I am a Filipino By Carlos P. Romulo

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 task of performing my obligation to the future. I sprung from a hardy race, child 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. Over 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.

This is the land they sought and found. Every inch of shore that their eyes first set upon, every hill and mountain that beckoned to them with a green-and-purple invitation, every mile of rolling plain that their view encompassed, every river and lake that promised a plentiful living and the fruitfulness of commerce, is a hallowed spot to me.

By 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 inexhaustible wealth in wild life and timber, the mountains with their bowels swollen with minerals–the whole of this rich and happy land has been, for centuries without number, the land of my fathers. This land I received in trust from them and in trust will pass it to my children, and so on until the world is 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 Lapulapu to battle against the first invader of this land, that nerved Lakandula in the combat against the alien foe, that drove Diego Silang and Dagohoy into rebellion against the foreign oppressor.

That seed is immortal. It is the self-same seed that flowered in the heart of Jose Rizal that morning in Bagumbayan 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 Bonifacio in Balintawak, of Gregorio del Pilar at Tirad Pass, of Antonio Luna at Calumpit; that bloomed in flowers of frustration in the sad heart of Emilio Aguinaldo at Palanan, and yet burst fourth royally again in the proud heart of Manuel L. Quezon when he stood at last on the threshold of ancient Malacañang Palace, in the symbolic act of possession and racial vindication.

The seed I bear within me is an immortal seed. It is the mark of my manhood, the symbol of dignity as a human being. Like the seeds that were once buried in the tomb of Tutankhamen many thousand years ago, it shall grow and flower and bear fruit again. It is the insignia 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 East and the West. The East, with its languor and mysticism, its passivity and endurance, was my mother, and my sire was the West that came thundering across the seas with the Cross and Sword and the Machine. I am of the East, an eager participant in its spirit, and in its struggles for liberation from the imperialist yoke. But I also know that the East must awake from its centuried sleep, shake off the lethargy that has bound his limbs, and start moving where destiny awaits.

For I, too, am of the West, and the vigorous peoples of the West have destroyed forever the peace and quiet that once were ours. I can no longer live, a being apart from those whose world now trembles to the roar of bomb and cannon-shot. I cannot say of a matter of universal life-and-death, of freedom and slavery for all mankind, that it concerns me not. For no man and no nation is an island, but a part of the main, there is no longer any East and West–only individuals and nations making those momentous choices which are the 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 justice and equality and freedom, 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. What pledge shall I give that I may prove worthy of my inheritance? I shall give the pledge that has come ringing down the corridors of the centuries, and it shall be compounded of the joyous cries of my Malayan forebears when first they 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 Tirad Pass, of the voices of my people when they sing:

Out of the lush green of these seven thousand isles, out of the heartstrings of sixteen million people all vibrating to one song, I shall weave the mighty fabric of my pledge. Out 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-lig and Koronadal, out of the silent endurance of stevedores at the piers and the ominous grumbling of peasants in Pampanga, 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 plough-shares upturning the earth, out of the limitless patience 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:

“I am a Filipino born to freedom, and I shall not rest until freedom shall have been added unto my inheritance—for myself and my children and my children’s children—forever.”

(Reprinted from The Philippines Herald, August 16, 1941)

Source: Philippines Magazine, January 1944

=== ''I am a Filipino by Carlos P. Romulo is a beautifully written piece of literary work that expresses the writer's love and devotion to his country. He also states that because of the influence of both the east and the west, the Philippines must wake up and embrace it's destiny to met the west (possibly a war).'' ===

Realization to the Speech
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What I have realized on Carlos P. Romulo, I am Filipino, is that we should always learn to love our own country and be proud on our own race. This is because, we Filipinos are great people for being able to survive many challenges in life and in our country. I have realized that being a Filipino, we should also love one another and be united as one. We should for our own rights and help each other in protecting our country against any kind of violence and against foreign invasion. So as an application, I will always be proud of my country and I will do everything just for my country to have its dreams being accomplished, where in there is success and it is progressive same on the other countries and also became into a globally competitive country.

