DINDO R. NIERRAS DR.

MICHAEL FRANZ TRIAS ANG

Maed Social Science Filipino Philosophy and Culture

The author of this book illustrates the rich deep culture of the Philippines. First, after
I’ve read it, I love that he put both the good and bad sides of the Filipino culture. He makes the
Filipino as the man, the character of this book who portrays the attitude and the habits of every
Filipinos. I like how he started the first chapter good which is our faith, how Filipinos strongly
believe in God. Beside from attending church every Sundays, he also put that mostly Filipinos
put rosary in their car’s rear-view mirror and the Last Supper hanging in the dining room wall
which is all families have it, except if they’re not Catholic. He started the good side then
followed by bad sides and the bad habits of the Filipinos which is true. Some of it are the two of
the most famous bad habits on this day, the Mañana Habit is one of the most negative traits of
some people .It means mamaya na in Filipino or to do a certain thing in a later time ,which is
letting their finish their tasks tomorrow instead of today or maybe waiting for the day before
the deadline and then doing it. The students often call this as ’cramming’, while the other one is
called Filipino time or always late, when their appointment was 10am, they usually coming 1-2
hours late which is very rude to the people who are arrived early and waiting for them. I know
Filipinos are patient but they’re just wasting time waiting for each other, Time is Gold, and you
cannot return it. The other habits are commonly to us like urinating of men in public places, the
Jeepney driver as the king of the highway who drives recklessly without worrying about the
safety of his passengers and the littering of garbage everywhere. We usually see this on the
news about the problems of the Filipinos and only some of the positive habits usually show. I
also like when the author put some politicians and public figures for the bad habits, this people
have solutions to the problems so it’s good that he put that.

Aside from the bad habits, then there’s the good side of the book, one is hospitality.
Filipinos are well known for this, giving warm welcome to others then we always smiling,
whenever we have a problem, we just keep smiling and feel happy to our life. Then we have
strong family ties, we are close to our family whenever they are and having a lot of respect.
Filipinos are polite and respectful mostly to the elders, we always say the word ‘po’ and ‘opo’ to
them, to the teachers and to the people who you don’t know or to the strangers, also the
‘mano’ we do this also to the elders and to our godparents (ninong/ninang) on Christmas so
they give us some Christmas gift or ‘aginaldo’. We don’t usually call the elders on their names,
instead we call them kuya or ate also to the strangers. The debt of gratitude or utang na loob to
our parents so we go to school and study hard to graduate in return, we help now our parents
and usually the eldest child is now acts as the ‘breadwinner’ of the family. Personal hygiene and
the fashion are also important and the Filipinos are friendly people, whenever we will go, we
could meet some people and some of there can be his/her friends We are also have a great
sense of humor because we love to watch comedy movies, pulling pranks to each other and
telling not-so-funny jokes or ‘corny’ jokes then we still laugh about it. We are the great English
speakers in the Asia. English is our second language, our first and national language is Filipino
(Filipino is also called to the people and the tagalog term of it is Pilipino) and Tagalog is the
dialect of Luzon people and the most spoken dialect in the Phlippines followed by Bisaya. Even
if they’re not fluent in speaking English or often call as the ‘carabao-english’ we still speak it and
the fluency of another language doesn’t define to your intelligence. That is one of the toxic
culture we still believe but don’t, the attitude is still define who you are even if you are not an
educated people. The author also tells about the Filipinas how the women are extremely
important to us. He also didn’t tell about the common stereotypes of the women instead he put
the present day’s type of Filipina. Filipino mothers are strong women, mostly them are working
now. Provincial Filipinas seeks job to the city and often work as household maids while some of
them work abroad which is the majority of the women are working there. Aside from that, the
positive traits and habits of the women like they’re responsible to the household chores, taking
care of their children and keeping the money or income of the family which is still lived today.
He also wrote about the morals of the Filipino which is quite toxic like most of the people
especially younger are now having pre-marital sex and some of them are getting pregnant
without being married and not graduated. Mostly the minors experiencing that because I think
their parents haven’t enough acknowledge to them or not guiding and taking care of them. Also
to the politicians that the voters usually vote to the candidate’s looks rather than it’s
educational background and experience. Now politicians came from ‘political dynasties’. He
also mentioned about the late-president Clinton of the US about his sexual acts which make
him controversial during his presidency. Back to sex, mostly of us are now engaging to that
because of what we read in the books and what we watch on the television shows and the
movies and also to the social media which is you can now watch free porn videos whenever you
want. The author is now back again to the bad side of us but in the end we still cannot forget
our values despite of that sexual habits. The last that I’ve read which is left me hanging, it’s not
yet done and I think that’s the end. The last chapter is all about the celebrations. Every place
have a festival of their saint and others that we celebrated and can’t be forgotten. The poor
ones usually loan or owe some money to their neighbors or to their relatives just to have food
and celebrate the fiesta. We usually see karakols or parades of the saint, visiting carnivals and
specials events that happening and the day after, back to the normal, they are poor again.
Aside from festivals, we also celebrate birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, christening and even
funeral that we have food like pansit and spaghetti and don’t forget the beer because we love
to drink beer and cannot be lost in every occasion. He also states about the grandparents that
all of us have it’s either in christening or the wedding except if you’re not Catholic and that’s all.

That’s only some of our cultures that still lived out until today and cannot be changed.
All of us experiences in our everyday lives. Every Filipino do that because if you don’t, you’re
not Filipino. We are not disciplined like the other countries. We do all of that because of the
influence of the colonizers, second, because we are a democratic country. We can do all we
want but not illegal, we have freedom. Our culture still lived up until this day, it cannot be
changed or removed by someone and to you. It’s part of our lives starting from the day of our
birth until we die. It was flowing to our blood and every Filipino have it so don’t regret it.
Culture is important to us every move you make is part of it so I hope the next generation still
have it and I’m so flattered and happy of what I’ve read. We need to learn from our mistakes
and make our culture grow more, richer and influence other nations and because we are known
about that the country is not a country without culture. It reflects the nation and culture is
important, to people, to the economy, to our ancestors, and to the country.