The loud voice from the entrance seemed to awaken everyone in the compound. Even a nocturnal guy like me, who spends the wee hours of the morning watching tacky movies like Bruno and Borat, was moved out of bed by a man’s jovial yet familiar voice.
I was not mistaken. It was Kuyang Rey, the buddy of my father-in-law, whose loquacious nature had made the people in the barangay think that he was good for nothing except for gossiping.
At first, what he was saying was confusing, but everything became clear when I heard the whole conversation between him and two of my uncles.
“We already have a ‘poso’ (manual water pump), and it was courtesy of Kumpareng Andong.”
“Also, just to inform you, since my kumpare is running for the seat of barangay captain, everything that we request from him will be granted.”
“Mind you, people, this is our opportunity.”
Once called as ‘barrio’, a barangay is the smallest administrative unit in the Philippines headed by a ‘kapitan’ (captain or chairman) and several ‘kagawads’ (assistants).
All this news elicited excitement from the faces of my aunts and uncles. Some of them inquired if the candidate would be willing to donate a truckload of gravel and sand, hollow blocks, or even an entire roof for the house!
One even asked if, on the day before the election, Andong would seal his victory by giving every voter of Barangay Burgos five hundred pesos (about US$ 10).
Amidst the bewilderment, my cousin boasted that the other candidate could provide what this aspiring barangay captain could give.
“Manong Tolome can double what you’ve been receiving from your Andong,” Untoy(my cousin’s nickname) said with pride and a look that seemed to challenge Kuyang Rey.
“I heard that Manong Tolome shouldered the electric bill of the Tolentinos, provided all the bottles of beer during the birthday of Sidro, and this is the real kicker–he’s been giving a thousand pesos (US$ 20) to every single voter of Purok 2 in our barangay.”
The statement caused quite a stir as well as excitement among my relatives. As for me, I was half happy to hear that Kuyang Rey’s family does not have to go to the neighbor to fetch pails of water to flush out their shit since they already have their poso.
Although it was a big deal for them, I was sadder than happy. Ah, I almost forgot that barangay elections would again take place in a couple of weeks.
Campaign materials for the Barangay and SK elections along Roces Avenue in Quezon City on May 10, 2018. Photo by Maria Tan
The pomp and all too sudden generosity we only witnessed from the mayoral and congressional wannabes had already seeped into the barangay level. It is just amazing, fucking amazing to witness how some kagawadand barangay chairmancandidates could provide a poso or visit a birthday celebrant’s party and shower them with a variety of gifts. They attend the funeral rites of a friend of a friend, meet and greet the elders, have pictures of them taken carrying a child or kissing a filthy old man, and whatever.
They visit you, shake your hands, and beg for your vote. Together with their so-called supporters, they roam the streets riding an ‘owner jeepney’ equipped with loudspeakers playing a song by Inigo Pascual with modified lyrics to promote their advocacies—the same old stupid scene.
What are their advocacies? It varies from very personal to general, but regardless of their advocacies, what they would do remains blurry and puzzling.
And let us not forget the one-liners of these “prominent” candidates. Their print ads read “Maaasahan mo” (Someone you can lean on), “Ipaglalaban ka” (I would fight for you.), “Ang Tatay ng Barangay” (The patriarch of the barangay), “Kay Dodong, Panalo Tayo” (With Dodong, We are the winners), “Una Ka Kay Manang Tasya” (You are the priority of Elder Tasya) and other fascinating promises.
No matter how sweet and promising their one-liners are, they do not seem to meet or even exceed the standards of good governance.
The country is very notorious for its corruption –down to the ‘barangay’ level.
A perfect example would be the one who campaigned that he is “someone you can lean on”. Leaning on, in the context of public service, is neither the kagawad who would provide the cases of beer during the birthday party of a barangay member nor the barangay chairman himself would shoulder the sacks of cement for house construction.
