Some more impressions on the Philippines

The Philippines is a unique country on the eastern edge of South East Asia. First of all it has that “the” in its name as if there are other Philippines. Before I came around here, I thought it was somewhere in Latin America, thanks to all the Spanish names. It was the only big Spanish colony in Asia as well as the first colony there. This also caused Philippines to be the only majority Christian country in Asia. Famous “explorer” Magellan was the one who “discovered” Philippines and in fact, contrary to what’s generally told about him, he couldn’t go on with his famous tour around the world because he was killed here (his fleet completed the tour without him).

In other countries of Asia there are usually different cultural influences on the culture because people from different cultures live together or close to each other. Especially the Chinese communities which you can find all over SE Asia is a good example to that. But in the Philippines even the Chinese change their names and “mix in”. The society in general looks more homogenous then other places. There are Catholics and some Muslims. But when it comes to cultural influence there are all sorts of influences. First the Spanish, than the Japanese and the American, all of which colonized the country for some time, plus Chinese. As I wrote on the other post on names, these influences are very clear in names. But also food, games, daily things are all a mix.

Market in Manila

Popular sports in one country is a good sign of where the cultural influences come from. In the Philippines the most popular sport seems to be basketball. There are basketball fields everywhere and it’s always on TV. Soccer is almost nonexistent and it was pretty much a disappointment for me to realize that even the Euro Football championship was not in any news or papers (when Turkey was once again miraculously making it all the way to the semi-finals). Occasionally I see kids in school yards playing baseball or throwing this strange shaped American football to each other. But perhaps next to basketball the most national ‘sport’ is cock-fighting. This is a very South East Asian sport. Although in most countries today it’s deemed violent, thus banned, or only allowed on temple grounds as a part of religious ceremonies like in Indonesia (as if there is no gambling), here it is very public and includes lots of gambling. Although I haven’t seen live games, I always see it on TV and all around there are these posters advertising a breed of fight cocks or vitamins and feed for them (like the one in the photo). And it is a very violent ‘sport’. It’s not like they let two cocks fight like they’d do if they let them in a pen by themselves; they attach a 8 to 10 cm blade to one of their legs so when they attempt to grab the opponent they actually stab or cut them. The games usually last less then a minute and ends with one competent dead or fatally injured. I feel the justification behind this cruel treatment goes something like “we do cut and eat these chickens anyway, we’re even doing them a favor by offering them an honorable death through fighting which is their nature anyway.” So it’s not only the cat and dog owners who associate human feelings with animals!

Fighting cock advertisement, includes a complete list of
achievements and a brand vitamin for best strength (click).

When you ask someone they say they are all Christians giving you the impression of a strong unity but the fact is a bit different. Before the Spanish arrived people of the islands carried beliefs mainly of animism and shamanism with a strong Muslim tradition in the south as well as some Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism. When the Spanish came they quickly started to convert people to Catholicism but they were not that successful in remote places, such as the Mountain Region where the people were finally converted about a 100 years ago. Catholics also made the laws of the country some of which remain today. For example there is no official divorce in the Philippines and the age of sexual consent is only 12 (which leads to child prostitution but there are people who are trying to bring it up to 16). But Catholics also welcomed the integration of local beliefs (perhaps it was how they could succeed in the first place). I saw a half-documentary film which showed shamans performing a ritual for good rice harvest while villagers join singing Christian hymns. But with the Americans arrives the fundamentalists. These are the backwards protestant churches which are mostly very inflexible in their beliefs. They supposedly only follow the Bible. If it was true than there’d be a single Bible-only church but the fact is that all towns are littered with small ‘fundy’ churches and there are all these American missionaries everywhere. They also approach me sometimes, and I don’t mind pushing their buttons. The sad thing about their existence is that, according to what I’ve heard, in places they get established they try to eliminate all the traditional elements, saying it’s all superstitious and non-Christian. There are all the apocalyptic churches from Mormons to Scientologists and their existence is as irritating as any other religious fundamentalists. The good thing about missionaries is that they do some social work, such as free medical care and education. On the other hand there are not many expressions of religion in public places and occasions. There is no special costume or a way of salutation. It’s comforting that religion is less of an item for showing off here than in some other places around. And I like to see the little stone cave-like places that people create in the nature as houses for Mary and also the Baby Jesus, which is so clearly one and the same as baby Krishna, Gopal.

El Nido St.Fancis Church

There are very many Filipino people; with around 90 millions it is the 12th most populated country in the world. It is very sad to see so many “kid factories” in suburbs of big cities while the country is having difficulty feeding itself. There is close to no birth control, thanks to the Catholic religion. Abortion is illegal and there is a lack of sexual education. There is this very touching statistic which compares Philippines with Thailand “In 1975 both countries had similar population sizes of 41 to 42 million. Then Bangkok launched a major family planning effort. Now Thailand has a population of around 64 million and is the world's top exporter of rice. Meanwhile, the Philippines with a population of 90 million is the world's top importer of the grain.” This also owes to the ‘democracy’ of Philippines being far more corrupt than the ‘kingdom’ of Thailand. In any case, Philippines is a crowded country with swollen cities and an uncontrolled birth rate.

