So now Lea Salonga is suddenly labelled talangka (crab-like) because of her supposedly anti-Pinoy tweet. The trouble with Filipino international superstar Lea Salonga is that she is tweeting to a bobo audience. She may have millions of followers but that number is more a case of quantity and less of quality.
But I don’t really know what it is about her tweet that so riles up Pinoy nationalist sensibilities…
Our country is not yet debt-free, poverty-free, crime-free, or corruption-free. So what are we free from exactly and why do we celebrate it?
See, the thing I don’t understand is that GRP people here have for so long harped on the topic of the questionable nature of the supposed “independence” we celebrate on June 12, 1898. I mean, WTF, we have an extensive body of work where we deliver real thinking on the real deal about Philippine Independence! Why do we celebrate something we did not achieve at all?? But then a celeb like Lea goes off and tweets something to the same effect and out of the woodwork scurries all the cockroaches in a frenzy over the outrage of even questioning the wisdom of celebrating Philippine “independence” on June 12.
And, yeah, there’s lots to question about the belief that June 12, 1898 marks the Philippines’ “Independence Day”. Here is a Facebook note posted by John Silva which Lea also shared on Twitter following the brouhaha raised by her ealier tweet…
As for 117 years, advertisers delude themselves. A year later, June 12, 1899, war had been declared months before between the Philippines and the United States, and I don’t believe there was any mood for commemorating the event because the country was not independent in reality. The following June 12’s until July 4 1946 cannot be remembered as “independent” because we were a colony, transitioning to a 1935 commonwealth without full sovereignty, and invaded to be a Japanese colony. That totals 47 years and should be subtracted from 117. That leaves us 70 years of a status that really asserts no dependency with another country, in effect, independent.
Silva was referring to the 117 years since 1898 that we consider to be an “independent” Philippines. There’s that small detail of the American colonial government that ruled for half a century since 1898. How do Filipinos describe that period? Indepenent ka mo??
In the end, Silva kinda disappoints because he reverts back to the safe side of the discussion writing, “Despite it all, I do acknowledge and commemorate that a republic was born today by a declaration in Kawit, Cavite by a man under 30 years old with a coterie of other brilliant, wealthy, and patriotic gentlemen. Emilio Aguinaldo went against all odds but he was determined to fulfill the aspirations of a people.”
Zzzzz… Bilib na sana ako. People really have big problems with reality — which is not surprising because as we can see in Silva’s ok na sana blurb, Filipinos lackedge in their routine thinking.
What’s wrong nga ba with celebrating Philippine Independence on July 4? I mean, it is still debatable whether the Philippines was truly independent after July 4, 1946. But at least it is quite clear that we were, at least on paper, no longer a colony of another country.
I leave you with this gem. One of the anti-Lea tweets that represents quintessential Pinoy thinking:
Lea Salonga is a living proof why Filipinos are typically stereotyped as having crab mentalities! Lea Talangka Salonga! Yak!
Oh, the irony! 
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