Marvin Isidore "Sid" Macatol Weblog

When Filipinos of my age were the "millennials" of the country we whined and rallied on issues that were happening almost in real time and under real threat from an army ready to pounce ... Although Marcos lifted Martial law 5 years earlier, a lot of political detainees were still in prison and the New People's Army was at their peak! Ninoy Aquino was assassinated 3 years earlier and caused an uproar that were fresh to us like yesterday Marcos called for a Snap Election months earlier Election fraud was exposed by the media days earlier Protests were happening in the news while we studied our lessons in the dormitory Everyone was nervous. Everyone was wondering what was going to happen. Then all of a sudden Enrile and Ramos defected to Cory and Cardinal Sin called on radio for everyone "to protect" these freedom fighters The millennials, along with the rest of the concerned citizens of that generation, filled EDSA to the brim under some real threat of a...

I cannot help but realize that we're a very young independent nation, this Philippines that we claim our own. June 12, 1898. Was this really the day we became a nation? All you have to do is go to the Ayala Museum (see my earlier post) and see the beautiful dioramas there, and somehow you just get the feel of the continuous stream of events that transpired since 1898. You will realize that we have never really been an independent nation then. No, we have not been. Even Emilio Aguinaldo has admitted that it was "snatched" from us. The year 1898 was a terrible year for us. It was the year we declared Independence from Spain, it was the year Spain sold us to the Americans, and it was the year the Americans took over us as colonizers. The independence movement was practically nipped in the bud.