What Is Philippine Society and What Ails Our Society? What Is Good in Our Society?

Personally, I define society as a physical area or a place wherein a number of communities exist, primarily composed of families, following and sharing the same rules, practices, and needs.  I see myself as a person who belongs to the Philippine society, being born and raised here, and chose to stay and live here as well.

Like most society that existed, or is existing, the Philippines is nowhere near the perfect and ideal country that most of us wished it could be.  We are relatively a new society, having only gained full independence in 1945, while other global economic powers had already established a long history of existence.

The irony of our society is that some of the good that we have, also resulted to the ails of what we are at the moment.

Example, the “bayanihan” spirit.  We all know what “bayanihan” is all about.  In school, we envision a group of men literally carrying a nipa hut to move it in another location, each time we hear “bayanihan”.  Today, this is no longer practiced, at least the part where a nipa hut is involved.  “Bayanihan” spirit though is very much alive with the way we look out to our fellowmen – neighbors, countrymen in need.  We are always more than willing to offer assistance whenever call upon, or each time we feel it is necessary.  This is very evident during  times of calamities, how we try to learn more about a tragic event, and how we take a step to offer a helping in hand.  A Filipino in need, will almost always get assistance from his/her fellow pinoys.

Spin off from this bayanihan spirit, how we always want to look out to others - Gossips and rumor mongering, or as we say locally “tsismisa”, “tsismisa”, “Usisero”, and “Usisera”.  This is one of the cancers of our society.  It is as if we thrive and enjoy gossips and rumours.  The juicier, the nastier, the better.  Case in point, try to watch our primetime news and tell me if the entertainment segment is really worth the airtime.  Local media and their practice of sensationalizing most events with the intent of, well of course, better sales and viewership.  After all, it’s business and ethics is somehow optional.  “Usiseros” and “Usiseros”, well how many of us experienced heavy traffic because of an accident, not in our direction, but in the opposite direction at that?  How many times have we seen incidents where usiseros and usiseras compromise security, evidence, and even solemnity of events?

Ingenuity is another trait that we are known for.  We have the ability to gather what of is available, and turn it into something more useful and applicable.  The world famous jeepney is one the best accomplishment of this trait.  After the last world war, we have a surplus of military vehicles and less men in uniform to transport.  Necessity is the mother of invention and as a rebuilding society, it was necessary to move fast and accomplish more in the shortest time possible.  Take that need, couple it with the Filipino craftsmanship and you have something  very useful (and colorful) – the jeepney, keeping Filipinos on the move since the late 40’s.