“Someone to lean on” is a leader who organizes scholarship funds and livelihood programs. To see to it that the jobless are encouraged to join a business cooperative. Every barangay member is taught garbage segregation and proper disposal. That no one is seen consuming alcohol or smoking in public places, or even simply to espouse cleanliness and discipline, is to say that the barangaychairman is genuinely someone you can lean on.
“Ipaglalaban ka” does not mean that when a person is the cause of a brawl, all he has to do is to ask for the help of kagawad, and his wrongdoings would be tolerated and that he would be defended no matter how wrong he is.
When a candidate pledges that “he would fight for you,” he will defend what is morally right even if the deed is deemed unpopular. Fighting for someone is fighting for the rights of the oppressed, whether he is your associate or not.
When someone claims that “he is the patriarch of the barangay,” he should see that his words and actions are acceptable. He should take concrete steps to maintain the health and well-being of every barangay member by integrating medical missions –just like a father who wants all his children to be healthy.
He should not take sides during barangay hearings but rather punish the wrongdoer. The punishment should be like this: it comes from a concerned father who does not want his son to become the bane of the barangay. The world has too many assholes already.
While the candidates enjoy the perception that the people appreciate them for their advocacies and promises, they appear to be ignorant concerning the long-term needs of their constituents. They usually offer short-term and patchwork solutions to the same old problems haunting and destroying Filipino values for centuries.
I pity Kuyang Rey and most Filipino people in this situation. While the politician’s generosity in providing the poso, construction materials, or even cinema passes (yes, free movies) appears to be a class act, it defeats the concept of self-reliance and the value of hard work.
A lack of money is not an excuse for working-class Filipinos to depend on other people –especially politicians. By giving Kuyang Rey’s family the poso, the candidate did not help him. It only made Kuyang Rey even worse.
Money for your vote.
After all, it is not the barangay chairman’s task to provide a family with a deep-well pumping machine; it is the job of the Padre de Familia to invest in all the essential things his family needs. It’s not the church, DSWD, PCSO, or other charitable organization responsible for one’s needs but the person himself.
A well-meaning politician would coordinate with the water company instead of the poso so that everyone in the barangay, not just a few families, would benefit.
Instead of construction materials, why not gradually help the person find a decent job to build his house from sweat?
Instead of movie passes to get the teen votes, a resource speaker can be invited to the barangay hall to give English proficiency classes.
Poso is good for only one family, but an efficient water distribution system benefits the entire community.
A hundred-fifty hollow block is good only for Aling Bebang’s comfort room, but a job opportunity would enable every father in the barangay to build a house of his dreams.
A movie pass or two would be a temporary escape from the harsh realities of life, but an English proficiency class could equip them with confidence in finding a job.
Ah, to hell with the shallow minds of these politicians. Politics is as dirty as a charcoaled rug.
As I wrote this, my drinking buddy texted me that Andong would come to our compound tomorrow to shower us with paper bills. Many of them depict the face of a brilliant senator assassinated at Manila’s main airport in the early ’80s—the five-hundred peso bill.
Maybe the money is enough to buy me a pair of jeans, a cellphone ‘load‘ good for a month, or even wax and tire black for my dying jeep. After all, the entire barangay won’t even know if I sold my soul.
Nah, I’ll sleep all day tomorrow, and Kuyang Rey will never be able to wake me up, even with a megaphone.
In Manila, it is not uncommon to see mothers spending countless hours playing bingo, ‘tong-its’ (local version of poker), or mahjong while neglecting household chores.
Mothers are mindless of their children crying and unaware that they are burning hard-earned money their husbands had brought home from scavenging or construction work. Look around; there would always be dirty kids running and playing and not giving a damn if they have taken a bath. There would also be kids who, instead of being in school, must work daily to help their parents make ends meet.
Their jobs vary, from digging the muddy and heavily-polluted seabed of Manila Bay to getting pieces of metals, which they call ‘kalakal’ (merchandise) to sell at opportunistic junk shops, to carrying heavy loads of fruits and vegetables in the early hours of the day.
