Filipino Perspective from a Legazpi Thomasian Standpoint

Joshua Caesar O. Elegado
III-BA Philosophy

As a Legazpi Thomasian Philosophy student, a perspective of what makes a Filipino Philosophy to surface is that of being in the context of a cultural identity, in such case, being a culture that are influenced by many parts of foreign cultures. This is basically the perspective of having consciousness on things based on Filipino context, that is, to have an idea or concept for how the Filipino society improve their situations. Factors that are to be considered on the ground of being a ustl philosophy student are; our ability to apply certain philosophical taught in our country, our cultures and traditions are to be rectified and to be endorsed, and having to attain Filipino actualization at the very end of the day. In the idea of the Filipinos in the context of ideological, that is, as a country, people are expected to be active politically in order to maintain sovereignty, and justice in the times of crisis. However, as far as the Filipino reality is concerned, that is, in the modern period, people are divided and was clouded with ideologies that actually leads them to be confused, to the extent that, they no longer participate in a civic matter. I felt that, my response to this is basically teach them a proper way to have a consensus as a rational reasonable person grounded without compromising their identity as a Filipino to begin with. In the traditional sense, that is, when the enlightenment thinkers arrived to rehabilitate and reform the tyrannical government that actually enslaves the Filipinos in their own motherland. In the cultural sense, that Filipinos are very much fatalistic, that is, people tend to see and attain things based on luck and is dependent on such to the extent that they no longer exert effort and the result of this may be devastating in achieving their ideals at the very end of the day. The identity of the Filipino in the National sense is that, there are influences from the foreign cultures that the Filipino has had adopted since ever since then. As the Filipino identity was influenced by many of the cultures outside of its context, we are to assert that, this is what makes Filipino unique and is part of their identity as Filipinos at the very end of the day. There are points to be considered whether or not these values are to be challenged and or to be improved. There are matters where a tradition is to be considered, and some are to be challenged due because of issues it may cause, especially when that tradition and practice are detrimental to the people. The first thing that we are to approve is the cultural value of respect in the context of addressing family members and of relatives. There is nothing wrong with respecting people, especially family relatives, it is ingrained in the idea of connection, propriety, and knowing where to place oneself. In this value, we must encourage the practice of the such, and is to be applauded due to the impact it brought to the Filipino practice of respect. Next would be, to challenge some values that have greatly influenced the Filipino practice. We must consider that there are practices that are quite illogical and it is still being practiced, one example to that is the idea of superstitions and fatalism. As we can see in the Filipino practice, that the idea of superstitions and fatalism are being abused to the extent of being dependent to the idea of the such. It is great wrong because not only we are subjecting ourselves in the state of illusion, but our overall well-being is being affected. To be dependent on such things will lead us to being lazy. We will no longer see the principle of effort as driving force that really decides our future. We must be realistic and be independent, for the reason of being rational and being reasonable is primarily concerned. The next would be in the context of governance, that is, for the government to be effective, it must protect the welfare of the people and protect the rights of the people as free and equal citizens of their own sovereign nation. As far as good governance is concerned, the government must function as of the people, by the people, and for the people, in order to achieve the improvement and development of the society at the very end of the day. This is where Chinese governance and Philippine governance are at par to begin with, however, in the context of Philippines in the present time, that is, the goal for the improvement and development of the people are repressed due because of the people at power that only aims for their own desires instead of the welfare of the people be dealt with.

When it comes to culture appropriation, we can see many foreign cultures that are being practice in each of everyone’s context, that is, our culture has had diversely coalesced to what we practice today on a daily basis. The challenge here is that, in those cultures that the Filipino has adopted from foreign contexts, how it is to be practice for the betterment, improvement and development of the people at the very end of the day. The argument of that is, we should challenge and question some traditions that are being practiced by Filipinos. Challenging norms is important because it paves a way to what the truth is and what is better alternatives and what is practical at the very end of the day. We discussed about the tradition and norms that we acquire from a certain country of their tradition on how they appropriate to the Philippine context, as a result, we see that, there are bad practices of culture that negatively impacts the lives of the Filipinos, in effect, deprives them from being independent and deprived of achieving the potential development at the very end of the day. Yet, there are some traditions and beliefs that are basically good, for example the belief of governance, however, there is still flaw because for a good belief to be effective, it must be practiced to achieve the development of the people and for the improvement of human life in the entirety at the very end of the day.