Independence Day Address
by CHERYL L. DAYTEC
I am very, very honored to have been invited to be the
Guest Speaker of Minnesota’s biggest Filipino-American community as you
celebrate Independence Day. I had spoken in various forums with
diverse audiences during the past one year that I was a Fulbright-Humphrey
Fellow in the United States. I do not know why it is in this particular
gathering in this beautiful park that I feel very nervous. Maybe it is
because an Independence Day Address must reawaken or reaffirm one’s
commitment to the ideals that inspired the Philippine Revolution. This is,
unarguably, a tall order. Understand then why I am overwhelmed.
But yesterday, I asked a friend who had been a United States resident
for the last 20 years, “If you were to listen here in the United States to a
speaker who is based in the Philippines, what would you like this person
to talk about?” I was half-expecting him to say that he would like me to update
him on the love life of Vic Sotto, or summarize the latest Aga Muhlach movie,
or discuss Vice-Ganda’s popularity or loss of popularity after mocking Jessica
Soho’s (over)weight to trivialize rape, or if Nora Aunor already looks like a
grandmother. But his response was a far cry. He said he would
like to know developments in the country of his birth. He also said he
would like to know how he could contribute to the improvement of conditions
back home. I was blown away. This person cares for the country some people
might claim he abandoned like a hot potato, or more realistically, a hot
‘camote’? It is not that I never believed that my friend was capable of
possessing social conscience. It is just that to me he represented the Filipino
born and educated in the Philippines but chose to move to the United States in
search for greener pastures. He represented you- you who would have to listen
to my ramblings this morning as your ticket to lunch.
It had been more than two months since I accepted Madam Lita Malicsi’s
invitation to give the keynote address for today’s celebration. And it had been
more than two months that I agonized over what to say to you. But I had
an epiphany after consulting my friend. I hope he was right,
otherwise, I will pillory him if you throw tomatoes at me later. I sort
of prepared for the eventuality of tomatoes thrown at me by wearing this
tomato-colored suit.
It is very auspicious that we are celebrating the 115th year
of Philippine independence the same year that the United States is celebrating
the 150th year of the end of the civil war. In different parts
of the world, there are other Filipinos like you who are commemorating or who
will commemorate Independence Day. It only means you have not forgotten home.
It is perhaps incontrovertible that you can take the Filipino out of the
Philippines, but you can never take the Philippines out of the Filipino. Jose
Rizal, one of our national heroes, the so-called greatest person
ever produced by the Malayan race, said that those who
do not care to look back to where they came from can never get to where
they want to go. Which means you who are here today will get to where you want
to go for not forgetting your roots.
Allow me therefore to bring us back further home - back to where
we came from, back to the Pearl of the Orient Seas.
In the last years, the Philippines has had gains in the political front.
It became stable when measured against the political situation under the Arroyo
regime. The conflict in Mindanao de-escalated and there seems to be bright
prospects that the insurgency of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will at
last become history. There were some accomplishments in the campaign
against corruption, at least on the rhetorical front. The controversial
Reproductive Health Bill was finally, finally passed into law after years
of debate that seemed to lead nowhere. Investor confidence surged upwards. The
public trust rating of the President remains high although it has been
declining.
Here is one more good news: There has been a steady increase in the
gross domestic product. You probably know that the Philippines right now is
jubilant over its very recent economic gain. In the first quarter of this
year, it registered a phenomenal economic growth of 7.8%
which is actually the highest among the major East and Southeast
Asian countries including China. Indeed this is spectacular. Even the
Philippine government was surprised- shocked perhaps is a better word-
because its target of 5 to 6% was surpassed. This also impressed
major international financial institutions like the Asian Development
Bank and the International Monetary Fund which projected 6%.
Although the growth this last quarter is the highest, there has actually been a
positive economic trend under the Aquino administration. And so things look
rosy in the Philippines.
But what does this growth really mean to the masses of Filipinos? What
is hidden under economic statistics are dismal facts. Domestic consumption and
spending including predictably vote-buying during the last elections fueled the
unprecedented rise of the “Sick Man of Asia” to the rising tiger
of Asia. (I think this is a stupefying evolution. Imagine a man becoming
a tiger! And I thought human beings were first lower animal forms before
becoming human.) Also, your remittances- every dollar you sent to your
families and extended families back home- contributed much to this growth.
About 10 million overseas Filipino workers remitted $24 billion to the
Philippines last year. This represented 10% of the country's economic output.