In the streets, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see jobless but non-disabled men on drinking sprees in front of ‘sari-sari’(a small family-operated shop typically attached to the house) stores. They laugh heartily at their senseless conversations because they don’t even know whether they’ll have something to feed their family the next day. They flaunt their big bellies, their tattooed arms, and worst of all; they brazenly display unproductiveness.
On the next block, it is also hard not to notice a group of teenagers, most thin as bamboo and nutritionally deficient like dying carnations. A few of them are playing ‘Cara y Cruz (heads or tails), some would be smoking weed, others are snorting ‘shabu‘ (crystal meth), and some would be sniffing ‘rugby (contact cement) –filled‘ plastic bags to get their highs to mask out their miseries temporarily. These youngsters are not few. Like a vicious cycle, they spawn like rabbits and would join similar ill-fated, innocent souls in sordid existence. But is it all about fate?
Take a casual walk on the streets, and you will notice how informal settlers -squatters- have mushroomed throughout the country, whether in urban or rural areas. The streets are where we would realize that we have not seen and experienced the worst. Scrap materials made into shanties occupied by many as fifteen. They try to fit themselves in a ramshackle abode as small as a bathroom of a typical middle-class family. Here, “houses” are contraptions of recycled wood, flattened biscuit containers, plastic rice sacks, damaged tires, tarpaulins of stupid politicians or B-movie ads, and an assortment of junk. No architectural plans, no concrete, no hollow blocks, no metal trusses, no hope.
A common sight in the urban areas of the Philippines due to overpopulation
There will be mixed emotions on seeing the appalling living conditions of the increasing number of Filipinos. Some would feel sorry because of the plight of the children. Their parents could barely provide them with toys. There’s just one meal in a day, Education good only until the 8th grade, A house comparable to those made for pigeons, and a whopping PHP 150 (about US$ 3) a day take-home pay by the breadwinner. What a fucking way to live a short life.
To observant eyes, how some parents managed to have too many children -without any means of providing them a good foundation in childhood like regular meals, decent shelter, education, clothing, toys, playtime, etc. – clearly borders on ignorance. But, regardless of how we come up with why these people are wallowing in poverty, there is only one thing clear to everyone: the Philippines has swiftly become an overpopulated hell.
The problems that stem from overpopulation are beyond count. One frustration is that locally-produced agricultural products would always be insufficient to feed the entire population because there is a mismatch between the producer and the consumer. The people -as well as consumption- overpower production. Surely and steadily, more and more Filipinos are filling their pie holes with imported products, which is a bane to the economy.
Another hassle presented by population sprawl is job opportunities. Millions would compete against each other over a few job openings; it would be a dog eats dog situation. Small companies tend to hire only seasoned workers and don’t prioritize new graduates. College degrees would be useless; diplomas would be senseless. Only a handful with the skills (and the right connections & recommendations) would be lucky enough to secure employment, and the rest would be jobless, unable to support their families.
Overpopulation is a bane for any government. Three or more patients would share a filthy bed, one with tuberculosis and others with dengue fever. In the ER, people needing immediate care will have to wait. Victims of vehicular accidents would have a very slim chance of survival because only three exhausted doctors are attending to twenty emergency cases.
Inside the maternity ward of an overcrowded hospital in the Philippines
The educational system is another government service that would suffer greatly due to overpopulation. How can we have quality education if one classroom holds one hundred-plus pupil? How can these students focus on learning if classrooms are like a can of sardines?
Can senior high school students comprehend solid measurement or even the basics of Algebra if their classroom is as hot as an oven toaster? How can grade ten students appreciate the epics of Homer and Ovid or the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky? They do not even have a decent chair to sit in or a hygienic restroom to relieve themselves. Or even a comfortable library where they could read books and write poems?
What about the teachers? Can we expect them to be effective? By holding a class in a jam-packed room, the precious time allotted to teaching would be wasted calling attention and reprimanding the foolish ones. With a ballooning population, schools would turn into a chaotic mecca.
An elementary classroom crowded with students is typical in the Philippines.
As stated earlier, overpopulation will bring infinite aggravation. As this currently troubles us, most Filipinos are unaware of the inconvenience it brings to our economy and our future.
