These are Indonesians who only see the world through a very narrow tunnel and distorted lens. I had to correct them.

First of all, the Philippines only became a collective during the Spanish occupation. There was no single name for the archipelago, only group of islands like Luzon (from the Tagalog word “lusong” or wooden mortar), Visayas (Bisaya, a group of people living in Panay and Cebu, also thought to have come from the Sri Vijaya empire), and Mindanao (from Maguindanao, a dominant ethno-linguistic group of the island). Adopting the collective name given by the colonizers doesn’t make us less Southeast Asian. It’s like trauma-bonding; the archipelago had a common experience under the cruel Spanish and American rule, but otherwise we have our own identities distinct from one another.

Second, I had to corrrect that insinuationa  that the name Manila came from Islamic words. Manila came from Maynilad, which meant “may nilad” or “a place where there is nilad” with nilad being a kind of lily that floats or grows along the banks of Pasig River. It’s not Aman Allah! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Indonesians making everything Islamic again. Hello! Islam only came to the archipelago in late 13th century through trade. The people of this archipelago were animists (worshipping Bathala, the creator) but had Hindu influences (language mostly) because of trade with the Sri Vijaya and Majapahit empires. Names of places have existed long before Islam came here.

A colleague, who earned a master’s degree in Sociology in Indonesia, told me that it is very common for Indonesians to see the world through their Indonesian-centric eyes. He said they think the world revolves around them and their world view. He also said their ultra-nationalist stance was nurtured and pushed by Suharto regime. Hence, they look down on Filipinos for 1) adopting our colonial past as part of our history among instead of erasing them; 2) for not reverting to our pre-colonial name (which does not exist because each island group has a different name; 3) for adopting colonial customs. My colleague told me Indonesians couldn’t understand why we had English as another official language alongside our mother tongue.

My argument to that is 1) our history made us who we are. We cannot just wipe out 333 years of Spanish rule and 50 years of American colonialism just because. It’s like denying the sacrifices of those who came before us, of those who fought for our freesom, for what we have now.

2) We did not have a pre-colonial name for the entire archipelago. We cannot name ourselves Luzon because that excludes Visayas and Mindanao. We cannot name ourselves Maharlika because that is a Tagalog term and that erases the Bisaya from Visayas and the Maranao or Tausugs of Mindanao. Even though the national highway that stretches from North Luzon down to Mindanao is called Maharlika Highway, that hardly makes the name truly national.

3) We have two official languages = Filipino (simplified Tagalog with loan words from all over the country, and from Spanish and English) and the standard English.

Spanish was taught only to the elites so only a few can use it as mother tongue. English, on the other hand, was taught to everyone when the Americans established the public school system. Those who refused to speak Filipino as a revolt against imperial Manila would rather speak English to non-speakers of their mother tongue (mostly those from the Visayas).

Early on, we realized the advantage of being conversant in English because we could easily communicate with the outside world, especially after WW2. We could have erased both Spanish and English but that would have left us with fewer competitive advantage.

We could have done better, I suppose, when digging through our past and heritage and making them part of our daily lives again.

But we try…

We have incorporated kali-arnis into our PE curriculum so every Filipino child knows the basics of our indigenous martial art. We have ditched the western toga and was replaced by the sablay for important events like graduation. Started by the University of the Philippines, it is now being adopted by other educational institutions as well.

We are also making the baybayin, the native script of early Filipinos, more mainstream. We have used these in our banknotes, government logos or seals, passports. I remember taking an exam in Baybayin for our Filipino subject in our freshman year in high school. Sadly, I lost my Baybayin skill because passing notes written in Baybayin to my friends during class hours fell out of fashion when we reached our sophomore year.

We’re also making indigenous tattoo cool again. We hold tattoos in high esteem in the pre-colonial days as some tattoos were reserved only for warriors. Some symbols indicate social rank or ethnic group. From Kalinga in the north, the pintados in central Philippines, down to the lumad in Mindanao, the art of tattoo is very much part of our culture and identity. We are now trekking to Kalinga to be tattooed by Apo Whang-Od of the Butbut people. We are now discovering other tattoo arts in like pang-o-tub in Mindanao.

So to these Indonesians who had been irritating me on social media: you only see the outward appearance and judge us based on our ability to speak, read, and write in English.