Truly free

The whole country celebrated its 125th Independence yesterday. Almost all local government units laid flowers on specific monuments. However for Cebu City, it’s quite an upgrade. Mayor Michael Rama wanted his constituents to take to heart the importance of being free --not just from the colonial rule but from the different issues in the city. He laid down issues such as garbage, traffic, bad odor, and the like. While it’s true that these concepts are worth being free from, it isn't that easy.

I commend the cleanup drive by the city over the weekend where they collected over 100 tons of garbage. Most of them were plastics thrown by residents into the rivers. The problem now is residents living near the river banks. This problem goes on, despite efforts trying to relocate them in compliance with national laws. There many workers in City Hall but the scope of its job is too big.

So we cannot truly say that we are free. We can strut down the street with the Philippine flag and sing songs about when we were still in captivity. Cebuanos are still tied to the fact that we need to live up to the expectations of Imperial Manila that we are the best in the Visayas. We are still stuck in the mindset that we need to be perfect or "Singapore-like".

The mindset derails us of our liberty. It gears us towards a certain set of standards instead of focusing on being the standard. But it isn’t only Cebu that’s in captivity, but the whole country is. The mindset of being Western continues to be etched in our heads. We patronize goods produced by Western countries because our subconscious tells us they are better than the rest. It’s a sick cycle that has existed since colonization.

While we ponder on these realities, it doesn't mean we don’t celebrate the day we became free from Spanish Rule. To some extent, we were able to become our own country despite an erased culture that was replaced with a 300-year-old influence. Those days in Cavite were memorable and one that we should continue to live by. However, we should also live in accordance with what our ancestors fought for.

They fought for freedom and sovereignty. They understood that we shouldn’t be slaves nor strangers in our own land. This shouldn’t be the case today. Now I understand why schools always push us to go back to our roots, history, and its cultural significance. We see the resurgence of some cultural elements today. I wish it wouldn’t just be a fad or a viral reel kept on replay.