As I tried to struggle to go finish writing my projects and to go over my textbooks to prepare myself for my final exams, I was also doing my best to keep up with the updates about the situation in Maguindanao. In cases like these, I wondered, will my fellow Filipinos back home will remain glued to their seats watching the recent episode of their favorite reality shows, or will they stand up and face the reality that is nowhere far from their front doorsteps? Will they shed tears from the sadness brought by the soaps, or will they feel indignation about the tragedy that has once again brought the Philippines to the world’s attention?

When I took an introductory class in Politics back in 2004, it has always been a puzzle for me why a handful of the Filipino people I know hate politics. I cannot say that political systems were made to be perfect, but I believe that they are doable. However, as my eyes become open to the political and economic struggle and violence that people face back home, I started to question this belief. Perhaps the political frameworks that people have established were doable, true, but maybe I should question the motives of the people within the system.

As a Filipino who is far away from home, I can only feel frustration. I can only spread the news about this unbelievable, violent scenario that has struck us. But when did the Filipinos never had to face difficult situations anyway? The recent typhoon just killed hundreds of people and took hundreds of thousands worth of properties. The political climate is just as murky and dirty as your local perya. The poor get poorer, and the rich are becoming richer and filthier. And the middle class? Well, majority of them (like my family) leave the country in the hopes of saving themselves, because no one could extend help and save them anyway.

I have heard and read that the Filipinos know how to smile despite of all the grief that he has to face every single day. But for me, doing that means we passively accept that this is our destiny and we cannot do anything about it. That, I think, is preposterous. I believe that Pinoys don’t have to smile all the time and dismiss things. The untimely demise of innocent people is something that we shouldn’t be smiling about. We ought to do something. If we could mobilize ourselves in support of a mere boxer, I am pretty sure that we also have the ability to save our faces and lives in the hands of people who have a lot of power in their hands and who will never stop to fulfill their desire to get more of what they shouldn’t really have. Some people might dismiss this thought as something radical, but wouldn’t be standing up to an issue to have your voice heard better than just sitting there and do nothing at all? I have my extended family and friends back from the Philippines, and despite that I am now living a relatively good life, I still worry for their safety. Violence, greed and ulterior motives surround the people in the government, and I would not accept that there is a possibility that innocent lives will get hurt in the process.

One thing that I have learned in university is that history is made in order for us to learn from our ancestors’ past mistakes. However, with the presence of political violence in the Philippines, I do not think this is not the case. A friend of mine has mentioned that the Filipino people do not pay respect to their history. I certainly agree. We let an ex-convict run for a position, we allow a filthy-mouthed senator run for the second highest position in the country, we let a supposedly ‘the best candidate out there’ run as president despite of his inability to stop a bloody incident in his family’s very own property and an ultimate example of the immortality of political dynasties. We have a long series of narrative that should have shaped us as a nation; that should have helped us strengthen our sense of being Filipino and our will to protect ourselves and our country. Yet, this nonsense is gone unnoticed. Or perhaps we just assume that we are incapable to do such things. We purposely play deaf, blind, and crippled to the sad and disturbing things that are happening in front of us.

The Philippines’ National Hero, Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal, has said that ‘There are no tyrants where there are no slaves.’ The Filipinos should have been long freed from the chains of poverty and from the hands of colonialism. For some reason we still come back to where we came from. If this continues, perhaps, it would be best to conclude that our nation is dead. Not even a set of seven world titles in boxing could resurrect the country or the lives of the people who were caught in the dirty web of games of people who only care for what they could gain.

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Originally published at Philippine Times Winnipeg, December 2009