Missing Identity: Filipinas

What is in a name?

It has been decades now since we last used the name Filipinas. 

During that time we were still under the powers of a colonial power that our ancestors fought against... when there was still a government under the General Emilio Aguinaldo, who had himself declared the national president via an election of his province folk, and we were still struggling to stand on our two feet. We have thought of changing it, from the American Philippines and tagalized Pilipinas to the former proposals of using Maharlika and Rizal as the name of our country... and still we are not sure of what our name is supposed to be.

But this recent change speaks in volumes. It just shows everyone that we, after more than a century, still have no definite identity.

We keep on looking for who we are. For who we truly are. We still are reeling in from our days under the flags of different nations that left us scorching too long under suns and stars that we ultimately get blinded by it. We have no concept of what we are now and what we were that we still keep on holding to the culture of others in search for who we are. We are still the "brown Americans" and the "Indios" based on the way we act and define ourselves.

Yes. It is important to look at the past and learn from it but is it really necessary to be stuck in it? Is it really necessary that we have this terrible amnesia that makes us forget the remaining decades beyond those years?  The reason why we can not move on and not move forward is because we keep glorifying our past without making the steps to go back and regain that former glory. 

Look at our music, our films and our telenovelas. We say it is Original. That it is Pinoy. But is it, really?

Beyond the name

It is not the name of our country that needs changing. It is our nation that needs the scrubbing down.

Sure, merge our cultures. But never forget who we are.