Love Our Own!

By: Ronald Habana Jr.

Let me start off with these lines from a classic patriotic song... "Ang bayan ko'y tanging ikaw, Pilipinas kong Mahal..." A great song composed by the great Francisco Santiago who's the Father of Kundiman. A heartfelt song to show love for our native country, but is this century-old song still reflects the perception of the Filipinos to its nation nowadays? As time went by and as our land became such interest of colonialism to such big countries, our minds as Filipinos were influenced by these strong cultures to such point that we forget our own.

Much to our disappointment, many are still being influenced by other cultures specially the Western as we are, now in the 20th century being called as such "westernized people". Its a shame that we Filipinos are finding such hard time to love our own, while many (surprisingly) foreign people are finding our culture interesting that they are being driven to study and live in our own native lands.

Yes, there is a great number of Filipinos who are being influenced by these widely patronized culture but in many ways there are still proud and genuine Pinoys who are not afraid to shout out that they are Filipinos and that they have and will always LOVE our own.

I'm happy that together with the wave of time, the new generation of Filipios are finally starting to realize that the Philippines is one great country, one that a person could be proud of even with the many problems and difficulties it is facing, even as it is a Third World Country and even it has such controlled rulers. I'm happy that even the Filipinos are being supressed and that they are being taught to patronize such aliens and their culture, many are still fighting for the sweetest and most gratifying prize: being a Filipino.