According to Thomas H. Greer, a former special operations commander "All the new nations faced severe problems, for political independence did not automatically bring them prosperity and happiness...they were seldom free of external influences. They were still bound to...structures developed earlier by the colonial powers." During the Spanish and American colonial eras, the Philippines was politically and economically controlled by those two countries. In addition to that, the Japanese also took over the power to the Philippines leading to violence and chaos amongst our fellowmen.
Our brave heroes starting from Lapu-Lapu who fiercely fought the invaders at Mactan, the GomBurZa who died with the country’s pride, Jose Rizal who used his pen and mind as a tool for reform and nationalism, Andres Bonifacio who revolutionized to achieve freedom and many of them, have one purpose for the country – Independence. Sometimes I think of the what ifs of our country’s fate. What if these heroes haven’t shed much ‘blood, sweat and tears’ in their fight for human freedom and national dignity? Will the present be different? More specifically, are we worthy being called Filipino, a citizen of the country, Philippines? According to Esteban de Ocampo, former Chairperson and Executive Director of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, “Filipinos are by nature and tradition a liberty-loving people. The pages of their history are replete with revolts, uprisings, mutinies, insurrections, and rebellions to free themselves from injustices, abuses, vexations, discriminations and oppressions of conquerors, whether Spanish, Japanese or Americans. Looking at our history, it is inevitable to just close your mouth and listen to the crying heart of every Filipino that is why our fellowmen did what they did for the country. If they did not fight for the country’s freedom there’s only one possible outcome that’s going to happen – we would still be in the hands of the Spanish Government. It is all because they were the first grand invaders or colonizer that held our country for about three centuries. They have been ruling for that long and many cultures were adopted and practiced by the people of that time. The Philippines absorbed many of the Spaniards’ cultural traits, from their surnames and their attire to elements of their cuisine and language. Also, the Catholic faith as the Spain’s most enduring legacy that still remains within us in the present time.
The Philippines would be a state of the Spain’s Republic if we did not choose to fight for our freedom, in that case by now, people in the Philippines are half Filipino-Spaniard blood. There are a lot of different outcome when we are still in the Spain’s ruling. Maybe we are not experiencing an extreme poverty which is, in the present time, the worst problem that our country faces. Filipinos are still shadows of their colonial past, Though sad but true, human labor is our main export today. We export our countrymen, families and friends in exchange for dollar remittances. It was our heroes’ dream to liberate the Filipinos from any form of foreign slavery, but today, extreme poverty forces Filipinos to work in foreign lands and ironically serve the same foreign masters who oppressed us before. If we just let our oppressor to rule us, maybe we are productive as their state, however, the what we so called freedom wouldn’t be the same. We will be caged by their own intentions to our own country and we will lose the pride of being a Filipino. The culture and traditions that has been passed to us by our ancestor would vanish and it’s like the Philippines is just once a country that cannot be protected by its own people.
Freedom isn’t an easy thing to redeem from the oppressor, at first it will displease you, but the truth will set you free. The only truth for our country is to achieve the real independence because we are actually not free even at this point. The freedom that we seek for is within ourselves, we may be haunted by our past but at least there are people who fought for it so it should begin with ourselves too.
Politics it's have several characters. The person who are involved with politics, sometimes they become good person and most of the time they are corrupted person. But also there have some heroes who are involved with politics.