Freedom From

What is the relevance of the Philippine Independence Day if you are no longer a student who is being obliged to bring a small replica of the country’s flag at school?

To the working class, does it even go beyond the fact that it is a holiday, hence a rest day?

If you think about it, we have no Spaniard conquerors to free ourselves from. Well of course one can argue that the Catholic Church has remained almost unchanged since then up until this point- conservative, constricting and plagued with corruption.

You see, even if a revolution lead by a Bonifacio or a Rizal is no longer relevant, there are a lot of things that we, as a nation need to be liberated from.

For once, we should be liberated from telenovelas that start with a switched-identity premise and ends in a series of kidnappings as well as film festivals showing the infinite reincarnations of Enteng Kabisote, Agimat and Shake, Rattle and Roll.

That also means that TV Patrol and Inquirer should put a stop making Kris Aquino’s rants a national issue. Leave that to Boy Abunda and The Buzz.

Oh! Let us free ourselves too from clowns like Willie Revillame, we deserve a better kind of comedy or entertainment for that matter.

If we say that ‘it is more fun in the Philippines’, we better mean it and that means that we should start seriously thinking about re-constructing our airports.

Consequently, we should be free from carriers like Cebu Pacific whose only claim to fame apart from its constant delayed flights is Claudine Baretto.

If we say that we are a free nation and the beacon of democracy in Asia and in the world, then we should stop patronizing politicians whose credentials only includes their last name or pedigree for that matter.  The Senate is not a family-owned corporation.

That being the case, Maalaala Mo Kaya should stop airing the life stories of the Enriles prior to the election period.

That also goes without saying that the Aquinos should NOT have the monopoly of the Malacanang palace.

While the rest of the world legalized divorce we remained stubborn arguing that we would like to protect the sanctity of marriage and family and yet we champion movies with mistress themes.

Look around you and there are even public officials extremely proud of their ‘extended families’.  What gives?

While we take pride in being the text capital of the world, it also paints a sad picture about how we manage our finances and our perspective in terms of what matters most. The working class would rather have the latest mobile phone model than savings or investments.

Do you ever wonder why Henry Sy is the richest person in this country? Or how omnipresent SM Malls are that their sheer count far exceeds the number of hospitals that we have in the entire country!

I hope that we could also liberate ourselves from the yearly enigma that is flooding.

Please don’t get me started about emancipation from traffic.