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Tuesday, June 14, 2005
So: Letter to the Philippines
By Jocy L. So
Unraveling
* "Ang mga jueteng lords lang ata ang united kasi ang hirap-hirap i-split ang group nila. Parang mafia!"
DEAR Pilipinas,
Belated Happy Birthday ha! I planned to write this entirely in Filipino (or Pilipino? Tagalog? Ay, di ko alam, basta in our national language!) para uber-nationalistic daw, kaya lang di ko kaya, hanggang Taglish lang ako. Sorry.
Sana at least I could use straight Filipino, kasi wala akong ginawang celebration last June 12: no flag-waving, no reviewing of moldy Sibika and Philippine History textbooks, no texting "Happy Independence Day!"
I even skipped watching the Rizal movie showing in Cinema One. Kaya lang, kahit itong pagsusulat in Filipino, `di ko kaya. Parang my mental tongue is twisting and turning in pain. Kasi naman bakit pa Tagalog ang naging basis of our national language, e ilang percent lang ba ng buong Pilipinas ang magaling mag-Tagalog?
The result? You have a number of proud Cebuanos flatly refusing to speak in Filipino and instead using English to converse with fellow Filipinos. And you have a lot of Davaoenos (Sun.Star prefers to use Dabawenyos) who can speak both Bisaya and Filipino but tend to mix both to the mirth of true-blue Bisaya and Tagalogs. Example, tiglinis, matagal kaayo, and other linguistic intermarriages.
Hay Pilipinas! Parang ganun pa rin ang mga problema, no? Di ba sabi ng ibang scholars kaya raw di nagawang patalsikin ng ating mga ninuno ang mga Kastila kasi walang national unity. Kahit sa language, walang unity. E ngayon, parang ganun pa rin. 107 years na since Aguinaldo waved the flag from Kawit, Cavite, still no national unity.
Ang mga jueteng lords lang ata ang united kasi ang hirap-hirap i-split ang group nila. Parang mafia! Daig pa ang Beatles, sina Brat Pitt at Jennifer Aniston, at ang ibang mga Protestant houses of the Lord na konting gulo lang, divided na, etong mga gambling lords, drug lords, at iba pa, ang tight talaga nila!
June 12 na June 12 may mga balita na baka may People Power na naman. Nawawalan na ng meaning ang People Power sa kaka-People Power natin. Tapos, eh ganun pa rin naman ang result--greed in the form of corruption, injustice, and the growing divide between rich and poor. So, no real progress, no real change.
Kaya ayun, June 12, walang celebratory feeling. Mas masaya pa nung dumating si Willy ng Wowowee. Parang mas may sense of hope and a heart to party and have fun pa ang Davao nun kaysa nung June 12. Kasi naman Willy can give you pera and make your dreams come true, but for many Filipinos, this country of ours only gives us a series of depressing bayong after bayong after bayong.
A century after all the sacrifices of Rizal, Gomburza, Bonifacio, del Pilar, Luna, et al, eto tayo mas happy pa over Wowowee, mas interested pa kay Kris Aquino, mas excited pa over the NBA finals. Does all this mean we're bad citizens? Bad Filipinos?
Siguro `di tayo masyadong nagcelebrate last June 12 kasi kung tutuusin medyo di naman talaga tayo nagging malaya kasi sinakop tayo ng mga Amerikano, tapos Hapon, tapos Amerikano uli, tapos ng mga political buwaya, leeches, at sharks.
Or perhaps the problem is not that we Filipinos are not interested in celebrating Independence Day or that we're not keen on being nationalistic, it's just we don't really know how. I mean, are we being nationalistic if we stand during the Pambansang Awit ("Bayang Magiliw" to many) before the last full show?
Is it even necessary to play the national anthem inside the movie theater? How about writing in Taglish? `Di ba `to nationalistic? Or am I really subverting the language of the colonizer and making it my own?
Daming issues. Minsan mahirap talaga maging Pilipino.
Mahal mo ang bayan mo, kaya lang at times nakakawalang gana talaga mag-celebrate. Ang daming problema, ang daming nangyayari sa bansa natin na nakakahiya, nakaka-depress. Meron nga akong mga estudyante na nagsasabing sana colonized pa rin tayo, sana walang naging Independence Day.
How sad, as if all that our heroes and heroines did were but for naught. Siguro ganito rin ang feeling ni Moses nung nagreklamo ang mga Israelites na sana nasa Egypt pa rin sila. After all that had happened, after all the miracles that were performed, after all that God had done for the Israelites--sasabihin lang "Wish we were back in Egypt"? Sarap siguro batukan. Sarap itapon sa Red Sea.
Dear Philippines, sorry disappointing ang June 12. Sorry na even after 107 years, we as Filipinos are still struggling to get things right. Sorry na Taglish ako. Sorry na medyo subdued ang celebration. Hopefully, kahit papaano, it's the thought that counts.
Jocy L. So teaches at Davao Christian High School. Don't worry she teaches Social Studies, not Filipino.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (June 14, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
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