Philippine Society and Culture

  Katya Wolf Everyone wants to be successful in life; nobody wants to be a failure. We all aspire to succeed, be it in our professional or personal career. Unfortunately, many of us have tried but failed in some of our goals due to some factors that are beyond our control. Indeed, there is no shortcut to success. It is a long, hard process. Like cooking a tasty, nutritious food, success is a combination of factors, synergized and intertwined to produce our desired result. Fortunately, there are values that are inherent to many of us that could help us achieve our goals in life.  Persistence  Persistence is defined as continuous effort amidst challenges along the way towards achieving our dreams in life. Persistence is one of the values that we need to succeed in our life. Without it there can be no success in life. On our way to our goals, there will be building blocks such as losing interest in what we have started, procrastination, discouragement and other circumstances that will hin

Jansel Ferma   In a simple term, empathy is defined as sharing the feelings of others, usually in unfortunate and miserable situations. Among the many human values, empathy is very special and different, for it has something to do with one’s feelings and emotions for others.   By the way, Filipinos show their sympathy in different situations and occasions. This is the soft side of the Filipinos. They easily get carried away by their emotions and feelings. Filipinos easily cry when witnessing someone being oppressed, be it staged or in real life.  Sadly, some opportunistic individuals take advantage of this emotional weakness and frailties of the Filipinos. In the Philippines, Filipinos being duped, deceived, or tricked into buying, giving or entering into fraudulent business transactions are normal. Worse, the perpetrators of these opportunistic acts are their fellow Filipinos themselves. Filipinos victimizing their own countrymen. It’s really sad, but true.  But contrary to the percep

Jove Duero Does having a lot of money make people happy? Or does possession of luxury items make one happy ?  Absolutely not, as far as the Filipinos are concerned.  To the Filipinos, having a lot of money and luxury items in life have nothing to do with their genuine happiness.  In this blog post, we will enumerate the things that make Filipinos happy as reflected in the survey happiest countries in 2024.  Happiest people  The latest survey of the happiest people on earth once again proves the Filipinos’ happy nature.  In the survey, the Philippines ranked 53 rd among the happiest countries in the world in 2024. In Southeast Asia, the Philippines is second to Singapore as the happiest people.  Is the result of the survey reflective of the true feelings of the Filipinos? The answer is a resounding yes.  Amidst challenges in life, the Filipinos still manage to exude positivity. They are a different breed of people. They have these values of positivity, resilience, and happiness. These v

  Tabuelan Cebu Roman Catholic Church For centuries, Holy Week has been one of the busiest weeks for the Filipinos as far as religious activities are concerned. Throughout this week, Filipinos are preoccupied with the observance of religious traditions, one of which is Visita Iglesia or church visit. This Holy Week tradition is very significant to the Filipino faithful expressing their empathy to the sufferings and death of Jesus on the cross.  Visita Iglesia  The Visita Iglesia is a religious tradition that is practiced on Holy Thursday evening after the Mass of the Last Supper where millions of Catholic faithful flock to different churches in the country to meditate and offer prayers.  This practice of visiting churches on Holy Thursday is the fulfillment of their Panatas (sacred vows). Inside the churches, there are places provided for the devotees and pilgrims for them to kneel, meditate and pray. Some pilgrims walk barefoot from church to church during the Visita Iglesia.  For Fil