Palasan: Filipino First

THIS is not the Filipino First policy. It is not a policy at all. It is feeling, thinking, acting, in a word "living" with the Filipino interest in mind.

We are 7,107 islands, and if you remember Charlene Gonzales, who when asked in the Miss Universe tilt, it can be more, depending on the rise and fall of the tide. Geography alone makes us a fractious country.

We are composed of five major ethnic groups, plus 110 ethno-linguistic groups. Our diverse ethnographic-groupings make for unity a tall task. We are almost a tower of Babel strewn throughout the Philippine archipelago.

But we have agreed to live under one flag, and be led only by one government. Instead of focusing on our diversity, it is a must that we seek the common ground, that which would unify us. Division will only lead to further suffering.

That we are Filipino First before anything else is our common ground. It is that which has unifying factor despite the many cultures we have, and the many tongues that we speak.

In a clash of interests between Muslims and Christians, in the differences between Tagalogs and Cebuanos we need not magnify the differences as there are plenty. In national dialogue, we should seek a common ground which would allow us to live together in harmony.

In our political life, the division between "Dutertards" and "Yellowtards" is a false one, a diversity spawned largely by the ruling leaders. We don't have to live under these tag-lines.

In all these seeming divisions, being a Filipino is a unifying factor. Muslims, Christians, Tagalog, Visayan, we all breathe the same air, set foot on the same land, and swim in the same water. We salute only one flag, and sing only one anthem.

We have to magnify our commonality and transcend from our differences.

We cannot transcend from our differences if we do not reach out and listen to what the others are saying. To understand the position of the opposing view, one has to get the paradigm of the other.

The social media has been unwittingly the scourge of discourse. It is the digital platform where we magnify our differences and forget our commonality. Lies are being spread. Edited pictures and videos are being posted to distort the truth.

If only we give more weight to our being Filipinos, we need not slant and manufacture stories to defend the need for continuing communists' war in the countryside, to proclaim Jesus Christ as greater God than Allah, and to malign PNoy to exult Duterte.

The Filipino First attitude will enable us to transcend the parochial interests of our ethnic group, to be critical of the abuses of the NPA and military alike, to respect the Catholic faith of our brothers and to be tolerant of the Muslim practices. In all our groupings, we cannot be blinded of the truth in order to promote our interests.

If only we think, feel, and act as Filipino First, we won't be afraid to criticize the excesses of power of our leader, yet still, being in his fold. After all, our leaders are not infallible. They are mere mortals prone to committing mistakes. They do not speak ex cathedra. It is our bounden duty to keep them in check if their actions are not geared to the greater interests of the Filipino.

We don't have to insult each other in the social media in order to toe the one of our political leaders. Our political leaders must follow only one line, not theirs, not their enemies, but the Filipino First line.

If we associate and imbibe this Filipino first mentality, it is the Filipino interest, and not the self-serving interests of politicians, rebels, and Muslim anarchists that will prevail.

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