Which means that the growth- and I mean the steady growth of the economy
under Pres Aquino’s dispensation- did not really trickle down to the country’s
poor. Jobs have not been created and so the unemployment rate remains high. In
fact, even the Asian Development Bank reports that almost half of the
workers in the Pearl of the Orient Seas are unpaid family workers and the
self-employed. The rate of poverty is still high. One-third of the population
is surviving on $2 a day.
On the human rights front, extrajudicial killings and enforced
disappearances are still happening. Majority of the targets are indigenous
rights defenders and environmentalists who are resisting large-scale mining
corporations. We are all probably aware that mining is responsible for many of
the environmental disasters in the country- from flashfloods, soil
erosions, and the sinking or subsidence of some communities, to the biological
death of bodies of water and pollution of farmlands. These have resulted in
losses to life and property, loss of livelihood, and displacement especially of
indigenous peoples. What is very dangerous is that in many mining communities,
the military is serving as the private security force of mining corporations.
What is more dangerous is that the government allowed mining corporations to
convert the CAFGU as their private militias to quell community opposition
to destructive mining. This is very disappointing since Aquino, while on
the campaign trail in 2010, promised to dismantle private armies which
were strengthened during the Arroyo regime. Instead of dismantling private
armies, he gave them a legal status to serve the mining corporations.
Which bring us back to what we are celebrating today: the 115th year
of our independence. Andres Bonifacio and the other revolutionaries paid
with their blood to free the Filipinos from the bondage of oppression. They
paid with their lives to release their country women and men from the
shackles of hunger. They paid with their lives so that their fellow men and
women would live with dignity, and not be forced into labor or be treated as
inferior beings in their own homeland. They paid with their lives for our independence.
The reason some or even more of our fellow Filipinos- some of them our
country’s best and brightest like you who are here- left the country and moved
to other countries is because the Philippines did not have space or
while there was space, it was not big enough for them to grow, to live
happy and peaceful lives secure that they would always have something to
eat or have roof above their and their family’s heads. As someone said, “nothing
testifies better to deep poverty than the export of slaves or the persistent
exodus of job-hungry migrants.” Our OFWs did not abandon our
country. You did not ship out of our country. Like the migratory birds, they-
and you- escaped from harsh conditions. And just like
migratory birds, we will always go back.
Independence Day will have meaning to the majority of our people back
home if economic gains will give them freedom from want, the freedom of
choice. When 75% of the economy is controlled by only 40 families, when
economic gains that make the Philippines the rising tiger of Asia do not change
the lives of more than half of the Philippine population, when thousands
upon thousands of children beg on streets, when many families do not have
adequate to eat, when Manila is the “Gate to Hell,” when the gap between the
likes of the very wealthy Henry Sy and Lucio Tan widen every single
day, our heroes who spilled their blood for the so-called independence we are
marking today will continue to turn in their graves. But when economic gains
mean jobs for the poor and food on their tables, children inside
classrooms from Monday to Friday instead of on the streets, then Independence
Day will be significant for everyone.
The struggle for independence did not end on June 12, 1898. I believe that
independence is not just a state or condition, but it is also a
process of making sure that the death and sacrifices of our heroes would not be
senseless. Bonifacio and his friends imperiled and even lost their lives
because they wanted hunger to end, because they wanted distributive justice
for every Juana, Paula, Francisca, Pedro, Procopio, and Jose. Their
deaths, their sacrifices will be trivialized if we allow the Philippines
to become a country that is paradise for profiteers but hell for the vast
majority of citizens. And every Filipino has a role to play to ensure that our
heroes did not shed their blood in vain. We who are here have a role to
play. Every hunger, every problem suffered by an individual or by a
community is our business, especially if that community is the Filipino nation
itself. And, we should always mind our business. We may be here now,
but the Philippines is still our home. A lot of you will probably go back to
the country of your birth when you will have retired. I am sure you will not
rest easy spending your hard-earned retirement dollars in the midst of a
sea of children begging for alms. You will not be happy living in comfort
when you know that many people are struggling to make both ends meet, are
living under bridges, or are scavenging garbage bins for food.
