The Journey Back

GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano

Jose Rizal wrote:

“…They gradually lost their ancient traditions, their recollections, –they forgot their writings, their songs, their poetry, their laws in order to learn by heart other doctrines, which they did not understand, other ethics, other tastes, different from those inspired in their race by their climate and their way of thinking. Then there was a falling off, they were lowered in their own eyes, they became ashamed, of what was distinctly their own, in order to admire and praise what was foreign and incomprehensible., their spirit was broken and they acquiesced.”

How, then, can Filipinos reclaim their spirit, reconnect to the soul of our traditions, recover our ancient writings, our songs, our poetry and our laws? How can our hearts intuit our doctrines, reinstall our ethics and our ways? How can we find the rhythm of our climate, our language, our way of thinking and understanding? How can we rediscover our identity, our culture, and our pride in them? Is it possible, or is what is native and unique in us gone forever?

Some will question why we need to reclaim what could be obsolete, or simply what cannot be reclaimed. There are those who say, “Move on, forget the past or you will get stuck there.” And others cannot simply see the relevance of what Rizal said in today’s moment.

I am not a historian, nor am I am behavioral scientist, having taken no formal courses and training in either field. But I am curious human being, and I would like to think of myself as one whose curiosity has its own sense of discriminating between the substantial and the peripheral. I remember when I was first asked to write in this electronic publication in early 2001 and was given the option how many times a week I would like to do so. I chose once a week because I could not see myself consistently writing anything of import more than once a week.

My lack of formal training is made up by a life of experimentation after the curiosity, and I have dabbled not only in causes that may have seemed flaky in the beginning to the conventional mind (like the green movement and alternative medicine) but also delved deeply into the understanding of the great faiths of the world. All these were part of an intuitive need to discover, or re-discover. Somehow, the happiness of a blessed childhood, the success of an intense corporate career, and the general comfort of life only made me curious later at why there was so much misery in the lives of so many Filipinos.

It was not easy for me to accept the usual accusations hurled against those who have more by radicals espousing the cause of those who have little, or none at all. While it is true that my parents were born rich from even richer grandparents, there is no evidence despite a rather extensive and complete knowledge of family tree dating to almost three hundred years that any of my ancestors were beneficiaries of a colonial past. My grandparents were rich because my grandfather was an astute businessman who was more Chinese than the suspected European lineage of our family name. His siblings and relatives were not anywhere as rich although they were not poor either. The Spanish authorities exiled him to the Marianas Islands after he was caught financing the rebellion and evolution in the late 19th century, convincing me all the more than he made his money his way and not from the loot of colonial masters.

When all lands were confiscated by the throne of Spain, Filipinos experienced a shocking transition from being farmers and producers to being tillers and laborers. It was a grotesque degeneration that forced a highly civilized, productive and creative people to adapt to superior force, to the greed and exploitation of foreign masters. Resourcefulness turned away from creative options to perverse ways to cling to life. A prayerful, celebratory people took a bizarre descent towards what had been transcended long before.

Our ancestors were symbolized by the engineering agricultural wonder known as the rice terraces, the beautiful colors and weaves of native cloth and costumes, the intricacy of designs in extremely minute gold jewelry and the science of preserving human bodies for centuries in an environment constantly attacked by unusually high moisture or humidity fearfully. In less than three hundred years, now known as Filipinos, our resourcefulness turned to guile, our generosity turned to commercial hospitality, our bayanihan shrank and built familial walls, and our nobility dirtied itself for survival and gain.

What is done is done, and what is past cannot be restored. But what we lost can be recovered because what we lost was a proud spirit, what we lost was a noble soul. A spirit that aspires and strives for the lofty, a soul that cares deeply for the other and is ready to die for love and honor, these can be recovered, these can be made to shine again as what is ugly and lowly can be decomposed and buried forever.

Finance and technology have proven to be quite inutile against corruption. Our poverty and misery is not a matter of ignorance, it is a matter of greed and exploitation by a few over the very many, by force of superior power and now by force of superior rank. The crime of the Filipino people is the submission, the subservience and the resignation against leadership that is aptly described in the Tagalog phrase as “bantay, salakay”, or the protector taking advantage of those in need of protection.

It is not proficiency of English, it is not Information Technology, it is not foreign investments that can raise the quality of life of the Filipino; it is the return of a noble culture, a refined value system which once put on the pedestal honor as king, generosity as queen, creativity, integrity, honesty as heirs to the throne. It is not the poor that has debased society but those who made them poor, those with power, with wealth, with knowledge, with technology, but without the heart for others, without the godliness of leadership, without the nobility of the soul.

The journey back is the journey out of our dark and foul pit, the journey back is the journey to the light, the journey back is to remember what we lost, our writings, our songs and poetry, our laws and our ethics, the journey back makes possible the journey forward.

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“In bayanihan, we will be our brother’s keeper and forever shut the door to hunger among ourselves.”