We’re Free, Now What?
Exploring Post-Colonial Legacies in the Philippines
When you feel a sense of belonging for your country, you often exhibit a sense of nationalism, a distinct pride. That pride stems from your traditions, the state your ancestors have built, and the qualities it symbolizes. We in the Philippines are no different. We sing our national anthem loud and joyfully, hands on hearts beating in passion and nationalism, to honor the Pearl of the Orient Seas. Yet, our pride is a complicated thing. Since the country’s independence from the United States in 1946, we felt proud of finally having our country be our own. However, today, pride is fading, the voices are quieting and we don’t find the same smile of belonging building in our cheeks, the flag is flown half mast in shame, but we have awakened to the need for change.
How much of the country we inherited truly is our own? Asking that question comes with an implication for us, the young generation: how can we finally make it our own?
Prior to our years of "independence" (a debatable term), the country suffered violence, colonization, oppression, and extraction. Those centuries under Spanish, Japanese, and American rule left scars, or wounds, better yet.
However, that the circumstances these occupying powers left accumulated into forming the current state was long not acknowledged.
Instead, during our 80 years of independence, there was a common urge to grow legs and run. A sense of hope and pride for the future was cultivated amongst the people. The desire to rise and soar and to create a new history that finally won’t be dictated by colonizers, overwritten like the one many years before, inspired the choice for the Philippine Eagle as the national bird in 1955. It was meant to embody “Filipinos’ uniqueness, strength, power, and love for freedom, and had already become a source of national pride.” (https://animalscene.mb.com.ph/philippine-eagle-national-bird/)
The eagerness to make up for the centuries lost, to become a nation of our own, made us miss a crucial legacy of the colonial past. We abide by systems that haven’t been changed since before the country’s sovereignty; our eyes continue to follow the ruling finger of the no longer existent colonizer; and we channel the same rhetoric, unknowingly recycling and reproducing the same exact school of thought we fought so hard to escape from.
As I am writing this, Filipinos have been steeped deep into political turmoil, boiled in corruption for the whole duration since the nation’s independence. Now the anger simmers, and it has finally overflown in September of 2025 with nationwide protests erupting and spreading from the very beginnings of September up until now, with plans of the largest demonstration taking place on November 30, 2025.
More often than not, when you see the Philippines being discussed in a headline, it is centered within a web of political corruption. The very constitution and the government system used today are modelled after the American iteration; the country’s independence was granted under the condition of modelling the government after the ideal, democratic, American system. The appraisal of these systems because of their Western labels continues, equating Whiteness with wisdom. A piece of vital information told by a Filipino farmer with an accent falls on deaf ears, but once told by an “educated” Westernized individual, it gains power. We need to realize that the current systems come from a place of oppression, originated not to serve the native people of the land.
Power is granted not by the people, but by bias, corruption, and dynastic generational power. Family names that are consistent through many terms and years, through mothers then daughters then sons witnessing the same names: Marcos, Aquino, Tolentino, Tulfo, Cayetano, Villar, and Revilla. A system lacking strong institutions favors nepotism, and the biggest losers are the common people, the same ones that were given an illusion of autonomy after gaining independence. How are we as a people okay with former celebrities, public figures, actors, and entertainers, creating executive decisions for the longevity of our country?
This self-inflicted prejudice — colonial mentality — doesn’t only exist in the grand and large scale of government and constitution, it has bled and trickled down, reached the common people and instilled the same habits of idealizing the west. White skin, wider eyes, a “coherent” American accent. The ghost of the colonizer is sustained in language, in heritage, and in aesthetics. We seek to be — in sound and in looks — separated from the Philippines, to remove any and all association. What was intended to cultivate pride has become a source of prejudice; absurdly, against ourselves, and our own people.
There is more than just self-pity, though. The anger and frustration has crystallized over the past year.
A remarkable demonstration was one held on September 21st, 2025, entitled the Trillion Peso March, dedicated to critiquing and asking for justice for misallocated flood control money. Initially, it focused on at least ₱118.5 billion in allegedly anomalous flood-control spending during the current administration, before public scrutiny expanded into a broader examination of roughly ₱1.9 trillion in national flood-control expenditures over the past 15 years. The scandal included flood fund allocations being given to provinces that are smaller and less vulnerable to flood, rather than those most likely to experience harm from floods; as well as the complete fabrication of some flood projects. It exposes the misuse of the massive amount of resources and funding that the Philippines has, as well as the taxpayer money that citizens are working so hard to produce.
Viewing these recent catastrophes in the Philippines, we need to understand them as a product of Spanish, Japanese, and American colonization. However, today, we have the opportunity to interfere, to change this course of history. It was the only way; now we have a choice. And every single day that we choose to abide by this outdated set of rules forced upon us, we violate our own rights and the future generation’s. Until we de-colonize our habits and ways of thinking, that will not change and the cycle will not break free. The Filipino youth is uniting to form a new horizon, by rewriting, and dusting off the cobwebs of imposed history and heritage. We are attempting to fly, with strong wings, and towards a common future where our pride reflects an awareness that our colonial history left an impact, our independence, and our commitment to make a change.
