Balik Tanaw Tungo sa Kaunlaran

PHOENIX ADDRESS
(Balik-Tanaw Tungo sa Kaunlaran)
PIDC Keynote Speech, June 5, 2010, by Edwin D. Bael
ASU West, 4701 W. Thunderbird Rd., Glendale, AZ 85306-4900

One hundred and twelve years ago, Filipinos declared that thenceforth, the people and the government in their seven thousand one hundred and seven islands shall be independent and free from the control and shadow of any nation and shall be known as the Republic of the Philippines.

Today, like other expatriate Filipino communities the world over, we here in Phoenix have come together, once more, to remember that date in history. Happily, the name Phoenix recalls the legend of the bird that rises brand new from the ashes of many yesterdays. With our theme, we want to look back at yesterdays to help ensure that the future is better for new generations of Filipinos.

Our timing is auspicious because our people have just elected a new President based, among others, on Senator Noynoy Aquino’s moral platform, which reminds us of Dr. Jose Rizal’s vision for unleashing the moral and material development of the Filipino.

Kudos and congratulations go to the PIDC (Philippine Independence Day Committee) leaders and participating groups; your continued concerted efforts to maintain this whole day event in the ASU (Arizona State University) West Campus, for years now, has solidified mainstream recognition of the presence and significance of the Filipino community in Phoenix.

In holding these commemorative activities, however, we cannot remain content with usual things to do. We might want to consider that our remembering could have impacts both here and back home.

We can ask ourselves whether what we do here can help improve the capabilities and competencies of our people back home. For, in face of discontinuities and ultra change, there is no security, only opportunity. And opportunity can be seized only by those who are enterprising, resolved, able and agile. These human capacities constitute the kind of educational outcomes advocated by our heroes, like Rizal and Bonifacio, not just the training of efficient cogs for global employment, which describes the majority of our educational institutions’ graduates whose general aim is ‘to work abroad’. So, what can we do to help generate these enterprising ability and agility outcomes? The answers could be projects that our various groups can look into and undertake.

We might also want to consider that it is for us, expatriates, to effectively participate in the politics of the countries we have adopted, that we may have a place in decision-making circles to help benefit our Inang Bayan and Jewel of the Orient Seas. So, can we be more effective in political action? Yes, of course. Rizal said: “If the Filipino wills, he can.” Let us then just summon that needed community will.

Still, when we can, we cannot presume to tell those in the motherland what to do. We are far too removed from their daily realities. But, we might want to show first that we can: (a) hold each other in high esteem; (b) expect the best of each other; and (c) live our lives so as to merit such high esteem and best expectation. Then, perhaps, we can have credibility beyond remittances and may be there can be more receptivity when we suggest a path to moral and material advancement. This path can be threefold, namely: (1) being anchored on the One-Source-of-All; (2) individual excellence; and (3) team-spirit; these, plus constant awareness and intentional disregard of colonial distortions particularly the usual superiority games and predispositions to prove fellow Filipinos wrong and inferior. Being equally important sons and daughters of God, we cannot afford to be derailed by such distortions.

Mga Kababayan, Ladies and Gentlemen: At the end of this hectic day, as you lay your head on your pillow and right before you go to sleep, remember: the Filipino is not only worth dying and commemorating for; more importantly, the Filipino is worth living, cooperating and succeeding for.

Maraming salamat po.