Independence Day Round-up: The Best Articles on the Philippines From Ang Peregrino

Tomor­row is the Philip­pine Inde­pen­dence Day. In honor of that spe­cial day in our his­tory, I am fea­tur­ing a round up of the Best Arti­cles on the Philip­pines ever pub­lished in AngPere­grino. Read these if you haven’t done yet, and reread if you have. Maybe you’ll feel a lot bet­ter about being a Fil­ipino, or at least grow in your feel­ing of Nationhood.

Lupang Hini­rang

Amidst the brouhaha of Mar­tin Nieverra’s bungling (depend­ing on which side you are in) of the National Anthem dur­ing the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hat­ton fight, it might be good to step back and read this arti­cle, and lis­ten to this med­i­ta­tive ren­di­tion of the National Anthem in order to reflect on the power of this song in our lives and what it means to raise the flag and be proud of being Filipino.

Bataan Has Fallen

On April 9, 1942, an Easter Sun­day, at around 11 am, the voice of Nor­man Reyes was heard over the radio pro­gram The Voice of Free­dom. He read a speech pre­pared by Sal­vador Lopez, detail­ing the fall of Bataan, but hope­ful of a new dawn.

We, too, shall rise. After we have paid the full price of our redemp­tion, we shall return to show the scars of sac­ri­fices that all may touch and believe. When the trum­pets sound the hour shall roll aside the stone before the tomb and tyrant guards shall scat­ter in con­fu­sion. No wall shall then be strong enough to con­tain us, no human force shall suf­fice to hold us in sub­jec­tion, we shall rise in the name of Free­dom and the East shall be alight in the glory of our lib­er­a­tion. Until then, peo­ple of the Philip­pines, Be Not Afraid.

One Hun­dred Best Things About Being Pinoy

The title is self-explanatory. Yes, there are still a lot of things to be thank­ful for. One hun­dred things to be exact.

Onli in da Pilip­ins: Cre­ative Busi­ness Names in the Philippines

We have a pen­chant for really smart-alecky, bordering-on-the-corny, but still we have to give these busi­ness own­ers props for the names they call their busi­ness estab­lish­ments. Well, will you really go to a par­lor named Curl Up and Dye or Saudia Hair­lines or send your dirty laun­dry to a shop named Wash Your Prob­lem? I think I would. :-)

The Her­itage of Small­ness

Tak­ing its cue from Nick Joaquin’s genius of an arti­cle, this post delves into the soci­o­log­i­cal psy­che and the pen­chant of the Fil­ipino for the small, the tem­po­rary, and the mediocre. Some­times depress­ing, but always hope­ful that the Fil­ipino can rise again, per­haps, the Fil­ipino only needs to see him­self in a bet­ter light. Instead of being shaped by what he sees or hears, he should shape the events of his life. Just like any­one else, we both have a capac­ity for great­ness or small­ness. The choice is ours to make.

The 10 Great­est Self-Made Men in His­tory

The list is now the cur­rent most pop­u­lar arti­cle on Ang Pere­grino. The title is self-explanatory. And the story of their lives are extra­or­di­nary and some­thing worth emu­lat­ing. In this coun­try, peo­ple can and do rise up through the ranks and become great men. This is a land of oppor­tu­nity, whether we believe it or not, if we just know how to look. These men believed and found a way. It is not how you started or where you began. It is how you play your cards. These ten played their cards really well.

Part nos­tal­gia, part giv­ing credit where credit is due, this arti­cle lists what I think is the ten best com­mer­cials on Philip­pine TV. Many peo­ple added their own list, and you may want to add more. I will come up with a sec­ond list soon so send in your list now!

Manny Pac­quiao: Pound for Pound

No list on the Philip­pines would be com­plete with­out men­tion of the guy who has put the Philip­pines on the map once again with the power of his fists and the courage of his heart. I’ve sent this arti­cle to an inter­na­tional sports blog and it has got­ten numer­ous views and good feed­back. Check the arti­cle out yourself.

The Myth of the Masa

My per­sonal take on the democ­racy, and elec­tions, and pol­i­tics in this coun­try. This was an aca­d­e­mic paper that I wrote for a class on Media and Soci­ety. But it’s rel­a­tively an easy read despite its length.

Ten Women That Changed Philip­pine History

While the men build their own lives from scratch, the women were scratch­ing at philip­pine his­tory and chang­ing it. This is proof that women have very pow­er­ful infor­mal and for­mal roles in our soci­ety. And there are a lot more women that need to be men­tioned in this list: Mother Igna­cia del Espir­itu Santo, as a reader pointed out, was the Founder of the Reli­gious of the Vir­gin Mary, one of the strongest women con­gre­ga­tion in the whole world now. Read about the women and sup­port girl power!