“Our country should focus on how we can be free from the real problems we are facing now as a nation and as a race,” Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero said in Bacolod City yesterday.

Escudero, who was guest speaker during the 113th commemoration of the Philippine Independence, said “We may be free from the control of foreign countries but until now we are not free from poverty, problems related to graft and corruption, providing the right benefits, support and assistance to our veterans who have sacrificed their time and strength and curved their own history for our country.”

He said the country is also not free from problems confronting the education sector like the lack of classrooms, teachers, books, table, proper salaries and benefits for teachers who are considered its real heroes.

Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday stressed the need for a more fervent patriotic zeal among Filipinos to rise above petty squabbles and move the country forward.

“The decline in patriotic zeal reflects in weak institutions, uninspired public service, and citizen apathy or pessimism,” said Marañon, who spoke at the celebration of the  country’s 113th Independence  Day  by provincial government at the Capitol Lagoon Park in Bacolod City.

“Today our enemy is not a foreign subjugator or colonizer, it is ourselves,” he said.

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero” yesterday said he is optimistic that the Redistricting Bill of Bacolod City if passed by Congress early, has a big chance of being approved before Congress resumes in 2013.

However, he is not in favor of hastening the passage of the Divorce Bill of the Philippines into law, he said.

Escudero said he has already expressed his support for the redistricting of Bacolod City which is now in the Committee of Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.