And so let us prepare for happy retirement. Aside from your remittances
which have been keeping our economy afloat and sheltered the Philippines
from the recession that hit this country badly, we can do much
more. How we conceive that role is up to us. But let me appeal that you
use your voice to raise the issues of the vulnerable, the weak, the indigenous,
the poor, in the Philippines. Here, you can speak and bring to the attention of
our government the evils of mining to life, property, and the environment,
without fear of the paramilitary groups and the State security forces
killing or abducting you or members of your family. The Philippine Study
Group of Minnesota headed by Meg Layese has been doing that. I joined them and
the Ecumenical Advocacy Network on the Philippines in lobbying efforts to ask
the United States to stop sending military aid to the Philippines which the
Armed Forces only uses to strengthen paramilitary groups used by mining
companies. We traveled to Washington and lobbied with Senators and Congressmen,
as well as officials of the United States State Department. We got positive
actions and assurances of support. We are working on convincing the United
States Congress to convene the Lantos Commission to look into the human rights
issues in the Philippines. To my knowledge, no one from PSGM ever got
killed or kidnapped for activism, for lending its strong voice to express the
issues of the poor, the weak, the marginalized, and indigenous back home.
In the Philippines, I personally know people – my friends and co-workers- who
lost their lives or who disappeared without shadows because they dared give a
voice to the issues of the weak and marginalized. I have had security issues
myself. And last year, Congress passed a law criminalizing online libel. In its
wake people were arrested for Facebook posts. The only reason the government
was not able to arrest more people is because the constitutionality of that law
was questioned before the Supreme Court. The case is currently pending.
And so, while I am here, let me enjoy the freedom we have in this Great
Country- the Home of the Brave. Allow me to articulate what I think Andres
Bonifacio would say to all of us if he were around to witness the current
economic and socio-political milieu. I will share with you an excerpt from a
poem I wrote years ago titled “Andres Bonifacio’s Cry:”
His
agitated spirit upbraids us with a cry
The masters
are much worse; they too were slaves at dawn
The voice is
hoarse now; from our apathy we rise
Mabuhay si
Andres Bonifacio at ang iba pa nating mga bayani. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.
Mabuhay tayong lahat!
Independence Day Address
Twin Cities, Minnesota
8 June 2013
by CHERYL L. DAYTEC
2012-2013 Fulbright/ Humphrey Fellow
University of Minnesota
I am very, very honored to have been invited to be the
Guest Speaker of Minnesota’s biggest Filipino-American community as you
celebrate Independence Day. I had spoken in various forums with
diverse audiences during the past one year that I was a Fulbright-Humphrey
Fellow in the United States. I do not know why it is in this particular
gathering in this beautiful park that I feel very nervous. Maybe it is
because an Independence Day Address must reawaken or reaffirm one’s
commitment to the ideals that inspired the Philippine Revolution. This is,
unarguably, a tall order. Understand then why I am overwhelmed.
But yesterday, I asked a friend who had been a United States resident
for the last 20 years, “If you were to listen here in the United States to a
speaker who is based in the Philippines, what would you like this person
to talk about?” I was half-expecting him to say that he would like me to update
him on the love life of Vic Sotto, or summarize the latest Aga Muhlach movie,
or discuss Vice-Ganda’s popularity or loss of popularity after mocking Jessica
Soho’s (over)weight to trivialize rape, or if Nora Aunor already looks like a
grandmother. But his response was a far cry. He said he would
like to know developments in the country of his birth. He also said he
would like to know how he could contribute to the improvement of conditions
back home. I was blown away. This person cares for the country some people
might claim he abandoned like a hot potato, or more realistically, a hot
‘camote’? It is not that I never believed that my friend was capable of
possessing social conscience. It is just that to me he represented the Filipino
born and educated in the Philippines but chose to move to the United States in
search for greener pastures. He represented you- you who would have to listen
to my ramblings this morning as your ticket to lunch.
It had been more than two months since I accepted Madam Lita Malicsi’s
invitation to give the keynote address for today’s celebration. And it had been
more than two months that I agonized over what to say to you. But I had
an epiphany after consulting my friend. I hope he was right,
otherwise, I will pillory him if you throw tomatoes at me later. I sort
of prepared for the eventuality of tomatoes thrown at me by wearing this
tomato-colored suit.
It is very auspicious that we are celebrating the 115th year
of Philippine independence the same year that the United States is celebrating
the 150th year of the end of the civil war. In different parts
of the world, there are other Filipinos like you who are commemorating or who
will commemorate Independence Day. It only means you have not forgotten home.
It is perhaps incontrovertible that you can take the Filipino out of the
Philippines, but you can never take the Philippines out of the Filipino. Jose
Rizal, one of our national heroes, the so-called greatest person
ever produced by the Malayan race, said that those who
do not care to look back to where they came from can never get to where
they want to go. Which means you who are here today will get to where you want
to go for not forgetting your roots.
Allow me therefore to bring us back further home - back to where
we came from, back to the Pearl of the Orient Seas.
