Filipinos have long looked to the West for enlightenment. A casual stroll through our Hekasi (a Filipino shorthand for geography, history, and civics) textbooks takes us to the era of the 'ilustrados.' The gente de razón. The intellectual elite. The Filipino few who, armed with knowledge acquired from Spanish academia, stoked the fires of revolution with ideals of liberty and equality. Yet, as the colonial baton passed from Spain to the United States, our collective gaze pivoted with it. The new titan of tyranny quickly became the object of our aspirations.

https://opinion.inquirer.net/163390/learning-from-the-orient

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