It is also worth noting that overextended families come from the poorest sector of the population. A friend of mine told me about a friend who has nine children, the eldest being twenty-two and unable to finish high school. The youngest is in the first grade, barely bringing a meal to school because of abject poverty. The bold, or should I say, the stupid father has no other source of income but through driving a tricycle which he does not even own. The head of the family brings home PHP 150 a day, and it is up to the readers to imagine how the family gets through with the daily expenses.
How can a financially-strapped couple summon the courage (or have the common sense) to have such a big family? Could this be attributed to the Filipinos’ penchant for the “Bahala-na-ang-Diyos” (God will provide) mentality?
What could be the culprit in this vicious cycle of boundless reproduction? Is it the administration? I’m sure the government is doing all it can to educate people about family planning. For today’s youth, is it easy to access pornographic and lustful websites? Perhaps, it could be a factor, but it is controllable. Working or not, some countries censor the Internet to filter the materials its people can see. Is it the people themselves? The root causes of overpopulation depend on many factors. But, in the Philippines, the Catholic Church is both a powerful and unstoppable force regarding the pyramiding population.
The church is opposed to artificial contraception, and this belief dates back to the first centuries of Christianity. Such acts are intrinsically disordered because of the view that all sexual acts must be open to procreation. There was even a point when the church allowed birth control – but only through abstinence. The Vatican even released a document entitled “Vademecum for Confessors,” which stated, “the Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception.”
Furthermore, the church had always pointed to the Holy Bible as it lies in Genesis 1:28, which states, “God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and the animals that scurry along the ground“. The fanatics and the Bible warriors do have a point, though. Who else is to govern all the blessings this world has to give but the people? Who else is to harvest the products of the fruit-bearing trees and cut the wood afterward, not minding landslides and pollution, but the people? Who else is to fish the sea in a greedy manner using dynamite and toxic chemicals but the people? Who else would carve the beautiful and natural shapes of mountains and hills to get precious stones but the people? Who else is to hunt the rare and exotic animals for money’s sake but the people?
We, the people, are commissioned by the Creator to be the stewards of nature. And, as the logic goes, we should multiply. Even if reproducing is limitless. Even if multiplying equates to self-destruction, isn’t it more sinful to bear when future generations have to suffer?
Who can contest the church’s uptake and exposition of inscriptions when, for a thousand years, they have been used to punish those who dare to question, to subject them to inquisitions, to tell everyone that the Creator’s grace and mercy are exclusive to those who kneel before man-made images purchased in the streets of Tayuman, and to baptize an innocent infant before he even gets a chance to choose the faith he prefers.
The Manila Cathedral in Intramuros serves as the Episcopal See of the Archbishop of Manila.
It has become our habit to follow and believe whatever the man in the white suit, whose car displays the Veritas sticker, tells us. “We follow without question. ” “We follow with the highest reverence.” “We follow with the fear of hell if we do not follow.” It is funny that after the priest chants a Latin phrase, of which the significance or meaning is unknown to many of us, we instinctively chant ‘amen.’ It is funny that the Filipinos, the majority of whom are Catholics, abstain from eating pork during Lent to shun extravagance, only to fill their dining tables with more expensive seafood fares like lobsters, grilled blue marlin, and giant prawns. These make me want to fry hotdogs using floor wax.
Church crusaders should be more realistic in taking a stand regarding the increasing population and traditional faith. While priests are busy preaching ‘multiplication’ and procreation, overpopulation is markedly taking its toll on the Filipinos – hospitals becoming smaller, schools becoming canned sardines, job opportunities becoming elusive, farmlands turning into subdivisions virtually overnight. While the gross domestic product (GDP) grows, our per capita income becomes smaller. And, as always, the rich become richer and the poor. Whatever!
Is this what the Creator planned our country to be? I doubt He wants most of us to live in dire poverty and disorder. I also suspect that the church accurately amplifies the Creator’s orders based on how He wants things to be. A little coherence and correction would not destroy the credibility of the church. The church should also review its stand on procreation’ in light of the changing world.
