Much desired freedom
The 123rd Philippine Independence Day celebration leaves much to be desired even though the Philippines has been a “free country” for more than a hundred years.
The pandemic has shown us that the Philippines has never been freed from the shackles of the world’s superpowers. The health crisis exposes how the country miserably lacks the capacity to respond to the pandemic. Aside from the shortage of hospital beds, equipment, and supplies, the country is entirely dependent on other countries and the international community for the vaccines that can deliver herd immunity.
China’s intrusion into our national territory at the West Philippine Sea is an insult to our independence as a co-equal state in the community of nations. Moreover, despite the arbitral ruling affirming the Philippines ’right over the disputed waters, our Filipino fishermen are bullied when they fish within the waters that rightfully belong to the country.
The Duterte administration’s “independent” foreign policy does not profess independence. Instead, it is a policy of submission to the whims and caprices of a foreign power in the hope of getting substantial investments. Up to this moment, no investments came in. Instead, we got a pittance of vaccine supplies to silence the government from vigorously objecting to the aggressive encroachments.
Our more than a century of freedom from our past colonizers still leaves much to be desired. While we are free to chart our destiny, we are still navigating with unclear directions as every administration that takes the reins of power follows its plan that suits its agenda.
Depite all vagaries in life that we face, let us draw inspiration from these words of Carlos P. Romulo: “I am a Filipino born of freedom, and I shall not rest until freedom shall have been added unto my inheritance – for myself and my children’s – forever.”