THE Philippines had never gained its total independence from foreign domination. We had been colonized by the Malayan people, Chinese, Dutch, British, Spaniards, Americans, Japanese, Arabs, Koreans and other colonizers and imperialists.
The Philippines had never stood up as an independent sovereign nation. We have always relied on the socio-political, educational, religious, cultural and most of all, financial aids and advises of foreign nations.
The Filipino mind and culture has been influenced greatly by foreign interventions. Our colonial mentality has dictated us that what is not ours is better.
We have been patronizing goods from other countries but had minimally patronized our local products. This has been the culture that had been handed down to us by generations. It seems like we had been too dependent of the foreign goods.
Our culture, behavior and attitudes have greatly been influenced by foreign ideas. Look at our new educational system; we have to tailor it to the system of the first world countries.
Our system is to produce workers and laborers for other countries. Our curricula and education program is tailored to answer the needs of the other countries and not the needs of our own country.
The textbooks are written in a language that is not ours. I salute the framers of the K-12 program that they mandated the teaching of the Hiligaynon or “mother tongue” in the early years of the system.
The great problem was that there is chaos as to what dialect shall be used in each region. Today, it still is back to the old stage where teachers have to teach using the local dialect but has to transform him to be good in a foreign or second language in the higher years.
Another problem is our politics. We do not have our own form of government. We had been so engrossed at studying the governments, Philosophies and ideologies.
However, we have failed to study our very own, if there is. One of the many conflicts we find is that many of these ideas are not compatible with the situation in the country. We have even adopted the graft and corrupt practices of our colonizers.
Our political exercise had been patterned to the western world – elections. We elect those who are popular and not those who are qualified. This is legacy given to us by our foreign “partners” or colonizers.
The Duterte administration is now implementing the Filipinization of the Philippines. He started recalling our OFWs. They have to work here and not work abroad and letting other countries get the best out of them.
If the government had only tapped these people, we could have overtaken the other economies of the world. We have all the resources which other First World countries do not enjoy. Why then should we waste our human and natural resources to their advantage?
Take a look at our environment. We have given a lot for the foreign tourists. Look at how they have destroyed our resources. They unscrupulously pour in investments at the expense of our natural resources.
Boracay is one good example of a devastated ecosystem because of unscrupulous businessmen and foreign investors. It was very easy to convince Filipinos to become dummies because of the colonial mentality attitude.
We need to have true independence. China and Japan became superpowers because they trusted in the power of the people and not of the investors. We need to trust each other in order to bring this country to a better position in the global arena.
Where is true independence, if we continue to sell our nation to investors?