The price of enlightenment is just too expensive for the country and the people that have long been under the grip of a compelling and untouchable force.
Who would not want a new car or an SUV? In a poverty-stricken country like the Philippines, it is sardonic to see that while most people still complain about having inconsiderable money to make ends meet, the majority still quench their insatiable thirst for imported cars, be it through installment or cash.
Go to the nearest highway, and you will see a fleet of Fortuner, Montero, Impreza, Accent, and many more Japanese, American, or European cars passing by the ramshackle jeepney—pure mockery at its very best.
For the coffee lovers and those pretending to be such, who can resist a posh place like Gloria Jean’s or Seattle’s Best to get a tall and expensive frap, frape, prafe?? Well, whatever the spelling is, and a small and costly blueberry cheesecake.
After all, nobody wants to miss the complicated bar counter behind which all the blenders and grinders are displayed as if to remind you they are processing your cappuccino. Have you noticed how foreign coffee shops have sprouted all over the archipelago and slowly but surely replaced malls, parks, fast food chains, and cockpit arenas?
Well, that is just coffee. Let us switch to technology. When it comes to cellular phones or other gadgets, Filipinos will never be the last human race to use the latest Apple-manufactured communication device, despite the fact that it is really expensive.
A phone is a necessity these days, but it makes me wonder why an average Pinoy worker, despite the daily earning of the minimum wage, which just suits his payment for house rental, electricity, water bill, and food, opts to purchase this product of the late Steve Jobs over the cheaper phone. A forty-five thousand iPhone over a three thousand locally made phones? Come on, it’s no longer a matter of freedom or choice —it’s already wanton frolic.
English: La Loma Cemetery in Manila (1900) used as a fort by the Filipinos, shelled by Dewey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Apart from purchasing imported cars, brewed coffee, and sophisticated phones, other things violate our sense of nationalism. A perfect example is those Filipinos who spend their life savings just to set their feet in foreign countries for vacation. Filipino travelers often blurt out, “There is a promo for a one-week stay at the Venetian in Macau; let’s grab it,” or “I will never get to visit Singapore again, so why don’t we grab the Cebu Pacific promo?”.
Visiting foreign countries and cities more than touring local places like Dingalan, Pagudpud, Puerto Princesa, or even the overly abused Boracay gives everyone the impression that there is no decent place to visit in the Philippines at all. It’s no wonder why travel agencies promote scenic areas in other countries like The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Sao Paulo Beach, and others. They know how to flatter Filipinos because they can see through us.
There is no accurate rationale for why we are into anything external or foreign. The closest thing to support the notion of colonial mentality among Filipinos is that a handful of colonizers have conquered us. In Teodoro Agoncillo’s book History of the Filipino People (1960), the author stated that long before the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521, we had been in constant trade with the Chinese people. The trade, which was then called the “Porcelain Trade,” probably started centuries before the advent of the Sung Dynasty. The Chinese exchanged silk, porcelain, colored glass, beads, and ironware for the Filipinos’ hemp cloth, tortoise shells, pearls, and yellow wax. The exchange of goods started as early as 960 AD before the accidental arrival of the Spaniards in 1521. And so it happened.
Original caption (cropped out): Native boats and outriggers Description: (cropped out): Boats of the upper type were used to land the U.S. troops at Manila. One of those in which the Astor Battery landed sank in the surf just before reaching shore. The natives carried the men ashore on their shoulders. The lower boat is a fisherman’s craft used by the Negritos, who shoot fish in the clear water with bows and arrows. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The arrival of the European conquistadores brought a new phase and meaning to the lives and mindset of the Filipinos. We learned to integrate the Spanish language into our own, even naming the Philippines in honor of the Spanish king. Provinces in the Philippines were renamed with Spanish names such as Nueva Ecija and Vizcaya, Laguna, Isabela, La Union, Antique, Marinduque, Negros Occidental, and Oriental and Valle de Compostela. More than this naming of places, the greatest influence the Spaniards have left us is faith in Roman Catholicism. Filipinos at home set up an altar in the Hispanic tradition, adorned with Catholic images, flowers, and candles as they have internalized observation of fiestas, devotion, rosary, baptism, and many more.
