Our core values as PH

By Jesus P. Estanislao

Permanence is an essential feature of “core values.” Those articulated by our revolutionary forebears still hold for us today. We do subscribe to love of God, of country, and of fellow citizens. But ways of expressing the same core values may change over time.

In the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the values of the Filipino people are scattered in various articles and sections of the Charter. But primarily, we would see them in the Preamble, as well as the Article on Principles & State Policies.

Our Constitution’s Preamble states:

“We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society, and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this Constitution.”

There is at least one problem with our values that I notice.

There is no clear, definitive national policy as to what are our core values as a country and people. Our Constitution has scattered many good values in its articles, but it does not state or give us a list of our core values as a nation.

As a result, if you would search in the internet the term core values of the Filipinos, you will get various materials which list different values.

One material written by Dr. Mina Ramirez claims that the 5 Filipino core values are Mapagpasalamat, Matatag, Masigasig, Mapagmalasakit, at Magalang. Another material, the wiwkipilipinas.org, says that the core values of the Filipinos are – Family centeredness, Politeness, Hospitality, Gratitude, Shame, Flexibility, Loyalty, Hardwork, and Resignation (Bahala na).”

Since there is no law or national policy that tells us what our standard or official core values are as a country, our people interpret it on their own and come up with their respective lists of what they believe are our core values as a nation.

Even our schools nationwide teach different sets of core values of the Filipinos to our students.

Today, as a people, I believe that we need to have an official and standard set of national core values that can help us build and achieve the kind of society we would want for ourselves, our dream Philippines.

Hopefully, that set of core values can also help develop a sense of national or cultural identity for us as a people.

I propose the following as our 3 national core values in the 21st century:

• Kapatiran: Magkakapatid bawat Pilipino
• Common Good: Kabutihan sa lahat, hindi lang sa sarili o iilan
• Pagkakaisa: Pagsama-sama, uunlad at lalakas ang bansa.”