MANILA-Every so often, every generation or so, we Filipinos have a massive anxiety attack, or “angst” as the Germans call it. A panicky confusion sets in about who we are, brought about by threatening changes here and abroad, economic and social upheavals.


 

 Questioning who you are is supposed to be a form of lunacy.
 People in lunatic asylums and mental hospitals often think they’re somebody else, maybe Jesus Christ, Napoleon or a mythical monster. Indeed, Filipinos with identity crises take  themselves to be swaggering, twangy Americans, uprooted  Spaniards, or obscure aboriginal tribe men.
 It was very bad in the 1970’s. We started to call ourselves by  the defensive term, Pinoys, and took to historical pageants  and ethnic extravaganzas, and went prancing down stages or  streets with blackened faces and headdresses, feathers and  drums to show we came from somewhere.
 In those years, I published a collection of essays and called  it “A Question of Identity” because it was on everyone’s mind.
 The Tasaday were discovered and the murals were about Malakas  and Maganda. The madness passed with martial law and EDSA 1,  but resurfaced with the exodus of millions of Filipinos  overseas workers, and we were off on another bout of angst.
 Today, tri-media, showbiz, rock music and the young are sunk  in “Being Filipino,” “Proud to be Pinoy” and “Ako’y Pilipino”  themes and concepts.
 Last year, I became a victim of this identity uncertainty.
 After I donated a scrap of old embroidered pi±a fabric to the  Philippine section of a Honolulu museum, a thank you letter  described me as “Spanish Filipino.” My outrage was explained  away by the Fil-Hawaiian in charge who said that, after all, I  am taller than her American husband and speak Spanish  (suspiciously Caucasian?). I protested that I am a natural-born, full-blooded Filipino with no known foreign ancestry, and demanded a change in the museum records, for I believe that identity is also a matter of documentation.
 Remember what happened to Fernando Poe Jr. and Gloria’s archives?
 Here are some clues to the identity-challenged: You are a natural-born Filipino if both your parents were Filipino citizens at the time of your birth (unless you were born elsewhere, like in the USA) and you have not since acquired another nationality by pledging allegiance to a foreign country. You are also a Filipino national if you were born to  a Filipino mother before 17 January 1973, and elected Filipino  citizenship upon reaching 21. You are a naturalized Filipino  if you have completed the legal procedures for naturalization.
 The Constitution says that “dual allegiance is inimical to  the  national interest," but a recent Supreme Court decision and a  new law have made it possible for many of us to hold dual  citizenship.
 As a Filipino, you are a member of a democratic, republican nation to whom you owe unconditional loyalty. In your nation,  the people call all the shots and civilian authority comes  before the military. You have duties to your nation: you must  pay taxes, obey the laws, defend it in word and deed, treat  other Filipinos as your brothers, to whom you owe mutual  protection and support. There is also the question of love.
 English poets used to say that those who did not love the land  of their birth have dead souls. These days, dead souls seem to  be in fashion.
 Anyway, love it or not, in your country, you have the right to  life, liberty, property, security from searches and wiretapping, entitled to due process, shelter, health care, employment, education and information, the protection of the police and the courts. In the Philippines you cannot be killed, maimed, tortured, intimidated, made to suffer excessive taxation, detained for your political beliefs or for  debt, arrested without a warrant, forced to incriminate yourself, charged without fair trail and due process. If you don’t like what government is doing, you can change elective officials by voting them out every two or three years in elections. Remember that the President down to the last barangay tanod are all your servants.
 That’s a lot of good things for being a Filipino. But the system works perfectly only if at least a majority follows all  the rules. You must toe the line yourself and get as many  others to do so and be honest and courageous as you are.
 The rest of being Filipino is mere cultural frippery. It does  not really matter if you can or not speak Pilipino, wear a  baro, eat bagoong, spend a fortune on pasalubong, as long as  your whole sensibility is attuned to the national interest.  What’s good for the country is good for you. Buy Filipino or  made-in-the-Philippines goods and services because that makes  more jobs for Filipinos and keeps your money in the country,  for Filipinos’ benefit, and not to enrich foreign industries.
 If you’re insecure about being Filipino and wish you were not,  read an almanac or a book on Philippine history. The long list  of natural resources, the extraordinary biodiversity, the  beauty and richness of the land will amaze you. The record of  Filipinos’ 500-year struggle against invasion, occupation and  tyranny from Spain, America and Japan and the first  nationalist revolution and the first republic in Asia we put  up 100 years ago, the invention of People Power, the valor and  gallantry of overseas workers are all more inspiring than  Pacquiao, the SEA Games athletes or Miss International. Maybe  we can all stop being silly about being Filipino?

By Chitang G. Nakpil