Transcript

The Philippines, 7,641 islands with a population of about 100,000,000. Abundant in minerals and natural resources. Producer of tropical cash crops, and raw material for export to industrialized nations. Breeder of generations of disenfranchised cheap labor and a market for excess finished goods.

The Philippines, home to foreign multinationals partaking in the bounty of tropical ingenuity and subordination via neoliberal policy and western socio-cultural dominance. Plagued by centuries of imperialism.

Setting for reiterations of ownership of land laws from crown to state to whoever is the highest bidder.  Peasants remain landless and in debt and indigenous communities are militarized and displaced to give way to foreign mining, logging and agri-business interests.

Health care is a commodity. Housing and education a privilege. Basic social services distributed as seen fit by public-private partnerships fueled by the desire to generate income from beneficiaries who cannot pay.

Contemporary Filipino psyche is often dictated by an inherent guilt and acceptance to tragedy and state negligence with a majority of the population having been historically bred by Christian doctrine. Philippine tourism’s tagline “Its more fun in the Philippines” boldly embodies this flawed resilience to abuse and exploitation as most Filipinos can only resort to smiling and praying as acts of survival and redemption from the hardships of socio-cultural and economic climate of the greater global south.  

And yet….

Pre-katipunan revolts to today’s prevalent armed struggle in the countryside mirror a deep sense of destiny yet to be fulfilled.Resisting hegemony of the state and foreign capitalist interests continue to grow as an expression of the modern Filipino.

New forms of resistance are being articulated to realize a society based on equity and a genuine sense for the kapwa – a Filipino word for the other.