The Comfort Rooms

First of, this is not a Tagalog versus Bisaya or Manila versus Cebu thing. No.

I'm just tired of it.

I know the Visayans are just offended by the racist jokes that Tagalogs make. And I'm really sorry for it. But everybody knows that the story does not end there. I traveled from Dumaguete and Cebu down to Agusan del Sur then Davao all the way to Pacquiao's General Santos City for 2 years as a teenage missionary. I have relatives and had househelps that are Ilonggos and I grew up learning conversational Ilonggo. I speak fluent Bisaya as well.

My point is, I am well-versed enough to speak about the Visayans and share some of my thoughts about them.

They are a proud people. The Cebuanos especially, by a hefty mile. The only thing I didn't like is that they tend to be the most regionalistic among all the other ethno-linguistic groups in the country. They can get to the point wherein they would almost always readily compete with the Tagalog. Don't deny this now. It's ok to admit it. They can always say how bad they think Manila is without us reacting but whenever we give even just the slightest hint of a negative comment about Cebu City, they would think you are a racist.

They CAN think that Manila is evil. Have you ever heard of Imperial Manila? The ultra-regionalistic Bisayas would love to refer to Manila as Imperial Manila. It is not out fault why we were chosen as the country's capital. Not our fault why Tagalog and not Bisaya is the national language. Not our fault why Manila is wealthier by a clear mile. Not our fault why SM has gazillions of SMs here compared to Cebu's one. Our success is the nation's success. Our success is their success as well. We think their success is our success as well. Where did bayanihan go?

We Tagalogs never refered to ourselves as Tagalogs. We're just Filipinos. Our thinking encompasses all 7,107 islands and not just to a specific ethnolinguistic group. Living in Cebu for a time kind of made me felt like I was being ganged up by some overzealous regionalists. I know some Tagalogs can be total douches and think of Visayans as second-class citizens. Not everyone is like that. However, it does not even justify an anti-Manila sentiment coming from them. Even a majority of my American friends from the mission are anti-Manila as well!

Tagalogs can't be complete Filipinos without the Visayans and I hope the Visayans feel the same way too. All I'm trying to say is that, I hope Visayans would widen their scope. Only a few nautical miles separate us.