Baguio City with its cathedral on the hill, as seen from the SM Mall

Because it consists of thousands of islands (7.107), people speak many different languages and literally come from different tribes. The idea of one nation is still in the creation and even for the communists here nationalism is not a bad thing. It makes it clearer to see that nationalism has its place in the making of a country and only after sometime it becomes an obstacle to development. Here most people speak more than one language. They speak their very local language, and then the language of the region they are from, in addition to the almost national languages of Tagalog and English. This is very good in the sense that a person learning to think in a different language is a different, a more sophisticated person. But it has its downside that some people are not that good in their mother languages, which leaves them with a secondary language to express everything, which will perhaps never be as good as a mother language. As a foreigner here, it is a great boon to be able to talk to anyone in English though.

Igorot boys playing the gongs and dancing

Filipina girls posing with guard soldiers

Filipino people love to sing and dance. And they are surprisingly good at it. But apparently, the traditional music and dances are rather simple, similar to other SE Asian traditions. For example, in the area where I spent most of my time here, mountains of Luzon, the traditional music is performed with gongs and bamboo percussions with the occasional addition of the mouth harp. The shamanic and animist roots they have are still there. Today the most common social music is the music in karaoke bars. For those of you who don’t know the word, karaoke (“empty box”) is a Japanese invention where people sing to the background music of famous songs with the help of the lyrics on the screen. There are few different types of karaoke places, the ones where you can rent a private room with your friends or those which offer a karaoke automat in the middle of a bar. The song lists usually consist of popular American oldies and Filipino songs but there are the occasional Nirvana or Christmas carols for a change. People are so practiced with these things that most people sound well when they sing and sometimes it is hard to tell if the music is coming from a nearby karaoke or is the original version (but of course there are also those which just shouldn’t sing to a microphone). And people also seem to watch MTV and learn how to dance well. There are many dance bars in most places and different types of them. One type of bar which is on the decline is the American country music bars. For me it was a very interesting experience to see Filipino people dressed like cowboys, playing really good cowboy music and dancing the cowboy dances. But these are mostly for the old generation who knew when the Canos (Americanos) were still here. New generation prefer really loud music. As a related note, I have to add that Filipino people, especially women, pose very well. As soon as they see a camera they put on this pose one can see in a fashion magazine or TV. Perhaps they are the most photogenic people. They just seem to practice a lot.

A Filipina girl, Maya, testing her singing in karaoke.

Local pork sausages longanisa is a mix of
fat, sugar, nerves, cartilage and also some meat.

After seeing all the talent in music and dance, one wishes they also cooked well but unfortunately they don’t. Philippines is for me the worst place for food in SE Asia. There is neither the variety nor the sensitivity put on food in other places. They eat a lot of meat and only a little vegetables. Being a tropic country it’s a shame that they don’t even have good fresh fruit juice (in fact, I even see pineapple juice imported from Turkey). Of course there are occasional delicacies but that’s a rarity rather than the general rule. Fast food is very big. There are all sorts of fast food outlets everywhere and the most common street foods are hot dogs and hamburgers accompanied with barbecued meat on a little stick. The interesting foods I’ve found were a bit too strange. Balut, which is supposedly an energy food, is a fertilized chicken egg on its day 12 to 18, with a semi-grown up chick inside. It is strange to gulp a whole embryo like that but it is tasty and full of protein. They also have the one day old chick barbecue or deep fry but you can find that in other countries of SE Asia too.

Balut, a fertilized and semi developed chicken egg,
well cooked and yummy.

Gloria cares. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is the second woman president of the Philippines. Everywhere you see posters saying “Gloria cares” under her cute motherly face. Many believe that she’s also corrupt “but who isn’t”. Just like Corazon “Cory” Aquino, who came with the People’s Power revolution against the dictator Marcos and was the wife of an assassinated popular politician, Gloria is the daughter of a former president. It’s not easy to find woman politicians who are not related to a more successful man anyway. Her photo of surfing has the same feeling of Bill Clinton playing the sax. But after all she’s a politician, she represents a government, etc. all of which we’ll have to dispose of soon.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo surfing

In the Philippines everybody seems to want to go abroad. It already has the biggest diaspora in the world, with over 10 million Filipinos living abroad. On one side all the money these people send to their families back home contributes greatly to the economy (family ties are very important here). On the other hand, there is an immense brain drain. For example, Philippines is the biggest exporter of nurses. So much that you see nursing schools everywhere. But I heard that it’s such a popular way to make an escape from this country that even doctors take nursing training and go abroad, leaving the country’s hospitals lacking in personnel.

And because I’m being and I’ll be asked, I have to add, yes, Filipina girls are beautiful. Just like the rest of Southeast Asia, people here are rather small, tanned, mostly with slightly ‘Chinese’ eyes and are gentle in spirit. As is the case everywhere, people of the mountains are chubbier then the lowlanders. The most significant difference in physical appearance of Filipinos to the rest of Southeast Asians is that there are more plump and fat people then in other places, possibly due to the consumption of so much meat and cooking everything in lard.

After all, Philippines is a country worth visiting. People are truly kind and helpful but they don’t overdo it. The nature is pretty diverse and has many surprises. And the culture is quite unique. You wouldn’t regret being there.

[For information on how to do it, read the next post titled Traveling in the Philippines.]