Name: Apat, Wilbern Caga-anan Number: 2013-02587-MN-0 Course & Section: AB English 1-1 Ryan Glenn Conda

Student Instructor: Mr.

Our Diminishing Culture: Dying Filipino Social Values and Ethnic Games
From an article entitled, The Filipinos in the 21st Century written by Mark Raymond Ferrer, it stated some issues in relation with the deprivation of Filipino Culture including the dying Filipino traditional values and even our own ethnic games. As a reaction to his paper, I can say that despite of not citing evidences to support his details, most of the situations and samples of events indicated there were concordant with my views about the said issue. According to him, many Filipinos nowadays have forgotten the values of a true Filipino because of too much addiction with western cultures. I do partially agree with that statement because these changes occurred, not only because of influences from other cultures, but also due to improving technologies and modernization of each country in the world including the Philippines. A journal from Diliman Review clearly stated that the tremendous advancement of technology intensifies the notion of borderless nation-states. The internet technology for instance breaks down barriers by making it possible to transmit, within seconds, information across national borders. Technology then becomes a factor in identity formation. Increasingly, nation-states rely on their existing structures and institutions to maintain or defend their own defined identities. In view of this everchanging social order, culture becomes significant in the discourse of national development and identity formation. (Filipino Youths, 2003) However, in return, our culture may be sacrificed but the regretful thing there is that most of the traditional Filipino values will also be affected. We, Filipinos, have lots of basic traditional values, traits, and characteristics, which are already threatened to be vanished as one of the effects of globalization and modernization. In a book, Dealing with Filipino Workers: Basic Dos and Donts (1997), co-author Tomas noted that Filipino culture has great extents that,

for us, to understand the basic traits and characteristics of the Filipino, it is necessary to grasp the values, internal standards, and rules of our culture since these things govern our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The traditional refinement of China, the inborn grace of the Indo-Malays, the courtliness of Europe, the modernity of America, the Christianity of Latin Spain, and the intricacies of Islam are all reflected in our culture and way of life. (Tomas & Andres, 1997). Thats how wonderful and meaningful our own culture is. Just imagine how bad the consequences that we could experience if these significant parts of our lives as Filipinos would just be disappeared. It was also stated from the article of Ferrer that the use of words like opo and po are almost gone and we can just seldom hear those things. The quoted words above are actually the most noticeable difference of our culture to others as we have our own language. Other than that, we also have some kinship terms used to respect others in accordance with the typical Filipino Family behavior. Moreover, In the Filipino Family behaviors, the eldest has rights and authority over the younger. The younger ones also show deference to older siblings. Hence, a young member of the family assumes corresponding authority and respect as he grows. Parental authority is so strong that it even extends to the choice of the childrens profession. Likewise, the interests of the family prevail over individual interests. (Mercado, 1974). Despite of growing modernization and unreasonable changes here in our country, there are still some locations in the Philippines where Outstanding Filipino Values may be ascertained and an example for that is the beautiful province and people of Pangasinan. A research by an educational Doctor from a known State University in the said province, Milan (2002), was able to identify some significant outstanding values of Filipino families in the said province including the Love & fear of God, Christian in spirit, Deep-rooted value of respect for elders, cooperativeness, courage, sacrifices for the welfare of the family, thrift, industry, generosity, prudence, cheerful disposition, and even orderliness.(Milan, 2002). Nevertheless, based from my own experiences and encounters, we may only see this kind of family culture to those families maybe from provinces where modernization is not that visible. Another statement from the article of Ferrer that really called my attention was the issue about the dying Ethnic Games here in our country. He stated there

that many of Filipinos nowadays are fond of modern gaming consoles and left what we call as Filipino Games dying and ailing and barely, make a comeback to the Filipino children. He also includes there that the playing of those games like patintero, tumbang preso, and piko is barely seen and it is just played sometimes as part of their P.E. in such Schools and Universities. For my views, these changes were maybe because of having adaptation to the modern competitive world of technology. In a book, A Study of Philippine Games (1980), author Melie Leandicho Lopez noted that laro is a Filipino Generic term for all forms of recreational play. The closest word term for the game is the palaro referring to a group of special occasion games that take place during wakes, festivals, and town fiestas. This would also refer to games that are competitive in nature where each contest is always brought to a conclusion. It also commonly known that games play an important role in the learning process of the child. (as cited in Barbosa, 2003). From an electronic article of Thesis Boom entitled, The Importance of preserving traditional Filipino Games, the author indicated that Apparently, there is indeed an obvious issue regarding the increase of children spending their playtime in Internet Cafes and the number of children that still are playing the traditional games are seen to be going downhill. Instead of the usual Patintero, Tumbang Preso, Piko, Tago-Taguan, Siato and the like many children indulge themselves with computer games such as DOTA: Defense of the Ancients, Counter Strike etc. and those children who are e researchers have done relevant reading about the matter, the researchers found out that a lot of blog above the middle class are expected to own at least a PS2, a PSP , an XBox, or a Nintendo DS. Filipino children nowadays are left with a choice, to keep up with the flow of modern times ,dwell on virtual games and completely leave behind traditional entertainment or try to learn the games and simply have fun with it. But they don't have to make this choice at all if we just lay out our concerns on this matter and find a better, drastic and creative solution to create the balance that is justly needed. (The importance of preserving, 2012). Despite of these problems, there are still group of people who wants to rekindle the Filipino Games through the power of the brushstrokes: the Artpetrons

