GE8 ETHICS GROUP 8: Natalya Eleni M. Songcal, Sherika Jean O.

Aguijon, Francis Cyril

Enrera, George AJ D. Siton, Michael Dylan S. Chua, Daniel Jason E. Biacora

STRENGTHS OF THE FILIPINOS

PAKIKIPAGKAPWA-TAO

Filipinos love to be with someone, like a companion. Someone to share with, to trust, and to
love. Filipinos are also known to be hospitable and caring. And we also like to entertain our
foreign visitors to our country. We really like to be with someone because for us, it is a
foundation of unity or a connection to one another. And we think it is healthy to think that way.
Like Filipinos during fiestas. We are really fond of fiestas, we invite our neighbors, relatives and
even people that you don’t know in our respective houses to celebrate the feast, not knowing
they already stealing something from your houses. In fact, it is very hilarious but it is how we
live. We agree that it is a strength because we gain strength from our bond with one another.

FAMILY ORIENTATION

Our family orientation is a strength to us, as being a filipino, one’s family is the source of
personal identity, the source of emotional and material support, and one’s main commitment
and responsibility. As there in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we first need to have the
physiological things then the safety needs and her comes the love and belongingness, we find
this love and belongingness firstly in the family thus this help an individual building a character
and a personality.

But, being too family oriented also becomes a weakness. This is because, we only care too
much in the family that we forgot that there also people aside from our family. That sometimes,
we tend to forget to think about the common good.

JOY AND HUMOR

Filipinos are joyful and have a sense of humor. Despite challenges, trials or downfalls they still
manage to smile and laugh at their problems. According to an online article, poverty is one of
the problems Philippines is facing. Most Filipinos belong to blue-collar community and even
though some thought that they give full strength at their works they are not happy or joyful at
all times. This thread isn’t right because Filipinos still manage to make jokes. There is a quote
that says, “a person who jokes a lot is the one who is emotional inside.” Somehow, making
jokes and making people laugh can cover up pains. Smiling is also a good way to spread
positivity because if someone smiles to a person, that person smiles to others as well. Indeed, it
is a contagious act that makes Filipinos a call to optimism—that whatever challenge they
undergo, they will survive.
ADAPTABILITY, FLEXIBILITY, AND CREATIVITY

Filipinos can easily adapt to other nation or environment. For example, if there are practices or
traditions in a certain place they can easily adapt to it and adapt the lifestyle of other
environment. Also, Filipinos are flexible to adjust to whatever happens. unplanned or
unanticipated events are never disturbing to them. Filipinos has the ability to make use of
whatever on hand in order to produce and create. Most important is that Filipinos have the
ability to accept change and this will results into Productivity , Innovation, Equanimity
Entrepreneurship and Survival.

HARD WORK AND INDUSTRY

Filipinos have this certain drive in them which causes them to work hard for the good. Which in
turn gives them the benefit of a financially stable family. Filipinos would work so hard for their
family. It is shown in Filipinos that become OFW's or just the hardworking filipino people in the
bustling mega city of Metro Manila. Cab drivers, lumpia sellers, even mall employees all have a
purpose for their hardwork. Filipinos at some points might even get double or triple jobs just to
pay the bills. It works for the person’s productivity or can help a person just barely getting by.

FAITH AND RELIGIOSITY

Filipinos are indeed known worldwide as peoples of deep and great faith. It is the only country
in Asia where majority are Catholics. In the Philippines, all religions are protected by the law,
and no one religious belief is given priority over any other. Putting faith in action is not only a
challenge to the Filipinos, it’s a duty. Faith has several ways of expressing itself. Filipinos tend to
show their faith by going to church daily, praying and worshipping. Until now, religion is always
part of our daily lives.