Along came the Americans. After the Spaniards were defeated by the Americans led by General George Dewey in the war dubbed the “Battle of Manila” in 1899, the Americans took the liberty of controlling and influencing the Filipinos. During the first years, there were some conflicts between the US and the Philippines, but during World War I, they came together, and the Filipinos fought alongside the Americans, and their relationship became much friendlier.
As we solidified our pact with the land of the free and the home of the brave, we became more attached to their customs and traditions. Nobody can deny that the greatest contributions of Americans are democracy and education. It is impossible to cite all the things we inherited from Uncle Joe because they are innumerable. American influence on Filipino clothing is apparent these days.
We often see wearing belts, suspenders, tennis shoes, bonnets, high heels, and cosmetics. For food, Filipinos are accustomed to U.S.-based staples like hamburgers, sandwiches, oatmeal, ketchup, apple pie, mayonnaise, hotdogs, steak, ice cream, cornflakes, and many more.
Seventy-one years have passed since the Philippines tasted true freedom and democracy, yet its beloved citizens are still, or should I say, intentionally glued to anything international in concept.
Our colonial mentality should no longer be attributed to the colonizers because, for a long period of time, they are gone. After the Second World War ended in 1945, the US declared that we were an independent nation and that we would, from that moment, stand on our own, build our nation, govern our people, and make ourselves proud of what we could make of our country.
Yes, we have been standing on our own. For quite some time, we have been electing our leaders, drafting our constitution dedicated to democracy, being blessed with job opportunities, and seeing the ingenuity of many of our fellow countrymen in business, arts, academia, and even sports. These things, when accumulated, would entail national pride and patriotism. But the “accumulation” never happened in the Philippines.
English: Depiction of the flag of the Philippines, as conceived by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. Created with Inkscape. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Nationalism and patriotism are things that are not difficult to conceive. It is just a matter of self-worth, confidence in the citizens’ competence, and pride. Just take a look at Japan, its people may be ridiculed for being awful English speakers but nobody can take away the fact that it is a land with citizens deeply attached to their flag, to their country, and to their identity. For despising imported goods, Japan could produce products of their own in the fields of automotive, heavy industries, and gadgets.
Everyone is familiar with brands such as Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Sony, Sanyo, and so on. The same principle of nationalism applies to countries like Germany, Italy, France, and even China.
While more and more countries are gradually realizing the essence and beauty of selfhood, the story is different here in the Philippines. Here, the culture of the bandwagon is a cliche: We have been deeply in love with anything Western in concept. We always want to exclude ourselves from the bondage of traditionalism, and although it does not manifest verbally, we always deny our being Filipinos because we love imported goods.
Just how badly have we opposed our being Filipinos? Instead of settling for a more affordable and locally made brand of leather shoes, a typical Filipino would hand his ever-hidden credit card to the ethical staff at the counter in exchange for the expensive and imported Kickers, Hush Puppies, Timberland, or Oleg Cassini. I’m sure the reason is unrelated to durability and longevity issues.
What about the means of transportation, particularly cars? Try going to EDSA and anyone would notice that many billboards post inviting marketing strategies like Vios, 20K Downpayment, No Hidden Charges.
Car manufacturers know that the Philippines is and will forever be a third-world country, yet they still thrive on selling cars to us. The business is so good that everywhere you turn, there will always be car casas regularly visited by an average businessman, a call center agent, a teacher, and even a college student whose dad is a seafarer.
The funny thing is that people purchase cars for reasons beyond practicality – that they work near their residence and don’t need cars at all, that they know that the streets of Manila are just like a huge parking space during rush hours, that they know that sooner or later they would have their car pulled out by the bank because they could no longer afford to pay for it. Pathetic as it may seem, Filipinos buy imported cars, not for a reasonable cause but to delight their ego.
