DE LEON, JEREMIA YDIANNE A.

GOOD CITIZENSHIP

Being born into a country doesnt make you an inhabitant alone. It makes you
a citizen. Parasites are inhabitants-they infest their hosts, they stay inside of their
bodies and damage the host with their presence. You are not a parasite. You do not
just stay inside the country and do nothing. You are a citizen- a person who belongs
to a country and has the rights, a member of the state and most of all, a person
with responsibilities to fulfill for his country. Now the question left is, how can you
practice good Filipino citizenship?
All countries have diverse cultures and beliefs. Some might say that being too
attached to ones culture is too out of date but in reality, these innate beliefs in you
as a citizen of a certain country will help you exercise good citizenship. It will help
you understand how to act in certain situations, it will help you understand your
country, but most of all, it will help you understand yourself more. Understanding
yourself will aid you to become better. Eventually, youll improve as a son/daughter,
a sister/brother, a student, a friend and finally a citizen.
From the start of history, Filipinos have always been faithful to a god. From
paganism to Christianity, we showed how much we believe in the existence of a
higher being. This is the root of our first trait which is maka-diyos. Our hospitality
showed how sociable we are. This manifests how much we love and respect our
fellow Filipino. Until now, even if we do not know the person personally, we still
support them in international contests. For us, their victory is our victory as well.
The root cause of this is our belief of being maka-tao. No matter how old we are,
we still have those days when we crave for rice cakes, for purple yam and all those
Filipino delicacies. There are still Filipino games that we enjoy. The reason is our
being maka-bayan. Anyone who had been to Filipino high schools experienced
participating in community service by cleaning. This is because they want to instill
in us the belief of being maka-kalikasan. These examples are not the extreme
manifestation of these principles but doing these little things will mould you into a
better citizen in time.
YOU ARE A FILIPINO CITIZEN. No matter how you change your hair color, your
sense of style and all other aspects to look like a westerner, it wont matter because
innate in you is the Filipino heart. As a Filipino, our culture is already embedded in
you. It is already a mark in you. No matter how much you deny it, you know you
still believe in being maka-diyos, maka-tao, maka-bayan and maka-kalikasan.