andres's dictionary of filipino culture and values

a week ago i was at the glendale public library and stumbled upon a book entitled dictionary of filipino culture and values by tomas d. andres, one of the "leading lecturers, consultants and authors on values education, behavioral sciences, and management" in the philippines. it's basically a dictionary on filipino words, values, and sayings. the stuff that i've read so far is pretty interesting, and i would encourage you to at least look it over if you ever see it in some library or bookstore.

so every other day (until i have to return the book or otherwise) i'll share with you one word/saying/value from the book. i'll be quoting directly from the book, and any biases/opinions that you see (if any) are the author's own.

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"Oo. This means "yes" in English. Foreigners and critics of Filipino behavior are oftentimes surprised by a positive answer to instructions, only to find later that the same individual did exactly the opposite, without clarifying the instructions. Listed below are possible meanings of a "yes" answer by a Filipino. An average Filipino will say "yes" when:

(1) He does not know;
(2) He is annoyed;
(3) He wants to impress;
(4) He wants to end the conversation;
(5) He half understands the instructions of what is being said;
(6) He is not sure of himself; and
(7) He thinks he knows better than the one speaking to him.

The underlying psychological reason for a Filipino's "yes" is hiya or shame. A Filipino is embarrassed or ashamed to acknowledge that he does not know or he did not understand the instructions thoroughly, so he says yes. Also a Filipino might brag about knowing a certain thing when actually he does not know. In a mother-child relationship, a mother may say yes to her child's request without any intention of doing it; likewise, a child would say yes to his mother without intending to do it."

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(just curious...do you agree w/ this? does this happen to you....?)

what is the vfa?

this article was in the january issue of the alam mo ba.

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On Tuesday of this week news articles from major Philippine news outlets appeared that talked about the United States government rejecting a request from the Philippine government to hand over 4 American GI's that are accused of committing rape on Philippine soil in November. The United States invoked the VFA to back its action up, saying that it grants it custody of the suspects during legal proceedings.

The VFA has been mentioned in the realm of Philippine politics ever since it was incepted in 1998. So what is it, really?

The VFA stands for the Visiting Forces Agreement. The full text can be found in the website http://www.army.mil.ph/miscellaneous/vfa.html.

The Agreement basically grants the United States the ability to send its soldiers over to the Philippines during peacetime for war exercises. A synopsis from the Department of Foreign Affairs reads:

“The VFA, in essence, is a mechanism for regulating the circumstances and conditions under which United States forces may visit the Philippines for bilateral military exercises. The VFA governs the entry and exit of U.S. personnel in the country and establishes the manner of disposing of criminal cases against any of its members, who commits an offense in the Philippines. The VFA also establishes a procedure for resolving differences in that may arise between the two sides with regard to the provisions of the agreement.”

Now this agreement has been controversial from day one because there is a very vocal leftist sector in the Philippines that is very anti-American and would rather not see these exercises happen. The supporters of the VFA insist that it is not a launching pad for the United States to open up military bases in the Philippines again (they've closed the bases since 1992 I believe) etc.

The big question regarding the VFA now is who gets custody of US military personnel who commit crimes under Philippine law during their stay in the Philippines. The debate still rages on as to who does, and it has recently intensified due to the recent rape charges leveled against the 4 American GI's in November. Knowing how slow the Philippine courts can be sometime, it could take a while before many of the issues surrounding the VFA are resolved; expect it to appear in the news again in the future.

the black nazarene procession

photo by rene dilan.

january 9 is the feast of the black nazarene, and every year a procession is held in quiapo (a district of manila) that features a black statue of Christ carrying the cross on His way to calvary being paraded about. this is quiapo's annual fiesta.

An excerpt from the wikipedia entry regarding this subject:

"For more than 200 years the church has been placing the statue on a gilded carriage every January and pulling it through the streets of Quiapo. People who touch it are reported to sometimes be healed of diseases. Catholics come from all over Manila on the chance that they will be able to get close enough to touch the image and perhaps receive a miracle. They also throw towels to the police who guard the statue and ask them to rub the towel on the statue in hopes of carrying some of that power away with them."

the entry also says that this statue was made by an aztec carpenter, and that a priest bought it in mexico; the statue was then transported to manila in 1606.

eight years ago, the church housing the black nazarene started parading a replica of the head of the statue along with the original body due to repeated damages on the statue. the damages are perhaps in part due to the estimated 500,000 people that take part in the procession every year, with many of them desperately trying to get as close to the statue as they can. the guys in the yellow vests are charged with protecting the statue and keeping the procession going.

the photo above was from this year's procession. this was before a stampede broke out during the procession, killing 1 and injuring 20 others. article about that here.

according to the article, such a tragedy has never happened before.

edit: i also found a video (very grainy though) that covers this event. it's in tagalog. (might not work in firefox) (link might change in a couple of hrs.)