Lipad Pinoy
Lipad Pinoy is a clarion call to return to and embrace every Filipino’s basic goodness and excellence – from whence shall emerge a collective Filipino consciousness of greatness, a re-imagination of a proud country, of a fully capable people standing shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world.
For too long, we have been led to settle for less or told to accept a mindset of ‘na lang’, and made to believe that we have limited horizons of possibility. Centuries of misrule and constricted leadership mindsets have, despite the workings of a formal democracy, excluded the voices of a vast majority, and have thus failed to tap into our people’s rich reservoirs of potential and native ingenuity.
The Filipino literary great Francisco Balagtas would lament many years ago: ‘sa loob ng bayan kong sawi, kaliluha’y siyang nangyayaring hari ... ang kagaling’at bait ay nalulugami, inilibing sa dusa at pighati. (Inside my suffering country, treachery is king, excellence and goodness are weakened and buried in anguish and misery.) Rizal and our heroes, drawing inspiration from Balagtas, would exhort us to fight for what is right because we have it in us to live out our potential and fully realize our inherent excellence and goodness as a people.
In a world of dizzying change and daunting challenges, we need to reclaim our birthright of hope and dignity – now more than ever. And this calls for the simple reaffirmation of Pinoy pride, all the more so in the face of treachery, struggle and adversity.
The logo of Lipad Pinoy depicts the colorful saranggola of our youth, the kites that represent the lifting of our simple dreams and bigger aspirations for a bright future, the kites of our common potential, the kites of our soaring individual kagalingan at kabutihan. The saranggola represents a common effort to create from simple implements and indigenous resource, and a communal endeavor to give it thrust, boost and momentum.
Lipad Pinoy recaptures and celebrates the time-honored basics of honesty, honor, self-respect, service, community – and serves to strengthen hope and inspiration for every Filipino to take active part in the noble task of building the country of our dreams. Lipad Pinoy will move us to take action. Lipad Pinoy will lead us to take flight.
Lipad Pinoy! Gawin Natin. Kaya Natin.
