Reading Materials
Filipinos are naturally, ordinarily Honest People
One of our most outstanding virtues as Filipinos, is the virtue of honesty.
What is honesty?
· Honesty is telling the truth.
· Honesty is straightforward conduct.
· Honesty is being sincere, truthful, trustworthy, honorable, fair, genuine, and loyal with integrity.
Isagani Cruz of Inquirer News Service (August 27, 2004) expressed his opinion that we, Filipinos in general are honest and that this is one of the admirable virtues of our race. There might be degenerates who have impaired that impression, but they only constituted a small minority despite the growing number of thieves, swindlers and kidnappers among us. The rest of the 84 million Filipinos are trustworthy men and women and children too.
Adding significance to the statement of Isagani Cruz was the findings of Asian –wide survey conducted by Readers’ Digest published last April 7 2004 at Star news paper.
The study found out that most Filipinos tend to act in an honest fashion when confronted with everyday dilemmas testing their sense of right and wrong.
Here are some specific findings of the survey:
1. Eighty-two percent of Filipinos will alert security officers to a shoplifter, the highest score from all the Asian countries included in the survey.
2. Philanderers beware, as 52 percent of Filipinos said they would tell their friend if his or her spouse was seen having a romantic dinner with a stranger.
3. If they find the cashier at the supermarket has given them too much in change, 82 percent of Filipinos said they would give the money back.
4. The survey also found that 79 percent of Filipino respondents would return a wallet with an address and phone number inside,
More than any related literatures and studies can be cited to validate the honesty of the Filipinos, let us now recall some real life stories citing our honesty as a Filipino.
1. August 28, 2004, Daily Inquire published the Honesty of Nestor Sulpico who had returned a bag of black pearls worth $70,000 to a passenger who had left it in his taxicab. The act was reported in the American press and reflected favorably on the Philippines
October 12, 2004 – Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alberto G. Romulo conveyed his commendations for the honesty and moral exemplar displayed by Mr. Melchor Bolivar and his wife Rowena Bolivar, the Filipino couple who returned US$700,000 erroneously credited to their savings account by a Manhattan-based European bank.
3. Romeo Pelaez, a janitor at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, had returned a bag containing three million yen (P1.5 million) that had been left in a Japan Airlines plane by a Japanese man and his Filipino wife. Pelaez was cleaning the plane when he discovered the bag containing the money and turned it over to airport authorities.
4. Nita Ramos, a 44-year-old janitress at the Manila Domestic Airport, also returned jewelry estimated at P150, 000 which she had found in the pre-departure ladies room of the domestic airport.
5. A. Filipino nurse Melitza Anne Chan, 27, of Iloilo, who works as the assistant to the chief of the Dental Department of the Marabi Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, did not withdraw, but instead reported to the concerned bank, some 10 million Saudi Riyals (around US$2.6 million or more than P150 million) erroneously credited to her own account.
Recently, the whole nation was inspired by the honesty shown by a 12 year old student from a public school name Christina Bugayong. Tinay, as they call her, found the bundles of cash and checks amounting to P300,000, dropped by a man in a speeding motorcycle last January 4 2005. After numerous coaxes from neighbors to keep the money and split it among themselves, Tinay decided to return the money to its rightful owner through the help of a radio station.
These real life stories prove that Filipinos are naturally and ordinarily honest people. Honesty is an innate Filipino virtue. The genes of honesty run in our blood. Filipinos are naturally/ordinarily honest people.
William Gardner challenges us to do ordinary things extra ordinarily well. If being honest is ordinary among us, how can we make this extra ordinary?
Being consistently honest draws the line between ordinary and extraordinary. We should be consistent in telling the truth, being sincere, truthful, trustworthy, fair, genuine, and loyal with integrity, with ourselves and with others. Doing this reflects how honest we could be in the eyes of our just and loving God. It is being consistently honest that makes our virtue of honesty extra ordinary.
All of us are facing the challenge of keeping the virtue of honesty within our bloodline. We are all tasked to pass this virtue and keep it alive from generations to generations. Together, wherever are we, whatever our status in life might be, let us face this challenge and prove to ourselves that we are full blooded honest Filipinos.
I. Challenge yourself
Choose a challenge:
a. Tell the truth
b. Return recovered things (personal items, money, etc)
c. Admit mistake
d. Return excess change
e. Avoid cheating
On your journal, process your experience with the aid of the following guide questions:
a. What challenge did you take?
When I admit mistakes because its a part of life. All of us make a mistakes, nobody's perfect. Well, committing a mistakes is better to me, cause in our mistakes we learn to make it correct.It is often the most difficult thing in the world for some of us to admit our mistakes. Our pride won't let us. Our self-image won't let us. Somewhere in our hearts, we believe that if we ever admit to being wrong, it will have some devastating effect on us. But the reality is - ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's not one person - other than Jesus - who has ever walked the earth without making a mistake, who has been sinless. Not one of us is perfect.
b.. Were you able to do the challenge? How do you feel about it
yes of course,i admit to being a prideful person "Saying You're Wrong Can Feel So Right" There is always room for improvement. We should all try to improve a little bit each day..... I am reminded of what one of my favorite bible teachers sometimes says...."I ain't good......but I'm better than I was"
c. What have you realized/learned from your experience?
As a student that admitting that i am wrong, this is generally a good occasion to back off and to stop criticizing for it. Remember to assume good faith. If i admit that I'm wrong and go back to doing the exact same thing, that is one thing, but after an apology it is respectful to step back and give them a chance to show that they have learned.
It is also worth noting that admitting mistakes should be a voluntary process. Demanding apologies is a more or less worthless activity.
