Philippine Independence Day 2008
Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance
Filipino Nurses Support Group
Philippine Women Centre of B.C
SIKLAB-B.C. (Advance the rights and welfare of overseas Filipino workers and their families)

A Reminder to our Big American Brothers.

June 12, 2008

"America does not forget. America will not fail us."
-Former Dictator Ferdinand Marcos

To our Big American Brothers, we shall not forget.

On June 12, we mark the fraudulent independence you granted us, first by crushing our defiant spirit through the bloody Philippine-American War you orchestrated and second, by placing the people under the cabal of a colonial government. In marking Philippine Independence Day, we continue to uphold the principles of genuine independence and freedom, the most important lesson you have bestowed upon us. We will not fail you.

Therefore, we mark Independence Day as the day we became the Little Brown Brothers to your White Man's Burden, so we shall not forget.

Moreover, we mark Independence Day as the day our sovereign nation that triumphed against European Empire entered a long-term, co-dependent relationship with you, our Imperialist master.

To our Big American Brothers, we have not forgotten. We have not forgotten the manacling of the Philippines was corollary to the inter-imperialist wars between Spain and America to re-divide the colonies and rule the world. We have not forgotten that under the proclamation of “Benevolent Assimilation” you came to the archipelago “not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends, to protect” our homes, our employments and our personal and religious rights. The “charitable” schooling of our people under the authority of American democracy flowered a quiet desperation for survival and encouraged us to blindly accept every wrong, every violation inflicted upon us.

Your ideals for capitalist expansion enables us to sell our labour, bleed our resources and trade our dignity in the commodity market. We have not forgotten the “protection” you provided through a myriad of military agreements, counter-insurgency training, low-intensity warfare, national security measures and anti-terrorist laws.  The military chateaus of Subic and Clark exemplify American virtues of security and patriotism, which current Filipino fascist leaders like Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo readily ape and exercise against nationalist dissidents and their supporters.

Thanks to you America, Filipino women bodies have been commercialized in concert with the liberalization of the Philippine economy.  They are the definitive “Rest and Recreation superstars”, mastering the art of “loving all night long” and delivering the “best in guest relations services”.

We owe it to you, our Big American Brothers, for emphasizing the importance of self-blame and indoctrinating the cumbrous utang ng loob*.  Our leaders tell us our failure to free ourselves from poverty is reflective of our “barbaric gluttony” and our “native ignorance” towards family planning.  The rapid conversion of fertile rice terraces to foreign corporate-owned bedrocks for flower production and the like, kindly brokered by neo-liberal foreign economic policies have created the current rice crisis. Our migrant workers must now work even harder to send more money and rice home for their families survival.

We have you to thank, our Big American Brothers and your Philippine cabal for economically forcing us to leave the tropical landscape to scrape by in new lands, for new dreams and wealth.  Our ability to survive under abusive work conditions resonates through the beguiling smiles of mail-order brides, the severed hands of construction workers, the criminalization of immigrant youth and the penniless bank accounts of domestic workers. Despite our desperate conditions, local Philippine government officials tells us keep quiet, bow our heads and transfer our loyalty from one benevolent amo** to another. We are the YESpeople of the world thanks to you, America.

To our Big American Brothers, thank you for rendering the Philippines a republic of service.  In adhering to this duty, we offer our purest humanity in service to the people.  In doing so we shall not forget that innocent lives were surrendered in the name of our peripheral freedom. So we shall not forget, our American Big Brothers, to forsake certain comforts as our ancestors did before us so we should liberate and invigorate others to do the same.  So we shall understand that our lives are worth living if lived in the pursuit for genuine independence. 

To our Big American Brothers, we have not forgotten.

In not forgetting, we will not fail.

"Do not internalize powerlessness. That is the first step to slavery. The only thing we can offer, those of us who also work 18/7 scampering to correct each sliver of injustice…are the words to live by: to the degree that you resist imperialism, to that degree are you already liberated...Surrender is not an option.”
-Ninotchka Rosca

*utang ng loob: forever in your debt, eternally indebted to or unpayable debt
**amo: Master, boss, employer

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