4TH OF JULY: U.S. INDEPENDENCE DAY AND THE PHILIPPINE-USA FRIENDSHIP DAY

A VOICE FROM AMERICA
By Ernie D. Delfin

4TH OF JULY: U.S. INDEPENDENCE DAY AND THE PHILIPPINE-USA FRIENDSHIP DAY

Happy Independence Day to all in the U.S.A! To all Filipinos and Americans everywhere, I also greet all of you a Happy and Harmonious Friendship Day! May we be able to celebrate this Fourth of July the way it was envisioned, forever!

With the continued Iraqi conflict where the United States is still very much involved, Independence Day and Memorial Day (celebrated on the last Monday of May) have become the most notable holidays in America. Fourth of July used to be the Philippines’ Independence Day until it was changed to June 12th by former president Diosdado Macapagal, the father of the incumbent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was just re-elected for a full six-year term as Philippine president. Since the early 1960’s, Fourth of July is known as the Philippine-American Friendship Day (should it not be Phil – U S A Friendship Day instead?) .

Having been in America for about thirty years, I have witnessed how Americans celebrate Independence Day. There is indeed a greater sense of civic and community involvement in this country where a lot of non-governmental agencies are very much involved in countless community celebrations. Unlike in the Philippines, over here celebrations are community events that are done with minimal government funds as non-governmental organizations and business organizations are quite involved. Government employees also participate but they are not normally required to participate in parades. Our sense of volunteerism and civic involvement involvement, like those of the Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis, Lions, Optimists and many others are very common in almost all towns or cities. For instance, our own Chamber of Commerce in Orange County for many years has been sponsoring very successful Fourth of July Carnival on a three-day weekend where businesses and non-governmental agencies have their own booths to advertise or showcase their products and/or services. The fair also served as a major fundraising for many organizations, which the entire community supports by attending at least one day. For a couple of years, my family had also participated by having a Filipino booth selling our famous “pancit” and barbecue. Great profits but very back breaking job, so we no longer do it as there are many other ways to make better money in this greatest free enterprise country in the world!

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How do Filipinos in America spend their Fourth of July holidays?

As it is summer vacation for most students, families plan their vacation and visit friends in other states or cities or become “balikbayans” (going home) to the Philippines. In Southern California, considered as the most popular destination is Las Vegas, derisively called ‘Lost Wages’ as it is only a 4 to 5 hour drive by car or an hour by plane from Los Angeles. Asians, including Filipinos, are often stereotyped as people who love to gamble. Casinos have long noticed that and have tremendously exploited it by offering the Asian games they love to play such as: pai gow, domino-type games or even mahjong and the dice.

Another popular destinations are San Francisco, about 7-8 hour drive north of Los Angeles, the Yosemite National Park about 4 hour north of Los Angeles, or San Diego just two hours south, Sacramento, the state capital is also about 7 hours north of LA and to Reno, Nevada for another two hours from Sacramento by car.

Families who do not want to drive, however, often have just picnics in local parks or simply hold a family gathering with some friends in a backyard barbecue. Many nationalities especially Americans “admire” Filipinos as a people who lavishly love food and parties. There seems to be no meeting or gathering without too much food for everyone. Filipinos always prepare twice as much food than necessary as it is a family “embarrassment” to be running out of food, especially when Americans or out of town guests are present. More often than not, guests especially the relatives must bring home some of the leftover foods. So take home food (balot) is always a norm in many Filipino parties here in the United States.

After eating, a lot of Filipino families would have also card games, like pusoy, tong its or madjong that could even last till the following in the morning. Of course, beer, wine or hard liquor are also served with abundance. Independence Day celebration will not be complete, however, without the elaborate fireworks and many cities sponsored them in designated parks beginning at dusk. Many cities have banned their residents to do their own fireworks in their homes or streets for the risk of fire and bodily dismemberment. So if we Filipinos would like to watch fireworks we just drive to nearby parks designated by the city government or any authorized non profit organization like a Chamber of Commerce or a Rotary Club.

That’s normally how we Filipino Americans normally spend our Fourth of July, but unfortunately oftentimes without even mentioning that it is also day to celebrate this so-called Philippine and America Friendship Day as changed by Pres. Dadong Macapagal.

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Regarding this widely unnoticed Phil-Am Friendship day, I have some relevant suggestions for the Philippine government. I believe that this Phil-American Friendship Day was substituted as a “consuelo de bobo” (my educated guess) to be able to continue a Fourth of July celebration, but it appears that it is not working as it was intended. In the USA, it is dramatically overshadowed by the gaiety and lavishness of the greatest American holiday, their own Independence Day. May I respectfully suggest, then, to Pres. Gloria M. Arroyo, to move this Filipino American Friendship Day to another date but in CONSULTATION with her friend in the White House, Pres. George “Dubya” Bush. And this must be done before the November election as there is that 50-50 chance that Mr. Bush might not be reelected because of the continuing unpopularity of the Iraqi War and the economy that is still not fully recovered from the effects of 911. Changing the date will give us Filipinos and our American friends a better day to properly celebrate and for both governments to effectively market the importance of a better relationship between both countries . As this proposal need not cost the Philippine government a lot of pesos, it must be done sooner rather than later.