ABILITY TO SURVIVE

The ability to survive is one of the strengths of Filipinos because whatever obstacles and
adversities we face we’ll still be able to look for ways to rise again. We Filipinos take advantage
of the resources around us to utilize it and help us survive. We easily adapt in our environment
now matter how hard or poor.
WEAKNESSES OF THE FILIPINOS

EXTREME PERSONALISM

Extreme personalism is one of the weaknesses of a Filipino character because this can be
viewed as selfishness where they stick to which they can have advantage of. In this
characteristic, there is no separation between an objective task and the emotional involvement.
Like always trying to give personal interpretation to actions (Cow fave or Mahilig sa "baka' ")
and thank you with "but" (compliment-criticism-compliment).

EXTREME FAMILY CENTEREDNESS

Being family oriented is a known strength for Filipinos but some like Americans see it as a
weakness. They’ve stated that it is a hindrance to our success. Specifically, OFW’s. For instance,
when we receive our salaries instead of saving it for our future plans for our career, we give it
back to our family, to our parents. Because we have this so-called gratitude or “utang naloob”
for them, believing that we are not here today without their sacrifices they’ve shed in the past.
But for us, we think it is not a weakness because we believe that family is special and it is the
basic unit of society. It is the foundation of our identity and it helped molding our characters
every single day. And when we are at our lowest points, we have somewhere or someone to go
to. And what we have observed is that our strengths actually came from our weaknesses. We
turn our downfalls and flaws into a foundation to success.

LACK OF DISCIPLINE

Filipinos have lack of discipline especially to time management. Some Filipinos have poor time
management because of the relax attitude and majority of the Filipinos don’t come on time.
Filipinos are impatient when it comes to rewards or gratification and because of that they tend
to use shortcuts. Filipinos also have the attitude of leaving things unfinished and it is a example
of lack of discipline. This kind of Filipino character can result to wasteful work systems and this
will lead to violating the rules, that can be more serious transgressions.

PASSITIVITY AND LACK OF INITIATIVE

There are a fairly high number of passive Filipinos. This is mostly a trend in the younger
generations but still evident among the older Pinoys. This lack of initiative is such a bad
character of the Filipinos. An example being "umaasa lang sa magulang" or "painom inom lang
diyan sa kanto." Even in the classrooms this happens. Anytime a teacher calls on a student to
do the opening prayer for the class he or she would reply: "bakit ako?" This is a characteristic
we need to change in order for the Philippines to become great. We need to stop being passive
and start having initiative.
COLONIAL MENTALITY

We consider colonial mentality as one of the weaknesses of Filipino character because we tend
to appreciate the things that’s not from our country. There is a cultural vagueness that makes
us, Filipinos extraordinarily susceptible to the wholesale acceptance of modern mass culture
which is often Culture. Patriotism vs Active awareness - (mas maganda and magaling kasi ang
ibang bansa, mas masarap). Too much appreciation to other nationality and foreign products
than native one (local vs imported)

KANYA-KANYA SYNDROME

Filipinos have great strengths but there are also qualities that need to be changed. One of these
is the Kanya-kanya Syndrome. It was clear that the extremity of the strength leads to its
weaknesses. This weakness, the Kanya-kanya Syndrome, demonstrates crab mentality. There
seems to be actions that bring others down in the form of constructive criticism, tsismis or
intriga. Filipinos are known to be person-oriented. They care and give good relationships to
others. But doing this into extremity make them forget to follow the universal rule and give
inequality to people. Yes, Filipinos care for the people but they forget to care someone.

LACK OF SELF ANALYSIS AND SELF-REFLECTION

We Filipinos tend to react before we think about a certain situation. We usually joke about
serious matters and we don’t take things seriously. Superficial and flighty or dreamy, we should
get rid of this attitude and improve ourselves to become a better person. The importance of
self reflection helps us build emotional self-awareness. By taking the time to ask ourselves the
important questions, we gain a better understanding of our emotions, strengths, weaknesses
and driving factors.

Brief Reflection:

Aside from all these strengths and weaknesses, we must look on the brighter side of life and
try to change for the better, for the good of yourself and for the sake of others. After all, our
strengths and weaknesses define who we are as Filipinos.