Philippine Speculative Fiction (or Phabulism)

I've been thinking about the nature of local fiction, especially concerning the possibility of a Philippine Science Fiction or Fantasy genre of books. One of the questions is - does anything in it necessarily have to be Pinoy in nature?

Is a Philippine writer obliged to insert aspects of the culture, language, or history into fiction? Is it really, as my friend Dean says, a bit of guilt that spurs us to do so as Philippine writers?

I can't speak for everyone, but I do feel that guilt. I feel that there are few representations of Filipinos in international media, so if I'm writing something that has a chance of hitting the international stage, I'd like some remnant some small sliver of pinoyness to make it as well.

Yes, I am one of those people who was tickled to discover that Johnny Rico, the main character in the Starship Troopers novel, was actually Filipino (we find this out in the last few pages). I love seeing Filipino comic artists sneak in the Philippine flag on a shirt or a Jollibee store in the background of a comic.

On the other hand, if writers from the U.S. can write about far away places and about us in particular, why can't we do the same? Why can't we write about strange alien races located beyond the reach of our solar systems? Why can't we write about magical realms with little basis in our world or history? Why can't we write about world-sweeping disasters that affect everyone on the planet?

We can.

It's just that we tend to stop ourselves from doing so.