It may be said that the Filipinos are intelligent, with retentive
memory, quick perception, and talents for art and science. They also
are gentle, friendly, and cheerful people, noted for their courtesyand hospitality.
Filipinos are famous not only for their warm hospitality, but also for
their close family ties. The parents work hard and sacrifice much for
their children; in return, the children love and respect them and take
good care of them in their old age.
Filipinos owing to their beautiful country, are passionately romantic.
They are ardent in love as they are fierce in battle. They are born
poets, musicians and artists.
Filipinos are a liberty-loving and brave people. They valiantly
resisted the Spanish, American and Japanese invaders of their native
land. They rank among the bravest people of the world. Filipino
courage has been proven in the Battle of Mactan (1521), in the Battle
of Tirad Pass (1899), in the battle of Bataan, Corregidor, Bessang
Pass during World War II, and in many other battlefields.
Gratitude is another sterling trait of the Filipinos. They are
grateful to those who have granted them favors or who are good to
them. Their high sense of gratitude is expressed in the phrase Utang
na loob (debt of honor).
Filipinos are cooperative. They value the virtue of helping each other
and other people. They cherish the ancestral trait of bayanihan, which
means cooperation. In rural areas, when a man is building, repairing
or transferring a house to another place, the neighbors come to help him.
Foreign writers assert that the Filipinos are indolent. In reality
they work hard in the face of very adverse conditions. They work on
the farms from sunrise to sunset, though not from noon to 3 p.m. due
to the scorching heat. They work hard in the sugarcane and pineapple
plantations in Hawaii, the fruit orchards of California, the fish
canneries of Alaska, and in the oil wells of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and
other Arab countries of the Middle East.
Finally, the Filipinos are noted for their durability and resiliency.
Through the ages they have met all kinds of calamities-- revolts,
revolutions, wars, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons and
epidemics. Unlike the Polynesians of Oceania and the Indians of North
Central and South Americas, they did not vanish by contact with the
white race. They can assimilate any civilization and thrive in any
climate. Against the adversities of life or nature, they merely bend,
but never break. They possess the formidable durability of the narra
tree and the resiliency of the bamboo.