The Value System in Our Nation’s History

Menelito P. Mansueto

Colegio de San Juan de Letran

[Excerpts from Mansueto, Menelito. “The Value System in Our Nation’s History,”
Reading 2.4, Chapter 2 in Christopher Ryan Maboloc, Ethics in Contemporary
Philippine Society (Davao City: SMKC PrintShoppe, 2020), 83-97.]

Introduction
We shall explore in this essay the notion of value as lived and experienced in the Philippine
social reality as a sovereign nation. To be able to give life to the understanding of moral value of
the Filipinos, we shall try to locate Filipino social values in the lived and concrete experience of
the Filipino people by retelling the various discourses and controversies from the country’s
historic past taken as a binding narrative of the Filipino collectivity as one sovereign nation. In so
doing, we shall attempt to historicize the moral self of the Filipinos in the quest to understand
the moral value system of the Filipino, after which we shall also try to identify what are the moral
social virtues and social characteristics necessary to be acquired by Filipinos which can aid in
confronting our social obligations in order to become useful and responsible citizens of the
Filipino nation. Since values usually pertains to socially accepted norms, it is used to gauge and
determine the moral capacity of a collective entity, such as, a community, organization, or the
entire Filipino nation. To be able to attain our ideal moral values as a people, we also need to
determine the necessary characteristics that will help us achieve our ideal society.
The philosophic study of value is technically termed as Axiology. Axiology is formally
defined as the scientific study of the nature of value and valuation, and of the kinds of things
which are deemed valuable. Axiology, in its etymological meaning, is derived from the Greek
words axios, which means “worth” and logia, which means “to study.” According to Max Scheler,
who approaches the study of value using the phenomenological lens, the best way to give value
or meaning to something is through an intentional act of love and sacrifice.1 Hence, we shall look
at the love of country and the sacrifices of Filipino men and women in our quest towards nation-

1
In Max Scheler, Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values, trans. by Frings Manfred
S. and Roger L. Funk. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973), pp. 267-268.
building. In this chapter, we shall dwell on the concept of value of the Filipinos and the Filipino
values. In the succeeding discussion below, we shall try to establish the Filipino values on the
aspect of his being-with his community, that means as part of the collectivity of a bigger
community. Hence, the concept of Filipino values is necessarily to be seen with regards his
relation or connectivity with his entire community, being a necessary part of that specific
community. We shall approach value in relation to the concept of ethics, which assess the notions
of rightness and wrongness of both individual and social actions. We shall then identify the
necessary social values that contribute to the social formation of the Filipino character and of the
entire Filipino nation in this attempt of historicizing the social moral values of the Filipinos.

Knowing Who “We” Are

Before we start a discussion on the moral valuation of the Filipinos, it would be great to
begin by tackling the question on Filipino identity. Due to the colonial nature of our people’s
history, the word “Filipino” seemed to appear as a misnomer, at least in the periphery pertaining
to the marginal cultures of the Philippine society, such as, for example, the Bangsamoro peoples
of Muslim Mindanao and the indigenous peoples communities, if not at the center of the
Philippine society, or the national capital region, the great Tagalog regions, and the major cities
in the country. As a matter of fact, according to the multi-awarded Redemptorist missionary, Bro.
Karl M. Gaspar, Ph.D, a respected anthropologist and theologian in Mindanao, the nationally-
cited slogan “Isang Bansa, Isang Diwa” (One Nation, One Spirit)2 would not actually make any real
sense to our ethnic groups and the non-Christian denomination of the Philippine population.3 For
instance, the history of the Bangsamoro and the indigenous peoples of Mindanao are kind of a
struggle towards self-determination and national recognition due to the systemic injustice they
have experienced in the long, long past. The term “Filipino” even sounds foreign to the ethnic
groups as it does not even have a native origin being a name which was decided upon by
conquistadores in honor of the King of Spain. More so, many non-Tagalog speakers would feel
lost at the dominance of the Tagalog in the Filipino language. Non-native Tagalog speakers,
particularly those from the southern part of the Philippines are usually mocked or laughed at for

2
This motto or slogan was adopted by the Marcos government through a presidential decree to
serve as a symbol for national unity amidst political turmoil and division during the Martial Law.
3
The above-mentioned citation of Bro. Karl Gaspar was taken from his Keynote Address during
th
the 8 Social Ethics Society Conference held at Punta Isla Lake Resort, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato. Karl
Gaspar is a multi-awarded writer and an activist during the Martial Law years who championed the
struggle for land rights of the Lumad peoples in Mindanao. He is a recipient of the 31st National Book
Award in Social Sciences for his book “Manobo Dreams in Arakan: A People’s Struggle to Keep Their
Homeland,” together with other prestigious local and national awards.
their imperfect use or accented utterance of the Tagalog. The Tagalogs, however, cannot be at
fault for the eventual developments of their region. It was the Spaniards who decided to
centralize in the Manila. As a matter of fact, many Tagalogs may have claimed that they too have
felt being alienated by this language that now came to be known as “Filipino.” Despite of its
grammar and syntax which is in the Tagalog, the mental space, the emotional universe, and the
relational worldview of the Filipino language is arguably foreign to the traditional Tagalog
language.
On the other hand, it was Rizal’s project to use the word “Filipino” to refer to the natives
and to be used as the national identification of the people, responding to the need of a unifying
construct of a collective national identity. Regardless whether the label originally comes from us
or from the Spaniards, that does not deny the nation a historicity that binds us as one nation.
This question is similar to the one already problematized by Joaquin whether the term “Filipino”
applies also to our pre-Spanish ancestors, in which he responded candidly in the analogy of a
human being, “The person may change from baby to child, and from boy to man, but through all
these changes he will remain this person and cannot be another.”4 Likewise, in matters of
religious identity, many non-Christians would be at loss in the predominance of the Christian
culture and religion. For example, the unofficial declaration of the recipe Adobo or Lechon as a
Filipino dish undermines the Islamic cultural practices and tradition. True enough there is a lack
of sensitivity of most Filipinos to the plight of our ethnic and religious minorities, as evident in
our education system, which is also predominantly Catholic, and in our laws and statutes which
are also largely Christian. It is in this sense that our ethnic minorities and those at the periphery
of the Philippine society have felt excluded from the national identification as Filipinos. There is
an undeniable diversity of the Philippine cultures and their social realities beginning from the
pre-Hispanic, precolonial period, until the age of colonization, neocolonialism, neoliberalism and
globalization, however, despite these odd circumstances, the Filipino as a national identification
had continually served through the century as a unifying label that represents every single sector
of the entire Philippine archipelago.5
Filipino citizenship is very different from Filipino identity. Many Filipino immigrants and
foreigners identified themselves as Filipino without necessarily being Filipino citizens.6 Obviously,
we cannot deprive Filipino immigrants who are no longer Filipino citizens of the national
identification that they so desired. Being a Filipino remained at the very core of their being. In
the opposite vein, there can be foreigners who have been naturalized as Filipino citizens without
necessarily being able to speak fluently any Filipino language at the least. Or, if not for a
citizenship, at least aspires to become a Filipino in its cultural aspect to a certain extent “by

