Being a Filipino

HAPPY (?) INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Photo taken from: www.filipinoexpress.com

I've been in the john mulling about the what-nots of life when I suddenly realized that today is the 12th wherein everyone who calls themselves FILIPINO is supposed to be celebrating our great INDEPENDENCE day!

I searched through my entries faintly remembering the words that I wrote in my Independence Day dedicated entry a year back. How strange for me to read the words I spewed out that day. I talked about things with such fervor that it almost sounds like I have a rallyist's blood surging through my being. Tsk! Tsk! It almost seemed like it was a long time since I wrote that entry.

My dearest voyeurs, Happy Independence Day! ^_^

*****

IN SEARCH OF THE FILIPINO

"noypi"
By Bambo0

Tingnan mo ang iyong palad
Kalyado mong kamay
Sa hirap ng buhay
Sa dami mong problema
Nakuha mo pang ngumiti
Noypi ka nga. Astig.

Saan ka man naroroon, wag kang matatakot sa baril o patalim
Sa bakas na madilim

Hoy pinoy ako
Buo aking loob, may agimat ang dugo ko

Sinisid ko ang dagat
Nilibot ko ang mundo
Nasa puso ko pala and hinahanap kong kulo
Ilang beses nakong muntikang mamatay
Alam ko ang sekreto kaya't nandito pa't buhay

Sabi nila may anting-anting ako
pero di nila alam na Diyos and dahilan ko

Hoy pinoy ako
Buo aking loob, may agimat ang dugo ko

Dinig mo ba ang bulong ng lahi mo
Isigaw mo kapatid ang himig natin

Has anyone of you ever thought who or what is a FILIPINO? How did we ever become a FILIPINO? Are those people who uprooted themselves from our Islands and planted themselves to a "greener soil" still could be called FILIPINOS?

These thoughts have been running inside my head for quite sometime now. They suddenly became somewhat like those glaring billboards that we often see on Edsa when Nanay started lecturing my youngest brother on saying "opo" and "po" even though he might be speaking in English with a Canadian twang. As you all know, in just a short while our whole family will be moving to Canada. Foreign people in foreign soil dreaming and hoping for the GOOD life. Aspiring for every migrant's dream.

What makes me a Filipino? Does having a Filipino passport suffice to my being one? Does speaking in Tagalog make me a Filipino? Does eating things like Sinigang, adobo, bagoong make me Filipino? Would I lose my sense of being a Filipino when I move to Canada? And lastly would I forget that I am a Filipino?

I guess all this things can be answered by the fact that I'm planning to go back here once I get my citizenship. I may be absent for five years living the Canadian way and reaching for a Filipino-Canadian's dream of a better life, but my heart and my sould would always be here in Manila. I guess I would always consider myself a Filipino though I would soon be living in a foreign soil.

*****

NOLI ME TANGERE/ TOUCH ME NOT

I've re-read Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo during these past few months that I have been a bum and an official OSY [out-of-school-youth]. I never really gave much attention during my highschool days. It was during my JPRizal that a part of me was somehow nudged by our National Hero Jose Rizal and his masterpieces.

When I re-read Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, I saw the ideas that fascinated and sparked superfluous words from my highschool Filipino teacher. I saw the problems told by Rizal during his times in our day. I saw the Maria Clara-Crisostomo Ibarra love story that seemed to be the pattern for most of the telenovelas of our time. I saw the idealist Crisostomo Ibarra in some of my friends. I saw the filibustering of the tribunal in El Filibusterimso in the canvassing of votes in our time. I saw the truth in Rizal's work.

I guess, it's only now that I really, really saw the wisdom in Rizal's words. Hopefully, in the near future the problems of our time and Rizal's time would eventually be resolved. We really do have to look back at our past to learn from our mistake and so that we could also better govern ourselves.

*****

I am Angel. . . Filipino in heart and soul!