Great nationalist thinkers like Renato Constantino and Jose Lansang didn’t call it “sham independence” for nothing. As I write this letter, the United States of America still maintains its military forces and facilities on Philippine soil, while it continues to influence our government policies in favor of foreign monopolies.
Inadequate and deceptive, our Independence Day symbolizes the end of the Spanish regime and the start of the American colonial rule in the country. Declared by Emilio Aguinaldo, June 12 also reminds us about the compromising nature of the Ilustrados, or what is known today as the Filipino elite, and how they betrayed the revolution by pledging allegiance to the new colonizer. Lest we forget, it was also these collaborators who helped the great American nation unleash its wrath against the local resistance during the Philippine-American War that killed more than half a million Filipinos, combatants and civilians alike.
Hailed as our protector by mainstream media, the United States’ hegemony in the Philippines is stronger than ever as the Aquino administration does a great job in preserving our status as a client state. It recycles the neoliberal policies of the past administrations—policies that perpetuate chronic poverty and grave social injustice in the country. And contrary to its claim, corruption still prevails and is bound to continue in the Philippines as our backward economy remains dependent on foreign businesses.
But isn’t the United States our only chance against superpower China? By allowing the former to intervene in our territorial disputes and internal affairs, we’re only placing ourselves in the ranks of the traditional politicians who choose to serve one master over another in exchange for personal privileges, even as the vast majority are deprived of their basic rights. As the late senator Claro Mayo Recto once admonished, “…it is a folly to expect that any other nation will ever sacrifice its welfare to pure idealism or sentimental attachments. As Filipinos, we must look out for ourselves, because no one else will. That is the very essence of our independence.”
—DANIEL ALOC, tierra.giya@yahoo.com