4
See Nick Joaquin, “Culture as History,” in Culture and History. (Mandaluyong City: Anvil
Publishing, Inc, 2004)., pp. 19-21.
5
It would be very much interesting to look back on Rizal’s prophetic essay, “The Philippines a
Century Hence” in which he foretells the fate of the Filipino nation a century after.
6
See Eulalio R. Guieb III, “God and Canada: Negotiations of Selfhood and a Sense of Home and
Hope,” in Philippine Humanities Review, vol. 13, no. 2, 2011, 30-74.
heart,” like the case of Kyle Jennermann, who took his Filipinized name “Kulas,” a popular
Canadian vlogger behind the social media blog, “#BecomingFilipino.”7 Naturalization to become
a Filipino citizen, for those who are not born in the Philippines nor born from Filipino parents,
only takes the applicant to have reached the mature age of 21, must have a continuous residence
in the Philippines for at least ten (10) years, and the capability to read or speak Spanish, and/or
English, if not any of the Filipino dialect/languages.8 No doubt that in this regard one can claim
of a Filipino identity, or of having Filipino roots, without necessarily acquiring the Filipino
citizenship. At the root of this claim of that much adored Filipino identity is the socially imbibed
cultural and moral values of the Filipinos that has been passed on through the ages from
generation to generation. Or have been passed on to other cultures through migration and
interactions. Technically, by definition, the Filipino refers to the natural-born citizens of the
Philippines. However, speaking of Filipino values, which will be our focus in this chapter, we do
not necessarily have to strictly limit our definition to the natural-born Filipinos alone, as human
values can be passed on or could influence various other cultures that the Filipino interacts with
all around the world. Also, due to the above reasons, we shall look at the moral valuation of the
Filipinos from two different aspects and perspectives: firstly, we shall tackle the unique
perspectives from the indigenous peoples whose cultures we can consider as pure and pristine;9
and secondly, from the perspectives of the general population of Filipinos who are historically a
product of colonization and Westernization. Unarguably, Filipinization is a continuing social
construct formation. As the late National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin humorously puts it,
“The identity of a Filipino today is of a person asking what is his [her] identity.”10

7
In 2019, Kyle Jennermann was tapped by the Philippine Tourism Promotions Board to be a PH
national tourism ambassador. He gave a very inspiring talk in TEDx organized by the University of San
Carlos sharing his cultural experiences in the Philippines. See story in ABS-CBN News, “Canadian vlogger
tapped as PH tourism ambassador,” August 07, 2019.
8
For full qualification requirements kindly refer to section 2 and 3 of Commonwealth Act No.
473, also known as “Revised Naturalization Law.”
9
As much as possible, we have tried to minimize here, if not totally avoided or eradicated, the
use of the terms: “tribes,” “natives,” “indigenous” and “aborigines,” as these terms are derogatory
labels often used by Westerners to describe the local ethnicities. Ethnic minorities or ethnic groups are
preferred to be used in lieu of the discriminating labels. It is so unfortunate that derogatory labels were
often used by colonizers to help justify their colonial occupation and imperialistic agenda.
10
See Nick Joaquin, Culture and History: Occasional Notes on the Process of Philippine Becoming.
(Manila: Solar Publication, 1988), as cited in Josen Masangkay Diaz, ““We Were War Surplus, too”: Nick
Joaquin and the Impossibilities of Filipino Historical Becoming,” Kritika Kultura 24, -034, 2015, p. 5.
De-ethicizing the Philippine Indigenous Cultures and their Worldviews11
Generally, indigenous Filipinos are nature-oriented people. Even up to this day, we would
rather attract tourists with natural attractions, such as, the Banaue Rice Terraces, the Chocolate
Hills, man-made forests, the underground rivers and caves, the pristine white beaches, more than
to museums and old stone structures and ruins. Having located at the tropical part of the globe,
early Filipino ethnic civilizations were founded near lakes, rivers and seas, or in the shades of
mountains, hills, and forests.12 As a matter of fact, the Ifugao ethnic group of the Cordillera
Region practiced a topless, half-naked attire attuned to the tropical climate using only a loincloth
or G-string, locally known as “bahag,” in which men and women expose their bare chest or breast
while free of any malice. The women’s breast for them is a natural symbol for nourishment, to
which the entire community, especially as children, depends solely on the breast for nourishment
and survival, in the absence of a commercialized formula milk. The precolonial Ifugao have a
simplistic, purely naturalistic understanding of sexuality attuned to human fertility, and devoid
of any romanticized or eroticized connotation. The male members of the community believed
that seeing a woman’s genitalia is a fatal disgrace as one cannot possibly glance at to where one
came from at birth, a kind of deep reverence or sort of respect to nature and the divine.13 For
instance, in the event of an ethnic war, they believed that such act of disrespect to nature can
cause them to defeat or befall in the battle. In this case rather, it is simply a matter of an individual
or personal self-discipline by their men to avoid eye-contact with or staring at the women’s
private parts.

