Remember

Herbie Gomez

THERE is something improper in the way we have been downplaying and even criticizing our annual Independence Day celebrations.

Every year, we hear the usual rhetorics building on the argument that there is nothing to be happy and celebrate about because of what the country has become over a century since the raising of the flag, and proclamation of the sovereignty of the nation from Spain’s colonial rule by the revolutionary forces under Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit, Cavite.

It is correct to state that majority of Filipinos have not been freed from the shackles of poverty–about one quarter of the population live on some P50 a day or less while the few oligarchs control much of the nation’s resources. We still see foreign hands from time to time in our affairs. The government has not functioned the way it should, and basic services remain wanting as far as most of Filipinos are concerned. No arguments.

But while it is true that much remains to be desired in this country that has ballooned from more than six million in 1896 to over 100 million 118 years later, that is not a good reason to frown over the declaration of independence a century ago. To do that would be to understate the significance of the 1896 reading of the Acta de la Proclamación de Independencia del Pueblo Filipino (Act of the Declaration of Independence), and to bury the memory of the Katipuneros, our revolutionary heroes, including Dr. Jose Rizal whose ideas and writings awakened Filipinos and helped in sparking the revolution. That is what we should be remembering on the 12th of June, and not how we, our government and are people, have been collectively bungling our independence which our forefathers paid for with their blood.

What we did to our country over 100 years later is not the fault of our revolutionary heroes. They knew nothing about Ferdinand E. Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Benigno Aquino III, and Rodrigo Duterte. But for what our heroes did and their contributions so that we could have and enjoy whatever independence and democracy we have now, no matter how imperfect, would it be too much to ask that we pause for awhile by honoring their memory every June 12? That is the historical context and essence of our annual Independence Day celebrations, and not how we and our leaders after 1896 messed things up in this country.

Remember Kawit, remember our heroes and what they did.

Pastilan.