Political Awakening: From This Man’s Perspective

           He is not a man who knows how to persuade his audience by mere information and message relays nor stating the facts but a Filipino who has an innate desire to change the current status of the Philippines in spite of the wrongful decisions and actions on his generation, from the time the Spaniards came to reign up until Rizal’s executions. Throughout his talk, he did not avoid the mistakes that have been done in the past instead, he used the past as an evidence that ‘the ruins and stains recorded in our history must be every Filipino’s driving force in order to begin anew—to start as one. What went wrong was that during those centuries, Filipinos was not accountable on the real meaning of ‘unity’. He is no other than F. Sionil Jose, who I can say is indeed a good model for youths, an experienced writer and a motivator as well that caught my attention.

I, a part of the young people, have been awaken by Sir Sionil Jose for many reasons. First and foremost, I was struck by what he said in this context: Being rich is good but being rich attach with political purposes by using certain position in the government creates ‘monster-like humans’ in our society. Although much historical events happened within our country brought significance which made who we are now, still many factors give implications that more have to improve to get Filipinos a better and a fair living. Reality is, we should not dare ever settle for what we stand for. Juan dela Cruz has to rise up and bring out the best in him. Listening to his stories came throuh in my mind before I even realized how grateful and blessed I am and we are as we live in 21^st century without fearing everybody. Because no one can tell when you will last breathe; betrayal is all around you. Thanks to every Filipino (our heroes) who fought in our behalf today. It took courage and brave for them in order to acquire freedom, justice and independence that we enjoy, unfortunately we are unaware how much have been lost—time to continue their fight for the inner problem of inequality between Filipinos that hinder others to expose their own thoughts.

What scared me suddenly as his perspective words strung in my ears was the question that I asked myself at the back of my mind: “Have I done something so far for our country?” Well, I figured that I have. Regardless of not participating rallies and making noises in front of Malacanang or wherever, education is what I contribute and my weapon at the moment. Even Sir Sionil Jose believes that to be educated is a leap forward to serve our motherland. Sometimes, out of education comes next political action. By engaging ourselves upon learning politics entails a background about ‘what’s really happening’. It will make us easier to get in through the battle of poverty and other disturbing issues also. It might take us some time to achieve our goal—the equality that every considered poor Filipino family is anticipating and all ever wanted, it does not matter anyway. Why? According to F. Sionil Jose, what really matters is the willingness of trying to be acquainted with our economy and doing our best to solve even the least problem that we face. Above all, to trust that something will result as an award for whatever action we did beyond of love for our country.

The savoir-faire that we overcame when typhoon Yolanda strike the Philippines is just another manifestation wanting to capture our eyes, telling us ‘Hey! Nothing is left unless you wake up now!’ As for the author Sionil Jose, he uses a Jose Rizal-like strategy using his mighty pen on writing novels to captivate our eyes that will eventually set our minds straight. The Feet of Juan Bacnang is one of his good works. It is up to you to find out what are his intentions. More than that, every Juan can be an impact towards change. So, brace yourselves because Filipinos will soon get to embrace.