11
I borrowed the term “de-ethicizing” from Hasan Ünder, a Turkish moral educator, the term
which for him implies the loosening of the grip from the strict bounds and the narrow confines and
restrictions of the ethical practice. See Hasan Ünder, “Deethicization of Life and Restricting the Moral
Education to a Necessary and Practicable Minimum,” in Forum Pedagogiczne, vol. 2, no. 1, 2016.
12
An archaeological study by F. Landa Jocano suggests that our early ancestors of Philippine
prehistory have thrive near bodies of water, along river banks and coast lines, having agricultural
activities, together with fishing and hunting animals in the wild, as suggestive from the evidence of the
artifacts used as tools and their materials, such as cutting of river pebbles and using clay for pottery. See
F. Landa Jocano, “The Beginnings of Filipino Society and Culture,” in Philippine Studies, vol. 15, no.1,
1967, p. 28-29, 9-40.
13
This narrative was obtained from an interview of Bontoc, Cordillera local folks conducted by
Carla Samantha P. Ocampo in her documentary film, “Walang Rape sa Bontok” (No Rape in
Bontoc/Bontoc, Rapeless), the film have won the prestigious Gawad Urian for Best Documentary in
2015. See Carla Ocampo in TEDx Talks, “What if there was no concept of rape?” | TEDxADMU, in
YouTube, March 6, 2019.
 (Illustration 1. The iconic Kalinga tattoo artist Whang-Od in the mountains of
Cordillera. Photo courtesy of Pinterest.)
The Italian political thinker and historian Giambattista Vico gave us a conceptual model
of history which is upward spiral progression.14 Thus, when history repeats, it is something of a
different kind, could be something higher. Vico, however, acknowledges that downward spiral
regressions in history also occurs at certain intervals.15 The common arrogant perception that we
are certainly better than our ancestors become highly problematic. For instance, Nick Joaquin in
Culture and History argues using the lens of Marshall McLuhan’s “The medium is the message”
attacking those claims that we are better off without the colonizers. For Joaquin, the tools and
technologies that were introduced to us by the Spaniards significantly enhanced our culture that
had brought us to what we have become. Joaquin writes, “We are being shaped by the tools we
shape; and culture is the way of life being impressed on a community by its technics.”16 Similarly,
as in McLuhan, the message is shaped by its medium.17 Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil echoes Joaquin
in claiming that “It was the people of our archipelago who discovered Magellan and the
Europeans in 1521, not the other way around, as most Filipinos were taught by our grade school
textbooks.”18 However, in the moral aspect, the irony lies in the half-naked culture in Bontoc,
where it appears that their men are more civil and disciplined when it comes to the proper

14
Giambattista Vico, The New Science of Giambattista Vico, translated with an introduction by
Thomas Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch. New York: Anchor Books, 1961, pp. 369-374.
15
Vico proposed a cyclical notion of history characterized by a series of corso and ricorso.
According to Vico, a historical development of a people may experience its towering heights (curso)
followed by a return (ricurso) to its most primitive stage, and then continues again to a recurring cycle.
See Giambattista Vico, The New Science of Giambattista Vico, translated with an introduction by Thomas
Goddard Bergin and Max Harold Fisch. New York: Anchor Books, 1961, pp. 369-374.
16
Nick Joaquin, “Culture as History” in Culture and History. Mandaluyong: Anvil Publishing, 2014,
3.
17
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. (London and New York:
Routledge, 2005), pp. 7-9.
18
Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, Heroes and Villains. (Makati: Cruz Publishing, 2011), p. 6.
treatment of the women. Though, in the Western perception they can be charged with issues of
immodesty or indecency for the exposure of their chests and breasts, but it is even believed that
in this particular ethnic group in Bontoc, there never was any case of rape, and such term or word
does not even occur in their vocabulary or thoughts, for having no local counterpart, nor any
close or specific translation of such term in their native dialect.19 Rape cases were nonexistent,
not until lowlanders began penetrating the uplands. Lowlanders, such as, military men are usually
the culprit. The Ifugao is part of the larger collective ethnic group known as the Igorot. The
National Artist for Film Eric de Guia, popularly known as Kidlat Tahimik, a multi-awarded
filmmaker who himself is an Igorot, have argued that the “bahag,” as a customary attire of the
ethnic minorities, is believed to have acquired a status of a dignified costume of most Filipino
ethnic cultures.20 He argues further that it is only a matter of perception, background or
upbringing that we cast a degrading connotation on the “bahag” as a decadent, “barbaric” or
“savage” costume. The Christian colonizers’ biases play a huge part in this derogatory perception.
Kidlat Tahimik opines that the American suit or Tuxedo also appears comic, if not ridiculous, when
worn in tropical places in the Philippines. It would then be so much unfair for our ethnic minority
groups if we are going to assess their culture and practices using our conservative colonial
outlook or Western mindset, such as, for instance, charging them for immodesty or misbehavior
for not wearing the appropriate “decent” clothes or attire. McLuhan is said to have been largely
influenced by Vico, among other theorists who demonstrate an affinity to the dialectic pattern
or spiral structure, such as Hegel, Marx, and Fichte.21
More so, ethnic knowledge and folk wisdom is also prone to being undermined. In
agriculture, for instance, the ethnic knowledge of native farming tends to be discarded in the
preference of modern techniques and commercialized method through the introduction of
foreign grains and chemicals, such as, commercialized fertilizers which resulted, for example, to
the neglect of the long-treasured native variations of rice. The ethnic minorities’ attunement and
attachment with nature, particularly, their deep respect and worship to the forests, mountains,
and farmlands, is often unrecognized and devalued by businessmen and mining companies,
disregarding how important the ancestral lands are and the natural environment to the lives of