Carlos P. Romulo has stated a lot of context regarding the historical, cultural, and political views of him. According to Romulo, he is the inheritor of the glorious past whom experienced a lot of chaotic scenarios which are the Malayan pioneers who became the ancestors of the Filipino. On the latter part, Philippines have been invaded by someone who fought against by Lapu-lapu in the battle. He does not evade what the western people have influenced the Filipinos as long as it assist in the development of a rich and dynamic Filipino citizenry who will make up a strong nation. Throughout his viewpoints, he have manifested the kind of attitude which bestowed by a lot of Filipino as a good leader. Romulo has pointed out Rizal and other members of the Propaganda Movement who spent most of their lives both in Spain and in the Philippines. Their intellectual aspects have brought so much gratitude to the Filipinos. Their propaganda became influential to most of the Filipinos and it has been the nationalism act they have done for the country. It has clearly depicted that Romulo is a nationalist by the way he described the Filipinos from the beginning of the Filipino ancestry and he did not find any problem between his pro-Americanism and his conceptualizations of how the Filipino nation should be formed.

Carlos P. Romulo has stated a lot of context regarding the historical, cultural, and political views of him. According to Romulo, he is the inheritor of the glorious past who experienced a lot of chaotic scenarios which are the Malayan pioneers who became the ancestors of the Filipino. On the latter part, the Philippines have been invaded by someone who fought against by Lapu-lapu in the battle. He does not evade what the western people have influenced the Filipinos as long as it assists in the development of a rich and dynamic Filipino citizenry who will make up a strong nation. Throughout his viewpoints, he has manifested the kind of attitude which bestowed by a lot of Filipino as a good leader. Romulo has pointed out Rizal and other members of the Propaganda Movement who spent most of their lives both in Spain and in the Philippines. Their intellectual aspects have brought so much gratitude to the Filipinos. Their propaganda became influential to most of the Filipinos and it has been the nationalism act they have done for the country. It has clearly depicted that Romulo is a nationalist by the way he described the Filipinos from the beginning of the Filipino ancestry, and he did not find any problem between his pro-Americanism and his conceptualizations of how the Filipino nation should be formed. One of the things I found interesting in Romulo's speech is the part that describes the burning passion of our National Heroes, to protect our own inheritance against the others who tried to snatch it away. He described himself as a Filipino who have the immortal seed of heroes that runs in his blood, I believe that he is describing our national heroes like Lapu-lapu who fiercely battle the first invader of our country, Jose Rizal who bravely took the shots in Bagumbayan and the other heroes who greatly contributed in order for us to be free from attack from other country. I also find the last part of the speech quite interesting, it states “I am a Filipino born to freedom, and I shall not rest until freedom shall have been added unto my inheritance for myself and my children and my children’s children forever.” I think the message of those lines are for every Filipino, that we should fight for our freedom for it is our right and it is something that the future generation could benefit from.

Author's Bibliography
As the last Resident Commissioner from the Philippines, Carlos Peña Romulo helped lead the island territory through the brutality of World War II and into an independent future. A former journalist whose “Voice of Freedom” radio broadcast went live during some of the heaviest combat in the Pacific theater, Romulo was a tireless advocate for the commonwealth.1 A chief aide to General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific and a brigadier general in the Philippine army, Romulo was appointed to the House in the summer of 1944, where he helped secure Congress’s support in rebuilding the Philippines. Known as the “General” among his colleagues on the Hill, Romulo was a champion of global democratic reforms and later served as president of the United Nations General Assembly.2 In the House, Romulo pushed Congress to invest in the islands. “Mr. Chairman, when we are for a free Philippines as a part of this world government,” he told the Ways and Means Committee in 1945, “we are for a Philippines that is a product of the United States, that has the ideals of the United States, and that will be spreading the American gospel in the Far East[,] the spearhead so to speak of American democracy.”3

Carlos Peña Romulo was born on January 14, 1899, to Gregorio and Maria Peña Romulo.4 The third of six children, Romulo grew up in a prosperous family in Camiling on the island of Luzon, about 100 miles north of Manila. He described his childhood home as a blend of “Malay and Spanish” influences. His grandparents lived across the street, “and there would be times as I grew,” he said, “that our town seemed like one large family group, for everyone seemed related to me in some fashion.” Outside his neighborhood, rice fields stretched far and wide. “I learned early that all we had had come to us from the land,” he wrote as an adult.5

