Belated Happy Independence Day

TeacherSol had a post about the Philippine national anthem, “Lupang Hinirang” in her blog. Dahil katatapos lang ng ating Independence Day, naisipan kong sumulat din tungkol dito.

The following is from TeacherSol’s post:

The present generation does not seem to have the same devotion to country that we, as children, learned from our parents and teachers. At home and in school before the war, we were taught to love the Philippines as the land of our birth and "the child of the sun returning" as the English lyrics of the anthem then proclaimed. The soldiers who fought in Bataan must have gathered strength and courage from the strains of that sacred song as they resisted the alien invader, many of them to death.

Some may say that our anthem is not as martial as the Star Spangled Banner of the Americans or the Marseillaise of France to whip the blood to thoughts of glory. The Filipinos are not a bellicose people. Our "Lupang Hinirang" sings of peace, the beauty of our hills and seas and the azure skies, and the treasured liberty we will defend with our very lives. We should all rise to hear those gallant words.

I then wrote the following comments on her post. I thought I’d reproduced them here, with a few minor revisions.

What's in a song if it does not evoke any feeling?

In my view our anthem was most relevant after the World Wars. Back then, there was that sense of rebuilding and being victorious against powerful alien forces.

During the early years of Marcos' New Society era, the "bagong lipunan song" was inspiring.

may bagong silang,
may bago nang buhay,
bagong bansa,
bagong galaw,
sa bagong lipunan.
magbabago ang lahat,
tungo sa pag-unlad,
at ating itanghal,
bagong lipunan!

The song evoked a feeling of advancement and progress.

Then during the darker days of the Marcos era, the song "Bayan ko" made us feel the martyrdom of people like Ninoy who fought the dictatorship.

Quote:
Our "Lupang Hinirang" sings of peace, the beauty of our hills and seas and the azure skies, and the treasured liberty we will defend with our very lives.

For the younger generations today, what feelings do those words evoke? How would the youth relate to those words? It's becoming more and more difficult. What has happened to our hills, seas and skies? How can we defend our country when there is no visible enemy, but corrupt and incompetent people within that destroys it?

Perhaps our national anthem has become irrelevant. We can do either of two things. Change it, or change ourselves.