19
Carla P. Ocampo is a self-confessed rape victim and upon encountering an ethnographic study
by June Prill-Brett, Ph.D., an anthropologist and professor of U.P. Baguio, she decided to conduct her
own investigation through a documentary film. Prill-Brett have emphasized in her work the people of
Bontok (an Ifugao word for mountains) who had lived for centuries having no concept, word, nor
instances of rape in their communities. See June Prill-Brett, “Gender Relations and Gender Issues on
Resource Management in the Central Cordillera, Northern Philippines,” in Review of Women’s Studies,
no. 14, vol. 1, 2004, pp. 1-29.
20
Kidlat Tahimik’s viewpoints were expressed in a recorded interview with Rappler’s Nikki Luna.
See Rappler.com, “#ShareBaguio: Kidlat Tahimik: Hitting the Cultural Brakes,” December 19, 2014. See
also Rappler, “#ShareBaguio: Kidlat Tahimik on why he wears a bahag,” in YouTube, uploaded December
30, 2014.
21
See Izabella Pruska Oldenhof and Robert K. Logan, “The Spiral Structure of Marshall
McLuhan’s Thinking,” Philosophies, vol. 2, no. 2, 2017, pp. 3-6.
the native folks. Ethnic wisdom is what Professor Noel Adala Genilla have referred to as
“archetypal tacit knowledge,” which for example in farming refers to “the pragmatic, practical,
sometimes irrational but tested-by-time procedures employed by the farmers.”22 Such disparity
or bias of information, in contrast to the so-called “scientific” findings, had resulted instead into
the peril and displacement of our natives and ethnic minorities through the continuous land-
grabbing and exploitation of their ancestral lands in favor of the corporate interests and
capitalistic gains.
In terms of their socio-political existence, the Filipino ethnic groups are mostly communal
and territorial, except the Badjao of southern Mindanao who are known for being sea nomads or
gypsies having no permanent location in the marine biodiversity, partly due also to the nature of
their livelihood which is fishing and aquaculture. Farming ethnic groups, such as, the Lumads of
Mindanao and the Ifugao of the Cordilleras are highly territorial.23 The earth and the sky are
highly connected to their mental, social, spiritual, and economic life.24 The task of hunting for
food are usually assigned to the men. Women are usually assigned to the task of planting the
rice, as it is believed that fertility is a gift to the woman. It should be noted that there is no tinge
of patriarchy in the pre-Hispanic precolonial times.25 It is important to bear in mind that
“feminism” is another Western concept. Our ethnic minorities simply assigned their tasks based
on the biological capability of both genders without necessarily having an intention to
discriminate the other sex. In fact, it can even be argued that the pre-Hispanic civilization was
more matriarchal than patriarchal for the very reason that there were no existing cultural
practices which can be considered as derogatory to the women, such as, the imposed lotus feet
to Chinese women.26 Likewise, in India, women are not even allowed to express pleasure during
the sexual intercourse. Indian women are normally forbidden to moan during sexual contact as
it is believed to be a gesture of dominance against the man.27 In the Philippines, to the contrary,

22
Noel Adala Genilla, “Tacit Knowledge in Farming,” in Compendium of Abstract, 9th Social Ethics
Society Conference held at the Sacred Heart Spirituality and Formation Center in Seminary Drive,
Catalunan Grande, Davao City on October 28-29, 2019.
23
For a more comprehensive and extensive account of the Philippine ethnic cultures, kindly see
Jose Mencio Molintas, “The Philippine Indigenous Peoples’ Struggle for Land and Life: Challenging Legal
Texts,” in Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, vol. 21, no. 1, 2004, pp. 271-73.
24
See also Karl M. Gaspar, CSsR, Panagkutay: Anthropology & Theology Interfacing in Mindanao
Uplands (The Lumad Homeland), Quezon City: Institute of Spirituality in Asia (ISA), 2017, pp. 189-90.
25
See June Prill-Brett, “Gender Relations and Gender Issues on Resource Management in the
Central Cordillera, Northern Philippines,” in Review of Women’s Studies, no. 14, vol. 1, 2004, p. 4.
26
This assertion is quite bold and daring, especially as there are lots of recent studies that would
show the contrary. However, our focus in this juncture is to show the characteristics of our precolonial
cultures. Studies which reveals the oppression of women are mainly due to the introduction of
dominant Western cultures that are often associated with colonial, imperialistic and capitalistic agendas.
For a much-detailed exposé, see Mylene D. Hega, et.al., “Feminism and the Women’s Movement in the
Philippines: Struggles, Advances, and Challenges” (Manila: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2017), pp. 1-2.
27
See Priya Alika Elias, “Why women should keep talking about their sexual desires,” in Panache
Magazine, July 17, 2018.
there is an existing tradition of “tugrok,” for example, which is an ornament for the male genitalia
to be worn by the man to intensify pleasure for the woman who is usually his blessed and
legitimate partner.28 In most ethnic groups in the Philippines, the women have the huge influence
on their men, even in the Islamic communities of southern Mindanao, such as, the mothers’
natural influence on their sons.29 No doubt that Filipinos are motherly-oriented to a greater
extent.30 An interesting case, however, are the women of the Bontoc ethnic group, who have the
natural capability to stop ethnic wars and conflict, as they possess the unique capacity to drive
out the evil wills by exposing their female genitalia to the fighting men. The men would
immediately retract and cease from the fighting upon the sight of the women believing it would
endanger their very own lives and the whole community, sort of a bad “sign” or omen to them.31
Their men have such a sacred, inviolable, divine and natural respect and deep reverence for the
women, as well as with the mother nature. In short, the Filipino ethnic women have the natural
ability to control or influence their men. The tattooing practice of Kalinga, on another vein, are
symbols of bravery and strength. These tattoos are not gained easily as these are rewards for
acts of courage, and to be obtained only thru an official tattooist (mambabatok). Kalinga women
too are awarded and not exempted from this cultural pride of tattooing. This matriarchal aspect
of Philippine ethnic societies can also be reflected in our usage of the language, for example,
referring to mother nature (inang kalikasan) or motherland (inang bayan), in contrast to the
Western rendition which is “fatherland.” The babaylan, who are mostly women, were “not
subservient to the datu,” but both have instead “worked together on important social
activities.”32
The communal nature of our pre-Hispanic ethnic groups can be manifested in the practice
of cooperative labor specific to their own ethnic communities. For instance, the smallest political
division in the Philippines which is the “barangay” is derived from the term “balanghai” which

