PINOY GOES GLOBAL

“Pinoy goes global” is just like eating banana-Q to eating banoffee pie. You eat different
delicacies, you buy it in a different price, but they are just the same, both BANANA. No
matter how much you try to ignore the difference, Pinoy will always be Pinoy, here at home
or in a foreign land.

Looking back, the first generation left the Philippines to survive and work for a better life.
Like the many who came to the international world, we quickly discovered that the streets
were not paved with gold. We had no capital other than our wit and the education we may
have had in the Philippines. We were not the sons and daughters of the wealthy and
powerful families of the Philippines who came to further their education and quickly made a
U-turn to run their families’ enterprises or run for political office to secure their social and
economic freedom.

“You think I’m an ignorant savage and you’ve been so many places. I guess it must be so,
but I cannot see that the savage one is me. You think you own whatever land you land on.
The earth is just a dead thing you can claim, but I know every rock and tree and creature has
a life, has a spirit, has a name.”

In the field of entertainment, fifteen years ago, Leah Salonga was an ordinary face, an
insignificant teenager, an actress so underrated and unnoticed, yet possessing an obvious
monumental talent. From London to Broadway, from Sir Olivier to Tony Awards, she has
really become the national pride, a world-class Pinoy.

To honorable members of the board of judges, ladies and gentlemen, a Pinoy will always be
Pinoy even if he goes global. We are a noble race, though tried and tested by fire, emaciated
by storms of poverty, marred and hounded by political corruption, drained and shattered by
natural and man-made calamities, but just the same, we stand tall and proud, unshaken by
trials, never giving-up, never relenting, untarnished with our faith, oozing with confidence
because we believe we are Filipinos, we are multi-talented, we are naturally gifted with
voice, with abundance of grace and beauty, with boundless wealth of faith in God and in
ourselves. There is no need of playing small, or literally humbling ourselves so that others
may not feel inferior and offended, there is no need to belittle our ability or to highlight our
weaknesses, because just like any other people, we are children of God, we are citizens of
the world and we have a right to exist. We are not a race of mediocrity, we do not condone
people with half-hearted dreams and ambition, we travel the world, we cross the farthest
sea, we work fearlessly in a foreign land, we invade homes and houses as domestic helpers,
we swallow fires and bullets, so we are able to send billions of remittances because we
believe we are a nation with a great future, we are not without hope, we are a race of a great
promise, we are Filipinos!

And so our greatest fear is not that we can do less, our greatest fear is that we can do more.
We can do more, much-much more than the world thinks about us. We can do more, much-
much more than what we think about ourselves. Our greatest fear is that we can do much
more. And when we reach the crossroad between cultural infancy to national maturity, we
are afraid, that when we step forward, we can be unstoppable! We can be very fast and very
strong! We can be a threat to everyone. Not only in Hollywood or in Broadway, but also in
Pentagon, in the North Pole, in European countries, in the World Bank, in the United Nation,
we can be a threat in the world. This is our greatest fear, yet unaware. Unconscious of our
great power and spiritual strength. Filipinos in the whole world, unite! You have nothing to
lose except your chain!!! And so be it.
Thank you.