The "damaged" Filipino culture of today is said to be a product of 400 years of Spain and 50 years of Hollywood.

Some people debate if Lapulapu was of braver stuff for showing the intruder Ferdinand Magellan his casket compared to Datu Sikatuna who drank from a goblet of mixed Filipino and Spanish blood.

But maybe Datu Sikatuna was the smarter stuff - because he could trade goods and culture with the Westerner, embraced globalization but maintained his tribe and turf.

The Spaniards implanted the cross and the sword on the shores of the country. Those who opposed the rule got the sword on the neck; those who transgressed religious beliefs were excommunicated.

But when they refused to give Catholic burial rites to a relative, a brave Boholano by the name of Dagohoy waged 100 years of war - the longest revolt in the country. Top Boholano actor Cesar Montano - who acts best by not acting - will soon play the role, hopefully to be directed by great Boholano director Maryo de los Reyes. That, of course, is another story.

Spain brought us Christianity that bordered on ritualistic, sometimes pagan rites and the almost deification of the clergy. The Spanish bureaucrats and soldiers subjugated the tribes into small fiefdoms and then ruled them.

For 400 years, Filipinos - generation upon generation - were made to believe we were near slaves, incapable to governing ourselves and that not embracing their brand of Christianity was a one-way ticket to hell.

When the Americans "liberated" the country from Spain by destroying their Spanish armada fleet in Manila Bay, Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo declared Philippine Independence from across his balcony in historic Kawit Cavite on June 12, 1898.

Before that, Aguinaldo bought 2,000 rifles and 200,000 rounds of ammunition for P50,000 according to historical trivia, after disposing, of course, of his rival the proletariat Andres Bonifacio.

But the Americans were not to easily give up what became the second most progressive nation in Asia (after Japan). It was only when America "liberated" the country again from the Japanese Imperial Forces in 1946 that we were "granted" our true independence specifically on the 4th of July, America's own Freedom Day.

It is a sad note in war-time history that American planes and ships bombed Manila into extinction to rid it of Japanese and killed more people there than the combined casualties of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - victims of American atomic bombs in WW-II.

To the credit, then, of former president Diosdado Macapagal - that he changed the Philippine Independence Day date from July 4 to June 12 beginning 1962 - which is indeed the more appropriate date.

Sixty-one years later today from 1946, is the Philippines truly independent? Do we see the workings of democracy in every day of our lives?

The American bases are gone - but we still dance to the baton of Uncle Sam in Washington be it a terrorist or a China issue. Thanks to a Visiting Forces Agreement - a Filipina by the name of Nicole has a wretched future while an American soldier enjoys the trappings of Embassy life - after being convicted of having raped Nicole in Subic.

The nation has an inverted pyramid where 10% of the people control 90% of the country's wealth, giving rise to a social volcano that threatens both the rich and poor upon its eruption.

Millions wallow below the poverty line while only one of every ten students from elementary ever get to finish college. After graduation, one million go after less jobs - pushing every one to go to the Foreign Affairs department for a working visa abroad.

Without education or capital, where do you think Juan de la Cruz is going?

Where is human dignity - when one is depressed every day as to where to get the next meal of a starving family? Where will the poor go in a country whose Congress failed to pass the Cheaper Medicine Bill in the last session, while enjoying their pork and passing the franchise of gambling, machinery called Pagcor instead? Where is the sense of statesmanship of these so-called district leaders who court every one like crazy during election time and disappear like the wind thereafter?

Are we an independent country when the people who have the money - buy the poor's votes; those who have the guns terrorize the results of elections; those who have the clout force command votes and ask people to vote like slaves for auction and those who have Garci - they can have a president elected? Are our elections bearing the marks of a truly representative democracy?

Are we a genuine democracy when the country's own Secretary of Justice sanctions money rewards (guess coming from where?) to those who vote one way in an election?

Are we in a democracy with the snail's pace of justice and the presence of many judges dubbed as "hoodlums in robes" - waiting for the highest bidder?

Are we truly free when we are the second most dangerous nation for media people in the whole world outside of war-torn Iraq? How free can we be when dissent and criticism is rewarded with 800 extra judicial killings noticed world-wide?

Yet the Philippines Happiness Index remains the highest in the world - forgetting in our literal religious sense that when God said "Blessed are the Poor" - He was only referring to poverty of the spirit.

Our hard-earned democracy - fought for and defended from Mactan Island to Bataan and Corregidor, Tirad Pass and EDSA - is a work in progress. But we just work on it like laggards. Such a pity.

Let us value of our independence by acting like we are. Shall we?

* * * * *