On this day when the country's most celebrated martyr and hailed national hero Dr. Jose Rizal’s life began, thus declared by the late President Elpidio Quirino as the 'Filipino Youth Day', the youth of the nation are beholden to what Rizal once proclaimed: embodying the hope of the nation. Memento vivere, remember that you must live, for this nation’s hope is upon your shoulders.
June 19 marks the birthday of the de facto national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, forever immortalized by his works especially 'Noli Me Tangere' and 'El Filibusterismo', which were among the most historically significant catalysts of the revolution that ousted Spanish colonization. Among his works, however, it was in 'A la juventud filipina', in which the Filipino youth were proclaimed as 'the hope of the nation'. More than half a century later, it was from this passage from which the 'Filipino Youth Day' was born, declared as such by the late President Elpidio Quirino through Proclamation No. 75.
In Rizal's poem, the original passage reads: 'Alza su tersa frente, Juventud Filipina, en este día!' (Hold high the brow serene, O youth, where now you stand!), 'Luce resplandeciente Tu rica gallardía, Bella esperanza de la Patria Mia!' (Let the bright sheen of your grace be seen, fair hope of my fatherland!).
Even more than a century later, Rizal's visions and aspirations stay loud and clear from various efforts of memorialization throughout the years, brought from the country's freedom to which pursuit he had lent his life for in the hopes of eventually freeing his country.
What hasn’t stayed, however, are the sentiments carried by the generations upon generations that followed as the world changed with the passage of time. In the 21st century, the present the Filipino youth is living in is simultaneously riddled with the continuous hot and cold development of modernity and the subsequent complexities of problems that can only be born in a country now enjoying the future freedom Rizal and countless other heroes martyred for.
While there are already numerous infrastructures in place for nurturing the generations that are regarded as the hope of the nation, they are fraught with so many shortcomings that they directly impact the outlook of the future that supposedly lies in the hands of the Filipino youth.
For one, the youth, or the age bracket that counts as youth today, are free to get their education thanks to public schooling. The catch is that the quality of education relies and subsists on government funding. The result: nothing short of abysmal, given the eternal tug of war for the salary hike of teachers, the literal backbones of the education system, and not to mention the poor ranking of the country in the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) which consistently placed the Philippines around the last 10 of 81 countries in mathematics, science, and reading comprehension.
Rizal, having been an ilustrado, an educated middle class man, would probably be elated at the provision of free education for his countrymen, but err on the conclusion that public schooling is on par in all aspects with the educational institutions in which he spent his decorated university days.
Furthermore, literacy, the building foundation of students' education, is a requirement that the younger generations are currently struggling with. 2022 World Bank data revealed that the country is experiencing at least 90 percent learning poverty, meaning 9 of 10 Filipino youth aged 10 are struggling to read and understand simple texts. While the latter issue hasn't gone entirely unaddressed, the current measures being taken are weak at best, laughable and bleak in outlook at worst. The Department of Education's (DepEd) latest program 'Catch Up Fridays' relies on one crucial piece: once again, its teachers, whose only latest 'assistance' is from 'Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act', which will provide public school teachers an annual teaching allowance of P 10,000 starting from the next school year 2025 - 2026.
Truthfully, Rizal in his early childhood was an outlier for literacy even during his time. The difference now is that the modern world has changed its standards with a shift in basic competencies that would let the youth develop and live in the 21st century, ideally while being equipped with equally appropriate resources. The unshakeable reality is that they are not, and what is barely available can only do so much, given the circumstances today's youth are born into.
In an age where information is readily available and for which an astounding majority of the Philippine population has access to with at least a smartphone, it is not a surprise that an average of 66.7 percent of children across Japan, Bahrain, and the Philippines as young as 10 years old, according to a 2015 survey by the GSM Association (GSMA), already own smartphones as well.
With access to nearly unlimited information but not to equitable resources that could determine the outcome of their youth, the lives of the Filipino youth today aren’t left untouched by brewing societal issues constantly changing the trajectory of their lives. To name a few, this generation's children, adolescents, and young adults are facing either illiteracy, the failures of their educational system, the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with which they might have to wrestle for jobs, job security and the bare rise of the national minimum wage… the youth of this generation are faced with a crossroads of limitless possibilities but limited avenues.
The question is, just as Rizal’s work is parroted whenever he is celebrated, would every commemoration gather dust until the time comes to show them off again? If so, all that Rizal and our forefathers stood for lay tarnished, and this hope that Rizal may have seen in the youth may stay a declaration but not a reflection of the present times. In order for the Filipino youth of today to thrive and bring a brighter tomorrow, all other generations past and future are enjoined in the endeavor of carrying an entire nation, and not just entrust the hopes of its advancement upon the shoulders of those whose lives have been barely lived.
As Rizal’s birthday and the Filipino Youth is celebrated on this day, may the Filipino youth remember: memento vivere, remember that you must live, and heed Rizal’s hopes, but remember that the nation's fate is not a burden that you alone will have to shoulder.
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