#makabansa

It is the first cathedral built in the Philippines by the Spaniards. 

The Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, Manila, for example, was destroyed and rebuilt numerous time since it was consecrated in 1581. It was destroyed or seriously damaged by earthquakes four times in its history (1600, 1645, 1863, 1880). The latest iteration is the 8th on the site, built in 1958 after it was reduced to rubble in the bombing of Manila during World War II.

Monsignor Pedro Pelaez, who is also known as the Champion of the Filipino Clergy, died in one of the earthquakes at the Manila Cathedral (1863)

In the early 19th century, Pelaez fought for the secularization of Filipino priests and is considered the "Godfather of the Philippine Revolution." His cause towards beatification is underway, leaving him the current title as "Servant of God."

Pelaez was ordained in 1833 and serve in the Manila Cathedral.

In a world where we are greatly influenced by the west, through mass media, their writings and belief, through their goods and material and many more, we are somehow seeing the hidden racism and discrimination without even noticing it. There are the belief of the Filipinos that white skin is better and dark is not. Even the fact that we believe that Filipinos were originally really dark, uncivilized and ignorant, based on western literature, there is discrimination, bias and racism. Sometimes it is already slapped on our faces but we still tend to not see it due to positivism or the objective gaze. With that, Indigenization was created and we Filipinos created and fixed our history and beliefs with the perspective that we have as Filipinos.

In our POLTHE2 class, we were introduced to three indigenized narratives. First is the Sikolohiyang Filipino, a narrative founded and created by Vergilio Enriquez. In the creation of this narrative, Vergilio aim was to debunk the western’s universal beliefs and wanted to prove that we are different from them and understand ourselves better. Furthermore, he concentrated on our own voices, thought and our local sources and literature to see and observe us on our own perspective. In his study, we Filipinos are identified with a lot of negative things by the west. But through his better understanding and deeper study of us, he reversed those negative stereotypes of us into positive. An example of this is the “bahala na” beliefs of the Filipino. He stated that, for the “bahala na” instead of seeing us as lazy people or a sense of unproductiveness we should see the Filipinos as risk takers who have enough courage to face the obstacles that we are not ready for. There he also explained the value system of the Filipinos, that we are have different terminologies for different situations and relations. An example is the word “dangal” vs. “puri”, For “dangal” it is about up lifting ones own dignity or is more of an internal aspect while “puri” on the other hand is more of the outside people or external aspect.

The second narrative that was taught to us was the Pilipinohiya. When there is a study about the Philippines, it is either one of the two, studying the country as an outsider while the other one is studying the country as one of them. With that, there are corresponding terminologies to that. People who studies the Philippines as an outsider and uses the knowledge and understandings of other countries is called Philippine studies. While the person who studies Philippines as a person who is one of them and uses their Filipino perspectives and knowledge is called Pilipinohiya. Its core beliefs are grounded by studying within the national context, having scepticism of the western beliefs and since the other country does not simply understand the language and the culture, their studies usually doesn’t have the deep understanding of the country.

Last but not the least narrative is the Pantayong pananaw. It is a Filipino discourse of the word “kami” and “tayo”, where “kami” stands for not being one of us and the term “tayo” means being one of us. Furthermore, the study also sees the separation of our country in different aspects, the elites and the masses, our countries multi-ethnic identities, language barriers, our geography and more. An example of this separation is the usage of the word “nasyon” which is originally nation and is usually connected to elitism and dependency to the others.  Even though this study saw the differences and the separation of our country through this we also see the unity among us which is our history, culture and origin. A counter word for “nasyon” is “bayan”. Instead of using “nasyon” the more suitable word is “bayan”, which means independence, nationalism and it is more culturally grounded.