Gadgets are undeniably a necessity nowadays. Living in a fast-paced world, people need smartphones for easy access to emails, messages, and important and unimportant calls.
We are not Amish people whose contentment is based on how they shrug off what is contemporary. But while it is clear to Filipinos the vitality of possessing gadgets, particularly cell phones, it is still an enigma as to why we settle for expensive and imported brands. Is it the speed?
I bet locally made phones are equally fast to process. Is the phone user-friendly? Writing text messages on My Phone, Torque, and Cherry Mobile is also easy. Is it the design? The size? The weight? The color? Or is it the brand?
To realize just how strong our attachment is to Apple, Samsung, Asus, and other foreign brands, just look at the students, people in the BPO industry, people in the corporate world, service crew in a fast-food chain, construction workers, and even the jobless and the bystanders. They all have this phone with an apple with a bite at the back. Parents would give their kikay daughters an imported phone on the latter’s birthday, saying, “You deserve nothing less, anak.”
A service crew could afford an iPhone 7 even if it meant paying a staggering thirty percent interest for twelve months. It’s truly amazing. What is funnier is that the same things provided by these imported phones can also be bought from locally made ones…for a cheaper and reasonable price.
Then we have our fellow kababayans who love to travel, as discussed earlier. They go to France to see the tall, metal structure of Paris. They travel to Hong Kong to get a seat at the Disneyland roller coaster and take a picture with Mickey and Donald.
They travel to Cambodia to see the largest religious monument in the world, to see the lovely bones of the victims of Pol Pot, and to see where the film “The Killing Fields” was taken.
They travel to London to ride The Eye, take a selfie with Big Ben in the background, walk-in Trafalgar Square, watch Ed Sheeran’s concert at Hyde Park, and experience the bloody English weather.
They travel to Kenya to pose with African children, ride a Land Rover, see the animals at the Serengeti Plain, and hunt and shoot poor antelopes for their antlers.
The farther they travel, the happier they become. As the number of countries they visit increases, they become more satisfied and proud.
Ancient Filipinos utilized terrace farming to grow crops in the steep mountainous regions of the northern Philippines. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The author sees no problem with these explorations and escapades for travel, which equates to education. When one travels, he has first-hand experience and account of what is happening worldwide. After all, it is the money they are spending.
What is bothering me is that while these Filipinos crave the elegance of international tourist spots, they fail to notice the grandeur of the Philippines. What about visiting Camarines Norte for surfing, Baguio for the cold weather and upland fruits and vegetables, Puerto Princesa for an underground river tour, Ilocos Norte for sand surfing, Quezon province for a series of pilgrimage, and even Intramuros for a look back at how our beloved Rizal spent his last few hours.
It is painful to see Filipinos flock to distant lands for a leisurely visit and neglect the scenic places of our realm. It is as atrocious as not wanting mom’s homemade adobo and preferring to eat at a swanky restaurant.
Why Filipinos are suckers of anything Western in the concept remains a riddle. Youngsters who play basketball in the streets of Manila are often seen wearing Nike. Yes, Nike is a company that employs minors in China. Ask them why such brand is chosen and not MSE or Natasha and you will be bombarded with answers like “It’s light, it’s durable, it’s classy, it unleashes the athleticism in me, blah, blah, blah”.
True enough, the aspect of toughness is unquestionable. The catch is that why do some kiddos and teenagers wear imitation Jordans and Kobes? I’m sure it is not a matter of the reliability of the shoes because class A’s are made with substandard materials.
The painful truth is that we are only after the brand—to be noticed, seen as prosperous, to join the bandwagon, to wear what the wealthy people wear, and, worst of all, to be accepted.
For automotive enthusiasts, purchasing a Cavite-manufactured owner-type jeep is almost taboo. A typical dad could never force his teenage daughter to be taken to school riding in a filthy owner-type jeep because, for the poor girl, it is baduy. A typical white-collar guy would not want to go to Starbucks, parking his stainless owner jeep next to Foresters and Ecosports. For sure, it will be photographed by the Conyos and it will be ridiculed for being a “fly in a glass of milk”.
