UNDERSTANDING THE

FILIPINO VALUES
VITALIANO GOROSPE, SJ
The Basic Questions
•What is the philosophical basis
of Filipino values?
•What is distinctive about
Filipino value system?

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Value Philosophy in Filipino values
• Values from “within” (subjective and emotional)
• Pagpapahalaga sa pamilya (family closeness and solidarity)
• Use of “po” or “ho” (politeness)
• Tuloy po kayo (hospitality)
• Utang na loob (gratitude)
• Values from “without” (objective, distance) – find their philosophical
basis in man’s dynamic openness toward nature and the world
• Social acceptance: pakikisama, amor propio, economic security, pagmamay-ari
• Trust in God: paniniwala sa Diyos, bathala or Maykapal, pananampalataya,
pananalangin, kabanalan
• One’s fellowmen: paggalang, hiya, katarungan, pag-ibig
Value Philosophy in Filipino values
• The dynamic openness of man is an openness to the possibilities
of the future. That is why values are something to be realized.
• Human values are not merely private. All values have a social
aspect.
• i.e. government official who demands porsiyento, the fireman or
policeman who exhorts tong or lagay for service which is his duty,
all contribute to the worsening graft and corruption. We are all
responsible for one another (tayong lahat ay may pananagutan
sa isa’t-isa).

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Value Philosophy in Filipino values
• Values are both subjective and objective. They involve a subject
or person who values (e.g., a young girl) and an object or value
to be realized (e.g., pagkamahinhin).
• There is an objective difference between value and disvalue,
pleasure and pain, life and death, poverty and affluence,
heroism and cowardice, truth and error, right and wrong,
holiness and sinfulness.
• The difference is not only in the mind or a matter of personal
taste or preference. Even if I close my eyes to the ugly poverty
around me, the poor will not disappear.
Value Philosophy in Filipino values
• Values are not objective in the sense that they are found in
some static heaven; they are relational and embodied in
person-value-types (ideal moral person).
Tipong-mukhang kuarta Profit is more important than service
Tipong-politiko Pera, propaganda, politika are more valuable than honesty
Tipong-siyentipiko Personify agham
Tipong-artista Personify sining
Tipong-madasalin Exemplify kabanalan (piety)
Ideal Filipino (model) Tipong maka-Diyos, makatao, makabayan

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Value Philosophy in Filipino values
• Value-ranking (hierarchy) or the priority of values is not merely
arbitrary or subjective. There is an objective ranking of values
based on existence or reality and other objective criteria. The
criteria of permanence, ability to be shared, and depth of
satisfaction.
Max Scheler Hierarchy of Human Values
Moral Religious values By the saint, e.g., Mother Teresa or Lorenzo Ruiz
Cultural values By the genius and the artist, e.g., Jose Rizal and Francisco Balagtas
Life values By the doctor and the hero, Doctors to the Barrio and Emilio Jacinto
Utilitarian values Like profit and efficiency by businessman and technocrat
Sense values Like sensual pleasures exemplied by lakuatsero or pabling
For Scheler, moral and religious values are pre-eminent and claim the
highest priority in the objective scale of values because they are absolutely
necessary in order to become fully human (magpakatao).

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Filipino Values: Nature, Constellation and Context
• What is distinctly Filipino in our value system? The Filipino
value system arises from our culture or way of life, our
distinctive way of becoming human in this this particular place
and time.
Fourfold sense of Filipino values
1. Distinctive Filipino hindi labis, hindi kulang, katamtaman lang
2. Filipino values as present in others with slant trust in God and family centeredness
3. Universal human values in Filipino Context “nationalistic” tradition: pagsasarili, pagkakaisa,
pakikisama, pakikipagkapwa-tao, and pagkabayani
4. Historical consciousness of values overpopulation, environmental pollution, wildlife
conservation, violation of human rights, active non-violence

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Filipino Values: Ambivalence and Split-Level Christianity
• Are Filipino values good or bad? The truth is that Filipino values are
ambivalent in the sense that they are a potential for good or evil, a
help or hindrance to personal and national development, depending
on how they are understood, practiced or lived.
Bahala Na – Positive Aspect Bahala Na – Negative Aspect
Risk taking, entrepreneurship, social False sense of resignation (ganyan lang ang buhay),
responsibility superstitious belief or blind failt (malas/suwerte,
tadhana, kapalaran)
Joint trust in both human effort (bahala tayong Escape from decision-making and social responsibility,
lahat) and divine Providence (bahala ang root cause of national apathy (walang pakialam) and
Maykapal) collective paralysis of action (bakit pa kikilos)
For Rizal, bahala na was a positive and Engender false sense of security with God as insurance or
nationalistic virtue, independence from Spain, security blanket, everything is already predetermined or
rely only in themselves and God fated
Filipino Values: Ambivalence and Split-Level Christianity
• Split-level Christianity or double-standard morality, the
immorality and hypocrisy of many so-called Filipino Christians,
is a scandal to both Christians and non-Christians alike.
• We must take into account: pseudo Christianity and authentic
Christianity, the life long process of religious commitment
which demands constant conversion and renewal.
• We must also distinguish between Filipino actual and
normative behavior (between what is and what ought to be)

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Understanding the Filipino Value System
How do we transform Filipino values to build a more
“just and humane society” (Preamble, 1987
Constitution)?
• We need both external structure and internal cultural
change. It is here that religious faith should, in the last
analysis, point the way to the kind of values education
needed for national reconstruction.

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