NUESTRA PARTIA: The history of the song 'Bayan ko'

Throughout history, Bayan Ko is a song that reminds us of our independence, strength, and how we stood against the oppression of the colonizers, a dictator, and even in any political crisis we are in. It was written on 1898 by an activist José Alejandrino, who’s friends with Heneral Luna and Jose Rizal. But what does it really make the song so special in our hearts? How does this literature end up being one of the reason why we’re still fighting for our country’s freedom and democracy?

The music was known as Nuestra Patria, a poem written in Spanish by a propagandista Jose Alejandrino, who is a contributor to La Solidaridad. It’s an organization that promotes awareness of the plight of colonial Philippines, to seek equality for Filipinos within the Spanish administration of the country, and ultimately pave the way towards gaining independence. Alejandrino was also a dear friend of Jose Rizal, he helped Rizal to edit and distribute manuscripts of his novel El Filibusterismo in Berlin. He is likewise a close friend of Heneral Antonio Luna, both of them are planning to make a defensive line stretching from Novaliches to Caloocan to stop the Americans from wanting to capture the railway system. However, the project was completely putten to waste due to the assassination of Luna. Jose Alejandrino wrote the poem in 1898 while he was a general and bidding to free the Filipinos from the oppressive Spanish, and later on to protest the continuing American occupation of the Philippines. After months of declaring Independence, The United States government formally acquired the Philippines from Spain with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, that caused the United States to declare a military rule in the Philippines on December 21, 1898. Fast forward to 1929, Alejandrino’s poem Nuestra Patria was reworded in Tagalog by Jose Corazon de Jesus, while the poetry was set to music by Constancio De Guzman, and it is now the Bayan ko version we know and sing.

It is written in history that during Martial Law, people were not allowed to voice out their views and criticisms against the government. The song was believed to have a contradictory message against the Marcos government, so it was banned from public performances during the Martial Law period. Those who attempted to perform it in public would be deemed to have committed a serious offense, and could even end up being imprisoned. People were inspired to sing it again at Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.'s funeral in 1983, and then the song was finally popularized by Freddie Aguilar. Bayan ko has been associated with anti-government protests since the 1986 Revolution, it overthrew the Marcos dictatorship and ushered in the Fifth Republic. In the last 2 years, It was used in a national protests against President Rodrigo Duterte, and it was sung when the urn containing President Benigno Aquino III's ashes was put near his parents. And now in the present time, during the National Philippine Election, Leni Supporters in Naga raise their fists and holding up the “L” hand sign for Leni while singing the song whole heartedly, as they all wait and sweat, pray, for the outcome of the result. The song’s message is still very synonymous to what the country needs especially in these trying moments. It is indeed a call for the Filipinos to be one in achieving peace and a brighter tomorrow for the country.

Heneral Luna was right when he said “May mas malaki tayong kalaban sa mga Amerikano, ang ating sarili”. It’s painful to watch how ordinary Filipinos, then and now, suffer from the failure of our government itself. How they put business first over humanity. The sad truth is, justice is only available to those who can afford it. Living in the Philippines is not living at all, it’s more about surviving. Our country still faces a lot of crisis, and to be honest some of us aren’t even fighting. There are youth’s who fight, but they are being red tagged. It’s true what they say that Student activism did not arise from a vacuum but was a response to the prevailing social conditions and a demonstration of discontent with the status quo. As long as we are conscious that Bayan Ko was a protest song since the American occupation rather than being for or against any person, we could use it without reservations. Indeed, in hindsight, it is right that we sing it again in protest as long as we are fully conscious of how it was created in its original version.