Here's one I just read from Freeman Cebu:
Bayang Magiliw, yodelly ho ho.
TO THE QUICK By Jerry Tundag Updated May 08, 2009 12:00 AM
It is no surprise that leftist Philippine partylist Representative Risa Hontiveros Baraquel saw nothing wrong in the way Filipino singer Martin Nievera mangled the Philippine National Anthem when he sang it during the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton fight in Las Vegas.
If Baraquel see it fit to make a dress out of the Philippine flag and wear it during street demonstrations against the government, it should be no skin off her back if people sing the National Anthem in every which way they like.
What is disappointing, however, is when even supposedly right-thinking people begin to think like Baraquel and see nothing wrong in a National Anthem not sung the way it is meant to be sung, who will probably applaud anyone who sings it like ... “Bayang Magiliw yodelly ho ho.â€
But then, something like this is bound to happen. As I have said many times before, there is hardly anything left sacred anymore in the Philippines. Why, people hardly stop anymore when the National Anthem is played.
There used to be a time when the National Anthem was played and sung in school every morning and every afternoon. They used to call it flag ceremony in the morning and flag retreat in the afternoon.
They do not do that anymore. Maybe it has become too much of a bother, this singing of the National Anthem. Maybe it is taking up too much time. And so the National Anthem is now played and sung only in the morning of Monday and in the afternoon of Friday.
To be sure, Martin Nievera had no intention of making a debauchery of the National Anthem. He probably just wanted to showcase a little artistry in his rendition, perhaps honestly believing that artistic license extends to all things, including national symbols.
But how many national symbols do we have? There are not very many of them, are there? So why can we not just let them be when we have so many others, millions perhaps, that we can subject to all sorts of modification and tampering?
Baraquel can throw rotten tomatoes at an effigy of her pet peeve Gloria Arroyo and not suffer a wee bit for it. After all, while Arroyo may be the president, it is her office that is actually sacred.
Or maybe Nievera can make fun of the way his former wife Pops Fernandez modified her lips, and all that he will probably suffer for it is to get ostracized by her fans. But the Filipino nation never got diminished by the turnout of their fabled marriage.
Still the controversy is not even about Nievera because he is just one singer. There have been others who similarly tried to ape the Americans when it comes to distorting their own national anthem.
But let us not always try to approximate the Americans because, at the appropriate time, they can always rally behind their country in a manner and intensity that we Filipinos can never hope to match.
And so, while there are still some things left sacred in this country, maybe we should try to keep them that way. For once we lose them, once we lose sight of why they are sacred, we will never be able to recover the feeling.
Even without any law, plain common sense dictates you do not trifle with the National Anthem. But then maybe it is too late, judging by how it was the National Historical Institute instead that got criticized for calling the attention of Nievera to the wrong he has done.
Next time we get insulted, as when the Thais called us cheats in the SEA Games, let us just bow our heads. If we cannot put a frigging centavo’s worth on the National Anthem, more so for an even shakier national reputation.
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