LIKE THE MOLAVE I 1940)

By: Rafael Zulueta da Costa

Not yet, Rizal, not yet.

Sleep not in peace;
There are a thousand waters to be spanned;
There are a thousand mountains to be crossed;
There are a thousand cross to be borne.
Our shoulders are not strong;
our sinews are
Grown flaccid with dependence,
smug with ease
Under another‘s wing.
Rest not in peace;
Not yet, Rizal, not yet.
The land has need
Of young blood
–
and, what younger than your own,
Forever spilled in the great name of freedom.
Forever oblate on the altar of
The free? Not you alone, Rizal.
O souls And spirits of the martyred brave - arise!
Arise and scour the land!
Shed once again
Your willing blood! Infuse the vibrant red
Into our thin anemic veins; until
We pick up your Promethean tools and strong,
Out of the depthless matrix of your faith
In us, and on the silent cliffs of freedom,
We carve, for all time your marmoreal dream!
Until our people, seeing, are become
Like the Molave, firm, resilient, staunch
Rising on the hillside, unafraid,
Strong in its own fiber; yes, like the Molave!
REACTION

In the poem Like the Molave, the speaker entreats our national hero, Jose
Rizal to inspire generations with his unwavering perseverance for national
freedom. Moreover, the poem foresees the future of Filipinos in our
countrywide failings such as our dependence upon others and upon the
government, lack of self-restraint and loss of social dignity from a mistaken
notion of modernity. Furthermore, the speaker tells the other heroes who
bravely died in the process of freeing our country to enthuse the Filipinos by
shedding their blood once again until we realize and develop the patriotic
fervor of staying independent, like the Molave, an indigenous hardwood that
can withstand tough storms and thus resilient in nature. Basically, the
connection of the country‘s national heroes to ordinary Filipinos and the
Molave unites in the spirit of Filipinism‘a contemporized nationalistic act of
improving the country by making it self-sufficient through first and foremost,
raising social consciousness.
 I am a Filipino
by Carlos Romulo