In the last years, the Philippines has had gains in the political front.
It became stable when measured against the political situation under the Arroyo
regime. The conflict in Mindanao de-escalated and there seems to be bright
prospects that the insurgency of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will at
last become history. There were some accomplishments in the campaign
against corruption, at least on the rhetorical front. The controversial
Reproductive Health Bill was finally, finally passed into law after years
of debate that seemed to lead nowhere. Investor confidence surged upwards. The
public trust rating of the President remains high although it has been
declining.
Here is one more good news: There has been a steady increase in the
gross domestic product. You probably know that the Philippines right now is
jubilant over its very recent economic gain. In the first quarter of this
year, it registered a phenomenal economic growth of 7.8%
which is actually the highest among the major East and Southeast
Asian countries including China. Indeed this is spectacular. Even the
Philippine government was surprised- shocked perhaps is a better word-
because its target of 5 to 6% was surpassed. This also impressed
major international financial institutions like the Asian Development
Bank and the International Monetary Fund which projected 6%.
Although the growth this last quarter is the highest, there has actually been a
positive economic trend under the Aquino administration. And so things look
rosy in the Philippines.
But what does this growth really mean to the masses of Filipinos? What
is hidden under economic statistics are dismal facts. Domestic consumption and
spending including predictably vote-buying during the last elections fueled the
unprecedented rise of the “Sick Man of Asia” to the rising tiger
of Asia. (I think this is a stupefying evolution. Imagine a man becoming
a tiger! And I thought human beings were first lower animal forms before
becoming human.) Also, your remittances- every dollar you sent to your
families and extended families back home- contributed much to this growth.
About 10 million overseas Filipino workers remitted $24 billion to the
Philippines last year. This represented 10% of the country's economic output.
Which means that the growth- and I mean the steady growth of the economy
under Pres Aquino’s dispensation- did not really trickle down to the country’s
poor. Jobs have not been created and so the unemployment rate remains high. In
fact, even the Asian Development Bank reports that almost half of the
workers in the Pearl of the Orient Seas are unpaid family workers and the
self-employed. The rate of poverty is still high. One-third of the population
is surviving on $2 a day.
On the human rights front, extrajudicial killings and enforced
disappearances are still happening. Majority of the targets are indigenous
rights defenders and environmentalists who are resisting large-scale mining
corporations. We are all probably aware that mining is responsible for many of
the environmental disasters in the country- from flashfloods, soil
erosions, and the sinking or subsidence of some communities, to the biological
death of bodies of water and pollution of farmlands. These have resulted in
losses to life and property, loss of livelihood, and displacement especially of
indigenous peoples. What is very dangerous is that in many mining communities,
the military is serving as the private security force of mining corporations.
What is more dangerous is that the government allowed mining corporations to
convert the CAFGU as their private militias to quell community opposition
to destructive mining. This is very disappointing since Aquino, while on
the campaign trail in 2010, promised to dismantle private armies which
were strengthened during the Arroyo regime. Instead of dismantling private
armies, he gave them a legal status to serve the mining corporations.
Which bring us back to what we are celebrating today: the 115th year
of our independence. Andres Bonifacio and the other revolutionaries paid
with their blood to free the Filipinos from the bondage of oppression. They
paid with their lives to release their country women and men from the
shackles of hunger. They paid with their lives so that their fellow men and
women would live with dignity, and not be forced into labor or be treated as
inferior beings in their own homeland. They paid with their lives for our independence.
What is independence? How does it translate into a value for every
Filipino? The simple definition of independence is that it is the
condition of being free from hunger or want and fear from fear. In a
country where 75% of the economy is controlled by only 40 families, how
can people be freed from want? How can people be freed from hunger if only a
few control the land? If people are forced into laziness (or indolence) simply
because of the absence of economic opportunities, how can people have freedom
of choice?
The reason some or even more of our fellow Filipinos- some of them our
country’s best and brightest like you who are here- left the country and moved
to other countries is because the Philippines did not have space or
while there was space, it was not big enough for them to grow, to live
happy and peaceful lives secure that they would always have something to
eat or have roof above their and their family’s heads. As someone said, “nothing
testifies better to deep poverty than the export of slaves or the persistent
exodus of job-hungry migrants.” Our OFWs did not abandon our
country. You did not ship out of our country. Like the migratory birds, they-
and you- escaped from harsh conditions. And just like
migratory birds, we will always go back.
