“We are celebrating the 125th Independence Day, but we still find ourselves unshackled from our long-standing chains”
This year, we celebrate the 125th Independence Day of the Philippines.
June 12, 1898 is considered the first when Emilio Aguinaldo signed “Acta de la proclamacion de independencia del pueblo Filipino.”
However, the period that seemed like independence was just waiting time as Spain sold us to America.
The date we consider as Independence Day has been controversial since time immemorial.
It’s a tricky thing to answer, but the trickier question seems to be, have we ever really been free?
As my colleague Bernardine De Belen and I write in another article, this sounds like a philosophical question, but it is also political.
More than a century has passed, yet we still find ourselves plagued with the same (or even worse) sociopolitical issues.
We have not been liberated.
True liberation means more than just picking a date when we commemorate Independence Day.
Genuine freedom demands to be continuously fought for.
There are many aspects that go into our lack of liberation; some of these being the state of human rights, education, and our environment.
The state appears to have no problem with human rights violations.
Especially involving those who choose to fight for genuine liberation. Extrajudicial killings are not new or few in the Philippines, many victims being activists.
In February of 2022, news broke out that five individuals who were variously Lumad teachers, community volunteers, and human rights defenders were killed in Davao de Oro.
They are now referred to as New Bataan 5.
The AFP claimed they were killed in an encounter with the NPA but the NPA denied this.
Duterte’s anti-poor war on drugs also added at least 6,252 victims to the EJK statistics as of May 31, 2022.
This war has not ended under Marcos Jr.’s current administration.
Some we find killed, and some we have not found at all.
Another common human rights violation in the Philippines being enforced disappearances.
Many activists have been abducted by the state force as a form of political repression. Bazoo de Jesus and Dexter Capuyan were just disappeared last April 28.
We also have political prisoners who have been jailed for their political stance. This is how Reina Nasino lost Baby River.
Authorities refused to let a mother care for her sick child.
To make it worse, those who suffer these human rights violations are red-tagged to justify violence against them.
They are called communists, or rebels, or terrorists for fighting for liberation.
In the aspect of education, the Philippines is also not doing well.
According to Sara Duterte’s Basic Education Report (BER) last January, the Department of Education faces many challenges in delivering basic education to Filipino students.
Among other things, there continues to be a lack of school infrastructure and resources.
Many Lumad schools were also shut down.
As an attempt to justify these shutdowns, Sara Duterte red–tagged the volunteer teachers.
According to her, they had links with terrorists.
The Lumad schools also suffered harassment from the Duterte administration, with Duterte himself threatening to bomb the schools.
Amidst all this flak though, it is important to remember that these schools exist solely to help Lumad children who want to learn and complete their education. They are taught basic education as well as sustainable agriculture, and indigenous arts and culture.
They learn that liberating themselves starts with education.
Bern and I also point to institutions that are supposedly there to support us, such as human rights and education, continue to oppress us.
But even at the very basic level of the environment, we are chained.
Related to the closing of Lumad schools, indigenous peoples in our country who are in the frontlines of environmental defense are continuously red-tagged and violated.
According to a report by Global Witness in 2022, the Philippines is the deadliest country in Asia for land and environmental defenders.
In 2022 alone, 19 defenders were killed, most of them being indigenous people.
Moreover, we continue to feel the intense impacts of climate change.
The summer heat was almost unbearable.
PAGASA has also warned that El Niño may develop from June to August of this year.
We are also bearing the brunt of extreme rainfall and intensified typhoons.
With dwindling trees, we continue to be prone to rising floods.
Our coastal communities are also more vulnerable to storm surges.
Our small islands, meanwhile, are facing the threat of disappearing completely with rising sea levels.
Yet we do not find our government prioritizing climate justice.
As Bern and I observe we are celebrating the 125th Independence Day, but we still find ourselves unshackled from our long-standing chains. We can only celebrate real independence when we are genuinely liberated from the systems and chains that oppress us.
As the popular Filipino saying goes, ‘Hindi ka malaya, mahaba lang ang tanikala.’
Here’s to the continuous fight for genuine liberation!
Here’s to breaking out from the chains that make our independence a mirage?
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