the time, Suplico was just earning $80 a day as a taxi driver. What do you call that? That’s honesty in its purest sense. That is decency most sublime. And it occurred in New York, the Big Apple City, where all kinds of snakes and sinners abound, and a place where – according to American novelist Sydney Sheldon – angels no longer descend. No wonder all New York newspapers called him “NewYork’s Most Honest Taxi Driver”. The New York City Government also held a ceremony to officially acknowledge his noble deed. The Philippine Senate passed a Resolution for giving honors to the Filipino people and our country.

 

In Singapore, Filipina Marites Perez-Galam, 33, a mother of four, found a wallet in a public toilet near the restaurant where she works as the head waitress found a wallet containing 16,000 Singaporean dollars (US $11,000). Maritess immediately handed the wallet to the restaurant manager of Imperial Herbal restaurant where she worked, located in Vivo City Mall. The manager in turn reported the lost money to the mall’s management. It took the Indonesian woman less than two hours to claim her lost wallet intended for her son’s ear surgery that she and her husband saved for the medical treatment. Maritess refused the reward offered by the grateful owner and said it was the right thing to do.

 

The Filipina, in features and physical beauty, is one of the world’s most beautiful creatures! Look at this list – Gemma Cruz became the first Filipina to win Miss International in 1964; Gloria Diaz won as Miss Universe in 1969; Aurora Pijuan won Miss International in 1970; Margie Moran won Miss Universe in 1973; Evangeline Pascual was 1st runner up in Miss World 1974; Melanie Marquez was Miss International in 1979; Ruffa Gutierrez was 2nd runner up in Miss World 1993; Charlene Gonzalez was Miss Universe finalist in 1994; Mirriam Quiambao was Miss Universe 1st runner up in 1999; and last week, Venus Raj was 4th runner up in Miss Universe pageant.

 

I can cite more great Filipinos like Ramon Magsaysay, Ninoy Aquino, Lea Salonga, Manny Pacquaio, Paeng Nepomuceno, Tony Meloto, Joey Velasco, Juan Luna and Jose Rizal. For truly, there are many more great Filipinos who define who we are as a people and as a nation –each one of them is part of each one of us, for they are Filipinos like us, for they are part of our history as a people.

 

What we see and hear of the Filipino today is not all that there is about the Filipino. I believe that the Filipino is higher and greater than all these that we see and hear about the Filipino. God has beautiful story for us as a people. And the story that we see today isbut a fleeting portion of that beautiful story that is yet to fully unfold before the eyes of our world.

 

So let’s rise as one people. Let’s pick up the pieces. Let’s ask for understanding and forgiveness for our failure. Let us also ask for space and time to correct our mistakes, so we can improve our system.

 

To all of you my fellow Filipinos, let’s keep on building the Filipino great and respectable in the eyes of our world – one story, two stories, three stories at a time – by your story, by my story, by your child’s story, by your story of excellence at work, by another Filipino’s honesty in dealing with others, by another Pinoy’s example of extreme sacrifice, by the faith in God we Filipinos are known for.

 

Every Filipino, wherever he or she maybe in the world today, is part of the solution. Each one of us is part of the answer. Every one of us is part of the hope we seek for our country. The Filipino will not become a world-class citizen unless we are able to build a world-class homeland in our Philippines.

 

We are a beautiful people. Let no one in the world take that beauty away from you. Let no one in the world take away that beauty away from any of your children! We just have to learn – very soon – to build a beautiful country for ourselves, with an honest and competent government in our midst.

 

Mga kababayan, after reading this, I ask you to do two things.

 

First, defend and protect the Filipino whenever you can, especially among your children. Fight all this negativity about the Filipino that is circulating in many parts of the world. Let us not allow this single incident define who the Filipino is, and who we are as a people. And second, demand for good leadership and good government from our leaders. Question both their actions and inaction; expose the follies of their policies and decisions. The only way we can perfect our system is by engaging it. The only way we can solve our problem, is by facing it, head on.

 

We are all builders of the beauty and greatness of the Filipino. We are the architects of our nation’s success.

 

To all the people of HK and China, especially the relatives of the victims, my family and I deeply mourn with the loss of your loved ones. Every life is precious. My family and I humbly ask for your understanding and forgiveness.