As a boy early in the new century, Romulo grew up amid a regime change in the Philippines. His father was a guerrilla fighter against American occupation forces after the War of 1898, and when U.S. troops reportedly hanged one of his neighbors at a nearby park, Romulo resolved to “hate [the Americans] as long as I lived.”6

His father eventually surrendered and years later even became mayor, but the younger Romulo’s lingering resentment toward the United States did not dissipate until he was in high school.7 After he completed his studies at the University of the Philippines at Manila in 1918, he moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, graduating in 1921. He later received a degree from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, in 1935.8 He married Virginia Llamas in 1924, and together they had four boys, Carlos, Bobby, Ricardo, and Gregorio. Virginia died in 1968, and Romulo married his close friend, Beth Day, 11 years later.9

At the age of 16, Romulo started as a junior reporter for the Manila Times. The newspaper paid him only in streetcar tickets, but it gave him the start to what would become an award-winning career in journalism.10 When Romulo returned to the islands after college, he went back to work as a writer and an editor in Manila. From the early 1920s to about 1941, he thrived in what the New York Times called “the hurly-burly Filipino newspaper world.” During that period, he grew close to Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon and became increasingly active in the territory’s political future, meeting with U.S. officials six different times (1921, 1924, 1928, 1929, 1933, and 1937) to discuss the possibility of an independent Philippines.11

During the early stages of World War II, Romulo kept a close eye on the military movements in the Pacific. In 1941 he wrote a series of articles that ran in Manila and the United States, envisioning the arc of the war in his section of the world. His articles won the Pulitzer Prize and caught the attention of high-ranking officials in the U.S. military who agreed with his take on the approaching conflict.12 “War is coming, Carlos,” General Douglas MacArthur told Romulo, “and when it breaks out I shall ask President Quezon to commission you in the Philippine army and induct you into the United States Army in charge of Press Relations on the Philippine side.” “If war breaks,” Romulo replied, “there’s no place I’d rather be.”13

Romulo worked closely with MacArthur, dealing directly with the press and bolstering public morale. “Croaking away into the mouthpiece of my phone and into the mike [sic] of the radio, I was the voice of both the Philippine and American Armies.”14 Despite his distance from combat, his work was exceptionally dangerous. Japanese bombers routinely flew overheard. “At times I felt like a condemned prisoner in a death cell, sitting in my little room while the Japanese executioners roamed overhead.”15

As the fighting intensified in the Philippines, Romulo, along with thousands of American and Philippine troops and civilians, hunkered down on a small peninsula west of Manila called Bataan. After months of suffering, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered General MacArthur to withdraw to Australia. A short while later, the Allied forces surrendered. Thousands died in Japanese custody either during the forced march to the prison camps or in the camps themselves. Romulo, however, had narrowly escaped, defiantly writing “I was the last man out of Bataan.”16 Romulo remained in exile in the States for two years, completely separated from his family with no way of knowing where they were or if they survived.17 He used his time away to educate people on the conditions in the Pacific and embarked on a remarkable speaking tour throughout America. By late October 1943, he had traveled an estimated 60,000 miles and given 364 speeches in 289 cities all across the country. He was soon appointed secretary of public instruction for the exiled Philippine war cabinet.18

Along with his public speaking duties, Romulo assumed additional responsibility after Philippine President Quezon died on August 1, 1944, followed by the quick resignation of the sitting Resident Commissioner, Joaquin M. Elizalde. The new exiled president, Sergio Osmeña, looking to give the Philippines a stronger presence in Congress, appointed Romulo to the seat.19 A day later the Washington Post’s editorial team touted the appointment, given Romulo’s recent history “as an emissary between the Filipino and American people,” but did not expect him to stay in Washington very long. “His abilities will undoubtedly be needed in spreading the gospel of democracy in the Philippines once more as soon as the liberation in that part of the world gets under way.”20