28
Tudruk, tugruk, or tugbuk (referring to penis pins), and sakra (penis ring), these are terms
from the pre-Hispanic Cebuano, sometimes referred to as tumbok among the Tagalogs. This is believed
to be a precolonial practice, particularly among the Cebuanos, which was eventually prohibited by the
Spanish missionaries describing it as evil and improper, as written in the accounts of Antonio Pigafetta
and Fray Juan de Plasencia.
29
See, for example, Liane Peña Alampay and Rosanne M. Jocson, “Attributions and Attitudes of
Mothers and Fathers in the Philippines,” Parenting: Science and Practice, vol. 11 (2-3), pp. 163-176.
30
See also Liane Peña Alampay, “Parenting in the Philippines,” in Helaine Selin and P.
Schvanevelt (eds.), Parenting Across Cultures: Childrearing, Motherhood and Fatherhood in Non-Western
Cultures. (The Netherlands: Springer, 2014), p. 116.
31
As narrated by Ifugao locals in an interview by Carla Ocampo in her documentary film, Bontoc,
Rapeless. See also Carla Ocampo in TEDx Talks, “What if there was no concept of rape?” | TEDxADMU, in
YouTube, March 6, 2019.
32
See Mylene D. Hega, Veronica C. Alporha, and Meggan S. Evangelista, Feminism and the
Women’s Movement in the Philippines: Struggles, Advances, and Challenges. Manila: Friedrich-Ebert-
Stiftung, 2017, p. 1.
refers to the precolonial wooden boat.33 To build the balanghai requires a team of craftsmen to
engineer and design the boat. To sail a balanghai also requires a collaborative teamwork among
its crew, as well as a captain to lead the navigating team.34 The balanghai is often used in fishing
expedition, among other transport usage. The bountiful catch of fish is usually distributed evenly
and unselfishly to the entire village as villagers wait and help to embark their catch ashore. A
modern example of a collaborative fishing technique employed by local fishermen is the use of
seine net in the seine-haul method, wherein two or more boats and a group of divers scare away
the school of fish to bait for the net entrapment. In the same vein, the “bayanihan” (heroism) is
another lucrative symbol of Filipino communities which emphasized hard work, social unity, and
cooperation. The traditional bayanihan refers to the old practice of relocation wherein the whole
house, typically a Nipa Hut (bahay kubo), is literally to be carried by men and women on their
shoulders using bamboo poles. Christopher Ryan Maboloc opines that bayanihan is primarily
rooted from the concept of “bayan” (nation/nationhood). Thus, the “bayani” (hero) in the
bayanihan necessarily pertains to the “selfless service” to the Filipino nation.35 Similarly, the late
Doctor Romulo G. Bautista envisioned a kind of empowerment and development at the
grassroots level using the concept of “bayanihan” in what he termed as “bayanikrasya,” a
democracy of and for the common Filipino people.36 Likewise, Tomas Andres describes the
bayanihan as an “act of reaching out” to the people, seeing and understanding their
vulnerabilities, so as they can develop to their potentials, and helping them to become useful
members of the Filipino nation.37
Our ethnic minorities in the long past have already sown the seeds of Filipino greatness
through their unique wisdom and tradition. The hanging coffins in Sagada in the Cordillera
mountains, for example, is a reminder of the wonderful spirituality of our precolonial ancestors.
Particularly in their practice of mummification in the burying of their dead. Death is understood
as a simple journey towards another world. Thus, they hang their dead in the mountain cliffs
since they believed that the mountains are the temples of the divine. As a matter of fact, the
entire culture of the Ifugao is embedded in their spiritual belief of the deities – from the planting
and the cultivation of rice, to the irrigation of the rice field, from conflict resolution to

33
See Wilfredo P. Ronquillo, “The Butuan Archaeological Finds: Profound Implications for
Philippines and Southeast Asian Prehistory,” in Man and Culture in Oceania, vol. 3, Special Issue 1987,
pp. 71-78.
34
See also William Henry Scott, “Boat Building and Seamanship in Classic Philippine Society,”
Anthropological Paper No. 9, (Manila: National Museum, 1981).
35
See Christopher Ryan Maboloc, “Doing philosophy in the margins of PH society,” Inquirer.net,
August 23, 2016.
36
See Romulo G. Bautista, “Instituting Grassroots Moral Leadership as Alternative to Elite
Political Leadership in Democracy” in Philippine Democracy Online, July 01, 2012. See also Romulo G.
Bautista, “Bayanikrasya: A Grassroots Democracy for Small Filipinos,” Conference Handbook, Plenary
Lecture, 31st PHAVISMINDA Annual Conference, Tubod Flowing Water Resort, Minglanilla, Cebu, May
24-26, 2008.
37
Tomas Andres, Positive Filipino Values. (Makati City: St. Paul’s Publishers, 1986), p. 44.
punishments, from birth to marriage and burial.38 In the Ifugao belief, the mountain peak of
Sagada is closer to Kabunian, that is, the place of the deities, or the Skyworld.39
The mummifying practice of the Cordilleran highlands were indeed very excellent at par
with no other culture around the world. Their mummification practice has amazingly managed
to keep their traditional tattoos, which are their symbol of pride, beauty and courage, wholly
intact to a great extent for a longer time period, so that in some sense they can still be complete
when they meet their Creator. Unlike the hidden tombs of the Egyptians which are placed in the
caves or under the pyramids, the hanging coffins of Sagada are exposed to a hostile environment,
such as heavy rains or the scorching heat of the sun. This could imply that our Igorot ancestors
were able to develop a highly sophisticated way of embalming the dead, even far superior than
the Egyptians. It would then really be a very wrong presumption to consider oneself as superior
when compared to our native ancestors, our continuing survival as a human species is a concrete
manifestation of their excellent abilities necessary for the survival of the subsistent life.
Obviously, had they been not that so good, we could not also be here right where we are.

The Colonial Dilemma

As have been established above, our pre-Hispanic ancestors have a civilization
comparable to the great civilizations of the East and the West. As a matter of fact, our precolonial
cultures and communities also have their own small and unique political structure, known as the
barangay, usually led by a village chief, such as, a datu or a rajah.40 Hence, it is not true that they
are “savage” or “barbaric,” as accused by our colonizers considering that they already have an
organizing system of leadership. It is also not true that our ancestors were “illiterate,” it is just
that we were using a different set of alphabets, which is the Baybayin. Again, they have used
these derogatory labels as a justification of their own political interests and economic agenda.
While it is true that there were distinct social classes in pre-Hispanic Philippines, it is not
comparable to the caste system that is practiced in India wherein the stratification is permanent.
In the Philippine set up, the slave (alipin) can have a chance to be liberated as a
commoner/freeman (timagua), or even as a nobility (maharlika), through marriage, for
example.41 Even the concept of datu or rajah does not exactly correspond to the kings and
emperors of other cultures. An interesting observation, according to W. H. Scott, for example, is
that the precolonial slave often ate “from the same rice bowl,” and “worked side by side” with