By Mayor Jesse Robredo

First Published on Abante Online, May 30, 2010 http://abante.com.ph/issue/may3010/op_jr.htm

 

Isa ang grupo naming Kaya Natin sa mga nagsimula ng organisasyong PiNOY Power. Ang organisasyong ito ay isa sa mga tumulong kay Senador Noynoy Aquino para kumalap ng mga volunteer na tutulong sa kanyang kampanya.

Maraming mga magagaling at masisipag na ordinaryong mga mamamayan ang sumapi sa PiNOY Power, nand’yan si Mae Paner na mas kilala bilang si Juana Change, si Esther Pacheco na isang kilalang tagapagtaguyod ng kalikasan, ang aking kababayan sa Bicol na si Dr. Ofelia Sy, and’yan din sina Paco Alcuaz at Ruby Gamboa na kabilang sa Kubol Pag-Asa, si JJ Soriano na isang negosyante, Si Fr. Arnold Abelardo na parating makikitang tumutulong kay Aquino sa kanyang mga lakad noong kampanya at kasama rin si Jim Paredes ng Artists Revolution. Marahil sinasalamin ng PiNOY Power ang naging kampanya ni Aquino nitong nakaraang halalan. Iba’t ibang mga Pilipino mula sa iba’t ibang mga grupo at trabaho ang nagsama-sama at nagtulungan upang isulong ang bagong pulitika sa ating bayan.

Ang maganda pa rito, marami sa mga taga-PiNOY Power kagaya ng marami pang ibang mga volunteer groups ang nagsakripisyo para lamang tumulong sa pagpapanalo kay Aquino. Marami sa kanila ang gumastos pa nga ng sariling pera para lamang makasama sa mga biyahe ng grupo ni Aquino at makatulong sa tuwing may mga sortie sa iba’t ibang mga probinsya. Minsan napadaan ako sa may Katipunan sa Quezon City at nakita ko na marami sa kanila ang nagdidikit ng mga dilaw na sticker sa mga kotseng dumadaan sa gitna ng init ng araw. Marahil ang iba pa riyan ay napabayaan din ng ilang buwan ang kanilang mga trabaho o negosyo, ginawa nila ang lahat ng ito para lamang sa pagbabago.

Ginawa nila ang lahat ng ito nang walang hinihinging kapalit kay Aquino.

Kaya naman sa tingin ko dapat ay mabigyan din ng pagkakataon ang mga grupong kagaya ng PiNOY Power na mapakinggan ni Aquino ngayong inaayos niya na ang kanyang mga programa at kung sinu-sino ang ilalagay niya sa kanyang gobyerno. Naging matagumpay ang kampanya ni Aquino dahil hindi lamang iilang grupo o pulitiko ang tumulong sa kanya datapwa’t libu-libong mga ordinaryong mga Pilipino ang nagtaya ng kanilang panahon, pawis, pera at oras para lamang magkaroon tayo ng isang marangal, mabuti at tapat na pinuno. Sa tingin ko, magiging matagumpay rin ang gobyerno ni Aquino kung kasama pa rin niya ang mga ordinaryong mga Pilipino na patuloy na tutulong sa kanya. Tandaan nating lahat na hindi nagtatapos sa kampanya at halalan ang ating laban para sa mas maunlad na bayan bagkus ang panalo ni Aquino ay umpisa lamang ng pagtahak natin sa landas ng reporma at pagbabago para sa mahal nating Pilipinas. Huwag nating kakalimutan na ang Laban na Tapat ay Laban ng Lahat!

***

Para sa inyong mga komento, magtext sa 0919-9575444.

By Marian Pastor Roces

First published in the Philippine Star May 16, 2010

People Power underwent striking transformations during the recently concluded campaign and elections. It ceased being a Metro Manila form of popular political expression, and morphed into a nationwide phenomenon. In fact, that “nation” now includes a virtual sphere populated by the Pinoys based in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, who gave considerable financial and artistic resources. And while it continued the fiesta-like political use of urban streets that characterized its 1986 vintage, People Power now takes place in more private spaces. Noynoy Aquino supporters everywhere in the archipelago launched self-initiated, largely self-funded campaign projects from graphics studios, t-shirt and plastic jewelry shops, clubs, homes, schools, malls, even cars; and bought up the millions of miles of yellow ribbons that repainted the campaign landscape.

