100 Best Things About Being Pinoy

From Isabel Roces About News Fun Blog

Now this is a really long post. So just read this on your free time. This was some­thing I got years ago and I’ve added to it over the years.

Let me just say that it’s really worth the read, spe­cially for my fel­low Fil­ipinos, and also for my for­eigner read­ers who know Fil­ipinos (this might be a good way to know us even more). With all the bad news going around, notwith­stand­ing the SONA of the Pres­i­dent last week, there are still a lot of things to be thank­ful for. Let’s start with these ONE HUNDRED things:

1. Merienda. Where else is it nor­mal to eat five times a day?
2. Saw­sawan. Assorted sauces that guar­an­tee free­dom of choice, enough room for exper­i­men­ta­tion and max­i­mum tol­er­ance for diverse tastes. Favorites: toyo’t cala­mansi, suka at sili, patis.
3. Kuwan, ano. At a loss for words? Try these and mar­vel at how Pinoys under­stand exactly what you want.
4. Pinoy humor and irrev­er­ence. If you’re api and you know it, crack a joke. We find humor in the most unlikely of places and the most unlikely cir­cum­stances.
5. Tingi. Thank good­ness for small entre­pre­neurs. Where else can we buy cig­a­rettes, soap, condi­ments and life’s essen­tials in small afford­able amounts? Even the FX Taxi is a type of tingi.
6. Spir­i­tu­al­ity. Even before the Spaniards came, eth­nic tribes had their own ani­tos, batha­las and assorted deities, point­ing to a strong rela­tion­ship with the Cre­ator, who or what­ever it may be.
7. Po, opo, mano po. Speech suf­fixes that show cour­tesy, def­er­ence, and fil­ial respect–a balm to the spirit in these irrev­er­ent times.
8. Pasalubong. Our way of shar­ing the vic­ar­i­ous thrills and delights of a trip, and a won­der­ful excuse to shop with­out the cus­tom­ary guilt. It doesn’t have to be expen­sive. In this, as in every­thing, it’s the thought that counts.
9. Beaches! With 7,000 plus islands, we have miles and miles of shore­line piled high with fine white sand, lapped by warm waters, and nib­bled by exotic trop­i­cal fish. From the stormy seas of Batanes to the emer­ald isles of Palawan–over here, life is truly a beach. :-)
10. Bagoong. Darkly mys­te­ri­ous, this smelly fish or shrimp paste typ­i­fies the under­ly­ing theme of most eth­nic foods: dis­gust­ingly unhy­gienic, unbear­ably stinky but sim­ply irre­sistible.
11. Bayani­han. Yes, the internationally-renowned dance com­pany, but also this habit of pitch­ing in is still com­mon in small com­mu­ni­ties. Just have that cold beer (or tuba and lam­banog) and some pulu­tan ready for the troops.
12. The Balik­bayan box. Another way of shar­ing life’s bounty. It’s a Fil­ipino tra­di­tion and open­ing the box is a cer­e­mony in itself. Oh, the smell of imported stuff!
13. Pilipino komiks. Not to men­tion “Hiwaga,” “Ali­wan,” “Taga­log Clas­sics,” “Liway­way” and“Bulaklak” mag­a­zines. Pulpy pub­li­ca­tions that gave us Darna, Faci­fica Falay­fay, Lagalag, Kulafu, Kenkoy, Joaquin Bor­dado, Dye­sebel, char­ac­ters of a time both inno­cent and worldly.
14. Folk songs. They come unbid­den and spring, full blown, like a sec­ond lan­guage, at the slight­est nudge from the too-loud stereo of a pass­ing jeep­ney or tri­cy­cle.
15. Jeep­neys. Col­or­ful, fast, reck­less, a vehi­cle of post­war Pinoy inge­nu­ity, this Everyman’s com­mu­nal cadil­lac makes for a cheap, inter­est­ing ride. If the driver’s a dare­devil (as they usu­ally are), hang on to your seat. Oh, and read this for more of the jeep­ney.
