Independence ... what does it really mean?

Philippines celebrates its Independence Day on June 12.  Unfortunately, I feel more patriotic when I was living abroad than when I am at home.  My most memorable celebration of it was in Mexico. I wonder if the Mexicans influenced us in giving importance to our Independence Day because they celebrate theirs with festivity. But what does independence really mean? Is that having its people being patriotic?

Is Independence about the country's name? A Magdalo representative in our Congress wants to pass a bill to change our country's name because Philippines was given by and associated with our colonisers.  Our ex President Marcos wanted to change it to Maharlika. I like the name Maharlika and I believe that is a very good name to represent a country with honour and dignity. However, even we carry a name associated with Spanish, we are more attached to the Americans. So will changing name make us more independent?

Is Independence about  not relying with "Imperialista Kano"?  The current government is talking about lessening our ties from US and blamed the Americans for us not being truly independent. But in the process, we are just transferring our dependence on another country which is China.  I graduated from the university established by the Americans and I can speak the American language.  But the first thing I learned when I stepped on that university is to denounce the American imperialism in the Philippines. Isn't that ironic?  Studying in the very university established by the Americans taught me to fight for my right, to denounce dictatorship, to appreciate anything Filipino and to give service to my country, the Republic of the Philippines.

I think the country's independence really rely on its basic unit of society, the family.  Philippines can never be independent because its basic unit cannot stand on its own.  We have extended family we learned from the Spanish but ours is not just about extending the family. Ours is about the continuous dependence of lazy and irresponsible members of our family.  Brothers and sisters get married or gave birth to children even they don't have the means to support one. They create families even they don't have a home of their own. They make the grandparents the "yaya" of their children. They ask for their OFW siblings for financial help for the education of their children. It is not about staying in their parent's family so that their parents can have company. It is about being dependent to them, financially and emotionally because they cannot bear the sacrifice they need to make in establishing a family.  This, I think is the reason why Philippines struggled with the meaning of Independence. We want to break ties to others but only to rely on another country because, just like the basic unit of our society, we cannot stand on our own financially and emotionally.  We cannot bear the sacrifice we need to give to stand on our own.

So whether we will be called Maharlika or Philippines, we can only be independent if we, Filipinos  learn to stand on our own. And standing on our own will give us pride for the sacrifice we make. That's where honour and dignity come.