The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Filipino Character: A Socio-

Cultural Issue

Moral Recovery Program: “Building a People, Building a Nation”

- Submitted on April 27, 1988 by the Task Force to President Corazon Aquino, Senate and
the members of the press by then Senator Leticia Shahani, the moving spirit behind the
program.
The weaknesses of the Filipino character as cited in the Report are as follows:
1. Extreme family centeredness
- Excessive concer for familu means using one’s office and power to promote family
interests and thus factionalism patronage, political dynasties and protection of erring
family members.
- It results in lack of concern for the common good, and acts as a block to national
conciousness.
2. Extreme personalism
- Takes things personally, cannot separate objective task from emotional involvement.
- Because of this the Filipino is uncomfortable with bureaucracy, with rules and
regulations and with standard procedures.
- He uses personal contacts, and gives preference to family and friends in hiring, services
and even voting.
- Leads to the graft and corruption evident in Philippine Society.
3. Lack of discipline
- A casual attitude toward time and space manifested in lack of precision and
compulsiveness, in poor time management and procrastination.
- Aversion to following procedures strictly results in lack of standardization and equality
control
- Impatience can result in shortcuts, palusot and nigas cogon.
- Often results to inefficient work systems, the violation of rules and a casual work ethic
lacking follow through.
4. Passivity and lack of initiative
- Waiting to be told what to do, reliance on others (leaders and government), complacence,
lack of sense of urgency.
- There is a high tolerance of inefficiency, poor service, and even violations of one’s right.
- Too patient and matiisin, too easily resigned to his fate, the Filipino is easily oppressed
and exploited.
5. Colonial Mentality
- Lack of patriotism, or of an active awareness, appreciation and love of the Philippines
and an actual preference for things foreign.
6. Kanya-kanya syndrome, talangka mentality
- Done by tsismis, intriga, unconstructive criticism, it is evident in the personal ambition
that is completely insensitive to the common good.
- Example: the lack of a sense of service among people in the government bureaucracy.
- This results in dampening of cooperative and community spirit, and in the trampling upon
other’s rights.
7. Lack of self-analysis and self-reflection
- The tendency to be superficial and somewhat flighty.
- In the dace of serious personal and social problems, there is lack of analysis or reflection,
and instead satisfaction with superficial explanations and solutions.
8. Emphasis on porma rather than substance
- This lack of analysis and emphasis on form is reinforced by an educational system that is
more from than substance.
 These weaknesses are rooted in many factors:
a) Home
b) Social and economic environment
c) Culture and language
d) History
e) Religion
f) Educational system
g) Mass media
h) Leadership and role models
However, change is possible and the following goals are proposed to develop in the Filipinos:
a. Sense of patriotism and national pride
b. A sense of the common good
c. A sense of integrity and accountability
d. The values and habits of discipline and hardwork
e. The value and habits of self-reflection and analysis; the internalization of spiritual values
and the emphasis on essence rather than on form.
The strengths of the Filipino character are:
1. Pakikipagkapwa-tao
- basic sense of justice and fairness
- concern for others.
- ability to empathize with others
- open to others and feel one with others
- regard others with dignity and respect deal with them as fellow human beings.
2. Family orientation
- source of personal identity, emotional and material support and
- one’s main commitment and responsibility
- sense of family results in a feeling of belongingness and rootedness in a basic sense of
security.
3. Joy and Humor
- Filipinos have a cheerful and fun-loving approach to life and its ups and downs.
- Laughing at ourselves and the mess we are in is an important coping mechanism.
Playful,sometimes, disrespectful, we laugh at those we love and at those we hate and we
make jokes about our good fortune and bad.
4. Flexibility, adaptability and creativity
- We can adjust and to adapt to circumstances and the surrounding environment, both
physical and social; adjusts to whatever happens even in unplanned or anticipated events.
- We possess a tolerance for ambiguity that enables us to remain unfazed by uncertainly
or lack of information.
5. Hard work and industry
- We have the capacity for hard work given proper conditions;
- to raise one’s standard of living and to possess the essentials of a decent life for one’s
family
- We are willing to take the risks with jobs abroad and, while there, to work at two or
three jobs.
- The result are productivity, entrepreneurship, and survival despite poverty.
6. Faith and religiosity
- Filipinos have deep faith in God.
- Our innate religiosity enables us to comprehend and genuinely accept reality in the
context of God’s will and plan.
- Religious expressions is very tangible
7. Ability to survive
- Filipinos make do with what is available in the environment.
- It is manifested in the millions of Filipinos who bravely live through the harshest
economic and social circumstances.
Many of our strengths as a people are also sources of our weakness:
1. Family orientation
- Becomes in-group orientation that prevents us from reaching out beyond the family to the
larger community and our nation.
2. Personalism
- We are warm and caring but this leads us to lack of objectivity.
- We are concern with the people we know but unfair to people we don’t know.
3. Flexibility
- We compromise precision and discipline.
4. Joyful and sense of humor
- We can’t take things with humor at all times for serious problems need serious analysis.
5. Faith in God
- Is our strength but this makes us dependent on forces outside us, do nothing that makes
us submissive to God’s will.
6. Pakikipagkapwa-tao
- We can easily empathize but we can at the same time be envious of others.
7. Hardworking
- Yet we can be lazy and passive at work.

Department of Education
Vision:
To help develop “Filipinos who passionately love their country and whose values and
competencies enable them to realize their full potential and contribute meaningfully to
building the nation.
Core Values:
Maka-Diyos
Maka-tao
Makakalikasan
Makabansa

Philippine Schools
- Should intensify values education in the curriculum.
Values Education now Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (K-12)
- Was introduced as a separate subject in the basic education curriculum under the Values
Education Framework program of Dr. Lourdes Quisumbing, then Department of
Education, Culture and Sports Secretary in 1988-1990.
- Core courses such as Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person and Personal
Development.
Values Education Framework
- Was conceptualized in 1987.
Basic Education Curriculum ( Grade 1-6 and First-Fourth Year High School)
- In 2002, integrated values in the major learning areas or subjects.