Legislated nationalism
| AN OUTSIDERS VIEW |
 |
| Ken Fuller |
Responding to one of my columns some time ago, a Manila friend commented that my problem (or, he might have said, one of them!) was that I was more nationalist than most Filipinos.
I mention this in order to assure readers that, although it is my intention this week to briefly discuss House Bill 465, I do so with the best of intentions. My only criticism of Filipino nationalism and patriotism is that there is not enough of it. But while Philippine legislators obviously have every right to pass laws regulating the behavior of their citizens, this outsider’s well-intentioned view is that this bill is problematic.
House Bill 465, given its third reading last month, amends earlier legislation, increasing the maximum penalty to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of P100,000 for those failing to stand to attention when the national anthem is sung, or failing to render it in the legislated fashion, i.e. “with fervor” and at the mandatory tempo — 4/4 time, 100-120 beats per minute.
Most alarmingly, cinema ushers will be empowered to execute a citizen’s arrest on those refusing to comply, and to summon police assistance. In a letter to the Inquirer a few days later, Rudy S. Coronel called this particular provision “rather too surrealistic.” While I only visit a cinema once every few weeks, I have only once witnessed someone refusing to stand for “Lupang Hinirang,” and even then the surly young man was eventually shamed into the standing position by his girlfriend. Cinema ushers, who are mostly young and female, will surely wonder why they have been singled out to enforce, at the risk of assault, appropriate displays of patriotism..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101116com5.html
0 comments
Post a Comment