Reimagining Filipino Identity
Nick Joaquin famously said, “The identity of the Filipino today is of a person asking what is his identity”. Being a Filipino is having to ask yourself everyday who you are. It is being and feeling both you are and you are not. But who else am I if not Filipino? More than that, it’s being in judgement of yourself vis-à-vis your fellow Filipino.
The Filipino is not a monolith. Sometimes we forget that Filipino society is inherently multicultural and diverse in history, and people. There is no singular, definitive Filipino because of our multitudes of Filipino experiences. However, it’s easier to grasp this quality of our identity on a personal level because it’s based on our individual subjective experiences. The challenge comes with grasping Filipino identity on a national level.
Discussions on collective or national identity tend to veer towards forcing an objective standard. Perhaps because the question of identity on a broad-scale is too complicated. Asking “what is our Filipino national identity?” asks “who do we consider as Filipinos?”. It inquires not just about the literal people, but about a sense of belongingness in Filipino society. Filipino identity, and our Filipino belongingness, is often equated to how many boxes we can tick on a checklist. Foundational signifiers such as usage of the Filipino languages, knowledge of Philippine history, practice of Filipino customs and traditions, and consumption of Filipino food and media are essential to our construction of our Filipino identity, but they are not all-encompassing. These elements are tied to Filipinos at the hip, but manifested in varying degrees, with certain aspects stronger and weaker, some present and absent. These manifestations do not make us any more or less Filipino.
In devising the most convenient approaches to build a sense of nationalism, we tend to structure a rigid form for our national identity in the name of progress. In doing so, we purposefully misunderstand the dynamic nature of identity, of people, and of culture. It does not instill in us an appreciation of our heritage and the sense of nationalism that is expected, but a temporary fixation that may trend for a while, but whose impact remains as surface-level as a post one scrolls past on their social media feed.
Accepting our diversity in the Filipino experience does not make efforts to cultivate what we visibly associate with Filipino culture and heritage fruitless endeavors.
In fact, there is a greater need to strengthen these foundations in order to understand the depth of our diversity. More so, we are called to engage directly with the intersectional issues arising from this diversity.
Identity relates not only to social perception, but social function. We explore who takes up space, whose lives within that space take precedence over others and whose lives are more at risk. On a deeper level, “what is our Filipino national identity?” asks “which Filipinos do we deem valuable (over others)?”. Our value systems do not simply refer to the morals we hold dear, but also refer to our outlook towards the people we choose or not choose to extend them to. We see this in the imbalance of national development where groups are neglected while others prioritized. Excluding marginalized groups creates an environment where their problems remain unheard and unaddressed.
For instance, a Filipino identity that excludes generations of mixed-race Filipinos in the Philippines, like our Chinese Filipinos, denies the racism and discrimination they face in Filipino society. A Filipino identity that renders indigenous people obsolete mutes their voices and further alienates them from mainstream society. A Filipino identity that maintains unyielding conformity to colonial gender structures denies the “Filipino-ness” of LGBTQIA+ Filipinos in the Filipino social consciousness and hinders the creation of policies that would protect their rights.
Who we deem worthy in our society is influenced by our collective goals and desires, informing us which people would fulfill or deter them.
Asking “what is our Filipino national identity?” also asks “what do the Filipinos want and need?”. Our collective wants and needs are fluid concepts, dependent on the time period we are living in, and in the shifts occurring in our world. A better question to ask is “where does the heart of the Filipino lie?”. What grounds our decisions and the ways forward? Our failure to undertake a process of collective reflection on questions regarding our identity leads us to create an identity that is founded on the self-serving politics of a few, which is then lauded as our national identity.
We find our national wants and needs dictated and determined by inconsistent, temporary visions that only last until the next election. Instead of basing our Filipino identity as rooted in our cultural evolution, which may show a more accurate picture of our collective identity’s trajectory, our Filipino identity bends to the will of a rotating roster of elites. While it may not be necessarily false, a misguided notion of Filipino identity has the ability to perpetuate oppressive systems that only serve to strengthen our failing norms, leading to ineffective governance and repeating corrupt cycles. They rely on our identity crisis to sow division and further “othering” of minority groups. As for the people, this conditional Filipino identity instills in us a mixture of hope and dread, breeding an attitude of passive participation, selective action, and settling for less. The questions posed are all difficult to answer because we need to be honest about the state of Filipino society today.
We find ourselves at the middle of the races, both changed and unchanged, both in the midst of progress and stagnation.
More than the transparent desire for change, our nation is one that wants to heal but does not allow itself, one that nurtures old wounds while decrying them, and one that buries caskets before their time. Faced with these contradictions, our Filipino national identity has to include not just the pride in our people, talents, and achievements, but also the honesty in our failings, the courage not to conquer our past but to honor its downfalls as much as its milestones. In doing so, we may have the tendency to be harsh on ourselves, but trudging to understand our identity is not flaying ourselves, but facing our societal failings with compassion.
There is no right or wrong answer to what our Filipino identity is. We are all products of our time, but that doesn’t mean we are chained to our past or even the present. Our past serves to inform us of who we were, whether to trace our evolutionary steps or understand the steps untaken. While who we are now may be subjected to forces that light only one path, it doesn’t mean other paths don’t exist. How many paths there are matters less than the belief that we can always turn.
The Filipino identity is what will be. Present in all possible iterations of our identity is the Filipino’s unwavering will to become.
What we will into this world echoes to the coming generations. How do we envision the Filipino of the future? What kind of nation do we manifest? Beyond tangible markers, identity is a constant reimagination that relies on our transformative power to shape and be shaped by each other. We may not have control over the events of the next tomorrows, but we owe it to ourselves to continue this dialogue for our country and our nation.
Written by Khriscielle Yalao, a wonderful writer from our team who has been changemaking together with us for more than a year.
