The most recent and obvious moment when our country antagonized our own people was during the Martial Law period - where scores of Filipino intellectuals (student leaders, statesmen, artists, etc.) were tortured, disappeared, and killed. Many of those who survived were left heavily traumatized and ended up going into exile or leaving the country for good. Such circumstance resulted in a classic brain drain for the country.
But, a less violent continuation of this intellectual capital loss continues to this day. It picked up where the trauma from the massacre had left off, and started its run with only subtle hints, insinuations, that maybe, just maybe - people who strive to be decent, who value hard work especially in education, and more importantly, those who put a premium on honesty and integrity in learning and in life's dealings in general - were nothing more than out-of-touch elitists and hypocrites; maybe they were being too Westernized; maybe they were even un-Filipino. Why? Because isn't a Filipino supposed to be someone "relatable", meaning - a little slow in class, knows how to cut corners sometimes, not too honest, with a konting-diskarte-konting-ilegal-papaldo-rin-can-do mindset. Straight English talk? Nosebleed. Sipag? Bakit, mamanahin mo ba ang kumpanya? And most important, wag ka masyadong honest nagbibiruan lang tayo dito char.
When did we as a people accept that hardwork, honesty, and genuine pursuit of knowledge is nothing more than utopian thinking, o worse, a vice that must be eliminated? When did we as a people accept that money was the end all and be all; that just having money made you a good person to be emulated; that a certain fair-skinned look, a certain manner of speaking, a certain way of dressing and a very particular culture - were the only ones of value and acceptable as representative of what it means to be Filipino, and that any other ones must be viewed with suspicion or even considered lesser?
I know when. It is when we surrendered our psychology. "We may surrender everything, but we must never surrender our psychology" is a roundabout way of saying we surrender nothing. For when we know our psychology, we know who we are. And when we know who we are, we have control over the one thing we can control in life - ourselves.
But maybe, the erosion of trust to begin with in the ruling Filipino intellectual elites was a result of a genuine dissatisfaction with the way they had governed back then, and out of a genuine anger at their dismissiveness to people outside of their lot in life. Maybe, grave mistakes were made, power voids were created, people's darker impulses took over, and a price had to be paid.
That may be so. But we must never mistake enduring values - honesty, hardwork, dedication to learning - as something that merely belongs to this or that class or this or that culture. These are values that must cut across all walks of life, for they are the only thing that will lift us all up together. And, as long as there is time, what have been lost may be gained back. What have been surrendered, may be reclaimed. We can define who we are for ourselves, and most importantly, aim to stay true to our better nature over our darker instincts at all times.