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I was in the Philippines for over two weeks recently with four fellow American Rotarians, Chet & Frances Swart and Sharun & Paul Carlson, from Cerritos, California, after attending the Rotary International Convention in Osaka, Japan and a week side trip to Beijing and Shanghai, and I happened to watch on TV the proceedings of the Philippines Independence Day celebration held at the Rizal Park (the traditional place of such a celebration) where it rained during the height of the staged presentation) and it was quite obvious that majority of the participants, those marching as well as many presenters were from the government sectors led my Cabinet secretaries. I can just surmise that their department heads required them to attend and/or participate.

I was in Pangasinan that weekend, and I observed that most towns did not have any Independence Day celebration. Without the televised Rizal Park Celebration where President Macapagal Arroyo spoke and lambasted the opposition for the ongoing (then) Canvassing of Election Certificates, many people probably did not even realize that it was the Philippines’ Independence Day. Puzzled why there was no big celebrations in the towns, I asked a few residents and was told that it would cost a lot of money and time away from their livelihoods to indulge in such festivities. It’s sad but true. Then it dawned on me, as I remember Americans rationalizing many things in their lives: “That’s economy, stupid!”

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Speaking of Filipino and American Friendship relations, I would like to share some of our experiences with my close friends and fellow Rotarians from Cerritos, California who visited the Philippines for the first time as guests of our sister club, the Rotary Club of Cerritos. We started our month-long trip to Japan and visited several cities namely Gifu, Kyoto and Osaka where the national discipline of the people is quite evident as the cities we visited are quite clean and you cannot see rubbish just around the streets. Bikes in front of houses have no locks, either. We have also observed in visiting some schools that students are grouped as teams to clean their bathrooms and classrooms on a rotation basis which is not practiced in the USA as it might be considered as “child abuse or against anti-child labor” (pun intended). With a personal experience, I now have high respects for the Japanese people by the return of my digital expensive digital camera which I accidentally left on a bullet train from Gifu to Kyoto. An hour or so after I discovered that I left it, I reported the matter to our Japanese American travel agent who happened to be with us, and she said “Do not worry” it will be back in our hotel…. I honestly did not believe her as it has been two days and it was not back to me yet. Then on the third day, it arrived in my hotel sent by the train company! Everybody in my Rotary Group was astounded as it would not possibly have come back if I left it in the Philippines or even in the United States.

Then, in Beijing, which is now “opened” for tourist to share in the tourism dollars, we were able to see the Forbidden City and the famous Tianamen Square. A lot of domestic tourists are also going to see their historical sites and we were all amazed with the rich history of the Chinese emperors who built their legendary palaces. For some daring ones, we also have climbed the Great Wall of China. Reading Chinese history in high school or college was different. Seeing that it really existed made me a believer the richness of their history and civilization.

The New Shanghai is a city that Metro Manila could emulate. The Airport is modern and more efficient than many in the U.S. and of course the Manila International Airport. As China is just beginning to learn and act as “Western” capitalists, the trade and commerce, especially in the service arena, is still not at par with North America. But they are fast catching up. Buildings and the metropolitan areas can be compared with that of any major US city. Many American companies, from McDonalds to Microsoft have discovered an entry to the vast Chinese market via progressive cities like Shanghai. With massive industrialization, traffic, pollution and rising costs of living, especially condos in the cities, are starting to up too. The price that people pay for modernization of a city!

After two weeks in Japan and China, we arrived in the Manila. The first thing my American friends noticed was the terrible traffic… but I told them at least “Enjoy the ride you will be not be hurt as our drivers are experts” as they are gradually conditioned themselves with the local environment.

We were brought by our sister club, the Rotary Club of Makati Bel-Air to their Gawad Kalinga housing project for the homeless in Mandaluyong and we observed the obvious poverty of the residents there. Another day, we were also brought to the Loyola Heights Rotary Club housing project in East Silangan where l00 houses were built that cost only $1,000 dollars per house. Our Rotary Club donated two thousand dollars to build a couple. And also contributed $4,000 dollars to the housing and community projects of the Makati Bel Air Rotary Clubs. Yes, two days trip to the economically challenged segment of Philippine population touched our hearts and made us want to do more this Centennial year.

But despite of these heart-moving poverty on display, our American friends did enjoy the unique and distinct hospitality of the Filipino people. With ready smiles and always taking the extra mile in serving, our Rotarian hosts have brought us to Corregidor, to Tagaytay and also to Villa Escudero in Laguna. And again the food that became the center of most of our meetings!

The succinct comments of our past president of our Rotary Club of Cerritos, Atty/CPA Chet Swart summarized their sentiments “The time we spent in Manila was very encouraging from the stand point of the help that the two Rotary Clubs’ projects we visited were a light to the way that the poor people be helped to better their lives. The fact that they were required to put their “sweat equity” and that they got title to their homes was an example of the type of self help that is needed to give HOPE and encouragement to themselves.”

He added, “If only the middle class can be expanded, more jobs would be available. It would seem that the extremes of very rich and very poor must be broken. Japan, Taiwan, South Korea have come being down and now to being very prosperous, WHY CANT THE PHILIPPINES DO IT?”

True friends tell you what they believe in, whether you agree or not. I know Chet and his wife Frances as well as Sharun and Paul Carlson, two past presidents of our Rotary Club of Cerritos, who were with us in Manila, and I respect their opinions and I agree with them l00%. To resonate Chet’s comments: “If our Asian neighbors can do it, why can’t the Philippines do it? “
Go figure.

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Email columnist at: erdelusa@hotmail.com or cerritosrcprez2005@yahoo.com
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