The Struggle of The Filipino Identity
How our absolute ideals fail to acknowledge the fullness of our human experiences
A month after my conversation with Shania, I was contemplating who I was as a Filipino. Labels, running through my mind, asking where do I fall in all of this segmenting non-sense.
I asked if I were liberal, conservative, libertarian, socialist, etc.
All I wanted was the best for my country, regardless of who is up there in the high seat. I dream of a society and culture that will have the backbone to stand up for itself.
I desire for my fellow Filipino youth to discover that exerting our energy meddling with international politics, that itself, is a sign of being subordinate to the waves and trends their culture have.
We hear this everywhere from our celebrities, talking heads, and social media, to stand up for the latest hashtag, bandwagon to the newest wave of a faulty movement against an illegitimate, clearly privileged “oppression.”
But honestly, what the fuck?
Modern Filipino Heroism?
I remember having a presentation about the concept of Filipino Heroism, how Rizal and Bonifacio [an age-old comparison] are two sides of a necessary coin. In the discussion, I often heard of how Rizal’s peaceful approach was attractive or how Bonifacio’s action-oriented, fought-the-fight persona was more practical.
Opinions reflected among the twenty-five other men I was with, in that small room. They assumed themselves like honoraries aiming for the Filipino ideal, and some who want to get real.
Then I laid them all out, showed them the collage you see above, the brave foremothers and forefathers who fought for their nation by their right, all part of the liberation, not of one coin, but rather a collective effort in all fronts.
I wanted to paint a picture of what it means to be Filipino.
Rizal was in thought, the Lunas in Arts and Warfare, Lapu-Lapu in guardianship, Silangs for their loyalty to each other reflecting the nation [Diego Silang was a remarkable revolutionary, unifying three states who spoke different languages to fight the same cause, and Gabriela Silang for upholding the equal footing of Filipino Women in liberating the nation], Aguinaldo for his formality and tactfulness, Sora for her unconditional aids and provisions, and Bonifacio for inciting action.
These qualities shout what it means to be a Filipino, we assume our roles in society to represent our nation, regardless of our differences, yet we put ourselves in false dichotomies; we problematize every aspect of ourselves that we overtly disrespect the very people who gave us emancipation, who gave us freedom. We continue to dichotomize something human, but human qualities aren’t dichotomous.
I am filled with much disappointment on the youth who overtly/covertly disavow Visayans, and our ever-resilient brothers and sisters in Muslim Mindanao [who were not colonized in the majority of its lifetime], often I have to stop myself from calling out the hypocrisy of Manila and Twitter Youth on their campaign for inclusivity and diversity. Yet, we have never made Muslims feel included in the NCR [National Capital Region] through building accessible prayer rooms, more mosques and places of worship and gathering.
How is that our present values fail to reflect the fullness of our humanity, including the “vile” parts of it? We’ve leaned in too far on one quality or the other which causes great imbalance. Then we don’t show up for it? So, we sweep mistakes under the rug, and now when it manifests back, we act all miserable about it?
You might ask where does it manifest? To our very leaders, when we lean unto qualities, formality or idealization perhaps, we manifest a leader who verifies that quality, then we learn that it is not all that it takes, so we blame our leader for not living up to the expectations they weren’t fit for in the first place, instead of looking onto ourselves and begin dealing with it, we choose to wallow or grovel instead.
I dare the Filipino youth to stop dreaming and deal with the toxicity as a part of a broader culture we all blindly participate in, the more we ignore this sparking wildfire, the more it will burn the fabrics of our society.
These burns are most evident in the denigration of the Filipino self, and it is prevalent among youth. As Gen Z and Gen Alpha come of age, the national identity slowly diminishes. We see young Filipinos who perceive the socio-cultural and political question, though their attempts on resolve are noble, the Filipino component is lacking.
Western Politics Will Not Save Us, But It Has Insights
When the West normalizes exploitation as some sort of empowerment expect the lagging East to use that as a justification to further exploit such ventures, in the guise of progressiveness.
We are globalized as I would say, but there is harm in co-opting because a first-world nation’s shitty liberties are a third-world nation’s downfall that is…
Ladies and Gentlemen, Modern Colonization at its finest.
When we co-opt certain values from other cultures and imprint them on our own, harm is inflicted, unbeknownst to all of us.
I see the “woke” ideology that continues to divide the West, as it continues to consume young Filipinos onto pseudo-noble causes, but co-opting on an ideology that has no clear figureheads within our politics with no actual persistence inside our country, puts us in much danger for a cultural mismatch.
For example. We co-opt #BLM but forget about the unjustifiable violence being done to the Filipinos in our country based on class, something that requires a paradigm shift in economic condition, unlike in Black America, which requires a cultural intervention against the prejudice on the basis of race, a destruction of a harmful social construct.
Another is the older generation lags behind our incoherence with the constant movement of goalposts and virtue signalling. We also have no benchmark to approach our problems from; these are the factors that trainwreck us from engaging these problems at a national level.
And lastly, we look at it from a neo-liberal perspective that doesn’t even begin to acknowledge the reality at all. The denigration of the youth’s Filipino self doesn’t lie on individual choices we make, on what culture we choose to partake in, or what Western [or North Eastern] trend we decide to latch on.
It shows on how we continue to promote individualism in a country that finds difficulty with such a foreign concept. It is more important to make common cause with the people who share our condition since that’s how political change occurs.
Political productivity is never comfortable, it requires self-assessment, ego-checking, and so much more, yet at the end of the day, we need to remember that the purpose of life is not to be satisfied, but to be functional.
I have so much to say about Filipino Twitter youth, there is just something about that facade of that whole platform I should spend less time in it.
Don’t you think Rizal is overrated? Like he has way too many qualifications up his sleeve which is respectable but we can’t just assume that he’s the Main Boy of Philippine Heroism, I’d like a Boy Group instead, or FFS bring the Women in.
It’s Suicide Prevention Day. Spread more hope around you. My loves.
Thank you very much for reading this piece of work. I know that it is a lot to take in, but I hope you’ve learned something about this issue. Share this if you’d love your friends to know about it.
Also, if you have a business or a creative project, let me know so I can promote you the next time I post.
Subscribe to un/filtrd and help us reach 100 signups.
[Filipino] Pridefully yours,
Jared
Comment Below