We We're Once Respected.

I am turning 24 next month. I was born after the historical EDSA Revolution in February 1986. It made me naïve on what it felt like to live during the Martial Law. From my late grandmother's stories, it made me scared to imagine how was it like. I remember that she used to tell me that although she's not the type who goes out often, they sometimes have to go to the dance but make sure to be home before the curfew otherwise they will be put to jail. It sounded so negative to me. Although she also told me that the exchange rate at that time was USD1 = Php2. No one will ever think of going out of the country to be an OFW.

Speaking of being an OFW, I had my fair share of being one of them for more than a year. Although there are a lot of young professionals working there, the "DH" image remains for Filipinos worldwide. When I was in Singapore, one of the Philippine's neighbor country, I heard a lot of good stories about how Ferdinand Marcos was as  a leader. I even saw a tv special tribute in one of the local tv channel in Singapore to Imelda Marcos with very rare videos of her interaction with very famous world leaders - they were kissing her hand and all the respect-filled gestures. The image they portrayed as the country's President and First Lady during that time is very far from how I see politicians running for office this 2010. While watching it, I can't help but wonder how the idea of sending huge number of Filipinos to be domestic helpers even started.

I once had an old Singaporean client who's very fond of talking about the Philippines. He said the last time he was able to visit the country was in 1985, I laughed and joked that my parents must've been planning for their first baby [me] at that time. He is an amiable old man. He said that at that time, Singapore was a struggling country and that they were given donations from the Philippines that lived up to now. He mentioned personal stories that he was in the army, their trainers and leaders were Filipinos. He said words such as, "Filipinos have the best, strongest soldiers in the world I've ever known. They do trainings in the wild with only swiss knife and they survive. It's amazing" with such pride that I will think he's a Filipino himself.

It kept me, afterall, proud to be a Filipino amidst all the negative news, calamities, circus-like politics and corruption. I still think there's a lot of Filipinos out there who continue to make us proud. And well-respected.