Oratorical Piece:We Have Become Untrue to Ourselves! By: Felix B. BautistaWith all the force and vigor at my command, I contend that we have relaxed our vigilance, that we have allowed ourselves to deteriorate. I contend that we have lost our pride in the Philippines, that we no longer consi der it a privilege and an honor to be borna Filipino.To the Filipino youth, noth ing Filipino is good enough anymore. Even their Filipinonames no longer suit the m. A boy named Juanito does not care or unhappy to be calledJuan. No, not Juan, he must be Johnny. A girl named Virginia would get sore if she wasnicknamed Viri ng or Binang. No, she must be Virgie or Ginny. Cristina in the early years,would be so proud to be called Tina or Tinay, but now she has become Cris or Cristy.R oberto has become Robert or Bobbie; Maria, Mary or Marie. Before, Julita is Juli ng butnow its Julie.And because they have become so Americanized, because they l ook down on everythingFilipino, they now regard with contempt all the things tha t our fathers and our fathers fathers held dear. They frown on kissing the hands of their elders, saying that it isunsanitary. They don t care for the Angelus, saying t hat it is old-fashioned. They belittlethe kundiman, because it is so drippingly sentimental.They are what they are today because their elders their parents and th eir teachers haveallowed them to be such. They are incongruities because they cann ot be anything else!And they cannot be anything else because their elders did no t know enough, or did notcare enough to fashion them and to mold them into the F ilipino pattern.This easing of the barriers that would have protected our Filipi nism, this has resulted insomething more serious, much more serious. I refer to the de-Filipinization of our economic life.Let us face it. Economically speaking , we Filipinos have become strangers in our owncountry.And so, today, we are wit nesses to the spectacle of a Philippines inhabited by Filipinoswho do not talk a nd act like Filipinos. We are witnesses to the pathetic sight of aPhilippines co ntrolled and dominated and run by non-Filipinos.We have become untrue to ourselv es, we have become traitors to the brave Filipinos whofought and died so that li berty might live in the Philippines. We have betrayed the trustthat Rizal repose d on us, we are not true to the faith that energized Bonifacio, the faiththat ma de Gregorio del Pilar cheerfully lay down his life at Tirad Pass.Indeed, we have become untrue to ourselves