FOR as long as we rely on other nations for our own safety, we will never be truly free. The recently signed accord between the Philippine government and that of the United States of America (USA) on the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) taunts our sovereignty more than anything. It is as if big brother America’s benevolence is so all-encompassing such that it would stop at nothing to lend a helping hand to its wimpy little brown brother as we are made to believe by our gullible government.
Don’t get me wrong. I have every respect and appreciation for many among the American people who truly look out for
the betterment of their less privileged brothers and sisters in poor countries such as ours. Many of them are genuinely concerned when calamities struck our country many times recently, and it could be said that not many of them agrees with their government’s interventionist stance in local affairs, especially those that include military assistance.
While EDCA is made to look like it’s just a symbiotic relationship such that they (the US) provides assistance
during calamities and “outside” threat to our sovereignty such as the one being posed by China on our shores and the so-called Al-Qaida threats in the south, the hidden manipulation to suit its long standing purposes leaves a lot of our compatriots wondering.
That is why celebrating our so-called Independence leaves a bad taste in the mouth. We know for a fact that our shores are strategically located such that it is seen by the superpowers as an ideal spot for their defense against
aggression by the superpowers in the world.
The ordinary folks might not even care about these things, but it should be worth reading the signs these days. We have driven out government forces not so long ago, and we thought we were finally truly free. But not long after, President P-Noy happily squandered it, in exchange for what, military assistance in its failed efforts to quell the clamour for Justice and Peace among its citizen.
We have to relearn our history, because not many among our compatriots still believe in the myth spun by our history books that it was Uncle Sam that freed Filipinos from the shackles of slavery. It was the sweat and blood of our fore-parents who actually made our living a little better today. It was their struggle against imperialists’ control that brought us to where we are now.
The sacrifices of the many unsung heroes during the generation before us have made us truly free, but then
again, we were never taught to think this way, sadly…