16. Fiesta. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomor­row is just another day, shrugs the poor man who, once a year, hon­ors a patron saint with this sump­tu­ous, no-holds-barred spread. It’s a Pinoy cel­e­bra­tion at its pious, financially-draining and riotous best.
17. Aswang, man­anang­gal, kapre. The whole under­world of Fil­ipino lower mythol­ogy recalls our child­hood. Until now, their rich adven­tures pep­per our sto­ry­telling.
18. Din­uguan. Blood stew, a blood­cur­dling idea, until you try it with puto. Messy but deli­cious. Just don’t think of blood when you’re eat­ing it.
19. San­tacruzan. More than just a beauty con­test, this one has reli­gious over­tones, a tableau of St. Helena’s and Constantine’s search for the Cross that seam­lessly blends piety, pageantry and rit­ual. Plus, it’s the per­fect excuse to show off the pret­ti­est ladies–and the most beau­ti­ful gowns. Watch out for Reyna Elena, she’s (sup­posed to be) the pret­ti­est girl in the town.
20. Balut. I don’t know if this is some­thing to be thank­ful for, but it cer­tainly makes for great table con­ver­sa­tion when you’re with a for­eigner. Unhatched duck’s embryo, another unspeak­able eth­nic food to out­siders. Sprin­kle some salt and suck out that soup, with gusto. It really tastes great. Really.
21. Paki­dala. A per­son­al­ized door-to-door remit­tance and deliv­ery sys­tem for over­seas Fil­ipino work­ers who don’t trust the bank­ing sys­tem, and who expect a fam­ily update from the courier, as well.
22. Choc-nut. Crumbly peanut choco­late bars that defined child­hood ecstasy before M & M’s and Hershey’s. Car­los Cel­dran has them in his tours. And oh, there’s even an ice cream ver­sion of it now.
23. Kamayan style. To eat with one’s hand and eschew spoon, fork and table man­ners. You should try it at least once in your life.
24. Chicharon. Pork, fish or chicken crack­ling. We call it chicharon. There is in the crunch a hint of the extrav­a­gant, the deca­dent and the pedes­trian. Per­fect with vine­gar, sub­lime with beer.
25. Pinoy hos­pi­tal­ity. Just about every­one gets a hearty “Kain tayo!” invi­ta­tion to break bread with who­ever has food to share, no mat­ter how skimpy or aus­tere it is.
26. Adobo, kare-kare, sini­gang and other lutong bahay stuff. Home-cooked meals that have the stamp of approval from sev­eral gen­er­a­tions, who swear by closely-guarded cook­ing secrets and fam­ily recipes.
27. Lola Basyang. The voice one heard spin­ning tales over the radio, before movies and tele­vi­sion cur­tailed imag­i­na­tion and defined grown-up “tastes”.
28. Pam­ba­hay. Home is where one can let it all hang out, where clothes do not make a man or woman but rather define their level of com­fort.
29. Tri­cy­cle and trisikad, the poor Pinoy’s taxi­cab that deliv­ers you at your doorstep, with a com­pli­men­tary dust­ing of pol­luted air.
30. Dirty ice cream. Very Pinoy fla­vors that make up for the risk: munggo, langka, ube, mais, keso, maca­puno. Plus there’s the col­or­ful cart that recalls jeep­ney art.
31. Yayas. The trusted Fil­ipino nanny who, iron­i­cally, has become a major Philip­pine export as over­seas con­tract work­ers. A good one is almost like a sur­ro­gate parent–if you don’t mind the accent and the predilec­tion for after­noon soap and movie stars.
32. Sarsi. Pinoy root­beer, the endur­ing taste of child­hood. Our grand­fa­thers had them with an egg beaten in. We have it as root­beer float now.
33. Pinoy fruits. Atis, guya­bano, chesa, mabolo, lan­zones, durian, langka, makopa, dalanghita, sinigue­las, suha, chico, papaya, singkamas–hmmm!