38
For a rich narrative of the Ifugao culture particularly on the aspect of spirituality, see Francis
Lambrecht, “The Missionary as Anthropologist: Religious Belief Among the Ifugao,” in Philippine Studies,
vol.5, no. 3, 1957, pp. 271-286.
39
Ibid.
40
See Teodoro A. Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People, 8th ed., (Quezon City: GAROTECH
Publishing, 1990), p. 35.
41
William Henry Scott, Slavery in the Spanish Philippines. (Manila: De la Salle University Press,
1991), 34-52.
his master.42 Also, the term “slave,” as understood in the West, does not even come close as the
translation of the alipin since in the Philippine precolonial context, the master (datu) and the
slave (alipin) were often “of the same race and language.”43 The slavery in the precolonial
Philippines is often a rectifying consequence of misconduct or the inability to pay debts, and not
necessarily an opponent which is to be held as captive (as in the colonizers’ sense). And that the
masters may set the slaves humanely free “as an act of charity” or in the event of fulfillment of
obligation or debt. The term “debtor,” “dependent,” “serf,” or “bondsmen” are suggested in lieu
of slaves. The alipin may take two forms: aliping sagigilid (stay-out servant) and aliping
namamahay (stay-in servant).44
The eventual fate of the Filipinos is that we have been colonized by the Spaniards for
about three centuries, for about 50 years by the Americans, and a period of nightmare of military
occupation by the Japanese. Carmen Guerrero Nakpil describes it as, “300 years in a convent and
50 years in Hollywood.”45 The Philippines is often described as the melting pot of cultures, where
East and West meet. This have made the Filipinos become adaptive to various languages, while
being resilient and hospitable to different cultures. However, the colonization process was not
that easy, and it was neither easy for the colonizers. The Filipinos fought the colonizers with all
their might. The Spanish colonizers met a subtle but spontaneous resistance. Three Filipino
priests – the GomBurZa – were executed by strangling in the garrote, the Spanish method of
torture and punishment. The Filipinos of today, as Constantino puts it, “are the survivors of that
race which suffered the brutalization of the Spaniards, the ‘extermination campaigns’ of the
American troops during the Filipino-American war, and the mass executions of the Japanese.”46
What could be the proof that the Spanish colonization has brought something good for the
Filipinos? The very strong answer is – Rizal’s brilliant mind himself which was a product of the
Spanish education. Why does Rizal and Bonifacio could not agree on each other with regards how
to fight the Spaniards? The impulsive Bonifacio wanted to take up arms, while Rizal wanted to
educate the Filipino masses. Rizal believed that education is the best tool and weapon against
the Spaniards.47 Bonifacio, on the other hand, wanted liberation from Spain at all cost. Rizal, at
this point, was accused of desiring assimilation from Spain, for rejecting the idea of liberation
through a bloody revolution. Could the desire for assimilation the real intention why Rizal kept
on referring to Philippine natives as “Filipinos,” a term which originally referred to the Spaniards

42
See Peter Borschberg, a Review of Slavery in the Spanish Philippines, by William Henry Scott,
in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 27, no. 2, 1996, 440-41.
43
Borschberg, 1996, p.441.
44
William Henry Scott, Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine Culture and Society. (Ateneo de
Manila University Press, 1994), 133-39.
45
See Gemma Cruz Araneta, “In her own words,” in Landscape, Manila Bulletin, August 30,
2018.
46
Renato Constantino, The Filipinos in the Philippines and Other Essays. Quezon City: Malaya
Books, 1966, p. 1.
47
See Rolando M. Gripaldo, “Rizal’s Philosophy of Nonviolence,” in Filipino Philosophy:
Traditional Approach, Part I, Section 1. Quezon City: C & E Publishing, Inc., 2009, p. 8.
whom were born in the Philippines, and was eventually adapted to refer to the Indios48 and the
entire population and inhabitants of the Philippine Islands?49 It is highly controversial whether
the Americans have intervened in choosing him as our foremost national hero. Accordingly, Rizal
was a Mama’s boy, as well as a playboy lover. In due fairness, he sired a child to only one among
his many women, only to Josephine Bracken, his ultimate and last love besides Filipinas. And he
loved them one by one at a time, never at the same time, except with one, his motherland, whom
he treasured dearly all the time. Similarly, while Bonifacio and Aguinaldo both wanted a
revolution, why do they cannot join force together till the end? Bonifacio wanted an armed
rebellion against Spain, while Aguinaldo wanted diplomacy. Was Aguinaldo’s command really the
culprit behind Antonio Luna’s death? Luna was considered the fiercest among the Filipino
generals in the revolution. As it was known, the Philippine revolution was filled with
controversies, contradictions, deceits, and betrayals. Our national heroes though magnificently
brave were also not perfect as human beings. But the sacrifice they have poured to this nation
have brought to us a sovereignty without equal. In the same way that with our ordinariness as
citizens, we can also do great things for the country.
According to Virgilio Enriquez, the acknowledged founder of the academic movement
“Sikolohiyang Pilipino” (Filipino Psychology), the Filipino consciousness is attuned to
“pakikipagkapwa,” which means that the Filipino being sees oneself in the being of another. We
could say, for example, that our heroes and revolutionaries stood up bravely to defend their
fellowmen against the colonizers because they themselves have felt the suffering that our
fellowmen have obtained from the colonizers. In short, they were capable to feel empathy to
understand the suffering of others as their own, and that they can also project the suffering and
the difficulties of oneself to their own fellowmen, their fellow Filipinos, their “kapwa” (kapwa-
tao, fellowman, in the relational sense; or kapwa-nilalang, fellow-creature, in the religious
sense).50 This may be compared to the “I-Thou” relational concept in Continental Philosophy.
Thus, our ethnic minorities learned to respect each other and their women and children through
all the ages because they see one another as a “kapwa” (one’s inner self in the other person).51
Fr. Dionisio Miranda, SVD could have agreed and have said the same thing through his concept
of “buti” (good) and “loob” (self), which literally translates to inner or inside, but can be
understood as the relational good will deep within the inner core of the person (kalooban).52 The

