This week we had the opportunity to visit the Subic Navy base, attended a workshop with Anakbayan, had a tour of Ataneo University and watched President Aquino's second state of the nation address. Even though I could not comprehend what President Aquino’s speech was about I was able to understand his speech by searching on the internet for notes about his speech. Reading about his speech gave me the opportunity to know more about the country’s struggles in the perspective of the president. In this blog I will connect some parts of the president’s SONA to the readings and my experiences since I have been here. As I read his speech I was able to connect it to what we have learned and it showed me that I was learning valid information about the country. I will first talk about the Education Act of 1982; I will connect the president’s speech to the country’s workers and the unemployment rate that they have to confront. Secondly I will talk about the mentality of the Filipinos. Lastly, I will talk about the country’s stable food, rice.
In last week’s reading by Constantino we learned about the intention of the United States of educating and civilizing the Filipinos. The U.S sent teachers to the Philippines and “the successful implementation of colonial education throughout the islands helped to create future generations of Filipinos that adhered to the “benevolence” of Unites States occupation” (Viola, pg.6). President Aquino’s speech addressed both, education and employment, the Education Act of 1982 is a law that provides education to the youth so they can learn about labor. The Act connects education and labor, the act created two paths that concerned workers. One of the paths was to enhance the agriculture sector with more educational programs. Workers are taught to use fertilizers, pesticides and farming. Modern secrets of mechanized farming to boost their yields allow students to be more informed about the agriculture sector. It was no surprise that the country’s priority was related to agriculture, 75% of the population is from the farming class. Priority was given to agriculture labor since it received the largest portion of funds provided by the World Bank loan. Farming allows the country to expand their exportation which is why the second path of the Education Act of 1982 involves teaching and preparing students for export oriented labor (Viola, pg.8). President Aquino added that the unemployment rate had decreased “in April 2010, the unemployment rate was 8%; in April 2011, it was 7.2%.” The decreased unemployment rate is connected to the number of hungry Filipinos that has gone down just this year “ self-rated hunger has gone down from 20.5% in March to 15.1% this June-equivalent to a million Filipino families who used to go hungry, but who now say they eat properly every day.”
Corruption is a topic commonly talked about when we hear about a third world country. Since my stay here I often hear about the corruption that involves police officers and other government officials. If a police ever stops someone all they have to do is provide them with money or share their connection with the government, such as the mayor of a city being your neighbor. During our tour at Ataneo University, one of the students shared one of her stories of her seeing corruption. She said that a police officer stopped her father for passing a red light. She said her father misinterpreted the police officer, he though the police officer was telling him to proceed. Her father offered the police officer with a fee and told him that they lived near the mayor of their town and they would rather settle the infraction with him. The officer let the father go without any consequences. The student said that her family did not know the mayor but when people comment on their connection to a mayor or a government official they are more likely to be pardoned for their wrong. As we have learned police officers do not make much money and it is understandable why they are willing to take fees instead of punishing people who have violated the law. In Aquinos speech he talked about better benefits for police officers and the military. He mentioned that the base pay for a police officer is 13, 000 pesos. Police officers are forced to accept these fees due to their economic hardship. The government knows about the difficulties of police officers which is why I think they are providing help with housing. “this July, we have followed through on the housing promise we made in February. We were able to award 4,000 Certificates of Entitlement to Lot Allocation. This is only the first batch of the 21,800 houses we will have constructed by the end of the year." The government providing housing for police officers is a step to helping police officers have a better standard of living and can decrease corruption among the police.
Another topic that President Aquino talked about was mentality, he wants the country to come together and end “crab mentality”. He said “Let us stop pulling our fellow man down. Let us put an end to our crab mentality. Let us make the effort to recognize the good that is being done. Let us end the culture of negativism; let us uplift our fellow Filipinos at every opportunity, if you see something right, do not think twice—praise it." I did not find why it was called “crab mentality” but I have my own interpretation. Crabs walk sideways or backwards and I think when Filipinos put themselves down they are not helping each other move forward but instead they are pulling themselves backwards. In the article by David and Okazaki we learned about colonial mentality of Filipino Americans, I know there is a difference between Filipinos and Filipino Americans but I think there is a relation between both of their mentalities. When I read about the President talking about the “crab mentality” I quickly thought about the David article because both, Filipino and Filipino Americans seem to belittle themselves. In the David article, we learned about colonial mentality which is “a form of internalized oppression characterized by a perception of ethnic or cultural inferiority that is believed to be a specific consequence of centuries of colonization under Spain and the United States (David, pg 241). There seems to be a mentality of not being good enough and internalized oppression in both groups. In the David article we learned about the four stages that constitute colonial mentality: First, the denigration of the Filipino Self. Secondly, the denigration of the Filipino culture or body. Thirdly, the discrimination against less-Americanized Filipinos. Finally, tolerating historical and contemporary oppression of Filipinos and Filipino American. It seems that within the Filipino American community some may think that the American culture is superior to the Filipino culture. There is denigration of the culture and body which leads them discriminates against themselves. President Aquino talked of how Filipinos put themselves down and having a culture of negativism which is what colonial mentality is a culture of negativism.
From being here I have noticed and joined in the Filipino way of accompanying dishes with rice. In the workshop given by Anakbayan I was alarmed to find out there is a shortage of rice in the country. I was more shocked to know that more of the rice produced does not stay in the country for consumption but rather it is exported. The country is going through a shortage of rice but they prefer exporting it which leads them to consume imported rice. This was a bit confusing to me because instead of feeding their own country they are feeding but in Aquino’s speech he announced that the government has cut down on rice importation and is aiming for rice self sufficiency. "We envision two things: first, an end to over-importation that only serves to benefit the selfish few. Second: we want rice self-sufficiency—that the rice served on every Filipino’s dinner table is planted here, harvested here, and purchased here." It would only be logical that the Philippines who is rich in rice would consume what is planted and harvested here. 
Overall, reading President Aquino’s speech was very useful and interesting to me. Issues that he talked about connected to what we have been reading and to our experiences. Even though I did not attend the rally I feel like I obtained information that allowed me to put things together. I was able to read his speech and understand the problems he spoke about. One of the aims of President Aquino was to provide solutions to the country’s problems and I hope the issues such as education, unemployment, corruption, Filipino mentality and rice have improvement.
What other readings or experiences can you connect to President Aquino's speech?
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