THE celebration of Independence Day becomes doubly significant not just because President Rodrigo Duterte chose not to attend the ceremonies at Rizal Park Monday morning, June 12, but what he was doing the night before.
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella made the announcement before the reporters, citing no reasons for his absence at the celebration of 119th anniversary of Philippines' independence.
What is the message received by those who have long known the President as mayor?
1. That there is no reason to celebrate independence when our very independence is being threatened by terrorists who have made their own version of Islam and corrupted this religion to fit their global desire to rule using terror.
2. That there is no reason to celebrate an Independence Day that was granted us by the Americans when just a few days ago, a platoon of the country's best soldiers from the Marine Battalion Landing Team, were killed in combat in Marawi, paying the steepest price for independence with their lives.
3. He is not about ready to raise the giant flag beside Vice President Leni Robredo who dressed up for the occasion and was flashing best smile, when the President mourned with the families of the dead Marines the night before.
4. Every dead soldier is a reason to mourn and when in mourning, even traditions can be set aside.
It is sad that even as our elite soldiers are dying to keep the enemies away from the people, many cannot even stop themselves from jeering every move the government makes to stall the advances of the terrorists, while two legislators made it a point to file their complaints with the International Criminal Court while Marawi is in danger of falling in the hands of the terrorists.
Given such situation, there is nothing indeed to celebrate about, for the once ruling few have held hostage our collective minds and forced us to watch their antics in trying to win back the power they have wasted and made us pay the price of independence for their own greed.
But no. We are not allowing that to happen, and so we choose to give honor instead to all the fallen soldiers who have taken the bullets and the mortars for us. Their lives is what makes us even more proud to be Filipinos, because we know we have gallant men and women who have taken their vow of service to heart. From this day on, the noisy few power-hungry will no longer be allowed to disrupt our march to real independence and development.
We choose to work for the country's march forward. We refuse to play into the hands of the manipulative few.
Our gallant men and women are paying the steep price of freedom for us, we are not going to waste their sacrifices to serve the avarice of a few.
While the jeering few are raising much ruckus about the President's absence during the dress-up Independence Day celebration, we can almost hear his heart break as he condoled with the fallen marine soldiers the night before while putting up a brave front to push the thousands of other soldiers on. He is, after all, their commander-in-chief.