Two months after being appointed Resident Commissioner, Romulo returned home for the first time in two years. On October 20, 1944, American forces landed at Leyte Bay, captured the island, and established an Allied beachhead in the Philippines.21 Romulo was there to act as a “liaison officer” between his old friend General MacArthur and President Osmeña.22 As brigadier general, Romulo wanted to fight and avenge what he experienced on Bataan, but, as Resident Commissioner, he hung back and landed with MacArthur, calling the day he returned home “the greatest in my life.”23

After reuniting with his family, Romulo returned to Washington. For much of his first year in the House, while still serving as the Philippines’ secretary of public instruction, Romulo led a public education campaign to inform Congress about the living conditions on the war-ravaged islands.24 His reports were shocking. By the time the fighting ended, much of the Philippines had been reduced to ruins, and what remained needed to be rebuilt. As bad as the Philippines’ physical state was, the war’s human toll was even more devastating. A staggering number of people, both civilians and soldiers, had died during the conflict, and those who survived were left destitute. At Leyte, Romulo remembered seeing residents “clothed with the pounded bark of trees.”25 In the territory’s capital he had seen the bodies of his friends and neighbors “pushed into heaps on the Manila streets, their heads shaved, their hands tied behind their backs, and bayonet stabs running them through and through.”26

Beginning in September 1945, Romulo began pushing what would become his signature issue: rebuilding the Philippines using the islands’ trade partnership with the United States. He had studied the situation as a member of the Philippine Rehabilitation Commission, which Congress created in 1944 to investigate “all matters affecting post-war economy, trade, finance, economic stability, and rehabilitation of the Philippine Islands.”27 In many respects, the Philippines had to rebuild both its economy and society from scratch.28

To start, Romulo wanted Congress to extend an existing preferential trade deal with the Philippines for at least another 20 years. The current agreement was three decades old but was set to expire in a matter of months, as soon as the commonwealth gained its independence. In October 1945, during hearings on the trade extension (H.R. 5185), Romulo told the House Ways and Means Committee that the archipelago’s existing trade arrangement was something of a double-edged sword. Although the Philippine economy had become virtually dependent on trade with the United States, the results, Romulo said, could not be ignored: trade with mainland America generated a huge economic boom, complete with better schools, health care, and public services. Relying on one trading partner, however, was dangerous, and operating in the shadow of America’s mammoth economy had its drawbacks. Like other Filipinos before him, Romulo worried that, without time to expand its trade portfolio, the Philippines would struggle once the previous agreement ended and America began levying higher rates.29 “The plan,” he said, “is to diversify so that our economy will not be geared entirely to the American economy.”30

Romulo’s goal explained why he supported quota levels on certain products, like sugar, below what the Philippines might actually be able to export. Although supporting quota levels would have been an unusual position for his predecessors, Romulo kept the long-term interests of the archipelago squarely at heart. “The quota,” he said, “must be limited to discourage the production of sugar, so that at the end of 20 years our sugar industry will not have to depend on the American market.” Romulo’s plan would have the islands spread its financial risk over multiple industries. That way, if one failed, the whole economy would not collapse.31 Romulo saw federal stimulus as merely a short-term solution, and he wanted to make sure the archipelago’s economy could support the far-reaching goals of an independent nation.32 He promised that, if his commonwealth could rebuild its infrastructure, Philippine businesses “will be able to stand on their own feet” once the 20-year grace period ends.33

The trade issue, however, also highlighted the limitations of Romulo’s influence in Washington. When one Member seemed cool to the proposal, Romulo reminded him that Congress would be “deciding the fate of 18,000,000 people who have practically no voice in the determination of their destiny except my very weak voice before this committee.”34

The bill that followed, H.R. 5856, the Philippine Trade Act of 1946, made it out of the Ways and Means Committee in a unanimous vote and was reported to the House in late March 1946.35 The legislation also had the support of the Harry S. Truman administration, which called it “vital to the welfare of the Philippines,” reminding the committee that they all agreed “at least in principle, with the legislation.”36

