Christianity gave Cebu and most of the Philippine archipelago its unique place in Asia as the continent's only Catholic nation.
Just like our Malaysian and Indonesian brothers, we, Cebuanos or Sugbuanons (we don't know how to call the country and its people other than what the Spaniards named them.), have to carve our niche in a predominantly Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian and Taoist Far East.
We have to make our mark under the long shadow of the Chinese and Hindu people and their great civilizations. For the Malaysians and Indonesians, it is Islam that gave their countries their identities and place in Southeast Asia. For us in Cebu and the rest of the archipelago, it is Christianity.
But it has not been smooth-sailing for us. We have to find our own way out of the mesh created by years of foreign subjugation while remaining true to our Christian faith. It shouldn't be difficult as Christianity had its roots in the Middle East, not in Europe or the Americas.
We have to get our acts together. Lest, we give Christianity a bad name. Many foreigners are asking why are we called the "sick man" of Asia while remaining as the region's only Catholic nation. Christianity unifies us all: rich or poor, native or mestizo, powerful or powerless. Yet, we leave our faiths behind in our day-to-day lives as public servants, government officials, businessmen, ordinary workers, etc.
We have to integrate our faith with our history before our colonization and with who we are as a people now so it doesn't come out as something just forced upon us but a matter of choice, an exercise of our own free will.
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