As a Constitutional Reform Advocate, I Often Ask, "Is the Filipino Still Worth Dying For?"

It's National Heroes' Day, and I'm afraid many Filipinos tend to take those heroes for granted. Honestly, I often asked myself that question growing up in the Philippines. I had an identity crisis as a Chinoy, because Chinoy history often had this clannish, insular mindset. Sure, there's no Binondo in Cebu City, and the Chinoy population is often better integrated these days. I thought about how I felt the Philippines wasn't "worth it" or "worth fighting for" because of things like:

1. I remember being in elementary school with poor discipline, driven by how students who landed the punch were singled out, while the student who triggered it with an insult didn't even get a scolding. I mean, sure, the student who landed the punch deserves suspension, but letting the student who triggered the fight go without a scolding and parental counseling is uncalled for. Also, that school was guilty of not respecting people's time by starting programs an hour late. Honestly, one hour is a lot of time, and people have other things to do in life. Parnets 
2. I remember 20 years ago, but not exactly 20 years ago, I encountered what might be the worst enrollment ever. I remember how slowly the lines moved, and we had that OA facilitator who lied that she arrived at 5:00 AM when the school gates open at 7:00 AM, leading to us having a fight. Even worse, after I had initially enrolled, I had to face an OA working student who only kept making bugal-bugal (mockery) and wasted my precious time. Honestly, I even remember shouting at home, "I don't think the Filipino is worth dying for anymore!"
3. Every Christmas season is honestly not the most wonderful time of the year. Many people tend to do their Christmas shopping late, which can be one of the biggest causes of Christmas traffic. Forget about Christmas magic. If Christmas were truly magical, we would ignore the fact that Christmas never stopped the Second World War. 
4. The habit of always arriving late instead of at the appointed time. It's as if time runs differently in the Philippines than in the rest of the world. I often remember back in elementary when I was told that if I liked being on time, why don't I just "return home to China"? However, that's impossible given that, legitimately, I've already been born in the Philippines.

It was Ninoy Aquino Day last August 21. I was often told that if I wanted change, I could follow the likes of Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" A. Aquino Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Jose Rizal, instead of following either pessimistic thought or the bloody revolutionary patterns of the likes of Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Vladimir Lenin, and Fidel Castro. It made me think that the same Ninoy who told Stanley Karnow, the author of  In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines, that he "killed for power and he will kill again", later moved from that mindset to peaceful means while he was in jail.

Ninoy later said this in the later years, before he died, and he could've chosen to remain in exile, living in comfort:

. “I have asked myself many times: Is the Filipino worth suffering, or even dying, for? Is he not a coward who would readily yield to any colonizer, be he foreign or homegrown? Is a Filipino more comfortable under an authoritarian leader because he does not want to be burdened with the freedom of choice? Is he unprepared, or worse, ill-suited for presidential or parliamentary democracy? I have carefully weighed the virtues and the faults of the Filipino and I have come to the conclusion that he is worth dying for because he is the nation’s greatest untapped resource.”

- Ninoy’s interview with Asia Society on August 4, 1980 in New York City. He was talking about love of country to the point that he would be willing to sacrifice himself.

In fact, I was mockingly told many times that 88% of Filipinos are against charter change. Figures can change over time. If we look at the reality, there's such a thing as the tyranny of the majority. Ninoy admitted that he was actually feeling alone. However, tyranny remains as tyranny, which this quote by Ninoy actually means a lot:

3. “The moment you say no to tyranny, you are beginning the struggle, the long lonely road to freedom. And so I ask this afternoon, please say no and learn to say no. No to tyranny! No to corruption! No to all this degradation of human dignity! Because then, I feel the true air of your fathers who before you have shed their blood for our freedoms.”

- Ninoy at the freedom rally symposium by the Movement for Free Philippines (MFP); Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, California; February 15, 1981. He was a supporter of freedom of speech, justice, and people power, which are the foundations of democracy.

In fact, it made me think of one truth about the growth mindset. Just because the current generation is pasaway, it isn't a guarantee that the next generation would automatically be pasaway. Instead, the youth can be molded and shaped with new information. Just think about how stuff like women learning their rights in China, a society that once looked down on women as second-class citizens, changed over time. Just think of how Mahatma Gandhi was in the minority before. 

The more I think about it, the Philippines has its cycles of good Filipinos and bad Filipinos. However, movements like that even if only a few Filipinos finally speak against systemic defects, even if only a few Filipinos may see that the Filipino First Policy caused the Philippines to fail, etc.- many changes are often born because a minority refused to yield when they knew they had the truth. They knew the truth never changes just because more than half of the people, or even 99%, believed in the lie. The lie may travel faster but the truth will ultimately prevail in the long run.

That's why I want to give up on the game of numbers. Instead, the reality is that the Filipino can be worth dying for, for the few who actually would stand by the truth no matter what.