Nowadays, what is cool should be the possession of pickup trucks ridden by the tough guys in Texas (even though pickup trucks are built for farms or ranches and not for urban areas like Manila), possession of a muscle car that is a prototype of what Vin Diesel used in his famous movies about racing, possession of Maserati, Ferrari, and Lamborghini even if these cars were designed only for wide freeways, something which we do not have.
Can you imagine what it is like driving a Lambo in Manila’s chaotic and narrow streets? The Philippine-made owner-type jeep is the perfect toy to roam our dilapidated streets. Again, when it comes to cars, the concept of colonial mentality overpowers our sanity.
Readers might question the author’s dislike for buying imported stuff. Critics would say, “It is our hard-earned money after all, and we have all the liberty this world has to offer when it comes to purchasing whatever we want to buy”. True enough, we are entitled to our decisions, and nobody has a right to tell us to buy this and not that, to do this and not that.
But, the underlying dangers and drawbacks of colonial mentality are as bad as self-destruction. Naïve are people who love to sport their Jordans, Ford Everest, Fire Floss from Le Couer de France, and Sperry Top-Sider without directly realizing its effect on our economy and our morality as Filipinos. By buying Jordans, we strip our local shoemakers of their chance to show their creativity, their brilliance, and their chance to earn. By buying iPhones, not Cherries and Torques, we backhandedly tell our homegrown electronics engineers, technicians, and IT experts that their toil does not merit our applause and support.
We always degrade locally made gadgets and often complain about them being difficult to use. But we should also realize that the very reason local companies could not manufacture better versions is that they lack the support of Filipinos. Should we buy their Cherries, the company would generate enough funds to upgrade their phones and tablets. Moreover, by buying Fortuners and Monteros, we are closing the doors to possibly producing our automotive brand.
If you visit the Sarao Jeep Company factory in Las Pinas, you will see how grubby and sordid the place is. Workers are without sophisticated machinery, without definite buyers, and worst, without hope. But just as dirty and blackened the hands of these patriotic workers are, Filipinos’ hands are also dirty. We can never wash our hands off the dirt of our distrust in the capability and competence of our local car makers. I wish that in my lifetime, I can drive a vehicle made in the Philippines and manufactured by Filipinos.
The damage of colonial mentality does not only extend to the economic aspect. More than currency, colonialism deeply cuts through our sense of national pride, leaving us bleeding until the death of our morality. By buying goods from other countries, the notion that the Philippines cannot produce anything good will boomerang to us, and it will haunt even our posterity.
Colonial mentality is a vulgar display of our dislike for anything Filipino, which reflects our self-hatred. But worse than patronizing anything internationally, we long to be what we are not. We Filipinos, for a long period of time, have done idiotic things to escape our beautiful identity.
We blonde our hair, we apply skin whitening lotion, we imitate the accent of the stupid newscaster from the BBC news, and we indirectly deny our being Filipinos. This reality crushes me in pieces.
We may not possess the wealth of superior countries or have those Ferrari, Aprilia, and Ducati factories regularly featured on the National Geographic Channel.
We may not have the tallest building on earth, the fastest train, or a cable ride overlooking snow-capped mountains like those in the Rockies of Denver, Colorado. We may not have a pointed nose, superior white skin, or the “bloody” British accent.
But Filipinos are superior in a different sense. We are beautiful people whose resiliency has defied and overthrown oppressors in the past.
Our soil is fertile enough to grow delicious fruits and vegetables. Despite the hardships of life, we are beautiful people who flaunt contagious and genuine smiles to encourage others.
And since we are beautiful, we can produce beautiful things in science, arts, economics, technology, and the like.
There is no need for colonial mentality, self-hatred, or distrust of our potential.
We are beautiful.
(Ronald B. Polong is a frustrated writer who removes his dentures before he sleeps and places them in an empty Cheez-Whiz bottle with water. He lives in Nueva Ecija with his wife, twin boys, a brood of roosters and hens, ducks, and an old dog.)