Moreover, it seemed, especially on the surface, as though Romulo’s testimony had the desired effect. Writing in its report, the committee admitted, “In the course of hearings … it was made abundantly clear that the Philippines, in order to reestablish a normal economy and to develop resources for sustaining its independence, will require the assurance and stability in its trade with the United States.”37 As described by the committee, the bill seemed to fulfill Romulo’s wishes—incentivizing the Philippines to diversify its economy—but there was much he disliked about it.38

The measure was a unique piece of legislation: a trade bill without the constitutional requirements of a full treaty. Although the Philippines would gain its independence in a matter of months, at the time it was still technically part of America’s geopolitical orbit, and, therefore, the trade talks did not fall under the same requirements as those between the United States and other sovereign nations. Normally, the president would have negotiated the details, and the Senate would have approval authority. For the Philippine Trade Act, however, both the House and Senate needed majority votes, giving the White House more of a behind-the-scenes role.39 The day the bill made it to the floor, Robert Doughton of North Carolina, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said it was the product of “earnest, painstaking, and careful consideration, both as to its objectives and the manner in which it was drafted.” The chairman then thanked a number of his colleagues and a host of federal officials for their work on the bill; nowhere, however, did he mention Romulo.40 In fact, it wasn’t until later in the day that the bill’s author, Representative Jasper Bell of Missouri, even acknowledged Romulo’s “distinguished and far-seeing statesmanship.”41

When the debate manager finally recognized Romulo on the floor, the Resident Commissioner, suffering from a prolonged bout of malaria, spoke honestly about what he saw as the bill’s shortcomings. “If I had written this bill as I would have wished,” he told the chamber, “it would provide for perpetual free trade” rather than the “graduated tariffs” that would go up each year after an initial grace period. “If I had written it,” he went on, “the rights assured to the United States would not appear in the bill at all. They would be assured by a treaty entered into on a basis of a complete equality between our two sovereign nations.” Nevertheless, Romulo knew his political limitations and gave the bill his support, calling it “legislation written for reality.… It represents the spirit of realistic compromise which is democracy at its best.”42

The next day, as debate wound down, Romulo delivered an elegant appeal to the House in favor of the legislation. He hoped the bill would be passed unanimously in order to “bolster the wavering morale of the Filipino people who live today amid the shambles of postwar devastation.”43 He argued that the trade bill would be seen around the world as proof of America’s leadership. “At a time when there is too much suspicion rife among the nations of the earth, you will be demonstrating that the greatest force for true world peace and security is the force of friendship, of harmony, of understanding.”44 A few moments later, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Trade_Act#:~:text=The%20Bell%20Trade%20Act%20of,Philippines%20from%20the%20United%20States. Philippine Trade Act] cleared the House.45

When the bill went to the Senate, Romulo employed many of the same arguments in his testimony before the Committee on Finance that he had used during the House committee markup.46 After the Senate approved the bill and the two chambers worked out their differences in conference, the Philippine Trade Act became law on April 30, 1946, two months before the archipelago gained its independence.47

As with trade, Romulo acted as the moral compass for the Philippine Rehabilitation Act of 1946 (S. 1610), which, unlike the trade bill, pumped capital directly into the war-torn commonwealth. During the initial Senate hearings in late October 1945, Romulo reminded the Committee on Territories and Insular Affairs that the sooner Congress acted, the sooner the archipelago could start the healing process. As with the trade bill, Romulo worked to ensure that the Philippine government was an active partner in developing the legislation. He offered a series of amendments, including one that raised the cost of one section of the bill tenfold, but the Resident Commissioner did not want Congress to simply “gift” funding to the islands. Instead, Romulo sought to cast the bill as “compensation” for the islands’ suffering during the war and cited the Treaty of Paris as precedent.48 After visiting the islands, the Senate committee estimated the total cost of the damage there at roughly $800 million. “Factories, homes, government and commercial buildings, roads, bridges, docks, harbors, and the like are in need of complete reconstruction or widespread repairs,” the committee reported.49 After being cleared by the committee in late November, the full Senate passed the bill unanimously on December 5, 1945.50

The House sat on the rehabilitation bill until late February, when the Committee on Insular Affairs finally took it up. Romulo had twice petitioned the House for action and finally testified before Insular Affairs on March 2, 1946, when he revealed that the bill had the full support of the Philippines.51