in Los Baos, Laguna. From a news article in LB Observers (2001), it stated that with Petrons aim to bring back the values that these games taught us: teamwork, patience, fair play, ingenuity, and dexterity, they gave young artists an opportunity to express themselves through painting in oil canvass or watercolor. This also gave their works a rare opportunity to be featured in Petrons sought-after calendar, which is distributed all throughout the country. The images of children laughing, having the time of their lives playing tumbang preso, piko, patintero, taguan, sungka, and the less familiar games like saputan ng gagamba, ober-ober and paet ng salagubang, are overwhelming.(Bailon, 2001) Actually, playing does not only promote camaraderie and enjoyment among children. It also disciplines and teaches us important values like teamwork and sportsmanship. It is so unfortunate that children these days can no longer enjoy the thrill we used to get from playing taguan when the moon was full or the joy we felt whenever we flew a saranggola. The jolens, tanzans, and trumpo are now replaced with the gameboy, the playstation and the game n watch. The age of cyber reality have dominated the society but art competitions like this help relive the lost era of the patintero, piko, and tumbang preso. (Bailon, 2001). If were going to commemorate these Filipino Games, we may realize the real significance of these games to our culture and an example for that is the Sipa. Sipa is a tagalog term which means kick. It is likewise the name of an indigenous game which involves the use of the feet- in other words. The invention of the sipa is attributed to the Muslims and this is nowhere better evidenced than in the maranaw version of it, the so-called manggis and the takiran, whose descriptions emphasize their accentuation of grace and poise. This claim is, however, disputed by the fact that in the so-called bibohan, the Tagalogs have their own counterpart of sipa. Historically, Sipa enjoyed its heyday during the Commonwealth era of President Manuel Quezon when each district of Manila had sipa teams and tournaments were conducted regularly. These tournaments boasted of a festive atmosphere as, to make it all the more livelier, brass bands as well as muses graced it.(Anima, 1977). I think it will be almost a nightmare to the Filipino culture if these games like Sipa will just be disappeared and time will come, the next generation will never experience these kinds of games if we werent able to preserve these significant artifacts of our culture as Filipinos.

If Im going to ask my self on how to make solutions or adapt to this increasing problem of our identity as one nation, it will be really a big challenge for us. We need to change our lifestyle as a Filipino as time goes by. If most Filipino youth nowadays are being addicted with online games, my possible solution for this problem is maybe we must also try to make Filipino online games that can help them commemorate or imagine how our ancestors play games before. But we cannot still erase the fact that as time goes by, little by little, without knowing, we are already starting to forget these practices. All in all, these things only show that our culture as a whole has already started to be like soulful memories of our history or in short, almost died due to some extensive effects of improving technology as well as modernization here in our country. It only proves that the age of modern technology have dominated our Philippine Culture and Society. Situations like the seldom use of words, po and opo, and addiction of todays generation in online games instead of playing our very own Filipino ethnic Games are just examples of the effects of modernization to Filipinos nowadays. These changes are unmanageable to solve and to control but for me, if all Filipinos will collide to this problem of our own identity, we can do many things to stop and preserve these important pillars of our lives as true Filipinos.

References: Anima, N. (1977). Filipino Ethnic Games. (pp. 1-5). Quezon City, PH: Omar Publications. Anonymous. (2003). The Filipino youths contemporary role in culture building. Diliman Review, pp. 49-51. Bailon, F. P.(2001). Patintero, Piko, Tumbang Preso atbp : Rekindling Filipino tradition in a brushstroke. Los Banos-LB Observer, Vol. 17(1), 9. Barbosa, A. C. (2003, Aug. 15). Traditional games in the Philippines. Culture and arts. Retrieved from http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articleson-c-n-a/article.php?i=10&subcat=13. Mercado, L. N. (1974). Elements of Filipino Philosophy.(pp. 95-104). Tacloban City, PH: Divine Word University Publications.

Milan, E. R. (Ed.). (2002). Outstanding values of Filipino family as evaluated by Pangasinenses. Pangasinan State University Bayambang College Faculty Journal, pp. 53-56. Thesis BOOM. (2012, July 11). The Importance of preserving traditional Filipino games. Retrieved from http://team13boom.blogspot.com/2012/07/theimportance-of-preserving-traditional-filipino- games.html Tomas, Q., & Andres D. (1997). Dealing with Filipino workers: Basic dos and donts. (pp. 13-17). Quezon City, PH: Giraffe Books.