by Karl M. Gaspar, CSsR
June 14 (PIA) -- Here comes the bride, all dressed in
white. This sentence – usually sung – figures prominently this month
as June supposedly has been the preferred month for weddings as the woman in
white wants to be known as a June bride.
But June is also the month when on one of its
days–today–Filipinos celebrate their Independence Day. It used to be that in
all small towns and cities across the archipelago, the day would be celebrated
with a flag-raising ceremony at the town or city hall grounds and a parade
followed with a program of prayers, speeches and Filipino songs and
dances. In the 50s-60s when I was growing up in Digos City, it was
compulsory for all students to join the parade. Of course, attendance was
checked. But if memory serves me right, I think I was born already when
the Independence Day celebrated by my parents was July 4, which is the USA’s
Freedom Day and now labeled in our country as Philippine-American Friendship
Day!
(An aside: if the Americans have been
treating us as friends, and yet look at how Washington has treated us shabbily
through history, imagine if the USA were our enemy?)
So how is Independence Day being celebrated
today throughout the Republic (supposedly one of the first to arise in
Asia)? I am sure there are flag-raising ceremonies to which public
servants in the State’s bureaucracy from Malacañang all the way down to the
lowliest barangays are required to attend. Check attendance, of course.
My hunch is that very few local government units organize a parade with all
that jazz – floats with historical scenes, barangay contingents, the police and
military brandishing their guns and a loud marching band with majorettes revealing
their sexy legs and thighs! Those were the parades I saw in my youth.
The TV networks, of course, outdo one another
to have their Independence Day pakulo. But one wonders, if their
Independence Day specials – mainly composed of songs sung by their own celebrities
punctuated with advertisements promoting foreign products – really is a
heartfelt valentine to the Filipino people. One can’t help but be cynical about
this, as TV networks – viciously outdoing one another for the almighty ratings
– just want to have seduce people’s patronage on a day when most family members
are relaxing at home.
If today is really a day for us to celebrate
our having attained an independent sovereign Republic status (read: we finally
shattered the chains that enslaved us to colonial imprisonment) how can we
celebrate it meaningfully? Well, we will need to deconstruct the word –
Independence. Independent from whom and from what? We all know that
shortly after our Republic’s founding parents declared the Republic inside
the Barasoian church, another Western State attacked us; consequently, we got
shackled again by the chains of colonial rule. Spain (a colonial power
that invented the Inquisition) sold us to the United States of America (a
colonial power that introduced Benevolent Assimilation which is an oxymoron;
what was so benevolent about all that massacres that Americans committed
against our people from Manila to Samar to Bud Dajo in Jolo?).
While today we should remember the Kagalang-galangan’g
Kataas-taasan’g Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan and all the nation’s bayanis
- men and women, elders and youth, elite illustrado and masang magsasaka,
Tagalogs and all others, pre-colonial and post-colonial - whose
heroic exploits led us to that day at the Barasoian church, perhaps it is time
our remembrance of this day will not just be an exercise of returning to the
past but taking stock of where we are at present and projecting ourselves to
the future. We need to expand our vision of what it is to be a truly
independent nation-state in the context of today’s realities not just in the
realm of the socio-political-economic, but also that of the
cultural-ecological.
Here is this writer’s humble suggestion as to
how we can make our Independence Day this year far more memorable than just
having a flag-raising ceremony and cocktails at Malacañang. We can expand the
KKK’s coverage to read as Kagalang-galangan’g, Kataas-taasan’g Kalikasan.
For truth be told, we need to immensely respect what would be the apex of God’s
creation, namely Mother Nature of which we – human beings – are but a small
unit. In fact, we are Johnny-come-latelys to this scene compared to other
species who have been in this planet thousands upon thousands of years before
the homo erectus made its entrance in this landscape.
Vis-a-vis policies and programs related to
ecology - considering the threat of mass destruction that could come about if
climate change worsens – it is important for us Filipinos to work towards
sovereignty in regard to how we deal with the environment.
Thus, we should pressure our government – if
it is truly of, by and for the people – to adopt nationalist policies in terms
of the kind of investments the State should promote. We should not allow
foreign entities with their local partners to lord it over our patrimony;
instead we should push for our people’s control over our resources which
are found in our remaining forests, seas and beneath the earth. We
should become active advocates promoting alternative sources of energy,
protecting our people from destruction that comes about because of what we do
to our environment and we should do our best to be engaged in risk-reduction
given how our islands are so vulnerable to the vagaries of natural calamities.
So Filipino people, especially those of you
in Mindanao, particular in Davao City, support campaigns that would:
-
Stop all kinds of mining – especially open-pit mining – that destroy our
eco-system, impoverish our people further especially the Lumad who get
dislocated with such schemes, create animosities among us who are at the losing
end of such operations and will contribute further to global warming.
-
Resist the setting up of coal-fire power plants everywhere.
-
Resist the temptation to explore nuclear power
-
Stop the housing projects aimed at Maa Shrine Hills and turn this place into a
park that will benefit all of Davao City’s residents (this could be duplicated
in all other towns and cities in the country where hills are usually turned
into high-end housing estates without regard to the possible landslides that
could happen)
-
Stop continuing destruction of our mangroves, coral reefs and forests
-
Plant more trees; for the DENR to allocate more funds for reforestation (and
not just plant fast-growing trees but our indigenous hard wood trees)
-
Promote organic farming and cultivation of herbs for food and medicine
purposes
-
Anything and everything that is good for the integrity of creation.
-
Anything and everything that will make Mother Nature independent from those who
are so greedy they only care for the now and not tomorrow, for themselves and
not for most people and the generations still to come (vis-a-vis the
discourse of inter-generational justice) and for the material benefits
they can squeeze out of the environment rather than the so many other benefits
we derive when we truly love creation as a gift of our Creator.
Happy Independence Day everyone! And to the June
brides and bridegrooms: insist on wedding ceremonies and reception parties that
help protect rather than destroy Mother Nature who is the source of all LOVE.
(KMG/RVC/PIA9-ZBST)