Post-colonialism has often been pointed out as the main hindrance to the Philippines on why its people could not easily figure out their native past. Being a Filipino myself, I might have to agree with this statement on some parts. In today's Philippine society, everything is already modernized in the sense of the "Western" way. Everything is done and made to try to have the country cope with the standards of the international setting. But along the way it seems that the country has tried to adopt modernity so much that in the process of doing so its cultural identity faded into the background.
Let us take a look back at the Filipinos prior to being colonized. Mainly, there was no Philippines. I guess form there we could already say that the country itself has become a colonial product. It is a hard truth but a truth nonetheless. But even in some truths, there are lies. In this example it would be that the Philippines existed because of the Spanish conquestors. True, they gave the country its "official" name-- by their standards-- which is used until today for the purpose of uniformity of knowledge, but it does nto mean that the country has not existede even before they came. In fact, during the pre-Hispanic period of the country, tribl leaders or the barangay leaders already formed pacts and alliances with one another that it is practically what made up the country's political system collectively.
Speaking of political systems then, our present system is one that is a product of our colonial past. It was imposed on us by the Americans as a way for them to be easily able to colonize us. They gave the impression that it is best fr the country in order for it to easily grow into the times. We gladly accepted this constitution. But does it necessitate then that it would automatically not work for the country already? We go back to history where we see the fragmentation of the regions' leadership, yet there is a common understanding amongst them that they are united in some ways. In the recent years there have been debates regarding the change of the Philippine system into one that is most similar to the one we had before. Will it work now? The answer is still no. Because given the way that our officials have behaved, it has come to be part of our political culture that if such a system is implied, it will seem to be the best option as it best fits the description btu it will not be implemented as written. Just like many of our laws.
I do not blame colonialism in total for being the one to bring it upon our people to keep on accepting, adapting and adopting what is handed to us by these colonizers we had. In truth, I partially think that it is the weakness of our culture's persistence to surmount these others that are being given to us. At most, I sometimes think that these colonial products only persisted in our people because we allowed them to. I know that given the history we had that such searching could not be avoided. But because I know that our people are capable of great ideals, I frown at the thought of our historical submissiveness to the West.
I am not implying that our people are weak. In part perhaps, but my argument is that if we had more persistence as a nation in the modern times as Andres Bonifiacio did in his leadership of the Katipunan, perhaps we would be the strongest nation in the South Eastern region of Asia.
My point? What I try to emphasize here is that even as the Philippines today is practically a product of the many colonial minds that came across it, it is not completely colonial in itself. It's people may have been slowly blinded for centuries but from what I see today, people are starting to take a new appreciation for the sense of nationalism. If this could only persist through the years, then I have the assurance that the country I love will have its own chapter to be written in the mainstream of world HisStory.
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