The legislation approved compensation for both public and private property destroyed in the war, cleared the way for transfer of raw materials, and provided technical and job training during the reconstruction. “Taken together with the pending Philippine trade bill—and it would be unrealistic to think of Philippine rehabilitation in terms of one bill without the other—this bill represents an integrated approach to the problem of putting the Filipino nation back on its feet,” Romulo said. Filipinos’ sacrifices and their wartime loyalty deserved nothing less, he reiterated.52

Ultimately, the House committee agreed. The rescue bill, it wrote in its report, “recognizes the obligation of the United States to help rehabilitate the economy and physical properties of a people who will become an independent nation July 4, 1946, and whose land was ravaged by participation in the war of the United States against Japan.”53 As reported, the half-billion-dollar bill was meant to kick-start the rebuilding process rather than cover the full cost of the islands’ redevelopment.54

When the rehabilitation bill went to the floor, Romulo was the first to speak. In a long and moving address, he described the destruction on the islands and the war’s human toll, telling the chamber, “The whole future of the Philippines depends upon the help we get from you.”55 The bill, he said, would represent “a rock of strength for American prestige in the Far East, and therefore it is a force for enduring peace throughout the world.”56

For Romulo’s work on the trade and rehabilitation bills, Majority Leader John McCormack of Massachusetts credited him for his “distinguished service.” “The position of General Romulo in the hearts and minds of all of the Members is one of extreme closeness; we all have a very high regard for him, and the people of the Philippines are indeed fortunate in having such an outstanding gentleman representing them in this body.”57 A short while later, the House passed the rehabilitation bill and quickly conferenced with the Senate. A week later, the House agreed to the conference report, and the President signed the measure into law on April 30, 1946.58

With the success of the trade and rehabilitation bills, Romulo wanted to address one last issue before the Philippines celebrated its independence. In mid-June 1946, he helped manage a bill providing military assistance to the archipelago over the next five years (H.R. 6572). The war had devastated the Philippine armed forces and left the islands’ national security infrastructure in disarray, threatening the entire rebuilding enterprise. Moreover, as Romulo reminded the chamber on the day of the vote, the U.S. government had armed a huge number of Philippine guerrilla fighters in the war against Japan. The Resident Commissioner estimated that there were “more than 300,000 firearms in the hands of people who have no right to hold them,” to say nothing of potential outside threats. “I regret to say, however, that the ravages of the recent conflict have so depleted our resources that we will not be able, until our economic rehabilitation is under way, to discharge our responsibility in preserving, in cooperation with the armed forces of the United States, the peace of the Far Pacific, without the material assistance” provided in the bill. The military assistance measure sailed through Congress. Introduced on May 27, 1946, the House passed it by unanimous consent on June 14, and the Senate cleared it four days later. The President signed it into law on June 26, 1946.59

Romulo addressed the House for the final time on June 21, 1946. In a lengthy and emotional address, the last Resident Commissioner from the Philippines delivered a broad accounting of the relationship between the archipelago and the mainland, everything from America’s imperial ambitions to the Philippine backlash, to the push toward the Philippines’ independence. From an institutional stance, he offered an honest assessment of his limited role in the House. “As an insider who is nevertheless an outsider,” he said, “I have seen something which it is possible that you yourselves have overlooked. It is this—in the heat of controversy, in the fervor of partisanship, in the bitterness of debate, you have inevitably demonstrated your faith in the ways of democracy.”60

House Members responded warmly to that farewell speech with a long standing ovation. “It is with the greatest regret that the Members of the House of Representatives take leave of General Romulo’s wise counsel, his brilliant logic, his impassioned eloquence [on] behalf of the people whom he so ably served,” Republican Representative Karl Stefan of Nebraska said, capturing the mood of many in the chamber.61

Although independence dissolved the Philippines’ insular relationship with the United States, Romulo was not gone long, and he remained remarkably active on the international stage. In 1945 Romulo had told a House committee that everything changed with the advent of the atomic bomb. “The only permanent things are the intangible things—friendship, good will, faith, justice, right,” he said, stressing the need for a central global authority. “I have always believed that humanity is evolving into that goal—hemispheric solidarity; oceanic solidarity; federation and world government.”62 Fittingly, he twice served as ambassador to the United States (1952–1953 and 1955–1962), but he made his biggest mark in his work with the United Nations, which he helped charter. On July 9, 1946, the Philippine president appointed Romulo as the new republic’s permanent delegate to the United Nations. The former Resident Commissioner went on to serve as president of the UN General Assembly in 1949 and 1950.

