The Filipino Honor
By omrelaP
I still believe that there’s honor in the Filipino, and no Filipino deserves to be pre-judged just by being one.
Many people from other places of the world has the misconception that the Filipino is a misshapen work of society, and people in other countries often treat him with suspicion and reservation.
There must be a very good reason why…
Contrary to that belief, the true Filipino is good by nature and good at heart, nurtured by loving and caring parents since infancy to adolescence, he has been taught to believe, love and fear God as the spring of all goodness and the punisher of evil. He has been guided to love his parents, to respect the old and to know the values of patience, generosity, hard work, humility and obedience.
The misshapen Filipino is a far cry from the real ones. There are just a few of them but they have marred the general Filipino reputation.
One possible reason for some Filipinos thwarting themselves to evil ways is poverty and desperation from poor treatment from upper class individuals. History has it that the Filipino had been enslaved, colonized, abused and left impoverished by Spanish tyrants for three hundred years.
Three hundred years of tears, labor, despair and hatred is more than enough to turn a man into a different being, a being filled with anger, vindication and passion to destroy.
But the Filipino held on stoic to his identity as a race, wanting to build a nation and fighting to free themselves from bondage.
It has been told that the Filipino was once one of the best soldiers in the world for their valor, conviction and love of country and freedom. The great General Douglas McArthur, during an allied military exercise once said of the Filipino soldier: “Give me a regiment of this people and I will conquer the world.”
It is a big disgrace that the misdeeds of the few lawless and corrupt ones have tainted the immaculate image of the true Filipino, like a handful of black dye poured on a pail of pure clear water.
It is a sad state that after the days of the Filipino heroes, the country’s bridle of administration had been passed on to corrupt individuals whose motives are nothing less than the accumulation of personal wealth and power.
It is but unfortunate how the ordinary Filipino, out of his desire to please, unwittingly criticize his own countrymen in the eyes of his foreign visitors. This paints a bad image of the Filipino in the minds of people from other countries. Every Filipino is a showroom of his own people as a race. The Filipino ought to display his good side. It is needless to say the bad side as it is already exposed. I do not favor the Filipino notion that being a critic makes one a hero in the eyes of his listeners.
The true Filipino is honorable as a race. Many Filipinos shine in countries where the claws of corruption do not reach them. They can be found anywhere from the ordinary arab household to the majestic White House, serving no less than the president of the United States of America.
I want to put forth to the world the real image of the true Filipino.
I want to change the faulty notion that the Filipino is misshapen and corrupted as a race.
I want to strongly pronounce that for every skepticism any non-Filipino individual, company, establishment or institution may have had about the Filipino as an individual, as a worker or as a professional in any field, you can try hiring one and you will keep coming back for more.
But then again, it’s still sad to know how the honor of the genuine Filipino populace had been tarnished by the spoiled few.
God Knows…