With the first set of reportings in PA 162 tackling about the different views on citizenship, my original idea on the term has been constantly challenged. In the Philippines, you will be considered a Filipino if you were born and raised in the country or if you have a “Dugong Pinoy”, meaning that at least one of your parents is a Filipino citizen. In short, it is very technical.

But with all those readings that were given to us, reported by my classmates, and discussed by sir, this common idea of citizenship has been challenged in my mind. It now seems that citizenship became more subjective and generally depends on a community or communities wherein an individual feels at home, where he belongs and in this world of globalization, I do not see anything wrong with that. Instead of seeing it as nationalism versus globalization, it is more of nationalism and globalization. I think that they can come together because if you give the people the right amount of freedom, they will be more satisfied and motivated to become productive members of the society, but what made me think twice on my thoughts was after watching those videos regarding human rights plus the class discussion about it. If ever we are that “free” to define our citizenship, then the new challenge would be how to know who will be reliable for different cases that may involve the security and human rights of the people.

-Pic-A, 2019