With all the buzz going on about David Archuleta being Filipino, the researcher in me pushed myself to concluding that David is not a Filipino. His cousins already confirmed it in his MySpace website. Also, a Yahoo! Answers page confirmed my thoughts of me asking why we should care if he’s Filipino and attach ourselves / our race to these great people. Seriously, who cares if he’s Filipino or not? Does it mean that we have uber inferiority complex, evidence of which could be found from us being a hospitable race, and always thinking that foreigners have the bigger money?

Me and my gang talked about it over booze, and thought that the Filipino people could always be nationalistic, but rarely patriotic. We’re proud being Pinoys (colloquial term for being Filipino), proud of our kin who excel in things like throwing a boxing opponent out of the ring or moving balls around over a billiards table. But who does really stay and help his people nurse his elders and not bother wiping other country’s asses? Who does really save their genius and help science in the Philippines be more than an elementary subject? Who does make business and benefit his neighbors more than people oceans away from him? More than that, who does great things and credit his / her race for the great things he / she does?

Rare are these people, but on the same show as David Archuleta, I saw someone I could really tell being patriotic.

From day one, Ramiele Malubay has been very outspoken about her race, never minding those American racists (a friend told me the phrase “American racist” is redundant) throwing remarks on her, and living up with the pressure of giving American Idol its first Asian winner. Lea Salonga is also one of them, showing the world that the Filipino kin is a talented bunch, giving back, at the same time, to its people the glory built from eating rice and fish.

I say I admire the generation of Ramiele’s dad. He could be the age of Vincent Bueno’s dad, who also preserved the traditions and the language of our people. I hate those OFW people who want to live the foreign life, and forget about the good things here, noting that there’re lots to consider as good stuff.

I don’t care if they disown the Filipino flag. The feeling is mutual.

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