Unchanged Philippines

In the comfort of our temporary stay in UP Balay, my sister and I began to openly discuss our take on world peace. She casually asked me: Do you personally believe that world peace is achievable and if so, why or why not? With such a potentially controversial topic, I should have been more hesitant in answering instead of my sure-fired response. It’s the same as asking if the chicken or the egg came first. But without a pause, I answered, “No.” My sister continued on applying her make-up while trying to see what I would say next.

“No. Because human beings are inherently bad and as long as we have that nature, world peace can never be achieved.” She looked at me with no expression on her face, suppressing any thoughts, comments or disagreement she may have had.

“Why do you say that humans are inherently bad? Where did you get that idea?” I reminded her of the very first sin committed on Earth, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit that God forbade them to consume. That’s the first illustration of how humans are inherently bad, always consciously or subconsciously defying rules and laws to satisfy their sinful nature. But every Christian that knows the story knows that it’s not about eating the fruit, it’s about the principal of obeying the rules. I further added that children don’t have to be trained to do an evil thing; that is their first nature. What a parent must strive on doing is train their children to be good person: be respectful, courteous, honest, obey rules, etc. But even with extensive teaching and guidance towards the more acceptable behavior, our innate desires will always surface—to do corrupt and selfish things.

In Rene Ontal’s “Fagen and Other Ghosts: African-Americans and the Philippine-American War,” the author details the experience of U.S. army, David Fagen, a “colored” soldier, switching allegiance to the Philippines during the Philippine-American War. Although faced with imprisonment, dishonor and even death, the African-American men set aside their first nature, their first order, and became above what every race expected from them—a true hero. Fagen was among the many Africa-American who chose to fight for their human rights rather than obey their national commands. Although not the first and certainly not the last, Fagen ultimately sacrificed his life in the name of justice. Surely the conflict of nationalism and humanism penetrated in the hearts of these men. But for those that chose to do right in their hearts suffered and those who chose to be safe, well…, kept on living.

The special case of African-American men living above the human nature is exceptional but in the American soldier’s case, the story is different. A physician named Tordorico Santos commented: “Before you arrived, the White troops began to tell us of the inferiority of the American Blacks of your brutal natures, your cannibal tendencies, how you would rape our senoritas, but the affinity of our complexion between you and me tells, and you exercise your duty much more kindly... in dealing with us. Between you and him, we look upon you as the angel and him as the devil.” In this comment alone, one can clearly see the first nature of human beings—dishonesty and selfishness. The white Americans lied to a nation about a group of people they expect to fight for their own country but don’t consider them an equal part of it. Instead, they make their own people seem like barbarians just because they have different color from them. In addition, Col. Frederick Funston stated: "I will rawhide these bullet-headed Asians until they yell for mercy— After the war, I want the job of Professor of History in Luzon University, when they build it, and I'll warrant that the new generation of natives will know better than to get in the way of the band-wagon of Anglo-Saxon progress and decency.” Is this how one speaks about a people they are attacking in their own homeland? In the Filipino language, one would say, “Ang kapal ng mukha!” (How shameless!). But that’s just it, people are evil in nature and no matter how many rules or how many churches are planted in the world, we will never achieve world peace.

Patricio Anibales’ article, “An American Colonial State: Authority and Structure of Southern Mindanao,” explores southern Mindanao’s transformation in the hands of non other than the imperialist-minded Americans using force. Apparently, the “new subjects” were generalized as “Islamic, barbaric, backward, and led by self-serving strong men whose powers were based on force.” This is why the official consensus was to “rely on force to ensure Muslim compliance” then use that to introduce the “American civilization” to the “savages.” How can peace be achieved if the mindset of most people is to use fire with fire? It’s impossible. Ghandi and Mother Teresa tried the non-violence approach and yes, they were able to achieve their ultimate purpose and become an example for many other causes but we still see violence and racism to this day. Peace may be achievable in a person or even in a community but never worldwide.

When the Americans finally pacified the south, they wanted to separate the area from the Philippine country and instead call it “Mindanao Plantations” so that they could “fully exploit the land and its resources” (Anibales). Fortunately, the idea was never manifested but that person that suggested it thought of no one but himself. He wasn’t thinking about the good of the country or what’s better for the people in it, as long he was on top, nothing else mattered.

Now, I say all this because of what I said many weeks ago during one of our class discussions. Everyone else disagreed with me but in my opinion, the Philippines will never rise above its current state. If it hasn’t gained its independence now, if it hasn’t ceased to be so corrupted in the year 2011, it will never see the change we desperately need. The Philippine dream is just as achievable as world peace. No matter if Anakbayan convinces thousands of people to get violent and fight for their rights, no matter if many organizations join their efforts to make this country a better place, the Philippines will never cease to be the way that it is now. There are always the few who overpower the rest, and the rest have no power to fight the few. The system is simply in favor to those who money. And as I stay longer here in the Philippines, it is apparent that money is the most that people lack in this country. It may seem that I am being pessimistic but to me, I am being a realist. I’ve lived long enough in this country to know that the issues we face today will only worsen in the future.

But why, even after I say all this, do I want to come back and live here for the rest of my life? Why, with all the hopelessness that I feel, do I still desire to be a citizen of this corrupted nation? Studying abroad here for six weeks has only magnified the imperfections and shortcomings of my homeland, but in the same lenses I also see the beauty and the wonders of this place that keep me proud to call it my home.

View of Baguio

Rice terrace in Batad