34. Fil­ipino celebri­ties. Movie stars, broad­cast­ers, beauty queens, pub­lic offi­cials, all-around con­tro­ver­sial fig­ures: Car­di­nal Sin, cory aquino, Kris Aquino, James Yap, Riza San­tos, Kat­rina Halili, Emilio Aguinaldo, the Eraser­heads, Fran­cis Mag­a­lona, Glo­ria Diaz, Margie Moran, Melanie Mar­quez, Jan­ina San Miguel, Gabby Con­cep­cion, Nora Aunor, Pitoy Moreno, Ramon Magsysay, Richard Gomez, San Lorenzo Ruiz, Sharon Cuneta, Gemma Cruz, Erap, Tiya Dely, Mel and Jay (and now Mel and Joey), Gary V., Mar­tin Niev­erra, Regine and Ogie, Angel Loc­sin, GMA (the pres­i­dent and the tv sta­tion)!
35. World class Pinoys who put us on the global map: Lea Salonga, Paeng Nepo­mu­ceno, Eugene Torre, Luisito Espinosa, Lydia de Vega-Mercado, Joce­lyn Enriquez, Elma Muros, Onyok Velasco, Efren “Bata” Reyes, Josie Natori, Manny Pac­quiao.

36. Pinoy tastes. A dietitian’s night­mare: too sweet, too salty, too fatty, as in burong talangka, itlog na maalat, crab fat (aligue), bokayo, kutch­inta, sapin-sapin, halo-halo, pastilyas, pal­itaw, pul­buron, long­gan­isa, tuyo, ensay­mada, ube haleya, sweet­ened maca­puno. Remem­ber, we’re the guys who put sugar in our spaghetti sauce. Yum!
37. The sights. Banaue Rice Ter­races, Bora­cay, Bohol’s Choco­late Hills, Cor­regi­dor Island, Fort San­ti­ago, the Hun­dred Islands, Rizal Park, Mt. Bana­haw, Mayon Vol­cano, Taal Vol­cano and oh-so-beautiful Palawan. A land of con­trasts and ever-changing land­scapes.
38. Gayuma, agi­mat and anting-anting. Love potions and amulets.
39. Barangay Gine­bra, PBA, UAAP and bas­ket­ball. How the verticaly-challenged Pinoy com­pen­sates, via a national sports obses­sion that reduces fans to tears and fist­fights. And, as in the case of the UAAP, fights that span gen­er­a­tions just because you come from the other school.
40. Peo­ple Power at EDSA. When every­one became a hero and changed Philip­pine his­tory overnight.
41. San Miguel Beer and pulu­tan. “Isa pa nga!” and the philip­pines’ most pop­u­lar, world-renowned beer goes well with peanuts, corniks, tapa, chicharon, usa, bar­be­cue, sisig, and all man­ner of spicy, crunchy and cholesterol-rich chasers.
42. Resiliency. We’ve sur­vived 400 years of Span­ish rule, the US bases, 20 years of Mar­cos, the 1990 earth­quake, Pinatubo, lahar, and typhoons every month. We sur­vived Erap. And by the looks of it, we’ll sur­vive GMA. We’ll sur­vive any­thing that his­tory put against us.
43. Yoyo. Truly Fil­ipino in ori­gin, this hunt­ing tool, weapon, toy and mer­chan­dis­ing vehi­cle remains the best way to “walk the dog” and “rock the baby,” using just a piece of string.
44. Pinoy games: Pabitin, palosebo, basagan ng palayok. A few basic rules make indi­vid­ual cun­ning and per­sis­tence a pre­mium, and guar­an­tee a good time for all.
45. Ninoy Aquino. For say­ing that “the Fil­ipino is worth dying for,” and prov­ing it.
46. Bal­ag­tasan. The ver­bal joust that brings out rhyme, rea­son and pas­sion on a pub­lic stage. A good friend, Jhaw, is a mas­ter at this.
47. Tabo. All-powerful, ever-useful, hygienically-triumphant device to scoop water out of a bucket and help the true Pinoy answer nature’s call.
48. Pan­desal. Despite its shrink­ing size, still a good buy. Goes well with any fill­ing, best when hot.
49. Jol­libee. Truly Pinoy in taste and sen­si­bil­ity, and a cor­po­rate icon that we can be quite proud of. Really lang­hap sarap.
50. The butand­ing, the dol­phins and other crea­tures in our blessed waters. They’re Pinoys, too, and they’re here to stay. Now if only folks would just stop turn­ing them into daing.
