Filipino Culture: Bayanihan: The Filipino Value that Must be Retained

Bayanihan is a core essence of the Filipino culture. It is helping out one’s

neighbor as a community, and doing a task together, thus lessening the workload and
making the job easier. It is also called the ‘community spirit’. It is best
exhibited when people wish to move locations in the rural area. The traditional
Filipino house, the ‘bahay-kubo’, can be moved using wooden poles which are carried
from the old place to the new one. This requires a group of people to lift and
carry the house on their shoulders. Able-bodied men usually participated in such
feats, while women stood and watched, casually chatting and cheering the men on.
Afterwards, there will be a small gathering as a form of celebration and
socialization.

But those days are gone now. Aside from the change of environment, from wooden
slit-houses to concrete infrastructures, and the rural areas have adapted more and
more to the urban jungles; there is also a change in people’s attitudes and
disposition. It has become a selfish world. It becomes harder and harder to create
and sustain group efforts. There is also another ideal that progresses among
Filipinos of today; one which I think has been plaguing them since the dawn of the
Spanish era… the Crab Mentality. This mentality basically displays those of a
crab’s. If you put a group of crabs in a bucket, they will try to get out of the
bucket, obviously, but in a manner of stepping on one another to get up. There is
no cooperation and collaboration. Just plain, old ‘me first’ idealism. It’s the
thought that, to get farther in life, one should step on other people; use them for
one’s own benefits. After all, they’re the ones who’ll get less in life; they’re
the ones who have little to begin with.

What’s wrong with the flourish of the Crab Mentality and the constant diminishing
of the Bayanihan trait? Well… everything. The thought of people being lower than
one’s self is already a problem. Everyone is equal in dignity and in value, no
matter the class or the social strata. We all regress to being human. Second, man
cannot work entirely alone. This is where work ethics and work attitudes come in.
People have to be ‘team players’ in order to succeed. People shouldn’t be used and
thrown away as easily as a tool. Resources are used. People are respected. And
people should never be treated as material means to an end. People should be the
end. Third, it is not a selfish world. Selflessness is rare, but is a must. The
knowledge that the world revolves around one person, or that a country is not set
one man’s shoulders is a start for transformation. Fourth, in a global world,
cooperation and collaboration is a requirement more than a want. These skills (and
values) are not just used in school or in the workplace, but also in life. People
have to get along with each other, and co-exist, whether they like it or not.

To make the country great again, the value of Bayanihan must be re-established and
reaffirmed- the value of helping one another, without expecting anything else in
return. It may not be possible to lift houses on men’s shoulders anymore; instead,
lifting each other up on their shoulders, in effect, lifting the country’s status,
hopes and dreams. Respect and tolerance must be relearned for with the Bayanihan
value to support them, Filipinos can become one of the greatest people the world
has ever seen. The value is there-deep within each Filipino; it’s only a matter of
resurrecting it to its former glory.

culture / traditions Filipino Culture and Traditions Kevin

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