Lactose intolerance

By Netnet Camomot

SO, it’s going to be cheese for Sen. Grace Poe. She’s not lactose-intolerant, I hope. Oh, wrong spelling––my bad! It’s Chiz, not cheese.

Centrio brought back “Heneral Luna” and we finally watched it on Friday night. Moral lesson learned: the more things change, the more they remain the same, as the saying goes. Same old, same old. Going to a fiesta instead of fighting for the motherland, killing kapwa Pinoy instead of killing the enemies of the motherland, personal interest over national interest.

Well, in this country of ours, the enemy of the motherland could be a Pinoy, that’s why in the movie, Antonio Luna says, “Mga kapatid, meron tayong mas malaking kaaway kaysa sa mga Amerikano–ang ating sarili.” It’s the film’s oftepeated line: Bayan o sarili.

It happened to Andres Bonifacio, Antonio Luna, and Ninoy Aquino. Pinoys killing their fellow Pinoys. And it continues to happen: the military versus the NPA, MILF, and other acronyms whose meaning we don’t have to spell out anymore.

But it’s also true for other countries. Syria, for one, is going through the worst of times, with almost one-half of its population fleeing the country and dying in their efforts to gain freedom in other shores.

It’s a sad and cruel world we live in. “Heneral Luna” happened in 1898 and 1899 and yet here’s the Philippines more than a century later, still trapped in the same mindset.

The movie is, well, what’s the word? The best Pinoy movie I’ve seen. But there was a time when I thought “Oro, Plata, Mata” was the best Pinoy film ever.

The setting of “Oro, Plata, Mata” was also another war––World War II. Since I was sleeping through all my history classes, my lack of knowledge in Philippine and world histories warns me to be careful in writing about these movies. Let’s see. There was the Philippine-American War which had Luna, World War II which my parents remembered. But the wars within this country have continued to go on sans the “participation” of other countries. That’s why we can’t travel to other parts of Mindanao, despite the assurance that those are beautiful, for fear of getting caught in the middle of a war, or a bombing, or what else?

We watched “Heneral Luna”with that in mind: Why can we still relate with this movie? It’s historical, it’s about the country’s past. And yet, its message still rings true.

And to hammer that message into our brains, there’s the “former” American Grace Poe and her family running for president.

The graft and corruption in the Philippine government has made many Pinoys leave the country. One night many years ago, I and two friends were in a car and we were approaching the Cagayan de Oro city hall when I started complaining about the country. This prompted one of my two friends to say, Then, leave! Well, both of them did leave and they’re now living in the US, the land of milk and honey. I, the complainer, have chosen to remain here. Which may give me the right to demand more from the government since I chose Pinas over another country. The Pinoy is family-oriented. You can see that in “Heneral Luna”––family first before anything else. Imagine that Pinoy leaving his family behind in Pinas to look for greener pastures abroad because he has lost hope of finding a decent job in his own country.

That’s why when the Bureau of Customs decided to look for taxable items in balikbayan boxes, the OFWs of course protested by saying it’s not only a box, but a box filled with love in the form of Spam, corned beef, chocolates, towels, sneakers, perfume, colognes, bath soap, liquid antibacterial soap, iPhones, iPads, clothes, bed linens, books, magazines, etc.

Anyone who has stayed abroad, even for a vacation, can relate with this. There’s the empty balikbayan box in one corner of the room, to be filled with goodies each time the Pinoy is back home from bargain shopping. The box is always a work in progress, it’s not filled in a single day. Once a box is full, it’s then sent to Pinas. And there’s the Pinoy immediately buying another balikbayan box, to be filled again with goodies the next time he goes to a bargain sale.

My bro, who lives in the US, would always say, Di pa man na sale, whenever we ask him to buy something for us. To a Pinoy who hasn’t tried working abroad, that may sound strange: Why wait for a sale? But that’s when Pinoys abroad go shopping. Even the Pinoy tourist is familiar with outlet stores.

Poe herself must have sent balikbayan boxes, too, to her mom Susan Roces. And her American citizenship is now being questioned. If she was able to renounce her Pinoy citizenship once upon a time, where is her loyalty now, to motherland or the US?

There are Pinoys who don’t even want to come back home anymore. What may make them return is if their immediate family members or their palalab are here and can’t join them abroad for now.

At least Poe came back. And it seems like we now know why.