Independence Day will have meaning to the majority of our people back
home if economic gains will give them freedom from want, the freedom of
choice. When 75% of the economy is controlled by only 40 families, when
economic gains that make the Philippines the rising tiger of Asia do not change
the lives of more than half of the Philippine population, when thousands
upon thousands of children beg on streets, when many families do not have
adequate to eat, when Manila is the “Gate to Hell,” when the gap between the
likes of the very wealthy Henry Sy and Lucio Tan widen every single
day, our heroes who spilled their blood for the so-called independence we are
marking today will continue to turn in their graves. But when economic gains
mean jobs for the poor and food on their tables, children inside
classrooms from Monday to Friday instead of on the streets, then Independence
Day will be significant for everyone.
The struggle for independence did not end on June 12, 1898. I believe that
independence is not just a state or condition, but it is also a
process of making sure that the death and sacrifices of our heroes would not be
senseless. Bonifacio and his friends imperiled and even lost their lives
because they wanted hunger to end, because they wanted distributive justice
for every Juana, Paula, Francisca, Pedro, Procopio, and Jose. Their
deaths, their sacrifices will be trivialized if we allow the Philippines
to become a country that is paradise for profiteers but hell for the vast
majority of citizens. And every Filipino has a role to play to ensure that our
heroes did not shed their blood in vain. We who are here have a role to
play. Every hunger, every problem suffered by an individual or by a
community is our business, especially if that community is the Filipino nation
itself. And, we should always mind our business. We may be here now,
but the Philippines is still our home. A lot of you will probably go back to
the country of your birth when you will have retired. I am sure you will not
rest easy spending your hard-earned retirement dollars in the midst of a
sea of children begging for alms. You will not be happy living in comfort
when you know that many people are struggling to make both ends meet, are
living under bridges, or are scavenging garbage bins for food.
And so let us prepare for happy retirement. Aside from your remittances
which have been keeping our economy afloat and sheltered the Philippines
from the recession that hit this country badly, we can do much
more. How we conceive that role is up to us. But let me appeal that you
use your voice to raise the issues of the vulnerable, the weak, the indigenous,
the poor, in the Philippines. Here, you can speak and bring to the attention of
our government the evils of mining to life, property, and the environment,
without fear of the paramilitary groups and the State security forces
killing or abducting you or members of your family. The Philippine Study
Group of Minnesota headed by Meg Layese has been doing that. I joined them and
the Ecumenical Advocacy Network on the Philippines in lobbying efforts to ask
the United States to stop sending military aid to the Philippines which the
Armed Forces only uses to strengthen paramilitary groups used by mining
companies. We traveled to Washington and lobbied with Senators and Congressmen,
as well as officials of the United States State Department. We got positive
actions and assurances of support. We are working on convincing the United
States Congress to convene the Lantos Commission to look into the human rights
issues in the Philippines. To my knowledge, no one from PSGM ever got
killed or kidnapped for activism, for lending its strong voice to express the
issues of the poor, the weak, the marginalized, and indigenous back home.
In the Philippines, I personally know people – my friends and co-workers- who
lost their lives or who disappeared without shadows because they dared give a
voice to the issues of the weak and marginalized. I have had security issues
myself. And last year, Congress passed a law criminalizing online libel. In its
wake people were arrested for Facebook posts. The only reason the government
was not able to arrest more people is because the constitutionality of that law
was questioned before the Supreme Court. The case is currently pending.
And so, while I am here, let me enjoy the freedom we have in this Great Country- the Home of the Brave. Allow me to articulate what I think Andres Bonifacio would say to all of us if he were around to witness the current economic and socio-political milieu. I will share with you an excerpt from a poem I wrote years ago titled “Andres Bonifacio’s Cry:”
His
agitated spirit upbraids us with a cry
The masters
are much worse; they too were slaves at dawn
Is this the
freedom for which comrades had to die?
The
vanguards’ empty spots await you or you fall
Rush! Take
the places of brave forebears before
Bore
into slavery, as in the days of yore
The times
demand sacrifice; please, you heed the call.”
The voice is
hoarse now; from our apathy we rise
Hunger’s
plea for salvation demands our urgent action
The people’s
purse was robbed again; we struggle on
Resist sharp
thorns and swords; our freedom is the prize
For while we
bite our tongues and cry our silent tears
We give the
foes the whip they crack to make us slaves
Submission
is the source of power tyranny craves
The streets
beckon us! Now! Let us triumph over fears!
Mabuhay si
Andres Bonifacio at ang iba pa nating mga bayani. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.
Mabuhay tayong lahat!
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