Secular Philippines
As I walked onto the Ateneo campus today, I noticed a most curious thing. Everyone had suddenly stopped in their tracks. I, of course, kept walking since I wasn’t quite sure what prompted everyone to stop. I then heard a faint recorded choral singing of the first verse of the Philippine national anthem “Lupang Hinirang.” People continued to look around blankly waiting for the song to end before taking another step. I’m not quite sure if this is a daily occurrence, since I’m not usually outside at 9 AM. Still, I find it peculiar that for a country that is always framed through a religious lens, either as a hegemonic ‘Catholic’ country, or as a ‘Christian’ majority having to tolerate a fairly large ‘Muslim’ population, the Philippines is nevertheless still saturated by nationalism and all the secularist heft entangled in such a concept. If he was here at this moment, Ben Anderson would surely have taken note.