48
The derogatory label used by the Spanish friars referring to the native Filipinos.
49
See Tomas D. Andres, Positive Filipino Values, (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1999), pp. 3-
4.
50
See Leonardo N. Mercado, Explorations in Filipino Philosophy. (Manila: Logos Publications,
Inc., 2009), p. 121.
51
Virgilio G. Enriquez, From Colonial to Liberation Psychology: The Philippine Experience.
(Quezon City: UP Press, 2016), pp.49-54.
52
See Dionisio M. Miranda, SVD, Buting Pinoy: Probe Essays on Value as Filipino. (Manila: Logos
Publications, 2001), pp. 42 & 159. See also Dionisio M. Miranda, SVD, Loob, The Filipino Within: A
Preliminary Investigation into a Pre-theological Moral Anthropology. (Manila: Logos Publications, Inc.,
1988), pp. 33-45.
life of sacrifice for the nation of our revolutionary heroes can be taken as an offering of generosity
through their benevolent acts streaming from their inner goodness towards others – “kabutihan
at kagandahang loob.” Fr. Leonardo N. Mercado, SVD, attempts a translation in the vernacular
Cebuano of the concept “loob” as “buot” (will), hence the words “buotan” (good willed and nice
fellow), or “kabubut-on” (free will), “pagbuot” (decision), and “walay buot” (not good or
immature person). When referring to material things and objects, by contrast, the term “maayo”
(worthy of good) is used, hence the words “kaayo” (goodness), “kaayuhan” (goods, goodies), and
“walay ayo” (nada, worthless). Mercado also translates the concept of “loob” in the Ilokano as
“nakem.”53 Mercado extends the concept of loob to the social dimension of his being in the
concept of “sakop.”54 Sakop, for Mercado, and as for Miranda, pertains to the “being-with-
others” of loob (self), his being with his core group.55 Through the concepts of kapwa, buti, and
loob, we locate the value of others in oneself, and the value of oneself in the other. The concept
of sakop affirms the collectivity of the Filipino as one nation bonded with one and the same
history as one people, one Filipino race. We are a nation of kapwa, akin to Immanuel Kant’s “the
kingdom of ends.” Thus, the Aeta, the Mangyan, the Igorot, the Lumad, the Muslim, the Christian,
the Tagalog, the Bikolano, the Ilokano, the Cebuano, the Mindanawon, among other minorities
and ethnicities of the different regions, each one of them has the image of kapwa embedded in
their beings, comprising as one and common inhabitants of the Philippines. We are essentially
one by virtue of blood and history. The Filipino kapwa is both family or group-oriented, and
nationally oriented through the history of the Filipino race.
When the Americans occupied and ruled the Philippines with their military force
beginning in 1901 onwards, they have altered the lives of Filipinos on a huge scale towards the
American way of living. Aside from turning us into consumers of the American goods and
products, and as producers of the raw materials and crops that their own country abroad needed,
the Americans also introduced national reforms that seem to appear as advantageous to the
Filipinos, their so-called “benevolent assimilation.”56 One among these reforms is the
establishment of American schools, all over the country, particularly in the capital city of
Manila.57 These schools are responsible, above all, for the teaching of the English language to the
Filipinos. At first, it was the American soldiers who served as the teachers. Later, a wave of
scholars, such as American historians and writers, are brought to the Philippines. These scholars
wrote Philippine history according to their perspective as colonizers and victors, and what they

53
See Leonardo N. Mercado, Essays on Filipino Philosophy. (Manila: Logos Publications, Inc.,
2005), pp. 37-39.
54
Leonardo N. Mercado, Elements of Filipino Theology. (Tacloban City: Divine Word University
Publications, 1975), pp. 54-59.
55
Dionisio M. Miranda, SVD, Loob, The Filipino Within: A Preliminary Investigation into a Pre-
theological Moral Anthropology, pp. 85-86.
56
See Cristina Evangelista Torres, The Americanization of Manila 1898-1921. (Quezon City: The
University of the Philippines Press, 2010), pp. 7 & 29.
57
For a complete account of the educational system under the American government, see
Torres, 2010, pp. 136-166.
want the world will know about them. Then, finally, they sponsored the scholarships of Filipinos
by bringing them to America, and to return to the Philippines to teach the Filipinos of what they
have learned abroad about America, and their doctrines. A wave of migration of Filipinos to the
Americas began in this period. Almost everybody wanted to be Americanized, or to secure
American citizenship or visit Hollywood, and so forth. This development can be termed as the
American indoctrination which aimed to socially engineer the mental construct of Filipinos to
induce them more and more to believe in the American dream, forget the atrocities made by the
American regime, and embrace the American supremacy. These universities that the Americans
have founded persist up to this very day. It is of no coincidence that the Philosophy Department
of UP-Diliman, a university founded by Americans in 1908, is dominated by American
philosophies, such as, pragmatism, Rawlsian social philosophy, and the analytic brand of
philosophy, more than it had in any other university in Manila, which were rather founded mostly
by missionaries, hence dominates in Scholasticism, Thomism and continental philosophy.
In 1965, Virgilio Enriquez, who was teaching at the University of the Philippines (UP) in
Diliman, one of the primiere institutions and colleges originally established by the American
colonial government, began teaching using the Tagalog and the Filipino language as his medium.
He established the Sikolohiyang Mapagpalaya (Filipino Liberation Psychology) whose primary
task is to liberate the Filipino mind or consciousness from the influences of the Western brand of
academic knowledge, overcome colonial inferiority complex, and to break free from revisionist
approach of the American colonizers.58 Through the course of time, many foreign scholars,
mostly Americans, such as, ethnographers, ethnologists and anthropologists, were studying the
Philippines as their subject and observing the Filipino ethnic groups and their traditional cultures
using the Western lens. This is collectively branded as “Philippine Studies.” As the antidote to
this, Prospero R. Covar, who also teaches at UP, developed an approach to Filipino studies which
he termed as Pilipinolohiya, which has survived up to this very day.59 Covar teamed up with Zeus
A. Salazar, who in a similar vein, developed his own discourse of Pantayong Pananaw, a
movement which emphasizes the role of Filipino scholars to approach systematic studies of
knowledge to become useful for the Filipinos rather than being alienating. Pantayong Pananaw
is derived from the noun “tayo” (we, ours), emphasizing the Filipino perspective for themselves
in contrast to the Westernization.60 These occurred at the period when President Carlos P. Garcia
also instituted his “Filipino First” economic policy. This trend is often labelled as the
indigenization or postcolonial movements, which would roughly include the nationalistic
historical approaches of Teodoro Agoncillo and Renato Constantino, and the economic historian