Too, the youth took up this 1980’s political form up in a big way, feeding appreciably into a multi-generational demonstration of a political mood. Engaging competing camps through cell phones and computers, they maintained a lighthearted poise in the face of dismissal by some of their peers, who wrongly perceived sentimentality, cult-ish behavior, and mababaw politics.

As already well-remarked, Filipinos everywhere exhibited a will to vote that defied oven-like conditions in precinct queues that lasted unbearable numbers of hours. The remarkable perseverance was likely shared by partisans of all colors, although it was plain that the yellow people had spontaneously chosen the queue itself as an “EDSA.” Standing in line, often helping the infirm and pacifying the angry, they signaled a fully emergent, new form of People Power.

People Power, it turns out, is not what majority of the pundits and candidates thought. It is not exhausted, instead materializing in unexpected ways. It has succumbed to neither cynicism nor apathy, instead gaining overdrive from these accusations of cynicism and apathy. Although it had temporarily gone underground (like a lot of Filipino cultural traits), it transforms during hibernation into a welter of innovations. And while it could have become a “bad habit” — the predeliction for extra-Constitutional regime change that foreign journalists have bemoaned — this possibility was halted by the appropriation of People Power by entirely middle class and elite forces during its anti-Erap manifestation in 2000.

These leadership circles largely regretted helping install Gloria M. Arroyo to the presidency, and they came to regard People Power with some embarrassment and a bad taste in the mouth. Following this regret, they entertained doubts about the existence of a mass-based will to change; and indulged, often with bitterness, in maligning Filipinos in general for not joining the anti-GMA protest actions. A number of original People Power stalwarts retreated to their middle-classness and imagined the Filipino to be insensible to anything but the source of food on their cardboard tables.

Most destructively, belief in People Power came to be conflated with populism. In the last decade, the distinction was blurred between faith in People Power and populist operations such as Erap-style rabble rousing inciting class conflict; Willie Revillame mass manipulation; Marcosian crowd management; and pseudo crowds gathered by candidates who paid for the numbers. But populism, with its negative inflection, is hardly appropriate for describing a confidence in this Filipino original: non-violent, altruistic, and creative expressions of the will for political change, driven by the self-generated contributions of multitudes. The distinction has to be re-drawn between populist operations designed by cynical leaders, on one hand, and on the other, genuine popular consensus forming a historical zeitgeist.

Unfortunately, there is no better term at the moment for this phenomenon other than People Power. Limited as it is, the term will hence have to accommodate qualities beyond its EDSA-bound original shape. Its wellsprings transcend class (at least in 1986 and 2010), and indeed draws energy from the underclasses, among whom consensus is formed through non-modern dynamics that deserve respectful attention. Among the crucial lessons to be learned from the recent elections is that People Power is bigger and more important than its leaders and principal beneficiaries.

Popular consensus built up almost overnight around the Aquino candidacy from August 2009, when former President Corazon Aquino died. Because Benigno Aquino III is now the President-apparent, a mere nine months later, analysis is necessarily on the run. People Power will of course be exalted, but unlikely be grasped accurately. It may well be forgotten that an emergent 2010-style People Power drafted the Senator, not the Liberal Party nor the quasi NGO bodies in the campaign. It may escape the new or renewed powers-that-be that it is People Power that delivered the vote for Aquino — nebulous as this mass form is, and despite the errors of and infighting among his strategists.

Political analysts ascribe the vote for Aquino to an emotional response to parental aura, or to expert messaging. Neither supposition respects the majority, and smells of disdain. How that majority really thinks and chooses leaders should challenge political science and throw doubt on the efficacy of its instruments. And because it may also be People Power that complicated the vice-Presidential race, it seems the social sciences can use a new tool kit.

“We just have to count on the people,” Aquino was quoted as having said, in the Asia Sentinel. The writer editorialized that “It sounded painfully naïve.” Perhaps it was not so naïve, after all.

Marian Pastor Roces is a Trustee of Pinoy Power Tayo ang Taumbayan Tayo ang Pagbabago Inc. She is specialist in the cultural analysis of the political field.