From cradle to grave, the family is the Filipino's
rock of ages. In childhood and youth, it is his rock of support and
security; in adulthood, it is home when he marries too early and cannot
cope, an insurance for times of need; and then in old age, it is the
hearth to which he returns, however far he may wander.
The Filipino may contract other bonds in the course of his life with the
company he works for, the church he worships in, the neighborhood he lives
in, even the foster nation he swears allegiance to - but the foundation of
his strivings is first and foremost his family. And by family is meant the
veritable tree that includes under its shade relations up to the third
degree as well as in-laws. This explains why the Filipino orphan who does
not know his genes is the most popular figure of pity in Filipino soap
operas.
If there is one institution that truly works in the Philippines, it is
probably the Filipino family. Not even the Roman Catholic Church or the
State, for all their power and influence, can rival it in claiming the
loyalty and allegiance of Filipinos.
There are three basic family systems the nuclear family which consists of
a husband, wife and children; the polygamous family which consists of a
husband or wife and several spouses and their children; and the extended
family which brings together several generations in direct line and
kinship ties built by marriage. The extended type best describes the
Filipino family.
The extensions can be mesmerizing.
Almost every Filipino thinks of his family as consisting not only of the
nuclear cell of spouse and children; it includes for him the innumerable
relations of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.
These are further extended to include kin
acquired through marriage and the institutionalized compadrazo system by
which godfathers and godchildren come to be regarded as kinsmen.
And what tradition and custom have sanctified, the legal system has
reinforced. The State sees the family as "a basic social institution which
public policy cherishes and protects." This is elaborated in various
provisions of the Civil Code which treats marriage as inviolate, prohibits
divorce, extols the rearing and education of children, obliges couples to
live together and in fidelity to each other, and emphatically states that
"in case of doubt, all presumptions favor the solidarity of the family."
This sanguine view of the Filipino family is by no means shared by all. As
Mao did in China, so some scholars and social scientists see the primacy
of the family as a monkey on the nation's back.
The Hunt study of 1963 opined that the Filipino family system may have
deterred national modernization and nationhood and suggested that the
shortcomings of the Filipino family may be "the defect of its virtues."
This has since been echoed by many social scientists, including the Jesuit
sociologist John Carroll, who believe that family loyalties impede the
development of wider loyalties
and cooperation.
Some contend that the Philippines may really be no more than an assemblage
of millions of families that mirror the country's fragmentation into
islands. That behind the division of the republic into cities, provinces,
towns and barangays, there is the truer division of society into families.
The studies pin on the elemental Filipino family such diverse ills as the
prevalence of dependency, nepotism, graft and corruption, lack of
initiative and self-reliance, parochialism, and the flabbiness of
Philippine nationalism. There is no lack of evidence to back the lament.
When President Aquino is criticized for the activities of her relatives,
her critics are merely continuing a long tradition of excoriating national
leaders through their kinsmen. Certainly, the Marcos regime did much to
show the nation how macabre is the adage that blood is thicker than water.
Yet, like the conclusion that prizes the family above everything, the
knock against the Filipino family is also facile and tendentious. It
reflects the vain attempt to find one simple explanation of why the
Philippines has proven so slow in developing, when in all likelihood many
factors have contributed, with the mystique of the Filipino family only
one of them. One could argue as well that the problem of Philippine
modernization is not a matter of making the family less the focus of
individual loyalty, but of trying to transform its obvious strengths and
values into a force for shaping a modern and progressive society.
One instance in which these virtues can work for the whole society is to
be found in the contemporary phenomenon of Filipino migrant labor. In
recent years, because of lack of jobs and opportunities at home, many
Filipino families have been wracked by separations as family members have
had to venture abroad to work. Overseas Filipino workers, now numbering
1.5 million, endure long years of labor in hardship stations to give their
families a little more of welfare and comfort. What they send or bring
home from abroad runs in the billions of dollars every year - an
undeniable boon to a nation strapped of cash.
This says something also about the adaptability of the Filipino family to
changing times.
It is a popular notion today that modernization, whether fast or slow in
coming, will erode family ties and prune the extensions of the Filipino
family. But stresses on family life are hardly unknown to Filipinos. They
have known their share of urbanization, colonization, modem lifestyles,
broken marriages, desertions, the generation gap, and homegrown versions
of the communes, but their basic family system and its values have
survived.
Amidst the challenges of a changing world, the Filipino family will simply
continue to adapt and make adjustments, abiding as the essential place of
refuge for the Filipino.
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