A quick glance at foreign media’s headlines about the Philippines might paint a bleak picture. “Philippines mentioned!” goes the meme: a nation of natural calamities (why do storm-frequent Taiwan and earthquake-normal Japan suffer less than us?)megapanalo, separatist conflict, and political scandals.

Small wonder that hearing talk about Pinoy pride seems cliché—palliative, escapist, toxic positive.

Interestingly, a lot of recent actual good news related to our country seems to have notably come from women, especially women-athletes: Aside from household name Hidilyn Diaz (girl, you deserve all those sponsorships!), queens like Margielyn Didal continue to win competitions outside of the Olympics all as Islay Bomogao recently clinched world rank No. 1 in women’s Muay Thai.

In the realm of advocacy, there’s also the women duo, Ann and Billie Dumaliang, helming Masungi Georeserve’s sustained efforts (against all odds, even from institutions supposed to protect the nation’s interests) to protect one of Rizal Province’s and arguably the Sierra Madre mountain range’s critical biospheres, a last lung, so to speak, in a nation beset by steady deforestation since the end of the 1800s.

Their efforts have been recognized internationally, listed in Time Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders as Masungi moved *the* Jane Goodall and *the* Greta Thunberg to go on video to call for its continued protection.

But in the sphere of entertainment, one act in particular stands out: Bini. The Nation’s Girl Group. Walo Hanggang Dulo.

Local shows from magazine programs to noontime performances all the way to sold-out concerts have been packed, and the girls are deservedly endorsers of products all and sundry, from shampoo to napkins to detergent and maybe Nike Air Force Ones (#manifesting #collab #LimitedEdition).

And yet, in 2024 alone, they’ve performed on a special live stage in Chinese television, in KCon Los Angeles, in Singapore, and Billboard Korea, and won MTV Europe’s Best Asia Act.

The best part was not just watching the performance videos but hearing people cheer and reading the comments sections: Someone claims they’re popular in Cambodia, another funnily expresses “only recognizing the Spanish words,” and in their song renditions in other languages, many have commented how spot on they sound, with the Indonesians even saying their version of “Born to Win” was “that viral song on TikTok” and how “it’s a good Indonesian song” that needs more local airtime.

It’s not so much that we need international recognition for validation but that, like with our environmentalists and athletes, we are adding value to the world, showing that we’re not just reducible to our tragedies, that we can take our place in the global family with something to offer to the table, from a forested carbon sink in the Sierra Madres to, well, a cherry on top.

And sure, Bini’s not perfect, the girls have been sometimes called out for hiccups here and there. While this is no defense of toxic behavior, it doesn’t hurt too to acknowledge when people learn, when people apologize, and more importantly when they don’t do the thing again, and especially when they actively begin helping the communities they’ve hurt.

We stan queens who exercise their full capacity to learn and grow.

And let’s not forget how these girls started in obscurity and really struggled to reach the heights they’re flying now, even with their agency’s legacy of powerful media mileage.

Can we all agree that the title “Nation’s Girl Group” is no longer simply marketing but something earned?

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In his book of collected Inquirer essays, “The Philippines Is Not A Small Country,” mountaineer and medical anthropologist Gideon Lasco writes about how it’s easy to think of the country in terms of “negative exceptionalism.”

Here, he points out that many of our problems are actually suffered by many democracies. This is not so much a sweeping under the rug as it is a reframing how we look at our nation’s issues in order to not give in to despair: We’re not so much a problematic country as we “a young country,” and this youth, Lasco believes, opens us up to so much potential.

If the Nation’s Girl Group could learn from their mistakes and take their place in the world of entertainmentmegapanalo, what more the nation, learning from its past, taking its place in the world. 

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