Late in his life, Romulo was criticized for supporting the dictatorial policies of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, but he never lost his fighting spirit. When the Soviet Union’s leading voice in the UN General Assembly called Romulo “just a little man from a little country,” Romulo admitted the delegate was correct about his physical stature and the size of his homeland. But, he said, “It is the duty of the little Davids here to fling pebbles of truth between the eyes of blustering Goliaths—and make them behave.”63 Romulo died in Manila on December 15, 1985.

Relevant Work
Below you can see a Different art work of a Filipino to show the love and support for their country. Some of works had a huge contribution for the changed of Philippines system and give freedom for the Filipinos.



Lupang Hinirang
"Lupang Hinirang" 'Chosen Land'; originally titled in Spanish as the Marcha Nacional Filipina (Philippine National March)), is the national anthem of the Philippines. Its music was composed in 1898 by Julián Felipe, and the lyrics were adapted from the Spanish poem Filipinas, written by José Palma in 1899.

The composition now known as Lupang Hinirang was commissioned on June 5, 1898 by Emilio Aguinaldo, head of the Dictatorial Government of the Philippines, as a ceremonial and instrumental national march without lyrics, similar to the status of the Marcha Real in Spain. Replacing the revolutionary hymn Marangal na Dalit ng Katagalugan, which Aguinaldo found inadequate for an anthem, the Marcha Nacional was adopted as the national march of the Philippine Republic (Spanish: República Filipina). It was first performed in public during the proclamation of Philippine independence at Aguinaldo's residence in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898.



Noli me Tangere
Written in Spanish and published in 1887, José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere played a crucial role in the political history of the Philippines. Drawing from experience, the conventions of the nineteenth-century novel, and the ideals of European liberalism, Rizal offered up a devastating critique of a society under Spanish colonial rule.



El Filibusterismo
The second and last novel completed by José Rizal (though he left behind the unfinished manuscript of a third one), El Filibusterismo is a sequel to Noli Me Tangere. A dark, brooding, at times satirical novel of revenge, unfulfilled love, and tragedy, the Fili (as it is popularly referred to) still has as its protagonist Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra. Thirteen years older, his idealism and youthful dreams shattered, and taking advantage of the belief that he died at the end of Noli Me Tangere, he is disguised as Simoun, an enormously wealthy and mysterious jeweler who has gained the confidence of the colony’s governor-general.

Tayo'y mga Pinoy
This song raises awareness and promotes that Filipinos must appreciate and love what they have and who they are. In this way, art, in the form of song, is used in telling how the Filipinos viewed themselves in terms of beauty and in showing their colonial mentality.

References:
diversity of the philippines https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-51926-5_7 National heroes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_hero_of_the_Philippines Pinoy ako " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLq6AOWwiP8 ako ay pilipino https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlxiKw4tN8s

"Pinoy ako" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLq6AOWwiP8 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-51926-5_7  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_hero_of_the_Philippines  https://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Ang_Pilipino.html ? id=OHfXAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

Carlos P. Romulo https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/20605 Spain https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain Philippines https://www.britannica.com/place/Philippines (every word Phillipines should have hypertext) Americanism https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1916/03/americanism/305935/ National Heroes https://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/selection-and-proclamation-of-national-heroes-and-laws-honoring-filipino-historical-figures/ Lapu-lapu https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/chief-lapu-lapu-warrior-and-hero-philippines-002800 I am a Filipino born to freedom, and I shall not rest until freedom shall have been added unto my inheritance for myself and my children and my children's children forever. http://malacanang.gov.ph/75480-i-am-a-filipino-by-carlos-p-romulo/