58
See F. P. A Demeterio, “Some Useful Lessons from Richard Rorty’s Political Philosophy for
Philippine Postcolonialism,” KRITIKE, vol. 2, no. 2, December 2008, pp. 5-30.
59
See Prospero R. Covar, “Kaalamang Bayang Dalumat ng Pagkataong Pilipino,” in Prospero R.
Covar (ed.), Larangan: Seminal Essays on Philippine Culture. (Manila: Sampaguita Press, 1998), pp. 9-16.
60
See Zeus A. Salazar, “Pantayong Pananaw: Isang Paliwanag,” in Philippine Currents, vol. 4, no.
9, September 1989, pp. 17-20. See also Ramon Guillermo, Pook at Paninindigan: Kritika ng Pantayong
Pananaw. (Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Press, 2009), pp. 1-3.
Alejandro Lichauco. This is highly controversial such that the so-called “objectivity” of the
sciences is allegedly jeopardized to favor or support the Filipino view. However, objectivity,
particularly in the discipline of the historical science, is indeed highly contestable. For instance,
the trend known as “new historicism” in Critical/Cultural Studies denies all claims of objectivity
in historical knowledge as it can always be colored according to the circumstances, preferences
and the biases of the historian.61 Claims for objectivity may also hinder other narratives and other
discourses from coming into surface, thus creating an obstacle to a more comprehensive and
holistic account in the interpretation and the formation of knowledge. Edward Hallett Carr, for
instance,
The Filipino solidarity has been tested through time with the challenges brought to us by
our colonizers. When the Japanese invasion reached the Philippines, we have a colonizer and
transgressor that does not pretend to appear as “benevolent.” The Japanese soldiers were cruel
as hell. This time, both the Americans in the Philippines and the Filipinos were under the Japanese
rule. Filipino and American soldiers whom were captured by the Japanese and was stationed in
Bataan were forcibly transferred to Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac by walking to what is known as the
“Death March.” Many Filipino government officials were accused of collaboration with the
Japanese military.62 There are others who collaborated for personal safety but secretly helped
the insurgency of the guerilla peasants led by Luis Taruc and the Hukbalahap. Amidst this very
difficult and trying circumstance, the Filipino loyalty for his country was severely challenged. At
the end of the World War II, American forces returned to the Philippines, not to fight against the
Japanese nor defend the Filipinos but instead to resume their neocolonial agenda. The U.S.
military instead arrested members of the Huks without apparent reason.63 The Americans
continued their interference in the Philippine sovereignty by introducing neoliberal economic
reforms that sabotage the economy and have eternally tied and buried this country to foreign
debts.
The over 20 years of presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, which has turned tyrannical by his
declaration of Martial Law in 1972, ended in the afternoon of February 25, 1986 with what can
be described as a “People Power” revolution. However, as F. Sionil Jose, the National Artist for
Literature, puts it, “it was not a revolution; it was a restoration of the oligarchy which Marcos
had emasculated….There was real democracy in EDSA – it was heady, it was real, but it died soon
after, for there was no transfer of power from the oligarchy to the people.”64 Marcos was
removed from power by the peaceful will of the Filipino people.

61
Purdue University, “New Historicism, Cultural Studies (1980s-present),” Purdue University
Online Writing Lab.
62
See Agoncillo, 1990, p. 432.
63
Ibid., pp. 449-450.
64
F. Sionil Jose, “Culture and Development,” in We Filipinos: Our Moral Malaise, Our Heroic
Heritage, (Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1999), p. 27.
 Whether or not we agree with Benedict Anderson’s assertion that nations are “imagined
communities,”65 what is now irrefutable at our midst is that there exists a Filipino spirit and a
nation that has grown indestructible that no oligarchy, colonizer, or empire can afford to trample
nor efface in the face of the Earth. The Filipino nation has grown so strong such that she has now
been admired by other nationalities, she has gained the respect and reputation from other
countries, so much so that they have learned to adore and embrace our identity, and we have
gained so much national pride here and abroad. The “Filipino-ness,” to use Nick Joaquin’s jargon,
can no longer be dispensed with and it already gained momentum all around the globe.66 Let us
therefore continue to show our bayanihan in helping our fellowmen, our kapwa by means of
small gestures of kindness, such as, disposing the garbage properly, following traffic signs and
regulations, or joining community clean ups, sending relief goods to calamity affected areas,
sending Christmas gifts, and above all, in doing everything for the love of country.

Conclusion
Since the time of our precolonial cultures, the socio-political nature of our early ancestors
had endured through the societies they have organized. These became the foundation of our
civilization despite momentary interception through periods of foreign invasion and colonization.
Through thick and thin, the collective spirit of Filipinos is unconquerable. The Filipino value
system is mainly characterized by cooperation and it highlights the virtue of unity amidst the
diversity in culture, traditions, and religious beliefs. The Filipino values can also be regarded as
social virtues. It is apparent that despite the social and technological developments that were
introduced to the country, the moral fiber of the Filipino is continually being questioned and has
continually endured.67

65
See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism. (London & New York: Verso Books, 2006), pp. 6-7.
66
See Nick Joaquin, 2004, p. 21.
67
I would like to express my gratitude to Christopher Ryan Maboloc, Ph.D. for encouraging me
to write on this topic. Since I began my philosophical undertakings as a young scholar back in 2008, I
look up to Dr. Maboloc as one of my great sources of inspiration, knowledge and encouragement. He is
a very humble scholar and a good friend to the younger generation of learners. I would also like to thank
Ms. Jeresa May Ochave, my fiancée, for her support, love, patience and understanding. Likewise, to Ms.
Naomi Jemera, M.A., a young nationalist historian who is pursuing her degree in PhD History at the
University of Santo Tomas, for her substantial suggestions.
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