The Philippine National Anthem is “Lupang Hinirang”
Why there are still a lot of Filipinos who mistakenly call the Philippine National Anthem Lupang Hinirang as “Bayang Magiliw”?
From grade school up until college, students have been singing the national anthem. However, it is a sad truth that there are still those who do not memorize the lyrics and some even don’t know the exact title.
Patriotism or love of the country is being promoted in educational institutions but with this simple thing, a lot is already failing.
Just recently, Lupang Hinirang became a trending topic on social media because of Senator Bato dela Rosa’s statement about the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the people who are urging the government to let it investigate the controversial drug war during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.
In his statement, Dela Rosa slammed people who are pro-ICC as for him, they want to surrender the country’s sovereignty. Then, he said that these Filipinos should sing the Philippine national anthem a thousand times but he mentioned the wrong title.
“Bakit naman ganu’n ang pag-iisip natin? I don’t know this kind of Filipinos. Siguro dapat ang mga Pilipino na ito dapat ay pakantahin natin ng 1,000 times ng Bayang Magiliw para matuto silang magmahal ng bansa,” the Senator said.
With this, many netizens slammed him and I think that is just right. It sounded appropriate that he urged these pro-ICC Filipinos to be patriotic and have compassion for the country but he, himself showed a failed display of patriotism.
Students and young kids saying the wrong title of the national anthem can be quite acceptable but a prominent person in society who is vocally expressing his love for the country committing this mistake can be quite shameful.
This problem of misnaming or misinformation about the basic facts about the Philippines can be trivial for some but for me, this goes to show how a person gives importance to the culture of his country.
Then, again, the educational institutions play a major part in this. Before instilling in the minds of young students the information or facts about the country, what they need to learn first is how to love their homeland and develop patriotism.