51. Pakik­isama. It’s what makes peo­ple stay longer at par­ties, have another drink, join pals in sick­ness and health. You can get dead drunk and still make it home, because some­body else will bring you. Oh, and he’s just as drunk as you!
52. Magic Sing. Fil­ipinos love to sing, and thank God a lot of us do it well!
53. Kayu­manggi. Nei­ther pale nor dark, the envy of for­eign­ers, our skin tone is beau­ti­fully healthy, the color of a rich earth or a mahogany tree grow­ing towards the sun.
54. Hand­wo­ven cloth and native weaves. Col­or­ful, environment-friendly alter­na­tives to poly­ester that fea­ture skill­ful work­man­ship and a rich indige­nous cul­ture behind every thread. From the pinukpok of the north to the mal­ong of the south, it’s the fiber of who we are.
55. Movies. Still the cheap­est form of enter­tain­ment, espe­cially if you watch the same movie sev­eral times.
56. Bahala na. We cope with uncer­tainty by embrac­ing it, look­ing it in the face and not blink­ing.
57. Papai­tan. An offal stew fla­vored with bile, admit­tedly an acquired taste, but point­ing to our national abil­ity to acquire a taste for almost any­thing.
58. Eng­lish. Whether carabao or Arr-neoww-accented, it dou­bles our chances in the global mar­ket­place. And it’s mak­ing the call cen­ters in India trans­fer here.
59. The Press. Irre­spon­si­ble, sen­sa­tional, often inac­cu­rate, but still the liveli­est in Asia. And a lot of them have been killed the past three years because maybe they’re doing their jobs a lit­tle too well?
60. Divi­so­ria. Smelly, crowded, a pickpocket’s par­adise, but you can get any­thing here, often at rock-bottom prices.
61. Barong Taga­log. Enables men to look for­mal and dig­ni­fied with­out hav­ing to stran­gle them­selves with a neck­tie. Worn well, it makes any ordi­nary Juan look mar­velously “mak­isig”. And oh, even Quentin Taran­tino wore it in an inter­na­tional event.

62. Fil­ip­inas. They make the best friends, lovers, wives. Too bad they can’t say the same for Fil­ipinos.
63. Fil­ipinos. So maybe they’re bolero and macho with an occa­sional streak of generic infi­delity; but they do know how to make a woman feel like one. Yeah!
64. Catholi­cism. What fun would sin be with­out the cus­tom­ary guilt? Jesus Christ (and Mama Mary and the Sto. Nino) is firmly planted on Philip­pine soil. Now if only we could start act­ing like REAL Chris­tians.
65. Dol­phy. Our favorite, ultra-durable come­dian gives the belea­guered Pinoy every­man an odd dig­nity. He has 17 chil­dren from around 8 dif­fer­ent women. And he has said (and his cur­rent flame, singer and actress Zsa Zsa Padilla swears to this) that he doesn’t need via­gra at all!
66. Style. Some­thing we often pre­fer over sub­stance. Look at our jeep­neys, and our inces­sant need to fill up space with all kinds of fur­ni­ture and “abubot”. But every Fil­ipino claims it as a birthright.
67. Bad taste. Clear plas­tic cov­ers on the vinyl-upholstered sofa, posters of billiard-playing dogs mas­querad­ing as art, over­ac­ces­sorized jeep­neys and altars–the list is end­less, and wealth only seems to mag­nify it.
68. Man­goes. Crisp and tart, or lus­ciously ripe, they evoke mem­o­ries of fam­ily out­ings and end­less sun­shine in a heart-shaped pack­age.
69. Unbri­dled opti­mism. Why we rank so low on the sui­cide scale.
70. Street food: Bar­be­cue, lugaw, banana-cue, fish­balls, IUD (chicken entrails), adi­das (chicken feet), warm taho. For­get hepati­tis or typhoid fever; here’s cheap, tasty food with gritty ambi­ence.