I am a Filipino,I am a Filipino - inheritor of a glorious past, hostage to the

uncertain future. As such I must prove equal to a two-fold task- the task of
meeting my responsibility to the past, and the taskof performing my
obligation to the future.I sprung from a hardy race - child of many
generations removed of ancient Malayan pioneers. Across the centuries, the
memory comes rushing back to me of brown-skinned men putting out to
sea in ships that were as frail as their hearts were stout. !ver the sea I see them
come,borne upon the billowing wave and the whistling wind, carried upon
the mighty swell of hope-hope in the free abundance of new land that was to
be their home and their children"s forever.#his is the land they sought and
found. $very inch of shore that their eyes first set upon, every hill and
mountain that beckoned to them with a green and purple invitation, every
mileof rolling plain that their view encompassed, every river and lake that
promise a plentiful living and the fruitfulness of commerce, is a hollowed
spot to me.%y the strength of their hearts and hands, by every right of law,
human and divine, this land and all the appurtenances thereof - the black and
fertile soil, the seas and lakes and rivers teeming with fish, the forests with
their ine&haustible wealth in wild life and timber, the mountains with their
bowels swollen with minerals - the whole of this rich and happy land
hasbeen, for centuries without number, the land of my fathers. #his land I
received in trust from them and in trust will pass it to my children, and so on
until the world no more.I am a Filipino. In my blood runs the immortal seed
of heroes - seed that flowered down the centuries in deeds of courage and
defiance. In my veins yet pulses the same hot blood that sent 'apulapu to
battle against the alien foe that drove (iego )ilang and (agohoy into rebellion
against the foreign oppressor.#hat seed is immortal. It is the self-same seed
that flowered in the heart of *ose +ial that morning in %agumbayan when a
volley of shots put an end to all that was mortal of him and made his spirit
deathless forever the same that flowered in the hearts of %onifacio in
%alintawak, of ergorio del /ilar at #irad /ass, of Antonio 'una at 0alumpit 
that bloomed in flowers of frustration in the sad heart of $milio Aguinaldo
at /alanan, and yet burst fourth royally again in the proud heart of Manuel '.
1ueon when he stood at last on the threshold of ancient Malaca2ang /alace,
in the symbolic act of possession and racial vindication.#he seed I bear within
me is an immortal seed. It is the mark of my manhood, the symbol of dignity
as a human being. 'ike the seeds that were once buried in the tomb of
#utankhamen many thousand years ago, it shall grow and flower and bear
fruit again. It is the insigne of my race, and my generation is but a stage in the
unending search of my people for freedom and happiness.I am a Filipino,
child of the marriage of the $ast and the 3est. #he $ast, with its languor and
mysticism, its passivity and endurance, was my mother, and my sire was the
3est that came thundering across the seas with the 0ross and )word and the
Machine. I am of the $ast, an eager participant in its struggles for liberation
from the imperialist yoke. %ut I also know that the $ast must awake from its
centuried sleep, shape of the lethargy that has bound his limbs, and start
moving where destiny awaits.For, I, too, am of the 3est, and the vigorous
peoples of the 3est have destroyed forever the peace and quiet that once were
ours. I can no longer live, being apart from those world now trembles to the
roar of bomb and cannon shot. For no man and no nation is an island, but a
part of the main, there is no longer any $ast and 3est - only individuals and
nations making those momentous choices that are hinges upon which history
resolves.At the vanguard of progress in this part of the world I stand - a
forlorn figure in the eyes of some, but not one defeated and lost. For through
the thick, interlacing branches of habit and custom above me I have seen the
light of the sun, and I know that it is good. I have seen the light of 4ustice and
equality and freedom and my heart has been lifted by the vision of
democracy, and I shall not rest until my land and my people shall have been
blessed by these,beyond the power of any man or nation to subvert or
destroy.I am a Filipino, and this is my inheritance. 3hat pledge shall I give
that I may prove worthy of my inheritance5 I shall give the pledge that has
come ringing down the corridors of the centuries, and it shall be compounded
of the 4oyous cries of my Malayan forebears when they first saw the contours
of this land loom before their eyes, of the battle cries that have resounded in
every field of combat from Mactan to #irad pass, of the voices of my people
when they sing'and of the Morning,0hild of the sun returning...6e"er shall
invaders#rample thy sacred shore.!ut of the lush green of these seven
thousand isles, out of the heartstrings of si&teen million people all vibrating
to one song, I shall weave the mighty fabric of my pledge. !ut of the songs of
the farmers at sunrise when they go to labor in the fields  out of the sweat of
the hard-bitten pioneers in Mal-ig and 7oronadal out of the silent
endurance of stevedores at thepiers and the ominous grumbling of
peasants /ampanga out of the first cries of babies newly born and the
lullabies that mothers sing out of the crashing of gears and the whine of
turbines in the factories out of the crunch of ploughs upturning the earth 
out of the limitlesspatience of teachers in the classrooms and doctors in the
clinics out of the tramp of soldiers marching, I shall make the pattern of my
pledge8I am a Filipino born of freedom and I shall not rest until freedom
shall have been added unto my inheritance - for myself and my children"s
children - forever.
"I Am a Filipino" is often considered a manifesto for the Filipinos' dream of
freedom from colonial rule. It is the most famous literary work of Carlos P.
Romulo and was published in August of 1941 in the Philippines Herald.

REACTION

"I Am a Filipino" is an essay that underlines the burning desire of the

Filipinos for independence. It starts with a quick walk through the history of
the nation and culminates with a paragraph that states "I am a Filipino born to
freedom." Romulo mentions that the Philippines is a child resulting from the
marriage of the East and the West and deserves to take a proud stand in the
world. His call for freedom is born from the rights of the Filipinos to be proud
of their inheritance and he announces that he will not find peace until the
dream of freedom is achieved for his people. Romulo was a Filpino statesman,
diplomat, author and journalist who served under eight Philippine presidents
and was the country's representative to the United States and the United
Nations. "I Am a Filipino" is often chosen by students for elocution contests
and is one of the most famous nationalist manifestos in the world.