OVER DINNER last Saturday, I wondered out loud to my friends: “Imagine if we can harness the energy Filipinos dedicate to SB19 to create a movement for social transformation!”
They all laughed, but I am serious. I want to tap into that part of the Pinoy psyche that moves them to action. Not just the action shown online through their vlogs and rants in the comment section, but actual action of making that long trip, patiently lining up, showing up, connecting with others, singing and dancing together, cleaning up after, and buying all the merch. The power of Pinoy solidarity and love is in full display.
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) knows what it is doing in appointing SB19 as its cultural ambassadors. NCCA clearly recognizes the power of SB19, especially among the new generation, in promoting Filipino culture and stories not just in the Philippines, but globally.
SB19 may have capitalized on the huge popularity of K-pop to first break into the cultural mainstream, but they definitely put their own unique Filipino musical style in their sound, lyrics, and performances.
When I asked my friends who are SB16 fans what they like about SB19, their common responses were that they resonated with them because their songs have relatable Filipino themes (beyond the usual romantic love songs) and they strongly represent Filipino cultural identity.
Ah, there it is. Cultural identity. It is what historian and former NCCA chair Felipe De Leon, Jr. called the “sine qua non (without which, not) for becoming active in the world.”
Professor De Leon, Jr. explained that cultural identity is “the fundamental source of social empowerment and thus the basis of sustainable development. It is the unique totality of the world view and values, core principles and ideas, belief systems, knowledge, skills, and practices, shared by a people.”
He stressed that if we take away people’s cultural identity, they become “passive, lost, indolent, uncreative and unproductive, prone to depression and substance abuse, and plagued by a pervasive feeling of malaise and powerlessness.”
“To suppress and weaken this identity and successfully impose an alien culture on a people is to reduce them into a passive, docile mass subservient to the power wielders of the alien culture,” he declared.
Our political leaders are clearly failing at inspiring and mobilizing our young Filipinos, who are not just a sector, but the majority of the Philippine population.
This is because our country’s politicians remain trapped in our colonial past with their continued adherence to the economic and cultural dominance of our colonial masters. (Exhibit A: our Philippine Senate still adopts the US government’s impeachment process, according to the Senate Impeachment Court spokesperson Reginald Tongol in a television interview.)
Professor De Leon, Jr. noted that the Filipino subservience to anything Western began when the Spaniards, and more so when the Americans, forced their ethnicity or cultural values on us.
“As a result, we lost faith in our native intelligence and skills, treasure troves of knowledge, accumulated wisdom, original ideas and creativity, and began to neglect or ignore these assets,” he said.
So while our country may be marking the 127th year of Philippine Independence last June 12, we are still very much in the ongoing process of decolonization.
Yes, our colonization may have ended with our independence, but true freedom requires sovereignty, which can only happen when we undergo decolonization.
Independence is when a country is no longer ruled by another country. There is political separation. We get to make our own laws and we are recognized by other nations as a separate country. We have our own seat at the United Nations and our own candidate in the Miss Universe pageant.
Sovereignty is having total authority over our own territory and people. We have the ability to govern without outside interference. We have internal control and external autonomy. We have the ability to block foreign intervention, and we enjoy international respect. Other nations acknowledge our authority.
A good analogy is that independence is having your own house, while sovereignty is being able to make the house rules — who enters, what to eat, how to live there — and no one can stop you from implementing these rules.
Independence is achieved once and lost when invaded and recolonized. On the other hand, sovereignty is exercised and practiced daily. It must be asserted and sustained.
Part of sustaining our sovereignty is actively engaging in decolonization.
Using the previous analogy, colonization is moving into someone’s house, changing the locks, taking the furniture and appliances, destroying the family photos, and forcing them to follow new rules. While decolonization is the process of undoing all that damage. Not just moving out, but returning the keys and letting the original owners reclaim their space, rules, and identity. It is recovering the family treasures and reconstructing the family photos.
Decolonization is a holistic and never-ending process. It is more than just freedom from colonizers; it is freedom to rebuild our world. It is breaking free from neocolonial economic traps and undoing cultural erasure done by decades of colonial (mis)education. This work takes generations, and it is still happening now.
Filipino culture, asserts Professor De Leon, Jr., is a healing culture that values interconnectedness embodied in the concept of “kapwa.” We are a people who look at life as a celebration, so we are highly relational, super creative, and very resilient because our sense of humor and joy of life enable us to rebound easily from any tragedy.
That is an awesome culture that we need to reclaim and promote. It is not true that we are Juan Tamad and that we have crab mentality. That’s our colonizers speaking in their attempt to make us feel small and think of our culture as “primitive.” So they can divide and rule us.
We need cultural decolonization and active healing from our colonial trauma. And I am inspired by what Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith said: “It’s about writing our own stories, not being footnotes in theirs.”
Maybe SB19 is on to something here. Our cultural ambassadors could also be our cultural revolutionaries. They are using their art as tools for asserting and reclaiming our Filipino cultural identity. And they resonate with the Filipino youth who want to reshape our national identity, resist elitist and neocolonial narratives, and foster their self-determined dignity. ###
