(ML) Why Is People's Movement Restricted?

The government is meant to rule for the benefit of the people. If they are voted into office and they are doing their job, then I would think that the people have an obligation to help them do it by obeying it. Doing so, the people's movement is restricted. When the government abuses the power given to them, when they stop doing what they're meant to do, then what are they there for? The reason then why the people's movement is restricted, is simply a matter of the initiative to free themselves from the oppressive power.


What is the future of the nation-state in the age of globalization?

Well now, that's a good question. Now that boundaries are increasingly being overcome, I think the nation-state still has the responsibility to maintain the culture of the land they occupy and the people with whom they are concerned.

Even though we should begin using the upsides of globalization to better our country through the adoption of beneficial traits, we should still be able to maintain our original identity beneath all the "advancements" or else. That's what I think the role of the nation-state should be, the maintenance of a people's origin and identity.


Now, about the Philippines. How I see it, the Philippines has turned out the way it is because it was not properly equipped for democracy. The islands were already initially diverse and independent in the way they were governed. Having been colonized by the Spanish, the islands were lumped together and later on, being named as one "Philippines", robbed of the independence they already had. It's quite unfair and unjust since not all the islands were conquered for one, and for another they did not even initially have the same cultures and practices.

After the unjust colonization and combination of the people of the islands now known as the Philippines, the people were also suppressed in their "freedom" under the Americans. Where, in truth, the fight against the colonization of the Spaniards had not risen to the level which united the nation (at least those parts that were colonized), there was also a lack of solidarity. This was followed quickly by a kind of influencing towards another people's culture, the American one.

So without even being able to establish a definitive collective identity, the Filipino people were subjected to another culture, this time presented to them in an appealing manner.

Then when the Filipino people were suddenly "granted" democracy by the Americans, they weren't prepared for it anymore. The people didn't know who they were as a people. They didn't develop on their own, and were not, and are still not, used to it. That being so, we're still grasping at straws as to what to do with it.

That's what I think the reason is for the rockiness and instability of Philippine politics.