The abuse..

 THE ABUSE BEHIND FILIPINO RESILIENCE

(Resilience is not national pride. It is the excuse of the corrupt.)

We are told, almost like a bedtime story, that Filipinos are resilient. We smile in the flood, laugh through hunger, rebuild after every storm. The world claps, politicians repeat the line, and we are told to be proud. But resilience is not a virtue. It is a symptom of abuse.

Politicians abuse it the most. Every time a typhoon destroys lives, they parade in raincoats, give out instant noodles, and pose for the cameras. Then they vanish. They know Filipinos will pick up the pieces anyway. Why invest in proper housing, drainage, or flood control when the people will rebuild on their own? Why fix a system when survival itself has been marketed as a Filipino trait? The narrative of resilience becomes their alibi for incompetence.

Corporations are no better. After every calamity, companies slap “Bangon Pilipinas” on a billboard, donate a fraction of their ad budget in relief goods, and call it CSR. Their corporate social responsibility. For them, resilience is not suffering, it is marketing. It sells the image of a people who can take any beating and still buy the same products the next day.

Even some media platforms play their part. Headlines glorify resilience, turning desperation into photo opportunities. The child studying by candlelight, the family huddled under an umbrella in waist-deep water - these are framed as proof of strength, not proof of neglect. The story becomes heartwarming instead of horrifying, allowing those responsible to escape through applause.

The more resilient Filipinos look, the more heroic our leaders’ interventions appear. Survival becomes spectacle, funding follows, and the cycle continues. Everyone gains from resilience, except the Filipino forced to live it.

This is the brutal scenario: the mother floating her children through floodwater is not a symbol of national strength. She is a victim of government failure. The worker hammering his flooded barong-barong together after another typhoon is not a hero. He is a man betrayed by leaders who call him resilient so they can excuse their corruption.

We must stop clapping. Resilience has become the shield of the lazy, the alibi of the corrupt, the cash cow of corporations, and the headline and pitch of some media. Filipinos8 deserve more than survival. They deserve leaders who protect, systems that prevent, and a society that refuses to romanticize their suffering.

If resilience is all we are known for, then it is not our pride. It is our shame.

#teachbetter #Philippines

📸 | Hugot Seminarista