Mindanaotoday.com | Filipino Identity over Filipino Consciousness
By: RAI Bollozos Sanchez | Historyahe!
HI there!
In one of my Philippine History classes last week, I discussed that “understanding Philippine history,” is a pedagogue that can contemplate “national consciousness.”
As I was about to wrap up my discussion, one student shared, “Sir, perhaps we Filipinos could not achieve national consciousness because our heroes fought for what we have rather than for who we are.”
Well, it took me about a minute to share my views. Not because I was not prepared to give my propositions but because I was amazed that my student has contemplated with the lesson carefully.
In response, I said, “our heroes fought for who we were since they understood the conditions they were facing. To say, our heroes fought to assert their rights as Filipinos and eventually struggled for independence indicates they were fighting for the Filipino consciousness.”
I continued, “the problem, though, was the absence of truthful and dedicated Philippine history lessons for the Filipinos to forget the notion of national consciousness.”
Yet, at the end of the class, it left me contemplating that along the way, the reason behind many Filipinos’ deficiency of having a “national consciousness” is absent is because of “historical miseducation.”
You see, history should empower our students to identify themselves as Filipinos and raise understanding of who we really are.
While the best way to historically educate them is to enable them to assess who the Filipino is?
Understanding history also correlates with understanding the progress of “national consciousness.”
Conversely, to quote the late Filipino historian Renato Constantino, “for Filipinos, the question of nationality has become an identity but not of a consciousness of shared goals and aspirations.”
The absence and incompetence of historical lessons do not follow the accepted areas of historical progress because of the insufficiency of learning Philippine history.”
Additionally, I agree with Renato Constantino’s proposal that the “existence of the Filipino nation is a fact, but the existence of a “national consciousness’ is just an assumption.”
Indeed, for Filipinos, having a national identity supersedes consciousness, and how we accept ourselves as Filipinos are superficial.
In the classrooms, history lessons are apparent, shallow, and trivial.
However, Philippine history, its movement, structure, and institutions do not penetrate to the knowledge of understanding the present life and its current operations.
The Philippines has a rich history but lacks Filipino understanding.
For us, the notion of “national consciousness” is, in fact, taken from the dictionary—the love and loyalty to one’s country. Which, again, is shallow.
Well, that is enough contradiction, as many of you may think I am antagonizing the Filipino in me.
In fact, the paradox motivates me to teach Filipinos to become Filipinos because the main problem is becoming one.
Our pre-colonial, colonial histories and contemporary history including our struggles illustrate the role of history in building “national consciousness.”
Philippine history is a pedagogue in finding the essence of “national consciousness.”
Not “providential” but rather practical, philosophical, and instructive.
History has never been fictional but also should not be doctrinal. History never establishes the power of one narrative to another; it is socially subversive yet discernable.
Thus, history is open to finding the essence “why” to understand the “who” in us.
Filipino consciousness is beyond historical triviality, but finding the heart that made us the Filipinos we are today is essential.
Thus solves the anecdote, “the problem of being Filipino is historically becoming one.” (MT)
(Ryan Albert Ignacius “RAI” Bollozos Sanchez, 40, is a native of Cagayan de Oro City. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History and currently finishing his Master of Arts in History at Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan. He is currently a full-time faculty in the Department of General Education and Interdisciplinary Studies in Xavier Ateneo – teaching Readings in Philippine History, The Life, Works and Writings of Jose Rizal, and Interdisciplinary Studies subjects. He taught part-time at the Liceo de Cagayan University teaching Southeast Asian History and Government, and U.S. Government and Foreign Policy. You may reach him at rsanchez@xu.edu.ph)
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