71. The siesta. Pow­er­nap­ping in the mid­dle of the day is smart, not lazy.
72. Hon­orifics and cour­te­ous titles: Kuya, ate, diko, ditse, ineng, totoy, Ingkong, Aling, Mang, etc. No exact Eng­lish trans­la­tion, but these words con­note respect, def­er­ence and the value placed on kin­ship.
73. Heroes and peo­ple who stood up for truth and free­dom. Lapu-lapu started it all, and other heroes and rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies fol­lowed: Diego Silang, Macario Sakay, Jose Rizal, Andres Boni­fa­cio, Apoli­nario Mabini, Mel­chora Aquino, Gre­go­rio del Pilar, Gabriela Silang, Miguel Mal­var, Fran­cisco Bal­ag­tas, Juan Luna, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Emilio Jac­into, Anto­nio Luna, Gom­burza, the heroes of Bataan and Cor­regi­dor, Pepe Dio­kno, Dean Armando Malay, Eve­lio Javier, Ninoy Aquino, hon­est cab­bies who give back lost bags to their own­ers, the OFWs who toil day in and day out to send money to their fam­i­lies here in the Philip­pines, Gawad Kalinga, Mayor Robredo of Naga, peo­ple who refuse to give up on the Philip­pines. We have a lot of hero­ism still here. We just need to access our inner hero and make the Fil­ipino proud again.
74. Flora and fauna. The sea cow (dugong), the tar­sier, calamian deer, bearcat, Philip­pine eagle, sam­pa­guita, ilang-ilang, camia, pan­dan, the crea­tures that make our arch­i­pel­ago unique.
75. Orig­i­nal Pilipino Music (OPM) and com­posers: “Ama Namin,” “Papuri sa Diyos”, “Lupang Hini­rang,” “Gaano Ko Ikaw Kama­hal,” “Ngayon at Kailan­man,” “Anak,” “Handog,”“Hindi Kita Malil­imu­tan,” “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit”; Ryan Cayabyab, George Canseco, Restie Umali, Levi Cele­rio, Eddie Hon­tiveros, Mano­ling Fran­cisco, Fred­die Aguilar, and Florante–living exam­ples of our musi­cal gift. We are a nation of singers and song.
76. Metro Aides/MMDA aides They started out as Imelda Mar­cos’ groupies, but have gal­lantly proven their worth. Against all odds, they con­tin­u­ously prove that clean­li­ness is next to god­li­ness (hi Richard Ella!).
77. Sari-sari store. There’s one in every cor­ner, offer­ing every­thing from bananas and floor wax to Band-Aid and cig­a­rettes. And they have been revamped for the 21^st cen­tury (at least here in Makati where I live). The sari sari store is now made of sturdy, but light­weight, and clean-looking resin. Cool!
78. Philip­pine National Red Cross. Car­i­tas. Bishop Ros­ales’ Crumbs Cam­paign. Piso para sa Pasig. Fund dri­ves. They help us help each other.
79. Favorite TV shows through the years: “Tawag ng Tang­ha­lan,” “John and Mar­sha,” “Cham­poy,” “Ryan, Ryan Musika­han,” “Kuwarta o Kahon,” “Pub­lic Forum/Lives,” “Stu­dent Can­teen,” “Eat Bulaga”, “Probe Team.” In the age of inane vari­ety shows, they have redeemed Philip­pine tele­vi­sion.
80. Quirks of lan­guage that can drive crazy any tourist lis­ten­ing in: “Bababa ba?” “Bababa!“
81. “Sayang!” “Naman!” “Kadiri!” “Ano ba!?” “Eh”, “Pala.” Try explain­ing those words to a for­eigner. They’re expres­sions that defy trans­la­tion but wring out feel­ings gen­uinely Pinoy.
82. Cock­fight­ing. My dad used to love this. And would go every Sun­day and bring home pancit to my mom.
83. Dr. Jose Rizal. Prob­a­bly the first Fil­ipino who was of “inter­na­tional” cal­iber. A cat­e­gory in him­self. Hero, med­i­cine man, genius, ath­lete, sculp­tor, fic­tion­ist, poet, essay­ist, hus­band, lover (of sev­eral!), samar­i­tan, mar­tyr. Truly some­one to emu­late and be proud of, any­time, any­where. And when he died try­ing to face the sun, he trig­gered a new dawn to reach our land. We are wait­ing for another sun­rise now.
