Rara

Ralph G. MontanezMWF 6:55-7:55

REFLECTION

Unlike most films about heroes, this one manages to tell a compelling story about the brilliant and fiery general. In this film, Antonio Luna is depicted as a real human being, full of virtues as well as faults. It stimulates a special kind of reflection we need in rethinking our own state of patriotism and sense of nationalism and nationhood. This film enables us to understand not just the life of Luna but also the historical context of his struggle and heroism.

One way to remember the first president of the Philippines First Republic is to look at the five peso coin. Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo's face used to grace the five peso bill. The back of the bill shows him holding the Philippine flag at the celebration of the Philippine Independence Day. His contributions and achievements are, signed the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, creating a truce between the Spanish and Philippine revolutionaries, known as the President of the Revolutionary Government, and led the Philippines in the Spanish-Philippine War and the American-Philippine War. While Benigno Aquino III joined the House of Representatives and the Senate before his presidency. He is the first president who is a bachelor; he is unmarried and has no children and his contributions and achievement are, created the no "wang-wang" (street siren) policy, initiated K-12 education in the Philippines, and oversaw 7.1% growth of the Philippine economy in 2012. In my opinion, the Philippine economy was stronger when Filipinos believed in and trusted their leaders. Many ex-presidents were lawyers or professors and citizens found them to be trustworthy. Those presidents were able to keep the economy strong even in the midst of financial crisis in the rest of the world.

The Philippine economy began to suffer when people lost trust in their leaders and began to rally. Here is what I think: We need great leaders, but what we really need right now are great followers. Bring back the...