Danielle Mari C.

Nidea

The Resilience of the Filipinos

Filipinos are known for their resilience amongst disasters and natural calamities, captured

in a photograph of smiling children walking waist-deep in floods. It is not surprising that this is

the image that strikes foreigners and let ourselves be labeled as such; resilience amidst disaster is

heartwarming and brings hope to a world filled with news of war, corruption, poverty, and death.

Resilience is hopeful, resilience is a compliment, and resilience mirrors the strength of our

nation. And what a strong nation we must be to smile and joyously live and move on from all

hardships that plague us. Except this strength is not our nation’s strength, but a strength

individually gained and brought about by necessity and darker circumstances.

A lot of Filipinos feel proud of our resilience, but our resilience is a defeatist form of

resilience. There is not much contempt for the causes of our suffering, and if not contempt then

what we lack is the will for a better life for ourselves and all Filipinos. But is this defeatism our

fault? Needless to say, the reasoning behind the infamous resilience of the Filipinos is something

that needs to be tackled more.

Of course, not all Filipinos hide behind resilient smiles and bahala na attitude. We have

and have always had activists and people who criticize those who are in power and the

circumstances that they pass on to us, the masses, and especially to those who have a weaker

voice in society. But still too many of our countrymen criticize the act of criticizing. There is

much contempt for Filipinos who blame our bad socioeconomic conditions and quality of life

across the nation on decisions of the government.

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 But shouldn’t we be united against injustices set upon us by the ruling class? It’s true that

in the case of natural disasters, we cannot place the blame on any person. But government

support for victims of such disaster is always lacking. Just this term, the current administration

even diminished our disaster funds. Prevention of floods, a very common incident even in Metro

Manila, is given very little importance. This is not even mentioning cases not related to natural

disasters such as the numerous injustices against the poor and marginalized. It is true that we

cannot keep placing the blame on whoever is seated on the government, but a wide culture of

contempt for the act of activism alone shows the face of the Filipino behind their mask of

resilience – helplessness and inferiority.

This sense of inferiority is not something that many are aware of; it’s so normal to be

silent and subservient to our superiors. Many Filipino youths complain about their elders

considering the act of speaking out as an act of disrespect. Speaking out to or against our

superiors – teachers, bosses, leaders – is disrespect, and more value is placed on keeping the

peace. Perhaps this is an effect of a long history of futility and powerlessness against colonizers

and imperialists, or maybe our people has become so used to suffering that the idea of action

towards justice is simply silly.

Resilience is strength in the face of adversities, but many of the adversities Filipinos face

is injustice painted as mere bad luck. We are aware of these injustices but not of our own

shortcoming. So we sit and remain resilient as the storms and the tides wash our lives away, and

praise ourselves and let us be praised for being resilient, basking in either pity or adoration for

bearing these scars.

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 But what we need is neither pity nor adoration, but a call for action, or at the very least an

awakening to the power we inherently hold and the necessity to harness it. We can improve the

conditions of the Filipino life by accepting that something can be done, perhaps not on a large

scale individually but little by little, collectively, as we realize that we deserve better and have

the right to ask for better. Let us be proud of our resilience without forgetting that strength can

also come in other ways.

Word Count: 677 words

Page Count: 3 pages