84. Nora Aunor. Short, dark and homely-looking, she rede­fined our rigid con­cept of how lead­ing ladies should look.
85. Noran­ian or Vil­man­ian. Defines the friendly (and not so friendly) rivalry between Ate Guy Aunor and Ate Vi San­tos and for many years, it was the only rivalry worth being in for many Fil­ipino fans. Now we have Mar­ian vs. Angel. And Kat­rina vs. Riza. Richard vs. Ding­dong. But these pale in com­par­i­son to the orig­i­nal.
86. Fil­ipino Christ­mas. The world’s longest hol­i­day sea­son. A per­fect excuse to mix our love for feast­ing, gift-giving and music and wrap it up in reli­gion.
87. Rel­a­tives and kababayan abroad. The best refuge against lone­li­ness, dis­crim­i­na­tion and con­fu­sion in a for­eign place. Dis­tant rel­a­tives and fel­low Pinoys read­ily roll out the wel­come mat even on the basis of a phone intro­duc­tion or refer­ral.
88. Fes­ti­vals: Sin­u­log, Ati-atihan, Mori­ones, Masskara, Kadayawan. Sounds, col­ors, pagan frenzy and Chris­t­ian over­tones.
89. Folk dances. Tinikling, pan­danggo sa ilaw, kuratsa, itik-itik, ali­tap­tap, rigodon. All the right moves and a dis­tinct rhythm.
90. Native wear and cos­tumes. Baro’t saya, tapis, terno, saya, salakot, bakya. Lovely form and inge­nious func­tion in the way we dress.
91. Sun­day fam­ily gath­er­ings. Or, close fam­ily ties that never get sev­ered. You don’t have to win the lotto or be a pres­i­dent to have 10,000 rel­a­tives. Everyone’s fam­ily tree extends all over the arch­i­pel­ago, and it’s at its best in times of cri­sis; notice how food, instant host­esses, money, and moral sup­port mate­ri­al­ize dur­ing a wake?
92. Calesa and karitela. The col­or­ful and leisurely way to nego­ti­ate nar­row streets when loaded down with a year’s pro­vi­sions.
93. Qual­ity of life. This is debat­able with our econ­omy now, but where else can an ordi­nary employee afford a stay-in helper, a yaya, unlim­ited movies, the lat­est fash­ion (from 168 DVSORIA or green­hills), and even Via­gra in the black mar­ket?
94. All Souls’ Day. In hon­or­ing our dead, we also prove that we know how to live.
95. Hand­i­crafts. Shell­craft, rat­tan­craft, abaca nov­el­ties, wood­carv­ings, banig place­mats and bags, bam­boo wind­chimes, etc. Portable mem­o­ries of home. Hindi lang pang-turista, pang-balikbayan pa!
96. Ate­neo vs. La Salle Games. This is the most awaited games of the sea­son. And with Stu­dio 23 tele­vis­ing it, even Fil­ipinos abroad get to watch blue and green try to kill each other on the court (and some­times off the court too).
97. OFWs. The lengths (and miles) we’d go for a bet­ter life for our fam­ily, as proven by these modern-day heroes of the econ­omy.
98. The Fil­ipino artist. From Luna’s mag­nif­i­cent “Spo­liar­ium” and Amorsolo’s sun-kissed rice­fields, to Ang Kiukok’s jar­ring abstrac­tions and Borlongan’s haunt­ing ghosts, and every­body else in between. Hang a Fil­ipino paint­ing on your wall, and you’re hang­ing one of Asia’s (and the world’s) best.
99. Taga­log soap operas. From “Gulong ng Palad” and “Flor de Luna” to today’s incar­na­tions like “Mari­mar”, “Asero” and “Dyesebel”–they’re the story of our lives, and we feel strongly for them.
100. Mid­night mad­ness, week­ends sales, bangke­tas and baratil­los. It’s retail ther­apy at its best, with Fil­ipinos brav­ing traf­fic, crowds, and human del­uge to find a bargain.