Much has been said about Filipino resiliency. Overseas Filipino workers demonstrate this trait daily, working long hours abroad to be able to remit earnings home to estranged families. Meantime, Filipinos left in-country patiently endure political dynasties and incompetent leadership, but still share Filipino hospitality with visitors. And the Philippine revolution that succeeded as Edsa 1 now seems more like a monthlong street party, proof of an easygoing nature that breeds resiliency.
Disasters repeatedly test that resiliency. Supertyphoon “Yolanda” devastated Samar-Leyte. Ashfall from Mt. Pinatubo not only buried Central Luzon, it circled the globe. Numerous earthquakes and floods brought out various Filipino traits that cannot but be admired as human greatness. Tested by disasters, the Filipino can draw on vast reserves of humor to survive personal losses and accompanying depression, adding to the resiliency mystique.
But is this so-called resiliency a virtue? Or is it just one more manifestation of an oft-noted fractured Filipino psyche that must be fixed rather than merely accepted?
Resiliency of the Filipino swings between two extremes. One is fanaticism that breeds displays of piety in Black Nazarene processions and Holy Week floggings and crucifixions. The other is fatalism (as captured by the “bahala na” syndrome, which often isn’t a sign of true faith but rather of the apathetic resignation “na hanggang dito na lang tayo” [we’ve reached our limit] we have been conditioned into by centuries of colonization.
Now that insatiably greedy, false leaders have succeeded foreign masters, these plunderers want to keep people poor so they can stay in power longer—and the so-called resiliency of the Filipino allows them to do so.
Get mad, Filipinos! The Juan Ponce Enrile-Miriam Santiago tiff isn’t entertainment. The PDAF-DAP (Priority Development Assistance Fund-Disbursement Acceleration Program) thievery isn’t in any way related to national development. The sickening Ampatuan atrocity and looming constitutional crises can’t be acceptable in any half-serious society.
It’s time to wake up and act. They’re doing so in Thailand, and while it’s unclear which group will win, our Thai neighbors must be congratulated for showing their colors and not being “balimbing,” which is how Filipino political chameleons act out resiliency.
—JOSE OSIAS, jzosias@gmail.com