What makes Philippine heroes?

I was probably in Grade 3 when I first learned about the Philippines' heroes; the subject was Social Studies. And that's many decades ago.

Now, when the word "hero" is mentioned or written about, the image that comes to mind is either the popular television show, Heroes, or today's much-touted Philippine heroes, the OFW, or Overseas Filipino Worker.

When I was new in Canada, a friend mentioned casually that "Canada does not have heroes like the heroes we have in the Philippines." I asked what he meant, and he said, " the Philippine heroes we have, died fighting for a national cause, while here in Canada, there was no war fought locally and thus, no death, no heroes."

Canadians, of course, fought in foreign wars, namely WW I and II, even sent troops to Korea, and now, in Afghanistan, and had produced thousands of heroes - those men and women who lost and risked their lives fighting for the principles of democracy and humanity.

When I read Dr. Jose Rizal's biography, especially his last days in Dapitan and Fort Santiago, I remember crying. I cried because there was this great man who died so young, all because he believed and wrote/propagated his belief that the Philippines and the Filipinos deserved to be equal with its colonizers, Spain and the Spaniards.

On one hand, if Rizal were alive today, and writing and fighting for a cause such as No to cha cha or Save Manila's Streets from Snatchers, he would probably have remained incognito, since his writings would not attract as much following as in the past, given the tremendous amount of exchange of information via the internet. In short, Rizal will probably be an ordinary blogger, not much clout to talk about.

On the other hand, if Katipunan's Andres Bonifacio were alive today, and organizing unions and mass-based protest groups - marching in EDSA and shouting via the YouTube, he would probably be well known well beyond the confines of Balintawak; he may even be asked to guest in Ellen DeGeneres' or Oprah's shows, like what happened to the singer Charice.

Truly, the power of the written word had been overtaken by the power of video. Newspaper sales plummetted; journalists became anchormen in CNN. Here in Toronto, a once popular Daily provides free copies Monday to Friday as long as you subsribe to their weekend edition.

In the Philippines today, two prominent leaders - political heroes - used to be television heroes, working as broadcasters.